seven keys - jon paulien

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For al mo st 2 000 y ear sJohn the Revelator s words

have intriguedan d c on fo un ded r ead er s.

W ha t is th e m ea nin g b eh in d th e in ex plic ab le b ea sts e nig ma tica ng els a nd c om ple x s ym bo ls ? Is R eve la tio n. a n a ncie nt m es sa geto rea de rs in th e dis ta nt p as t o r d oe s it pro ~id e a w ind ow th rou ghw hic h w e c a n c atc h a g lim ps e of ou r fu tu re? If y o u thin k the bo o ko f R e ve la ti on i s p ri m ar ily a b o. ut p o li tic s b a tt le s a n d w a rs y ou r e n o tr ea din g it c or re ct ly . In t he e nd it s th e r ev ela tio n o f J es us C hr is t. It sa bo ut the s lain L am b. T h e O ne w h o s h ed H is blo od s o w e c an liv e .It is th e b as is fo r re al life .

J on P a ul ie n h a s i d en ti fie d t he s ev e n k ey s t o u n lo ck in g R e ve la tio n sm ys tery an d m ajes ty . J oin h im a s h e e xplo res in s im ple te rm s thes ig nif ic an ce o f th e R ev ela to r s u se o f s ym b olis m ; th e O ld T es ta m en tc on ne ct io n; th e im p ac t o f t he a nc ie nt a po ca ly ptic lite ra ry s ty le ; a ndt he r ele va nc e o f t he c hia st ic s tr uc tu re .

T he b o ok o f R e ve la ti on i s f ull o f e xc it em e n t ba tt le s h o rr or a n ds tra ng e a nim als . B ut th e fin al m es sa ge is th at G od w in s. W ha te ve ry ou g o th ro ug h w ha te ve r y ou e xp erie nc e in th is life a t th e e nd o f

th e u ltim ate s to ry G od w in s. N o m atte r h ow o ut o f co ntro lth in gs g et G od w ill m ak e it rig ht in th e e nd .

o ~ au lie n is p ro fe ss or o f re lig io n a nd d ea n o f th e S ch oo l o t.R e li gi on a t L o rn a L in d a U n iv e rs it y. H e i s t h e a u th o r o f t we n ty -o n e

b oo ks . J on is a s pe ci al is t i n J oh an ni ne li te ra tu re -t he G os pe la nd l et te rs o f j oh n a nd t he b oo k o f R ev el at io n- an d t he

i nt er se c ti on o f f ai th w i th c o nt em p or ar y c u lt ur e.W he n n ot a t w or k J on e njo ys b ein g w ith h is

w i fe P a m e ll a an d t h ei r t h re e c h il d re n .


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l s D J D n L f au lienA rm ag ed do n at th e D o or

T he D ay T hat C hanged th e W od d

ze D ee p 7 hin gs G o d :A n Insid er s G uide to th e B o ok Revelation

T he G os pel ro P at m o s

Everlasting G o s p el E v er - ch a ng in g W o r ld

W ha t th e B ib le S ay s A bo ut th e E nd -tim e

Pacific Press Publishing Associationampa Idaho

Oshawa Ontario Canadawvvw.pacificpress.com


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Cover design by Steve LantoCover design resources from Dreamstime.comInside design by Aaron TroiaCopyright 2009 by Pacific PressPublishing AssociationPrinted in the United States ofAmericaAll rights reservedThe author assumes full responsibility for the accuracy ofall facts and quotations ascited in this book.Unless otherwise noted, all scriptures are the author s translation.Scr ipture quotations marked NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, EW ThrrERNA-TIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International BibleSociety. Used by permission ofZondervan Publishing House. llrights reserved.Scriptures marked V are from the Kingjames Version.You can obtain additional copies of this book by calling toll-free 1-800-765-6955 orby visiting www.adventistbookcentcr.com.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:Paulien,Jon,1949-Seven keys: unlocking the secrets ofRevelation / byJon Paulien.p em.

ISBN 13:978-0-8163-2373-9 (pbk.)ISBN O 0-8163-2373-9 (pbk.)1.Bible. N. T Revelation-Criticism, interpretation, etc. Title.BS2825.52.P39 2009228 .06-dc22

2009042719

09 I I L I 2 13 5 4 3 2 I

~eoic ti n

To Alexander,a living legend,mentor, and friend


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able of ontents~ Part ne ~

h a pt er O n e As We Begin 11 ha pte r T w o The Seven Keys 21

~ Part Two ~ ha p te r T h re e On the Island of Patmos 47

h a pt er F o ur The Seven Seals 63

~ Part Three ~ h a p te r F i ve The Seven Trumpets 83 h a pt er S ix The Dragon s War 1 1

~ art our ~

hap te r S e ve n The Wrath of God 121 hap te r E i g ht The Millennium 141

hap t er N i n e The New Heaven and New Earth 153

onclusion Eight Lessons From Revelation 155


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h ap te r n e

H IRST eight verses of the book of Revelationserve as its introduction; in them the authorthe apostle John tells us how we are to inter-pret this prophetic book. I can think of no better startingpoint for us when we re considering how we should un-derstand the book today. So let s start at the beginningRevelation 1:1-8:

The revelation ofJesus Christ which God gaveto Him to show to His servants what must happensoon. And He signified it sending it through Hisangel to His servant John who testified concerningthe Word of God and the testimony ofJ esus Christwhich he saw. Blessed is the one who reads andthose which hear the words of this prophecy andkeep the things which are written in it for the timeIS near.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia:


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Grace to you and peace from the One who is, andwho was, and who is to come, and from the sevenspirits which are before His throne, and fromJesusChrist, the faithful witness, the firstborn of thedead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Tothe One who loves us, and has freed us from oursins by His blood, and has made us a kingdom,priests before God, even His Father-to Him beglory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and everyeyew see Him, including those who pierced Him,and all tribes of the earth w mourn over Him. Yes,amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says theLord God, the One who is and who was and whois to come, the Almighty.

What can we learn from the author s introduction?First, look at verse 4: John, to the seven churches, whichare in Asia. Right here at the beginning, John tells usplainly that when he wrote the book of Revelation, hewas addressing seven specific churches in Asia.

Asia was a Roman province in the western part ofwhat is the country of Turkey today. In the first century,there were several Christian churches in Roman Asia,and it was to these churches thatJohn was writing. While

s J iV e e ginwe are often tempted to read the book of Revelation as i t were written solely to us, this text tells us that in actual-ity, it was written two thousand years ago to real peoplewho lived in a real place. In fact, this is stated not only inthe introduction of the book, but also in the last chapter(verse 16). So, we can conclude that the entire book wassent to those churches.

Because the entire book was written to a specific contextn the ancient world, many scholars promote a theorycalled p r t r i s m This interpretive approach says thatRevelation isn t a prophecy of events that would takeplace long after it was written. Rather, the book s mean-ing is limited to the people of its time and place-theChristians who lived in Asia Minor two thousand yearsago.

There s an element of truth in this. The book ofReve-lation was definitely written to people of its time andplace. It definitely meant something to them, and themore we can learn about what they understood it tomean, the better our understanding of the book w be.But preterism calls us to read the book in too limited away. God s intention for Revelation wasn t limited to thetime and place of the seven churches of Roman Asia. Itwas bigger than that.

John s introduction to the book points to this larger13


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Seven ~ Ke.y5purpose. Verse 7 of the first chapter says, Behold He iscoming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, in-cluding those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of theearth w mourn over Him. Yes, amen. So, the book ofRevelation addresses the very end of time and events re-lated to that time, such as the second coming ofJesus.

Of course, many people search Revelation for refer-ences to current events. Is September in there? Doesit say anything about the war on terrO:L -or even BarackObama?

Since it is clear that parts of the book of Revelationfocus on the end times, on ou r future, some people havecome up with an approach to interpreting the book called

fu turism. They attempt to read Revelation as if the wholebook speaks directly to the end of time and to no othertime in history.

Again, there is an element of truth here. The book ofRevelation does speak to the end of time. It does speak toour future, and we need to take those parts of Revelationseriously. But we have already seen that it speaks to an-cient times as well. So the futurist approach by itself is nomore adequate than is the preterist approach.

There is a third way of understanding the book ofRevelation.John s introduction to his book points towardthis one, too, in verse 3 of that opening passage. It says,

A s T J IeB eg inBlessed is the one who reads and those who hear thewords of this prophecy.

In Kaine Greek, the language in which John wroteRevelation, the word translated hearing has a specialgrammatical function. It can mean hearing with under-standing or hearing without understanding, depending onthe grammatical case of the object. The case used in verse3 indicates thatJohn expects that those who hear some-one read the book of Revelation w hear it w ith u nd erstanding . In other words, he expects that whoever readsthis book and whoever hears someone read it aloud willunderstand it. John didn t write Revelation just for peo-ple living in the first century, and he didn t write it justfor those living at the time of the end of the world. Radler,it was meant to be understood throughout history. God in-tended that anyone at any time who picks up this bookand reads it w understand the basic message it con-tains.

From observations like this, some readers of Reve-lation have developed the idea that anybody at any timecan benefit from the book, and there is certainly truth inthat. But some people have taken this notion a bit furtherand have come up with an idea called ideal ism. They say,The book of Revelation isn t really written to the firstcentury, and it s not really a prophecy of things at the


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Seven KeY5we ll discover about the book of Revelation is that Johnoften points the reader to earlier literature, particularlythe Old Testament. He uses a word or a phrase thatpoints to an earlier text. For instance, the phrase we justnoted n verse s pretty rare in the Bible. In fact, it oc-curs n only three places in the Bible. appears here inverse but also in Daniel 2:28 (in the Greek translationof the Old Testament called the Septuagint), which tellsus that Daniel showed King Nebuchadnezzar what musthappen in the last days (emphasis added).

Perhaps you remember the story. In chapter 2, theprophet Daniel interprets for King Nebuchadnezzar hisfamous dream. The king had dreamed of a statue madeof four metals: gold, silver, bronze, and iron. The statuerepresents a sequence of nations in the course of history,each nation symbolized by a different metal. The text(verse 45) says that the dream has shown to the king whatw be in the last days.

In essence, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, You are thehead of gold. Another nation is going to come after you;that nation w ll be inferior to you just as silver is inferiorto gold. Next, a third nation, represented by the bronzeportion of the statue, will dominate; then a fourth nation,iron; and finally, at the end of time, the kingdom of Godw come.

A s jiV e B eg inSo, the prophecy in chapter 2 pictures a sequence of

events running from Daniel s day all the way to the endof time. Scholars call the literature containing prophecieslike this apocalypt ic Apocalyptic literature commonly usesa sequence of symbols to portray sequences of historicalevents.

How does Daniel 2 help us understand Revelation?Here s where it becomes interesting. Right at the begin-ning of the first verse of Revelation, John alludes to Dan- l 2 when he says that in what follows, he s going to de-scribe things that must happen soon. The words musthappen recall the must happen in Daniel 2. Reve-lation follows that phrase with the word soon. Whatfollows that phrase in Daniel? The words in the lastdays.

Revelation 1:l- must happen soon Daniel 2:45- must happen in th e la st days

Daniel wrote about six hundred years before the timeof John. Daniel was looking at the whole sequence ofevents that leads up to the end of time. By picking upDaniel s language, John issaying something to this effect:Revelation is going to be unpacking the book of Danielas well as other Old Testament books. It w l l follow the

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Seven KeYin this book-that its prophecies are real and that theyare important for our lives now and for as long as timewill last.

ey 2: The ld TestamentThe second key to interpretation isthe Old Testament.

Revelation is the last book of the Bible, the last part ofthe New Testament. So, in a sense, it s the climax of theBible. But that isn t all. Revelation deliberately alludes toall kinds of Old Testament passages-it contains bits oflanguage from nearly every part of the Old Testament.Biblical scholar William Milligan wrote, The book [ofRevelation] is absolutely steeped in the memories, theincidents, the thoughts, and the language of the Church spast. To such an extent is this the case that it may bedoubted whether it contains a single figure not drawnfrom the Old Testament, or a single complete sentencenot more or less built up of materials brought from thesame. ]

In the preceding chapter we saw an example ofJohn suse of the Old Testament in the first verse of the book,which alludes to Daniel 2. Revelation 1:7, which is alsopart of the introductory passage, contains another exam-ple. This verse says, Behold, He is coming with the

z e even ey sclouds, and every eye w ll see Him, including those whopierced Him, and all tribes of the earth w ll mourn over Ym. es, amen.

Who is this verse talking about? It is talking about ]esus, the One who brings the vision toJohn. According tothis text, when Jesus comes every eye w ll see Him. Inother words, the whole world w ll see Him. His coming isa universal event. Everyone w ll see Him, and all thetribes of the earth, all the peoples of the earth, will mournfor Him.

What s the point? John has chosen to use wording inthis text that reminds us of an Old Testament text. Hewants us to refer to that earlier text in order to under-stand what he s describing in Revelation.

The passage John has drawn from here is Zechariah12:10-12: And I w ll pour out on the house of Davidand the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace andsupplication. They will look on me, the one they havepierced, and they will mourn for m as one mourns foran only child, and grieve bitterly for him, as one grievesfor a firstborn son. On that day the weeping inJ erusalemw ll be great. ... The land w ll mourn, each clan by it-self (NIV).

Who is speaking in Zechariah 12? NotJesus. Rather,it is the God of the Old Testament. So the God of the


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Seven eysway that they understand Revelation. They see every-thing in Revelation as local. When they see jerusalemin Revelation, they think the book is referring to literalJerusalem. When they see Euphrates, it s simply a riverin the Middle East. In fact, in their view, everything inRevelation is about the Middle East. It s all about politicsat the end of time. Yet Revelation interacts with the OldTestament by spiritualizing these things. It applies themuniversally. It applies them to everyone living in theChristian age. Revelation isa book about how everythingworks out inJesus Christ.

Let s look now at another aspect of the way Revelationrelates to the Old Testament. The writers of the NewTestament use the Old Testament in four ways. First,New Testament writers cite the Old Testament. This useis something like making a footnote. The writers quoteOld Testament language and give a reference to the bookthe quotation came from.

Second, New Testament writers q u t the Old Testa-ment. They quote enough of a passage to make it clear tothe reader where the quotation came from. For example,i I were to quote the national anthem of the United States,any American would recognize immediately where I got itfrom. Or i I were to say, Mary had a littlelamb, its fleecewas white as snow, most people would know that those

T he e ve n ey slines come from a familiar children s poem.

Third, New Testament writers a llu de to the Old Testa-ment. nan allusion, the writer takes a word or phraseand expects the readers to know what he is talking about.For instance, in most of the world today I could sayjustthe name Obama and everyone would know what andwho I was talking about. An allusion points the reader toa specific, larger context. In the case of Revelation, thatfamiliar context is the Old Testament.

Fourth, New Testament writers echo the Old Testa-ment. In an echo, the writer takes language that soundslike it s coming from an earlier piece of literature, butuses that language for a different purpose than the origi-nal writer had when he wrote the words. The secondwriter isn t thinking about how the language was used orwhat it meant in the original literature; the second writeruses the term or phrase entirely for his own purpose, cer-tain that readers w understand it in its own right.

Now here s the interesting thing. nthe book of Reve-lation, there are no citations of the Old Testament and noquotations. There are only allusions and echoes. notherwords, the author of Revelation pulls in an Old Testamentword here, a phrase there, and the barest hint somewhereelse. So, to truly understand the book of Revelation, weneed to know the Old Testament thoroughly. we want

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Seven eysto understand fullyJohn's intention, we need to be pre-pared to recognize mere words and phrases.

Perhaps this leaves you saying, Oh, my knowledge ofthe Old Testament is so limited. I'll never understandRevelation.

Don't worry-the more you read, the more you'lllearn. You'll see how much fun studying Revelation is ifyou give it a try. Studying Revelation is a lot like playinga Nintendo game-it's full of puzzles you have to solve.You work it here, and you work it there, and finally youfigure your way through. And what's your reward whenyou solve the puzzle? You get to move to a tougher levelThe book of Revelation is like that. Just when you thinkyou're beginning to understand it, you get to move toanother level, and you realize, Oops, maybe I didn'tunderstand as much as I thought I did. It's true thatwhen it comes to Revelation's use of the Old Testament there's a lot to learn. But learning it is very exciting.

The fact that Revelation is so deep should teach us toavoid becoming too dogmatic about our understandingof the book. When we learn a few things, it's easy for usto say, I know what I'm talking about. But I've studiedthe book of Revelation for thirty years, and there aremany things about it that I still don't understand. And Ihave to admit there are many things that God will let

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T he Se ve n f lsother people discover. Or maybe some of those puzzlesw never be fully understood, at least in this life. MaybeGod put some of those puzzles in there to keep us search-ing, to keep us learning, to keep us growing.

ey #3: The ew TestamentThe third key for interpreting the book of Revelation

is the New Testament. We've seen that Revelation usesthe Old Testament extensively by allusion and echo. ButRevelation is a New Testament book. It's a Christianbook. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. He is presenteverywhere in the book. As you work your way throughthe book, you'll realize that there are lots of connectionsto the gospel, the Cross, Christian churches, and more.

At times, the language may differ from that of the restof the New Testament. It may be Old Testament lan-guage. But there's a harmony of ideas between Reve-lation and the New Testament. The theology of Reve-lation doesn't differ from the theology of the Gospels andthe theology of Paul. Revelation has its own unique em-phases, but there is an underlining harmony with the restof the New Testament. In fact, one of my favorite au-thors wrote, In [the book of] Revelation all the books ofthe Bible meet and end. In other words, the book of

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Seven eyssuch thing as a seven-headed dragon and you probablyhaven t ever seen a woman standing on the moon either.The book of Revelation contains creatures that areunique; they re different than anything we ve seen in na-ture.

The book of Revelation is a symbolic book. you takeit literally as our friends who wrote the Left Behind booksdo you re going to misunderstand it. Revelation is de-signed to symbolize the truth that God had in mind forus to understand. So we must be careful not to take thingsin the book of Revelation too literally.

Are there occasions where the book can be taken liter-ally? Sure. If interpreting something in Revelation as asymbol makes no sense at all then don t interpret it thatway. For example when Revelation speaks of JesusChrist is this Jesus Christ a symbol? I don t think so. It ssimply a personal name of Someone the writer of Reve-lation knew well and whom we know through the NewTestament. So Jesus Christ is an example of somethingin Revelation that is clearly literal.

But in the book of Revelation t he normal run of lan-guage issymbolic. You should take the language ofReve-lation symbolically unless it becomes clear that a literalreading is required.

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T he e ve n ry sey :sia Minor setting

A fifth key to interpreting Revelation is the setting towhich the first verses of the book refer. John wrote thisbook on the Isle ofPatmos near Asia Minor. He sent it toseven churches that were also in Asia Minor. And inScripture--as elsewhere-God always meets peoplewhere they are. That is the way He has always worked.

In Daniel 2 God gives a pagan king a symbolic vi-sion about four successive earthly kingdoms followed bythe kingdom of God. How does God bring this messageto the pagan king? In the form of an idol-somethingthe king would understand. Notice that when five chap-ters later God gives Daniel a vision about the same fourearthly kingdoms followed by God s kingdom He gives m a picture of creation: a stormy sea animals and aSon of man who has dominion over the animals. Themessage in both visions is the same: four kingdoms arefollowed by the kingdom of God. But God shapes themessage to meet the differing minds of a pagan kingand a Hebrew prophet. God meets people where theyare.

\tVhy are there four Gospels the New Testamentwhen one Gospel could tell the basic story of Jesus? Be-cause there are many different types of people. Four Gos-pels tell the story ofJesus more completely than just one

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Seven eyswould. Perhaps Matthew is your favorite, but someoneelse likes Mark. I prefer John. Each Gospel meets a different type of mind or personality. Through these fourpictures ofJesus, we all can get a clearer understandingof Him. God meets people where they are.

This principle is at work also in the seven churches ofRevelation. Each gets a different picture ofJesus; eachsees and understands God a little bit differently. Godmeets people where they are. He approaches each church a umque way.

When we go really deep into the book of Revelation,we discover that there are livesymbolsin the book. Theseare symbols that come right out of the culture in whichJohn lived. David Aune wrote the largest commentaryever on the book of Revelation. He points out that thepicture ofJesus in chapter 1, verses 13-18, seems an aw-fullot like that of Hekate, the most important goddess inAsia Minor. 4 Her worshipers considered her to be themistress of the cosmos, of the universe.

Among other things, Hekate was called the first andthe last, the beginning and the end. She was the goddessof revelation. She had the keys of heaven and hell. Shewould travel up to heaven, and travel down to hell, andthen she would return to earth and explain what was go-ing on in those places.

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nze Seven ysAmazingly, Jesus is described in the same terms in

Revelation Why would an inspired writer compare Jesus to a pa-

gan goddess? I can suggest at least two reasons. First, tocommunicate well to pagans,John had to use their lan-guage. And second, and more specifically, to refute whatthe pagans believed, John had to use their language. So,in describing Jesus, John used language that broughtHekate to the ancient reader s mind.

What s the point? Something like the following: Youwillfind the things that you seek from this goddess only ifyou come to Jesus. Hekate isn t the answer to the prob-lems of the world. Jesus can bring you everything thatyou hope to find in her.

That s what a live symbol is all about. The book ofRevelation took symbols right out of the ancient contextand used them to speak powerfully to its time. The morewe understand that ancient context, the more wecan un-derstand whatJohn would tell us today. Everyone whoreads Revelation and everyone who hears it read is in-tended to understand these important things.

ey :n ancient apocalypseA sixth key to interpreting Revelation correctly is our


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What must happen soon What must happen soon4 4

Seven eys somecall it a pyramid structure. Books arranged orsequenced in a chiastic structure have their climax-their most important point-in the middle. our cul-ture, most books build toward a climax at or near theend. That wasn t necessarily true of ancient books-particularly books influenced by Hebrew thought patternsand forms.

Let s look at some evidence. Revelation I: 1-3, the be-ginning of the book, says that Jesus sent the revelationthrough His angel. Chapter 22, verses 6-10, part of thebook s conclusion, repeats that thought: He sent His an-gel. Both passages contain the phrases to show to Hisservants and what must happen soon. Blessed ap-pears in both places. Chapter 22 s keep the prophecy ofthe book parallels chapter 1 s use of the words of thisprophecy. And both passages say the time is near.other words, these two passages, one at the beginning ofthe book and one at its end, seem to be saying virtuallythe same thing.

Revelation 1:1 3 Revelation 22:6 1

Sent through His angelTo show to ills servants

Sent His angelTo show to His servants

T he e ve n ey sBlessed BlessedThe words of this prophecy The words ofthis bookFor the time near For the time isnear

Revelation contains numerous connections like these inwhich parallels occur in stair-step fashion up and downa literary pyramid. The seven churches in chapters 2 and3 parallel the New Jerusalem of chapters 21 and 22. Theseals of chapters 4 to 7 parallel chapters 19 and 20. Thetrumpets of chapter 9 parallel the plagues of chapter 16.The whole thing ends up looking something like this:

11:1-81 Prologue11:9-3:221 The Seven Churches

14:1-8: 1 The Seven Seals18:2-11:181 The Trumpets

( III : 19-15:41 The Final Crisis115:5-18:241 The Seven Bowls

119:1-20: 151 The Millennium121:1-22:51 The New Jerusalem

22:6-21 1 Epilogue


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Seven / K eysWhat you see from this diagram is a visual portrayal of

the structure of the book of Revelation. There are nineparts to the book: a prologue, an epilogue, and seven majorsections. A5 we've already seen, there are threads that tiethese parts together----the prologue parallels the epilogue,the seven churches parallel the New Jerusalem, and so onall the way to the top. It 's a pyramid structure--a chiasm.

Here's the point. I said above, chiastic Hebrewthinking, the main point doesn't come at the end. It stands the middle. In other words, the key events of the bookare the events that take place right at its heart. And theheart of the book of Revelation is found in chapters 12 to14, which describe the final crisis of earth's history.

I wasn't the first to see this. A Roman Catholic scholarnamed Elizabeth Fiorenza developed a similar idea. Shehas a chiastic or pyramid structure like mine. ryve cameto the idea independently.) But she takes the concept astep further. She says the crucial center of this centralpart of the book is found in chapter 14: it's the introduc-tion of the 144,000 in verses 1-5 and the three angels'messages of verses 6-12.6 I disagree with Roman Catho-lics on many things, but when a Roman Catholic scholaris right, I'm happy to agree

So, yes, I agree that the center of the book is chapters12-14. And I agree that the center of the center is in chap-

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T h e S ev en Keyster 14, particularly the three angels' messages in verses6-12. But I take it one step further yet. I believe there is acenter ofthe center of the center the book ofRevelation.I believe that ultimate center isfound in chapter 14, verse7. The last part of verse 7 says, Worship Him who madethe heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountainsof water. That to me is the heart of the chiasm. That isthe climax of the climax of the climax. The book of Reve-lation is a call to worship Him who made the heaven andearth, the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And guess what That idea comes from the Old Testa-ment. It comes from Exodus 20: 11, in the fourth com-mandment. we approach the end of time, the heart ofthe book of Revelation calls us to worship God in theway that God has asked us to worship Him, and that in-cludes worship on the Sabbath day. Understanding thestructure of the book of Revelation gives us the key to itscentral message.

When we explore Revelation using the keys it has givenus, we'll discover much that piques our interest and thatalso gives us direction as to how we are to live. Under-standing Revelation is certainly worth our best effort.

1. William Milligan, T h e R e ve l at io n St John (London: Macmillan andCo., 1886),72.2. Trademark owned by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois.

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Seven Keys3. Ellen G. White, z eAc t s o f lh eApo s tl e s Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific

Press+ Publishing Association, 1911 ,585.4. David E. Aune, Revelat ion 1-5, Anchor Bible, vol. 52A Dallas: WordBooks, 1997 , 104.5. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, T he B oo k Reve la t ion Ju s t ic e andJudgmentphiladelphia: Fortress Press, 1985 , 170-177.

6. Ibid., 188, 189.

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h a p te r h r e e n t s lano t os

E BEGIN part 2 by looking at the sevenchurches. The introduction to the letterssent to the seven churches comes just after

the first eight verses of Revelation, which we looked at inpart 1. Now we come to the verses that immediately fol-low that introduction, verses 9-11. I,J ohn, your brotherand companion in the aflliction and kingdom and pa-tient endurance which is Jesus, came to be on the is-land which is called Patmos, on account of the Word ofGod and the testimony ofJesus. I was in the Spirit duringthe Lord s Day, and I heard a loud voice like a trumpetbehind me. Write what you see in a book and send it tothe seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos,Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

HereJohn names the cities where the seven churcheswere located. Notice that this text says that John sees avision and then is told to Write what you see. He is toldto write down the vision he is receiving and send it to the

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Seven eyschurches. The text also tells us thatJohn is on the islandofPatmos on account of the Word of God and the testi-mony of Jesus. Just exactly what this means isn t clear.How could the Word of God or the testimony of JesusputJohn on an island?

Many ancient traditions say that John was on the is-land as a punishment for his Christian faith-that be-cause of his Christian beliefs, the Roman authorities ex-iled him to Patmos. This island, which is about six mileslong and three miles across at its widest point, lies just offthe coast of Asia Minor, twenty or thirty miles into theAegean Sea.

So, John was exiled from the seven churches withwhich he had been working. While on Patmos, he had avision and then was asked to write down what he sawand send the message to those seven churches.

esus nd the seven churchesWhat does J ohn see that he s told to write out and send

to the churches?

And in the midst of the lampstands was One likea Son of man, dressed in a foot-length robe andwrapped around the chest with a golden sash. His

n th e s la nd ojPatmos

Pergamum Asia MinorThyatira: sardis ~: ~ ::: Philadelphia ~

head and His hairs were white like wool, white assnow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. Hisfeet were like polished brass which had been puri-fied in a furnace, and His voice was like the soundof many waters. He had seven stars in His righthand, a sharp, two-edged sword was coming out ofHis mouth, and His face was like the sun shining inits strength Revelation 1:13-16).

These verses give us a magnificent picture of Jesus.They tell us more than a dozen of His characteristics.

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Seven eysAnd here s something interesting: asJesus is introducedto each church, only two or three of these characteristicsare mentioned. He s introduced to the first church as theOne who holds the seven stars and stands among thelampstands (2:1).He s introduced to the second churchas the First and the Last, the One who died and whocame to life(verse 8). To the third church He is the Onewith the sharp, double-edged sword coming out of Hismouth (verse 12).

Notice thatJesus presents Himself to each church in acompletely unique way. He respects their differences. Hemeets their unique needs-or, as I said earlier, He meetseach church where it is. This isone of the strongest inter-pretive principles for the study of the Bible. The messageis from God, but the vehicle of the message-whethervision or history or poetry-is in language appropriate tothe time and place where they re given. God meets peo-ple where they are.

WhenJ esus came to earth, He didn t come as a twent): -first-century European or a twenty-first-century African.He came as a first-centuryJew. He lived in Palestine, andHe looked like the people there and dressed like the peo-ple there. He spoke their language and even used someof their jokes. That last point may sound strange, butwhenJoachimJeremias, a biblical scholar, translated the

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n th e s la nd ojPatmosGreek ofMatthew s Gospel back into Aramaic+-the lan-guage thatJesus spoke-he discovered jokes, puns, andwordplays that Jesus used.

Why would Jesus say those kinds of things? Probablytomeet people where they were. But there s another pos-sibilitytoo.Jesus seems to have used those kinds of thingsto make His sayings memorable. He wanted people toremember them. They d be telling each other, Oh,whenJesus was talking yesterday, He told this really funnystory. Then they would share that story. They remem-bered the story and the teaching because of the wayJesusshared it. The same principles are illustrated in the wayJesus approached the seven churches ofRevelation.

So, from the letters to the seven churches, we discoverthatJesus knows all there is to know about us. He comesto each church with a full knowledge of what its mem-bers are like. He presents Himself in a way that they canappreciate, a way that they can understand. And i Jesusknows all about us before we even come to Him there sno reason to hide from Him. There s no reason to beafraid to tellHim the truth. He comes just the way thatwe need Him to come.Jesus is amazing. He could choose tocome to us in any

number of ways but, according to the seven churches ofRevelation,Jesus is careful to come to each church each


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Seven eysgroup of people in just the way they need Him. He re-spects our uniqueness. He respects our differences. Hemade us unique. He made us different. And when Hecomes to us He comes in a way that we each as individu- s can appreciate.

None of us has the full picture of Jesus. You may havea PhD but there s an awful lot that you don t know. Get-ting a PhD is kind of like digging a posthole in a farmfield. You may know everything there is to know aboutwhat was in that hole but there s a whole vast field aroundyou that you haven t explored to that depth. So the moreyou learn in this life the more you realize you don tknow.

Here in Revelation s letters to the seven churches welearn that each of us knows something aboutJesus we vehad a relationship with Him. But we don t know every-thing about Him. There s much that we don t know. Andthe fact that none of us has the full picture means we needeach other. You need what I m sharing in this book and Ineed what you have learned. When we re open to learningfrom one another we can learn more about God and comecloser to im So the book of Revelation teaches us to behumble.

Best of all however the seven churches of Revelationteach us thatJesus loves usjust the way we are. He meets

n th e s la nd Patmosus right where we are. And as we come toJesus He wgive us what we need. He w lead us to where we needto go.

We could learn much more from the seven churches.For example many people have applied them as a proph-ecy of stages in Christian history. But in this book we r efocusing on the basics of understanding Revelation-thebasic things we need to know in order to draw fromRevelation the spiritual lessons God wants us to learn.We re looking at the core values of the book that are of-ten overlooked.

And now we come to the most encouraging part of themessages to the seven churches. Jesus makes promises toeach of the seven churches. But here s something I findfascinating: The first church gets one promise-the treeof life. The second church gets two-the crown of lifeand deliverance from the second death. The third churchgets three-hidden manna a white stone and a newname. The fourth church gets four the fifth church getsfive the sixth church gets six and the seventh churchLaodicea gets the promise that sums up all the promisesthe promise to end all promises-that the overcomers inLaodicea will sit with Jesus on His throne. Those who sitwithJesus on His throne get everything right? They in-herit it all.

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Promises to the Seven hurchsphesus The right to eat from the tree of life

Smyrna The crown oflife Protection from the second death

Pergamum The hidden manna A white stone A new name

Thyatira Authority over the nations Ability to rule with an iron scepter Ability to dash their enemies to pieces The morning star

Sardis The privilege ofwalking withJesus Garbed by God white Their names written in the book of life Their names acknowledged before the Father Their names acknowledged before angels

Philadelphia Protection from the hour of trial Made pillars the temple Permanent residence in the temple The name of God written on them The name of the city of God written on themJesus new name written on them

Laodicea The right to sit withJesus on His throne

n th e sla nd PatmosHere s what I take from this: While the churches

receive increasingly better promises, the messages to thechurches become increasingly severe. The problems inthe churches seem to be getting worse and worse. But themessage is that the worse things get, the greater the graceand power that God exerts. As sin becomes increasinglypowerful, the grace of God becomes increasingly power-ful. So, the deeper the problems you have in life, the morepowerfully is the grace of Jesus Christ applied, whichmeans it can change your life.

The messages to the seven churches speak as power-fully to us today as they did in ancient times and through-out the course of history. The book of Revelation has amessage that can change our hearts and our lives today.

pl n for the whole ookOne of the challenges to understanding Revelation is

that few people know how to approach it, how it s orga-nized. ButJohn leaves clues about how the book is orga-nized and about what the key ideas in the visions are.One of those clues is found in verse 19 of chapter 1. Thisis one of the most important texts in the book because itlays out the plan of the whole book.

In verse 19,john is instructed to Write ... what you55


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Seven eyshave seen. Now, verse 11 says, Write what you see.That s in the present tense: write what you see-whatyou a r e s e ei n g That means that John is to write what he sseeing while he s seeing it. But verse 19 says, Write ...what you h av e s ee n other words, at this point the vi-sion is complete. He has already seen it. So verse 19 istellingJohn to write out the entire vision.

And, according to this text, the entire vision is madeup of two parts. Notice what the text says: Write, there-fore, what you have seen, namely, the things which are.In other words, Revelation includes things that spokespecifically to the churches that existed in Asia MinorwhenJohn wrote the book. But he was instructed towritealso the things which must happen after these things.The second major part ofthe book, then, concerns eventsthat are future from the perspective ofJohn s time.

So the book of Revelation has two parts. One part fo-cuses particularly on the time in which John lived, andone part focuses on future events-events that w occurafter John s time. It covers both the things which are andthe things which must happen after these things.

What are these things that are and the things that whappen after these things?John doesn t leave us in doubt.Look at chapter 4, verse There Jesus says to John,Come up here, and I w showyouwhat must take place

O n th e Is La nd Patmosafter these things. Compare that with the second part ofchapter 1,verse 19: Things which are about to happenafter these things.

It seems that chapter 4, verse 1,issaying toJohn, Nowwe have come to the part of the book that concerns thefuture, things that willhappen after these things. Verse1begins that focus, and the rest of the book ofRevelationfocuses primarily on the things that would be future toJohn s day. Though there are flashbacks to the Cross, tothe enthronement ofJesus, and even to events that oc-curred before Creation, the primary focus after chapter4 ison future events.

That leaves one more question. What are the thingswhich are ? That would be what Revelation contains be-tween chapter 1, verse 19, and chapter 4, verse I-theletters to the seven churches. In that portion of Reve-lation,John focuses particularly on the situation of thoseseven churches and on the messages-the letters-thatJesus sends them. Yes, these are prophetic letters. Theydohave powerful implications for events down the line ofhistory. But the immediate focus of the seven churches ison the things which are.

So we see that careful attention to key texts of Reve-lation w help usdiscover how the bookwas structured nJohn s mind and in the mind of the One who gave him the

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Seven < eysvision. We also see that most ofRevelation focuses particu-larly on the things that were to happen after John s day.

Duodirectionality literary strategyI m going to throw an unusual word at you here, one

that I made up. The word is duodirectionality Sounds kindof fancy, doesn t it? By duodirectionality, I mean simplylooking both ways.

I discovered this principle when I was searchingthrough the Greek of the book of Revelation. I foundthat at crucial points in Revelation, the climax of onesection points forward to the next. That is, instead ofconcluding one section and then introducing the next,John embeds the introduction of the next section into theconclusion of the previous one. These embedded conclu-sions look both ways -they summarize the precedingsection while also sharing the key to what follows.

For example, in Revelation, the seven seals follow theseven churches. But John embedded the secret essentialto understanding the seven seals in the climax that con-eludes the section on the seven churches. If you miss thiscue, you miss this duodirectional text, you probablywon t understand the message God intends the sevenseals to communicate.

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O n t he IsL an d P a t m osLook at the text: To the one who overcomes I will

give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame andsat down with My Father on His throne (3:21). This textis the climax of the promises to those who overcome. Inthe end, they w sit withJesus on His throne just as Heovercame and sat down with the Father on His throne.

When didJesus overcome?He overcame at the Cross. He overcame at His resur-

rection. And then He ascended to heaven and joined theFather on His throne. So, those who overcome in Christw one day join Him on His throne. That is the promiseto the overcomers nLaodicea.

But here is where duodirectionality comes in. This cli-max verse also points forward. It points to chapters 4,5,6,and 7. The key to the seven seals is embedded within it.

Let s take a look. The climax verse says, To the one.who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne,just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on Histhrone. Now think about chapters 4-7. Where in thissection of Revelation do we find the Father s throne? It sin chapter 4. Where does Jesus join the Father on Histhrone? In chapter 5. Do the believers ever joinJesus onHis throne? Yes, in chapter 7.

We see, then, that John has placed n chapter 3, verse21, a nutshell summary ofthe basic points of chapters 4-7.


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Revelation 4 Revelation 5 Revelation 6 Revelation 7 esusjoins The saintsThe ather s The saintsthe ather on joinJesus onthrone overcome His throneis throne

He s unpacking for us the point of the seven seals. So theprinciple of duo directionality provides a simple clue tounderstanding one of the most challenging parts of thebook of Revelation.

But there s more to chapter 3, verse 21, something wehaven t covered yet-the first part. The verse says, Tothe on e w ho overcom es I w give to sit with Me on Mythrone. To the one-present tense-who overcomes.

Who s that?The readers of the book. It s you. It s me. Whenever

anyone has read this book, they ve been called to over-come as Christ overcame. They ve been called to be faith-ful to God despite the trials that trouble them. They vebeen called to overcome. We are called to overcome.

And what is chapter 6 all about? It s about the saintsovercoming from the time of jesus to the end of time.Throughout the entire Christian era, from the time whenRevelation was written to the end, the saints are in theprocess of overcoming.

n th e s la nd PatmosChapter 6 is one of the most challenging parts of

Revelation. People have struggled to understand itsmeaning. But in chapter 3, verse 21,john has given usthe key to understanding chapter 6. He tells us that theovercoming of the people of God is the key to what is go-ing on in chapter 6. We ll come back to chapter 6 a littlebit later, but for now, I just wanted you to see how theduodirectionality principle helps us understand moreclearly what john says in this book.


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h a p te r o u rthe even eals

T SMOVE now to the seven seals. We ll begin inRevelation 4. This chapter portrays a generalworship scene in heaven, and this worship iscentered on the throne of God. The word t ron appearsnineteen times in chapters 4 and 5.

Why do I call chapter 4 a general worship scene?There are several clues in the text. Verse 2 says, Imme-diately I became in the Spirit, and behold a throne wasthere in heaven, and there was One sitting on thethrone. This verse says, A throne was there. WhenDaniel described a throne scene in heaven, he wrote,Thrones were set up (Daniel 7:9).Daniel portrayed thebeginning of a throne scene in heaven, a scene of judg-ment. But Revelation 4 doesn t portray the beginning ofthe throne scene that it describes. John doesn t say thethrone was set up. his scene, it was simply there.

other words, chapter 4 portrays ongoing activity.It s a description of what has been going on in heaven


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Seven eysand what continues to go on there. Notice verse 8: Andthey [the four living creatures] have no rest day or night,saying, 'Holy, holy, holy.' That sounds like ongoing ac-tion to me. Verses 9 and 10: And whenever the livingcreatures express glory and honor and thankful-ness ... the twenty-four elders fall down before the Onesitting on the throne and worship.

So in chapter 4, the throne was there. And there's aconstant refrain- Holy, holy, holy. Chapter 4 doesn'tportray some specific event or change of activity. It issimply a description of what is going on constantly inheaven.

What's the key to this whole thing? What's at the cen-ter? Everything in this chapter is centered on the throneof God. Things happen in front of the throne, around thethrone, above the throne, and in the midst of thethrone.

moment risisIn chapter 5, however, we move from a general scene

to a very specific scene, a specific point in time. The gen-eral description stops, and we see a crisis arise. Look atwhat the text says: And I saw to the right of the One sit-ting on the throne a scroll, written within and on the

h e e ve n e als

back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a powerful angelproclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to openthe scroll, namely, to break its seals?' And no one inheaven or on earth or under the earth was able to openthe scroll or to look into it (verses 1-3)

So, God is sitting on the throne. He has a scroll in Hishand or at His side (depending on how one understandsthe Greek). An angel cries out, Who is worthy to openthe scroll? And no one can do it. No one in heaven oron earth or under the earth can open the scroll. This isamazing Remember that the scroll is related to God,and He has it, yet He can't open it This is a symbolicway of representing a huge problem-a problem so bigthat, in a sense, even God can't solve it. At least He can'tsolve it in the normal run of things. The problem can't besolved until that scroll is opened.

Verses 4 and 5 showJohn's reaction to the situation andthen heaven's response to his anguish. And I wept muchbecause no one was found worthy to open the scroll or tolook into it. And one of the elders said to me 'Do not weepthe Lion of the tribe ofJudah, the Root of David, has over-come to open the scroll and its seven seals.' Jesus Christ isthe real Lion King. He is the One who can open the scroll.He is the One who w ll solve the problem in the universe.

But you say, Wait a minute. How can there be a3 T K 65


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Seven eysproblem that God can t solve, yet Jesus can?

Actually, God ca n solve the problem. He chooses tosolve it through Jesus Christ, through the Lamb. Look atverse 6: And I saw, in the middle of the throne and ofthe four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders,a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, havingseven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits ofGod that have already been sent into the earth.

Who can open the scroll? Who can solve the universalproblem? The Lamb can. What kind oflamb? A slaugh-tered lamb. It is the cross ofJesus Christ that is in viewhere. The problem in the universe is solved by the crossofJesus Christ.

The Lamb is with God on the throne. Chapter 5 pic-tures the Lamb being worshiped along with God. TheLamb receives praise with God. The Lamb is divine. TheLamb is God.

However, the Lamb is also slaughtered. The Lambcan die. The very concept of Lamb shows the human-ness ofJesus Christ. Lambs are vulnerable, and so is He.He is slain. It is the combination ofJesus divinity andHis vulnerable humanity that is the key.

This tells us why the God who is sitting on the thronecan t open the scroll-because only Someone who isboth God and man, who is both human and divine, can

h e e ve n e als

open the scroll. There is only one Person in the entireuniverse who can resolve this universal problem, and thatisJesus Christ. The Lamb, the Lion-Lamb of Revelation,the real Lion King, Jesus Christ. He is worthy becauseHe is both human and divine and because He was slain.

Here, the book of Revelation highlights the centralityof the cross ofJesus Christ. I said earlier, Revelationuses Old Testament language, and as a result, it some-times sounds different than the rest of the New Testa-ment. But the heart of Revelation s message is JesusChrist. At its heart, this book has the same kinds ofthemes and theology as the rest of the New Testament.The purpose of chapter 5 is to highlight the cross of JesusChrist and its centrality in resolving the biggest problemin the universe.

h k y issuSo now we know who will solve the problem. But we

still haven t explored exactly what that problem is be-yond getting the scroll open. What made the angel soconcerned about finding someone who could open thescroll? What was in that scroll anyway? What is the keyissue of this chapter and, therefore, of the universe?

The key word in chapters 4 and 5 identifies what the

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Seven eyskey issue is. The key word is t hrone John used the Greekword for throne fourteen times in chapter 4 and fivetimes in chapter 5.

Americans aren t used to thrones. The closest one cancome to a throne nthe United States s the president s chairnthe Oval Office, the one behind the president s desk. Peo-ple from over the world-prime ministers, kings, andqueens-come into the Oval Office, and there the presi-dent sitsin his seat. Even with those connections, that chairdoesn t mean much to us. To the ancients, however, thethrone was a symbol of power, a symbol of authority. Theone who sits on the throne has the right to rule.

Interestingly, many ancient thrones were actuallycouches. There was room for two or three people to siton them. In the ancient context, it was possible for theking to elevate people to high authority next to himself.So when John wrote thatJesus sat with His Father onHis throne (3:21), he was saying that the Father was giv-ing Jesus authority to rule over the universe. That alsotells us that one day we w have an amazing privilege. s overcomers, we will sit with Jesus on His throne.The book of Revelation says the people of God w bekings and priests (1:6; 5:10). There s a sense in which thepromise God has for the overcomer includes sharing tosome extent in ruling the universe.

So, the throne is the key. The Old Testament back-ground of Revelation 4 and 5 is all about thrones. Daniel7 gives us Daniel s vision of the throne of God. Ezekiel 1also contains a vision of the throne of God. Isaiah 6 pic-tures the prophet standing before God s throne and hear-ing the song, Holy, holy, holy. In 1 Kings 22, Micaiahhas a vision of the throne of God and the heavenly courts.And Exodus 19 portrays God as enthroned on MountSinai. The common denominator of five passages isthe throne of God, and Revelation 4 and 5 allude to five of these Old Testament passages. In fact, 30 percentof the words in chapter 4 are drawn from Ezekiel 1. It samazing how similar the two passages are.

What s the key issue in Revelation 4 and 5? It is thematter of who is in charge of the universe. Is God incharge, or is someone else in charge?

We may be tempted to think that s a stupid question.Evidently, it s not. Revelation is drawing the curtain backjust a little bit and telling us that people are questioningGod s rule of the universe. Has He always been just? IsHe truly worthy to rule? How can He be considered justand loving when there s so much suffering in this world?

The spiritual beauty of this passage is that it s telling usthese are legitimate questions. We have the right to askthem.

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So, the throne of God is, in some sense, in jeopardy. IfGod wanted to, He could rip open the scroll and say, I min charge here. I ll do whatever I please. And I ll elimi-nate anyone who disagrees with Me. But that s not whatGod does. He chooses not to resolve the issue by force.Instead, through the cross of Jesus Christ, He patientlyand sacrificially demonstrates His right to rule. The Onewho rules the universe dies for the sake of His creatures.

Would you trust a ruler who would be willing to die foryour benefit? Who would you find it easier to trust: a pres-ident who, in sending his country to war, also sent his ownson or daughter into the fray, or one who didn t? TheGod who rules the universe was willing to sacrifice HisSon, willing to die. We may not understand everythingthat is going on in the universe. We may not understandwhat God is doing. We may not understand why so muchsuffering goes on here. But the book of Revelation tells usthat God solved the issue at the cross ofJesus Christ. Atthe Cross we begin to understand the government ofGod.At the Cross God demonstrated His right to rule.

There are basically two ways to rule in this world: byright or by might. Many dictators, such as Adolf Hitlerand Saddam Hussein, ruled by might. They said, I haveall the power. I can make everyone follow me. I m strongenough to force them to do what I want them to do.

That s one kind of rulership. God ruled that way, we dall have reason to fear. But the book of Revelation teachesus that God rules like a lamb. A slain Lamb, willing to diefor His subjects. There are troubling events everywhereon this earth. And even more troubling events are yet tocome. But Revelation tells us, Don t worry. In the endGod will set it right. He w be just and w be seen to bejust.

Chapter 15, verse 3, pictures the people who havecome to trust God as saying, Just and true are your ways, God. In the end, God is proclaimed as the One whois fair and the One who did what is right. God rules be-cause He is right. He allows only those things that wouldbe in the long-term best interest of the universe, for thegood of all concerned.

So chapters 4 and 5 are concerned about power. Butthey aren t just about this earth. They aren t just aboutyou and me. They re about the great controversy be-tween Christ and Satan. The cross of Jesus Christ isabout reconciling the universe with God. We get hints ofthat in chapter 5, and that message becomes more pow-erful in chapter 12 and beyond. So the scene portrayedin chapters 4 and 5 is an introduction not only to theseven seals, but, in a sense, to the rest of the book ofRevelation. All the rest of the book is grounded in these

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issues of the throne and of the Cross, ofJesus Christ, andthe gospel.

h four hors m nChapter 6 begins with the famous four horsemen of

Revelation.

And I saw when the Lamb opened the first ofthe seven seals, and I heard one of the four livingcreatures saying with a voice like thunder, ComeAnd I saw, and behold, a white horse, and the onesitting on it had a bow. A victory crown was givento him and he went out conquering and in orderthat he might conquer. And when He opened thesecond seal, I heard the second living creature say-ing, Come And another horse, a fiery red one,went out, and the one sitting on it was given totake peace from the earth, norder that they mightslaughter one another, and a great sword was givento him. And when He opened the third seal, Iheard the third living creature saying, ComeAnd I saw, and behold, a black horse, and the onesitting on it had a scale for weighing in his hand.And I heard, as it were, a voice in the middle of the

four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat fora denarius and three quarts ofbarley for a denarius;and do not harm the oil and the wine. And whenHe opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of thefourth living creature saying, Come And I saw,and behold, a pale horse, and the one sitting on itwas named Death, and Hades followed after him.And they were given authority over a fourth of theearth, to llwith the sword, with famine, with pes-tilence, and by the beasts of the earth (6:1-8).

Chapter 6 pictures four horses. Verses 1 and 2 tell usabout a white horse. Then a red horse appears (verses 3,4). The word translated red here actually means fire.So this horse is a fiery-colored horse, like a reddish flame.Next there's a black horse (verses 5, 6). And finally a palehorse (verses 7, 8). The word pale is translated fromthe Greek word from which was derived our word chlor i n other words, this horse is a sicklyyellow-green-the color some people become when they are extremelysick and about to die. So there's a white horse, a redhorse, a black horse, and a pale horse.

When these horses and their riders go out into theworld, destruction follows. What is this all about?

To understand what Revelation is saying here, we

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need to go to the Old Testament. Let's start with Leviti-cus 26:21, 22, 25, 26.

If you remain hostile toward me and refuse tolisten to me, I will multiply your afflictions seventimes over, as your sins deserve. I will send wildanimals against you, and they will rob you of yourchildren, destroy your cattle and make you so fewin number that your roads will be deserted ....

And I will bring the sword upon you to avengethe breaking of the covenant. When you withdrawinto your cities, I will send a plague among you,and you will be given into enemy hands. When Icut off your supply of bread, ten women will beable to bake your bread in one oven, and they willdole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but youwill not be satisfied NIV .

Leviticus 26 contains what are known as the curses ofthe covenant. In other words, Israel as a nation didn'tobey God, these are the consequences they would expe-rience. There would be suffering, there would be diffi-culty, and finally they would be invaded and exiled.

The language of Leviticus is also the language ofRevelation 6. But there's also language from Zechariah

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1 and 6 as well. In Zechariah 1:8 10 the prophet says,During the night I had a vision-and there before mewas a man riding a red horse ... Behind him were red,brown and white horses. . . . Then the man standingamong the myrtle trees explained, 'They are the ones theLORDhas sent to go throughout the earth' (NIV).

In Zechariah, the four horses are sent by God. Are thefour horses in Revelation 6 also sent by God or do theyrepresent human efforts or attacks? That's an importantinterpretive distinction. In Zechariah, they are clearly sentby God: This is what the LORDAlmighty says: 'I am veryjealous forJerusalem and Zion, but I am very angry withthe nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, butthey added to the calamity' (Zechariah l: 14, 15,NIV

In the context of Zechariah 1, the four horses repre-sent judgment. They go out to judge those who have op-pressed the people of God. This is the issue here. Goddoesn't punish people out of irritation or because Hefeels like it. No. God is very focused here. He says, Mypeople are hurting. And He sends these horses out tojudge those who have been hurting His people.

In Zechariah 6 we see more of the same: I looked upagain-and there before me were four chariots comingout from between two mountains-mountains of bronzeThe first chariot had red horses, the second black, the third

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white, and the fourth dappled-all of them powerful .. ..The angel answered me, These are the four spirits ofheaven, going out from standing in the presence of theLord of the whole world. ... Then he called to me, Look,those going toward the north country have given my Spiritrest in the land of the north (verses 1 8 NIV).

The land of the north is Babylon. That was the nationthat persecuted the people of God in the decades beforeZechariah was written. These horses were sent as cove-nantjudgments of God. When the people of God disobeyHim, they suffer sword, famine, pestilence, and so on.But when the people of God themselves are being op-pressed, God judges their opponents-again with thesword, famine, pestilence, and so forth, represented inZechariah by these horses ofjudgment.

All of this is background to Revelation 6. And here sthe key. In the Old Testament, these covenant passagesare national. It s as i God were saying, If you as a nationobey Me, you w prosper. If you as a nation disobey Me,you w sufferjudgments; you w suffer consequences.But in chapter 6, there is a difference. nchapter 6, thewhite horse seems to represent the gospel. (The symbolsconnected with that horse are all positive, unlike thoserelated to the other three horses.) the gospel goes out tothe world, it goes out conquering people s hearts, leading

them to God, bringing them under His rulership.Chapter 5 establishes that God is the rightful Ruler of

the universe. He isalso the rightful Ruler of this world inChrist. The Lamb is the just One, the One who is wor-thy. But many people reject His rule. And so, as the gos-pel (the white horse) goes forth, it invites people to be-come citizens of the heavenly kingdom. However, thewhite horse is followed by the red, black, and pale horsesof God s judgments. As people receive the gospel, theyalso receive the blessings that God offers from the Cross.On the other hand, those who reject the gospel sufferprogressively greater consequences as they harden intheir rejection. This is what the four horsemen of Reve-lation are all about. They are grounded in the Old Testa-ment covenant curses, but in Revelation, these curses arethe consequences of rejecting the gospel.

The 144we work our way through the seven seals of chapter6, we come closer and closer to the end of time. The fourhorses began in the early part of the Christian era. Chap-ter 6 climaxes with the questioning challenge at the endof the chapter. It says, And they said to the mountainsand the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of the

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One sitting on the throne, and from the wrath of theLamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and whois able to stand? (verses 16, 17).

According to Revelation 3:21, the messages in chapter6 are ll about the people of God and their struggle overcome in the course of Christian history. In this chap-ter, we work our way through Christian history, andwhen we come to the very end of time, portrayed at theend of the chapter, the challenging question is raised,Who will be able to stand?

That question stilldangles at the end of chapter 6.It pro-vides the context for chapter 7, in which we find the fasci-nating portrayal of the 144,000 and the great multitude. Inother words, chapter 7 answers the question Who w beable to stand? Interpreters have gone a little crazy with thischapter. People want to know who the 144,000 are. Thebottom line regarding the 144,000 that they are the peo-ple who w be able to stand in the final day of God.

However, this isn t the end of the matter. The greatmultitude of the latter half of chapter 7 are also the an-swer to the question. They re also the people who areable to stand in the final day.

Does that mean God s people will be divided at theend of time-like Catholics and Protestants? Is that whatthe text is saying?

No. Actually, these two groups are symbols of the onepeople of God. Let me explain.

Another of the literary strategies that we find in thebook of Revelation casts light on chapter 7. At times,whatJohn hears and what he sees are different and yetare the same. Chapter 1, verse 10 reads, I was in theSpirit during the Lord s Day, and I heard a loud voicelike a trumpet behind me. What does he hear? A trum-pet. But when he looks, what does he see? Note the fol-lowing verses: He seesJesus speaking to him. The trum-pet and the voice ofJesus are very different images, yetthey represent the same thing.

In chapter 5, verse 5, one of the elders calls his atten-tion to Lion of the tribe ofJudah. When John looks, doeshe see the Lion? No. He says, Then I saw a Lamb, look-ing as if it had been slain. John never sees the Lion ofJudah. He hears the elder say lion, but when he looks,he sees the Lamb. Do the lion and the lamb representtwo different things in this passage? No. They are twodifferent symbols for Jesus.

In chapter 17, John is told, I w ll show you the judg-ment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters(verse 1).But when he looks, he says, I saw a woman sit-ting on a scarlet beast (verse 3). He hears that she is sit-ting on many waters, but he sees her sitting on the beast.

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As we ll see later, these two things are different symbolsthat represent the same entity.

Finally, notice chapter 21, verse 9: One of the sevenangels who had the seven bowls . . . said, Come I wshow you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Are you ex-pecting that John w see a beautiful woman? Sorry. Hecarried me away in the Spirit to a great and high moun-tain and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem (verse10). The bride and the city are very different symbols,but they represent the same thing: the people of God atthe end of time.

Back to our passage, chapter 7. John never sees the144,000; he only hears the number (verse 4). When helooks, he sees a great multitude that no one can number(verse 9). The hearing/seeing clue indicates that thesetwo groups symbolize the one people of God at the endof time, just like the Bride of chapter 21 and the Lion/Lamb of chapter 5.

So, during the final crisis of earth s history the ques-tion is asked, Who w be able to stand? The answercomes in chapter 7: the end-time people of God w beable to stand. And the 144,000 and the great multitudeare two waysofdescribing these faithful people ofGod-those who have overcome by the gospel, those who haveovercome by the blood of the Lamb.

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h a p te r i v e~he v n rumpets

HAPTERS 8 to 11 of the book of Revelation focuson the seven trumpets. This is probably themost difficult portion of Revelation under-stand. If you asked twelve students of Revelation whatthe seven trumpets are all about, you d probably get atleast thirteen different opinions. I don t intend to explainevery detail of the trumpets. But the keys of interpreta-tion that we covered in the first chapter will help us un-lock some meanings that you might not have seen be-fore.

I noted earlier John s use of what I called duodirection-ality-his practice of inserting into the climax of one se-quence a key to what follows. That s true of the seventrumpets: the key to understanding the trumpets is found the middle of the seven seals. And when he openedthe fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those whohad been slaughtered on account of the Word of God andon account of the testimony which they had maintained.

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And they cried out with a loud voice saying, H-;Wlong, 0Lord, the Holy and True One, doYou notjudge and avengeour blood on those who liveon the earth? (6:9, 10

This text expresses the consequence of centuries ofpersecution, centuries of suffering-of all that is summedup in the four horsemen. The martyred saints, symbol-ized as being under the altar, are crying out for judgmenton those who live on the earth. The activities of the fourhorsemen have hurt the saints deeply. This confirmswhat we noticed before: the seven seals, particularly thosein chapter 6, are about the experience of the saints, ofthose who have been exposed to the story ofJesus. Thewhite horse represents the triumph of the gospel: peoplereceive it and enter into the kingdom of the Lamb. Theother three horses represent progressive rejection of thegospel, and the consequences of that rejection. Thosewho reject the gospel begin to fight each other, and theyalso harm the people of God. The climax of those fourhorsemen is the scene of chapter 6, verses 9 11 Thesaints, under the altar, cry out for God to do somethingabout their unjust suffering.

Have you ever cried out to God, asking Him to dosomething? Did it seem that your life was out of control?God always does what is right, but the people of Goddon t always understand what He is doing.

Those who live on the earth:The climax passage in the fifth seal includes the intro-

duction to the seven trumpets. Note the text that appearsright in the middle of the trumpets: And I saw and Iheard a vulture flying in midheaven saying with a loudvoice, Woe, woe, woe, to those who live on the earthbecause of the rest of the sounds of the three angels whoare about to blow their trumpets (8:13).

Do you remember that phrase, those who live on theearth ? In the fifth seal, the souls under the altar criedout, How long, 0 Lord, . . . do You not judge andavenge ... tho se w ho live o n th e ea rth (6:10 Revelationconsistently uses this expression, those who live on theearth, of the opponents of God, those who have perse-cuted the true followers of God. When the saints cry outto God for justice, His answer to their prayer comes inthe trumpets. Chapter 8, verse 13 says, Woe to thosewho live on the earth because of the rest of the sounds ofthe three angels who are about to blow their trumpets.The trumpets portray how God has been and w con-tinue to work within history to pass judgment on thosewho have hurt His people.

This message becomes even clearer at the beginning ofthe trumpets in chapter 8, verses 3 6: verses 3 and 4 say,Another angel came and stood upon the altar, having a

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golden censer. And much incense was given to him inorder that he might add it to the prayers of all the saintsupon the golden altar before the throne. And the smokeof the altar went up, along with the prayers of the saints,out of the hand of the angel before God.

The introduction to the trumpets doesn t seem like acall judgment. It reads more like a worship scene. It sabout the prayers of the saints. It s about incense risingfrom the golden altar in the sanctuary. But the cloud ofincense acts like an umbrella, preventing the negativejudgments of the trumpets from falling on God s ownpeople. I believe this incense symbolizes the righteous-ness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ covers thepeople of God and keeps them safe.

So, the prayers of the saints rise up at the beginning ofthe seven trumpets as they did in chapter 6, where thesaints-the souls under the altar-also cry out for justice.Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fireof the altar and threw it to the earth .... And the sevenangels who have the seven trumpets prepared to blowthem (8:5, 6).

Here s the sequence then: The prayers of the saints-the cries from under the altar-come up to God combinedwith the incense of the altar. When God hears thoseprayers, the trumpets begin to blow. In other words, the

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seven trumpets are God s response to the prayers of thesaints for judgment on those who are hurting His people.

Often in the course of history God s people have criedout, How long, 0 Lord? How long is this injustice goingto go on? How long do we have to suffer like this? Theanswer of the book of Revelation is, If you only knew.Right in the middle of history, even while your eyes areblind to it, I am already acting to deliver you. I am actingto bring consequences to those who have been unjust.

The trumpets tell the abused that the abusers have al-ready begun to come under God s judgment. We our-selves may not see God s hand at work in this life. Every-thing may seem to be unfair now. But the day ofjudgmentis coming when the curtain w be rolled away and ev-erything set right. The beautiful thing about the book ofRevelation is that in the midst of this incredible apoca-lyptic symbolism we catch a glimpse of what will happenin that end-time judgment. Revelation opens a windowinto God s purpose to set everything right. We may notsee it now, but we can learn to trust in God now. Thebook of Revelation helps us do just that. It provides asolid place to stand in the midst of life s most difficultproblems.

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he p in of rejectionNot long ago, a woman came up to me and said, Do

you remember me?She looked vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn t place

her.This woman said a few years ago I preached a sermonon rejection. After the service, she had come up to meand said my sermon had really meant a lot to her be-cause her husband had divorced her recently. Then sheasked, Do you remember what you told me on that oc-casion?

I couldn t remember, so she said, You told me, Nowyou can understand what Jesus went through on thecross+-in fact, you may be able to understand it betterthan anyone else here.

That idea just seized me, she said. I suddenly real-ized that I d been thinking only about myself. But Godhad allowed me to have an experience that could drawme closer to Jesus I would let it. I could understandmore deeply what He suffered for me.

She told me she had never been an outgoing person;she was rather timid by nature. Yet in spite of the greatrejection she had suffered, God had made her bold in theblood ofJesus Christ. The thought of what Jesus suf-fered on the cross turned my lifearound, she said. Ever

since that day, I ve not been focused on myself. Instead,I ve been reaching out to others. I ve even preached inplaces like Russia, and I ve led people to Christ.

s we study Revelation, we discover that in many sub-tle ways the heart of the book is about Jesus Christ andthe Cross. This book isn t the revelation of Middle East-ern oil. It isn t the revelation of worldly politics. It s therevelation ofJesus Christ. And when we rightly under-stand this book, we w have a clearer picture ofJesus-even in the seven trumpets of Revelation.

The basic theme of the seven trumpets is that God ispassing judgment on those who have turned from theworship of God, those who have hurt His people. This isstated plainly right in the middle of the trumpets: And itwas told to them that they should not hurt the grass ofthe earth or any green thing or any tree, only those menwho did not have the seal of God on their foreheads(9:4). And the rest of the human race, those who werenot killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works oftheir hands in order that they might not worship demonsor idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood (9:20).

The seven seals are about God s people; the seventrumpets, on the other hand, are about the wicked.The seals deal with people s reaction to the gospel-theiracceptance or rejection ofit. The trumpets focus specifically

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on those who have rejected the gospel and who haveharmed the people who preach the gospel. As difficultasthe details of the trumpets may be to understand, theirfundamental message has to do with judgments on thewicked.

istoric l poc lypticThe messages to the seven churches appear to be in

letter form, yet they are also prophecies. There are as-pects of these messages that are prophetic about the ex-perience of the church down through history. But pro-phetic letters are a more open-ended type of expressionthan apocalyptic tends to be.The seals are a bit more difficultto categorize, but the

best research indicates that the seals are a form of classi-cal prophecy, the kind of prophecies you find in Isaiahand Jeremiah, and even in Matthew 24, where Jesustalks about the future. Classical prophecies point to thefuture, but they don t project a single line of interpreta-tion as most apocalyptic prophecy does. You can applyclassicalprophecies to different times and places, depend-ing on the circumstances. There have been many timeswhen the people ofGod have cried out forjustice. Sowhilethe seven seals are prophetic with regard to Christian

history, they can be applied tomore than one situation.The trumpets are different, however. I believe they

represent the genre known as historical apocalyptic. Theyare like Daniel 2 and 7, where the prophet projects a se-quence ofevents from his day down through history rightto the end. The text contains a clear indication of this.For instance, the trumpets allude to the Old Testamentextensively. They seem to echo the days of Creation.They also echo the plagues of the Exodus and the battleofJericho, and they seem to refer to the Feast of Trum-pets and the jubilee concept.The five major Old Testament sources used in Reve-

lation 4 and 5 have one thing in common-thrones.These five Old Testament sources related to the trum-pets also have one thing in common-sequences ofevents. The seven days of Creation occur one after theother. The ten plagues of the Exodus occur one after theother. The same is true of the seven days of marchingaround Jericho, the seven months of the Hebrew yearthat lead up to the Feast of Trumpets, and so forth.So it seems that the author of Revelation wants us to

se 0e seven trumpets asportraying a sequence ofevents.The questions we have to answer are when does the se-quence of events portrayed by the trumpets begin andwhen does end?

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I think the starting point of the seven trumpets is madeclear right at the beginning of Revelation s description ofthem: Another angel came and stood upon the altar,having a golden censer. And much incense was given tohim in order that he might add it to the prayers of all thesaints upon the golden altar before the throne. And thesmoke of the altar went up, along with the prayers of thesaints, out of the hand of the angel before God (8:3, 4).

The fundamental image accompanying the blowing ofthe trumpets is the prayers of the saints. While the trum-pets are sounding, the saints are praying for justice. Theyare communicating with God, and God is responding totheir prayers. The beginning point of the trumpets, then,would seem to be the beginning of that intercession. Andhistorically, intercession follows from the cross ofJesusChrist. So the cross ofJesus Christ, His resurrection, Hisascension to heaven-these events are foundational tothe seven trumpets. The trumpets begin to sound afterthe crucifixion of Christ and His ascension to heaven-in other words, they begin at the same time as do theseven seals.

What s the endpoint? That seems clear from chapter11, verses 15-17: The seventh angel blew his trumpet,and there were loud voices in heaven which were speak-ing, The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom

of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign foreverand ever. And the twenty-four elders, who are sitting ontheir thrones before God, fell upon their faces and wor-shiped God, saying, We give thanks to You, Lord GodAlmighty, who is and who was, because You have takenhold of Your great power and begun to reign.

Now, you ve studied the book of Revelation, youknow that God is the One whom this book usually char-acterizes as the One who is, and who was, and who is tocome Why is the phrase is to c om e missing here? Be-cause at this point God s kingdom has already come. other words, the seventh trumpet brings us to the end ofhuman history. This means that the seven trumpets ofRevelation represent a sequence of events runningthrough history. They begin at the beginning of theChristian era and run to the end of time, the return ofChrist.

he los of prob tionRevelation also seems to indicate that the seven trum-

pets encompass the close of human probation. That s thepoint when there ll be no more presentation of the gospel,no more conversions. Look carefully at Revelation 10:7.But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel,

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when he isabout to sound, the mystery of God is finished,which He proclaimed as good news through His servantsthe prophets. The seventh angel brings the trumpet to hismouth and he takes in a breath. The text says that he isabout to sound. At that instant, however,just before thesounding of the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God isfinished.

What isthe mystery ofGod ? This phrase isfrequentlyused in the New Testament to describe the gospel--see,for example, Romans 16:25-27 and Ephesians 3:4-6. Inother words, the mystery of God is the proclamation ofthe gospel. Revelation 10:7 says the mystery of Godthat is finished is the mystery that He proclaimed asgood news to His servants the prophets. I use the phraseproclaimed as good news to translate a single word,the verb form of the noun gos pe l The mystery of God hadbeen gospelized -proclaimed as good news. Thatproclamation of the gospel ends just before the seventhtrumpet. So the close of probation occurs just as the sev-enth angel is about to sound.

In the trumpets, then, you have a sequence of eventsrunning from the Cross right up to the close of probationand the end of earth s history. Some people have noticed,however, that chapter 8, verse 5, at the beginning of thetrumpets, sounds a lot like a close of probation, And the

angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altarand threw it to the earth. And there were thunders andnoises and lightnings and an earthquake.

The censer symbolizes intercession. The throwing ofitto the earth certainly does seem to be a close-of-probationimage representing the end of intercession. However, inthis opening passage of the trumpets, you have two typesof images: the incense and the altar representing inter-cession, and the throwing down of the censer, which rep-resents judgment. So, intercession and judgment go onsimultaneously right up to the close ofprobation in chap-ter 10, verse 7.

How do chapters 10 and 11 fit into all of this? Theyseem to be a part of the sixth trumpet because they come inbetween the i t and the seventh trumpets. Notice whatchapter 10,verses 5-7 says, The angel which I saw stand-ing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toheaven and~ore by the One who lives forever and ever--who created heaven and the things which are in it, the earthand the things which are in it and the sea and the thingswhich are in it- Time w be no more. But in the days ofthe sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about tosound, the mystery ofGod isfinished

seven keys - jon paulien

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