Copyright © 2024 Michael A. Brown
Reading:
Revelation chs.4-5
Much of the material in this and
the next few chapters will be looking at various passages in the book of
Revelation and drawing out their relevance to the end-times. However, before we delve into the seven seals
which are described in Revelation 6:1 – 8:5, and I explain what I believe to be
their meaning, it is necessary first of all to backtrack in the narrative of
this last book of the Bible, and to look briefly at chapters 4-5. The reason for this will become clear in what
follows below.
Does
Revelation 4:1 refer to the rapture?
‘After this I looked, and there
before me was a door standing open in heaven.
And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,
“Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before
me was a throne in heaven…’ (Rev. 4:1)
The belief that the rapture of the
bride of Christ occurs in Revelation 4:1 is one of the cornerstones of what is
known as the Extreme Futurist interpretation of Revelation. This is quite popular among evangelical
believers in America in particular, and it is taught on Christian TV programmes
from time to time.
Put
simply, this interpretation believes that, because the Greek word ἐκκλησία
(meaning ‘church’) does not occur in the book of Revelation after the end of
chapter 3 (except in verse 22:16), then this must mean that the Church Age
closes at the end of chapter 3. So the
letters to the seven churches in chapters 2-3 represent prophetic messages
which are applicable to the whole of the Church Age,[1]
but from chapter 4 onwards the book of Revelation is relevant only to what
happens after the end of the Church Age (i.e. after the rapture). This is illustrated below in Figure 16.1:
Figure
16.1 The book of Revelation according to the Extreme Futurist
interpretation
This viewpoint, therefore, tries to
find grounds for the rapture at the very beginning of chapter 4, i.e. in verse
4:1. So the words ‘Come up here…’
are said to represent the voice of God speaking to the dead in Christ and to
living believers (rather than simply to the apostle John), telling them to come
up to meet Christ in the air, and the following words ‘and I will show you
what must take place after this’ are said to refer to what will happen
after the rapture (i.e. after the end of the Church Age).
According
to this viewpoint, the following two chapters (chs.4-5) are a vision of what
happens in heaven after the rapture. The
Lord Jesus is seen as the triumphant Lamb-Lion, seated on his Father’s throne,
and the twenty-four elders are said to represent the redeemed, raptured and
rewarded bride of Christ who are then in heaven. After these two chapters, the focus of the
narrative then transfers over to what happens on earth after the rapture, and
so the description of the seven-year tribulation begins in chapter 6 with the
opening of the seven seals. The chapters
which follow in Revelation then describe what happens during the tribulation
period, until Jesus returns to earth at his Second Advent in chapter 19:11f.
So,
according to this viewpoint, the rapture happens in verse 4:1, and the seven
seals happen after the beginning of the tribulation. In particular, the rider of the white horse
(who is released at the opening of the first seal) is believed to represent the
rise of the spiritual deception associated with Antichrist, at the beginning of
the seven-year tribulation.
Reasons
why I do not agree with this viewpoint
There
are several reasons why many believers do not agree with this viewpoint, and I
give just a few of these below:
· The
apostle John was not raptured in verse 4:1. He described himself ‘as being in
the Spirit’ (4:2) and being taken up to heaven where he was shown these
visions. His physical body remained on
earth in Patmos during this whole time. His
experience, therefore, cannot be representative of the rapture of the bride of
Christ.
· This
viewpoint makes Jesus seem to be absent from heaven in chapter 4 immediately
after the ‘rapture’ has apparently occurred, when John (representing those who
have been raptured) has/have supposedly arrived in heaven together with Jesus
(cf. 1 Thess. 4:16-17).
· Many
commentators do not believe that the twenty-four elders in heaven (4:4f)
represent believers who have been raptured.
Rather, these twenty-four elders are men known to God who have been
chosen by him from among Old and New Testament leaders, and who therefore
represent the old and new covenants.
John does not give us their names.
· Just
as other numbers do, the number 24 has its own significance in Scripture. It is connected to the priesthood which, in
king David’s time, had twenty-four divisions, according to their appointed
order for ministering in the temple (1 Chr. 24:1-19). If the number 12 represents divine government
or completeness, and since 24 is double 12, then it would be natural to
interpret these twenty-four men to be believer-priest elders who represent both
the old and new covenants, and who are reigning with Christ in heaven. This is supported by the fact that the gates
and foundations of the New Jerusalem have the names of the twelve tribes of
Israel and the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev. 21:12-14).
· This
viewpoint makes the rider of the white horse in the first seal to be Antichrist
and the spiritual deception which arises under his rule. However, there are many people who do not
believe this. Rather they see the rider
of the white horse as representing the spread of the gospel throughout the
world, conquering the hearts of those who do not yet believe in Christ. This issue is discussed in more detail below.
· This
viewpoint makes the bulk of the book of Revelation to be irrelevant to ordinary
believers today, because only chapters 2-3 refer to the Church Age. It means that the events of the book of
Revelation after chapter 3 are all still in the future. However, because this book was written
towards the end of the first century AD, it had specific relevance to that
generation of believers. When they read it, they would have
seen themselves or churches they knew of in chapters 2-3, and when they read
chapter 5 they would immediately and very naturally have seen it as referring
to the ascended King Jesus of their own day.
Furthermore, the first century believers would have recognised the Roman
Empire as a fulfilment of the first Beast of chapter 13, and the book’s
overarching message of Christ’s ultimate victory over sin and the forces of
evil in this world would have brought strong encouragement to them. Also, the book of Revelation, or
different parts of it after chapter 3, must have had at least some form of
symbolic meaning for all subsequent generations of believers right down until
the present time, simply because the whole of inspired Scripture is relevant to
every generation of believers (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17).[2]
It
is the belief of many commentators that, instead of the above viewpoint,
chapters 4-5 give us a glimpse through John’s vision into scenes in heaven
after the ascension of Christ (rather than after the rapture). The risen, ascended and exalted Lord Jesus is
seen as seated and ruling on the throne of his Father as the Lamb-Lion,
surrounded by worshipping elders. As the
One who triumphed by conquering sin, death and Satan through the cross and
resurrection, he is the only One worthy to sit on and rule from his Father’s
throne and to inherit all things (Heb. 1:2).
So to him, and him alone, after his ascension, is given the scroll which
contains the redemptive provisions of God’s will and purpose for all creation
which will then be worked out (cf. Heb. 9:15-18). Ladd confirms this in the following way:
‘The
[scroll] is in the form of an ancient will, which was usually sealed with the
seals of the seven witnesses. The
[scroll] contains God’s inheritance for his people, which is founded upon the
death of his Son. The saints’
inheritance is the kingdom of God; but the blessings of God’s kingdom cannot be
bestowed apart from the destruction of evil.
In fact, the very destruction of all evil powers is one of the blessings
of God’s kingly rule. Here is the
twofold theme of the Revelation: the judgment of evil and the coming of the
Kingdom.’[3]
Furthermore, although the book of
Revelation is permeated with Jewish allusions from the Old Testament, and is
therefore certainly aimed at Jewish believers, yet Gentile believers can also
draw strong encouragement from the unsealing of the scroll and the revealing of
its contents which follows (see below and in the next chapter).
Whereas
the Jewish people had been the recipients of many prophetic revelations in the
time of the Old Testament, Gentiles themselves had received none, of
course. But here in the scroll is the
major prophetic revelation given by the Father to both Jewish and Gentile
believers, and which is now revealed to them through the ascended Son of Man,
the victorious and triumphant Lamb-Lion.
It unveils the coming events of the consummation of this age: how Satan
and evil are finally overcome in this world, how Jesus the King of kings
triumphs and establishes his kingdom on earth, and so on.
So
Gentile believers, grafted into the true olive tree of faith, also become
possessors of a major prophetic revelation, and they too can know what is going
to happen in the world in the end-times.
Therefore, they do not need to live blindly in fear of what the future
holds for them, but they can rest assured in the knowledge that God’s sovereign
hand is over everything that will happen, and that Jesus will ultimately
triumph over Satan and evil.
Copyright
Notice
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[1] My book Walking
Among The Lampstands gives expositions of each of the letters to the seven
churches in Revelation chs.2-3. It is
available from www.lulu.com/shop.
[2] Readers may also
wish to read my blog-page “On the use of μετά ταῦτα in Revelation 1:19 and
4:1” available at https://finalactsinthedrama.blogspot.com/p/appendix-b-on-use-of-in-revelation-119.html.
[3] Ladd, p.674.
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