Douglas Wilson, Author at Christ Church

Grace & Peace: Revelation 110

Douglas Wilson on August 29, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:1–8).

There are four basic approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation. One of them is the futurist, which regards the events predicted as being fulfilled overwhelmingly in our future. The second is the idealist approach, which takes the book as something of a cosmic parable, with no specific earthly fulfillments. The third is the historicist, which takes the fulfillment of the prophecies as an unfolding reality, down through all of church history. The last, and the approach that has been taken throughout this commentary, is the preterist. This comes from the Latin word for past, and means that the prophecies given were fulfilled in the prophet’s future, but in our past—and for the most part overwhelmingly in the first century.

I mention this because we are now in the part of the book where such clean distinctions are hard to maintain. In the previous chapter, we saw the Second Coming (futurist), and in these last two chapters we see a historicist description of all of church history, as the New Jerusalem descends. I would simply encourage everyone to sit loose in the saddle, and to maintain a sense of humor.

We are seeing here the transition between the first heaven and first earth (the Judaic aeon) and the new heaven and new earth (the Christian aeon). I do not take the new heaven and new earth as referring to the post-Second Coming eternal state for various reasons. The first is that the prediction of the new heaven and earth comes from the prophet Isaiah, and he describes it for us.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: And the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. . . . There shall be no more thence an infant of days, Nor an old man that hath not filled his days: For the child shall die an hundred years old; But the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:17, 20).

What do people do in the new heavens and new earth? Well, among other things, they die. That will not be the case after the Second Coming.

Secondly, Peter talks about Isaiah’s prophecy as something that was right on top of his readers, and Jude apparently interprets him that way also. And when Jude refers to those who “separate themselves,” he has particular faces in mind.

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

“But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” (Jude 17–19).

So I take the first heavens and earth as the Judaic aeon and the new heavens and earth as the Christian aeon, and these two aeons overlapped—the latter beginning at Pentecost, and the former ending with the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. The destruction of that Temple has been one of the major themes of this book of Revelation.

So the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ, which is explicitly stated in the next section (v. 9), which means that she is the Christian Church. Church history is the time it takes for this bride to walk down the aisle. By the time she gets to the front of the cathedral, she will be without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish (Eph. 5:27). When she arrives at that final destination, then all sorrow will have been banished, and there will never again be any more tears.

As she is descending out of Heaven, a great voice declares that the tabernacle of God is now with men. The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and this is how it is possible for God to dwell with men. And this is how it is possible for every form of sorrow to be sponged away.

The process of world evangelization is the process by which God is making all things new, which is the declaration He makes in this passage. The old world order is passing away (1 John 2:17), so that the new order may be established on the firm foundation of the Word of God. For the Christian, all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17).

It is striking that the one who sits upon the throne here (Christ) says the same thing that He said from the cross. It is finished (John 19:30). When Babylon, the evil city was destroyed, a loud cry from the Temple said that it was “done” (Rev. 16:17). And here, again, it is said that it is “done” (Rev. 21:6).

And so, as Christ’s bride is working through her wedding prep, as she is adorning herself for that great and final day of consummation, she needs to remember that all of church history is nothing but wedding prep. Her bridegroom, the Alpha and Omega, summons her. He is the beginning and the end, the whole point of all history. He promises living water to anyone who thirsts, and shows us His tender care for His people. He promised this to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:10, 14), and later He gives the invitation at a great Jewish festival (John 7:37ff). He speaks the same word here.

The one who overcomes will inherit everything, and this characteristic promise reminds us of how He spoke to the seven churches at the beginning of the vision. And a somber note is also struck, when we are reminded that this is to be a holy bride, and so excluded from her are all vile lovers of vile living. One harlot has already been put away and judged for such things, and so they have no place with the new bride who is preparing herself.

Grace & Peace: Revelation 109

Douglas Wilson on August 21, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:7–10).

And so John saw a great white throne, upon which Christ is seated in glorious splendor. We know that Christ is the one on the throne because of the numerous ways Scripture indicates this. Christ was earlier associated with a white cloud (Rev. 14:14), and he was seen riding on a white horse (Rev. 6:2; 19:11). Here it is fitting that He is established as Judge on a white throne.

More to the point, this scene is obviously the last judgment (“the earth and the heaven fled away”), and the Bible is explicit that Christ is the one who will rule at that judgment. For example, Christ has the authority to “execute judgment” (John 5:27).

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matt. 25:31).

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:1).

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).

“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

So this is the final judgment, and we have a contrast—between one book on the one side, and “the books” on the other. That one book is the Book of Life, and the one specific thing we are told about it is that it contains a list of names.

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

“To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven . . .” (Heb. 12:23).

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Rev. 3:5).

So the issue here is simple and binary. Either your name is in the Book of Life, or it is not. If a person’s name is not in the Book of Life, then he is judged in accordance with the other books, and these other books are histories, detailed biographies. These people are judged “according to their works,” which is repeated twice, in both verses 12 and 13. Anyone whose name was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire, with the degree of punishment a function of the works they had done or left undone.

The sea gave up her dead, and so also both Death and Hades gave up their dead. This is the resurrection of the unjust. Earlier we saw that through His resurrection from the dead Christ came into possession of the keys of both Death and Hades (Rev. 1:18). He is the ultimate conqueror, and now in this final triumphant act, He throws both Death and Hades into the lake of fire. This indicates, incidentally, that Hades was a place for departed shades, a temporary place of judgment, until the time should come for that judgment to be made permanent. Death and Hades were thrown into the final death, the second death, the lake of fire, or Gehenna.

Grace & Peace: Revelation 108

Douglas Wilson on August 14, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:7–10).

Just a few verses before, we were told that Satan was locked up in the Abyss such that he would no longer be able to “deceive the nations.” That this was the nature of his restriction is reinforced here—when he is released from his prison at the end of the thousand years, he goes out and resumes his lying activities. Once again, he deceives the nations.

So at the very end of the long period of Christian ascendancy, Satan is permitted to lead the nations astray again. The nations involved are described as being at the “four quarters of the earth,” meaning all the nations hither and yon. The name given to them is taken from Ezekiel 38 and 39. In Ezekiel, this referred to an unbelieving and savage nation from the north. The prophecy there is against Gog, the prince of that people, and Magog, the people themselves. When they attacked Israel (in overwhelming numbers), they were nevertheless defeated. Thus they serve as a fitting type for this international version of the same kind of thing. One time the old Israel was assaulted by Magog, and Magog was overthrown. And here, the new Israel is assaulted by an international Magogian confederacy, and they too are thrown down immediately.

Satan’s deception was initially successful, in that he was able to gather an army like the “sand of the sea.” One question might be why God allows for something like this after the world was successfully evangelized. The best explanation appears to be that He is showing us that salvation is all of grace. After centuries of gospel glory, it would be easy for men to start taking credit for what the gospel alone accomplished, and so God illustrates for us the fact that apart from grace, the human heart remains exactly what it has always been—by nature an object of wrath.

So after a long period of gospel glory, Satan is permitted one last attack on the object of his malice, which is the Christian church. This is pictured by two images—the “camp of the saints” and the “beloved city.” The camp of the saints brings the period of the wilderness to mind, and the beloved city is talking about the New Jerusalem, the Christian Church. Both descriptions are of God’s beloved people, the apple of His eye. Because the church of the faithful will at that point be located all over the earth, we see the enemies of God going up “on the breadth of the earth.” Christians will be attacked in the same way that the Jews were attacked by Haman in the Persian empire—attacked, that is, in every town, every city, every province, and every nation.

But the outcome of this attack is not in doubt. This is an attempted murder, not a murder. The faithful are surrounded, and so they have a full opportunity to trust the Lord. But the Lord will defend His people, and will rain down fire on the enemies of God. I don’t believe there is any reason to assume the fire here is merely figurative. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8). I take this destruction of Satan, and of “Gog,” and of “Magog,” as the Second Coming of Christ.

The beast and the false prophet had been thrown into the lake of fire, the final death, sometime earlier. Now Satan is consigned there—no longer in the Abyss, he is now in final death. In that place, he is tormented day and night forever and ever. This is as good a place as any to mention that Satan is not the king of Hell. Jesus is the ruler of Hell, and Satan is in torment there.

“In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Is. 27:1).

Grace & Peace: Revelation 107

Douglas Wilson on August 9, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4–6).

And so John saw multiple thrones, which we should understand as being located in Heaven. They are most likely the thrones of the 24 elders, which have already been mentioned (Rev. 4:4). In addition we also see the martyrs, who were assembled earlier under the heavenly altar (Rev. 6:9). In that earlier place, they were crying out for a vengeance that had not yet happened. “How long?” But now that the great blow has fallen, bringing an end to the old Judaic aeon, these martyrs enter into their share in the rule of the world, in and through Christ. The martyrs are identified as those who refused to participate in the worship of the beast, or of his image, and who refused to accept his mark upon their heads or hands. In this image of their martyrdom, they had been beheaded, which meant that the heads that refused the mark were separated from their bodies—but when that beheading occurred, their heads were unblemished by that particular corruption. They lost their heads, but they were undefiled heads.

Having entered into glory, they continued to live on, and they participated in the reign of Christ over all the nations of men. They are kings and priests together with Him.

What does John mean by “this is the first resurrection”? I believe the best explanation is that the first resurrection is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the second resurrection is the general resurrection of the dead at the end of all human history. John’s expression in v. 6 points toward this understanding. The first resurrection is something that we are blessed to “have part” of. Christ rose from the dead as the first fruits of those who had died (1 Cor. 15:20)—His resurrection was the first fruits for others. In another place, He is described as being the firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:18)—again, His resurrection was a resurrection that others were to participate in. When we are converted, by faith we are made partakers of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. He was raised to life for our justification (Rom. 4:25). “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom. 6:5). If we are baptized, we are baptized into His death, and it is not possible to be baptized into His death without participating in “newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

John also adds the detail that the “rest of the dead” would not be raised until the thousand years, which is the Christian aeon, was completed. I take this as referring to the resurrection of the unjust, the resurrection of the unbelievers. That there is such a resurrection is plain in Scripture.

“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15).

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29).

So every believer who is truly converted throughout all church history is made a partaker of the resurrection of Jesus, the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them—which means they can look forward to the general resurrection as a great hope. In addition, they are included in the reign of Christ over the nations, which is taught in multiple other places. For just one example, consider this: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). And so the shared rule with Christ is not limited to first century martyrs. It applies to every believer who trusts in Christ at any point in the millennium.

There is no need to take the reference to this millennium, this one thousand years, as a literal one. This is a symbolic number, in a symbolic chapter, in a highly symbolic book. Throughout Scripture, it is used as a place holder for a very large number—the number of hills where God owns the cattle (Ps. 50:10), the number of enemy soldiers that one Israelite will pursue (Josh. 23:10), and the number of generations with whom God keeps covenant (Deut. 7:9). And references to a thousand years are also obviously figurative. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Ps. 90:4; cf. Ecc. 6:6, 2 Pet. 3:8).

Grace & Peace: Revelation 106

Douglas Wilson on July 31, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Rev. 20:1-3).

A great angel then descends from Heaven in order to bind the devil. Earlier in the book (Rev. 9:1-3), a star fell to earth, and he was given the key to this Abyss. Because he used the key to open the Pit in order to unleash mayhem on the earth, and given the fact that he is described as falling to earth (as opposed to descending), the assumption should be that the earlier star was a wicked and rebellious. In contrast, this angel descends in order to lock up the Abyss, and the devil in it. He is not identified here, but given that Michael was the one that successfully fought the devil (Rev. 12:7-8), it may be that we are seeing Michael again here. If Michael threw Satan out of Heaven, it may be that he is the one who also locked him up in the earth.

We can see that we are not talking about a literal physical description from the fact that the devil, a spiritual being, is described as being bound with a chain. This binding is described in particular terms. In other words, the devil is no longer able to deceive the nations in the same way that he had been able to before. Throughout the Old Testament, we see that empires and nations were backed by their gods (e.g. Dan. 10:13, 20; Eze. 28:11,14). When nation went to war with nation, their gods were thought to be at war with each other (1 Kings 20:28). The beast, the Roman Empire, was backed in this way by Satan. The devil was the spiritual being that gave the beast its great power. So when he was bound, this meant that he would not be able to prevent the successful evangelization of the Empire, which in fact he was unable to prevent. This was God’s plan all along. The Lord Jesus was going to bind the strong man (Mark 3:27), and then take all his stuff. This is one of the reasons for thinking that, now that we have come to the twentieth chapter of Revelation, we are looking past the destruction of Jerusalem for the first time. We are promised that when Satan is bound in this way, he will not be able to manipulate the nations the way he was able to before. I do not take this as the vaporization of Satan, but rather as a radical restriction of Satan. Looking at the nations of men, he no longer has the run of the place. Rather, preachers of the gospel have the run of the place, and he can do nothing to stop them.

Our ancient foe is clearly identified for us. He is called the devil here, along with Satan. He is also described in this passage as a dragon, or ancient serpent, which pairs him with the entity which tempted our first parents in the Garden. God had promised the serpent of Genesis that the seed of the woman would trample him underfoot, and this promise comes to fruition when the Roman Christians are told they would crush Satan beneath their feet (Rom. 16:20). And John the apostle tells us that the devil was a murderer from the beginning, the one who inspired Cain (1 John 3:8, 12).

Someone has joked that the millennium is a thousand years of peace that Christians like to fight about. It is striking that the major eschatological positions (amillennial, premillennial, and postmillennial) all take their names from a term that shows up in this chapter only, a difficult chapter in a notoriously difficult book. That being the case, we will try to walk through the remainder of this book with some humility, while at the same time trying to be clear about what we believe the book to be talking about.

I take the one thousand years of Satan’s binding to be a symbolic representation of the Church age, from the time of Pentecost to the Second Coming. The one thousand years represents the fullness and completeness of Christ’s reign, not a literal one thousand times around the sun. More about this should become evident as we proceed.