Christ Church

Grace & Peace: Revelation 109

Douglas Wilson on

“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.

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Revelation 108

Douglas Wilson on

“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).

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Revelation 107

Douglas Wilson on

“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).

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Revelation 106

Douglas Wilson on

“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.

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Revelation 105

Douglas Wilson on

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

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Revelation 19:11-21

Few passages in Revelation enjoy virtually universal agreement from all interpreters but this is one of them. The rider on the white horse is widely agreed to be Christ Himself. There are three reasons for holding this. First, He is identified as one who is called Faithful and True. The Lord, the Amen, had spoken earlier in this book at the faithful and true witness (Rev. 3:14). Secondly, He has a self-knowledge that can only be ascribed to God Himself. He had a name written which only He Himself knows. This is divine self-knowledge. Redeemed believers have a name that is analogous to this (Rev. 2:17), but that occurs when God gives us a white stone with a name inscribed. It says that only the recipient knows the name, but we may surmise that God also knows, for He is the one who gave the
name. In this case, only God knows what God knows. And third, His name is called The Word of God (v. 13; cf. John 1:1). The Word of God *is* God, and the Word of God is *with* God.

In this passage, Christ is coming to judge and make war. It is commonly (and wrongly) assumed that this is a description of the Second Coming, but there are sound reasons for continuing to believe that this is His fierce judgment on Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The judgment falls on the beast and the false prophet, which we have already identified within the confines of the first century. And we are told that in His Second Coming, the Lord will return the same way that He left and He did not leave on a horse (Acts 1:11). Here He rides a white horse. Another reason for taking it this way is that the conflict here is driven by the sword that proceeds from Christ’s mouth. He is fighting with His Word. It is a spiritual conflict, with very physical results. When Jesus spoke the words of doom forty years before, the fate of Jerusalem was settled. The Word had spoken.

And I might mention in passing that to identify this description erroneously as the Second Coming helps set up the next chapter (in which we find the millennium) with a premillennial understanding. If the Second Coming is in chapter 19 and the millennium is in chapter 20, well, there you go.

This judgment is predicted in various ways in a number of places in the Old Testament.

But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked (Is. 11:4).

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel (Ps. 2:9).

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; And of the people there was none with me: For I will tread them in mine anger, And trample them in my fury; And their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; And I
wondered that there was none to uphold: Therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; And my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, And I will bring down their strength to the earth (Is. 63:16).

John is mixing a number of images in an inspired way. In one place the rod of judgment is what comes from Christs mouth, and in another it is His sword. He treads out the winepress of divine judgment, and Isaiah says that it was because the day of vengeance was in His heart. And in Luke, the Lord Jesus described what was going to happen to Jerusalem as the days of vengeance, fulfilling all things. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled (Luke 21:22).

I take the army following after Christ here to be glorified saints but primarily as spectators, not participants. The Isaiah passage says there was none to help, and that there was none with me. His garments are stained with blood, and the garments of those who follow Him were white and clean. He is the one who trampled out the grapes of wrath. Another reason for identifying the army that follows Him with believers (and not angels) is because of the reference a few chapters earlier (Rev. 14:4). They follow the Lamb wherever He goes, including here. He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful (Rev. 17:14). The Lord is identified the same way earlier Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him there are the called, chosen, and faithful, in short, Christians.

While Christ is the executive of the wrath of God, there is a sense in which believers participate in the judgment. He has made us kings and priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10), and we shall reign on the earth. The rod that comes out of the Lords mouth is a rod of iron, and it is wielded two ways. One is when He wields it, as in our passage here, but there are places in Revelation where believers participate in wielding that same rod (Rev. 2:26-27).

An angel standing in the sun sets up the great contrast of the final chapters of this vision. We see two banquets: one is the marriage supper of the Lamb (v. 7) and the other is an enormous banquet for carrion birds, and this is also a supper of the great God (v. 17). They will feast on kings, on captains, on warriors, on horses, and on the riders of those same horses. They will gorge themselves. And so the armies gathered the beast and the kings of the earth, and when the fighting was over, the beast was thrown into the lake of fire, along with the false prophet, and anyone who took the mark of the beast, or who had worshiped his image.

Any who remained were slain by the sword of the one who sat on the horse, that is, the Lord Jesus, and the carrion birds were filled.

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).

Read Full Article