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Grace & Peace: Revelation 70

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:5–7).

We have identified this mighty angel with the Lord Jesus. He stands over the world, with His right foot on the sea and the other on the earth. He has the little book open in His hand. In this passage, He lifts up His hand to heaven in order to swear, in order to take an oath. This should resolve forever the question of whether it is lawful for believers to swear.

He swore in the name of the one who lives forever, the one who created heaven and everything in it, along with the earth and everything in it, and along with the sea and everything in it. That was the basis of His oath. What was the content of the oath?

He swore that there would be no more delay. The souls under the altar had been told to be patient for just a little while longer. They would have to be patient no more—the time has come. When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, everything would be complete.

But what does that mean? There are two things expressed about this fulfillment. It is described as the “mystery of God,” and it was a mystery that had been declared beforehand to His servants the prophets. This gives us the content of the mystery plainly. Where the Scripture uses this phrase elsewhere, it is talking about the fashioning of one new kind of man—Christian—out of the old categories of Jew and Gentile.

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” (Rom. 16:25).

“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” (Col. 2:2).

“How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph. 3:3–6).

The mystery, given to the prophets down through the ages, but now unpacked and made manifest through the gospel, is that Gentiles are going to be made fellow heirs together with Jews.

The answer is that as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood, there would be standing pressure for the Gentiles to become Jews as part of becoming Christian.This is all very well, but what does all that have to do with the seventh angel blowing his trumpet? The answer is that as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood, there would be standing pressure for the Gentiles to become Jews as part of becoming Christian. This was the great controversy of the first generation in the church, and that controversy would continue as long as the Temple continued. The dominant identity of the church was going to be Jewish as long as the Temple remained.

When the seventh angel sounded, Jerusalem was done.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 68

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Rev. 9:20–21).

We sometimes like to imagine that the damned in Hell would gladly repent, if only given the ghost of a chance. But yet here we have a harbinger of Hell, a hell-on-earth, and though you might think that would be an inducement to repentance, it turns out that repentance is a gift of the sovereign God. There really is a mystery to lawlessness, rebellion that makes no sense whatever.

The survivors of the previous plagues should have taken the fierce reality of those plagues into account—but did not. Notice that it says that they refused to repent of the works of their own hands. They crafted their own sinfulness; it was handmade idolatry. This is another place in the New Testament where idolatry and devil worship go together. “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor. 10:20). Sacrificing to idols is sacrificing to demons, and sacrificing to demons is having koinonia-fellowship with demons.

The material that is used to fashion the idols can vary—gold, silver, brass, stone, or wood—but the immaterial substance being invoked is always the same, which is devilish and demonic. John tells us that those these idols are made from many different materials, but it does not matter. None of them are alive. They cannot see, hear, or walk. And because those who make them have become like unto them (Ps. 115:4-8), it follows that these idolaters cannot see, hear, or walk either.

The sinners will not let the sin go, and the sins will not let the sinners go.In what sense? They cannot see righteousness, they cannot hear righteous commands, and they cannot walk in righteousness. There is the idol in the material world, gold, silver, and so on. Then there is the spiritual idol behind the matter, which is the demon. And there is also the invisible idol in the idolaters’ hearts—the things they would have to surrender were they to repent. And these sins include murder, sorcery, fornication, and thievery. These heart sins are their “precious,” and they will not let them go. The sinners will not let the sin go, and the sins will not let the sinners go.

Remember that the bloodguilt of murder would include the bloodguilt of abortion, a sin common in the first century as it is in ours. The word for sorcery is pharmakia, from which we get the word pharmacy. The occultism here is related to drug use, and when drug use becomes rampant, occultism is never far behind. Fornication would include the same kind of corrupt desires that we celebrate on the Internet. And they governed their lives with thievery in their hearts, just as we do. And Scripture teaches that having your world collapse around you will not by itself bring repentance. In order for that to happen, the gift of God must be given (Acts 5:31; 2 Tim. 2:25).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 67

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt” (Rev. 9:16–19).

As mentioned earlier, the invading army consisted of “myriads of myriads,” symbolizing a staggering number. As happened earlier with the 144,000, John first heard the number and then he turned and saw. This is not simply a marching army of incredible size, but is a cavalry of mounted warriors. If taken literally, the number would be 200 million.

The cavalrymen were decked out colorfully—breastplates of fiery red, sapphire blue, and sulfur yellow. The horses were like nothing on earth, horses with lion heads. They breathed out fire, and smoke, and sulfur, a breath that had the power to kill a third part of all the men. The destructive breath of the horses appears to match the colors of their riders—fire red, blue smoke, and sulfur yellow. The horses had lion heads that breathed calamity, and their tails were headed serpents, with a venomous bite.

This is all connected to the sixth trumpet, the middle of the last three trumpets. We are not yet at the horrifying end of the Battle of Jerusalem. We are still in the build up to that climax.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 66

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men” (Rev. 9:13–15).

When the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, the Roman legions were released, described here under the figure of four angels of destruction. A voice came from the four horns of the gold altar, which means that the command for this to happen now was all within the divine order and plan. Remember that the martyred saints had prayed from this same altar, and now their prayer is being answered (8:3). God’s answer was already prepared. That is what we see in v. 15 also—the angels of destruction that were loosed had been prepared down to the minute. They were released then, at that moment in history, and not before. This was a scheduled event, a timed event (Dan. 9:24-26). They were prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year. This was no accident, no happenstance.

They were released to come across the Euphrates, which was the northeast border of the Promised Land. The 10th Legion, part of the destroying force, had been located on the Euphrates. Josephus records the Roman presence there (Wars 7.1.3). This had long been a troublesome border for the Jews—the Assyrians had come across it, as had the Babylonians, and the Persians. Now the Romans. The number of the invading army is translated literally as 200 million (v. 16), but the Greek is myriads of myriads. As Larry Ball points out, this is like our number gazillion. An innumerable host swarmed in to surround Jerusalem.

And all this fits with what Jesus had predicted would happen, and all within one generation. “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matt. 24:34). Not only so, but Jesus had also taught us that the destruction of Jerusalem was one of the central themes of all Old Testament prophecy—meaning that the apocalyptic imagery that John uses for it in Revelation is hardly overdone. “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 65

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter” (Rev. 9:7–12).

So these demonic locust-like creatures were released from the Abyss, but they are not like actual locusts in certain key respects. I take them for demons, released to wreak havoc in the streets of Jerusalem during the last five months of the siege. They are like locusts, but here are some differences. First, the grass, the trees, and every green thing is protected from them. Actual locusts devour the greenery. Second, their macabre appearance indicates intelligence (men’s faces), effeminate transvestitism (women’s hair), apparent invulnerability (iron breastplates), real ferocity (lions’ teeth), and venomous malice (scorpion-like sting in the tail). And third, these had a king (v. 11), and locusts have no king—“The locusts have no king, Yet go they forth all of them by bands” (Prov. 30:27).

The demons imparted their characteristics to the men they came to possess, the demon-possessed tribe of Jerusalem’s defenders. Just as a deaf and dumb spirit results in a deaf and dumb man, and an unclean spirit results in an unclean man, dwelling among the tombs, so also this bizarre demon army created a vile army within the holy city. The demons descended, not upon the green things, and not upon the servants of God who had His mark, but on the men without such a mark.

Here is part of Josephus’ description of what happened then.

“With their insatiable hunger for loot, they ransacked the houses of the wealthy, murdered men and violated women for sport; they drank their spoils with blood, and from mere satiety and shamelessness gave themselves up to effeminate practices, plaiting their hair and putting on women’s clothes, drenched themselves with perfumes and painting their eyelids to make themselves attractive. They copied not merely the dress, but also the passions of women, devising in their excess of licentiousness unlawful pleasures in which they wallowed as in a brothel. Thus they entirely polluted the city with their foul practices. Yet though they wore women’s faces, their hands were murderous. They would approach with mincing steps, then suddenly become fighting men, and, whipping out their swords from under their dyed cloaks, they would run through every passerby” (Wars 4.9.10).

Their authority could be flexed, and was, but it was a spurious authority. They wore crowns, but the crowns were not genuine gold, but were rather were something that just looked like gold. This passage is the only one in Revelation where the word stephanos, the word for crown, is used for the ungodly.

All of this is beyond horrific, and it still just the first woe.

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