These seven are both literal and figurative. The choice of seven is because of the symbolic meaning of the number. It is the number of perfection, of completeness, of the whole. Although seven literal congregations are addressed in the first part of Revelation with seven letters from Christ to them, these congregations are representative of the whole of the body of Christ, and the messages of the letters are calculated to present the spiritual condition of any congregation, anywhere at any time. If a congregation Christians is honest with itself it can see itself portrayed in one or more of the seven congregations of Asia.
These seven congregations are symbolized by seven lamp stands. These might be portrayed as below. Seen from one perspective they are seven individual stands. These stands are intended to support seven lamps. The seven lamps of fire, representing the seven Spirits of God, are seen in Rev. 4:5. The inclusion of these seven Spirits of God in the doxology of 1:4-6 would indicate that the Seven spirits are a unit, i.e., they are the Holy Spirit of God functioning to shed perfect light, giving the full revelation of God.
The imagery is taken from the temple, as is obvious in the symbolism of the heavenly scene portrayed in the rest of the book, beginning with chapters 4 and 5. In the temple were seven lamps of fire resting upon seven lamp stands; but these stands are a unit, branches off a central trunk. The seven congregations of Asia are supporters of the light of God in this world. They bear a joint witness together with the Holy Spirit. The lamps of fire are the Spirit, but the Body of Christ is the bearer of that light in the world. Just as the lampstands in the temple are merely branches of one lampstand, so also the congregations are not separate from the whole body of Christ but form a unit with it. The lampstands, seen this way, represent the whole assembly of God (ekklesia tou theou) which is essentially one (Eph. 4:4).
When the lower portion of the lampstands becomes visible then they are seen as a unit. This may be portrayed by the illustration below.
III. THE THINGS WHICH MUST TAKE PLACE HEREAFTER (Rev. 4:1):
In Rev. 1:2 the vision is said to be concerning things which "must shortly take place." This has caused some to limit the meaning of its message to a brief period of time following the ministry of the apostle John. The meaning, however, is almost certainly that of the inceptive aorist tense--i.e., things which must shortly begin to take place. The Revelation speaks of events involving the second coming of Christ and the final judgment, as well as the final reward of the saints and destruction of the ungodly. If Revelation only set forth events during a brief span of time at the end of the first century, or even the first three centuries, then the second coming and final judgment would be ruled out.
Chapters 4 and 5 provide the setting for the things to come to pass. It places John in the throne room, the temple in heaven, from which he views the events of his vision. There he sees God on the throne, the producer of the drama about to unfold. The script (the scroll with 7 seals) is in His hand. The Lamb of God, the director of the drama, takes the scroll and is about to remove the seals. This drama, along with things already past in John's day, are the things that were planned by God before the foundation of the world.
Chapters 6 through 9 present two groups of seven events--seven seals and seven trumpets (although the seventh trumpet is not seen until the end of chapter 11). Here the symbolism of the number seven comes into play again, representing the completeness, or the whole, of whatever is represented. It is interesting to notice that every group of seven events, both here, and in the rest of the book, end at the same place--i.e. at the end. (The seven churches and seven Spirits are not events but entities.) The events are both literal and figurative. These two groups of seven events are described in symbolism, but they do not depict specific happenings in chronological order.
They do have a definite order, but that order is in the organization of the presentation. For instance, in the opening of the first four seals John sees a vision of four horsemen, the white horse and rider proclaiming victory for the people of God, the red horse and rider, representing the tribulation they will have to undergo, the black horse and rider, symbol of the hardship they will suffer due to deprivation, and the pale horse and rider depicting the fact that warfare, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts are the fate of men, including the people of God. Death is the result for many. The results are seen at the opening of the fifth seal as the souls of the dead witnesses under the altar of sacrifice. The sixth vision is the judgment of those who dwell on earth in answer to the cries (prayers) of the persecuted people of God. This is also for, or on behalf of, the saints. The seventh seal is the silence (or peace) of eternity, the cessation of conflict and suffering for the saints of God.
There is a chronology of a kind in these events. First is the assurance of victory; second is the presentation of sufferings they will undergo as portrayed by the riders on the red, black, and pale horses; third is the results of the suffering in the vision of the sacrificed souls; fourth is the retribution on those who bring the suffering on the saints; and fifth is the final results, the peace of eternity symbolized in John's experience of an extended period of silence in his visions. Most of these pictures are not specific events that were to take place in the future, but depictions of the themes of victory, persecution, and judgments on behalf of God's people.
Between the removal of the sixth and seventh seals there is an interlude (chapter 7) in which we see the sealing of the servants of God on their forehead. Several passages in the New Testament identify the seal by which we are sealed as the gift of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:13-14; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:21-22). In this vision the seal is a protection of God's people against the judgments directed at the people of the world, particularly against the scorpion sting of the locusts in the 5th Trumpet (Rev. 9:4). Again, this is something that goes on throughout this age. This seal is given o those who believe (John 7:39) and obey (Acts 5:32). On the day of Pentecost, those who heard Peter's proclamation of the gospel believed what he said. They wanted to know what to do (Acts 2:37). The answer came in verses 38-39. Besides believing the gospel message, they must repent and be baptized to receive forgiveness of sins, and then they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This, then, is the sealing process. This identifies them as God's people (2 Tim. 2:19).
Another vision is seen in this interlude. The servants of God are seen on earth being sealed on their foreheads in the first vision. The second sees them redeemed from the earth as they receive the their rewards for faithful service. But the most important is the gift of eternal life with God in the new heaven and new earth, revealed in chapters 21 - 22. They are before the throne of God singing praise to their maker and redeemer, because they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. While on earth, the seal of the Holy Spirit was their promise and guarantee of what they enjoy in this scene. They are in the very presence of God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. This scene presents of picture of the blessed state of the saints after all is said and done.
The second group of seven is the seven trumpets. The seventh, seen at the end of chapter eleven, is the last trump, which brings things to and end; and the saints and prophets are rewarded, and the destroyers of earth are destroyed. This group of seven follows a similar order to that of the seals--an order which depicts function rather than chronology. The first four depict calamities that come upon a third of man's habitat--the earth, the sea, the fresh water sources, and the heavens, particular the sun, moon, and stars. These are partial judgments (not total destruction) aimed not directly at mankind, but at his material environment. Of course, this results in the suffering of mankind, even though the judgments are not aimed at the persons of the people involved.
Just as the four horsemen of the seals do not depict specific one-time events, but represent different aspects of the tribulation and victory of Christians in this age. In like manner these first four trumpets do not represent specific chronological judgments, but judgments of four kinds--i.e., they represent calamities upon the different areas of man's habitat. These calamities can be seen throughout the age. The difference between the seals and the trumpets lies in the fact that the visions of the seals deal with the fortunes of God's people, the followers of Christ, while the trumpets announce judgments against the people of the world, i.e., those who bring suffering and persecution upon the people of God.
Trumpets five, six, and seven are judgments directed at the persons of those who dwell on earth, human beings who belong to this world. Trumpet five announces God's judgments upon mankind in terms of the sting of the locusts of sin which bring torment, but not total destruction, on those of the world. They are given over to the living consequences of their sins so that they want to die, but do not.
The sixth trumpet is the death of a third of mankind due to the warfare waged by the combined armies of the earth during this age. These first six are not specific events that happen at a certain time in history, but are warning judgments, which are operative throughout this age. These have the purpose of warning men to repent, but achieve little success.
The only chronological event, the last thing in the order of events, is the final judgment which will not be partial, but complete. The seventh trumpet, the final or last trumpet (Rev. 11:15-18), also mentioned in other places in scripture (see 1 Cor. 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:16), announces the end, when the living and dead are judged and receive their eternal fate or reward. The giant angel of chapter 10 announced that when the last trumpet sounds, the mystery of God would be finished. In fact he says the mystery would be finished when the 7th angel sounds his trumpet. In other words, when the trumpet sounds it will all be over. There remains only the judgment of the living and the dead, and assignment of their eternal destiny.
This leaves a bit of a chronology problem to be resolved, because in our translations it seems that the trumpet blast announces the beginning of the millennial kingdom. This does not agree with other references to the last trump, such as in Matthew 24:30-31, in the context of Jesus' teaching about the end of the world. A closer look at the grammar, however, shows that the statement about the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ refers to an event that has already happened before the trumpet blows. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord...." The elders praise God because "You have taken your great power and reigned (did reign)," past tense. They also speak of other events which have taken place (past tense), i.e, the raging of the nations. Then they switch to present perfect when they say that His wrath has come and the time of the dead to be judged. This is the time announced by the last trumpet. This is also the time when Christ gives back the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:22-26).
The visions seen at the opening of the first six seals portray the theme of the content of the scroll--i.e., through persecution and suffering to vindication and victory. Likewise the seven trumpets reveal the theme of judgments upon those who dwell on earth, first through warning judgments which bring partial destruction, and finally through the last trump which brings the final judgment of destruction to all the wicked and eternal blessedness to the righteous.
Chapter ten and most of eleven are an interlude between the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets. In chapter ten the book is open. All of the seals have been removed. Jesus has removed them one by one. After John records the visions he has seen, Jesus gives him the book to devour so that he can bring its message to the nations, i.e., to the servants of God throughout the nations. He must prophesy to many peoples, nations, tribes and languages. When He was removing the seals, Jesus appeared as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now he appears as a giant Angel clothed with a cloud, and with a rainbow around His head. These are symbols of divinity. This is the stylized representation of the Angel of the Lord in John's vision.
The words John wrote in the introduction to Revelation are, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly (begin to) take place [inceptive aorist]. And He [Jesus] sent and signified it by His angel [the Angel of the Lord] to His servant John." This process is what we see here. God gives the revelation scroll to Jesus who then removes the seals, and sends His Angel to give it to John. John then devours it to prepare himself to reveal its contents (things which shortly begin to take place) to the servants of God throughout the world, both then and now.
Chapter 11 closes this section of the preparation for the drama and opens the curtain to view the drama itself. But before its beginning, there remains one more preparation. John, having devoured the book, reveals the plot of the drama. This is the only truly chronological presentation of the overall events of Revelation. The rest of the book does not make a chronological presentation of events, except in a broad sense. Instead we have the judgment events repeated in different pictures. This gives the same message from different viewpoints. The plot of the drama, as revealed in chapter 10, includes:
A. 42 Months or 1260 Days of Severe Persecution (perhaps following the symbolic day for a year pattern found in several places in the Old Testament), or time, times and a half time, i.e., 3 ½ years in chapter 12;
B. The Saints Defeated Temporarily, represented as the Beast killing the two witnesses. In the Drama, following the conflict on earth in chapter 13, it is represented as overcoming the servants of God;
C. The Cause of Christ Revived and Judgments Brought upon Their Persecutors. This is represented here as the resurrection of the two witnesses, and their ascension to the sky where the whole world sees them and cringe in fear, followed by the destruction of a tenth of the city of the world (the counterpart of the city of God) and 7,000 (a symbolic number representing all the multitude) of the dwellers on earth who do not repent, are killed. Then the rest glorify God in the kingdom of the world which has become the Lord's kingdom. In chapters 20 this stage in the chronology is represented as Satan's being cast into the Abyss for 1000 years, the cessation of deceit and persecution during this period, and the resurrection of the persecuted church (the souls under the altar in chap. 6), the servants of God who bear witness of Jesus. These reign with Christ for 1000 years;
D. The Saints Victorious Reign in the Kingdom of the World. This kingdom, ruled by Satan until this point, becomes Christ's dominion. This is represented in chapter 10 as the city of the world glorifying God (an unprecedented event), and the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of God and Christ. In Rev. 20 this is played out as the 1000 year reign with Christ;
E. Satan's Activities of Deceit and Persecution are Renewed. This is represented in chapter 10 as the raging of the nations. In chapters 19 and 20 this is played out in the release of Satan from his prison, and the gathering of the nations to make war with the saints and with Christ. Deceit is the function of the False Prophet, and persecution is the function of the 7 headed Beast. These two agents of Satan renew their activities after being confined in the abyss. This is especially apparent when we understand that chapter 19, beginning with verse 11, is this part of the plot from the perspective of the judgment of the Beast and False Prophet, while 20:7-10 reveals the same scene from the perspective of the judgment of Satan, the Dragon.
F. The Final Destruction of Satan and His Agencies, and the Final Judgment of the Living and the Dead, including both the wicked and righteous (John 5:28-29). In chapter 10 this is represented as the "time of the dead to be judged, to destroy the destroyers of the earth, and to reward the saints and prophets." In chapters 17 - 20 it is presented as the defeat of Satan with his agents and the nations of the world, culminating in the final judgment of the living and the dead. These all end up in the lake of fire, including all those whose names are not found in the Lamb's book of life.
G. The Reward of the Saints and Prophets, played out in chapters 21 -22 as The New Heaven and New Earth. In these things we see the plot of the drama which begins in chapter 12.
Act One (Chapter 12) of the Drama. The basis of the Drama of the Age is seen as a warfare in heaven, in which Satan and His angels are defeated and cast to earth by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of the brethren, i.e., those who bear testimony to Jesus Christ. This is the conflict in heaven which sets the stage for the conflict on earth. Satan turns his attention against the followers of Christ, having failed to defeat Christ, or destroy the Glorious Woman who represents God's people both in the Old Testament and in the present age. She is the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which is above. Later in Revelation she is revealed as the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven to the new heavens and earth (Chap. 21.)
Act Two (13:1 - 14:5) is the conflict on earth. Satan is a deceiver and a murderer. Having been cast down to earth he calls up from the sea two beast who are the personification of these two traits. First is the beast of persecution, a 7-headed beast with 10 horns and 10 crowns on the horns. This indicates that the horns are in control at this stage of the beast. The beast is described as a beast with ten horns, which looks like a leopard, with feet like a bear, and a mouth like a lion. This is a reference to the four beasts of Daniel 7 which represented four kingdoms involved in persecuting the people of God. They were the lion (Babylonia), the bear (Medo-Persia), the leopard with four heads and four wings (Greco- Macedonia}, and the umique beast with ten horns and iron teeth (Roman Empire). The ten horns are kingdoms arising out of the Roman Empire.
Rev. 17 tells more about the beast. Of the seven heads, by John's day five had fallen, one (the sixth) existed, and one (the seventh) was yet to come. The seventh was later to come up out of the abyss as an eighth power to resume his persecution of God's people. Obviously, the sixth head is the Roman Empire, in John's day. Therefore, the 10 horns are to be situated on the sixth head. This is the beast of chapter 13, the head that was mortally wounded (the fall of Rome), but then was revived as the ten horns which arose out of Rome, the kingdoms which ruled over the territory of the Roman Empire, and were united as a "holy" Roman empire under the religion of the day.
Daniel only lists four earthly kingdoms. Three of these had fallen by John's day. What about the other two fallen heads? Daniel began where He was (Babylonia) and looked forward. There were two other empires prior to Babylon which were noted for their persecution of God's people---i.e., Egypt and Assyria. That explains the 5 heads that had fallen and the sixth which was in John's day. It also explains the ten horns of the sixth head. But in Rev. 17 there is also a seventh head, and ten horns associated with it.
This head is the one that kills the two witnesses, because the sixth was to be in control for only 42 months (1260 days [1260 years?]). The death of the witnesses comes after the 1260 days. Who are these witnesses? When you think about it you will realize that God left only two institutions in this world to bear witness. First is the church, the body of Christ. The souls under the altar in chapter 6 are called witnesses who have been slain for their testimony,. They are the persecuted church. This church is one of the witnesses left to testify to this world. The second is the written word of God revealed to the apostles and prophets, found in both of the Old and New Testaments. The Old as well as the New testify of Jesus, for Jesus said of the Old Testament scriptures that they bear witness of Him (John 5:39). These are the only two witnesses left by Christ to bear witness in the world---i.e., His Spirit led church, and His Spirit inspired word.
The church, the body of Christ, is killed by the Beast---the one who is coming up out of the abyss. This has to be the seventh head. It is after the Beast overcomes the saints that he goes into perdition. When he comes up as an eighth he will gather the nations to make war with the saints, but will himself be defeated and cast into the lake of fire. So the beast of chapter 13 starts out as the 6th head in the 10 horn stage, but then gives way to a 7th head after his 42 months (1260 days) are up. It is the 7th head who delivers the fatal blow, for he is the beast who is to come up out of the abyss according to the 17th chapter. Don't be mislead into thinking that the Beast will deliver this blow after he comes up out of the abyss, for the Drama reveals that at that time (chapters 19 and 20) he only attempts to do this, but is himself destroyed while the saints remain virtually untouched.
The second beast from the sea is the two-horned beast, called the False Prophet. He is the personification of deceit. His work is Satan's deception. He speaks as a Dragon---in other words he is Satan's spokesman. He comes to control all the power of the first Beast with the Beast's full knowledge. The first Beast is in the 10-horn stage in chapter 13. The crowns are on the horns. They rule in this revived Roman Empire, but it is not they who really rule. They are under the thumb of a false religion, which embodies the false prophet who established it, and who pretends to be the Lamb. It is his job to deceive, and he is embodied in the false religions of the world. It is through this particular false religion that the ten horns are drawn together as a unit, and controlled. The kings do the religion's bidding. This false religion comes to represent Rome, even to be Rome, in the eyes of the world. This system controlled most of the known world of the Roman Empire for approximately 1260 years.
After the church of God is overcome, the seventh head of the beast doesn't last long, but goes into the abyss (bottomless pit). Meantime the servants of God are seen before the throne of God. We have a brief glimpse of the ultimate outcome as the saints stand with Jesus Christ the Lamb on Mount Zion, praising God before His throne for their victory. Thus ends act 2.
Acts Three through Six are mostly about the destruction of Satan, his agents, and his followers. So in our chronology we have jumped from the period of persecution, and the overcoming of the people of God, to the last days consisting of the destruction of the forces of evil, and the final judgment. There is one point in the plot that is skipped over at this point---i.e., the resurrection of Christ's cause, and the reign of the millennial kingdom. The drama returns to this later.
In Act Three introduces the wrath of God and the Lamb. In chapter 14, beginning with verse 6, three angels announce the arrival of the coming of the wrath of God. The first angel simply announces that the hour of the judgment of God has come, and he calls upon the saints to worship God and give him glory.. The second angel announces the judgment of Babylon the Harlot, who is made to drink the wine of God's wrath. This is the first mention of her, although she is not explained until chapter 17. The third angel announces the wrath of God upon those who worship the Beast and wear his mark on the forehead or hand. Thus the judgment is proclaimed by the three angels.
Next, two general pictures of judgment are presented. One is the gathering of the harvest of the righteous, presented as the reaping of the first fruits, as celebrated in the Old Testament feast of Pentecost, the feast which is celebrated at the completion of the Spring harvest called the feast of the first fruits. The harvest of the grain is symbolic of the servants of God. When Jesus comes, He will send out His angels to gather His harvest (Matthew 24:31).
The second picture is of the latter harvest, the fall harvest, consisting largely of the harvest of the wine. The grapes are cut from the vine, placed in the wine press, and they are trodden under bare feet to release the juice, which pours from the wine press and is gathered into vessels and stored as the year's crop of wine. God's wrath in judgment is represented by this harvest. The grapes of the wine of God's wrath are trodden, and the harvest, consisting of blood, flows out to a great depth, as high as a horse's bridle, in all directions, and to a great distance. This is a general picture of the outpouring of God's wrath upon the wicked. Chapter 14 does not reveal the name, or names, of the treader(s). In 19:15 the treader is the one whose name is "the Word of God."
But there is one more general picture of God's wrath, found in chapters 15 and 16. It is of seven angels with seven bowls of wrath. These bowls are poured out one by one. The first four are poured out upon Man's habitat, just as the first four trumpets brought destruction to man's habitat. The same areas are affected here--i.e., the earth, sea, fresh water, and sun. The difference lies in the fact that the first six of the trumpets were warning judgments, only partial destruction. Here the destruction is total. There are some other differences also, but this article will not deal with all of them. In the pouring out of the fifth bowl, men are scorched with the heat from an unnatural sun, and they gnaw their tongues with pain.
Like the trumpets, from the fifth bowl on the judgments are against the persons of mankind. The sixth bowl brings preparation for warfare. The Dragon (Satan), the Beast, and the False Prophet gather the nations together for the final battle. Their forces gather in the valley of Jezreel (judgment), also known as Esdraelon, at the hill of Megiddo (Har Megiddo, or as in the sixth bowl, Armageddon.) It is interesting that the sixth bowl does not tell of the battle taking place. It is called, the battle of the great day of God Almighty. We have to wait for chapter 19 and 20 to see this battle fought. Chapter 19 views it from the perspective of the Beast and False Prophet, and chapter 2 from the perspective of Satan himself. In both instances the nations and their armies are completely destroyed. None are left alive. They are the same picture from different perspectives.
The last of the bowls of wrath brings the end, just as did the last of the other groups of seven. Here the statement is simply, "It is done."
The sixth bowl was the mustering of the forces of Satan for the battle of Armageddon. Before the battle is fought there is the destruction of Babylon the Harlot. Act 4 is seen in Rev. 16:19 - 19:10. Chapter 17 takes a time out to explains both the Harlot and the seven-headed beast. The time frame of Act Four begins with the Beast in confinement in the abyss. It does not tell about the beast going into the abyss, but reveals that he will be coming up from the abyss as an eighth power, which is really the renewed seventh head. The Harlot sits on the heads (not just one) of the Beast, indicating that she spans the history of the persecuting empires, and she, to a great extent, has control over them.
She is called Babylon, but is identified in John's day with that great city which sits on seven mountains, ruling over the kings of the earth. This is the city of Rome. In the description of her destruction in chapter 18 we learn her character. She represents the riches and luxuries of the world. She is rampant materialism. She panders to the wants of kings and captains and the merchants of the world. She symbolically commits fornication with them, holding out the golden cup of her abominations to entice them. Ultimately, she is the personification of the allurements and enticements of the world. She is the city of the world, the counterpart of the Holy City New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem from above, the bride of Christ, the woman with the crown of 12 stars which not only brought Christ into the world, but gives birth to those who bear testimony to Jesus (Christians, chapter 12).
In Galatians chapter 4 Paul calls this Jerusalem the mother of us all. She is the church of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12), composed of all the followers of Christ. She is a pure virgin, while Babylon the Great is a harlot. The New Jerusalem, composed of the saved, seeks to save souls while the Harlot delights in destroying the souls of men. The New Jerusalem represents all that is good. Babylon the Harlot represents all that is evil, all that the world has to offer---the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the vain glory of life. Both are after souls. One to save them, the other to destroy them. They are the city of God, and the city of the world. If the Harlot was embodied in cities like Babylon and Rome in their day, what city or system embodies her today? She is basically the personification of the enticements of the world. The Harlot is burned with fire, after which the saints rejoice over her and celebrate the marriage of the Lamb. The Bride of Christ will live eternally with Christ in the new heaven and earth.
Here is an unholy triumvirate: deceit, persecution, and the allurements of the world---the False Prophet, the Beast, and the Harlot. These three overlap, because these three are the weapons that Satan uses to subvert men. He tries to deceive them. If that doesn't work, he persecutes them. If they won't be coerced, he tries to lure them into his clutches with enticements. If these three fail, he has nowhere else to turn. The works of Satan are pictured as being judged in three pictures; Babylon the Harlot in Act Four, chapters 17, 18, and 19:1-10; in Act Five, the Beast and False Prophet in chapter 19; and in Act Six, Satan himself in chapter 20.
The Beast, False Prophet, and Satan himself are cast into the lake of fire after the swift conclusion of the battle of Armageddon, in which the people of he world are all killed with the sword of Jesus' mouth--i.e., His word, or as pictured in chapter 20, with fire from heaven. This leaves only the righteous living. Jesus and the host of heaven come from heaven and dispatches the forces of evil. Then he reunites the souls which He brings with Him (1 Thess. 4:14) with their risen and renewed bodies. The living (saints) are changed to be like them, and the wicked dead are all raised (John 5:28-29), and Christ sits on his great white throne before which all men are gathered to be judged (Matthew 25:31-46). Those whose names are not in the Lamb's book of life are cast into the lake of fire, and the stage is set for the final act, Act 7.
But before we get to Act Seven there is something we have skipped in Act Six. It begins by jumping a long way back in time, represented as a thousand years, to a time that fits chronologically just after the overcoming of the saints, or the killing of the witnesses. In chapters 14 - 20 we have been witnessing the judgments of the forces of Evil in the very last days. Every picture ends at the end. The general pictures of God's wrath end with the 7th bowl of wrath, which declares, "It is done." The destruction of the Harlot ends with the marriage of the Lamb. The battle of Armageddon ends with the lake of fire for the Beast, False Prophet, and Satan. Here in chapter 20 is the only place since chapter 13 where we deal with an event that is not at the end. You might call this a flash-back, to pick up a piece of the plot not heretofore dealt with in the drama.
The first thing we see in chapter 20 is Satan being chained and cast into the bottomless pit (abyss). This is thought by many scholars to be the lowest region of the Hadean world, the abode of the dead who await resurrection. Hades is not so much a place as a state of disembodiment. But for the wicked there are torments involved, witness the rich man who begged for Lazarus to come and cool his tongue. It is also the place called Tartarus (torments) where the fallen angels are reserved for the judgment. We are told in Matthew 25 that Hell, the lake of fire, is prepared for the Devil and his angels. Meanwhile they, too, await their release, only to be cast into the lake of fire.
When Satan is cast into the abyss it is said that he can deceive the nations no more until his 1000 year sentence is finished. That means the False Prophet is no longer operative during this 100 years for deceit is his function. The False prophet, the personification of Satan's deceit, is in effect in the abyss also. But the Beast of persecution cannot operate without deceptions, for nations will not persecution unless they are first deceived. That means that in effect the Beast is in the abyss with Satan. This is what is meant in chapter 17 when it says that the beast who comes up out of the abyss is an eighth, and is of the seven. In other words, the seventh head will become an eighth when the Beast is released from the abyss. When does that happen? It happens when Satan is released. After the 1000 years he is released and he deceives the nations (the function of the False Prophet. He gathers the nations together to make war on the saints (the function of the Beast of persecution}. This eighth head is the territory of Gog with Magog as king. The work of Satan is short-lived after the 1000 years, for he is taken and cast into the lake of fire along with the Beast and False Prophet.
Meanwhile, during the thousand years there is the resurrection of the witnesses, the souls under the altar, the souls of the martyrs who live and reign with Christ for 1000 years. This is the resurrection of the cause of Christ, overcome and killed by the Beast at the end of the 1260 days of persecution. But according to the plot of chapter 11 they don't stay dead but for a short while. The resurrection of the witnesses in chapter 11 is a brief reference to the resurrection of the witnesses in chapter 20. They represent the cause of Christ, His church, His body. As they lived with Christ prior to their demise, they reign with Christ during the 1000 years. As Christ did not have to be bodily present for them to live with Him, neither does He have to be bodily present for them for them to reign with Him, for His bodily return is not scheduled until after the 1000 years. The cause of Christ flourishes during the millennium while Satan's activities can no longer interfere because he is chained and restrained in the abyss. Righteousness reigns and the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. At the end of the 1000 years we then have the picture of Satan coming back to gather the nations to make war with the saints. They surround the camp of the saints, but then they are destroyed with the brightness of the coming of Christ---the fire from heaven. Following the final judgment we come to Act Seven.
In Act Seven John sees the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the new heaven and new earth. The first heaven and earth have passed away just before the great white throne judgment, for it says that heaven and earth fled away before His face. 2 Peter 3:10-13 says that the heavens and the earth will pass away by melting with fervent heat. They are to be burned up--consumed, dissolved. What then? Peter says, "According to His promise we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
In the new heavens and earth there will be no sorrow, no sickness, no dying, no suffering of any kind. We will not part from loved ones. There will be one eternal day. The Sun will not be needed for God and the Lamb are the light. There will be a river of life in the midst of that city of God from which we can drink of the Holy Spirit and live forever. There will be the tree of life along the banks of the river on both side from which we can eat and never get sick or die. If there were sickness, the leaves of that tree would be all the medicine needed to cure us completely, for they are for the healing of the nations. We'll meet and make friends of Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, the prophets, the apostles, and all the heroes of faith. We will never be lonely. We will have Jesus as our constant companion, our shepherd who will lead us to pastures green. There will never be any lack of enjoyable activity for we will relish the fellowship of all the saints of all the ages. We can sing to our hearts content, and serve God by serving others without ever growing tired or weary.
Thus ends the chronology of the book of Revelation. For fuller details and scripture documentation, read the book , an Exposition of the book of Revelation.
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