Marginal Christianity

Part 2: The Slaughtered Yet Standing Lamb (chs.4-11) John Goes to Heavenly Worship (4:1-11) The seven messages of Christ to his churches concluded, we turn to Part 2 of John’s Revelation. This part begins with a scene of heavenly worship in the heavenly temple around God’s throne. This means John is ushered into the innermost sanctum of the temple, the Holy of Holies, where none but the high priest was allowed to enter but once a year on the Day of Atonement. John sees a door standing open in heaven – a door to the very presence of God (see 3:8). That trumpet-like voice that announced his vision of the regal Christ calls him to come up to heaven. Again he is “in the Spirit” (v.2). He sees a throne whose occupant he can only describe as precious stones with a emerald rainbow surrounding the throne (v.3). Twenty-four thrones surround God’s throne seating twenty-four white-robed, gold-crowned “elders” (possibly either angels in the heavenly council, the 24 orders of priests serving...

The Seven Trumpets 3 (8:2-11:19) The Seal Cycle brought readers to the point of judgment. Those opposed to God sought death or protection from his wrath. This cycle was an exposé of what was really going on in history beneath the surface. The dreadful Four Horsemen are loose and riding, martyrs are crying for justice, and the specter of judgment haunts everyone and every project opposed to God. The Trumpet Cycle displays various kinds and intensities of judgment at work in the world. In particular we learn that there are spiritual powers at work as well as human evil deeds. God is sovereign over all this judgment though not directly responsible. Other agents, human and beyond-human, are granted freedom to wage their rebellions against God without compromising God’s sovereignty. Indeed, it is precisely because God is utterly sovereign that his creatures have freedom at all. Between the sixth and seventh Seals is an interlude concerning the church and what is true of it as...

the seven trumpets 1 (8:2-11:19) Before the seven angels can wind their trumpets that is prefaced by an angel who has gathered the prayers of the martyrs in a golden censer filling it with fire from the altar and casting it on earth. Thunder, earthquakes, lightning, and rumblings afflicted the earth (8:3-5). This sets the context of the forthcoming judgments, or plagues, in an Exodus framework. This is the seventh seal. This cycle, then, is organically related to the preceding one, intensified in that it cuts deeper (the 1/3 reach to the Seal’s ¼ reach). I think this language intends to take us deeper in insight rather than forward in time. As we have seen, these three cycles cover the same period of time from Christ’s death and resurrection and return in glory. There is nowhere to go forward to in time. This point of Christ’s sermon is driven by the martyrs’ question “How long till we are avenged and God’s purposes fulfilled?” We say earlier that this cry is not for ...