Revelation Chapters 8-22 Critique of Cyclical Approach and Overview Greg L Bahnsen

Father, we thank you for your mercies to us every morning. That you continue to be faithful, to take care of us, to watch over us, to be our God. We thank you for that faithfulness, especially in the faith, in the face of our unfaithfulness and our sin and our disobedience. We freely acknowledge, Father, and confess our sin and plead that you would accept us and hear our prayer for the sake of that righteous one, Jesus Christ, your son. We pray that we would be forgiven, that we'd be pardoned in his behalf, that his righteousness might be imputed to us. We ask you, Father, that we'd have the measure of his spirit to understand the truth that you brought to us. That, Father, we might be strengthened to have renewed obedience lives which are sanctified before you. We might be enabled to walk in paths of righteousness and glorify your name. For it's in Jesus name that we offer this prayer. Amen. I'm not quite as vigorous this morning in my presentation. It's. I'm recovering from about with the flu this weekend and I think we can get through the lesson and all, but it isn't going to be all that strong, I grant you. And because our. Our numbers are down today and we're really at a very crucial point in the interpretation of the Book of Revelation, what I think I will do is try to survey for you the next few chapters of the Book of Revelation, try to get it out basically what I'm going to be saying and what I think this portion of the book deals with. And then next week we'll begin at chapter 8, verse 1 again, but trying to do a little more thorough verse by verse treatment of it. But to prepare us for the lesson today and for the weeks that will follow, let's read the eighth chapter of Revelation this morning. And then we'll take a few moments to review where we are, and then I'll try to tell you why it is that it's very important that you decide how you're going to proceed when you come to the juncture, the eighth chapter of this important book of the Bible, Revelation 8, beginning at verse one. And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels would stand before God, and there was given unto them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. And there was given unto him much incense, that he should add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel taketh the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it upon the earth. And there followed thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound, and the first sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth. And the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. And the third part of the sea became blood, and there died the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, even though they had life. And the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell from heaven a great star burning as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of the waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part of the waters became Wormwood. And many men died of the waters because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, that the third part of them should be darkened, and the day should not shine for the third part of it, and the night in like manner. And I saw and I heard an eagle flying in mid heaven, saying with a great voice, woe, woe, woe for them that dwell on the earth by reason of the other voices of trumpets, of the three angels who are yet to sound. Well, the book of Revelation has been somewhat difficult at many points up to this morning's lesson. I'm sure many of you would grant that there have been some obscurities, difficulty, and interpretation. When we come to the eighth chapter, the difficulties take a quantum leap. It seems we just really get into a whole new ballpark of description, and it's very hard to know exactly what we are to understand, or so it has been argued. And the approach that you take to the Book of Revelation as a whole will be somewhat governed by the reaction you have to the eighth chapter and the following chapters. Now, to make. To make it clear where we stand when we come to the eighth chapter, I'd like to take a few moments this morning and review the outline that I passed out to you a few weeks ago on the Book of Revelation. And for those of you who may have it stuck in your Bible looks something like this. I think some of you have a lengthened page. I just have the first page with me this morning. We'll go over that, and then I'll try to explain to you what happens at the eighth chapter among the commentators. What's that? No, unfortunately, I don't have any more with me. I think what I will do, though, is try to run some more off and bring them next week. I passed them out to everyone at one time, but I'm afraid that we've had new people come into the class. And then, of course, it may have been misplaced. Those who do have it. It could be, in your case, that your husband has it. Yeah. Okay. The Book of Revelation begins with John telling us that this is an unveiling, right? It's a revelation. It's an apocalypsis. And that's contrary to the feeling a lot of people have about the book. A lot of people think that the Book of Revelation is an obscuring of the truth. That is, it's. It's an ornate way of expressing things, a highly figurative way of expressing things, and certainly calculated to confuse us and to leave us up in the air with nothing to do but fight among one another as Christians, as to what it might mean. But John inserts at the very beginning of the book that this is an unveiling. God is trying to make clear to us what the course of human history shall be rather than to obscure it. And John tells us what the framework of interpretation for the book must be. When he says at verse three of chapter one, blessed is he that readeth, by the way. A lot of people haven't looked at the book that way. John says it's a blessing to read this book. It isn't something to give you a headache. And they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John will later be told not to seal up the prophecy of this book. God is virtually going to tell John, if we can use our colloquialism, John, you don't have time to seal the book because these things are going to begin happening immediately. At the very end of the prophecy, John is told again, the time is at hand. John declares the time is at hand, and the things that take place in the prophecy then are to be interpreted. I maintain, and will argue as very near to the time of John's own day, that the events of the Prophecy of this book pertain to the ancient church, and even if they should take a number of years to fully be carried out, say the fall of the Roman Empire, if you want to interpret it in that way, the fact is that the interpretation of the book must be tied to John's own day. He insists that the time is at hand for these things. Well, there's an introduction in chapter one. Obviously, the title of the book is given, the author of the book, blessings and greetings are pronounced, and a benediction. We find these things in the first eight verses of chapter one. And then the first major section of the book in terms of the three part outline is found in verses 9 to 20 of chapter 1. In a sense, if you want, if you just want to speak of the outline of the book, one third of the whole prophecy is over at the end of chapter one. That's a little ironic the way most people look at the book. But John tells us at verse 19 of chapter 1 what the outline of the book is. He says, write therefore. Well, God is telling John, write therefore, the things which thou sawest and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter. There's the three parts of the book. The things which have been seen, the things which are presently the case, the things which shall happen thereafter. Then at chapter four, verse one, you'll see John says, after these things I saw, and behold a door opened in heaven. The first voice that I heard are voices of a trumpet speaking with me, one saying, come up hither and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. So quite clearly, John is into the third major section of the book. By the time we come to chapter four, verse one, we've already expired 2/3 of the outline. Now, that isn't 2/3 of the literature, obviously, because the major portion of the verses in the book of Revelation and the chapters are given over to that last section. But in terms of the outline, John tells us the things which he has seen in chapter one, verses nine to 20. And the background to what he has seen is given in verses 9 to 11 of chapter 1. He explains his situation and how he comes to receive this vision. And then verses 12 to 16 show us the vision of Christ among the seven candlestands. Now, whatever else is going to happen in the book of Revelation, it will be governed by that conception of Jesus being with his church. Of course, that reminds you, I hope, of the Great Commission where Jesus says, lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And when all is said and done, you will find that I interpret the book as a fulfillment of the Great Commission or as the preconditions for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. God's judgment upon Jerusalem, making clear what his kingdom is, the church of Jesus Christ, no longer the Jewish nation, and then the overthrow of the Roman Empire. You see in Daniel's prophecy, well, actually in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter two, you'll see that Nebuchadnezzar has this vision of a large idol in the form of a man. And that idol is broken down into four major sections made up of different types of metals. The fourth kingdom, or the fourth section of the idol being of mixed quality. And then Nebuchadnezzar sees a stone cut without human hands. It's in some sense a heavenly stone that now comes down and sees smites. That image breaks the world empires to pieces. And then the stone, interestingly, begins to grow in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. And it grows into a mountain, a mountain that fills the earth. Now, in a very real sense, I think the Book of Revelation is a fleshing out or a taking up from that particular vision that Daniel interprets. Daniel says Nebuchadnezzar, what you have here are four different kingdoms. First, Nebuchadnezzar's is in the best position. His is the golden kingdom. But you see, everything's going to be downhill from there. You're going to have a silver kingdom after that, and then a bronze kingdom. And then finally you're going to have this mixed kingdom. Now that fourth major world empire, as we know from world history, is the Roman Empire. And so Daniel is saying that God has revealed to you Nebuchadnezzar. If we're going to fill in now from the perspective of history, that God's kingdom, the stone cut without hands, is going to destroy the Roman Empire. And then God's kingdom is going to grow to fill the earth and it's going to become a mountain that fills the earth. And you have to remember, of course, Isaiah's prophecy and Micah's prophecy that all nations are going to flow into the mountain of the Lord and they're going to ask that God's ways be taught to them. Now, the Book of Revelation has to do two things. It has to explain to us what that stone cut without hands is. Is that the Jewish state? No, that isn't God's kingdom. In fact, the first portion of the Book of Revelation is given over to showing that, in fact, these Jews who are persecuting the Christian church are a synagogue of Satan. They're under the judgmental wrath of God, and God is going to destroy Jerusalem for its rejection of the Messiah. And then in the latter half of the book, chapters 14, well, I'm sorry, chapters 13 to 18, you'll have John then explained how this stone cut without hands, the kingdom of God will destroy the Roman Empire. We'll see the overthrow of the Roman Empire. Now, in saying these things, John accomplishes two things. He shows that God is going to avenge the blood of his servants at the hands of the two great enemies of the Church in the ancient world. The two greatest enemies of the church were the city of Jerusalem and the Roman Empire. And God is going to, in the midst of persecution, show that he will judge the enemies of his people. All right, chapter one begins with the vision then, of Christ in the midst of the candlestands. Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. The rest of the book will show us how the Great Commission is going to be kept, how God is going to make it possible through the one who has all power and authority in heaven and earth to see that his kingdom prevails and that that mountain grows to fill the earth. Okay, the vision of Christ among the seven candle stands is verses 12 to 16 of chapter 1, verses 17 to 20. Fill out the chapter with the reaction of John and the interpretation given. Remember that the book of Revelation is an apocalypsis. It's an unveiling of the truth. It's a making clear to us what is the truth. And so, lest there be any confusion about the vision, John is given an interpretation. So the first major vision of the book is immediately interpreted, given divine interpretation. Of course, there's a lesson right there, isn't there, in the fact that we believe Scripture, interprets Scripture, and God is his best interpreter. And I think that throughout the book of Revelation, that same pattern will be followed. We're going to get into, at chapter eight and following, as I've already said, some very difficult portions of the book. But at two crucial points in chapter 11 and in chapter 17, God is going to intervene with an interpretation of what has happened. Yes, a great deal of symbolic and figurative language is going to flow for a while. And at one point you're going to get. You're going to say, well, now, just what does this all mean? And John's going to say, what does this all mean? And then God is going to send an angel to Interpret it. So the book of Revelation ought not to finally become the great enigma of the New Testament. It ought to be something that is very clear to us. And it's a shame that there's, you know, there's all this division over how to interpret it. I think we should pay more attention to how God interprets himself in the book. Well, that pattern for God interpreting the visions is found already in chapter one. Then in chapters two and three, we come to the second major portion of the outline of the book. The things which are those things which are presently the case. Chapters two and three comprise the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. We see letters to Ephesus, to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And there's really no way this morning that I could possibly summarize all those letters. You may recall that we took one or two, maybe sometimes three weeks for each one of those particular letters. Earlier on in this year, as we've been interpreting the book, a good deal of material, invaluable material, I think, for the life of the church today even to be found there. But this common pattern is found in all of the letters, which is slight alterations. First, the address is given to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia, or Thyatira, whatever it may be. The angel of the church I take to be the pastor or the teaching elder of the church. And then the address is to the angel of the church. And then it comes from. And then Jesus Christ is indicated by some designation that is coming, that is coming, come from his vision. In chapter one, chapter one, verses 12 to 16 describes Jesus Christ. And then in chapters two and three, some element of that description is brought over to the angel of the church from. And then the one who is. And then you get this portion of a description of Jesus Christ. Then there is usually a commendation of the church, a rebuke to the church, an exhortation to the church, and then this cryptic saying throughout. He that hath an ear, let him hear. But the Spirit says to the churches. And then finally a promise to those who overcome over and over and over again in the seven epistles. Then Jesus is stressing to the Church that his blessing is upon those who overcome. The Greek word actually means to those who are victorious. To those who triumph. And so the first chapter, Jesus says, lo, I'm with you always. Chapters two and three. He tells the church, I expect you to triumph in my name. Again, I remind you of the Great Commission. Jesus says, all power and authority in heaven and Earth is mine. And on that basis I want you to disciple the nations. For, lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Is there any reason why the Church ought not to triumph or cannot triumph in this day? Well, Jesus has all power and authority, and Jesus is always with us. And so if the Church is not victorious on earth, can it be attributed to the Lord? Does the Lord not wish for His Church to be triumphant? Not only does he wish it, he commands it. You'll notice the Great Commission isn't a great exhortation, it's a great commission. He says, this is what you are to do. You are to disciple the nations, and you'll do it because I'm with you and all power is mine. And so Jesus in Revelation, chapter one shows that he is with the Church. In chapters two and three, he requires the Church to overcome. Of course, that overcoming and that discipling process sometimes calls for overcoming problems in the midst of the congregation, doctrinal problems or ethical problems that are there in the Church. All right. Chapter one, the vision that John has already seen. Chapter two, the things which are Chapters two and three, the things which are the things Letters to the seven churches. And then section three of the book begins at chapter four, verse one. As I've already indicated, the things which shall be hereafter and the things which shall be hereafter are, as I maintain, broken down into two major prophecies. First, the prophecy of the seven sealed scroll, which will take us up through chapter 11. And then secondly, the prophecy of the little book. The prophecy of the little book begins at chapter 13 and will continue through chapter 20, verse 7. Notice the literary parallelism that the structuring device for these two prophecies is both some item that is read. You see, one is the scroll and one is a little book. Now, that first prophecy of the seven sealed scroll begins at chapter four. And you'll notice that John first gives us the background to the judgment that that prophecy contains. The background to the judgment on the first enemy of God's people, apostate, Jerusalem. The setting and the main characters will be laid out in chapters four and five. The setting and then the main characters. The setting in chapter four is the heavenly court where we learn of the exaltation of God's sovereignty in creation. And then in chapter five, the main characters. The Lamb of God is introduced along with the scroll, the seven sealed scroll. And the emphasis in chapter five is on exalting the sovereignty of God in redemption that the Lamb has overcome to open the scroll. And then in chapters six and seven, which we have taken a number of weeks on now and have finished, we see a preview of the content and a preparation for the contents of that scroll. In the breaking of the seven seals that keep it closed. The first seals are broken in chapter six, verses one to 17. And then in chapter seven, verses one to 17, we see the hundred and forty four thousand saints sealed by God. Okay, six seals broken. Now, with the breaking of the seals, we see something of the content of the prophecy. And then we come to chapter eight. And at this point, you see, it becomes very important to decide how you're going to interpret the book. What are the possibilities? Well, although this is only one of three major possibilities, George Elton, lads, approach. Chapter 8 does summarize very well the rationale for two of those views. And I think if I just read a portion of his commentary for you and then go on to show why I don't agree with it, that might be the most helpful way to introduce this chapter. He says chapters eight and nine relate the breaking of the seventh seal and the sounding of seven trumpets. Before this is discussed in detail, a significant parallelism between the seven seals and the seven trumpets must be pointed out. That's going to be the fatal step. You see, there's a parallel between seven seals, right? Seven trumpets, finally, seven bowls. And there must be some significance to that. He's going to argue, and it's noteworthy that both the seals and the trumpets bring us to the end. Well, they do, but what do they bring us to the end of? And now Dr. Light is going to beg the question. I will maintain as he goes on. It is noteworthy that both the seals and the trumpets bring us to the end. The sixth seal, as we have seen, related cosmic catastrophes which signal the coming of the day of the Lord. And he cites chapter 6, verse 17 as his evidence for that. There at the end of chapter six, we read, for the great day of their wrath is come. And who is able to stand? The great day of the wrath of the Lamb has come, and who is able to stand? He's certainly right that the great day of God's wrath has come at the end of chapter six. But I don't think he's right as to what he thinks the great day of wrath is. He says, that's the end of the world. So we'll come back to that. He says, the sixth seal, as we have seen, related cosmic catastrophes which signal the coming of the day of the Lord. Similarly, the seventh trumpet. And let's Keep in mind, we have seals, we have trumpets. Later we'll have bowls or vials. But he says, similarly, the seventh trumpet now announces the coming of the end. When the seventh angel sounded, heavenly voices were heard saying, now this is chapter 11, verse 15. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. I will dispute that. That's the interpretation of that verse also, ironically enough. But on. On Dr. Ladd's interpretation, then the seventh. I mean, I'm sorry, the sixth seal announces the end of the world, and the seventh trumpet announces the end of the world. By the way, his parallelism is broken down already, hasn't it? Because he has the sixth seal. But the seventh trumpet, well, we'll let that pass. This requires us to recognize some measure of recapitulation. And you're going to hear that word a few times now as we go through the rest of the Sunday school lessons on Revelation, because there are two major approaches to the Book of Revelation. One holds that the Book of Revelation recapitulates itself over and over again. That what you have is an interpretation of the. The progress of history from the first Advent to the second Advent of Jesus Christ told to us in a number of times. Now, there are different schools of recapitulation. Some think the book recapitulates three times. Some think four times, some five. I've even some six recapitulations. Now, to argue that the book is a recapitulation, you must be able to do two things. You must be able to identify the beginning of a recapitulation. That is, you must see that now John is going back and starting over again. And see, it's kind of like going to a movie a little bit late. You know, you go in 10, 15 minutes late to a movie, and you watch it through, and then it starts again and say, oh, and they see now it's starting over again. That's. That's where we came in. Now, you have to be able to do that in the Book of Revelation. I guess you can tell by the way I'm introducing it. I don't think you can do that. But you must be able to say, this is where the movie starts again. John's starting to recapitulate. He's starting to show us the whole course of human history over again. Not only must we be able to see where it begins, you must be able to clearly identify the final judgment. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times. How many times you think he recapitulates and as I've indicated in reading Dr. Ladd up to this point, at the two places that he thinks the final judgment comes in. I think very clearly that has nothing to do with the final judgment. At chapter 6, verse 17, where the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand. That is clearly in context of the prophecy of Luke's Gospel, where Jesus says these things will happen to Jerusalem. God is going to judge Jerusalem for its crucifixion in the Messiah. That is, the great day of the wrath of the Lamb on Jerusalem was in A.D. 70, not at the end of the world. Moreover, in chapter 11, where we read, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his creation, Christ. That is an explanation of why in the current age the Roman Empire shall fall. Because, you see, the kingdoms of this world have been given over to the Messiah, and he shall rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the world, ends of the earth. And so Dr. Ladd not only must show us where the movie begins all over again, that is the beginning of a recapitulation. He must clearly show us that the day of final judgment is being declared at the end of one of these recapitulations. And I want to maintain that he. That he has failed on both scores to do that. But let me go on. This requires us to recognize some measure of recapitulation when the narrative backs up and recovers some of the same ground. The question is, now this will. Now this is going to divide the two major schools of recapitulation. The question is, do the seven seals and the seven trumpets cover the same period? Do they overlap in their entirety, or do they overlap only in part? And then, of course, I would throw in, do they overlap at all? But he says, do they overlap in their entirety or they overlap in part? Now, Dr. Hendrickson argues in his book More Than Conquerors that the Book of Revelation is a recapitulation over and over again. For the most part, he would say it overlaps the whole section between the first and second advents of Jesus Christ. He does think that there's a little bit of progress at the end of each section. He does think we go a little bit further in understanding the day of final judgment. But for the most part, this is a complete overlapping, a complete recapitulation. A number of times in the book of Revelation, Dr. Ladd doesn't believe that. He thinks the overlap is only in part. And he goes on to explain a clue to the answer may be found in the fact that the seventh seal, unlike the first six seals, contains no plague or judgmental content. When the seventh seal is broken, there's a half hour of silence in heaven. Dr. Ladd says. Now there's a clue. There is no judgment in the seventh seal as there were in the first six. On the contrary, when the seventh seal was broken, the seven angels prepared to sound their trumpets. This suggests that the seven trumpets in fact constitute the contents of the seventh seal, and there is only a partial recapitulation. The six seals relate the forces leading up to the end, while the seven trumpets relate the beginning of the events of the end itself, particularly the time of the great tribulation, which will introduce the end. Everybody lost? Okay, the two views of recapitulation. You have a number of. The Book of Revelation goes over that segment between the first advent of Jesus Christ and the second advent of Jesus Christ a number of times. Okay? Complete recapitulation. Okay? Hendrickson's view. Then you have in Ladd, who is perhaps the best modern representative of this school, but it's been a very popular school for a number of years. The idea that the recapitulation is partial. And what you have is you have seven seals, all right? You break the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth seal. And when you break the seventh seal, you find that it contains seven trumpets. Okay? It's kind of like the child's toy. My children have from time to time played with this toy that has these little barrels, you know, you have the smaller barrel inside, you know, the next larger, and then the larger, larger. Okay, Pretend like you have seven barrels. Right? Okay. Now what you do is you set out these. You set out a row of barrels, all these large sized ones, you know, and you have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And then when you open up the seventh one, lo and behold, there's another and another. Another. That is, there are seven contained in the seventh. Is anybody confused seven trumpets inside the seventh seal? Now, this is really going to become complicated because at the seventh trumpet, men are going to argue that there are seven bowls contained in the seventh trumpet. Of course, the seven trumpets being in the seventh seal. And so you get this very interesting compacting of the book of Revelation. Six seals, then a seventh that contains seven trumpets. Six trumpets, then a seventh trumpet that contains seven bowls. So anyway, Dr. Ladd maintains that the Book of Revelation has partial recapitulation. And he maintains that the seventh seal, which we have now seen open in our scripture reading this morning, has Seven trumpets of judgment in it. And now what you have is the six seals covering human history down to the end. And then the seventh seal is broken at the time of the tribulation, and you have seven trumpets of judgment sounded. I have real difficulty internally with his own theory because he has already told us that the sixth seal is the great day of God's wrath. And then he wants to tell us that the seventh seal are the seven trumpets of judgment at the time of the great Tribulation. Now, of course, what he might want to say is the great day of God's wrath is a long day. That is, it's really an age of the tribulation and the coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the millennium. But he doesn't argue that point when he talks about chapter six, verse 17. He just argues that's the end of history. All right, I've let. I've set before you two views. Now, the Book of Revelation, when you come to chapter eight, you can believe that at chapter eight, when we get into the seven trumpets, we're going to begin all over again. We're going to serve. We're going to cover the same ground, but with different symbols and different figures. The different. A different way of explaining the same material. Or you can believe that chapter eight is a recapitulation of a portion of the seven seals. Or now thirdly, you can believe that chapter eight is a continuation of the book. And we keep progressing point by point by point and adding to what John wants us to know about God's intentions for human history. You see, I will argue that the Book of Revelation has two major prophecies, a seven sealed scroll prophecy and a little book prophecy. And that what we've been doing up to this point is simply preparing to open the scroll to see what it says the first time through. We haven't been through the scroll once yet. We have some preview of some of the major contents. The fall of Jerusalem, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and all that, but we don't have the contents of the 7th. We don't have the contents of the scroll before us. So what you have is a scroll. By the way, I wanted to read for you, but I've already closed the commentary. Dr. Ladd goes on to say that for some reason, the scroll drops out of sight. Now. Well, that's. That's interesting. He. And he says because it's apocalyptic literature, that it's not uncommon for John to begin with one device or for the author of an apocalyptic book to begin with one literary Device and then simply lose his. His way, you see, and begin down another track. Well, I don't think John has done that at all. I don't think John has lost sight of the fact that this scroll is the prophecy that he's supposed to be relating to us. And what John has done is he's talked about the beginning of that scroll being opened. He's breaking. He sees the seals being broken. And now when the seals are broken, then the trumpets of judgment sound. You don't have judgment before that, but now you're going to have seven angels come forth that have war trumpets, and they will prepare to sound. And as they sound, then judgment falls. And the. And the fact that judgment is falling is very well symbolized by the fact that the angel that goes to the altar takes the coals of the altar and now casts them upon the earth. We have nothing like that up to this point. We have previews, we have glimpses. We are like reading the fly cover of a book, preparing for the contents. But now with the breaking of the seventh seal and a half hour of silence, which we'll talk about here in a moment, John says that the scroll is being unrolled. And as the scroll is being unrolled and opened up, the trumpets are sounding and God now is bringing his judgment to pass. And so you can believe that the book is a recapitulation, an entire recapitulation or a partial recapitulation that you have the seven seals. I mean, the seventh seal is the seven trumpets. Or you can believe that what we have is just the continuation of the drama that John is introduced to the throne room of God, and we see God's sovereignty in creation. And then we have the Lamb of God introduced, the only one who can take the seven sealed scroll and break it and open it up and interpret history to us, the one who is sovereign over history. And then we have the seals begin to be broken, and then we have the scroll opened up in the trumpets of judgment, so down. And I don't think it's simply literary sensitivity that leads me to believe that that is the way you must interpret the book. John has taken up a line of thought and he's not going to put it down until he's completed it. And when he does complete it, significantly, these are the words given to him when now a little book is put in his hand. He's seen the seven sealed scroll opened and what it means. And then a little book will be put in John's hand in chapter 11 or chapter 10. And he'll be told that he is to prophesy again over many peoples tongues and nations. John, you prophesied once, now here's a little book you must prophesy again. John, you've seen the fall of Jerusalem and now you're going to see the bitter fall of the Roman Empire. Well, I think at this point I better leave it to you to ask questions because I don't know if I've confused you completely or whether you see what's happening that issue here. Does anybody have any questions about at chapter eight? You see, you've got to decide which road you're going to travel and we'll determine the rest of the book for you. How you interpret the rest of the book? Yeah, No, unfortunately not. I say unfortunately because if you could equate them with one school of thought or another and then on the basis of other passages in the scripture refute that school school of thought, you could also refute that approach to the Book of Revelation, but it just doesn't work out in that handy a way. It turns out that there are amillennialists and post millennialists who are recapitulationist about the Book of Revelation. So no, you can't equate it one for one. And the fact that one amillennial interpretation of the Book of Revelation that's been pretty much Standard for maybe 30 years in the reformed world has led a lot of people to think that that approach to the Book of Revelation is the amillennial approach to the Book of Revelation. But that's just not true in the history of interpretation. By the way, for those of you who are interested in the technical jargon, I don't know why anybody would be, but if you are, the approach to the Book of Revelation that I'll be taking from here on, well, have been taking, but will become very clear from here on out is called the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation. You have the preterist approach of the Book of Revelation maintaining that the Book of Revelation's contents may for the most part have already taken place. That is, this is a prophecy which has been fulfilled in history thus far, mainly the fall of Jerusalem and the fall of the Roman Empire. Not completely, because we also here have the final judgment in the conquering of the world by the gospel in chapter 19 and 20 and then the institution of the new heavens and new earth. So it's not altogether past, but the main contents of the book, the, the seven sealed scroll and the little book that are given to John have Been fulfilled. So that's the preterist in the past tense. This has been fulfilled. Yeah. No, I wouldn't say that'd be a fair comment. I mean, I'm happy to criticize the recapitulation approach, but I don't think that would be a fair criticism. Like Dr. Hendrickson, who holds to a complete overlap of these segments, certainly doesn't hold to a circular view of history. Yeah, It's a question of whether the literature repeats itself. Now, you see, you have that. That linear portion of history described once, and then you go back and describe it again. Then describe it again. What you see what a circular. There is the literature, not the history that's being described. Yeah. What do you mean by a circular view? What do I mean? Or what did the questioner mean? Or. Well, I'm a little tired this morning. I'll let the questioner answer that. What did you mean by circular view of history? There are other circular views of history. Ancient views of the world maintained that the world went through certain cycles of conflagration and recreation or regeneration. Well, in Vietnam, for instance, a number of Christians that I know coming back from Vietnam report the Vietnamese people. It's very hard for them to get them tied down to a particular date for doing something. They're supposed to come out and lay a foundation for a new house or do some item of work. Because when you cite a year and a day for them, that repeats itself. I don't know how often I'm not up on that enough. Whether it's every seven years or every 70 years. Years or whatever it is. But because they repeat itself, you're never clear in what cycle they're supposed to come out and do that. And so you may be waiting, you know, for months for them to do the work they contracted to do. That's one circular view of history. Another circular view is that we go, you know, we lead up to a golden age, and then there's a. There's a conflagration of the world, a destruction of the golden age. Then the civilization goes through that process again. Toynbee had something of a circular view of history. I mean, there are really a lot of different versions of that, but nobody, in interpreting the Book of Revelation that we're taking seriously as evangelicals, holds to a circular view of history. They all believe that history is leading in a linear way up to the climax of the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's a question of how it's being described. Final two chapters of the book. Well, basically, what I see happening in the book of Revelation. Leaving aside that there are hints and foreshadowings and glimpses of the future now, I don't think anybody on any school of thought wants to maintain that John can't do that. I certainly maintain as we go through the fall of Jerusalem, John is going to look ahead to the second coming as well. He's going to make some comments by way of comparison. But basically the book of Revelation has the first vision of Jesus with the church. Then the second portion deals with the letters to the seven churches. And then finally the prophetic portion from chapters four through eleven. John has a very ornate and detail description of the fall of Jerusalem. A long preparation for it. You have the scene at the heavenly court and then the main characters in chapter five. And then the preview, you know, the breaking of the seals. And then finally chapter eight after the sealing of the 144,000. So that we've got. So we've got all these things we have to keep in mind as we finally come to the judgment in chapters 8, 9 and 10. And then John will receive a preview of the second portion of the book at chapter 12. There's going to be an explanation of what has happened this far. How can it be that, that. That the church is going to be this victorious, will take the place of Israel as the kingdom of God? Well, the explanation is that Satan has fallen from heaven, that Christ by his redemptive work has, has. Has grounded out the power of Satan. He is, he's been cast out of heaven. Jesus says it's like lightning falling to the earth as it's grounded out. So Satan has been cast out and his power has diminished. We have this vision of the red dragon, the attempt to destroy the Messiah and then the victory over the red dragon. And then what will happen? Since Satan has not been successful in terms of Jerusalem's persecution of God's people, he turns his wrath toward the Gentile church or the Roman empire as a whole. So the Transition at chapter 12 is from the first portion of the book to the second portion. And then you have the fall of Jerusalem described up through chapter 18. I mean, the fall of Rome. Excuse me, don't want to confuse you now. The fall of the Roman empire through these chapters. And then at chapter 19, you have again the continuation of what's going to happen in history. Not only will Jerusalem fall, not only will Rome fall, but then what will happen? Well, Jesus will come forth riding upon a white horse with the sword proceeding from his mouth. That is the word of God. Which is the sword of the Spirit proceeding from his mouth and his church following him. And they will defeat all opposition. The Great Commission is going to be completed. And then at chapter 20, the question, as at chapter 12, is, how is this possible? We've seen the fall of the first enemy explained because the kingdom of God has been instituted and Satan's power has been destroyed. And then chapter 20, how is that possible? Well, Satan has been bound by the coming of Jesus Christ. Satan is not in a position to deceive the nations any longer. And then after we have that explanation, then Satan is loosed for a short season. We have that final apostasy on earth, and fire from heaven comes down and destroyed, destroys the enemies of God's people. That's the final judgment, the great white Throne judgment. And then chapters 21 and 22 describe for us the new Jerusalem, the consummation of all of history. And so you see, basically, I see the whole book, except for chapters 12 and 20, which are theologically explanatory with reference to Satan's power. And might I see the book just following succession. You see the fall of Jerusalem, you see the fall of Rome, you see the conquering of the nations, and then you see the final judgment, just like the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream by Daniel would lead us to believe. You have the destruction of the Roman Empire by the stone cut without hands, the stone grows to fill the earth. I think the book of Revelation is telling us that by means of further literary devices and symbols and figure. So that's a. That's a preterist interpretation of the book. I maintain that the two major prophecies have been fulfilled already. And one of the sad things about not taking a preterist approach is that, that to that extent, if this is true, I think it is, and we'll be willing to defend it. If this is true to the word of God, then we're depriving the Church of something of the strength that God would give it to see how he's given a prophecy and he's fulfilled it. God says, your enemy Jerusalem will fall. And it fell. And he says, the persecutor of the church of the Roman Empire is going to be destroyed. And it was destroyed. And then what's going to happen after the Roman Empire is removed out of the way? Well, now the kingdom of God is supposed to grow and fill the earth, but instead of the kingdom. Now, of course, despite the efforts of some commentators and the resistance of certain schools of prophecy, the Church continues to grow and will fill the earth. Earth. But the sad thing is a number of people are still waiting for that second enemy to fall. And on some versions of the Book of Revelation, you've even got to have the second enemy come back again. You see, we got to have a revived Roman Empire. Why? Well, so that the Book of Revelation can be fulfilled. And I think very justly, Dr. Adams calls that diploplia, that is double vision. What you have is the set, you have the prophecy given, the prophecy fulfilled. But those schools of interpretation that don't want to accept the fulfillment of the prophecy must now look at it in a double vision way. You've got to cross your eyes and see another Roman Empire revived at the end of time with another beast and another series of events that will fulfill the prophecy, even though it's already been fully fulfilled in history now. So the problem is, if you don't take a preterist approach, and if the preterist approach is true to the Scripture, then you'll be sapped somewhat of doctrinal strength and living strength because you fail to see God's fulfillment of his plan in history. He gave the prophecy, he fulfilled it. That's supposed to strengthen you and say, well, then he's going to keep the other prophecy too, about all opposition being overcome. But instead of overcoming all opposition, what you have is a number of schools of thought saying, well, we better sit around and wait for the Rapture, or we better wait for the second enemy to come up again and then God will fulfill the prophecy. That gets a little circular de facto, you see, kind of waiting for things to happen all over again when we don't have to. So there's this preterist approach to the Book of Revelation, and then there's also the futurist approach to the Book of Revelation. The futurist says that these things are going to happen in the future, hence the name futurism. Right? The book of Revelation is looking ahead to the final tribulation, all right, the tribulation period on earth, and then the coming of Jesus Christ to establish his millennial kingdom. But all these things we've been reading about, the seals and the trumpets and the bowls of wrath, pertain to the future and distant future from John. All right, so now let's see if we can't move at cross purposes and show in terms of literary interpretation, you have partial recapitulation, total recapitulation, and no capitulation. I mean, no recapitulation, alright? That's the literary interpretation of the book in Terms of interpreting the content. Now, moving cross grain to that, you have preterism and you have futurism. You also have what is the church historical view of the book and the axiological approach to the book that says that the book shows us the history of the church in every age. So there are some people who say the book is pertaining to the events in the ancient church, Some say in the church right before the final days, and some say the church throughout church history, which is not a very popular view today, but it has been maintained by some. And others say it doesn't have anything to do with history at all. It's really teaching us principles that pertain to diverse events throughout history. Okay, so as to structure, as to literary structure, you can believe in partial recapitulation, total recapitulation, or no recapitulation as to content. You can be a preterist, a futurist, a church historical approach to it, or you can take the axiological approach to the book or the idealistic approach to the book. It shows us ideals and principles, axioms that pertain throughout history. Now, I suppose I really haven't thought it through. There may be some that cancel each other, but I suppose a person taking a recapitulation approach could be a preterist, a futurist, a church historical, you know, approach to the book, or an idealist. And so in answer to your question, no, you can't correlate what we've been talking about this morning with any one school of eschatology, because not only do you have now the question of the literary structure of the book and the content of the book, but then you have the three questions of whether you're an on mill, a postmill, or a pre mill. All pre mills are futurists with respect to the book of Revelation. That correlation is there, but not all those who are post mill are preterist. Now, I happen to be a post mill preterist. Did I lose you? Okay. I believe the book of Revelation is pertaining primarily to the ancient church. I mean, John Jesus, through John, says the time is at hand. And I think the time was at hand and those things took place. And I'm encouraged by the prophecy. But there are post millennialists who have not been preterists. There have been post millennials who have been recapitulationist with respect to the book of Revelation. And so we're just opening ourselves up to a great deal of ambiguity and confusion and to being misled if we don't see that. These are three totally Separate questions. Except for the fact that futurism and premillennialism go hand in hand with respect to the book, you have three different questions. One, your basic school of eschatology. Do you think that the Bible teaches Jesus comes before or after the millennium? And then the question, do you think there's going to be any earthly expression of the millennium at all? All millennialism. And then you have the question of the Book of Revelation itself. What's the content of the book? Does it have a preterist content, a futurist content, church historical content? Or does it just have an ideal content that is an axiomatic content? And then finally you have the structure of the Book of Revelation. Is it a recapitulationist book, partially or totally? Or is it just progressed by a literary drama from one point to another? Questions on all that. What we really should do is get a blackboard to see and draw all these squares and lay out in a threefold way all the possibilities. So what you have is a church historical premillennial recapitulationist or something, and just start lining out all the various possibilities. But there are three different axes here, three different questions, and they'll be combined in different ways. And for the sake of those of you who are in the class, you know that I believe that the book does not recapitulate itself. I believe it's a literary drama that begins at one point and progresses to the end. And that while there are glimpses backwards and forwards, it is for the most part the beginning of one prophecy proceeding through it, a second prophecy proceeding through it, and then a prophecy of the final judgment. So I'm not a recapitulationist, I am a preterist. And I guess it's clear by now that I'm also a post millennialist. Well, let me see, we only have a few minutes here. I can't complete what I wanted to do. Let us just look at the first few verses of chapter 8 and then conclude for today. And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. It might be helpful if you really wanted to get the point. If we read out loud in unison, you see the whole book of Revelation up to chapter eight. And then we read that there follows a half hour of silence. And then everybody just keeps silent for a while and lets let the tension in the room mount for a while. See, that's what's happening to John. John has been waiting for that scroll to finally be opened. And now it is open. The seventh seal has been broken. There's nothing preventing the scroll from being unrolled. But before it's unrolled, God holds it back for a half an hour. And it's a half hour of silence. It's not just waiting, but it's silent waiting. See, that's in real contrast. What have we heard thus far in heaven? We've heard voices and thunderings and rumblings and earthquakes and prophecies and angels speaking and declarations and trumpets and all this. It's been a very noisy book up to this point, you see. And now John has a half hour of just dead silence. And I say that the silence is there. It's an utter silence in heaven before the portending judgment. If you want to know how significant what God is going to do and destroy, destroying Jerusalem, and just wait a half hour of silence before the presence of God. Because God, in doing what he's going to do, Jerusalem is going to undo the whole course of 2000 years of working with his people. God is going to say, I've had it with the Jewish nation. God's going to say that the kingdom has been taken from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of the kingdom. God's going to say that the Jews have been rejected and the Church has taken the place. He's going to say that the old Jerusalem shall fall, that the new Jerusalem shall be instituted. He's going to say that the old Israel must be destroyed, that the new Israel of God can be blessed. So a half hour of silence as John waits, you know, as this mounting tension comes. And then he says, I saw seven angels that stand before God, and there was given unto them seven trumpets. When John speaks of the seven, seven angels to stand before God, you can't avoid in the Greek construction that there is a certain defined group that is in the mind of John that stands before the throne of God. Seven particular angels. Now it's of interest to me that in the book of Tobit, in the intertestamental literature, we read of seven angels who present the prayers of the saints and go in before the glory of the Holy One. Moreover, in the book of first Enoch, another one of these pseudepigraphal books, in the book of first Enoch, the names of the seven angels to stand before the throne of God are given, allegedly given. And one of the names of those angels is Michael. Now when we read of Michael in the Gospel of Luke, the description of Michael is that he stands before the presence of God. And believe me, we could have a whole Lesson, probably a whole month of lessons to just what is the significance that in this extra canonical literature that is, in this literature that goes beyond the Bible, we find what appears to be the literary background for what John is speaking of here? Or is that really the case? Maybe that extra canonical literature is building on what is found in the canon and then just, you know, bloating it, that is, expanding it and giving names to all the angels when we only have one. But the fact is that John does think of seven angels, seven special angels standing before the throne of God. And there's given to them seven trumpets. Now remember the drama as it's unfolding. John has come into the throne room of God and he sees all these magnificent things. But then he notices that there's this scroll that nobody is able to open. And then he sees the Lamb of God who is overcome to open the scroll. The Lamb of God comes forth and takes the scroll out of the hand of God the Father and begins to break the seals. And then as these seals are broken, things begin to happen. And John sees these glimpses, these flashes of content from the scroll. And when the seventh seal is broken and the scroll begins to now be opened up completely, there's this half hour of silence. And after the half hour of silence, God is distributing seven war trumpets. And we're going to read here that after an angel cast fire upon the earth, verse 6. And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. You've got to understand that John sees the trumpets distributed to the seven angels who stand there holding their trumpets, while another angel comes forth and does something at the altar of God. And when God casts fire upon the earth, then they lift their trumpets and prepare to sound. And in rapid succession hears one trumpet and another trumpet, another trumpet. And he gives us the interpretation God is judging the earth, all these ravishing things of warfare in chapter eight. And then an eagle comes forth, flying in mid heaven, saying, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of earth. The first four trumpets have blown, showing that there's going to be destruction on the earth, that the ravish, the ravishing events of war are going to affect the, the earth around Jerusalem. But then the last three trumpets are far more deadly because they pertain to the woes on mankind, what God is going to do to those dwellers in Jerusalem at the time of its fall. And so very interesting book, very dramatic book. And I think we lose sight of that when we go and have these clever schemes for recapitulation. And so next week we'll continue the drama and its interpretation. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for giving to us this revelation of your truth. And we ask you that you might forgive us for our hesitancy in taking it up and reading it. And you might forgive us for our failure to obey it. For we would confess, Father, that if we don't understand it, we can't obey it. And we we haven't understood. We have seen it as an enigma, as a dark saying, when you have called it a revelation. And so please open our eyes that we might see what you have opened up before us. And give us, through your spirit, the ability to discern correctly what you are saying to the churches. Give us ears that we might hear, and give us obedient feet, that as we here, we might walk in paths of righteousness before you, we might walk confidently and victoriously as those who would overcome. In the name of the One who has all power and authority in heaven and earth, we thank you for his presence in our midst this day as we pray in his name. Amen.