Again the Bri Writes That the Two Chapters Are Depicting Two Different Beasts
The Structure and Timeline of Revelation 4-22
Revelation's fourth chapter represents an of import shift in the volume. Even though the showtime three chapters have plenty of symbolism, they're still fairly down-to-earth in their bulletin. Reading the first function of the Apocalypse isn't too different from reading Paul's letters, which are manageable for well-nigh readers.
Then we come to chapter iv, and oh boy, do things become complicated!
As the scene opens, John is suddenly invited to footstep into heaven to witness a sequence of visions depicting the things that must take identify in the hereafter. (That is, the time to come from John'due south perspective — at that place is much debate near whether or not most of it is still futurity for united states). These visions are highly symbolic, and a great deal of context is needed to really piece together what they represent.
Farther complicating matters is the fact that the chronology or sequence of these visions isn't always linear! There are repetitions, flashbacks, and even flash-frontward that nosotros don't always pick up on if we aren't sensitive to Revelation'south literary design.
And so this is the part of the book where many readers start to feel overwhelmed. To continue the flight metaphor from my first mail service on Revelation, this is when we commencement feeling turbulence and the "Fasten Seatbelt" light comes on! All of that means that this is the function of the book where we demand to read most advisedly. It's easy to become lost in all the mystifying details and lose sight of the forest for the trees.
Before I jump into deep-dives on specific passages, I thought it would be helpful to lay out for readers what I personally believe to be the overarching menstruation of thought or plotline of the visions in Revelation 4-22. In particular, we want to consider the 3 primary cycles of sevens in the book: the 7 seals (chapters half-dozen-vii), the seven trumpets (chapters 8-14), and the seven bowls (chapters xv-19). It may feel like you're on a roller coaster as y'all're reading this part of the Apocalypse, merely hopefully this overview volition assistance prevent you from getting whiplash!
I'm going to effort and avoid going into too much particular or argumentation (yous can consult the commentaries listed below for more technical discussion) and instead just give a zoomed-out view of Revelation's plot as a whole, the way I've come up to sympathise it after hours of reading and research on the book. My goal here is non to selection autonomously alternating views, just simply to present what I think is the reading that best fits the data of the volume itself.
A lot of laypeople – especially those who've been taught Revelation past Dispensational interpreters or who only know theLeft Behindbooks – presume that all of Revelation's scenes unfold linearly, one after another, in a straightforward sequence. But that's actually not how most academic interpreters understand this portion of the book. Information technology'due south not quite that simple.
I factor that every reader needs to consider is that in the 6th and seventh seals, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh basin, there are repeated elements that symbolize the end of the earth, the 24-hour interval of the Lord. These elements include thunder, burn, a great convulsion, and the onset of judgment solar day. This means that Revelation brings us all the way to end of historythree times, then rewinds to look at the concluding days from another bending. Each serial of calamities is besides interrupted by a literary interlude – a scene that goes into greater item well-nigh certain themes of the story Revelation is telling, sometimes involving flashbacks to different points in time.
For example, later the 6th seal is opened in Rev 6:12-17, we're given indications that the end has arrived – the heaven disappears, the earth is shaken to its core, and all of humanity trembles before the Lord's coming in judgment (in other words, it's the arrival of what the Old Testament described as the "Day of the Lord"). But and so, in chapter vii, we become a flashback where angels declare that the earth is non to exist harmed yet until God's people have been sealed for identification (7:3).
Fifty-fifty though John sees this "after" he saw the seals opened (7:1), this vision probable depicts an earlier point in the story, earlier the judgments on the globe accept begun. It steps back to answer the rhetorical question raised in the final verse of chapter 6: "who is able to stand" in God'south judgment? The answer is the people in chapter 7: the remnant sealed by the Lord and the saints who are redeemed through their witness. By the end of chapter vii, John gets a glimpse forward of the end of the story, where he sees the full and final number of the saints emerging out of the end of the Great Tribulation (7:9-17).
This is the design of all 3 judgment cycles: we get a large-picture scene of cascading judgments leading all the fashion to the stop of history, followed by a more zoomed-in discussion of the fate of the people involved. Then we rewind back to the middle of the action in the tribulation to look at information technology from some other angle (the fancy word scholars employ to describe this repetition is "recapitulation").
Information technology's likewise possible to think of Revelation'south construction as being sort of like a telescope or, if you've e'er seen one, a Russian nesting doll: each wheel of judgment is nested within and emerges from the previous 1, zooming in to events surrounding the terminate. The 6th and 7th seals contain the vii trumpets, and the seventh trumpet contains the vii bowls, simply all 3 sets conclude with a vision of the concluding ending.
Turning to the 7 trumpets, we see the same pattern, this time with even more complexity. We get 6 judgments, then an suspension, then the seventh in the sequence depicts the stop of the globe, followed by a rewind. Here the interlude contrasts the themes of judgment and witness: The horrifying plagues of the first six trumpets don't upshot in any repentance (ix:20-21), but they're followed by scenes well-nigh the faithful witnessing of martyrs, which does upshot in repentance (11:13). When the seventh trumpet is diddled, we once once more see signs that history is concluding – the kingdom of the earth is at present alleged to have become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ (11:fifteen), and at that place is in one case again terrifying lightning, thunder, and an earthquake.
Then comes an even lengthier digression in capacity 12-14, where John is shown the heart of all this conflict: the state of war in heaven betwixt Satan (depicted as a great Dragon) and the people of God. When Satan fails in his efforts to destroy Christ and his people during Jesus' earthly ministry, he commissions two monstrous "Beasts" to do his muddy work for him by persecuting the church building. This flashback explains the chaos and demonic action we've been glimpsing already in Revelation 6-11. Then Revelation fourteen once again zooms frontward to the very cease of the story, with the Lamb standing victorious, announcing the victory of God's kingdom, and culminating with the great harvest of humanity for deliverance or judgment at the finish of history (14:14-twenty).
In chapters xv-16 we rewind again to shortly before the terminate, to watch as the basin judgments are poured out on the empire of the Beast. The sixth bowl hints at a great and final boxing (Armageddon), simply we don't get to learn more about this battle until chapter 19. The seventh basin brings usa to the terminate of the story a 3rd time, so nosotros get another interlude (chapters 17-18) describing the terrible empire of "Babylon" and revealing more than virtually the identity of the mysterious "Beast" from the pit. Finally, chapters 19-22 bring the action to a close with the return of Christ, the final defeat of Satan and his agents, the millennial reign of the saints, terminal judgment, and the regeneration of cosmos.
Phew! That'southward our cyclone view of the plotline of Revelation'southward visions from 30,000 anxiety. In later posts I'll examine some lessons nosotros can glean from specific passages, only for now I hope this helps you go along track of how the Apocalypse tells its story.
Sources/Further Reading on the structure of Revelation:
Grant R. Osborne, Revelation,BECNT (Baker, 2002), esp. pages 269-271.
G. Thou. Beale,The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 1998), esp. pages 121-151.
Buist Fanning,Revelation, ZECNT (Zondervan, 2020), esp. pages 58-63.
The Bible Projection, "Overview: Revelation Ch. 1-11," YouTube video (posted Dec xiv, 2016).
Ralph J. Korner, "'AND I SAW . . .' AN APOCALYPTIC LITERARY CONVENTION FOR STRUCTURAL IDENTIFICATION IN THE APOCALYPSE,"Novum Testamentum2000.
Categories: revelation
cranwellhincture1985.blogspot.com
Source: https://derekdemars.com/2020/09/04/structure-and-timeline-of-revelation-4-22/