The Chapel Light - July 2009

A few more observations on the book of Revelation…so have your Bible open…     Did you notice that in Revelation 21 John introduces the New Jerusalem twice (21:1-2, 9)? And this isn’t the only place in Revelation where an event is narrated twice. The same thing happens in Revelation 12:6, where John says that the heavenly woman gives birth to a son; the son is taken to heaven and the woman flees into the wilderness to escape the dragon. This event is then reiterated in more detail in Revelation 12:13-17 after the depiction of the battle between the archangel Michael and the dragon Satan. Why note these things twice?  What is the significance of this double reference?     I believe the answer lies in understanding some of the difficulties in recording a vision in written form. John’s senses are attuned to all of the things that he is seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting while in his “trance.” He is looking all around him; things are happening to his left, to his right, above him, below him, behind him. Some of these things are happening simultaneously; sometimes they are happening in a chronological order. In addition, many of the things which may take place minutes apart from each other may be related thematically. Somehow, all of these things must be conveyed so that the audience understands not only what John saw, but how the parts of the vision related to one another and what they therefore meant. Those involved in the television and movie industry now have this sort of conveyance of information down to a science. They know how to film various scenes and then put them together so that viewers are able to tell the chronological order of events – even if one scene is a flashback to the past – and we have become trained viewers; we pick up the subtle clues that indicate chronological connections as well as thematic connections.     Video is one thing; accomplishing all of those things in a written text is a whole different story – but I believe that that is precisely what John is trying to do in the two texts that I have mentioned above.     In the text of Revelation 12 John is watching “signs” in the sky;  he tells us that he sees the child escape and then he sees the woman flee – but he doesn’t tell us what she’s fleeing from or why she’s fleeing. His attention then turns to a battle in heaven in which the dragon is cast down to earth by Michael and his angels, and the dragon in anger then pursues the “heavenly” woman – which indicates that her heavenly existence is symbolic, and that she really represents someone or some group living on the earth – but she escapes. I propose that John is trying to show us that these events are all happening very closely, and that they are all related. The child’s escape to heaven is related to the dragon’s failure to destroy him. The dragon’s failure to destroy him is related to his defeat in the battle of the angels. The dragon’s failures in these things generates his anger and explains his reason for directing his angry pursuit to the woman. Her escape explains his redirecting his attention to the woman’s other children. John demonstrates these thematic connections by noting the woman’s escape (12:6), then narrating the scene of the battle (12:7-12) and then re-narrating the woman’s escape (12:13-17). The two narrations are not about two separate escapes, but about the same escape. It is narrated twice to show the relationship of the “scenes.” We do the same thing with chase scenes in movies today.     John is doing a similar thing in Revelation 21. As I noted in last month’s Scrip, there is an important thematic relationship between the harlot (Babylon) and the bride (New Jerusalem). We can see this by comparing all of the visionary similarities between them. But there is also a chronological order to the vision, and John is very careful to note the progression of events. The apostle first sees the gaudy, bloody prostitute riding the hideous beast (17:1-6). An angel then tells John that someday the beast will turn on and destroy the prostitute; John never sees the destruction; he is simply told it will occur (17:7-18). “After these things” (18:1) an angel comes down from heaven describing how the fall of Babylon will be and the effect it will have on others in the world (18:2-20). “Then” (18:21) an angel throws a gigantic millstone into the sea and proclaims that Babylon will be thrown down violently. “After these things” John hears cheering in heaven over the fall of the prostitute (19:1-3) and watches the elders in God’s throne room fall down in worship (19:4). “Then” he hears a voice from the throne calling for praise (19:5) and again cheering erupts in heaven (19:6-8). An angel then tells John to write, and John falls down to worship the angel, but the angel rebukes him for doing so (19:9-10).     John then sees heaven open and Christ appears on a white horse leading the armies of heaven (19:11-16). He then sees an angel standing in the sun calling all the birds to come and eat the flesh of evil human beings (19:17-18). He then sees the beast and earth’s armies gathered together to make war against Christ, but tells us they are all captured or killed (19:19-21). He then sees an angel bind the devil and lock him in a pit (20:1-3). John then sees thrones and the souls of those beheaded sitting on them (20:4-10), and then one great white throne and all of the dead being judged by the one sitting on that great white throne (20:11-15). Finally, John sees a new heaven and a new earth (21:1); then he sees the New Jerusalem descending from heaven (21:2).     Pardon the lengthy detailing of the vision, but it’s important to understand that John had a difficult task here. First, he wants to make clear the chronological order of events portrayed in the vision: God uses the beast to destroy the prostitute (and there is great rejoicing in heaven over this); then Christ defeats the beast and the dragon is imprisoned while the saints reign with Christ. After this Satan is released and finally cast into hell; this is followed by a judgment of the dead, the establishment of the new heavens and new earth, and the arrival of the New Jerusalem. But he also needs to establish that this final episode – the arrival of the New Jerusalem – though separated by so many events in the vision from the fall of the prostitute is directly related to the fall of the prostitute (see last month’s Scrip). Rather than lay out the details of the vision of the New Jerusalem in 21:2, John simply notes the fact of New Jerusalem’s establishment chronologically, then notes a few more things that were spoken at that time (21:3-8) and THEN the apostle goes into great detail on the New Jerusalem itself. Thus, John saw the details of 21:9-22:5 at 21:2. There are not two comings of the New Jerusalem but one.     There are theological ramifications to these seemingly trivial technical points, but I’ll leave those for you all to chew on. If you really care about them, ask me or email me.