Episode 12 - Revelation 6 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

 

 

You can watch the video of this study between 8pm to 9pm AEST here. 

Tonight in our Revelations study we are going to step into the beginning of a series of more difficult Revelation passages. Remember, our focus is on what these verses say, not on the how and when that they will be fulfilled, or even have been fulfilled. We will talk about some of these possibilities, but if we drive forward in focusing on the “what” this will bear much more fruit for us.

Revelation 6 is seen by some as the beginning of the tribulation. We will see tonight whether that is legitimate or not. What we will also see in this passage is the increasing revelation of the Glory of Jesus Christ. Remember that Revelation is about Jesus. That is the big mistake that many people make with this book, they forget that we should read it through a lens of who Jesus Christ is. He is the glorious Lord and he will achieve his victory for his people.

Let’s consider some thing before we get into this passage?

1.     What does this scroll represent? What did it take to open this scroll? Do you remember this from our Revelation passage?

Let read Revelation 6 now:

1.     Who is opening the seals?

 

 

2.     Why is he opening these seals (Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:1-13 and 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9)?

 

1.     Should we read the four horse men as four consequential events or simultaneous events? Do they all come at once, or one after the other?

 

2.     Who is the rider on the white horse? (cf. Zech 1:8). Why a white horse?

 

 

3.     Who is the rider on the red horse? (cf. Zech 1:8) Why a red horse?

 

4.     Why the reference to food with the black horse, and the price of the food? (Cf. Matt 20:2)

 

5.     Why is this horse’s rider called Death? Is Death a real being?

6.     Who are the people of verse 9? What are they praying for in verse 10? (cf. Jer. 12:1-4).

 

 

7.     The words “holy and true” occur together like this in only one other passage, Rev 3:7, in that passage they refer to Jesus. If these saints are praying to God, and yet they attribute to him the same stuff as Jesus, what does this say about Jesus?

 

8.     What does verse 11 teach us, especially in relation to the previous two verses?

 

 

9.     How literally should we take verses 12-17?

 

 

10.  How could we summarize this whole chapter?

 

11.  Do you guys have any questions about this chapter?    

Health is a Duty – Gluttony is Wrong

 

                

Every so often I have written about Gluttony on my blog, and I have even preached on it from time to time. Gluttony is the forgotten sin in today’s culture. It has basically been thrown out the door by many modern people. It is not uncommon to see a largely over weight pastor sticking to young men for being addicted to pornography…and not getting the irony. And while there can be some health issues that make losing weight difficult, that is a tiny, infinitesimal percentage of the reason why gluttony is such an issue in our society today. It was really encouraging to see E. J. Hardy address this in his book on marriage,

“Probably the carelessness of many people about their health may be explained in the same way. They think either that their constitutions are so good that nothing can injure them or else that they are so bad that nothing can make them better. And often it is a bottle of wine or some other indulgence of appetite that keeps health away. We have heard of a well-known character who, having had many severe attacks of gout, and who, getting into years, and having a cellar of old port wine, upon which he drew somewhat considerably, was advised by his physician to give up the port, and for the future to drink a certain thin claret not very expensive. Said the gentleman in reply to this suggestion: "I prefer my gout with my port, to being cured of my gout with that claret of yours!" Of a delicate man who would not control his appetite it was said, "One of his passions which he will not resist is for a particular dish, pungent, savoury, and multifarious, which sends him almost every night into Tartarus." Talking of the bad effects of late hours Sydney Smith said of a distinguished diner-out that it would be written on his tomb, "He dined late." "And died early," added Luttrell.”

Such people ought to be told that in playing tricks with their health they are committing a very great sin. "Perhaps," says Mr. Herbert Spencer, "nothing will so much hasten the time when body and mind will both be adequately cared for, as a diffusion of the belief that the preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality. Men's habitual words and acts imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to Nature's dictates, they regard simply as grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their dependents, and on future generations, are often as great as those caused by crime; yet they do not think themselves in any degree criminal. It is true that, in the case of drunkenness, the viciousness of a bodily transgression is recognized; but none appear to infer that, if this bodily transgression is vicious, so too is every bodily transgression. The fact is, that all breaches of the laws of health are physical sins."[1]

All you have to do is look at how those who are overweight pass this on to their children by lifestyle rather than genetics, and you can see the wisdom in what Hardy says here. This is a terrible sin that makes many simple parts of your life much harder, will cause you to live a shorter life, and will cause you to encourage such a situation for your children as well. It is harming them, and set them up for a life of troubles in this area. 

A man has a duty to look after himself at least enough so that he can carry his wife to safety. Which means that he needs to encourage her to do likewise, so that his effort is not in vain. He will better be able to serve the Lord to, if he shows in his outward frame that he is able to say no to the extra slice of cake, or can of coke. In fact, getting rid of soft drink all together would be all that most people would need to do to be a little healthier, well that and an afternoon walk five times a week. Try those two things and you’ll be amazed at the change in your health. 

I may even put my sermons on gluttony up on this page at some point. Because this is not a minor theme in the Bible, but it is a major oversight in the modern church. This is not a call for every man or woman to be a peak condition athlete, or even close to this. It is just a reminder that gluttony is the same as the sin of drunkenness. Both need to be repented of.

List of References

---

[1] E. J. Hardy. How to be Happy Though Married: Being a Handbook to Marriage (Kindle Location 3414). Kindle Edition.

Inside the Mindset of a Christian Zionist

 

I was inspired to write this post by a friend of mine and our discussions. He asked me what caused me to change my mind and move away from Dispensationalism, which is more commonly known as Christian Zionism.[1] So I shared with him briefly my journey out of the school of theology I was raised in:

“I was raised in mostly Pentecostal and Baptist churches (went to a Presbyterian church for a bit too, and visited the occasional other church). I walked away from the faith when I was about 12 or so, and came back to God when I was 22. I was raised in the kind of church environment where many people studied Revelation in light of events in the Middle East, and saw it all as needing to happen in relation to the modern nation of Israel.

I held some things as givens in my thinking when I came back to the Lord in 2006: the power of confession (you might call it name it and claim it). That Israel were God's chosen people, and we must bless them. That there would be a 7 year tribulation, and before that a rapture. And I even was taught to see the KJV as either the only Bible or at least the most trustworthy one. So, you can see the flavour of Christianity I was raised in was very much dispensational.

I held all these things to all just be givens. No brainers. I even remember seeing the war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 and saying to one of my non-Christian friends that the end was obviously very near. I had been trained to think that way.

Later in 2006 I came to faith. I plugged into a conservative evangelical church, and immediately built a relationship with one of the pastors who was not that much older than me. He was a former brethren. It was a non-denominational church.  

I also decided I had to read the Bible, fully. I had never done it before. I had only ever read segments of the Bible, but never the full thing. I remember going to pick up one of my favourite novels to read it and then looking at my Bible and thinking, “No, I am going to prioritize this from now on.” I still read novels, but from that moment I have read the Bible nearly every day of my life. My pastor recommended I read 4 chapters a day to do it in under a year. I did just that. For years I did that.

I read through the Bible just expecting to see all those things and saw none of them were explicitly taught, and while I still think a 7 year tribulation is possible, I don't think it is a given. It's a possibility, one that I now know could arguably be seen to be fulfilled in the AD 66 to 73 war between Judea and Rome, but I did not learn this till a little later. I realised the rest were nonsense as well. The rapture was nowhere to be seen, only the second coming was found, the power of confession was greatly exaggerated, I was shocked to discover this. I saw that there was only one people of God, only those who had faith in Jesus, called at times Israel, the church, the flock, the vine, the bride, etc, etc. I saw that all those things I had taken as givens were nonsense. I had at the time a KJV bible and a TNIV Bible. I read both of them in depth and saw that they told the same narrative, recorded the same events, and that the differences were minimal. I eventually got an ESV, which I still have, a couple of years after coming to faith (about 2008 I think). The Bible inoculated me against those ideas I had once seen as givens.

I read two Old Testament chapters and two new Testament chapters a day, for several years reading through the Bible multiple times. This helped the story or narrative structure of the Bible lock into place for me. Especially seeing the Old Testament next to the New. When you read two chapters of the Old and New next to each other every day for years, you start to see how the Old is fulfilled in the New really clearly. I recommend every believer should do this at least twice all the way through. It will open the Bible up to you.

I had some influence from my former brethren pastor, and I was at Bible College, so this reinforced for me how the Bible fits together as a progressive revelation. My lecturers had a broad range of views on end times and other things.  

I also read Goldsworthy[2] and that really clicked the Bible’s story line even more into place for me. I also read Walter T Kaiser on the promise plan of God, he helped cement it.

The Bible is a progressive narrative of how God calls his people out of the world and gathers them into his family. All the Dispensational stuff faded away. The Bible is not a series of dispensations, but a continuous story with a beginning, middle, climax and end. It has a clear hero, Jesus the son of God, clear villains and a clear narrative structure. Once you see how it all works together to tell one story of redemption the Bible becomes alive to you in a way that it isn’t when you just see it as a collection of books that are out of order.   

I toyed with Amillennialism for a bit, but realised that historic premill was the oldest, best supported in scripture view, and I just could not get around the idea, biblically, that it says Jesus returns to set up the Millennium. Historic premill overlaps heaps with Amill anyway. Because both views recognize the vast array of symbolism that is used in Revelation and other texts and tend to hold a more open hand with the when and the how for how these prophecies are fulfilled.

I was at Bible College for three or four years and developed a simple Revelation Bible study. I have taught it 3 or 4 times and am now recording it on YouTube. I have never had any dispy ever able to successfully counter my points on those core things, though many have tried. The historical Christian positions on their being one people of God, that we look forward to the second coming not the rapture, and many other similar issues are just much more able to be supported from scripture.  

And I have learnt along the way that many Christians, even those with very dogmatic views about the tribulation, and rapture, etc, have never read the Bible through all the way. Sure, some have. But I was surprised to learn that many had not. 

In the first year, or two, of being a Christian I saw all those things were not biblical that I once took for granted. I learnt about the various systems of eschatology at Bible College as well. I had a mix of theological influences at college.

I remember one night, I think in 2008, going to a Chuck Missler event with my girlfriend (now wife), two of my pastors, and another friend. It was my idea. I realised that night how much of his teaching was just speculative nonsense. How many of the predictions of these kinds of teachers have not come true? The identity of the beasts system in my lifetime has shifted from Communism to Islam, back to Communism and then again to Islam a couple of times. It once used to be the system of Napoleon. A historical perspective breaks the spell on these kinds of speculations. But the fact that my two pastors also saw it that way helped as well.

These were all milestones on my journey out of Dispensationalism.”

This is effectively what I sent to my friend, but I have expanded the detail in this rewriting.

But what I want to do now is give a bit of insight into the mindset of the Christian Zionist. I once was one, and am now not, so I have seen the camp from both sides of the fence. Now, there are roughly speaking two types of Christian Zionists: The first type is the theologically Dispensationalist version. This version has a deep theological system behind their worldview. I will mainly focus on this side. The second type is simply those who see Islam as the greatest threat to the West, and who to varying degrees align with Israel in its fight for this reason. There is great overlap in these two groups, of course, but they are not exactly the same.

How do Dispensationalists see the Bible? Well, it needs to be taken literally of course. I once heard a prominent preacher say about the word ‘city’ in Revelation 21 that, “Well of course this a city, because when we see the word city we know that means city!” He said this even though the passage just a few verses earlier also calls this city the bride. However, this exact same preacher when he was teaching on Revelation 13 (I listened to his whole Revelation series) immediately defaulted to noting that beast was a man of some type empowered by the devil. But the word beast literally means beast or wild animal. The Dispensationalist though does not see the contradiction here, because in their mind when something is meant to be taken as symbolic or literally is much more clear, than it is for many other interpreters. So, the Dispensationalist heavily leans to what they call a literalist reading, and looks down on typology, or symbolism being demonstrated too much.

There is a strength in this reading of the Bible, because much of it is meant to be literally taken. But as one of my lecturers once said, to take the Bible literally is to treat each type of literature it produces at face value, so when it is poetic treat it like poetry, when it is symbolic treat it as such, etc, etc. Dispensationalists think that theological thinkers of other schools just make stuff up basically. Which means they really struggle with how the Apostles quoted the Old Testament, but will usually argue for a dual spiritual and physical meaning for many of these phrases. For instance some will concede the Church is spiritual Israel and is included in the promises, but that the promises also need to be fulfilled for physical Israel. However, most see Israel and the Church as simply different entities. Joshua is not a type of Christ, he is just Joshua, for example. Canaan is not a type of heaven, it is the Jews homeland. Don’t confuse the two, they’d say. 

Christian Zionists see the physical nation of Israel as central to God’s plan. Some see the Church as a back up plan. Some see the Church as just as important but a different thing. Some believe that Israel is God’s bride and the Church is Jesus’ bride, which creates all sorts of theological weirdness, because God is one God in three persons, so this still makes God a polygamist. But this Israel focused centrality is the key thing under pinning the idea of the rapture and their perspective on end times. To the Christian Zionist the tribulation is Jacob’s trouble. Jacob is literally the nation of Israel - which you may note is not taking that name literally, because Jacob was a man – and the tribulation exists to refine Israel and bring about the end time revival.

To this end Christian Zionists believe it is their God-given duty to preserve the Jewish people until they are raptured and it is out of their hands. This is why nothing can shake their devotion to the godless nation of Israel. They simply see it as God’s call on their lives to bless these people by supporting them. They see all of your criticisms of Israel as at best unfair, as maybe, in fact probably, suspicious and motivated by antisemitism, and ultimately as an extension of the devil’s hatred for God’s special chosen nation. Some even believe that the Church should subject itself to Israel’s wishes, so as not to risk breaking the 11^th commandment, “Thou shalt bless Israel.”

Now, we know the New Testament does not teach any of this. In fact it explicitly says not to show partiality amongst the church (James 2:1-12), and it says the Church is God’s chosen people (1 Peter 2:9-10). But the Christian Zionist believes that these ideas were snuck into the Church by the Church fathers who basically sidelined the Jews after the Gentiles became a majority. There is absolutely nothing in the historical text to substantiate this, in fact that the early Church Fathers anathematised Marcion for having basically this idea, but many Dispensationalists and Christians Zionists believe that almost all of Church leaders in Church history were led astray on this issue, and the creators of Dispensationalism brought back the proper focus on Israel’s uniqueness. Any reference to the Church fathers to rebuke this is simply seen as more evidence of their position being the correct one.

Dispensationalists also kind of see the uniqueness of Israel as helping unlock the “code” of how to understand the Bible and history. Everything bad that has ever happened to the Jewish people in history is simply viewed through the lens of the devil having a unique desire to destroy them, and their survival is seen as the most powerful proof of God’s existence and preservation of them as his special people. Never mind the fact that terrifying and bad things have happened to many peoples and that many other peoples have survived throughout history as well, this is how the Dispensationalist sees the issue. The continued existence of many other people’s in dispersed lands (Roma, Rohingya, Kurds, etc, etc) is simply a coincidence, or not even acknowledged or known. History is one long conflict between the devil and God for the soul of the Jewish people. And in their worldview it will culminate in the redemption of Israelis on a national scale. A revival of the whole country.

This is why Dispensationalists or Christian Zionists like to say very often, “God is not finished with Israel…” The entire of plan of world history is leading to their reconstitution as a nation and as a saved people. Never mind the fact that the Bible teaches that God is not finished with virtually most other people groups either, but is slow in brining judgement to give all a chance to be saved, the Dispensationalist still sees Israel in this category as unique. Many of them actually see the rest of the world as the antagonists of this goal. While noting the nations are a mission field, they ultimately see the fate on pretty much every nation, especially the Muslim nations, is to gather together at the battle of Armageddon to do battle against God’s Holy people, Israel, and to be destroyed all in one go.

This is why these Christian Zionists are so keyed into every hint of war in and around Israel. Any conflict could be the start of the final battle. In fact, they believe preachers should be teaching this, so that people are prepared. Some Christian Zionists even believe that you will miss the rapture if you do not believe in the rapture itself. Though, to be fair, this view is rare. For most the rapture is for the faithful followers of Jesus.

The Dispensationalist believes they have in these Biblical prophecies the road map of future history to come. They believe other Christians who see it differently are simply misguided, though some would see us as deceivers. In their worldview, you should be regularly warning people about these signs so that they may be ready for the end. We can all agree that we should be ready for the return of Christ at any time. But the Dispensationalist really believes it is literally imminent, any day now. Not that it could come on any day, but that it is going to happen very soon, so you better start blessing Israel and being otherwise faithful or you might find yourself in that battle of Armageddon on the wrong side.

Some Dispensationalists even see the New Testament as not being all for Christians. Some believe books like 1 Peter, James and Hebrews are written for Jews alone, or for Jews in the tribulation. Forget the fact that 1 Peter refers to his readers as Christians, he also refers to those in dispersion, as does James, hence these books are removed from your repertoire for showing the Church and Israel are one. All the Hebrew imagery and references about God’s people being applied to the Church in such books is meant for these Jewish Christians. Though, to be fair, not all Dispensationalists go this far.

The centrality of Israel is fixed in their worldview. It is not simply an add on. It is central. Some might say they hold it with an open hand, but when you press down, or when society presses down on this issue, you will see that have placed the nation of Israel in a position in evangelicalism similar to how Catholics view Mary. For some if you don’t affirm this you are to be avoided as one who has been over taken by the philosophies of the world. 

The type of Christian Zionist who is less theologically driven sees himself and the West in a struggle for life and death against Islam, and thinks the Christian who does not get behind Israel is simply blind to this danger. For them it is all about a clash of civilisations and those who are not as keen on intervention in the Middle East are just not awake. Once the Islamists take back Palestine, they are coming for Australia, or at least Europe. They really believe Israel is protecting the West from Islamists. They even have the memes to prove it: 

Some Christian Zionists will quibble about aspects of my rendition of their perspective here, as they have a broad range of views on some of these points. But in general this is how they think on the issue of Israel. 

But the good news is this view is diminishing. Most Christians see the Jewish people as any other people, a lost nation that needs evangelizing. But for some the unique place of an unsaved nation in the plan of God for this world will remain a core tenet of their faith, and they will not cease to assert that Romans 11 teaches this very thing. It does not but we will come back to that in another post.

---

[1] To be accurate these are not necessarily the exact same thing. Many Christian Zionists don’t even know the world Dispensationalism. There is great overlap though.

[2] Gospel and Kingdom, read it.

We are in the Middle of Armageddon

 

This is a guest post written by a friend of mine, he has published it in several places and I have published it here with his permission. While I do not hold precisely to the same view as Jereth, I see a lot to agree with in this post, and it goes a long way to showing that you can read the prophecies of the end of days in the Bible in a way that does not cause you to cheer for forever wars in the Middle East on behalf of Israel, while simultaneously claiming that you really want peace. I commend this article to you. 

I also have a link here to a sermon titled: Joseph's Dream and the Dragon, A Christmas Tale, to highlight how Revelation 12 is best read as referring to the fulfilment of Christ's victory on the cross, and the devil's response of anger to that. You will see this aligns broadly with Jereth's perspective on how to read such prophecies. 

Jereth Kok [22 June 2025]

As I write these words, war has broken out, yet again, in the middle-east. This time it is an open confrontation between the nations of Iran and Israel. In my short lifetime of under 50 years, there have been perhaps two dozen wars in the middle-east, though it can be difficult to make a precise count because of the way that some of the wars go on for decades or more and blend into each other.

Whenever war breaks out in the middle-east, a subculture of evangelical Christians tends to get excited. Let me say clearly that I personally know and love a number of people who are within this subculture, and I mean no insult to them. Generally speaking, we could call this subculture the “dispensational school” of prophetic interpretation. Their doctrinal system has been around for a bit more than a century, with a dominance in England (initially) and America; especially in the Baptist churches and among the cohort of evangelicals who were born before 1970. Their authentic conviction is that the Bible contains specific prophecies about the modern-day middle-east.

I belong to a very different “school”, the world of reformed theology, which reads the Bible quite differently. We would trace our theological heritage through the mainline Protestant reformers (eg. Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox) and ultimately back to Saint Augustine. When people in my school see people in the other school getting excited about the latest middle-eastern war, we tend to react (sometimes meanly) with eye-rolling, chuckling, cringing, or some combination of these three things.

I think it would be fair to say that quite a few people in the reformed school have some degree of familiarity with dispensational theology (either from the outside, or in some cases from the inside, having “switched teams” in the past), and therefore at least some basic understanding of why they view the contemporary middle-east the way they do. Though certainly, many people in “mainline” reformed traditions would look at dispensationalism with utter bewilderment and confusion, having absolutely no comprehension of how they read the Bible and its prophetic texts. It would be like trying to decipher a book in a foreign language—I have had a number of conversations with such folk over the years, even some pastors, who have expressed their inability to even begin to get their heads around dispensational readings of the Bible.

Something that has dawned on me in the last month, a bit like a penny drop, is that this works the same in the other direction! I have realised that probably most dispensationalists look at our way of reading the Bible with utter confusion, like trying to decipher a foreign language. What seems self-evident to one camp is barely comprehensible to the other.

With this realisation, I am writing this for people who would think to themselves “How on earth can some Christians look at the middle-east and not see biblical prophecy playing out before our very eyes?” My goal is not to persuade them to change their minds and see it “our way”, but more modestly, to give a window into why we see things so differently than them, and to help reduce that sense of bewilderment.

 

Some notes on my personal background

For transparency: my theological formation happened within reformed theological circles. The biggest influences on how I read the Bible as a whole, and particularly the Old Testament, would be two Australian men (who are both pastors and theologians)—Graeme Goldsworthy and Andrew Reid. While I accessed Goldsworthy though his books, I had the privilege of sitting under Andrew’s personal teaching when I was at Bible college. Andrew taught me two units of Old Testament and one unit of hermeneutics.

I also had Peter Adam as a pastor as a young adult, and his Bible teaching was a significant influence on me during formative years. Lastly, I did a semester unit on Isaiah at Bible College, meaning that this is the one book of the Old Testament where I have truly done a “deep dive” into the commentaries and other scholarship. I want to stress that what I gained from the men I have named here has been primarily a general approach to understanding Scripture. The specifics of what I write do not necessarily come directly from them.

Also for transparency, most of my theological formation happened around people who would fall into the “amillennial” camp of eschatology. If forced to select a position, I would probably pick amillennialism too, though I am fairly agnostic about these precise definitions and avoid pinning myself down to a particular system.

 

The great prophetic battle

If there is a middle-eastern Armageddon, a “war to end all wars”, then this would be how it runs:

Jerusalem is surrounded on all sides by the innumerable hosts of foreign nations, who have allied themselves together with the express intention of causing its destruction. It is a dire situation, a hopeless situation for the city of God, as the armies prepare to advance. There is no escape route for the vastly outnumbered defenders, no reinforcements on the way, no ally who can be called for assistance … But at the last moment, the Lord himself descends from heaven and intervenes, routing the assembled nations, and granting deliverance to the besieged city and its inhabitants. Certain defeat, transformed into glorious victory!

There can scarcely be a more epic scene described anywhere in the Bible.

What is interesting is that the prophetic books contain multiple instances of this scene. We see it described most notably in Joel chapter 3, in Zechariah chapters 12-14, and in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. There are minor differences among the alternate versions, as well as plenty of similarities. In Joel, the nations are gathered in the “Valley of Jehoshaphat”, possibly identified with the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. There God executes wrath on the armies accompanied by signs in the heavens.

In Zechariah, vivid details are given about the Lord striking the enemy with confusion and plague (Zech 12:4; 14:12-15), as well as inducing great geological and cosmic changes (14:4-10). Ezekiel’s account is the longest; in it, several invading nations are named (Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, Beth-Togarmah, Persia, Cush, Put) under the leadership of King Gog, “of the land of Magog”.[1] Similar to Zechariah, there will be geological and meteorological disturbances, and the armies will be struck with confusion such that they turn on each other (Eze 38:19-22). After God finishes massacring them, he calls on the birds and the beasts to come and feast on the corpses of the slain. (Morbid!)

Common to all the accounts is the fact that it is God who summons and gathers the hostile nations to do battle. “I will gather all the nations and bring them down”, “For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle”, “I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up … and lead you against the mountains of Israel”. The nations do not act autonomously, of their own free will; they are doing God’s bidding. Ezekiel even says that God will forcibly pull them along with hooks through their jaws (38:4). God determines the location for the battle, God brings the combatants in, and God triumphs over them. It is a work of God from start to finish.

What are we to make of the fact that there are three similar, yet non-identical accounts of a climactic battle of the nations? Are these three separate events or three versions of the same event? And more importantly, the real burning question, when is it going to happen?

The fact that three different biblical prophets seem to describe almost the same story, with minor differences, tells us that what we are in fact looking at here is a biblical motif. In other words, it is a theme which had become so powerful in the minds of the ancient Hebrews that they came back to it again and again in their writings. A biblical motif that is well known to us is that of God as shepherd; it recurs over and over in the Bible, in both Old and New Testaments.

Certain biblical motifs originated with a specific event in history. The divine parting of the waters of the Red Sea is one such motif. It actually happened in Exodus chapter 14, but the experience was so powerful that the prophets and psalmists keep going back to it over and over again (eg. Psalm 77:19-20; Isaiah 51:10; 2 Samuel 22:16). In Isaiah 11:15-16, Isaiah says that God will dry up the Euphrates River so that his people can walk back across on dry ground from their captivity in Assyria. Now, there is no record of this literally happening; this is in fact Isaiah repurposing the powerful imagery of the Red Sea crossing, to say that the return of exiles from Assyria will be as miraculous and divinely ordained as the exodus from Egypt.

Like the Red Sea parting, the motif of the “battle of Armageddon”, the gathering of nations and their armies to do final battle with God at Jerusalem, actually derives from a historical event. This event is described in the book of Isaiah, chapters 36-37.[2] The army of King Sennacherib of Assyria had come to lay siege to Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. Assyria was the world superpower of the day (8^th century BC) and fielded a superpower army that Hezekiah could not have possibly defeated; under ordinary circumstances Jerusalem should have easily fallen.

Isaiah 36 tells the events of the siege in suspenseful detail, right up to where the Assyrian military commander taunted Jerusalem’s soldiers in Hebrew, telling them that they fate would be “to eat their own dung and drink their own urine”.

Sennacherib himself wrote an account of the event which has survived to the present day.[3] He said:

“As for the king of Judah, Hezekiah, who had not submitted to my authority, I besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified cities, along with many smaller towns … As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates.”

Sennacherib failed to conquer Jerusalem; his own account does not say why. In Scripture, we find out that after Isaiah pleaded to God on behalf of Judah, God went out and annihilated the 185,000-strong Assyrian army. Ancient Greek historians inform us that the army was stricken with a plague. And thus, by miraculous divine intervention, Jerusalem went from the verge of defeat to witnessing the glory (and mercy) of God’s deliverance.

Everybody who lived through this event had it seared into their minds. They told the marvellous story to their children, and their children told it to their own children. Like other great events in Israel’s history, such as the exodus from Egypt and David’s victories over the Philistines, it became embedded in the collective psyche of the people.

And thus, a narrative of the world’s most powerful armies assembled at Jerusalem, only to be personally defeated by God, came to be a biblical motif that would find its way into the writings of the Hebrew prophets. It is important to note that Assyria was in fact brought to the battle by God himself—we are told this in Isaiah chapters 7-8. Their ultimate downfall was also prophesied in Isaiah 10. The key elements of the historical episode were picked up by the prophets,[4] who use it to portray the climactic confrontation between God and his enemies. In doing this, they embellished the motif with apocalyptic imagery involving cosmic events and great geologic upheavals which give way to cosmic renewal.

What the prophets Joel, Zechariah, and Ezekiel are saying is this: a great day of judgment and salvation is coming. This day of God will harken back to the story of Hezekiah that we all know well: God will assemble all his enemies in one place, do battle with them before the eyes of his people, triumph over them in a way that turns the universe upside down, and then usher in a new world. The experience of Hezekiah occurred in history, but this event will occur beyond history, at the end of days. To use theological jargon, the prophets used the familiar motif to describe the eschaton.

The Israelite readers of these prophets would have known exactly what they meant; there would have been no mystery. They knew the story of Hezekiah’s miraculous deliverance, and the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, because their parents had told it to them. When they read the scroll of Ezekiel, or of Zechariah, or Joel, they would have instantly recognised the echoes of the familiar story.

 

Enter Jesus Christ

The only outstanding question is, when and how does the eschaton occur?

Foundational to the Christian reading of Scripture (as we reformed see it) is the presupposition that the Bible is a unity. It is not two books (one with 39 chapters and another with 27 chapters) written to two groups of people, but one single book with 66 chapters written to one single group of people. From this presupposition about the Bible’s unity it necessarily follows that no part of the Old Testament can be properly interpreted without the direction of the inspired writings of the apostles, found in the New Testament.

The apostles teach us that Christ is the fulfilment of the law and the prophets (Matt 5:17), Christ is the one to whom the whole of (Old Testament) Scripture points forward (Luke 24:27), Christ is the end point of prophecy (1 Peter 1:10-12). He is the mystery “hidden” in the pages of the Old Testament (Eph 3:4-9), the target of the Abrahamic promises and the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:15-16).

Relevantly to this topic, Jesus Christ is identified by the apostles as “the cornerstone in Zion”, that is, the Holy City of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount (1 Pet 2:4-6; Acts 4:11). They got this idea from Christ, who identified himself this way during his ministry (see John 2:19-22 and John 4:21-23).

So the New Testament teaches us that Jesus personally embodies Zion, and the uniform testimony of the apostles is that in his person, and in his death and resurrection from the dead, Jesus brought the eschaton to our world. Accordingly, when Christ had ascended his throne, the apostles proclaimed that the “last days” (Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2; James 5:3) and the “end of the ages” (1 Cor 10:11; Heb 9:26) had arrived. If we believe the words of the apostles, then the eschaton is not future; it began 2000 years ago.

What this means is that it is an error to look for a fulfilment of eschatological prophecies around the year AD 2000, or even further in the future. This includes the eschatological prophecies of Joel, Ezekiel and Zechariah about Zion (Jerusalem) and the climactic battle that occurs there. The right place to look is to Christ and his actions 2000 years ago.[5]

When we look in the right place, what we find is that the nations of the world did in fact gather together to do battle against God at Jerusalem in the first century AD:

“Why did the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontus Pilate, along with the nations...” Acts 4:25-27.

When Jesus was on the cross, he was confronted by all the nations of the world, the assembled enemies of God. Even more than that, he was confronted by more sinister enemies, Satan himself with his legions of demons (Luke 22:53; John 13:27, 14:30). This was the great clash of armies, the ultimate pitched battle, cosmic in scope and scale. This was true Armageddon.

The result of the battle? As foretold by the prophets, God intervened and overthrew all the forces, human and non-human, that were arrayed against his King. Christ struck every single one of his enemies down and trampled on their heads. He emerged out of the grave on Sunday a victorious Warrior-King, his vanquished enemies humiliated beneath him.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Colossians 2:13-15.

The language that Paul uses here is military; at the battle on the cross, Christ broke the armies, broke their weapons, and triumphed. “Putting to open shame” references the ancient military practice of a victorious king forcing his defeated foes to kneel or lie prostrate before him, stripped of their weapons, armour and dignity. And again:

               “When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives.” Ephesians 4:8.

Paul makes another military reference here, that of a victorious general leading prisoners of war on a march of humiliation. In Christ’s case, this is said to have happened at his ascension into heaven, and the POWs were the minions of the devil whom he had crushed.

This is good news! The great battle of Armageddon has happened, and we know the result—Christ has won.

We should bear in mind that when we look for Armageddon somewhere else, we will inevitably diminish the magnitude of the battle that Christ fought and won. His battle is second to none. It was larger than the battle between Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, larger than the battle between Hitler and Stalin, larger than the battle between Israel and Iran, larger than a full-scale nuclear exchange between the USA and USSR. Next to the battle that Christ fought for us, even nuclear war is like two children going at it with nerf guns. How dare we think to ourselves that we have spotted a war somewhere in the world that is more needful of our attention and study than the one that Christ already engaged in!

 

Christ for us and in us

I cannot stress enough that Armageddon, the great battle of God, is a past event; it is essentially over. But several of my favourite Bible teachers over the years have a saying that I am fond of: “we are in the mopping up phase”. In most wars, even after the decisive battle is concluded, there are still groups of enemy troops here and there. Some of these left-over elements put up a fierce fight, perhaps because they now have nothing to lose, or they know that nothing good awaits them once they are captured. They may be prepared to fight savagely to the death.

Hence, a “mopping up phase” where the victorious army has to go round quashing these last pockets of resistance. For us, it has been a very long phase (in human terms), two millennia and counting. The New Testament informs us that this closing phase of the war has two main spheres of operations:

·        Spreading the gospel among the nations, by which we steadily increase the territorial gains of Christ’s kingdom

·        Fighting sin and false teaching in the church and in our own personal lives (eg. Eph 6:10-18; 2 Cor 10:3-6), by which we suppress the enemy’s activity inside already conquered territory.

These are serious tasks, which carry ongoing risks of injury and casualties. I think that Ephesians 6:10-18 should heighten our sense of how difficult and risky this really is—even though Armageddon is past, the tail end of it continues, and is fraught with danger. We dare not take off our Kevlar because bullets still zip through the air.

Nevertheless, because the overall outcome of the war is known, the church goes about its duty in a spirit of triumph:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16.

Paul goes to another military allusion, this time, to the victory parade of a triumphant army. As we do the work of advancing Christ’s victory, even as we continue fighting the remnants of the enemy, we have the privilege of marching in Christ’s victory parade.

 

Okay, what about Revelation?

I am confident that I have presented an understanding of biblical prophecy, and the great eschatological battle scenes in particular, which dominated the Christian church between at least the time of Saint Augustine and the early modern period. There have always been a minority of interpreters who held to alternative views (for example, that Zechariah 14 refers to historical events before the birth of Christ), but most Christians throughout history have sought to apply the prophecies Christologically, and to the daily experience of the church, as I’ve outlined above.

People will still ask, “What about the book of Revelation, and the wars that it describes?” It is true that Christian interpretation of Revelation has been much more varied. For myself, I do not find that anything in Revelation differs substantially from the framework that I’ve described here, and indeed, it would raise alarm bells if one book of the Bible presented a teaching that was wildly divergent from the other 65 books.

The pivotal chapter of Revelation which concerns warfare, is chapter 12. Here, we find a narrative which is fully consistent with what I’ve just described. The great and decisive battle between God and his enemies happens on the cross:

“For the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:10-11.

At the conclusion of the main battle, waged by the blood of Jesus (his death on the cross for our sin) and the word of testimony (the proclamation of the gospel), a defeated Satan is deprived of his former status (cf. John 12:31; Luke 11:22).[6] Knowing that certain doom awaits, he engages in last-ditch warfare against the church (Rev 12:13-17), the same “mopping up” (from our point of view) warfare described by Paul in Ephesians 6 and other places. Subsequent chapters reveal that this warfare is fierce, but cannot alter the final outcome.

Christ’s battle against the nations is once again described in chapters 19 and 20. Of particular interest is the fact that these chapters deliberately allude to Ezekiel 38-39, with the call to the birds to feast on the corpses of the slain enemy army (Rev 19:17-18) and a reference to “Gog and Magog” at the head of the assembled nations (Rev 20:8).

Once more time, in Revelation 20:7-10, we see that familiar motif inspired by the showdown between the Lord and Sennacherib: an innumerable host surrounding God’s city and poised to take it. And then, out of what would ordinarily be an unwinnable situation, victory ensues as God strikes down the entire horde in an instant.

I would say that chapters 19 and 20 give us a unified portrayal of Christ’s battle with and victory over all his enemies (human and non-human), at the cross and at his second coming. We can debate the fine details of where exactly the millennium fits into this picture, but my opinion is that the battle in Revelation 19 cannot be untangled from the battle in Revelation 20—they are one and the same, especially given that John very clearly unifies them using the allusions to Ezekiel 38-39.

 

And that’s a wrap. Having looked at the descriptions of Armageddon in the Bible and seen the Christological readings given to us by the apostles, I can honestly say that I am not left with any sense of being sold an inferior product, or that there is a missing piece of the puzzle. For me, and others in my interpretative “school”, we feel that we have a complete picture in front of us, in every detail. I never find myself reading the Old Testament prophecies about Armageddon and wondering “so when is this going to happen?” or feeling an urge that I must link them up with something specific that I’ve seen on the news, whether in the middle-east or anywhere else in the world. I feel entirely satisfied that I already know what the prophecies are about, and what (or rather, who) they point to.

If you are somebody who comes from the other “school” of interpretation, I hope that reading this has helped to “demystify” people like me. I hope that it is now a bit easier for you to understand how I, and Christians like me, can watch a news report about air raids in the middle-east and then flick right on to the cricket scores, without any great need to immediately pick up my Bible and cross-reference it against an Old Testament prophecy.

 

---

[1] These nations correspond mostly to those which descended from Japheth (located to the north of Israel, see Genesis 10:2-5), plus two African nations descended from Ham (Cush and Put), and Persia. The coalition of nations can therefore be said to converge from the north, south and east—all three directions—in other words, the whole world.

[2] These chapters are in fact the “lynchpin” in Isaiah, recognised by commentators as holding the first and second halves of the book together.

[3] It is written on the “Taylor Prism”. I photographed it at the British Museum when I visited.

[4] The picture of confusion and the enemy armies turning on each other in Zechariah 14 and Ezekiel 38 probably derives from a very similar event, described in 2 Chronicles 20, when Jerusalem was surrounded by another coalition of nations who ended up killing each other after divine intervention. Because the two events were so similar, it is not surprising that the details would become merged together in the prophetic motif.

[5] It is notable how the New Testament authors explicitly link the vision of Zechariah 12-14 (it is a single vision) with the events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus: see John 19:37 and Mark 14:27. This gives us a clear indication as to how we ought to properly understand the prophecy, namely Christologically.

[6] These verses, like Colossians 2:13-15, reveal to us exactly how Christ was able to overcome Satan in battle. Satan’s most effective weapon was his ability to accuse us with the “record of debt that stood against us”. By cancelling our sin on the cross, Christ disarmed Satan of that terrible, hell-inflicting weapon.

Revelation 5 – The Glory of the Risen Lamb

 

You can watch the Bible study based on this study on Monday nights from 8PM to 9PM, AEST, on this channel here.  

Tonight, we are looking at Revelation 5, it is important to remember with this book, perhaps more than others, that the chapter divisions were not put in there by John, but over a thousand years later[1], so the chapter divisions are to some degree arbitrary. Revelation 4 and 5 are really one act, or scene, and the rest of the book of Revelation unfolds what happens in this scene with the opening of the scrolls.

Revelation 4 takes us into the throne room of God, and chapter 5 takes us further through what is happening in this throne room. We will discuss this in the study, but note that it is not correct to ask exactly when this event happened, because it is happening in heaven, outside of time, and gives us a window into the authority of the Father and the Son to redeem his people, but we will come back to that.

Revelation 5 is a pivotal chapter in the Book of Revelation, offering profound insights into the heavenly realm and the unfolding of God's divine plan. This chapter is a continuation of the vision that the Apostle John received while exiled on the island of Patmos. It presents a vivid and symbolic depiction of events that are both awe-inspiring and deeply significant for understanding the ultimate triumph of good over evil. I think once we have finished going through this chapter you will see that the imagery of Revelation is not as scary as it can appear at times.

Here is some general historical information and Biblical information before we look into the passage. The scroll in this chapter has seven seals, a legal will in the Roman Empire at the time of John also had seven seals, because it was signed and sealed by seven witnesses.

Here are some passages also which will be useful in understanding this passage:

·       Regarding the imagery of the horn look at Deuteronomy 33:17, Numbers 23:22, Psalm 92:10, 2 Samuel 22:3, Jeremiah 48:25

·       Note 1 Peter 1:18-21 and compare it with Revelation 5:9-14

·       In Daniel 12:4, 9 the contents of the seals were closed up until the end of time. Here they are unsealed.

·       Note that John’s imagery is heavily reliant on the Old Testament, this is consistent throughout Revelation, and I cannot stress it enough.

 

1.     Just to recap, what was the overall theme or teaching or Revelation 4?

 

2.     What significant teaching in chapters 1-3 relates to Revelations 4 and 5?

 

3.     Why do you think verse one stresses that the one seated on the throne held the scroll in his right hand? Why seven seals?

 

4.     Read verses 2-3, isn’t it interesting that John mentions that a strong angel asked if anyone could open it, and no one could?

 

 

5.     Why would John weep loudly because he thought no one could open it?

 

 

6.     What did the lion of Judah overcome?

 

 

7.     Is there any significance to calling Jesus the “root of Jesse”? What does root mean?

 

 

8.     Verse 6 makes it very clear that John is still in the same place as he was in heaven in chapter four. I want to ask this question: why do you think John is told about the root of Jesse, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and then he looks and sees a dead lamb?

 

9.     Verses 7-14 are extremely significant for your Christology, that is a theology Jesus Christ and his work. How is Jesus able to take the scroll from the hand of the one holding it? What is the response of those in heaven? Why is this response significant?

 

 

10.  According to verse ten what is our future on earth?

 

11.  So what is the overall theme of this passage?

 

 

12.  Putting Revelation 4 and 5 together what is the overall teaching of these two passages?

 

13.  Why all the emphasis on the Father and the Son and not on the Holy Spirit? (John 15:26-27).

 

 

14.  Is there anything which you do not understand in this chapter so far?

 

15.  How do chapters 4 and 5 influence how we interpret the rest of Revelation?

 

List of References

---

[1] The chapter divisions in the Bible were introduced in the early 13th century by Stephen Langton, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 to 1228. He added these divisions to the Latin Vulgate, which was the dominant version of the Bible at that time. These chapter divisions were later transferred to the Hebrew Bible. Before this, some form of chapter divisions existed in manuscripts dating back to the fourth century. However, the chapter divisions as we know them today were standardized by Langton's work.

The verse divisions were added later, in 1551, by Robert Estienne (also known as Stephanus) in his fourth edition of the Greek New Testament 2. The first translation to use these verse divisions was the Geneva Bible in 1557 for the New Testament and in 1560 for the entire Bible 2.