The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (193 page)

Although progressive dispensationalists affirm an inaugurated eschatology and view the church as equal members among the people of God, they continue to maintain the classic dispensational tenets of a future for ethnic Israel, the thousand-year reign, and the rapture of the church prior to the tribulation.
²³⁹
This view represents a more viable approach than classic dispensationalism, but by maintaining the Israel/church distinction mandating a
pretribulational rapture, the approach effectively renders the majority of the book of Revelation irrelevant for Christians today.

A second form of a futurist approach, modified or moderate futurism, is commonly associated with historical premillennialism because of its affinities with the
chiliasm
of the early church.
²⁴⁰
G. E. Ladd is credited as having pioneered the modern articulation of historical premillennialism as an approach for interpreting Revelation, but this approach has been adopted or adapted by a number of scholars that include R. Gundry, R. Mounce, L. Morris, and W. Grudem. The view is similar to dispensationalism in that it affirms a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, but it departs from the dispensational insistence on a strict literalism, the rigorous distinction between Israel and the church, the chronology of end-time events, and the belief in a pretribulational rapture.

While dispensationalists argue that the second coming of Christ will involve a
secret
return for the church prior to the tribulation followed by his
visible
return after seven years, modified futurists affirm
only one
return of Christ to earth that allows the church to persevere through the tribulation.
²⁴¹
This is largely due to the inauguration of the new covenant making all believers in Jesus the spiritual descendants of Abraham and therefore covenant members of the people of God—true Israel.
²⁴²
What is more, the relationship between the past, present, and future is more flexible among modified futurists. Ladd, for example, interpreted chaps. 1—3 as pertaining to the first century, chaps.
4—6
as recurring throughout church history, and the events beginning in chap. 7 as referring to the future tribulation.
²⁴³

Modified futurism and historical premillennialism are appealing because they enable interpreters to maintain the future orientation of John's visions while avoiding the literalism of dispensationalism that limits the applicability of Revelation to today's church.

Conclusion
A recent trend among commentators incorporates elements of all or some of the approaches described above into an eclectic blend.
²⁴⁴
An advantage of this strategy is that it does not force an interpreter to subscribe rigidly to any one of the major interpretive approaches.

At the same time eclectic views are exceedingly diverse. H. Giesen recognized the futuristic and idealistic nature of John's vision, yet he is leery of their tendency toward abstraction. This led him to prefer the concrete historical nature of preterism coupled with the tradition-historical approach of scholars such as W. Bousset, R. H. Charles, and E. Lohmeyer.
²⁴⁵

Another commentator, G. Beale, labeled his eclectic approach a “redemptive-historical form of modified idealism.”
²⁴⁶
His preference for idealism stems from his view that the symbols in John's visions are “transtemporal” in the sense that they apply to events throughout the church age.

Yet another premillennial commentator, G. Osborne, made the futurist position the dominant aspect of his form of eclecticism because he believed that John's visions “were primarily intended to describe the events that will end world history.”
²⁴⁷
This variety of approaches demonstrates the difficulty of assigning every scholar to one of the major approaches to interpreting Revelation surveyed above.

The relationship between the historical, symbolic, and eschatological aspects represented in the book of Revelation will continue to exercise the minds of interpreters of the Apocalypse.
²⁴⁸
Since the book itself explicitly claims to be about future events surrounding the return of Christ (1:19; 22:18-20), preference should be given to a form of the futurist approach.

UNIT-BY-UNIT DISCUSSION

I. Prologue (1:1-8)

The prologue informs the reader that this is a revelatory book containing a vision of Jesus, which has his return as the content, John as the seer, and the churches as the recipients. God gave this revelation in order that all his servants may know what must happen in the near future. The divine authority of this vision is expressed by a chain of intermediaries: God→Jesus→angel→John→churches. John affirms the veracity of this vision by submitting it as eyewitness testimony regarding everything he saw and heard.

After promising a blessing to the one who reads, hears, and obeys the vision (1:4—6), John sent greetings from each member of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (symbolized by “the seven spirits”). Revelation 1:7 speaks of the visible and physical return of Christ by fusing Dan 7:13 with Zech 12:10. The prologue ends with an assertion from God the Father that he is the beginning and the end of history as the Eternal and Almighty One.

II. Vision One (on Patmos): The Glorified Christ Who Investigates His Churches (1:9-3:22)

A. The Inaugural Vision of Jesus Christ (1:9-20)
The first vision opens with an account of John's call to prophesy and the inaugural vision of Jesus in his glory standing among his churches. John, while on Patmos, was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard a loud voice commanding him to write down the ensuing vision for seven churches
in Asia Minor. He turned to see the voice speaking to him, only to discover the glorified Lord Jesus. The sight of him stretched the boundaries of John's language as he attempted to describe Jesus using similes drawn from OT theophanies.

Overwhelmed, John fell at Jesus’ feet as though dead. Christ responded by placing his hand on John and announcing that he is the first and the last, the living Resurrected One, and the one with authority over death and life. Jesus then explained that the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches of Asia, and the seven stars in his hand are their angels. This identification transitions from the inaugural vision of Christ to the messages intended for the seven churches.

B. The Messages to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor (2:1—3:22)
The messages to the seven churches in chaps. 2—3 represent the most familiar portion of the book of Revelation and provide the most practical instructions for believers. Although these messages address situations historically and locally confined to those seven churches, they apply universally to all churches throughout all time. Because these letters diverge from the normal models of Greco-Roman epistolary writing, they are closer to the genre classification of a prophetic oracle.

The messages begin with an address to the angel of the particular church (cf. 1:20),
²⁴⁹
a command to write, and a predication describing a characteristic of Christ drawn from the inaugural vision and relevant to that specific church (2:1,8,12,18; 3:1a, 7,14). The official body of the message begins with the “I know”
(oida)
speech that includes either commendations or accusations or both (2:2,9,13,19; 3:1, 8b, 15). Jesus then admonished the churches by either encouraging them to continue to persevere in a certain kind of conduct or by calling them to repent, accompanied by a warning of negative consequences in case of disobedience. The final two elements of these messages include a prophetic appeal to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches (2:7a, 11a, 17a, 29; 3:6,13,22) and promise of deliverance for those who overcome (2:7b, 11b, 17b, 26; 3:5,12,21).

III. Vision Two (in Heaven): The Divine Court Proceedings and the Trial of the Nations (4:1-16:21)

A. Transition from. Patmos to Heaven (4:1—2)
John's entrance through the threshold of heaven signals a major transition into a new vision that also constitutes a thematic
transition from a juridical investigation of the churches to an investigation of the nations (4:1-2).

B. Worship Around the Throne (4:3—11)
The scene radically transforms from the barren rocky isle of Patmos into the heavenly throne room. God's throne is in the center of a series of concentric circles, depicting his sovereignty over the cosmos. In describing his vision John drew from other prophetic visions involving God's throne (e.g., Ezek 1:5,10,18,22). John's vision of the heavenly throne room offers an apocalyptic perspective contrasting imperial pretensions of cosmic sovereignty with the true king and judge of the universe.
²⁵⁰
The divine council convenes for the purpose of installing an eschatological judge worthy to prosecute God's judgment on the earth's inhabitants.

C. The Divine Courtroom (5:1—14)
The courtroom scene continues in chap. 5 with the introduction of the scroll and the Lamb. The scene depicts the installment of Christ as the Davidic King and his enthronement at the right hand of God as well as his commission as the eschatological judge who is the only one worthy to unleash God's judgment upon humanity. A sealed scroll is brought, and an angel announces the search for one worthy to break the seals and to open them. After an extensive search throughout the created order, only one is found (5:2—4). The Lamb, the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah, is deemed worthy to take the scroll and to assume his role as king and judge (5:5—7). The remainder of the chapter is taken up with the adulation of the Lamb. This chapter sets the stage for the judgment of the nations.

D. Preliminary Investigative Judgments (6:1—17)
In the same way that Revelation 5 focuses on the worthiness of the Lamb to judge, chaps. 6—16 demonstrate the justness of his judgment on humanity. The scroll with seven seals rests securely in the hands of the Lamb who proceeds to break open the seals. Since the contents of the scroll cannot be read until all the seals are broken, the seals are best understood as preliminary judgments. The trials introduced by the seals represent the “birth pains” occurring prior to coming days of tribulation that will precede the return of Christ (see Mark 13:8,19).

The four horsemen constitute a pattern of conquest, war, famine, and death (6:1—8; see Matt 24:7). The martyred believers and their appeal for justice (6:9—11) indicate that during this time God's people will continue to endure persecution. The seals also represent a progressive intensification leading up to a time of cosmic upheaval as indicated by the breaking of the sixth seal. The seals initiate the preliminary judgments against the nations and include warnings directed to covenant violators in the respective churches. These judgments precede the seven trumpets that constitute the great tribulation.

E. First Interlude: The Protective Sealing of God's People (7:1—17)
Prior to the tribulation, the first of several interludes interwoven between the series of septets assures the believers of their protection from divine judgment and ultimate salvation (7:1—17). John placed the interlude between the breaking of the sixth and seventh seals (see 6:12; 8:1). The interlude is divided into two separate but related segments (7:1—8,9—17)- The first unit pertains to the sealing of the 144,000 for protection prior to the tribulation (see 7:1,14; see Ezek 9:4-6). While some view the 144,000 as symbolic of the multitude of believers who have come out of the great tribulation, others take the reference literally as to the 12 tribes of Israel.
²⁵¹

SIDEBAR 20.1: WHO ARE THE 144,000 IN REVELATION 7?

There are two essential positions on the identity of the 144,000 and the relationship of this group with the multitude from many nations in Revelation 7.
¹
One view holds that the reference is to be taken literally to refer to ethnic Jews, the 12 tribes of Israel. This is taken to support the notion that God's purposes during the Great Tribulation will be focused on ethnic Israel. This view maintains that the 144,000 are to be distinguished from the multitude from many nations.
²
The other position maintains that the reference to the 144,000 is symbolic and pertains to believers (not merely Jews) who are alive during the Great Tribulation and that the 144,000 are to be identified with the great multitude.
³

The resolution of this question is important because it potentially sheds light on whether the church should be expected to be present during and go through the Great Tribulation (the posttribulational view) or whether believers have been raptured at the beginning of the Great Tribulation while God's purposes during this time period focus on Israel (the pre-tribulational rapture position). While identifying the 144,000 with ethnic Israel has the merit of a straightforward reading of the text, several considerations favor taking the reference as symbolic.

First, the 144,000 are explicitly called “servants of God,” which elsewhere in the Apocalypse refers to believers in general, whether Jew or Gentile.
⁴
Second, the list of tribes provided (7:5-8) is unlike any other known list of tribes in the OT
⁵
This suggests that John intentionally altered the list in order to present the church as the continuation of the true Israel. Third, John here most likely draws on a pattern by which what the prophet hears is portrayed in terms of one image and what he sees is depicted by another.
⁶
Thus John hears the number of 144,000 but sees an innumerable multitude from many nations. Finally, the number 144,000 most likely conveys the symbolic notion of completeness, which also speaks against taking the reference to the 12 tribes literally (cf. 14:1-5; 21:16-17).

__________________________

¹
For asummary of interpretative views on the 144,000 see Beale,
Book of Revelation,
416—23.

²
Representatives of those who contend that the 144,000 are ethnic Israelites or a group of Jewish Christians include Thomas,
Revelation 1—7-,
475—83; and Walvoord,
Revelation of Jesus Christ,
143.