Introduction
Congregational Bible Experience Day #85
Bible Reading: Revelation 15-18
It's possible to live with danger and not be aware of it. From faulty domestic wiring to unexploded wartime bombs in people's back gardens, or unexplained symptoms leaving us tired and listless, we can be blissfully ignorant of the threats and perils we face. It takes an observant expert - or a book of Revelation - to persuade us of the dangers around us. For this is what Revelation is for, not to satisfy our curiosity about the unknown future, but to open our eyes, to waken us up, to change our minds and to prepare us to action. The Christians in the seven churches had already experienced significant difficulties because of their faith and they responded with varying degrees of faith-fuelled obedience (chapters 2-3). Life is about to become even worse for them, and so if they are not properly prepared for what awaits then they will buckle under the pressure and possibly walk away from the faith. John has written this book to encourage and enable them to live faithfully for Jesus in dark times. How dark? We're about to find out…
---
Symbolically,
'Armageddon' represents the final battle, the climactic collision between the
powers of good and evil, between God and Satan, between Christ and the unified
powers of darkness arrayed against Him. And of course, traditionally it is
understood as being the final marker before Christ returns in glorious triumph.
So, do these verses point to a final, physical battle, somewhere in the Middle
East, between earth's superpowers, united in their attack on God and the people
of God? Personally, I don't think so. In fact - and
I realise that I'm going out on a limb here, very few scholars hold to this,
and I need to do a lot more work on it - my own (Gospel-centred) personal view is that
'Armageddon' (in what it symbolises), namely God's final and victorious assault
on sin and Satan, has already happened - at Calvary. All the dreadful and symbolic images of
judgement that these chapters have conveyed, Christ experienced on behalf of
His people that they would not have to (this is the mercy referred to
above). It was at Calvary that Satan was
defeated and overthrown. Note the Gospel references here to "God's wrath
is completed" (15:1), "a loud voice from the throne cries 'It is
done!'" (16:17). Surely these are echoes of John 19:30, where Jesus cries
in triumphant victory "It is finished!" What is finished? Everything
needing to be done, every enemy defeated, in order that unholy sinners may
enter into a loving, welcoming relationship with the holy gracious and merciful
God. At the cross, God wrath was expended in full upon Himself in the person of
His Son, that sinners might be saved… [If you see me sometime, you can ask me about this…!] And for those, of
course, who still refuse to come to Christ, God's judgement and condemnation
remains upon them; there's a price they still have to pay.
And finally and
briefly, what about this brazen, mysterious woman, offering false love, and
charming the unwary with her deceitful lusts (17:5-7)? Who or what is she? She
is the "great harlot"(v2), she is the wicked and arrogant city of
Babylon (Daniel 4:30), she is the 'world', which - under satanic influence,
embodied in state sponsored secularism and a squeezing out of God from people's
lives and moral compass - attempts to
seduce God's people away from what is pure, just and holy (1 John 2:16) with
the tempting godless bait of popularity, wealth, comfort, security (v4) - the
very idols our hearts crave. She is powerfully attractive and seductively powerful, and
remains a present and constant universal danger to God's own people throughout
the life and history of the church, sometimes effectively wooing the Church
away from its true Love (v6-14) with such ideas as materialism and patriotism.
However, depicted as a city (v15-18), she (the world) is very fragile. Those
who follow the way of the world, and live largely for acquiring possessions,
position and pleasure, discover that these things give no hope, no strength, no
peace in times of stress and distress which will inevitably come. Revelation 18
warns the believers not be seduced from the Lord by the world's lies and be
caught up in its certain downfall (see James 4:4). And throughout this chapter
is the warning that the world is no friend to people of God, but the church's
enemy, for she has believers' blood on her hands (v24). So don't be fooled by
her charms.
Congregational Bible Experience Day #85
Bible Reading: Revelation 15-18
It's possible to live with danger and not be aware of it. From faulty domestic wiring to unexploded wartime bombs in people's back gardens, or unexplained symptoms leaving us tired and listless, we can be blissfully ignorant of the threats and perils we face. It takes an observant expert - or a book of Revelation - to persuade us of the dangers around us. For this is what Revelation is for, not to satisfy our curiosity about the unknown future, but to open our eyes, to waken us up, to change our minds and to prepare us to action. The Christians in the seven churches had already experienced significant difficulties because of their faith and they responded with varying degrees of faith-fuelled obedience (chapters 2-3). Life is about to become even worse for them, and so if they are not properly prepared for what awaits then they will buckle under the pressure and possibly walk away from the faith. John has written this book to encourage and enable them to live faithfully for Jesus in dark times. How dark? We're about to find out…
---
There's a lot in these four short chapters…
With chapters 15-16 another parallel 'cycle of seven' begins: previously we had the seven seals (ch
6), then the seven trumpets (ch 8-9); now we have seven angels carrying seven
bowls filled with seven plagues. All three series cover the same ground, they
do not follow each other but view life on earth from different viewpoints: the
seals depict life from the viewpoint of the suffering church; the trumpets from
the perspective of the unbelieving world; and now the bowls pf plagues, we see
life from God's viewpoint, from His throne.
Despite the brevity
of this account, the judgement they bring has again intensified even more than
previously, as it has with each cycle. And there is a finality with this cycle,
note "last" (15:1). The trumpets had sounded in warning to encourage
the people to repent before God. Through war, famine, pestilence and the like,
God exposes people's vulnerabilities and calls upon them to abandon their sin
and come to Him. However, now we read of those who, in spite of the dangers
around them, harden their hearts and refuse to repent. The message of chapter
16 is that while God goes to a lot of bother to grab our attention and awaken
us to eternal realities, as a race we don't listen well to Him, at all (it's
Genesis 3 all over again). There will come a point therefore, when God's
patience will have reached its limit and His judgement will fall.
And please remember:
the natural phenomena and disasters that are described here in all their horror
- diseases, pollution, drought and scorchings, darkness (again reminiscent of
the plagues in Egypt in Exodus) - are descriptions of the symbol of God's wrath
and judgement, but they are not the actual reality of God's judgement.
Pestilence and intense famine and the like are not themselves marks of God's
final judgement upon human sin, but help us to understand - a little - of the horror and devastation of what
God's judgement will be like. These images are deliberately emotionally
charged, again to capture our attention and our imagination.
The finality of
these judgements (see 15:1 - 'last plagues… with them God's wrath is
completed') suggests this refers not to 'the End' of the old world order and
are events that precede Jesus' return, rather referring to the form of events
that brings someone's perosnal life to an end. At the point of death, 'finally', there
can be no further appeal, no intercession on someone's behalf. One commentator
writes: "Whenever destruction comes upon the impenitent sinner, there is
for him, the 'last day', the end of his world, and the final confrontation with
Jesus, who, comes at all times like a thief, when men least expect him."
When 'the time
comes' and the horror of God's judgement is experienced, it will: be justified (16:6), for the angels say, after
a lifetime of deliberately rejecting calls to follow Jesus, 'They deserve it'; only come after ample opportunity to repent has been given and
squandered, "They refused to repent" (v9,11); be 'just right', for the divine punishment will perfectly fit
the human sin (v6); be perfectly just and fair
(v7), for with the judgement will come mercy for all who will receive it in
humble gratitude. For sometimes those who brought to the edge or end of life
find there's still mercy at the of the Cross. Which brings us to Armageddon…
(16:12-16).
Symbolically,
'Armageddon' represents the final battle, the climactic collision between the
powers of good and evil, between God and Satan, between Christ and the unified
powers of darkness arrayed against Him. And of course, traditionally it is
understood as being the final marker before Christ returns in glorious triumph.
So, do these verses point to a final, physical battle, somewhere in the Middle
East, between earth's superpowers, united in their attack on God and the people
of God? Personally, I don't think so. In fact - and
I realise that I'm going out on a limb here, very few scholars hold to this,
and I need to do a lot more work on it - my own (Gospel-centred) personal view is that
'Armageddon' (in what it symbolises), namely God's final and victorious assault
on sin and Satan, has already happened - at Calvary. All the dreadful and symbolic images of
judgement that these chapters have conveyed, Christ experienced on behalf of
His people that they would not have to (this is the mercy referred to
above). It was at Calvary that Satan was
defeated and overthrown. Note the Gospel references here to "God's wrath
is completed" (15:1), "a loud voice from the throne cries 'It is
done!'" (16:17). Surely these are echoes of John 19:30, where Jesus cries
in triumphant victory "It is finished!" What is finished? Everything
needing to be done, every enemy defeated, in order that unholy sinners may
enter into a loving, welcoming relationship with the holy gracious and merciful
God. At the cross, God wrath was expended in full upon Himself in the person of
His Son, that sinners might be saved… [If you see me sometime, you can ask me about this…!] And for those, of
course, who still refuse to come to Christ, God's judgement and condemnation
remains upon them; there's a price they still have to pay.
And finally and
briefly, what about this brazen, mysterious woman, offering false love, and
charming the unwary with her deceitful lusts (17:5-7)? Who or what is she? She
is the "great harlot"(v2), she is the wicked and arrogant city of
Babylon (Daniel 4:30), she is the 'world', which - under satanic influence,
embodied in state sponsored secularism and a squeezing out of God from people's
lives and moral compass - attempts to
seduce God's people away from what is pure, just and holy (1 John 2:16) with
the tempting godless bait of popularity, wealth, comfort, security (v4) - the
very idols our hearts crave. She is powerfully attractive and seductively powerful, and
remains a present and constant universal danger to God's own people throughout
the life and history of the church, sometimes effectively wooing the Church
away from its true Love (v6-14) with such ideas as materialism and patriotism.
However, depicted as a city (v15-18), she (the world) is very fragile. Those
who follow the way of the world, and live largely for acquiring possessions,
position and pleasure, discover that these things give no hope, no strength, no
peace in times of stress and distress which will inevitably come. Revelation 18
warns the believers not be seduced from the Lord by the world's lies and be
caught up in its certain downfall (see James 4:4). And throughout this chapter
is the warning that the world is no friend to people of God, but the church's
enemy, for she has believers' blood on her hands (v24). So don't be fooled by
her charms.
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