Revelation 6:8; 6:10; 6:16

These three verses give us the main symbols in Chapter Six. Around them we make application. Note that this chapter is still as relevant to today’s church as it was to the church in the first century. There is no need to offer separate applications for 1st Century Churches and 21st Century Churches.

We now apply the third section of Revelation Chapter Six in this post.

III. Persecution will end finally with the outpouring of God’s Wrath against the ungodly. Rev. 6:12-17. 

Key Verse of the day of wrath section

6:16 [The earth-dwellers] cried out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb… .”

Since God alone knows when the last martyr is to be slain, we ought to leave the matter of justice and vengeance to Him. God will cause the old world order to collapse and usher in the new heavens and earth! What a horror God’s holy presence is to the wicked!

Thus, under the symbolism of these six classes [of people], John sees the entire godless world seized with sudden fear. He sees them terror stricken and fleeing, fleeing from something far more terrible than crumbling mountains and falling rocks. They even seek safety in death itself. If only death would come to them — John hears shrieks of agony uttered by thousands of voices. Kings and slaves, princes and servants, they are all caught in the same self-inflicted agony of despair. (emphasis mine; see Hendriksen, p. 109, below.)

No one will be able to hide within his possessions, or be “off the grid” for lack thereof. The poor often forget that Christ commended the “poor in spirit,” not the poor in this world’s goods. We must avoid the great sin of democracy — envy. Many believe that if you have a dime, you probably took a nickel of it from them. That’s envy. 

Personal Experience

I have taught at several institutions of higher learning over my 40+ years of ministry. I once taught a New Testament Introduction class for a college held at a local high school. I noticed a janitor cleaning a lot right outside my classroom door while I was teaching. I kept the door ajar. He was listening. I saw him at the break and asked if he would like to come in and listen. He said he wanted to ask me a question first.

He said, “Don’t you believe the Bible teaches that rich people won’t go to heaven.” I replied that it is not the amount of possessions or money one holds in his grasp that excludes anyone from a personal relationship with God through Christ (which is a prerequisite for heaven).  I said that I had found it is the possessions and money we have that holds us that excludes us from Christ, whether rich or poor. He like the Rich Young Ruler went away sad and never listened again. 

A contemporary melody to an old hymn is a good one for today when judgment is suppressed in favor of an all-loving God. As one pastor has said, “We have so elevated the love of God beyond His holiness and wrath that we have air conditioned hell.”

Next time, we move into Revelation Chapter Seven!

Notes

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. (1563). “The execution of Dr. Ridley and Master Latimer.” Accessed 25 February 2020 from https://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe323.htm

Hendriksen, Wm. (1930) More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Grand Repide, MI: Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Maruta of Maiperqat. (ca. AD 325). Accessed 26 February 2020 from http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/marutha_nicaea_02_text.htm
Note on the website: This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2007. All material on this page is in the public domain – copy freely.

© 2020 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved

Revelation 6:8; 10; 16

These three verses give us the main symbols in Chapter Six. Around them we make application. Note that this chapter is still as relevant to today’s church as it was to the church in the first century. There is no need to offer separate applications for 1st Century Churches and 21st Century Churches.

We apply the second part of chapter six in this post.

II. God alone knows how long the church militant will suffer. Rev. 6:9-11

Key verse in Martyr’s blood crying out for justice section:

6:10 [The martyrs] cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

He keeps a tally of martyrs (witnesses who are murdered and those who are attacked but do not immediately die from their wounds.

Here is a description of the procession of clergy into the Council of Nicaea — 

Thomas, Bishop of Marash was an object almost frightful to look upon; he had been mutilated by the removal of his eyes, nose and lips; his teeth had been dug out and both his legs and arms had been cut off. He had been kept in prison 22 years by the [Armenians] who used to cut off a member of his body or mutilate him in some way every year.

The fathers took him with them to the Council and when the Emperor saw him, he fell down upon the ground and [honored] him saying, “I [honor] you, O martyr of Christ, who are adorned with many crowns.” Out of 300+ Bishops, only 11 had no marks of persecution. (see Maruta of Maiperqat below.)

None would deny this good man was a martyr. His life was shortened by his sufferings for 22 years even though he did not die immediately from it. 

What God says to us today

Etching from an old Bible of the martyrdom of Latimer and Ridley in Oxford.

God would say to modern day church members and clergy worldwide, “I have limited your sufferings. Even though you do not know how long you must endure, I do. I will sustain you to the end.” 

Before being burned at the stake (1555), Latimer’s words to the younger Ridley are most apropos — “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” (see Foxe’s Book of Martyrs below.)

These words are for our situation of increasing persecution for proclaiming the Gospel and living by the Word of God. We should not draw back, but pray for greater power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Word of God and the Gospel! 

Trust in God in the dark places is essential if we are to finish our walk well.

Notes

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. (1563). “The execution of Dr. Ridley and Master Latimer.” Accessed 25 February 2020 from https://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe323.htm

Hendriksen, Wm. (1930) More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Grand Repide, MI: Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Maruta of Maiperqat. (ca. AD 325). Accessed 26 February 2020 from http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/marutha_nicaea_02_text.htm
Note on the website: This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2007. All material on this page is in the public domain – copy freely.

© 2020 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved

Photo above from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/public-domain-images

Revelation 6:12-14

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

“The Great Day of His Wrath,” is an 1851–1853 oil painting by the English painter John Martin. WikiMedia Commons picture.

Old Testament Descriptions of the End

The descriptions in these verses are standard apocalyptic descriptions of “the Day of the Lord.” In the OT his visitations were described in terms of cataclysmic disturbances in the skies and on the earth. They are harbingers of the end of the age.

“As later biblical authors seized on the earlier imagery of the theophany on Sinai to describe appearances of God to man (Habakkuk 3:3ff), so John utilizes the archetypal imagery of the Old Testament to describe this terrible visitation of God’s final judgment on the earth. In much the same manner as we would describe a chaotic situation by saying ‘all hell broke loose,’ so the biblical writers use the language of cosmic turmoil to describe the condition of the world when God comes to judge the earth.” (See Johnson, below.)

Our Approach to Revelation

We are approaching interpretation of the Revelation’s four sets of seven judgments as “progressive parallelism.” William Hendriksen clarifies–

“The seven sections of the Apocalypse are arranged in an ascending, climactic order. There is progress in eschatological [end times] emphasis. The final judgment is first announced, then introduced, and finally described. Similarly, the new heaven and earth are described more fully in the final section than in those that precede it. To this conception of the book we give the name “progressive parallelism.” (see Hendriksen, p. 36, below; emphasis mine).

Public Domain photo of a Painting of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “Death on a Pale Horse” by Benjamin West (1738-1820).

I. God’s judgment comes in answer to the saints’ prayers.

Since the four horsemen foreshadow the Day of Judgment and the the saints pray for vengeance to fall, God’s answer to their prayers comes at the End of the Age. The answer is postponed, but it comes at last. John describes the judgment in Old Testament apocalyptic terms. God intervenes in history to bring down those opposed to Him and His ways.

It is important for us to realize God’s people await Christ’s appearance as Judge to set things right. In the Intertestamental period (400-1 BC),  the Maccabees intervened in their own affairs with an army and weapons to overthrow the Syrian control over Jerusalem. We may think we can do the same in our country in the 21st Century. However, the Revelation takes us back to the Old Testament’s way of setting things right—God intervenes directly and sets things right. Our task is to pray and bear witness to the Gospel and veracity of God’s Word. II Corinthians 10:4-5

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ… .

II. Intervention by God dissolves the old order and brings in the new.

Cosmic disturbances in verses 12-14 summarized below—

(1) a great earthquake and its storm affecting the sun and moon;
(2) the stars falling to the earth;
(3) the astral heavens are rolled up;
(4) every mountain and island on earth is removed from its place;

Great earthquake and fire in San Francisco 1906

III. Subsequent terror on the earth follows all of this cosmic dissolution.

“The dread and terror, the awe and consternation of [the judgment] day is pictured under the twofold symbolism of (1) a crashing universe and (2) a thoroughly frightened human race.” See Hendriksen, p. 107, below).

Cosmic disturbance at the end of the age will include earth shattering disturbances.

vs. 12 The Greek word is seismos = “shaking.”

The sun was blackened = “became black like sackcloth of hair.”

The moon was reddened = “became like blood.”

Adolf Vollmy, engraving from 1889, public domain.

vs. 13 The stars fell = “dissolution of the Astral Heavens.”

vs. 14 The sky vanished = “the atmospheric heavens, the clouds, were parted like a scroll rolling up.”

“Every mountain and island was removed from its place = were moved out of their places.” This is a result of the worldwide earthquake at the end of the age.

IV. This is not a “newspaper literal” description of what will occur at the end.

Symbolism describes the dissolution of the present age in preparation for the institution of the new one.

“What we have here is a symbolic picture of the terror of the judgment day. The symbol, taken as a whole, teaches just one lesson, namely, that the final and complete [out-pouring] of God’s wrath upon a world that has persecuted the Church will be terrible indeed.” (See Hendriksen, p. 107, below.)

Next time we will look at the terror brought upon all segments of society by the disturbances in Rev. 6:15-17. 

Notes

Hendriksen, W. (1939). More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Johnson, A. F. (1982). “Revelation,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Vol 12) Hebrews through Revelation. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub.

© 2020 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved