Revelation is a very cryptic work; it is quite easy to lose sight of the forest because of the trees. It is thus useful to step back and get an overview of the book. What is the subject of Revelation? What are some of the unifying narratives? I am splitting this paper into two (maybe three) parts. The first looks at Revelation as, I. A Tale of Two Cities; II. The Book of the Covenant Curses; III. The Burning of an Evil City, Followed by a Wedding. In the second part I will look at, IV. The Harlot Motif; V. The Destruction of the Dwellers on the Land; VI. The Fleeing of the Old Heaven and Earth and Full Establishment of a New Heaven and New Earth. VII. Revelation’s Use of the Narrative of Ezekiel as its Outline. VIII. The Eight Kings of Revelation in Relation to its Date.
The following is taken from Volume Two of my book, (The Antichrist and the Second Coming: A Preterist Examination). Vollume One looks at the book of Daniel. Volume Two looks at the book of Revelation. See here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Antichrist-Se ... ap_title_1
I. A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Beasley Murray notes the following on the subject of Revelation: “Revelation as a whole may be characterized as A Tale of Two Cities, with the sub-title, The Harlot and the Bride.”1 Murray is absolutely right; the basic subject of Revelation is that of two “cities” (Babylon and New Jerusalem) who are also two wives: The harlot is a widowed wife who is about to be destroyed (Rev. 18:7-8). The bride is a betrothed wife who is about to become married (Rev. 19:7-9). As I show below, the two women/cities of Revelation represent the two covenants (the old and the new) and those who were part of those covenants (cf. Gal. 4:21-31). Johnson writes the following on how Revelation uses the image of a “city” as a symbol for a community of people: “John’s use of the word ‘city’ from its first occurrence in 3:12 is symbolic . . . A city may be [used as] a metaphor for the total life of a community of people (Heb. 11:10, 12:22; 13:14).”2 Harlot Babylon represents those of the old covenant community who rejected Jesus in favor of the temple system. She is destroyed and replaced by the new covenant community, the New Jerusalem bride (cf. Matt. 21:33-45; Luke 2:34).
Revelation often presents concepts that are found elsewhere in Scripture. What is different is that Revelation presents these concepts in more of a picture form. For example, Jesus is referred to in the Gospel of John as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). In Revelation we are not just told of this Lamb (e.g., 6:16; 19:7), we are shown him (Rev. 5:6). Paying close attention to the allusions Revelation makes to other parts of Scripture (especially the OT) is a great help in understanding the complex symbols in the book. For example, the central theme of Revelation (the contrast of two women who are two cities) is not something new in the NT; this topic is found in Galatians. In Galatians 4 this theme is used as a means of contrasting the two covenants:
In Galatians the new covenant is represented by the Jerusalem from above, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is the exact equivalent of the New Jerusalem, the new covenant bride that comes down from heaven (at AD 70) in Revelation 21:2. In Galatians the old covenant community is represented by earthly Jerusalem. This is the exact equivalent of harlot Babylon in Revelation, the great city (Rev. 17:18; 18:21). Earlier in Revelation we were told that “the great city” was where Jesus was crucified (i.e., Jerusalem, Rev. 11:8). As in Galatians (4:29), the one woman persecutes the other woman (the harlot was persecuting the bride, Rev. 19:2). As in Galatians (4:30) the one woman is cast out (the harlot, Rev. 18:21) at the time that the other woman receives her inheritance (the bride becomes married, Rev. 19:1-9).Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Galatians 4:21-31
Galatians 4:21-31 provides a simple narrative for the book of Revelation. Revelation is a book about two women/cities who represent the two covenants. The one woman is destroyed and then the other becomes married. Despite all the complexities of Revelation—and there are many— this storyline of two women/cities who represent the two covenants is relatively straightforward.
II. REVELATION: THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT CURSES
Closely related to Revelation’s portrayal of two “women” who are two “cities” as a way of contrasting the two covenants, the very structure of Revelation is based on the covenant judgments prophesied to come on Israel when she broke the covenant.
ISRAEL’S COVENANT PUNISHMENTS: FOUR SETS OF SEVEN JUDGMENTS
Revelation draws many of its images from the covenant curses of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Indeed, the very structure of Revelation—four sets of sevenfold judgments—is built on the covenant curses that were to come on Israel (see below). These curses would culminate with the destruction of harlot Israel in Revelation 17-18 (cf. Deut. 31:16-18; Ezek. 16) by the Antichrist.
In Leviticus and Deuteronomy God speaks of the plagues and curses that would come on his unfaithful old covenant people when they broke the covenant. In Leviticus 26 God tells the children of Israel that if they broke the covenant, he would set his face against them (Lev. 26:14-17). If Israel did not repent, God spoke of four sets of plagues and punishments that he would visit on them (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28). Each one of these sets of punishments was to have a sevenfold fulfillment.
1. Leviticus 26:18: “And after all this, if you do not obey Me I will punish you seven times more for your sins.”
2. Leviticus 26:21: “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.”
3. Leviticus 26:23-24: “And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.”
4. Leviticus 26:27-28: “And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.”
This pattern of Israel’s covenant punishments, four sets of punishments, each having a sevenfold fulfillment, provides the structure for the plagues and punishments found in Revelation. The four sets of sevenfold punishment in Revelation are:
1. The seven seals (Rev. 6:1-17; 8:1)
2. The seven trumpets (Rev. 8:2-10:7)
3. The seven thunders (Rev. 10:3-4)
4. The seven bowls (Rev. 16:1-21)
John was instructed not to write down what the seven thunders uttered (Rev. 10:4), but seeing as how the other three sets of seven (the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls) were plagues and punishments, it follows that the seven thunders were also. This is especially true in light of the fact that thunder is often associated with God’s voice of anger and judgment (e.g., 2 Sam. 22:14-16; Ps. 18:13-15; Isa. 29:6). Ladd writes the following along these lines.
If John had been permitted to write down what the seven thunders uttered, it would have been similar to the other sets of seven judgments, something like—“the first thunder uttered” (and a certain judgment happened), “the second thunder uttered” (another judgment), and so on.The only hint we have as to the message of the seven thunders is to be found in the fact that in all other passages in the Revelation where thunders occur, they form a premonition of coming judgments of divine wrath (8:5; 11:19; 16:18). This fits the present context, for the angel announces that the consummation of the divine judgments is about to take place. However, John is forbidden from including in his written record the revelation uttered by the seven thunders . . . John is allowed to hear words of judgment which he may not communicate to the churches.3
Ideally the purpose of the covenant punishments by God was not to destroy his old covenant people but to reform them, to get them to repent (“And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins,” Lev. 26:23-24). With this in mind, notice how the lack of repentance in response to Revelation’s judgments is referenced in the context of the punishments (e.g., “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands . . . ” Rev. 9:20; cf. 16:9).
THE COVENANT CURSES WOULD INCLUDE THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT
One of the covenant curses that God said he would bring on Israel were the plagues of Egypt. This explains why a number of the judgments in Revelation are modeled on these plagues. Jerusalem is said to be the spiritual equivalent of Egypt. It is referred to as “. . . the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8). In Deuteronomy 28 the children of Israel were told the following:
God told Israel that he would bring back the plagues of Egypt on them in response to their breaking of the covenant. The judgments of Revelation bring to mind at least seven of the ten plagues that God brought on Egypt (Revelation loves the number seven!)Then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.
Deuteronomy 28:59-60
1. Water into blood: The first plague of Egypt (Exod. 7:17-21).
Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water and they became blood.
Revelation 16:3-4
2. Frogs: The second plague of Egypt (Exod. 8:2-4).
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons; performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
Revelation 16:13
These frog-like demons go out to gather the kings of the land and the whole world for the battle of the great day of the Lord. In regards to this, it should be remembered that Scripture consistently shows the battle of the ultimate day of the Lord as happening at Jerusalem (Isa. 1-5; Dan. 11:40-12:7; Joel 2:1-11, 3:12-17; Zeph. 1; Zech. 14:1-9).
3. Pestilence: The fifth plague of Egypt (Exod. 9:3-7).
I looked, and behold, an ashen horse and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8 NASB
It was a fourth of the inhabitants of the land that were killed at AD 70 (cf. Ezek. 5:17), not a fourth of the inhabitants of the earth. Josephus writes the following about the famine and pestilence during the siege of Jerusalem:
4. Boils: The sixth plague of Egypt (Exod. 9:8-12).All the prisoners taken captive throughout the entire war totaled 97,000; those who perished during the long siege, from its early stages to the end were 1,100,000. Of those, the largest number consisted of Jews by race, but not native of Jerusalem; they had assembled from the whole country for the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and had suddenly been caught up in the war. Consequently, the overcrowding caused death first by pestilence and later, also more quickly by hunger. (Josephus, The Jewish War, 6, 9, 3)
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.” So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.
Revelation 16:1-2
5. Hail: The seventh plague of Egypt (Exod. 9:18-26).
And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague or the hail since that plague was exceedingly great.
Revelation 16:21
Josephus records that the Romans used catapults to rain great “white” stones on Jerusalem. These stones each “weighed a talent” (The Jewish War, 5, 6, 3)—approximately 100 pounds (cf. Rev. 16:21 NASB). This bombardment is portrayed as a plague of hail to highlight the fact that it was the fulfillment of one of the covenant curses God said he would bring on his unfaithful old covenant people.
6. Locusts: The eighth plague of Egypt (Exod. 10:4-20).
Then the fifth angel sounded; and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power . . . The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.
Revelation 9:1-3, 7, 9
This demonic locust invasion alludes to Joel 1-2 and the attack on Jerusalem on the ultimate day of the Lord. These “locusts” have teeth like lions (Rev. 9:8; cf. Joel 1:4-6); the sun is darkened at their coming (Rev. 9:2; cf. Joel 2:2, 10); their wings sound like horses and chariots running to battle (Rev. 9:9; cf. Joel 2:4-5). The five-month siege (Rev. 9:5) alludes to Titus’ invasion from Egypt for the final destruction of Jerusalem (cf. Dan. 11:40-45). This final siege took five months.
7. Darkness: The ninth plague of Egypt (Exod. 10:21-27).
Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.
Revelation 16:10
This plague is not on the land but on the throne of the beast (i.e., the Roman Empire). It speaks of the turmoil and confusion that happened after Nero died in June of AD 68. Rome came to the verge of collapse at this time of empire-wide chaos as she went through three emperors (cf. Dan. 7:8, 19-20) and two back-to-back civil wars in the space of a year and a half. The empire would not recover until the accession of Vespasian in December AD 69.
The punishments of Revelation culminate with the judgment and destruction of the great harlot in Revelation 17-18. This is exactly what God told Moses would happen to the children of Israel in the “latter days” (“. . . evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands” Deut. 31:29). In the last days of old covenant Israel she would play the harlot and be destroyed.
For a more detailed discussion on Revelation as the book of the covenant curses see here. http://planetpreterist.com/content/cove ... revelationAnd the Lord said to Moses: “Behold you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’”
Deuteronomy 31:16-17
III. THE BURNING OF AN EVIL CITY FOLLOWED BY A WEDDING
With the unfaithful harlot destroyed in Revelation 17-18, God then marries his faithful bride in chapter 19:1-9. When the Jews had Jesus killed they broke their marriage covenant with God. Israel became a widow at that point (which is what the harlot is, Rev. 18:7) and God was free to marry another bride (cf. 1 Cor. 7:39). In the New Testament God’s new covenant people are said to be betrothed to the Lord (2 Cor. 11:2). This betrothal would be consummated with the marriage of Jesus to his people at his parousia (Matt. 22:1-14; 25:1-13). This is what Revelation 19 is showing.
Following the fiery destruction of harlot Babylon, there is rejoicing in heaven over God’s judgment of her. This judgment is acknowledged as being just; the harlot had corrupted the land and shed the blood of God’s servants (Rev. 19: 2). With God’s unfaithful old covenant people destroyed, the time has come for Jesus to marry his new covenant bride (Rev. 19:7). The old covenant wife has been cast out and it is time for the new covenant bride to receive her inheritance (Gal. 4:21-31). As with many sections of Revelation, this narrative has shown up earlier in Scripture. The same storyline—the destruction of a persecuting city by fire followed by a wedding—is given by Jesus in Matthew 22. This parable is so obviously speaking about the AD 70 fiery destruction of Jerusalem that skeptics say it has to have been written after AD 70.
Those who rejected the invitation to the wedding of the king’s son and killed his servants were those of Israel who rejected Jesus. Note how the harlot is drunk with the blood of the saints (Rev. 17:6; 18:24). Those who ended up coming to the wedding were those who believed on Jesus—Jew and Gentile: “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:11-12). Again, the burning of the city of those who had no regard for the king’s son is an obvious reference to the destruction of Jerusalem at AD 70 (cf. Rev. 17:16; 18:8). Revelation shows the smoke of this persecuting city rising up forever and ever (Rev. 19:2-3), an allusion to both the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:28; cf. Rev. 11:8) and Edom (Isa. 34:10)—the offspring of Esau (the firstborn son who despised his birthright).And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come. Again he sent out other servants, saying ‘Tell those who are invited “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
Matthew 22:1-10
Jesus had said that many Gentiles would join in the messianic banquet at the full establishment of the kingdom (which is what the marriage supper of the Lamb is, Rev. 19:9); this would happen at AD 70—the time that “the sons of the kingdom” were cast out:
And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 8:11-12; cf. Luke 13:28-29
Endnotes:
1. Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (2002), 18.
2. Stephen Smalley, Revelation to John (2005), 27.
3. G.E. Ladd, Revelation (1972), 143.