Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

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12:5-9 Chronologically, this explanatory section fits in between verses 5 and 6. We should note to begin with that the Holy War is initiated, not by the Dragon, but by Michael and His angels. There should be little question that this Captain of the angelic host is a symbol for the Seed of the Woman, the Son of God – represented now not as a Child, but as Michael, the great Warrior-Protector who leads the armies of heaven in battle against the demons. St. John’s symbolism is not casual; it is intentional, and very precise. He carefully chose to reveal Christ in terms of the specific Biblical connotations associated with Michael. The name Michael (meaning Who is like God?) occurs elsewhere in the Scriptures only in Daniel and Jude. Michael is portrayed in Daniel as “the great Prince” who stands as the special Protector of the people of God. War breaks out in heaven between the good and evil angels, and even Gabriel is unable to overcome the demons until Michael comes to do battle with the enemy (Dan. 10:12-13, 20-21). In view of what is revealed about Michael in the latter part of Daniel 10, it is likely that the otherwise unexplained vision in the first part of the chapter refers to Him as well: Daniel saw a man dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz. His body also was like beryl, His face like lightning, His eyes were like flaming torches, His arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of His words like the sound of a tumult. (Dan. 10:5-6) The closing passage of Daniel’s prophecy refers to Michael as the Guardian over God’s people, who will arise to fight on their behalf during a time of great tribulation, saving all whose names are written in the Book of Life (Dan. 12:1). 27 Michael’s name does not appear again in the Bible until an offhanded mention by Jude, who tells us that He “disputed with the devil and argued about the Body of Moses” (Jude 9).28 Jude also calls Him The Archangel, a term which – contrary to some speculations that have developed about the various ranks of angels – does not necessarily mean “member of a superior class of angels,” but rather simply “the Chief of the angels,” an expression equivalent to “Captain of the LORD’s hosts” (Josh. 5:13-15). This would also tend to identify Michael with the Angel of the LORD (cf. Ex. 23:20-23), a figure who is, in most cases, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. 29 The only other Biblical occurrence of the word Archangel is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, where Christ descends in the Second Coming “with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel,” or, better, “with a shout, with Archangelic Voice.” The clear implication is that Christ Himself shouts with the Archangelic Voice. 30 (The fact that there are superior ranks of angels [cf. Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16] means that a more general use of the term archangel is theologically valid. But the Bible itself does not seem to use it in this way.) Carrington observes that the term Archangel “may even be compared with ‘Lord of hosts,’ and it may perhaps have meant that manifestation of God in which He appears as leader of the armies of Israel or of the heavens.” 31 Accordingly, in the Book of Revelation we find Him leading the armies of heaven in victorious conflict with Satan, actions clearly predicated of Christ throughout the New Testament (cf. Matt. 12:22-29; Luke 11:14-22; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 19:11-16). Even at first glance, therefore, there is much to commend the view that Michael is a symbolic representation of Christ, a name that emphasizes His divine nature and power; and that the “angels” who accompany Him are His apostles, “together with all the angelic forces in sympathy and cooperation with them.” 32 This view both explains, and is reinforced by, the passage as a whole. As Philip Carrington argues, “It makes sense of the chapter. Of course if you want the book to be a Chinese puzzle, this will not weigh with you; but if you think that the author (or even the final editor) of the book intended this chapter to have a meaning, then you will think it reasonable to consider an interpretation of it which removes confusion. A Woman who is pictured as the Bride of the Lord bears a Son; she is the new Eve, and therefore her son is to crush the Serpent; she is the Virgin of Isaiah, and therefore he is a warrior-king. There follows a war with the Serpent, in which an opponent casts him out of heaven; the Serpent then went off to make war with the rest of the seed of the woman. Clearly, then, the person he had first fought with was also the seed of the woman. Why drag in anyone else? “The battle royal is followed by a choric song out of heaven, and, as we have seen, the function of these choric songs is to make clear the main action which is depicted in symbols. It says, Now is come Salvation and Power and the Kingdom of our God and the Authority of His Messiah, and then (going on to think of the followers of Christ rather than Christ himself), They conquered him through the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of His Witness. Now this admittedly means that it is the Christ whose power has come, and that it is through his blood that victory has been obtained. It tells us who conquered Satan and how; it was Jesus on the cross.” 33 We have already noted that the Holy War was initiated by the attack of Michael and the army of heaven. In response, the Dragon and his angels waged war. But this defensive action by the forces of evil proved an utter failure: They were not strong enough, and there 27. Calvin recognized that this description of Michael must be a reference to Jesus Christ; see his Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), Vol. 2, pp. 369ff. 28. By “Body of Moses” Jude probably means the Old Testament Covenant community, the equivalent of the “Body of Christ”: cf. the “houses” of Moses and Christ in Heb. 3:2-6. 29. See the discussion of this point in Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, translated by William Hendriksen (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1951), pp. 256ff. 30. A most helpful discussion of this whole issue is in Carrington, pp. 218-24. See also E. W. Hengstenberg, The Revelation of St. John (Cherry Hill, NJ: Mack Publishing Co., [1851] 1972), Vol. 1, pp. 464-72. 31. Carrington, p. 222. 32. Terry, p. 386. 33. Carrington, p. 219. 130
12:10-11 was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great Dragon was thrown down, in abject defeat. For the forces of evil, the battle is lost. This is exactly what Jesus prophesied about the prospects for His Church Militant: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus pictures the Church, not as a city under siege by the forces of evil, but rather as a great army, besieging the capital city and headquarters of the enemy; and it is the forces of evil that succumb to the onslaught of the Church. The people of God are the aggressors: They take the initiative in the warfare, and are successful in their assault on the gates of hell. Satan and all his forces are not strong enough, while the Christian can say with St. Paul, I am strong enough for everything, in Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13). St. John interjects detailed information about the Dragon’s identity: He is the Serpent of old, the ancient Tempter who seduced Eve in the beginning (Gen. 3:1- 15). The Dragon is known as the devil, a term meaning The Slanderer, for he is, as the Lord said, “a liar, and the father of the lie” (John 8:44). A related term for the Dragon is Satan (or, more properly, the satan), the Hebrew word for an adversary, especially in legal matters. The being whom we call Satan is the attorney for the prosecution, the Accuser who brings up legal charges against men in God’s court, the evil one who tirelessly accuses the brethren “day and night” (v. 10). Satan was the accuser of Job (Job 1:6-11; 2:1-5) and of Joshua the high priest (Zech. 3:1-10) – and, as can be seen from both of those cases, his supposedly legal accusations are mere lies. The Accuser of God’s people is a slanderer, the Father of the Lie. 34 Because he is the Liar par excellence, he deceives the whole world. It was Satan who was behind the slanderous accusations against the early Christians, the scurrilous rumors and criminal charges alleging that they were apostates, atheists, ritual murderers, cannibals, social revolutionaries, and haters of mankind. 35 But, St. John says, the great Dragon was thrown down to the Land, and his angels were thrown down with him. Three times the expression thrown down is used in verse 9, emphasizing the significance and finality of this event. The principle of lex talionis (an eye for an eye) is put into force here: In 12:4 the Dragon’s tail swept a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the Land; now the Dragon himself is thrown down to the Land with his evil angels. In the following verses, St. John explains the vision, telling us clearly when this great ejection of the demons took place. 10-11 The explanation comes, as it often does with St. John, in a call to worship from a loud Voice in heaven, exhorting the assembly to praise the Lord for His marvelous works. The result of Michael’s victory over the Dragon is fourfold, covering the earth: Now have come the salvation – the victorious deliverance into a “wide, open space” – and the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. The outcome of the Holy War is this: The Kingdom has arrived! The power of God and the authority of Christ have come, have been made manifest in history, because the Accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, the one who accused them before our God day and night. This great apocalyptic battle, the greatest fight in all history, has already been fought and won by the Lord Christ, St. John says, and the Dragon has been overthrown. Moreover, the martyrs who spent their lives in Christ’s service did not die in vain; they are partakers in the victory: They conquered the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb – by means of 36 His definitive, once-for-all victory – and by the word of their testimony. The martyrs’ faithfulness to Christ is demonstrated in that they did not love their life even to death, knowing that “he who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal” (John 12:25). The Holy War between Michael and the Dragon therefore cannot possibly be a portrayal of the final battle of history at the end of the world. It cannot be future at all. It is not a battle to take place at the Second Coming. The victory over the Dragon, according to St. John, does not take place by means of a cataclysmic event at the end of history, but by means of the cataclysmic event that took place in the middle of history: the sacrifice of the Lamb. The language used to describe the basis of Michael’s conquest has nothing to do with the Second Coming, but it has everything to do with the First Coming. The martyrs overcome by means of the shed blood of Christ, and by means of the fearless proclamation of the Gospel. The cosmic victory over the Dragon takes place through the Gospel, and the Gospel alone – the Gospel in its objective aspect (the work of Christ), and the Gospel in its subjective aspect (the proclamation of the work of Christ). When, therefore, did Satan fall from heaven? He fell, definitively, during the ministry of Christ, culminating in the atonement, the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord to His heavenly throne. We can see the stages of the Holy War throughout the message of the Gospels. Whereas the activity of demons seems relatively rare in the Old Testament, the New Testament records numerous outbreaks of demonism. Open the pages of the New Testament, and demons are almost inescapable. Why? What made the difference? It was the presence of Christ. He went on the offensive, entering history to do battle with the Dragon, and immediately the Dragon counterattacked, fighting back with all his might, wreaking as much havoc as possible. 34. On the essential character of Satan as a slanderous “accuser of the brethren; see Greg Bahnsen, “The Person, Work, and Present Status of Satan,” in The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, Vol. I, No. 2 (Winter, 1974). 35. Cf. Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 17ff., l17ff. 36. Blood and word are both in the accusative case, but the preposition should be read in the sense of means as well as grounds here (cf. Matt. 15:6; John 6:57; 15:3; Eph. 5:18; Rev. 13:14); see Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John: Studies in Introduction with a Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, [1919] 1979), P. 627. 131
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But when you see Jerusalem surround
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Copyright @ 1987 by Dominion Press
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FOREWORD Foreword Readers of the Bo
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE Publisher’s
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE case for esch
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE this book bec
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE In contrast,
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INTRODUCTION St. Irenaeus is somewh
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INTRODUCTION we must be saved” (A
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INTRODUCTION previous relationship
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INTRODUCTION You have lain down as
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INTRODUCTION are only elaborating a
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INTRODUCTION early churches had suc
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INTRODUCTION actions mean more than
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INTRODUCTION Some will complain tha
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INTRODUCTION Outline of Revelation
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1:1-3 that must shortly take place.
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1:4-6 accomplishment. We probably h
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1:7-8 observe that a central aspect
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1:9 14 And His head and His hair we
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1:16 That all the peoples, nations,
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1:20 things that must shortly take
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO Part Two H
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO The confli
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2:4-6 endure evil men. . . . And yo
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2:9-10 dead, and has come to life:
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2:14-16 expression (none of which m
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2:18-23 and leads my servants astra
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2:26-29 end, to him I will give aut
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3:4-6 church, or even against a nat
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3:8-11 And I will clothe him with y
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3:14-16 sons disinherited and cast
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3:21-22 the elders of a church, and
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INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE The laws
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4:2-3 numerous names and descriptio
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4:5-8 superseded and transcended; t
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4:5-8 19) led Biblical writers to s
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5:1-4 family worship; it is radical
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5:5-7 St. John; and it seems as if
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Page 106 and 107: 9:13 The vegetation of the earth is
Page 108 and 109: 9:20-21 lations advanced by some co
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Page 112 and 113: 10:2-4 beyond reasonable doubt that
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Page 124 and 125: 12:1-2 12 THE HOLY WAR The Book of
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Page 138 and 139: 13:8-10 The Beast was given authori
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Page 142 and 143: 13:18 work throughout Revelation ar
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Page 146 and 147: 14:1 14 THE KING ON MOUNT ZION St.
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18:6-8 His people to come out of Ba
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18:17-19 sanctuary two lampstands r
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18:20-21 They went down into the de
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19:1-2 19 THE FEASTS OF THE KINGDOM
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19:3-8 of vengeance, in order that
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19:10 Church admitted its members t
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19:12-15 Let the heavens be glad, a
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19:16-18 of wealth, or wasting dise
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20:1 20 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE JUDG
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20:1-3 Christ established His media
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20:1-3 The great fathers and teache
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20:4 The relationship between the p
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20:5-6 earth? The answer should be
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20:7-8 ministry; that was Satan’s
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20:9-10 St. John’s image for the
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20:12 redeemed with Thy precious bl
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21:1 21 THE NEW JERUSALEM The Bible
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21:1 Pet. 3:5-7; cf. the same analo
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21:3-5 will be established finally,
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21:9-11 The New Jerusalem (21:9-27)
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21:15-21 Covenant of Grace; the fac
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21:24-27 And deep darkness the peop
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22:3-4 Paradise is not, therefore,
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22:6-9 Final Warnings and Blessings
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22:17-21 unconquerable strength and
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CONCLUSION the pure Bride-City, is
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CONCLUSION does not exempt us from
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APPENDIX A it is reflected in “It
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APPENDIX A make him a pillar in the
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APPENDIX A and wine the night befor
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APPENDIX A Babylon, falsely priestl
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APPENDIX A B. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 1.
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APPENDIX B been the defining mark o
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APPENDIX B The Bible teaches us tha
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APPENDIX C APPENDIX C Common Grace,
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APPENDIX C for all eternity because
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APPENDIX C better arrangement cultu
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APPENDIX C be destroyed. The two ex
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APPENDIX C universe. It is governed
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APPENDIX C completed, the world was
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APPENDIX C deceive the nations. The
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APPENDIX C creeds and theological u
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APPENDIX C coherence that at least
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APPENDIX C There is continuity in l
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Athanasius. On the Incarnation of t
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________. The Institutes of Biblica
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