Revelation 11:15-19 – Last Call

The book of Revelation could almost end at this point. The seven trumpets have brought God’s will into the world, first to urge repentance, then to punish evil and sin. God’s word went out into the world and prevailed over his enemies, who were confounded and destroyed. There’s more to come, of course. But in a sense, the rest of the book fills in the details for the overall scheme that we’ve seen up to this point. These five verses summarize the glory that will be more fully described in Chapters 21 and 22.

The seventh angel sounded the last trumpet, and in response all of heaven erupts in a proclamation of God’s final victory. If you’re a music buff, you’ll recognize the words of the song in verse 7; Händel used them for his great triumphant “Hallelujah” chorus of the Messiah oratorio. And for good reason. In two simple lines, we hear a summary of Christ’s victory. The world has become God’s kingdom, and he will reign over it forever. It’s the fulfillment of our petition in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Up to this point we’ve been looking a dichotomy between God’s kingdom and the powers of the world that oppose him. Good and evil, God and Satan, light and dark. The celebration here isn’t that God has won a final victory over his enemies and defeated them. His victory runs even deeper. God didn’t just destroy his enemies: he converted them into his servants! God co-opts the world and bends it to his purposes. Maybe you’ve seen it in your own life: a horrible tragedy strikes, or an awful sin cuts an ugly mark across life. But God is able to take the suffering and evil and actually make it part of his plan. I’ve seen it happen in my own life (sorry, but I don’t feel like sharing the juicy details here. Just trust me on it). I guess you could say that God is the ultimate recycler. He takes trash and turns it into treasure. Or, as the 1970’s contemporary Christian singer Keith Green put it, “He brought me here, where things are clear, and trials turn to gold.” Notice carefully what the “loud voices in heaven” declare. They don’t say “The kingdom of the world has been defeated by the kingdom of our Lord.” They say “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord.” God has transformed his enemies and the broken world they have ravaged into part of his kingdom.

This is what God has been doing for centuries, as the gospel has spread across the world (that same gospel which John was told to proclaim in Revelation 10:11, and which the two witnesses prophesied in verses 3-6). Diogenes Allen wrote about this masterfully in his book Christian Belief in a Postmodern World. As the gospel spreads and encounters rival faiths and ideologies, it does not simply roll over top of them and eliminate them. It co-opts them, and makes them part of the Christian witness. (Don’t try this at home, kids. It can easily turn into syncretism. But that’s exactly not what I’m talking about here.) Let me give you a few examples. The first is one that Dr. Allen offered himself. Stoicism was probably the most influential and widespread philosophical schools of the first century Roman world. Never heard of it? That’s because it was incorporated into the Christian witness. Or, to put it more carefully (to show that it wasn’t simple syncretism), Stoicism had something to offer which strengthened Christian theology. It wasn’t a case of “these two are pretty much the same thing, so let’s slap them together” (which would be syncretism), but more like “hey, here’s a good tool we can use to understand the gospel better.” Another example is one which occurred over the last 150 years or so in Africa, which the Christian world is still benefitting from. When the first European missionaries came, they were appalled by the drumming and dancing that was part of the African culture. because it was closely associated with the African traditional religions, the missionaries forbade their converts from engaging in it. That was a real struggle for early African Christians, because drumming and dancing was an integral part of life for them. They had to give up part of who they were in order to become Christian. Over time, wiser heads recognized that there is nothing inherently sinful with traditional African drumming and dancing. Why couldn’t it be used for Christian worship as well? Practices which had originally been devoted to pagan or pantheistic religion are now used to offer praise to Jesus Christ. Christ has taken over what used to belong to another. Here’s one more example. Christian purists point out that the name “Easter” is derived from Ishtar, a Babylonian fertility goddess and festival. They refuse to celebrate Easter (or at least, to call day of Christ’s resurrection by that name) because of this pagan association. And to some extent, they have a point. Easter bunnies and eggs are symbols of fertility. But I see this as one more example of how the gospel has co-opted and taken over elements of the world that used to be opposed to Christ. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a devotee of Ishtar, and I see no devious conspiracy to undermine Christian faith in the resurrection by subverting it into a fertility cult. In fact, the exact opposite has happened. The celebration of new life that Ishtar-worshipers used to observe has now become part of our celebration of the new life that Jesus brings. We Christians have changed and taken over the Babylonian practice, not the other way around. (If the name “Easter” leaves you feeling hinky, then do what Eastern Orthodox Christians do and call it the Paschal Festival.” Does the name really matter all that much?) These are just a few examples, and there are so many more: neo-Platonism, Christmas trees, guitars and drums in worship (and yes, even organs. Time was that good church-going people were offended that such a profane instrument would be used in worship. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is set to the tune of an old German drinking song.)

This is all good news for us, because it’s exactly what God has done in our lives. If God would say something like “anything or anyone that is opposed to me or is directed to some other form of worship or way of life and thought must be destroyed,” we’d all be toast. Instead, he has taken us, enemies of his that we are because of our sin, selfishness, desires, and pride, and transformed us into his friends. Romans 5:10 expresses this beautifully. Those who are God’s enemies have become part of his kingdom. Hallelujah, indeed.

John then directs our attention back to the 24 elders who surround God’s heavenly throne (we first met them in Chapter 4). They now offer a new song to God. In a sense, these elders are like the chorus in ancient Greek dramas, commenting on the plot development and explaining to us, the audience, the significance of what’s going on. God is now exercising the full extent of his power, which up until now had been held back a bit. The “nations,” or the human and spiritual powers of the world which resisted God, have been angry at God and have resisted him, but now God takes on his role as their judge. “The time for judging has come.” We’ll see this expressed in more detail in Revelation 20:11-15. There will be reward and blessing for those whose worship of God (or reverence of his name) reveals them to be citizens of his kingdom. Notice that: it is our worship and reverence of God that demonstrates our saving relationship with him. Not the intensity of our faith, nor the precision of our theology, nor the merit of our conduct. It is our worship, praise, gratitude, honor – whatever words you want to use – of God that demonstrate that we are his people. So, what’s your worship life like (both personal and corporate)? It’s actually very simple. If you claim Christ as your king, then he will be your king and rule over you. If not, well, it’s another story. Those who get the nasty side of judgment are labeled destroyers: “those who destroy the earth.” That, in essence, is what rebellion against God and sin is all about. You are destroying the goodness of God’s creation and his perfect will for the world. Again, it’s very simple. If you destroy, you will be destroyed. In a sense, we select our own fate. If we seek God as our king, we will be part of his kingdom. If we devote ourselves to destruction, then we’ll get what we’ve been seeking and be destroyed ourselves.

The scene ends with God’s temple and the Holy of Holies being opened and revealed. This is a reminder of what happened during the crucifixion, when the temple curtain that shrouded the Holy of Holies was ripped apart. God is no longer caged up, and we are no longer protected from his glory and power, for good or bad. The lightning, thunder, earthquake, and hail are symbols of God’s power that we’ve encountered elsewhere (such as 8:1-5) and which we find repeatedly in the Bible (such as Exodus 19). It’s a symbolic expression of verse 16: God has taken up his power.