Notes on Revelation 6-8:1

The Lamb alone is worthy to open the seals, which is a way of John communicating the same exclusivity of the Son that he communicates in his Gospel.

Everything inside a document that one can open belongs to the one who opens it, meaning all judgment and salvation belong to the Son, another idea from John’s Gospel; and an important point to communicate that all people ultimately should be loyal to the Son, not to the world or its authorities, since to Him belongs all things.

The Son’s general judgment upon the world is conquest, war, famine, and death. All people experience this as part of the general judgment upon fallen mankind and creation. The command to go forth is given to the horsemen from the throne of God and the Lamb. The salvation in Revelation is the act of giving the inheritance of Christ, i.e., the whole world and resurrection life, to His people. This act, therefore, also means taking away the earth from the wicked and those who have corrupted and destroyed Christ’s people. Hence, all acts of judgment upon those who ruin God’s people are acts of salvation for God’s people. It is a double-edged sword.

Those who follow the Son, true Israel, however, are sealed (same word as the other seals) so that they belong to the Son alone, and not to the devil or his wicked world. Hence, the judgments of Christ upon the world will not lead to their spiritual destruction, even though it may lead to their physical suffering and death in the here and now. Hence, the seal is on their foreheads to protect their minds/faith through the suffering they will endure by being in the world that is under judgment.

The number 144,000 refers to the true church among the visible church upon the earth (7:1-8). The number is likely meant to parallel those who make up the new Jerusalem in Chapter 21. These are the faithful among the churches in Chapters 2-3 who overcame/were victorious by not compromising with the world and following the Lamb wherever He went (14:1-5). The scene then looks to another scene where John sees an enormous crowd made up of every tribe, nation, language, and people group, and these are identified as those who have come out of the great tribulation and rather than succumbing to the pressures of those persecutions have washed themselves in the blood of the Lamb (i.e., repented and received cleansing—which is another element taken from Johannine literature, where one who confesses his sin is made clean by the blood propitiation of Christ. These are likely the same group, not two different groups. One is merely a picture of these faithful witnesses as they lived in the time of tribulation in the wicked world and the other when they have come into God's presence both in the future creation.

The judgment of the wicked in the first cycle uses stock apocalyptic/prophetic speech that refers to the macrocosmic event at the end of the wicked world’s rule. Here it is coupled with a cataclysmic earthquake, whereas later it will be war and fire that burns the wicked world. The salvation here also mimics that found in the end of the book, e.g., wiping away every tear from their eyes, give them waters of life and will never thirst again, no more sun to beat down on them, etc.

The sky being rolled up is likely imagery that comes from the symbolic idea that the sky is a protective ceiling from cosmic waters that represent chaos. What it would essentially mean is that God now lets all chaos, including both natural and spiritual, i.e., demonic (there could be this sense in Revelation since stars are falling to the earth and the natural and spiritual are not divided so sharply in the ancient worldview), forces loose upon the created order. This is made more explicit in the second cycle, where Christ is clearly unleashing demonic/chaotic forces upon the world. Creation that has been corrupted is unraveling and undone to the point that all men just look to be covered upon by the avalanche of rocks to avoid any more of God’s wrath upon the earth.

The right response to God and Christ destroying the wicked and saving His people is worship and thanksgiving. The response we often hear today from those who think God must act only lovingly toward all if He is to be worthy of worship and praise is a symptom of the wicked in Revelation, who curse God rather than give Him glory. It means that those who think this way are the damned, even if they claim the name of Christ.

The reader is not told what the temple and throne are in the first cycle. It is only said that those who come out of the times of trouble and whose works are cleaned up through repentance will serve God in His temple perpetually and be forever sheltered by the Lamb. In the second cycle, it is clear that this refers to the resurrected people of God in the renewed created order upon the earth.

All of this is to point out on a smaller scale than what is discussed more specifically in the second cycle that all Christians who repent and follow Christ will receive Christ’s reward and those “Christians” who compromise and follow the world are part of the corrupting influence of the world that destroy Christians and will receive the judgment of the world.

The chapter break is poor. It should end with the breaking of the seventh seal in 8:1, and silence, which is likely to represent the original creation account where God rests on the seventh day.