Chapter 5

The sixth thing in heaven that we note takes up the first four verses of chapter five: the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. In studying the Doomsday book in Heaven we will eventually see how it works out as far as earth is concerned for in the seven seals of the Doomsday book we have the historical trends and disasters of the Tribulation. We will study the four horsemen of the apocalypse as the first four seals or trends of the Tribulation.

In verse 1 we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai and it is translated “then.” Next is the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, translated “I saw.” “Then I saw.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers the vision of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation into one entirety. The active voice: the apostle John is the author of the book of Revelation and as such he produces the action of the verb in a series of visions dealing with the historical trends of the Tribulation, a future period of history which will be unique in that there will be no restraint from God the Holy Spirit and therefore Satan will have full sway. His objectives will be world peace, and yet there will be wars. His objectives will be trying to duplicate what will happen in the Millennium and he will not succeed, proving once again that even though he is a total genius and one of the greatest of all creatures ever to come from the hand of God he is totally and completely incapable with absolute power and authority to produce what he wants to produce — the perfect environment of the Millennium before the Millennium exists. No creature, no matter how great his power and his genius, can produce for you a better world. You are the only one who can produce through your right decisions, which means, of course, living in the divine dynasphere, the better world for yourself as far as your own environment is concerned. We call that better environment “happiness” and it is not available to anyone except the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ making proper daily decisions with regard to the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the adjective decioj, and it means “on the right” but it is an idiom meaning “in the right hand.” This is an anthropomorphism referring to God the Father. God the Father is invisible but the arm and the hand and the Doomsday book are visible to John in this vision. We note next in the English order the accusative neuter singular of the word biblion, meaning a manuscript or a book or a scroll. This is what he saw but it does not come up next in the Greek text sentence. We will translate it in modern English, “I saw a book.” The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun and we will translate it, “I saw a book in the right hand.”

Next is the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit, “of him who sat.” With that we have e)pi plus qronoj, “on the throne.” The definite article of the participle is used for a personal pronoun referring to God the Father who during the Church Age holds the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. This is the dispensation of the seven Spirits of God. The Tribulation is the dispensation of the seven seals, and there is a tremendous difference. The Church Age is the most difficult period for the angelic conflict because all historical trends depend upon the volition of believers. Outside of this dispensation Historical trends depend on prophecy. This is the only exception and therefore this is the most concentrated, the most intense, period of the angelic conflict, but it is not the greatest concentration of simple historical disaster. That comes up from the Doomsday book, a book that cannot be opened until the Church, the royal family, is removed from this world. The perfective present tense of the participle refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality, God the Father sitting on the throne restrains the traumatic events of the Tribulation until the Church Age is concluded, until the transfer of the royal family to heaven by the Rapture. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. He does not release this book until the Church is in heaven. The participle is circumstantial.

So far we have a translation that sounds like this: “Then I saw in the right hand of him [God the Father] who was sitting on the throne a book [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation plus its seven seals for the historical trends of the Tribulation].”

Since Jesus Christ controls history we will see Him take the book from the hand of God the Father in chapter seven. In the meantime we have a very dramatic chapter before that occurs. As a result we will be able to pull together some of the concepts of the orderliness in the book of Revelation, for great portions of the book of Revelation all of the way to chapter eighteen is simply quoting from the Doomsday book. The Doomsday book is the story of Revelation from chapter six to chapter eighteen.

Principle

Historical trends are determined by prophecy in the Tribulation. They are all located in the Doomsday book.

1. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, hence it is the age of historical trends without prophecy. As such it is absolutely unique, it is the only historical era in history where prophecy does not determine historical trends. Prophecy is absolutely false and meaningless in this dispensation.

2. Only during the Church Age are historical trends related exclusively to your decisions as a believer, so that the royal family must take full responsibility for any peripheral disasters.

3. In other dispensations historical trends are determined by prophecy or the eschatology pertinent to that age.

4. This is why in the Church Age only: as goes the believer so goes the historical trends of any given generation.

5. Decisions of believers determine environment; environment does not determine decisions.

6. In other dispensations all human decisions were fed into the computer of divine decrees so that the historical trends were programmed and the printout was prophecy. This means that in the dispensation all of the printouts are in the form of prophecy. For example, in Leviticus 26: If you do such and such as a nation you will be hit with the cycles of discipline. It is all laid out prophetically. This was always was a group functional type of thing.

In this dispensation it is entirely different. Omniscience feeds into the computer of divine decrees what the believer decides — the volition of the believer: volition directed toward the divine dynasphere; volition directed toward the cosmic system. And in the printout historical trends always result from where the believers are living. That is why this is also the dispensation of the pivot: as goes the believer so goes the client nation. If there is a pivot there is blessing; if there is not a pivot there is not blessing. But there is no prophecy in this age.

7. Therefore prophecy determines historical trends in every dispensation except the Church Age.

8. This is the only dispensation where the divine dynasphere is the plan of God for the believer, and the believer’s decisions regarding the divine dynasphere and perception of doctrine at gate four actually determine what is going to happen next historically.

9. Therefore only in the Church Age are historical trends related exclusively to decisions made by believers in any given generation without any reference to prophecy or the doctrine of eschatology. That is why the Rapture is imminent. It could happen tonight or a thousand years from tonight. In the Tribulation, however, historical trends are determined by the prophecies recorded in this sealed book, the Doomsday book.

The library of heaven

There are extensive books and records in heaven. In fact the library of heaven is the largest of all libraries of all time. There is the book of life which is a registry in time of every person who has ever lived. In eternity it is a registry of believers only. Blotted out of the book of life will be the names of all unbelievers on the point that they die without accepting Christ as saviour. Interestingly enough, the book of life not only has the names in eternity of all believers but the registry also adds the new knighthood and all of the honours lists of mature believers in eternity. There is a vast record that we have noted in the temple of God in heaven including pillars which record biographies of every mature believer in the Church Age. The biography covers the life of the Church Age from the standpoint of its heroes. There will be also other records of other people in other dispensations.

The library in heaven has another series of volumes that go into the millions. It would be classified as it is in Revelation 20:12,13 as the books of works. These books of works have a complete record of every good deed accomplished by every unbeliever in history. At the last judgment, the second resurrection, Hades, one of the four compartments of the underworld, will deliver up its dead and they will stand at the great white throne judgment. Their sins, however, will not be mentioned, they were all judged at the cross, but the fact that they rejected the so great salvation will be a major issue. Christ is the issue, not your sins. In the book of works there will be a page opened, if you are an unbeliever, and every good deed that you have accomplished in all of your life time will be recorded. They will all be there in that book. Then, next, they are tabulated and compared to the perfect righteousness of the one who sits on the throne, John chapter five tells us that all judgment is committed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and when they are added up a second time they come up to minus R (-R), and -R cannot have fellowship with +R, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God’s sight. So the book of works is used as a basis for condemnation at the last judgment, along with the major issue which is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The library of heaven also includes other categories, including the Doomsday books. It appears to be one book when we start but eventually it is a series of volumes on the historical trends of the Tribulation. Prophetically quoted from them will be everything from Revelation chapter six to Revelation chapter eighteen. The Doomsday books give all of the historical judgements of the Tribulation. This is the volume found in the hand of God the Father in Revelation 5:1.

We note a few things about the Doomsday book: the perfect passive participle of the verb grafw, which means to write. It is translated “written,” the perfect tense of existing state in which the past is practically dropped from the concept in thought and attention is focused on the existing state. This is the same as the intensive perfect which emphasises the results of the verb. Hence it is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact in a strong way. Usually it is translated by the English present. The passive voice: the book or scroll receives the action of the verb being, filled with writing. The participle is circumstantial. We have two adverbs connected by kai, e)swqen, which means “inside”; and then o)pisqen, which means “outside,” translated “inside and on the outside [or backside].” It is an idiom that really means “on both sides.”

Finally we are introduced to the sequence of historical judgements, the perfect passive participle katasfagizw, and this is the only place in which this word occurs — “having been sealed.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect in which the rhetorical application of the intensive perfect is used. It describes the existing state of the book in a very vivid way. The book remains sealed until the Church Age is completed and the royal family has been removed from the earth, and with the royal family the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The reason that the Church Age is not more intensive when it comes to disasters is simply because of the presence of God the Holy Spirit, the divine dynasphere for this dispensation.

In the Church Age, again, historical trends depend on the individual volition of the believer, but in the Tribulation historical trends depend on prophecy. Prophecy is held up until the Church Age has been completed, until the royal family of God has been called out.

The passive voice: the Doomsday book of the Tribulation receives the action of the verb, sealed until the Church Age is terminated. The participle is circumstantial. We have with this the instrumental plural from sfragij, the word for seals, and with it the indeclinable numeral e(pta, “with seven seals.”

Translation: “Then I saw in the right hand of him [God the Father] who was sitting on the throne a book [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation] written on both sides, having been sealed with seven seals.”

The seals indicate the sequence of historical trends in the Tribulation. Again, note that these are prophecies. Prophecies denote historical trends in every dispensation except the Church Age. The content of each seal, numbers 1-6, are revealed in the next chapter, Revelation six. The content of the seventh seal begins at chapter eight, verse one, and continues for several chapters. Those will be the trumpet judgements and the three woes. In other words, all historical trends of the Tribulation are determined by prophecy, not by the personal volition of believers in that dispensation. The believer’s historical impact through good decisions related to doctrine and the divine dynasphere is limited to the Church Age only. Never has there been a dispensation where so much depends on the individual believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine. It will never be that way again, in all other dispensations the historical trends are determined by prophecy, and the prophecies always relate to both man and angelic creatures. In the Tribulation many of the historical trends actually are dependant on angelic creatures — their volition — and we are going to see super demons which right now are in jail in a compartment of Tartarus. But they will be released.

This book of seven seals is the account of the historical trends of the Tribulation. As long as the Church is on earth not one seal will be broken. This book is sealed until the Rapture of the Church takes place.

Verse 2 — the conjunction kai which begins this verse is co-ordinating instead of subordinating and it denotes a temporal designation, a sequential designation. So we translate it “then.” With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which means to see, and we will translate it “then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The human writer, John, produces the action of the verb in the vision. This is the declarative indicative for the reality of this vision which will further to help us to understand and appreciate the historical trends of the Tribulation coming up in the next chapter. The “strong angel” is important. We have the accusative direct object composed of two words. First of all the adjective i)sxuroj one of four Greek words used for strength and we will translate it powerful instead of strong because the word connotes endowed power. Endowed power indicates an angel of very high rank and we will note that this is in the order of the college of heralds, the top rank. This will be one of the kings of arms. Then we have the noun which goes with it, a)ggeloj indicating we are dealing with a higher creation. “Then I saw a powerful angel.”

We have seen the angelic order of battle. At the top is Malak Adonai which is the Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of the Lord, it is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of theophany. Next in the order, number one in the angelic order, is the kings of arms. These are the highest ranking. Number two in the order are the heralds, and the kings of arms and the heralds are seraphs. Number three are cherubs and these are the pur sui vant officers. And then the rank and file pur sui vant are called messengers. This is the order of battle in the college of heralds.

We are now for the first time dealing with number one in the angelic order of battle. Up until now we have been seeing the heralds. All of this rank becomes very important. This angel is the highest angelic creature in the college of heralds. Above him is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the king of arms or officer of arms and, as such, he wears and bears the entire coat of arms of the King of kings. To injure or insult the king of arms, even in medieval times, was an affront to the coat of arms he wore but even more so in the angelic college of heralds. This angel is the herald who is the highest of all in rank. Therefore when the highest-ranking angel comes forward it is time for us to note, and we will take very careful notice of what he announces.

The word i)sxuroj refers to the highest rank. The angel is going to do something, he is going to act like a herald for that is exactly what the present active participle of khrussw means, to function as an herald. There is also a noun that goes with it, khruc, the Greek word for herald. Khrussw, by the way, is the command given to ministers; they are to function as God’s heralds in the human race in the teaching of doctrine. So we translate: “Then I saw a powerful angel announcing [making a proclamation]”. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but prophecy is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the highest ranking angelic herald makes the announcement. The participle is circumstantial. Furthermore he makes the announcement so that all can hear: the prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the adjective megaj [loud] and the noun fwnh [voice], “with a great [or magnificent] voice.” His announcement or proclamation comes in the form of a question mark, the interrogative pronoun tij, “who.” With this we do not have a verb. Ellipsis is a part of the announcement. We can supply the verb e)imi. And then the predicate nominative a)cioj, “worthy.” Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw, which means here to break open or simply to open. ”Who is worthy to break open its seals” is the way it is translated. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the point being that this book cannot be opened except by one person and that one person is the one who controls history.

“Then I saw a powerful angel announcing with a great voice, Who is worthy to break its seals and to open the book?”

Principle

1. Worthiness is the issue in who controls history. The worthiness issue was settled at the first advent of Christ. The only human being or creature who is worthy to control history is our Lord Jesus Christ — talking about His humanity [the hypostatic union]. In His first advent He went to the lowest point of humility. No one was ever tested in true humility as our Lord was. Finally He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So His worthiness is based on the fantastic enforced and genuine humility and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. That occurred on the cross where He bore our sins and taking our place.

2. When our Lord became true humanity at the point of the virgin birth, continued to live inside the prototype divine dynasphere, resulting in His impeccability and the function of His kenosis, and then went to the cross and was judged for our sins when they were imputed to Him, He won the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. He broke Satan’s back, in effect, on the cross as well as providing for us our so great salvation.

3. Therefore worthiness belongs to Christ in the hypostatic union, a worthiness expressed in Christ being awarded His third royal patent, i.e. King of kings, Lord of lords.

4. The third royal patent guarantees that Jesus Christ controls history. He controlled it before but the guarantee of His control was strengthened, re-established, by that strategic victory. In fact the true meaning of human history centres around the person of Christ and His victory of the first advent.

5. No one else in history is qualified to open the sealed Doomsday book of the Tribulation. The only qualified person is our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Our Lord Jesus Christ received two royal patents related to His first advent, one at the beginning and one at the end. At the point of the virgin birth, His second royal patent, He became the ruler of Israel forever. At the end, He became the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the victory of the angelic conflict. Both of these royal patents qualify Him for ultimate worthiness. The first royal patent received at birth becomes an issue at verse 5 — the Lion of the tribe of Judah passage. The second royal patent was received at the point of our Lord’s session after His resurrection and ascension. So that worthiness is the subject of the incarnation, it was achieved at that point.

And then in the order of the Greek, “and to break its seals” comes next. The word for “break” here is the aorist active indicative of luw which means to break. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: at the this point an unknown person is being sought whose qualifications make it possible for the trends of the Tribulation to be presented. Then the accusative plural direct object, sfragij, “seals.” The seals refer to the category of events in the Tribulation in terms of historical trends. The seals are called “seals” and the information is sealed in the Doomsday book because the Church Age is still going strong. The events of the Tribulation will not and cannot occur until the Rapture of the Church, until the Church is removed. Each seal represents a prophecy of Tribulational trends. However, as long as the Church is on earth the seals of the scroll of the book will never be broken. Once the royal family is removed by means of the resurrection the Age of Israel will continue and terminate under the title of the Tribulation — Daniel’s seventieth week.

The first six seals of the book indicate historical trends without reference to chronology, things that will occur from time to time. The seventh seal is the source of both the trumpet and the goblet judgements which are chronologically arranged. Therefore the Doomsday book includes general historical trends throughout the Tribulation, seals one through six, then the historical judgements of the seventh seal which will include the vial or the goblet judgements and the trumpet judgements. So it should be noted that the first six seals of the book are historical trends very similar to the historical trends in the Church Age or any past dispensation. We will have to remember one thing, one great difference: God the Holy Spirit who restrains in this dispensation will not be present to restrain in the Tribulation. So the similarity ends with the source of historical trends. In the Church Age it is the volition of the believer; in the Tribulation it is the doctrine of eschatology or prophecy. The fact that certain trends in the Church Age coincide with historical trends in the Tribulation does not imply that the Tribulation is here, far from it, or that the Church goes through part of the Tribulation. That is heresy.

Verse 3, Again we have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the adjective used as a substantive, and the subject o)udeij, which is translated “no one.” O)udeijis used because neither an angel nor a human being could come forward and break the seals. No one can break the seals among members of the human race or angelic beings.

Next we have the imperfect middle indicative of the verb dunamai, and it means to have power or to be able. The imperfect of description, the middle voice: this is a deponent verb middle in form but active in meaning, it means that no creature of any category has the worthiness to open or to break the seals. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute reality, absolutely no one. Then the verb demands an infinitive to complete the action so we skip to the aorist active infinitive of a)noigw, no one is able or qualified to break the seals. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. There never was and there never will be anyone in category homo sapien or in the angelic category who is qualified, only the Lord Jesus Christ, as we will see. This is the infinitive of intended result. That means it combines purpose and result. The failure of any rational creature, both angelic or human, is a deliberate divine objective. And time is given for anyone who thinks he is qualified to step forward, “and no one was able to open.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object from biblion which is translated “book” and is a reference to the Doomsday book, the history of the Tribulation.

Next we have three prepositional phrases. The first two are connected by o)udh o)udh, and it is translated “neither nor.” So the first prepositional phrase takes up the first category. No one in heaven was able to step forward, e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven,” no human being or angel in heaven. The Church will be in heaven in resurrection body at this time. The Old Testament saints were transferred at the resurrection of Christ, and while they are in interim bodies they are not qualified. So all of the great people in history will be there in category homo sapien in various stages, some in resurrection bodies and some are not.

The announcement is also made on earth. Next we have the preposition e)pi plus the genitive of the noun gh, the word for planet earth. It is translated “on earth.” On earth there are operational elect angels and there are operational fallen angels called demons. There are all kinds of human beings, believers and unbelievers. No one accepts the challenge of the king of arms on earth.

The third prepositional phrase requires a little more explanation because we have an adverb used as an improper preposition, u(pokatw. With it we have the object of the preposition of the genitive, gh again, and it is translated “under the earth.” Why under the earth? We will study it in great detail when we get to the next chapter. When our Lord was on the cross he said to one of the criminals with Him who believed in Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” When our Lord died physically His spirit went into the presence of the Father, His body went into the grave, and His soul went into paradise or Abraham’s bosom which is a part of what is called Sheol [Hebrew] or Hades [Greek]. When our Lord said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” He established the fact that under the earth, in the core of the earth somewhere, there is Sheol or Hades. Paradise or Abraham’s bosom is where all the believers were located up until the resurrection when they were transferred to heaven where all of this is taking place. The other criminal went to a place called torments, the location of all unbelievers since the beginning of time and where they will remain until the last judgment. There is a great gulf fixed between the believer’s compartment and the unbeliever’s compartment in Hades.

There are two more compartments for fallen angels. The fallen angels of Genesis chapter six are in a place called Tartarus. The angels who have to be incarcerated, the demons since Genesis chapter six, are in a place which is called the Abyss. In the Tribulation it is the Abyss that will have some of the most powerful angels of all angelic creatures coming up. Under the earth refers to the unbelievers in torments, the angels incarcerated (in two categories), and there is no one under the earth in Sheol or Hades who can respond to this challenge.

Then it says, “nor to look on it,” the present active infinitive of the verb blepw. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: no angelic or human creature in heaven, on earth, or in Sheol or Hades, steps forward or is qualified. The infinitive of intended result indicates the fulfilling of a deliberate objective and the blending of purpose and result. With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as personal pronoun, third person neuter singular, and therefore a)utoj is translated “it” referring to the Doomsday book. Again, this emphasises and dramatises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

Principle: regardless of the dispensation this verse emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. This also means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Church Age, it means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Tribulation, it means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Millennium, He rules the world in the Millennium. So it is a source of comfort to us as believers that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely greater than the power of any man or any angel. And this means that the trends of history should be a comfort to us now matter how disastrous at any given moment, for our Lord Jesus Christ is in control, He knows exactly what He is doing. This is the application of doctrine every believer must make in times of personal or national disaster. There is no place for doubting our Lord. Furthermore, pain and disaster is of our own making, the sum total of our volition combined with others. And since man is the product of his own volition and not his environment all disaster merely reflects bad decisions and man’s infinite capacity to inflict pain on himself apart from good decisions related to the grace of God and to the plan of God.

We resume with the expletive use of the conjunction kai, translated “And so.” With this is the imperfect active indicative of the verb klaiw, which means to weep. There are all kinds of reasons why people weep. Many of them are good; many of them are bad. Many of them relate to capacity for life, and some of them relate to frustration and failure in life. Weeping, therefore, is quite a subject as far as the Word of God is concerned. Weeping is never thinking, it belongs to the realm of emotion as far as the function of the soul is concerned. If emotions are in their proper sequence of thought and capacity for life then weeping is a very honourable and wonderful thing, but if not then weeping is exactly the opposite. As far as the Christian life is concerned weeping which is related to the divine dynasphere it is a wonderful thing. If weeping is related to the frustrations and the functions of the cosmic system then it is very detrimental and, as a matter of fact, even evil.

When it says here “I wept” it is in the iterative imperfect tense. It describes the action as recurring at successive intervals in past time. It is part of an idiom with the adjective poluj which follows and is correctly translated “I wept and wept” or “I cried and I cried.” A natural reaction on the part of the apostle John but totally unnecessary as a rational act. Weeping is the sign of emotion, not the function of the mind and John is overcome emotionally so that he cannot think, and of course he cannot go on. Emotions are great when they respond to thought but they are detrimental when they supersede thought. The pressure of writing the book of Revelation perhaps even exceeds learning it and interpreting it for teaching it as a part of the function of worship. The very fact that he broke down at this point is indicative of the fact that no one ever gets into the realm of angelology as a biblical subject without facing tremendous and unusual pressures. In the chapters to come we are going to see John unfolding the whole realm of the angelic conflict and, more than that, the exposure of the whole Satanic system.

The Tribulation is the ultimate in the manifestation of the angelic conflict as far as angelology is concerned. While demonism is certainly a trend of history today, in the future it is going to be unrestrained demonism and even an invasion of demons from the Abyss which, of course, is going to change the whole course of history. The very fact that we as believers, inferior in power and structure to angels, are able to carry on and to function in the devil’s world again is indicative of the importance of the power of the Word. Nothing is more important than doctrine.

So when John says, “I wept and I wept” or “I cried and I cried” he is actually speaking of his own failure, his own weakness here. The important thing to remember is that no one is perfect. The point is that the failures of the communicator are never an issue in this communication. The book of Revelation would have terminated in chapter four verse five had that been true. John would not have written the book of Revelation. But the very fact that rebound had occurred and the fact that he went on is a reminder once again that in your spiritual life you are dependant on those who have the gift of pastor-teacher and who also study and teach. They are not perfect, they are not to be put on a pedestal, they are not in that sense any better than anyone else, they have an old sin nature. But the content of the message you cannot afford to miss, and when you get the person and the message mixed up your spiritual life is over and you will accept every cheap substitute that Satan has to offer, and he has many.

The omission of liquid from the tear ducts is not really weeping but it is used to express sorrow, lamentation, even emotional stimulation and happiness. There is also frustration and pain so in the Bible weeping is found to express all of these and you must remember that weeping is never an expression of rational thinking, it is an expression of emotion. It is both good and bad.

Weeping as an expression of reversionism in the cosmic system is found in Numbers 14:1,2, it is the most evil category of weeping, “Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept all night. And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses,” they blamed Moses for their own failure. They had been frightened by the reconnaissance report made by the twelve princes of Israel who went into the land of Canaan and checked it out. When they came back and reported about the giants and all of the things in the land the people became frightened and they blamed their own negative volition on Moses. So we have weeping as an expression of negative volition toward doctrine, as a malfunction of the faith-rest drill which requires thinking. This is the thinking of the cosmic system or the weeping of the cosmic system and as a result they always blame someone else. First they wept, then they blamed Moses. Moses was not to blame in any sense of the word.

Weeping is also an expression against reversionism in Philippians 3:18,19. Here we find the great apostle Paul weeping. John and Paul, two of the greatest of the apostles, we find weeping, and also the weeping of Peter when he betrayed our Lord, “he went out and wept bitterly,” says Matthew 26. So there is weeping with all of the great believers of the New Testament. “For many keep walking, concerning whom I have told you many times, and now even weeping.” Here is an aberration, as it were, on the part of Paul, at least just for a moment. The very fact that he was weeping was not compassion for those who were in the cosmic system, it was frustration. He was frustrated by the fact that here were these people who had been exposed to all of this Bible doctrine and yet it did not take in any sense of the word. Instead they went into the cosmic system — “I tell you, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” Believers in the cosmic system have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. They have eternal security which they cannot lose but they are the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ during the time that they are in the cosmic system. Their end is described as the sin unto death — “whose end is destruction, whose god is his emotion, whose glory is his dishonour, and when they think at all they think about earthly things.”

Weeping because of the practice of reverse process reversionism, therefore, is again a great evil. The believer in James 5:1 was trapped in the cosmic system, “Come now you rich ones, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.” What a terrible thing to spend your whole life putting all of your scale of values on money and putting it above doctrine, and as a result coming down to this end. Weeping is a part of the punishment. Why are these believers miserable? Because to them money and wealth and success was far more important than Bible doctrine.

In Hebrews 12:17 we also have the weeping of the unbeliever under the same frustration. “For you know that afterwards, even when he [Esau] kept desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he did not find an opportunity for repentance [he didn’t change his mind and believe in Christ], though having sought this blessing with tears,” he thought he could impress God by crying but he could only impress God by believing in Christ, and this he refused to do. Instead of believing the Lord he used weeping as a substitute. God is never impressed with emotion. Emotion is a blessing that comes from good thought or bad thought but God is never impressed with it. Emotion simply impresses people who cannot think.

Then, of course, the type of weeping that simply reflects the bad decisions we make in life, the weeping of regret. 2 Samuel 14:23,24, “So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. However, the king said, ‘Let him return to his own house, and let him not see my face.’ So Absalom returned to his own house and did not see the king’s face.”

Later on, of course, David wept but he had made a bad decision. He had made a decision that was not a grace decision. Absalom later killed his step brother Amnon for raping his sister Tamar. David was guilty of a half forgiveness. He did not fulfil the principle found in Colossians 3:13, “Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so you also should forgive them.” David didn’t do this. So in 2 Samuel 14:28, “Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and did not see the king’s face.” Then when Absalom finally died as a result of his revolution which all began with David’s half forgiveness, verse 33. When the king saw Absalom’s body he was deeply moved and he went to the room over the gate and he wept and wept, and he cried, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son, I wish that I had died instead of you.” Here is weeping mixed with irrational statements of thought. Of all of the people who should not die it is David, he is a great king. Of all of the people who would die sooner or later it was Absalom in his arrogance, in his vanity. Yet we find here the weeping of great regret for David made terrible mistakes with Absalom, not merely the one of the half forgiveness but many other mistakes. In this case, again, his weeping is a negative virtue because it is regret of making so many bad decisions with regard to that person.

There is also a weeping and disaster which is negative: “Then David and the troops who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until there was no strength in them,” that is, when they came back to their encampment at Ziklag, and David then describes in Psalm 42 how he felt: “My tears have been my food day and night.” The weeping here is a case of where he made a mistake and now they all go back and cry about it.

In the Sennacherib invasion of Isaiah 36 the Assyrian army kept shouting at the Jews: “Where is your God?” And they responded by crying. They were afraid of the Assyrians and they said, “My tears have been my food day and night,” the same concept.

The weeping can also be involved in other factors, like rebound, reversion recovery, Psalm 30:5 where David says, “His anger [divine discipline] is but for a moment resulting in a lifetime of great benefit; weeping may last for the night, but celebration happiness comes in the morning”. In other words, the weeping of the terrible divine discipline, the pain that came from it, both spiritual pain of the soul and physical pain, is now changed to happiness.

Psalm 30:11, “You have converted my weeping into dancing; you have torn off my sackcloth and clothed me with your happiness.” So weeping also can stop, and when one rebounds it gets back to a rational function in life.

There is also weeping which is the most tragic of all. When believers are jealous of other believers and living, therefore, obviously in the cosmic system, there is the weeping of sour grapes. In Ezra 3:12, 13, “Yet many of the priests and Levites, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when before their eyes the foundations of the second temple was laid. At the same time many others were shouting for happiness so that the people [who were on the outside ready to attack at a future time and were making a reconnaissance] could not distinguish the sound of the shouts for happiness from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout to drown out the weepers, and the sound was heard far away.” Someone suddenly realised that they were being observed by their enemies, the reconnaissance patrols that were hiding out in the hills, and so they said, “You have to shout louder so that they will not think that we have given up because of these cry-babies.”

There is also the crying drunk. The weeping of drunks in a national disaster is found in the Bible.

Joel 1:5,6, “Wake up you drunks, and start crying again; wail, all of you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For the nation has been invaded by a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, and has the jaw teeth of a lioness.”

In other words, once the people are deprived of their pleasures, of the things which are related to prosperity that eventuated in their decadence [although it doesn’t have to], then they start to weep and to wail. Sooner or later a nation such as ours which moves into social degeneracy and economic depression through its own bad decisions, through the shrinkage of the pivot, through indifference to the Word of God on the part of believers, eventually there is the weeping and the wailing of the loss of the pleasures, the loss of the fun, the loss of everything that is associated with prosperity. It is an historical trend that one generation makes prosperity through their virtue, their greatness, through Bible doctrine, through the truth of the laws of divine establishment, through free enterprise and government non-interference.

The weeping of patriots in national disaster is not unusual either. Isaiah 22:3,4 — “All your rulers have fled together, they have been captured by the threat of weaponry [they surrendered because they were afraid of the bow]; all of you who were found were taken captive together, though they had not fled away. Therefore I say, ‘Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly, do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the citizens of this great nation.’ In other words, Isaiah was weeping because they didn’t even resist. They wouldn’t fight, they were draft dodgers, they were cowards, and they could have stopped the enemy, but they didn’t. They gave up out of fear. Fear is still the greatest weapon in warfare.

In Jeremiah 9:1, “O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” Later on Jeremiah wept for those who fought, and this is a legitimate weeping, this is honouring the honourable dead, those who fight for freedom. Whatever they were in life, by giving their lives on the battlefield they have become honourable and they represent the honour of the nation.

Lamentations 1:16, “For these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because the comforter is far from me, the one who restores my soul; my young people in the country are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.” This is the weeping of patriotism; this is an honourable weeping for a country that had been great through Bible doctrine and now has lost that greatness through cosmic involvement.

The weeping of bitterness is found among women as well. In 1 Samuel 1:10, speaking of Hannah, “She, bitter of soul, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.” She was the object of scorn and derision because she had not had any children. In the time in which this was written it was considered to be a great disgrace. But she reacted to all of these people who were maligning her and ridiculing her, and she wept bitterly. In other words, she allowed what people thought, their criticism, their maligning, to overcome her.

The weeping of grief and sorrow is mentioned in many passages. In John 11:33 the honourable weeping of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Therefore when Jesus saw her [the sister of Lazarus] weeping , and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit, and was troubled.” This is legitimate weeping for someone you love who has departed from this life. This is mourning; this is a part of sorrow; and it is legitimate. The same thing is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

There is a weeping of judgment. Matthew 8:12, “But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is a reference to Jews, called the sons of the kingdom because theirs is the client nation, the greatest client nation in history. Yet the very purpose for the client nation is to present the gospel and to teach doctrine. And they have rejected the gospel and therefore they were a client nation with the greatest opportunity for salvation and they rejected Christ as saviour, and therefore there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:30, “And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The worthless slave is Israel. Israel having been a client nation for so many hundreds of years and having been custodians of the Word of God, and having had the opportunity of great blessing from category #1 doctrine, free enterprise, and having heard the gospel time and time again, and having lived in the best environment for becoming a believer, they rejected Christ and therefore the tragedy: their weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luke 13:28, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets in the kingdom of God,” same concept again. Many Jews will accept Christ as saviour. For those who do not there will be the weeping of total frustration for lost opportunity.

The weeping of the Lord Jesus Christ is also a very fascinating subject since there are several passages in the Word of God that discuss it. At the tomb of Lazarus, the weeping of bereavement; over the city of Jerusalem, the weeping of patriotism in Luke 19:41; at the cross, Hebrews 5:7.

There is also the cessation of weeping, Isaiah 30:18-20, “Therefore the Lord waits that he may be gracious to you, consequently he will lift himself to have compassion for you. For the Lord is a God of justice; happiness to those who wait on him [trust him]. For a people shall dwell in Zion [Jerusalem], as for weeping you shall stop weeping,” once the Jews are restored as a client nation to God they will never again weep, “As for grace, he will give you grace; at the sound of your cry, when he hears it he will answer you. Although the Lord has given you the bread of privation [Israel lost out as a client nation] and the water of oppression, Yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, for your eyes shall be looking on your Teacher.”

Then, of course, in eternity when the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, Revelation 21:4, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Two things will never exist for the believer in eternity: pain and crying. No believer will ever cry in the eternal state. There is regret, there is ashamedness, there is embarrassment at the judgment seat of Christ, but no more crying and no more tears.

Our passage, then, says: “And so I wept and I wept,” and now he gives us the reason. The causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” Then the nominative singular subject, o)udeij, “no one.” The verb is the aorist passive indicative of e(uriskw, no one “was found.” The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Neither angel nor human was found who has the right or the worthiness to open the book of historical trends of the Tribulation. The passive voice: the subject no one refers to man and angels, they receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the doctrine that Jesus Christ controls history and only our Lord, of course, can break it open. Now John knows this but he has forgotten it temporarily.

One of the greatest aberrations among believers is to forget a doctrine just when you need it. The reason for this is fear or something similar because fear destroys the ability to think. In fact fear is defined as lack of thinking. Once fear comes in then emotion takes over, and that is why John wept. He was weeping for all of the wrong reasons. His emotions were temporarily out of control. He was weeping because no one was found and yet he already knows that Jesus Christ controls history. The declarative indicative mood is for the reality of the doctrine that Jesus Christ controls history. The ellipsis demands the relative pronoun o(j and the imperfect of e)imi, “who was” is the way it is translated. Ellipsis is used here to reflect the emotional condition of the writer and therefore things are left out which are obvious and can be included. And then we have the predicate nominative from the adjective acioj, “worthy,” “who was worthy.”

Then the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw which means to break open or to open the seals. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: neither angel nor human being could produce the action and this is a reminder of the fact that creatures inevitably do not control history. It is God who controls history and it is now the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The infinitive of intended result combines result and purpose into one concept — the failure of any creature, both angelic and human, fulfils a deliberate objective, the divine objective of the vision. Only Jesus Christ is qualified to break the seals.

We have finally the accusative singular direct object from the word biblion, “the book,” the Doomsday book. In contrast to the Church Age historical trends in the Tribulation are determined by prophecy. Behind each one of these seven seals is a prophecy regarding the trends of the Tribulation.

Then he says, “or to see it,” the present active infinitive of the verb blepw, meaning to see. No one was able to look at it, to see it. The futuristic present denotes an event which is eschatological, a vision which has not yet occurred in heaven because the Rapture or the termination of the Church Age has not yet occurred. But this prophecy is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring, therefore the futuristic present. Neither angelic creature nor homo sapien can produce the action, says the active voice, and that is because historical trends are determined by Jesus Christ. The infinitive: the intended result is when the result indicates the fulfilling of a deliberate objective on the part of God. Finally, the accusative neuter singular of autos which is correctly translated “it.”

Translation: “And so I wept and I wept, because no one was found [neither human nor angelic creature] who was worthy to open the book [the Doomsday book with its seven seals denoting prophetically historical trends in the Tribulation] or to see it [view its contents].”

There is another phrase in the King James version, “and to read the book,” which is not found in the original manuscript.

Once our Lord Jesus Christ breaks those seals in heaven and John through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit records the content in Revelation chapters six through eighteen, then there will be great accuracy and anyone will be able to exegete it who understands the eschatology of the Old Testament.

Man has within him not only the old sin nature but certain very self-destructive principles. In order to protect all of us from these self-destructive principles we have been given under the laws of divine establishment category #1 truth, the principle of the sacredness of life and privacy as the basis for human freedom for everyone. And then as believers we have been given a royal family honour code that adds many principles to this — the avoidance of gossip or maligning or judging, or anything that would be detrimental to the privacy of someone else. The reason for this is obvious: none of us are perfect; all of us have an old sin nature; all of us have manifestations of that sin nature. Therefore in the time in which we live, the Church Age, one of the most evil of all categories is not a demon category but a category of born-again believer who under the principle of arrogance and self-righteousness and the modus operandi of crusader arrogance are trying to reform and change everyone under the principle that they are perfect and that everyone should be like they are. This is the most evil system of morality. The worst evil of all time is the morality of the believer in the cosmic system because instead of being linked to the filling of the Spirit where it is a fantastic gracious function it is linked to the cosmic system and Satan where it becomes arrogance and a tremendous evil. With so many born-again believers entering into the cosmic system and taking their morality and their reform along with them, and adding to it their arrogance as a motivating factor, it provides the most awful kind of society.

In verses 5-7, in observing the seventh thing in heaven, we note that Jesus Christ controls history after His first advent and in His hypostatic union. As we resume we see the worthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ to continue to control history.

In verse 5 we start with the usual conjunction kai. This conjunction not only has eight very definite grammatical uses but possibly as many as ten other ones. The fact that it is constantly translated “and” sometimes detracts. Often there is a sequential kai, which we have here, and it perpetuates a sequence of events and we translate it “then.” Then we have the nominative numeral for “one” which is e(ij. This refers to one spokesman. Note that there are twenty-four general staff members in the angelic group but only one of them is the spokesman at this time. We do not know the exact reason for it we just simply know that this is the situation.

In going back for a moment to the order of rank of angels there are two categories and we need to perhaps add a few things in anticipation of what we will be studying. In the college of heralds the order of battle is: No 1, our Lord Jesus Christ who is not an angel but commands the college of heralds. He is Malak Adonai, the Angel of the Lord, and as such He is the head of the college of heralds.

There are four categories of our Lord’s appearances in history. There is the theophany which is the appearance of our Lord before the first advent. It includes the appearance as the messenger of God the Father and as number one in the college of heralds. His appearances during and after the incarnation or the first advent are simply called the incarnation. Our Lord appears at that time in hypostatic union, a unique personality composed of two natures and the characteristics of each nature never bleed over or overflow into the other, He is truly God and truly humanity in one person forever. After His resurrection there were appearances to human beings and that is called Christophany — post-resurrection appearances of our Lord in His hypostatic union. The seconds advent is the return of Christ in His hypostatic union to supersede Satan, the coup de tat that will make Him the ruler of this world.

Angel of the Lord [Jehovah] refers to our Lord Jesus Christ as an Old Testament theophany which ranks Him above everyone else in the college of heralds. As the Angel of the Lord He is also identified as God.

Number two in the college of heralds are called the seraphim. These are the highest of the angelic order, they have six wings as their insignia of rank. Most angels do not have wings. There are two categories of seraphs in the college of heralds. We have just noted one in Revelation 5:2, the powerful angel who ranks as a king or officer of arms. Under him are the angelic heralds who are also seraphim and they are the four living creatures of Revelation four, verses 6-8.

Number three are the pur sui vant officers who all have four wings and are called cherubs. They are famous for their four wings as their insignia of rank. Just as there are officers in the pur sui vant category in the English college of heralds, so in the angelic college of heralds. The pur sui vant officers in the angelic college include the cherubs who guard the gates of Eden, the four cherubs of the chariot of fire in Ezekiel 1 and 10; Satan or Lucifer son of the morning in Ezekiel 28:14; the messenger of judgment in 2 Samuel 22:11, mentioned also in Psalm 18:10. They are pur sui vant officers.

Number four in the angelic college are the pur sui vant messengers. They are elect angels in the college of heralds, without wings, therefore without rank, but they do have special classification. For example, the angelic messengers who, destroyed Sodom were pur sui vant.

Next in verse 5 we have r(iza Dauid, “the Root of David.” Isaiah 11:1 gives us this first royal title. The root of David refers to our Lord Jesus Christ with His first royal patent. In eternity past our Lord had His first royal patent as the Root of David. As the Root of David, in the Greek text, r(iza, Jesus Christ is God. The Root of David is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ in His deity. At the point of the virgin birth He received His second royal patent, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah or the Son of David. These two royal titles, of course, are connected with Israel. God’s plan for the human race and God’s plan to resolve the angelic conflict puts Israel in a major role. As a client nation to God, as the recipient of the unconditional covenants, as the Son of David — in the virgin birth our Lord Jesus Christ is descended from David and Bathsheba. So as the Root of David our Lord Jesus Christ has His first royal patent as Son of God; Son of David, His second royal patent. This is mentioned to indicate the hypostatic union which is the basis of fulfilling all unconditional covenants to Israel at the second advent.

This is the subject of Isaiah 11:1, “A root will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots [Christ as eternal God] a branch [Christ in hypostatic union] will bear fruit [second advent].”

Isaiah 11:10, “In that day [the second advent and the Millennium] the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the nations, the nations will rally to him and his place of rest will be glorious.”

It is this particular chapter that gives us the basis for this particular phrase, “the root of David.” This is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God and as eternal God Jesus Christ is the founder of the Jewish race. He is not only the founder of the Jewish race as eternal God and the God of Israel, but as the Son of David He will deliver the Jewish race at the second advent.

We now have to have a subject to go with the verb, which is nikaw, the aorist active indicative, and it means to be victorious, to win, to overcome, and we will translate it “has won the victory.”

“Look here, the Lion from the tribe of Judah [our Lord’s second patent], the Root of David [our Lord’s first royal patent as eternal God, the two together make the hypostatic union], has won the victory.” The culminative aorist tense views the strategic victory of the first advent of Christ in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. In this context Christ is qualified to open the Doomsday book to break to seven seals which denote the seven general characteristics and trends of the Tribulation. This emphasises, of course, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His strategic victory of the first advent. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

With this we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw which means here to begin to open because of the ingressive aorist tense. It contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Jesus Christ, again, produces the action. This is an infinitive, the infinitive of intended result which blends purpose and result in one concept. In other words, a deliberate aim or object is being fulfilled. With this the accusative direct object from biblion, “he has won the victory and is qualified to begin opening the book”. And then a connective conjunction “and,” and the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “its.” Then we have the phrase “seven seals.”

Translation of verse 5 — “Then one of the angelic staff officers commanded me, Stop crying: look here, the Lion from the tribe of Judah [title of our Lord’s second royal patent], the Root of David [title of our Lord’s first royal patent], has won the victory and is qualified to begin opening the Doomsday book and break its seven seals.”

This, again, is a reference to the historical trends of the Tribulation which are based on prophecy. Only the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy, is the exception. All historical trends throughout history are developed through eschatology or prophecy, except in the Church Age. Jesus Christ is qualified therefore to open the Doomsday book and to break these seals as an emphasis on the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The concept, of course, is the worthiness of our Lord to open the Doomsday book and to break the seals. As eternal God and founder of the Jewish race, as well as client nation Israel, Jesus Christ is the Root of David. As the God-Man in hypostatic union Christ received His second royal patent at the point of the virgin birth: the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Both royal patents combine to present our Lord as the one who perpetuates historical trends, He controls history as the God-Man. He is therefore qualified to open these seals. It is important for us to make the application that the one who controls history now will always control history. No matter how difficult things become circumstantially our Lord will take care of those who are inside the divine dynasphere which is the wall of fire.

It is only after the strategic victory was achieved at the cross and culminated in resurrection, ascension and session, that Jesus Christ received His third royal patent, the one which we have been studying in chapters two and three. When our Lord received His third royal patent it became necessary to insert a mystery dispensation, a dispensation with no prophecy, into history. That is exactly what we have in the concept of intercalation which came from the third royal patent. First royal patent: in eternity past Jesus Christ is eternal God; second royal patent: first advent, Jesus Christ is the Son of David; third royal patent: when Jesus Christ ascended, concluding, of course, the first advent, the incarnation. This was the first time our Lord was minus a royal family to go with that royal patent. The royal family under the first patent: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit; the royal family under the second is the dynasty of David; the royal family, He didn’t have one. He was King of kings and Lord of lords, He was the bright morning star, but He had no royal family. Therefore instead of going right to the second advent and fulfilling the unconditional covenants to Israel there is first of all the insertion of an age to call out the royal family, the dispensation of the Church or the royal family. Then He owes one more period of seven years, called “Daniel’s seventieth week,” to Israel before the second advent. This, of course, is the Tribulation.

Intercalation, a word introduced into theology by Dr L.S. Chafer, is the key to understanding the mystery concept of the Church Age. It means insertion. The Jewish dispensation had seven years to run when our Lord received His third royal patent. It was interrupted by the strategic victory of Christ and the issuing of His third royal patent. So a new dispensation had to be inserted before time could continue for Israel. Intercalation also is the intensification of the angelic conflict. The Church Age is the dispensation of the mystery. This is taught in Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26. Doctrines pertaining to the Church Age are never found in the Old Testament. In all of the Old Testament dispensations, there are four of them, historical trends are based on the same thing, prophecy. There was no prophecy of the Church Age because the Church Age could not have prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends based on the volition of the individual believer. It is the dispensation of intercalation; it is the dispensation of the mystery. There is no prophecy during the Church Age. The Church Age is terminated with a prophecy — the Rapture. The first mention that there would be an intercalation came from our Lord Jesus Christ when He said: “On this rock I will build my church,” future active indicative of the verb o)ikodomew, which means it was a future tense, it had not occurred as yet. The rock, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ, not Peter. Peter is petroj, he is a little chip in the stone. Petra is the rock on which the Church is built, a large mountain, a large rock. The rock, of course, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which the royal family of God is formed. Christ is the rock, Christ is the petra on the which the Church, i.e. the royal family, is built. And it is a dispensation in which God changes His policy only once to allow the royal family to determine the historical trends in this dispensation.

So what happens in this dispensation is your decision, your decision to live in the divine dynasphere as over against your decision to live in the cosmic system. As goes the believer so goes this dispensation of no prophecy. It is the dispensation of intercalation; it is the dispensation of the mystery. The mystery is defined as a period of no prophecy to anticipate it, absolutely unknown to the Old Testament saints, according to Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26. Doctrines pertinent to the Church are intercalated, they are inserted by the New Testament epistles. This means that every time there was a chronological prophecy or a prophecy that might include the Church Age there was a parenthesis between the verses that dealt with it. For example, the great parenthesis occurs between Daniel 2:40, 41. Daniel 2:40 takes us up to the break-off of the Jewish Age, the dispensation of Israel after the ascension. Then verse 41 resumes again in the Tribulation. The same thing is true in Daniel 7:23. It takes us right up to the point where the Church Age would begin; verse 24 jumps right over to the Tribulation. This is also true between Daniel 8:22 and 8:23. Daniel 11:35 takes us right up to the Church Age, and then the mystery; 11:36 starts right into the Tribulation. Hosea 3:4 takes us right up to the Church Age and stops, and then verse 5 starts in with the Tribulation. The same thing is true in Psalm 22 between verses 22 and 23. In one case, Isaiah 61, in the middle of verse 2 you come right up to the Church Age, nothing is mentioned about it, and in the rest of verse 2 you jump right over to the Tribulation. The Old Testament reveals doctrine up through the session of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s ascension and session are mentioned on the Old Testament prophecies. They take us right up to where He ascended and they tell us how He was seated at the right hand of the Father. Then, all of a sudden, it goes from there right into the Tribulation. So it skips over. There is no Church Age doctrine between the baptism of the Spirit and the Rapture revealed in the Old Testament. That is what mystery means.

Verse 6, the strategic victory by which Jesus Christ controls history. We begin by noting again the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” We continue with the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Everything that John sees in this particular passage will have has a frame of reference somewhere in Old Testament prophecy, like the seven horns which we will note shortly. The active voice: the apostle John as the human writer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the vision of the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent. The first and second advents were both prophesied in the Old Testament. The Old Testament talks about the first advent and anticipates it in detail. Also, the Old Testament anticipates the second advent. It also prophecies what happens on each side of the second advent, the Tribulation, the Millennial reign of Christ. The last part of the book of Isaiah has six chapters on the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing that is not prophesied is the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy. So what John is seeing here has to do with the strategic victory that brought about that Church Age. So we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative o(raw, “then I saw.” And that declarative indicative mood is very important for the reality of the vision of the strategic victory of Christ resulting in the fact that Jesus Christ controls history as a member of the human race, as the God-Man. That is a phenomenon because angels are created much greater than man and now a member of the human race is actually controlling all of history. In His humanity He is recognised as above the angels. This broke Satan’s back at the ascension.

The phrase “and lo” does not occur in the original. We move on then to the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of mesoj and qronoj, “in the middle of a throne.” This is the throne room of heaven where God the Father and God the Son are seated. This is a large throne. “Then I saw in the middle of the throne.” Next we have the four living creatures or the four angelic heralds. The connective kai adds a second description. We have the numeral tessarej, “four,” and then zoion, “living creatures.” Corrected translation: “I saw in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds [living creatures] and in the middle of the angelic staff officers.” We have the repetition of messoj [middle] and this time we have presbuteroj for the angelic staff officers. So once again the angelic order of battle comes into focus.

We don’t even have an object yet of the verb “then I saw.” All we know is where he saw. Once again remember the order of rank in the college of heralds. Number one: our Lord Jesus Christ as the Angel of the Lord [Jehovah]. This is a theophany and it ranks Christ above the college of heralds without being an angel Himself. Number two are the seraphim. There are two categories. We have seen in Revelation 5:2 the “powerful angel.” We will see one other in this particular category and these rank as the kings of arms or officers of arms. Secondly there are the four angelic heralds who are mentioned as being in the middle of the throne. Number three are the cherubim. Satan was a cherub and was lower than at least six angels who outranked him in eternity past called seraphim or seraphs, and number three, then, are the pur sui vant officers. Their insignia of rank are four wings. They are comparable to the college of heralds in England where there are four officers. The pur sui vant officers, four of them, include the following: the cherubs who guard the gate of Eden in Genesis 3:24; the four cherubs, one at each of the four wheels of the chariot of fire in Ezekiel chapters one and ten; Satan or Lucifer son of the morning, mentioned in Ezekiel 28:14, who has been court-martialled and is not present any longer; and the messenger of the judgment, 2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10. Number four are the pur sui vant messengers and we will see a great many of them throughout the book of Revelation. They are classified, as most angels, without wings. There are very few angels that have wings, only high-ranking officers. The angelic messengers who destroyed Sodom are two of the pur sui vant, Genesis 19:13; the executioners of the evil people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9:1ff; the man clothed in linen in Ezekiel 10:6; the four angels who hold back the four winds in Revelation 7:1; and the messenger from the east in Revelation 7:1.

The order of battle in the army: Number one is the Lord of hosts [Lord of the armies], our Lord Jesus Christ; number two: the archangels or army commanders, two mentioned in the Bible: Michael and Gabriel; two mentioned in the book of Enoch: Raphiel and Uriel. Michael commands a special army, the army of angels that guards Israel. Israel is under constant protection, believer and unbeliever, because of the covenants. He is called the prince of Israel in Daniel 10:21. In the past Michael fought with Satan over the body of Moses, according to 2 Peter 2:11; he defends Israel in the Tribulation according to one Old Testament prophecy and one New Testament prophecy, Daniel 1:21. Gabriel is a most unusual angel in that he is an archangel, an army commander, but he is also an officer of arms in the college of heralds. We have noted in the past that he is a very special messenger to teach very special doctrine, as in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. He was also sent to Zachariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist, he was sent to the virgin Mary to announce the birth of the Messiah, Luke 1:19,26, and in the book of Enoch, chapters 9, 20 and 40 Gabriel is said to be the chief of angels placed over all those who have power or authority. Number three is the one in our context, the angelic general staff, the 24 elders. Number four: the rank and file call “hosts.” This would include guardian angels such as in Psalm 91:11, the river of fire battalions in Daniel 7:10, the angelic armies described in Psalm 103:21 and Psalm 148:2 who spend a great deal of time offering praise to the Lord in worship. When a pur sui vant angel announces to the shepherds the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ he is suddenly joined by heavenly armies praising God, Luke 2:13. The ministering spirits of Hebrews 1:14 are included as a part of the angelic army.

The problem here is that we have something missing. “Then I saw,” it says in verse 6, “in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the angelic staff officers.” The trouble is that in the Greek the words are in a different position than in an English sentence and it doesn’t tell us what we saw until we get almost through the verse. Now we have the inserted accusative a)rnion e)sthkoj o(j e)sfagmenon. This is quite a lengthy accusative. The actual accusative singular direct object is from the noun a)rnion and immediately we have a problem with a)rnion because we have generations of idiots who stand in pulpits and do not know the Greek. A)rnion is the direct object of “I saw.” A)rnion is considered and has been taught as being a diminutive of a)rnen, the word for sheep. It isn’t true; it is not a diminutive. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament a)rnion is a male sheep, a ram. When John called Jesus the Lamb of God in John 1:29 he used a different word altogether, he used a)mnoj. The same in John 1:36. When he emphasises the saving work of Christ on the cross John always uses a)mnoj and this is true in consistency with the writer of the book of Acts, Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19. Whenever the saving work of Christ is related to the cross it is “Behold the Lamb of God”, or it talks about the Lamb of God. And while our Lord is the Lamb of God we have a different word here. It is still talking about the cross but with an entirely different emphasis. Here it is not the Lamb of God but the Ram of God, a)rnion , which emphasises our Lord’s saving work on the cross but it adds something, namely the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ or the fact that Jesus Christ now controls history. And how did our Lord come to control history? The same way that anyone with ability, anyone with talent, ever becomes successful, through humility. The same way that people become great in friendship, in love, in honour, in integrity. The secret is humility. The ram speaks of our Lord’s humility in going to the cross and bearing our sins. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. So when John talks about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world he uses a)mnoj, “became obedient unto death,” says Philippians 2, but when he talks about the humility it took then he talks about a)rnion, and that is the word we have here. The same person, the apostle John who wrote the gospel of John, is the one who wrote a)rnion here instead of a)mnoj.

Our Lord is the most successful human being who ever came to this earth, and the reason is because humility precedes success. Humility is the basis of integrity, the capacity for love, for happiness, for blessing, for anything in life that is worthwhile. We happen to live in a time when the mode of the day is arrogance. People can’t even learn doctrine because they are arrogant, they can’t be consistent, they are preoccupied with self. Arrogance is the life of the average believer today and it is related to the various gates of interlocking systems of arrogance.

Translation: “Then I saw a ram [a)rnion, not a)mnoj]”. The direct object a)rnion is used to emphasise our Lord’s strategic victory of the cross, and the strategic victory of the cross has a base: humility. Even when our Lord did not want to go to the cross and did not want to bear our sins in His humanity He said: “Father, if be thy will let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless [enforced humility] not my will but thine be done.” And then it was followed by genuine humility. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Arrogance is still Satan’s basic and greatest principle. He had a great personality but he wasn’t the highest ranking of all angels. There were at least six angels who were higher in rank than he was. At one time there were five who were in the midst of the throne — angelic heralds. Note that there are only four now. Again, Satan has been court-martialled.

“Then I saw a ram standing in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the four angelic staff officers [the 24 elders, the third highest rank in the army of elect angels].” So, notice again, the angelic heralds and the elect army of angels are always represented. And our Lord is said to be with them as the ram. The Lamb of the cross who now, because of His strategic victory, we are going to see as the Ram of the seven horns. With His third royal patent and His strategic victory of the angelic conflict from His first advent our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy to break the seals of the Doomsday book and present in eschatological form the historical trends of the Tribulation. But we have to finish out everything that goes with that direct object. The Ram is said to be doing something, an ascriptive participle which is a present active participle from i(stemi, translated “standing.” We are going to find the Ram standing in the middle of the throne but before we do we have some descriptive words that go with this Ram. The comparative particle o(j introduces a descriptive phrase which is important, and we have to understand it before we can get to the seven horns. “As” is the general way in which this is translated. It introduces a characteristic or quality of the unique person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When o(j is used with the participle it provides an explanation of a certain quality or characteristic. Here the characteristic is the strategic victory of the cross.

With this we have the perfect passive participle of the Attic verb sfattw. The trouble is that in the time in which this was written the Romans were no longer an aristocratic people, they had allowed all the scum to come in from everywhere and they couldn’t even pronounce sfattw. So that is why we have the Koine Greek, why the magnificent Attic, Ionian and Aolic Greek, the three which formed Classical Greek. The Attic Greek was the Greek of Athens, the colonies across the way in western Turkey, Ionian, spoke an even higher class of Greek and then, north of them in what is now western Turkey was Aolia, and the three of them put together the greatest of all Greek. So the Romans couldn’t speak that way, it was too much for them, so they have to change all this and get down to a gutter language, sqazw, which means to kill, to butcher, to slaughter as one who has been killed as a sacrifice. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it notes the completed action of eternal salvation provided at the cross but it emphasises, not redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation by which we have our so great salvation, but what they produce. That is why it is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense emphasises a completed action and the existing results, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history as the God-Man. Jesus Christ controlled history as eternal God, but what happened when he became true humanity? He continues to control history. The passive voice: Jesus Christ receives the action of the verb as the Lamb or the Ram of God. Jesus Christ was judged for our sins as the Lamb of God, now He is the Ram with seven horns, He has won the greatest victory of all time. The participle is circumstantial referring to the strategic victory of the cross and its relationship to the fact that Jesus Christ continues to control history and is worthy to open the Doomsday book.

Now we get to it: e)xwn kerata e(pta kai. Then it also adds the seven eyes, but first we have the horns, “and he had” a present active participle from e)xw but because it is a circumstantial participle it is translated like a finite verb preceded by “and,” “and he had.” The present tense of duration a descriptive present. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action and the participle is circumstantial which expresses attendant circumstances and additional fact or thought which is best rendered in the English by the conjunction “and” plus the finite translation of the verb. E(pta plus keraj, and we have now cleared the decks for action, “seven horns.” What do the horns mean? A ram has, at best, two horns in all the sheep we see. But here is a special one, e(pta, seven horns. Horns, of course, symbolise human power and authority. In Daniel 7:7 we have the ten horns which are the ten nations of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. In Daniel 8:20,21 we have a ram with two horns which is the Median-Persian empire [one horn represents the Medes, one horn represents the Persians]. They represent great power in history: power to control, power to handle people, power to provide for people. In Amos 6:13 arrogant Israel boasts of a conquest of all other nations which are called “horns.” In Jeremiah 48:25 the horn of Moab was the power of that nation to control the area in which they lived. In Revelation 13:1 we will study ten horns which are ten nations of the revived Roman empire. In Daniel 7 there is the little horn, the dictator that finally overcomes all of western Europe and controls it in the Tribulation. This is the dictator of the beast out of the sea which we will study in detail in Revelation 13. In Revelation 17:12 the ten horns there refer to the nations of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation and, again, from them comes the little horn of Daniel 7. In Zechariah 1:18, 19 there are other horns, each one representing a tremendous power.

For example, the first one is the Assyrian empire which in BC 721 administered the 5th cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom of Israel.

The second horn in Zechariah 1:18, 19 is the Chaldean empire which administered both the 4th and the 5th cycles of discipline to the southern kingdom. In 606 BC, after the battle of Carchemish and the defeat of Pharaoh Necho, “Woe unto those who go down to Egypt for help,” the Chaldeans took Daniel and others into captivity, Daniel 1:1. So the second horn represents that great victory. Then in BC 598 Nebuchanezzar took more hostages, including Ezekiel, and that represents the function of the second horn. In BC 586 Nebuchadnezzar administered the 5th cycle of discipline to the Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem. The Medes and the Persians eventually restored them.

The third horn is the Hellenistic empire of the Seleucids, known as Syria, and the Ptolomies under Egypt.

The fourth horn is the Roman empire which administered the 5th cycle of discipline for the last time to Israel in AD 70, until of course, we come to the great period in the future when Israel will be revived again as a client nation.

All of these are horns. Horns describe nations as having great power. Horns are used for dictators. Horns represent the power of individuals and the power of groups but a power which can never exceed the power of our Lord Jesus Christ who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Ephesians 3:1-5 begins our explanation in Revelation chapter five. “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you, the Gentiles — if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for your benefit; that by revelation [divine disclosure] the mystery [the historical trends of the Church Age] was revealed to me just as I have previously written in brief. Face to face with which doctrine of the mystery [historical trends of the Church Age] when you exegete [addressed to pastors], you ought to be able to understand by categorical knowledge into the mystery of the Christ [that is, Christ and the royal family of God], which in other dispensations was not revealed to men of other generations, so that now it has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by means of the Holy Spirit.”

Colossians 1:25-29, “Of which dispensation of the Church I have become a minister [says Paul] according to this dispensation from God which was given to me for your benefit, that I might implement your deficiency of Bible doctrine, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and other generations; but has now been revealed to his saints [the royal family, Church Age believers], to whom God has decreed to make known what is the prosperity of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory [the third hope, the hope of eternal reward. Which we solemnly proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we might present [at the judgment seat of Christ] every man a mature believer in Christ. For this purpose I also labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his [God’s] game plan, which is effective in me inside the divine dynasphere.”

Both of these passages take note of the fact that God has divided all human history into eras, and these historical eras are called dispensations or ages, periods of time divided according to the Word of God along the principles of trends. The first of these dispensations is the era of positive volition which began with the creation of mankind and takes us to his fall. In other words, the first dispensation involved two people in the perfect environment of the garden of Eden. Mankind was in perfect environment with only a volitional test as a part of the angelic conflict. He was forbidden to eat from one tree. Incidentally Satan attacked volition in the garden. This dispensation terminated with the fall of man. It was demonstrated at the very beginning of history that even perfect environment [ideal circumstances] is not the answer to man’s problems and definitely not the contributing basis for happiness, and that man can be just as unhappy and just as dissatisfied and miserable in perfect environment as in any other environment.

The second dispensation is the era of negative volition. It starts with the fall of man and it goes to the tower of Babel. This might be called the dispensation of internationalism and it dramatises man’s old sin nature. Internationalism is a total failure, it never has been successful and never will, and it was demonstrated as such in the second dispensation. Whether we are talking about the United Nations or the League of Nations or ecumenicalism, or a political or religious system of internationalism, none of them have ever been successful, none of them have ever been satisfactory and, above all, none of them have ever produced happiness. Internationalism is a total failure. In the case of the tower of Babel it meant one language, one race, one skin colour, and it did not solve man’s problems. Of course the environment of internationalism never has and never will. No written canon of scripture existed at that time and God revealed Himself and the doctrine necessary. Salvation in every dispensation is always the same: faith in Christ. In the era of negative volition Satan attacked, as always, marriage and the family. This, of course, is Genesis six. The tower of Babel was the Satanic attack also against the anticipation of nationalism in the next dispensation, the story of Genesis 11:1-9. The next era, the third one, we call the era of divine establishment, the era or dispensation of nationalism. It began with the destruction of the tower of Babel around 5000 BC and it goes to the establishment of the first client nation in BC 1441. There is always in dispensations a certain amount of overlap. That is true in any historical era. But the key is to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles at this point. There were three basic races with many subdivisions in the dispensation of divine establishment. There were, of course, many languages forcing people to divide into tribes and into nations.

Number four is the era of the first client nation, the dispensation of Israel. It is divided into basically the two parts. The first part is the formation of the Jewish race, from Abraham to Moses, or from BC 2161 to BC 1441. Abraham was the father of the Jewish race. The second part is the function of the Jewish client nation and this goes from Moses to Christ, BC 1441 to AD 70. In this period the laws of divine establishment are defined by the Mosaic law — Codex #1 which is the freedom code, the ten commandments, and Codex #3 which gave the details of establishment modus operandi. There were three administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline to the first client nation. The first in BC 721 to the northern kingdom. It was administered by the Assyrians. The second was in BC 586 and was administered by the Chaldeans to the southern kingdom. And the last one was AD 70 which was administered by the Romans to the kingdom of Judea. Nevertheless, in spite of these three destructions of Israel as a client nation Israel still has a future guaranteed by the four unconditional covenants, the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenants to Israel, which will all be fulfilled at the second advent and in the Millennium. Again, in this dispensation salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ, spirituality was the function of the faith-rest drill.

The fifth era is called the era of the royal family of God, the dispensation of the Church, or the times of the Gentiles. It is the dispensation of intercalation, meaning insertion. The strategic victory of Christ on the cross and the award of His third royal patent brought to a temporary halt the Age of Israel. It resulted in the insertion of the mystery age to provide a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent. In every case there must be a royal family which goes with the patent of royalty. The first royal patent: Jesus Christ is God — title, Son of God; royal family, the Father and the Spirit. The second royal patent: title, Son of David with the royal family, the dynasty of David. The third royal patent: title, King of kings and Lord of lords, bright morning star, but no royal family. Therefore the Age of Israel came to a halt. The Church, of course, is the calling out of the royal family of God. As the mystery age, according to Romans 16:25, 26 and the two passages we have just noted, the Church dispensation is an era of not prophecy. All historical trends are determined by the volition of the believer. It is therefore unique and different from all historical ages. Historical trends of prosperity result from good decisions on the part of believers to live, reside, function in the divine dynasphere. All bad decisions result in historical downtrends. Bad decisions are classified as any decision to spend time in the cosmic system.

The Church Age, then, as a mystery dispensation is the period of the great parenthesis. Throughout the Old Testament there are many places where the Church Age could have been prophesied but was not. No Church Age doctrine was revealed in the Old Testament or prophecy concerning historical trends of the Church Age. The Old Testament reveals all the details of the first advent or the incarnation, including our Lord’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session, and then skips over to the Tribulation. This is the great parenthesis, there is no Church Age truth revealed in the Old testament. The Church Age is divided categorically in two ways. There is the concept of pre and post-canon periods of the Church Age. That is the first category. The pre-canon period starts in AD 30 and goes to AD 96. Then we have the post-canon period. The pre-canon period has certain things that the post-canon period does not. For example, water baptism was used in the pre-canon period but has no significance in the post-canon period. In the forty years of the pre-canon period we also have temporary spiritual gifts; after AD 96 when the canon is closed, permanent spiritual gifts.

The other categorical development is from the standpoint of the times of the Gentiles mentioned in Luke 21:24. We have from AD 32 to 40, a period of approximately forty years in which the Jews were warned that they were going out under the fifth cycle of discipline, and the warning came through the gift of tongues. The spiritual gift of tongues was a warning given from Isaiah warning that Jews that when they are miraculously evangelised in Gentile languages, the use of the gift of tongues, it is a warning that they are about to go out under the fifth cycle of discipline. Then, starting in AD 70 and going to the Rapture which terminates the Church Age, we have the times of the Gentiles when only Gentile client nations can function as such. There will be no Jewish client nation ever again until the second advent of Christ. There will be Jewish nations from time to time but no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God, this is the times of the Gentiles. These categories help to understand the difference between temporary and permanent spiritual gifts. It also helps us to understand the first 40 years of the Church Age, the concept of the overlap, for it was during this time that tongues and the interpretation of tongues was used; after AD 70, never again. The pre-canon period of the Church Age was the time of such temporary gifts as apostleship, prophecy, healing, miracles, the gift of faith, discerning spirits, tongues, etc. The post-canon period of the Church Age is the time for permanent gifts such as pastor-teacher, administration, evangelism, helps, government, etc.

The unique characteristics of the Church Age are very important. This is the most unusual dispensation and has more emphasis on the individual believer than any other dispensation. The dispensation of the royal family of God at salvation provides something that is never provided in any other historical era, the baptism of the Spirit which forms the royal family of God. This is the first and most unusual event. There is only one dispensation in which God the Holy Spirit takes every believer at the moment of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. Thus when you are born into this dispensation you are not family of God or a child of God, you are a royal son of God, you are royal family of God. Secondly, this is the dispensation of no prophecy. Historical trends are determined by the volition of believers related to the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. There is no prophecy in this dispensation.

The third unique concept is the universal priesthood of the believer. This is the only dispensation in which there is the principle of every believer being his own priest. In all other historical areas there is a specialised priesthood. In the first three dispensations the head of the family was the priest. In the Age of Israel there was the Levitical priesthood. But now for the first and only time every believer represents himself before God with privacy to live his life as unto the Lord.

The fourth unique factor is the royal ambassadorship of the believer with special challenges to the life that were never given to individual believers before and will never be given again, that is, directing your life toward man and circumstances under the principles of functional virtue, living inside the divine dynasphere. This is absolutely unique.

The fifth unique principle is the fact that only this dispensation provides a divine dynasphere as God’s game plan for the believer. No other dispensation has anything like it. This is the age of the divine dynasphere, therefore this is the only dispensation in which every believer from the moment of salvation for all of his life is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and, when in the divine dynasphere, filled with the Spirit.

In the sixth place, this is the only dispensation where the completed canon of scripture is the basis for eliminating all dreams, all visions, all trances, all communication directly from God. This is the only dispensation in all of history whereby every bit of communication from God is found in written form in the Bible. In the Tribulation they will have a complete canon of scripture but they will have other forms of communication of doctrine — dreams, visions, trances, things go along with the unusual circumstances of the Tribulation. The same thing will be true for the Millennium. This is the only dispensation that requires more from every believer. Whether you are smart or dumb it demands thought, the ability to think. So the completed canon of scripture, all divine revelation, all doctrine, is reduced to writing and contained in the canon. Therefore, no doctrine in this dispensation after AD 96 is taught through dreams, visions, trances, angels, or the voice of God.

The seventh unique factor: intensification of the angelic conflict which results from our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross. As the Lamb of God He is our saviour; as the Ram of God He controls history. Both point to the strategic victory on the cross.

The eighth unique factor: only in this dispensation do we have the indwelling of the person of Christ for all believers at the point of salvation. This is the first dispensation also in which Christ controls history from His hypostatic union. Always before Jesus Christ controlled history as God, now He controls history as the God-Man. And, again, salvation in this dispensation, like all of them, is through faith in Christ. But spirituality is different, it is resident and function in the divine dynasphere, the filling of the Spirit.

Dispensation number six is the Doomsday era, the Tribulation. When we get to Revelation chapter six we will be noting the trends of history in the Tribulation and their application to us.

Number seven is the era of Christ’s rulership of the world. This is the dispensation of a thousand years of perfect environment, beginning with the second advent of Christ and terminating with the Gog revolution and the great white throne judgment. In the dispensation of the Millennium salvation is through faith in Christ. Spirituality is related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit but totally apart from the divine dynasphere.

The Millennium begins with believers only. Outside of the first dispensation [positive volition] this is the only one that actually begins with believers only. These are the believers who survive the Tribulation and through the baptism of fire they enter into the Millennium, according to Ezekiel 20 and Matthew 25:31-46. There will be a tremendous population explosion from the believer nucleus of the Millennium and out of this there will be children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great, great grandchildren who are unbelievers, who reject Christ under perfect environment.

Perfect environment, by the way, includes the incarceration of Satan, the removal of all demons, and the abolition of religion. Religion is Satan’s ace trump. Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God through Christ. There will be no cults and no religions through the Millennial reign of Christ. Also, again, it is a period of optimum spirituality from the filling of the Spirit, according to Isaiah 65: 24; Joel 2:28,29, which has nothing to do with the Church Age, it is a Millennial passage, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh”, etc. Israel will be restored as a client nation and this will mean great prosperity for everyone during the Millennium. The fact of the restoration of Israel as a client nation is found in Isaiah mostly, 5:26-30; 10:19-23; 11:11-16; 65:19; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 8:20-23; 10:6-12. All of the unconditional covenants to Israel will be fulfilled at that time — Daniel 9:24.

Perfect environment includes many things in the Millennium. For example, it means universal peace, there will be no war for one thousand years of human history. This means Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3, and all these passages say essentially the same thing: “the swords will be turned into plow shares, the spears into pruning hooks, and man shall learn war no more.” That is Millennial, it has nothing to do with this dispensation or the Tribulation. Our Lord said there will be wars and rumours of wars “until I come.”

There will also be great prosperity. Everyone will be rich in the Millennium, there will be no poor people. Universal prosperity is the subject of Psalm 72:7, 16.

There will be perfect world government but it will be divided by nations. Our Lord Jesus Christ will rule the world, superseding Satan at the second advent, and there will be national rulership delegated to national believers who are decorated with the order of the morning star. This is found in Isaiah 11:1,2; Zechariah 14:9; 2 Timothy 2:12 and a host of passages in Revelation, 2:26-28; 3:21; 5:10; 20:4,6.

There will be on the part of everyone, believers and unbelievers, a universal knowledge of God, Isaiah 11:9. But a universal knowledge of God does not mean that everyone will accept Christ. At least one third of the great population of the earth will reject Christ as saviour, and this will come out in the God revolution.

There will also be tremendous longevity. According to Isaiah 65:20 people can live the entire thousand years. The only reason why people will die in the Millennium is because of capital punishment. Crime will be met instantly with capital punishment.

The Millennium is also a time of perfect environment in nature. Creation is going to be released from the bondage of man’s sin, according to Romans 8:19,20. There will be no deserts — Isaiah 35:1-7. Animals are going to lose their ferocity — Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25. The perfect environment of the Millennium is going to come to a sudden halt at the end of the thousand years — the Gog revolution. Man cannot simply stand perfect environment without capacity. Capacity comes from Bible doctrine. So Satan is released from jail after serving the longest prison sentence on record. He will serve one thousand years and then he will be released and will immediately come back to the earth and start talking it up. And he will start a great revolution. There will be tremendous discontent by at least one third of the people of the earth — Revelation 20:1-7. The lesson is obvious. Perfect environment or ideal environment is not the solution to man’s problems and is not the source of man’s happiness.

The Millennium

1. The Millennium is promised — 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89, the Davidic covenant.

2. The Millennium is prophesied — Isaiah 2:11, 12, 35.

3. The Millennium is presented — the gospels where Christ presented Himself as King.

4. The Millennium is postponed — the insertion of the Church Age.

5. The Millennium is plagiarised — the Tribulation with the political and religious organisations of the beast and the false prophet.

6. The Millennium is proclaimed — by the angelic herald of Revelation 10 and a human herald of Revelation 11.

7. The Millennium is perfected — second advent of Christ — Revelation 11:15-19; chapter 19.

Revelation 5:6, “Then I saw a ram as one who had been killed as a sacrifice [reference to Christ, not only as the Lamb of God saviour but the ram who controls history] standing in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the angelic staff officers [the 24 elders], and he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had seven horns.”

Now we come to the seven horns of the ram. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the ram who has seven horns. The seven horns represent the fact that there are seven eras of human history and our Lord Jesus Christ controls each one of those dispensations or historical eras. In the first four eras Jesus Christ controls history as eternal God; in the last three eras He controls history in hypostatic union as the God-Man. Jesus Christ controls history in the era of positive volition. When perfect environment existed in the garden of Eden for the first parents Jesus Christ controlled history as the first horn and He didn’t terminate history with the fall of man. Jesus Christ controlled history when man lived in the era of negative volition. That is the second horn of the ram. From the time of Adam’s fall until the tower of Babel people continued to live in history. True humanity was not destroyed though an attempt was made by Satan in Genesis chapter six. The reason that true humanity survived is because Jesus Christ controlled history. That was the second horn that preserved true humanity. Jesus Christ controlled history when man lived in the era of divine establishment, the dispensation of nationalism or human government. All during that time our Lord protected the human race from self-destruction. Jesus Christ controlled history during the dispensation of Israel, the fourth horn of the ram. All of that time He preserved Israel when Satan tried to destroy them. The dispensation of Israel as the fourth horn is the Lord controlling history as God. But beginning with the fifth horn we have the fifth era of human history, the Church Age, and now, as we noted in Revelation chapter one, Jesus Christ controls history as the God-Man. That is significant because angels were created greater than man but the humanity of Christ is greater than angels. The sixth era of human history is the Tribulation, shortened to seven years between the Rapture and the second advent so that the human race can survive. Jesus Christ controls history and shortens it down. Then, when we get to the seventh horn, the Millennium, Jesus Christ not only controls history but He rules history. So we have, then, the seven horns on the ram.

We resume now with the Greek where we have a connective kai followed by the numeral e(pta and the accusative plural direct object for “eyes.” E(pta is the Greek word for seven and we have o)fqalmoj for eyes, “and seven eyes.” Then we are going to have an explanation as to what is meant by seven eyes so that we won’t get a lot of wild interpretations. The nominative plural demonstrative pronoun o(j which follows refers to what the seven eyes will be, “seven eyes,” o(j, “which.” Then we have e)imi, “are.” The present tense is a descriptive present. The active voice: the seven eyes produce the action. The declarative indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact. Now we are getting down to what it is. The predicate nominative plural, e(pta again plus pneuma, “the seven spirits.” These seven spirits are sent, perfect passive participle from the verb a)postellw, “which have been sent out.” The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action. The passive voice: the seven spirits receive the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. We have a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the word for planet earth, gh, “to all the earth.”

“and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God which have been sent out to all the world.”

We have finished the exegesis of verse six but we must ask the question: What are the seven spirits? They are explained by the context of Isaiah 11:1,2. The seven spirits are actually found in verse 2 but we get our clue from the context beginning in verse 1.

“Then a root that buds will spring from the stump of Jesse [reference to the first advent of Christ, the stump of Jesse is the Davidic dynasty and the root of David is our Lord Jesus Christ], and a branch from his roots [the second advent] will bear fruit [the Millennial rule of Christ on earth].”

During our Lord’s advent our Lord was sustained by the seven spirits of God. Actually the seven spirits refer to God the Holy Spirit in seven different aspects and it all begins in Isaiah 11:2. Remember that Revelation is union station for the Bible and almost every hyperbole and every form of analogy, everything that seems to be inscrutable or abstruse, actually is explained somewhere else in the Bible. There are several exceptions but generally that is the rule.

“And the Spirit of the Lord [the first of the seven spirits or the seven aspects of God the Holy Spirit. This is actually gate one of the prototype divine dynasphere by which our Lord Jesus Christ was sustained in His humanity during the incarnation] will rest on him [Christ at the first advent], the Spirit of wisdom [the second spirit],” the word for wisdom is the Hebrew word chakmah and it refers to the application of doctrine at gate four of the prototype divine dynasphere, “and understanding [the third spirit],” in the Hebrew that is the word binah and refers to gate four of the prototype divine dynasphere, perception of doctrine. In His humanity our Lord functioned at gate one interlocked with gate four in the perception and application of doctrine, “the Spirit of counsel.” The word for counsel is etsa and it means plan or purpose and is a reference to God’s game plan, first for the incarnation of Christ to be sustained by the prototype divine dynasphere, and it becomes God’s game plan for the royal family. The royal family have the same privileges as our Lord and are sustained in their humanity in exactly the same way. This is God’s game plan for the Church Age and there is no game plan apart from residence and function in the divine dynasphere, “and of virtue.” In the Hebrew this is geburah and it refers to the motivational and functional virtue of our Lord’s humanity during the incarnation. One of the ministries of God the Holy Spirit is the production of true virtue and morality in contrast to the false virtue and morality which is produced through arrogance in the cosmic system. There are many, many moral believers who are living in the cosmic system and whose morality is an expression of self-righteousness, crusader activity, and in effect becomes one of the more subtle forms of evil. All true virtue for this dispensation comes from geburah. Only God the Holy Spirit can produce true virtue, honour, integrity and morality — “the Spirit of knowledge,” da’ath in the Hebrew and it is the interpretation of historical trends from life inside of the divine dynasphere, “and fear of the Lord,” the function of gate five of the prototype divine dynasphere. In the Hebrew it is jare and means fear in the sense of respect. From respect comes love.

Therefore in Isaiah 11:1,2 we not only have a prophecy of our Lord’s first and second advents explaining the seven eyes in terms of the seven spirits but it actually explains that these are seven aspects of the sustaining ministry of God the Holy Spirit, first to the humanity of Christ, and then to believers [royal family] in the Church Age. God the Holy Spirit is the power system for both the prototype and the royal family divine dynasphere. These seven descriptions or aspects of God the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2 explain the seven eyes. Hence the seven eyes or the seven spirits are really one person, God the Holy Spirit, but emphasising different aspects of His modus operandi in sustaining first the humanity of Christ and now believers when they live inside the divine dynasphere.

The seven eyes or the seven spirits of the Lord are:

1. God the Holy Spirit as the power system — gate one.

2. The Spirit of wisdom, application of doctrine — gate four.

3. The Spirit of understanding, perception of doctrine — gate four.

4. The Spirit of counsel, God’s game plan — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

5. The Spirit of virtue, motivational and functional virtue produced inside the divine dynasphere.

6. The Spirit of knowledge — from the Hebrew it means the interpretation of historical trends from inside the divine dynasphere.

7. The Spirit of the fear of the Lord — the production of love inside of the divine dynasphere.

So God the Holy Spirit is the power system for both the prototype and the royal family divine dynaspheres. These seven descriptions of God the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2 are synonymous with the seven eyes. Notice it says “the seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God,” i.e. the Holy Spirit is the power system of the divine dynasphere, “which has been sent out to all the world [to all believers in this dispensation].” This is the heritage of the royal family during the Church Age. So the seven spirits refer to God the Holy Spirit in whatever context. It is first used to sustain the incarnate Christ resulting in His third royal patent, and now used to sustain the royal family being formed during the Church Age.

Note, then, that the seven spirits as possessed by our Lord — the prototype divine dynasphere was given to Him — has been sent to us, to all believers in the world. The prototype divine dynasphere resides right now in the throne room of heaven but the functional divine dynasphere resides throughout the earth wherever there are believers. The Holy Spirit is the power system of it.

Now let’s return to the perfect passive participle “sent out.” It is a)postellw. The perfect tense is the tense of completed action and since the beginning of the Church Age God the Father has given the divine dynasphere to the entire royal family. This is what we call a dramatic perfect tense, it represents the existing status quo of the royal family on earth. It is only sent out on earth, the prototype is in heaven. The result of the action of the prefect tense is the fact that the royal family has exactly the same power system and the same game plan given to our Lord Jesus Christ during His first advent. The passive voice: the divine dynasphere with its power system — God the Holy Spirit, the “seven spirits,” receives the action of the verb, “sent to the entire earth,” and, of course, the earth in contrast to heaven where the prototype remains forever as a memorial to the grace of God. This is a circumstantial participle for the fact that the power of God the Holy Spirit and the grace provision of the divine dynasphere is just as available to you now as it was to our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the incarnation.

The ram standing emphasises the fact of resurrection and the fact that our Lord is in heaven in hypostatic union, seated at the right hand of the Father, sometimes standing. Seated and standing, whatever the physical posture, always emphasises His humanity. Deity does not sit; deity does not stand.

In the Tribulation there will be no divine dynasphere and God the Holy Spirit will be removed with the divine dynasphere. The Rapture of the Church takes the entire divine dynasphere and the game plan to heaven, and with it the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

We have noted that this is the mystery dispensation. That is, it is the only historical era in all of human history where trends are determined by the volition of the individual believer rather that the eschatology of the Word of God. In the Tribulation historical trends are determined by prophecy. The book of Revelation was actually written to the Church to give believers the game plan for this dispensation and to remind them of the importance of their own royal priesthood and royal ambassadorship.

This brings us now to the concept stated briefly in verse 7, the perpetuation of our Lord’s control of history in the Tribulational era. The Church Age is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict but the Tribulation is the intensified stage of human disaster. In this dispensation the function of the Christian depends on thinking; in the next dispensation the protection and protection of the believer depends entirely on the power of God and it will be a time of seven years of the most concentrated disasters in history. But God has given us leeway in this dispensation only and we are in the greatest field of opportunity that God has ever given to anyone.

This becomes the dramatic moment in heaven when it says [in the King James version]: “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” The connective conjunction kai is used in a sequential sense, translated “then.” The aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai is next. Remember that He came and took the book. In the midst of all of this no one has been able to come and take the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father. Then He came. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a momentary action. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the God-Man who controls history in hypostatic union in this dispensation and the last two produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. “Then he came and”, the perfect active indicative of the verb lambanw, “took.” The perfect tense is a consummative perfect in which the completed process is presented. The consummative process is denoted, therefore it is translated like an imperfect tense. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action. This is a declarative indicative or a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. Jesus Christ in hypostatic union continues to control history. Add the word “it” for the Doomsday book, for in the excitement of the apostle he goes into ellipsis, very emotional in this dramatic moment. This is a legitimate emotion in contrast to his crying in the previous verses which was not. The King James version adds the word “book.” It is not in the original although it certainly is implied. “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] came and took it [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation].”

“from the right hand,” e)k plus the ablative of the adjective decioj. Decioj is a word meaning “right” but used with e)k it is an idiom for the right hand. Since God doesn’t have right hands or left hands. God the Father is involved here, He is invisible and this is simply what we call an anthropomorphism [ascribing to God a human part of the body which He does not actually possess, like the eyes of God, the ears of God, etc.]. The arm or hand is showing as an anthropomorphism to demonstrate the sovereignty of God turning all judgment and all control of human history over to our Lord Jesus Christ who as eternal God is coequal with the Father but as true humanity is different from the Father and from the Holy Spirit.

Then we have an additional phrase to indicate that it is God the Father, the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, and it means to sit. With it, of course, we have the phrase “on the throne.” The definite article is in the objective genitive, it is used for a personal pronoun, and it refers to God the Father who up until now has been holding the Doomsday book which is all of the prophecies of historical trends in the Tribulation. All historical trends of all dispensations are given in the form of prophecy except for the Church Age, the mystery age. Our heavenly Father holds the book until the Rapture of the Church and the removal of the divine dynasphere and the seven eyes or the seven spirits of God [God the Holy Spirit], and this clears the path for the traumatic events prophesied in the Doomsday book with its seven seals. In other words, the seven spirits of God of the Church Age are replaced by the seven seals of the Doomsday book, and everything about the Tribulation right up to the end of chapter eighteen comes from this book. In chapter six we will see the opening of the first six seals and these give six general trends of the Tribulation. But from the seventh seal we will see first three trumpet judgements and then the drinking goblet judgements [literal translation], all of which come out of the seventh seal. The rest of the chapters [7-18] will reveal what is in the seventh seal. From this we will have a complete concept of every historical trend in the Tribulation. The present tense is a perfective present, it refers to a fact that has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. God the Father sitting on the throne actually holds back the traumatic events of history whereby unbelievers with help from demons will destroy themselves. He holds all of this back until the Rapture of the Church. The active voice: God the Father produces the action. These things that we are about to study will not and cannot occur until the Church is removed through resurrection. The participle is circumstantial. We have e)pi plus qronoj to terminate the verse, “on the throne.”

Corrected translation: “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] came and took it [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation] from the right hand of him [God the Father] who sat on the throne.”

This means that starting at the Rapture and the judgment seat of Christ, but specifically going to the earth, God the Father has delegated all judgment to the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His strategic victory of the cross, John 5:22-23,27, “in order that all may honour the Son.” The historical trends of the Tribulation are therefore primarily related to judgment for man in any dispensation is the product of his own decisions.

Verse 8, we are getting ready for chapter six and the beginning of the study of the historical trends of the Tribulation. In verses 8-14 we have the hymn of victory, a new song in heaven. In verse 8 we have the worship of the angelic heralds and the general staff in the order of battle in the angelic elect creatures.

We begin by noting the connective conjunction kai plus the temporal adverb o(te. It introduces a temporal clause, and it indicates the time sequence in which the new hymn was sung in heaven. With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb lambanw, which means here to take, “And when he had taken.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, a dramatic moment when our Lord took the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in taking the Doomsday book, and the indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the noun biblion, which is actually a scroll but book is a legitimate translation if it is understood that books in those days were scrolls. This is a reference, again, to the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. “And when he had taken the book” is a temporal clause and the function of the temporal clause is to limit the action of the verb in the principle clause by the introduction of a time relationship. This is both contemporaneous time plus the definite temporal idea as indicated in the indicative mood.

Now we have the subject and it is given to us in terms of the angelic order of battle. The angelic order of battle is divided into two categories. First of all we have the college of heralds and secondly we have the angelic army. All angels that serve God function under one of these two categories. At the top of each one of these orders we have the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the college of heralds He is the Angel of the Lord; in the army He is the Lord of hosts. Then we have angels. Number two in each one of these categories: for the heralds we have seraphim or seraphs, six-winged angels in two categories, the king of arms or officer of arms and the heralds. In the third category we have the pur sui vant: the pur sui vant officers come first. These are cherubs. Number four are the pur sui vant messengers.

On the army side, number two are the archangels. Number three: a general staff made up of twenty-four officers. Number four: the hosts, rank and file and various categories.

The elect army and the college of heralds are both represented in the subject. The subject is made up of tessarej plus zwon, the adjective plus the noun, both in the nominative plural. Tessarej is simply an adjective numeral for four; zwon means living creatures, living beings, and it is used for the angelic heralds who in order of rank are seraphs. Then, of course, we have the army represented by the general staff, the 24 presbuteroi, translated elders.

Next we have a verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw and it means to fall down, to prostrate. We will translate it “fell down.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice is for the higher ranks among the two orders in the angelic order of battle, and the indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, it also expresses contemporaneous action in the temporal clause. Then it says “before the Ram,” a prepositional phrase, e)nwpion and the word arnion which means in this case a ram, a male lamb.

Principle: The Ram is the one who took the book from God the Father, and the principle is one that we have noted before: the cross must come before the crown. Before our Lord had the authority in hypostatic union to continue the control of history, which He did in the first four dispensations or all of human history, He had to go to the cross. And when the strategic victory was accomplished on the cross — the work of salvation is that strategic victory, when He took our place on the cross — that is what made the difference. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We have noted the principle that there is no true success or greatness in those who do not possess humility. The greatest illustration of humility: the cross comes before the crown. Our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent centres around His work on the cross, and because of His strategic victory of the first advent our Lord is qualified [worthy] to take the Doomsday book from the hand of God the Father and to break open those seven seals which actually contain the historical trends of the Tribulation. The worthiness of our Lord is noted by the fact that when Jesus Christ takes the Doomsday book from the hand of God the Father the hierarchy in the throne room all kneel down to worship. The highest ranks among elect angels are prostrated in worship.

All worship, of course, comes from elect angels or born-again believers and neither Satan’s demons nor mankind as an unbeliever participates in this scene. Principle: Worship qualification demands regeneration. Only those who have eternal life are qualified to worship.

The qualifying clause to indicate what the angelic worshippers possess is given next. The qualifying clause does not modify the Lamb or the Ram of God but the angels who fall down to worship. We have the present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have, or to have and to hold. With this we have a subject, the nominative singular adjective e(kastoj and it means “each one” individually has this. The word “and” is not found in the original text but is the legitimate translation of the circumstantial participle. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a vision as a process of occurring in a presentation of eschatological information, obviously information we must have for some reason which we will work out once we get the exegesis correct in the translation. The active voice: the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four staff officers produce the action. This is a circumstantial participle expressing the attendant circumstances in which our Lord took the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father.

Question: Why do they have harps? Well, this isn’t a harp in the first place, it is a lyre. In the Greek it is kiqara, it refers to a stringed instrument which could be described as a sound box from which rises two arms connected above by a cross bar from which the strings are suspended, very must like a modern guitar. Each one of the four angelic heralds, highest ranking angels (seraphs) and 24 angelic staff officers, next to the archangels the highest ranking in the order of battle of the elect army of angels. That is 28 high-ranking angels all carrying lyres.

No matter how high you go in life, no matter how low you sink, no matter what you do in life, everyone ought to have at least one hobby or interest apart from their profession or job. The four angelic heralds and the twenty-four high-ranking staff officers are not only way up there in rank out of the millions of angels but they have an outside interest. They were interested in music. The point is that they were really expert at what they did and they enjoyed it. These elect angels were not only great in their primary occupational speciality but they were also great in their hobby — music. Every believer needs a hobby. Often believers get too intense and they fall apart simply because they do not know to relax. They need a hobby, another interest — not one that will cut out doctrine, however! People without an outside interest or hobby have a tendency toward the worst form of arrogance — neurotic, arrogant self-righteousness. They become busybodies and gossips and in their preoccupation with self they become the losers in the Christian way of life. God has designed our minds and our bodies so that we can have outside interests for relaxation.

What we have so far: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had taken the book [the Doomsday book concerning the historical trends of the Tribulation], the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers fell down before the Ram, and each one had a lyre.”

Then they had something else, the Attic Greek adjective xruseoj. It is also an accusative plural direct object and it means golden, or adorned with gold, or made with gold. So obviously it is only half of the object. The rest of the direct object is the noun fialh which is translated vials later on in the book of Revelation. But it isn’t vials, it is a drinking cup, a goblet. In this case it is a rather shallow goblet. So we will call it a libation cup, “and they had libation cups made of gold”, golden goblets but definitely not vials. However, they were not full of any beverage but they were full of something because we have a present active participle of gemw, and it is not translated like a participle, this is ascriptive and it is used as a noun, so we simply translate it “full.” Then the genitive plural of description from qumiama, “incense,” “libation cups made of gold, full of incense.” Incense is a material used to produce perfume when burned. The burning of the spices or the gums produces a smoke which has a very pleasant scent or fragrance. Incense was used in the Levitical offerings to denote propitiation, the Father’s satisfaction with the work of Christ on the cross. The explanatory phrase which ends this verse explains incense in terms of effective prayer being offered by believers in the Tribulation.

The explanation of the incense follows and it begins with the nominative feminine plural from the relative pronoun a(i, translated “which.” The antecedent of the relative pronoun is the descriptive genitive again of qumiama, “which incense.” And then the present active indicative of e)imi, “is.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it brings to the mind a picture of the prayers of the believers in the Tribulation in the process of occurrence. The believers in the Tribulation learn quickly how to pray effectively and their prayers are a sweet odour, as it were, in the nose of God. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred — the prayers of Tribulational believers — but it is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the incense in the libation goblets made of gold produces the action. This is the declarative indicative for the future reality of the prayers of Tribulational believers.

With this we have a definite article, the nominative feminine plural definite article a(i, and it is the generic use of the definite article, it is used to set off in distinction from all others the prayers of people, many of whom are going to die in that seven year period, and many of whom are going to survive, but it will be a time of great prayer, powerful prayer, intense prayer. We have something they do not, the divine dynasphere. Since they do not have the divine dynasphere and God the Holy Spirit does not indwell them, except in certain cases going back to the Old Testament system of pneumatology, they must have something to take up the slack, and they will be far more serious about prayer than we are. The person who prays in prosperity is so rare that you almost can’t find them.

With this we then have the predicate nominative plural from proseuxh, and it is translated “which are the prayers,” and the possessive genitive plural or the ablative of source “from the saints” or “of the saints,” a(gioj. This is a reference to the prayers of the Tribulational believers, it is a reference for prayers which have not been uttered but will be in the future. And it follows the pattern of Psalm 141:2, ”May my prayers be counted as incense before you; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering [or oblation].” The prayer principle in this context is found in Isaiah 65:24 — “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This links the principle of prayer to the doctrine of divine decrees.

The generic use of the definite article categorises the saints or believers as belonging to the Tribulation. These are prayers, again, that have not been offered by people who are probably not yet alive but the divine decrees prints out prophetically those believers who live in the Tribulation and who will offer prayers in a time of great disaster. The fact that they can concentrate under pressure in an unrestrained period of historical disaster indicates the spirituality of these people. Their spirituality is the faith-rest drill and they have a very strong faith-rest function in the Tribulation. That is the means by which they survive.

Verse 8 in corrected translation: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had taken the book [the Doomsday book of historical trends in the Tribulation], the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers fell down before the Ram [or Lamb], and each one had a lyre, and libation cup made of gold, full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Verse 9, the song of the angelic hierarchy. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated here “then.” With this we have the present active indicative of the verb a)idw, which means to sing. The implication of a)idw is that they sing with magnificent voices, these are not amateurs. “Then they sang,” the futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the angelic hierarchy, composed of the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers, produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of music as an expression of worship. The accusative singular direct object is composed of two words. First of all the adjective kainoj which means new in species. This song is absolutely new, it has never been sung yet in heaven and it will not be sung until the future. Then we have w)dh which is the Greek word for song. They sang a brand new song, one that had never been sung before and this, of course, means that it is very significant in relationship to what happens in the book of Revelation.

What follows is the present active participle of the verb legw, which means to say, to speak, to communicate, and many similar type meanings. Only the lyrics are presented to us, we do not hear the actual music. The “saying” of the King James version simply means “the lyrics are as follows.” We are not going to hear them sing it, we are merely going to be told from John what the lyrics of this future song happen to be. The participle is now accompanied by a noun, it may function as a substantive and that is exactly how it is translated here, “the lyrics are as follows.”

This scene in heaven during the Tribulation was anticipated by David in Psalm 144:9 when he said: “I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a lyre of ten strings I will sing praises to you.”

We note our first principle in verse nine: only lyrics are given in the Word of God. The lyrics are far more important than the melody. Lyrics are addressed to the thinking of the soul; the melody speaks to the emotion of the soul. We have here the lyrics only, which means that when we are studying the Word of God our emotions must not get involved before our thinking. We must learn what is there and then respond to it emotionally for worship. Emotion must always be a responder in worship and perception of Bible doctrine is a form of worship, a most important form. Emotions are designed to respond to thought and never to supersede thought. In worship the melody is not to be ignored but the fact remains that lyrics speak to thought. Lyrics involve thinking; melody speaks to the emotions of the soul. All great hymns of worship balance out between doctrinal lyrics and great melody and harmony by the which the words of the hymn are imprinted in the mind. This is a song of victory, a hymn of our Lord’s worthiness to open the Doomsday book. Therefore the emphasis on the lyrics, not the melody.

We begin by discovering what the lyrics are. The present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the hymn is addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ, “you are,” referring to Christ. The static present represents a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the worthiness of our Lord from the victory of His first advent, the great strategic victory. This strategic victory began with the hypostatic union, our Lord’s residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere after His virgin birth, His kenosis, His impeccability, His saving work on the cross, followed by His death, burial, resurrection ascension, session and the award of His third royal patent. As we have seen, the insertion of the Church Age was to provide a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent.

Next come the predicate nominative a)cioj, “you are worthy.” The worthiness of our Lord was the subject of chapter one and periodically will be brought out in the middle part of the book of Revelation. Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb lambanw which means to take or to seize. In this case it was taken — “to receive.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the few moments it took for our Lord to take from the hand of God the Father the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. This is what we call an infinitive of actual result. As a result of our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross during His first advent He is now worthy to take the book and to break open its seals. The breaking open of the seals indicates once again that Jesus Christ controls history. With this we have the accusative neuter singular of the word biblion which meant a scroll or, in modern English we would say, a book, the Doomsday book containing the historical trends of the Tribulation presented prophetically.

Next we have a connective kai followed by the aorist active infinitive of a)noigw, which means here to break open, breaking the seals. The constative aorist: over the next five or six chapters we will see what happens in the breaking of the seals. In chapter six, six of the seals are broken. The rest of the Tribulation from chapter seven to eighteen is the seventh seal of the book. The accusative plural direct object from sfragij, which means seals, “and to break its seals.” Each seal is a trend of the Tribulation which cannot be broken until after the Church is removed by the Rapture or resurrection. This emphasises the concept that prophecy determines historical trends in both the Tribulation and the Millennium.

There is a reason for this and the reason is given. We start with the causal conjunction o(ti and it is correctly translated “because.” Then we have the aorist passive indicative of an Attic Greek verb sfatw, a high-class word from Athens and also Ionia. But at the time of John’s writing we have the Koine Greek and they couldn’t pronounce sfatw in that day, so they had to change it to sfazw. Almost every lexicon today fails to recognise the greatness of this word and how it was corrupted, “because you were sacrificed,” sacrificed to the point of death. This is a word for animal sacrifices and, in the case of our Lord, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the three hours when our Lord was bearing our sins on the cross and gathers them up into one entirety.

Remember that human life is imputed by God to each person in the human race immediately after birth — to the human soul. That human life remains in that soul forever. The soul is in the body and, of course, physical death is when the soul leaves the body and when it does it takes human life with it. Human life is indestructible, it resides in the soul forever. At the same time that God imputes immediately after birth human life to each one of us He simultaneously imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Adam’s original sin, which was the source of the old sin nature, immediately is imputed to it. That means at the point of physical life we have spiritual death. We are dead spiritually so that if anyone dies before reaching accountability he automatically goes to heaven. This solves the problem of children who die. This, of course, is the grace of God and the wisdom of God. But there was another reason for it apart from the accountability principle and it has to do with the fact that arrogance creeps in so many ways. Personal sins were never imputed to any of us. Our personal sins are real, we committed them, they are from our own volition related to the old sin nature. The old sin nature is the source of temptation, the volition is the source of sin. We committed sins and they are real sins, but they have never been imputed to us for judgment. Our spiritual death came from the imputation of Adam’s sin and this means that all of our personal sins, past, present and future, were all imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. That is why we rebound by simply naming our sins, we are naming a case that has already gone to court, our sins were judged on the cross.

It took three hours on the cross for our Lord Jesus Christ to receive the imputation of the sins of the entire world and to be judged for them. The darkness covered the land at that time, no one saw the terrible humiliation of our perfect Lord bearing our sins. But they could hear the screams: “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani (My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?)” God the Father forsook God the Son because He was made sin for us. God the Holy Spirit forsook God the Son because He was bearing our sins and was judged for us. And so during those three hours they are gathered up into one entirety in this constative aorist of sfazw. The passive voice: Christ received the action of the verb on the cross, He received the imputation of our sins, as per sfatw, and was judged for them by God the Father. Note the importance of the passive voice which emphasises the fact that Christ received the judgment of our sins on the cross. Therefore He became our substitute and as our substitute the only saviour, “Neither is there salvation in any other; there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.

Then the passage goes on with a connective kai, “and,” and then the aorist active indicative of the verb a)gorazw, which means to purchase. It is actually the word for redemption, it means to purchase from the slave market of sin, “and you have purchased.” The word “us” is not found in the original. The ellipsis is because of the emotional state of John at this moment. Obviously it refers to anyone who has believed in Christ. It refers to the entire word but only those who believe in Christ understand and appreciate its significance, “and you have purchased [redeemed] mankind.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the saving work of Christ on the cross in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the salvation of all members of the human race who personally believe in Jesus Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb when He was on the cross, bearing our sins, being judged for them, and this is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. So the declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine in the field of soteriology. With this we have a dative of possession from the noun qeoj which, of course, refers to God and is translated “for God,” “and you have redeemed mankind for God.” The dative of possession is a Greek idiom (The ordinary case for possession is the genitive) for which we have no exact equivalent in the English. It is actually what is called personal interest particularised to the point of ownership. The dative of possession is an extension of the dative of indirect object to the point of ownership and now that Christ has purchased us on the cross we belong to God forever from the moment that we believe in Christ. There is nothing we can do to lose our so great salvation.

“you redeemed human beings for God,” and the means of doing so is given in a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima, “blood.” We have previously seen that blood is used for literal blood, but in the case of our Lord’s work on the cross the blood has to do with redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, His work in bearing our sins. Redemption directed toward sin, propitiation directed toward God, and reconciliation directed toward man as the presentation of the gospel. So we have e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima plus the genitive of su, the personal pronoun, “by means of your blood.” The blood of Christ refers to His entire saving work. It is not just literal blood which was shed, it is His work in bearing our sins.

The categories of human beings who are redeemed follows at the end of this verse. It starts with a prepositional phrase that carries throughout the rest of the verse, e)k plus the ablative of paj, “all,” and fulh, meaning tribes, “from every tribe.” This reverts, of course, to the nation Israel. Salvation is first offered to Israel since they are the original client nation. It refers to every tribe of Israel, hence Jews are constantly believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation. The scattering of Israel does not hinder their evangelism, their positive volition at God-consciousness, or their response to the gospel when they hear it.

The connective conjunction kai continues the concept, Fulh refers only to Israel, “and from every people.” Then we have the word “language,” glossa, indicating that people had to be divided in the languages. By everyone speaking the same language originally they became very self-destructive, they entered into a form of internationalism which would have destroyed the human race, and that would negate the purpose that God had in creating man to resolve the angelic conflict. So it simply refers to the fact that people will not divide nationally the way that God wants them to in order to protect their freedom and therefore they are given many ways of expressing that others do not understand so that barriers will be created whereby they can be administered in small enough groups to enjoy the benefits of freedom which are presented in the laws of divine establishment, “and from every language.” Then we have a connective kai, “and people.” The word “people” is laoj, referring to people living in undeveloped countries, aborigines, and it indicates the fact that no matter how primitive the living conditions people can find Jesus Christ as saviour if they are positive at God consciousness.

Next comes kai with e)qnoj, “from every nation.” Ethnic is used is the English for race but here it refers to national entities. A national entity can be made up of one race, like the Jews, or it can be made up of many races. When it is made up of many races the only way it can survive is to have one culture. When it says, “and from every nation”, we are talking about civilised nations, nations that have establishment. We are talking about the concept of establishment principles functioning in a nation, and when they do the culture is derived from establishment so that freedom, privacy, the sacredness of property and life all come from the establishment. And this becomes the basis of culture.

The Romans had no culture, they borrowed from the Greeks. But they eventually, by their very system of law as a republic, developed a culture. And that culture with its establishment background became the basis for the most fantastic evangelism in the first century of Christianity.

In the first part of Revelation chapter four, verse six, we noted the tranquillity of the Church in heaven. Tranquillity means many things — happiness, prosperity, blessing — but something the Church will never have on earth, and which is contrary to any concept of historical trend, is unity. There will never be a unification of the body of Christ on earth. The existence of God’s game plan, the divine dynasphere, and the existence of Satan’s game plan, the cosmic system, inevitably attracts believers one way or the other. The fact that there are many churches, many denominations, many opinions, many different concepts, many antagonisms, is based on the fact that the historical trend of living in the devil’s world makes it impossible for any unity among believers. Believers often talk about unity in terms of idealism, that somehow we all ought to love each other because the Bible says so, without even defining the love or understanding the concept, or developing the command as given by our Lord in any given context. So there will be different churches, different denominations, those who are ecumenical and those who are anti-ecumenical. It is the same old story. Everyone has an old sin nature, everyone has a soul, everyone has an opinion, everyone has an idea, and all this makes for disunity in the Church Age. There will never exist on this earth a unified Church. But they will be unified in heaven under conditions provided by our Lord, a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus the cosmic system. And so the first part of chapter four verse six talks about a remarkable phenomenon, something that could never occur on earth, something that demands everything from a resurrection body to the removal of the old sin nature and life in heaven before it can happen. Therefore don’t be shocked when your friends “split,” when they go in different directions, when they disagree. They didn’t agree as unbelievers, the won’t agree as believers. It is the way it should be. Just as to protect the human race in the devil’s world God has ordained nationalism to split people up into groups called nations or tribes so it is necessary with believers. There could not be unity of believers unless Satan was the “archbishop” and running the whole show.

Now we have come to the end of the eight things in heaven, the new song, the hymn of victory, and we resume with verse 10 where we have the present opportunity and the future reward of the royal family. The verse in the King James version does not follow the best manuscripts in the Greek text. All of the suffixes of this verse are mistranslated. The verse is not in the first person plural but in the third person plural, referring to the royal family of God.

We begin by noting the present opportunity of the royal family of God, the intensive use of the conjunction kai is translated “in fact.” Next comes the aorist active indicative and the verb form is second person singular of the verb poiew. Poiew means to do, to make, to produce, to manufacture, to bring about, to, accomplish, and it even means, as here, to appoint. It should be translated, “In fact you have appointed” or “you have made.” The culminative aorist tense views the appointment of all believers of the Church Age to the royal power of the divine dynasphere, the royal priesthood in its entirety, and it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ to winners, mature believers, believers who advance from gate four to gate eight in the royal game plan for this dispensation.

The fact that you and I after salvation are left with our volition intact, the fact that God’s game plan does not call for any coercion of your volition, should give you your first understanding of the fact that legalism is never the order of the day. People make wrong decisions with regard to doctrine. People make wrong decisions with regard to hearing it, with regard to applying it, and it is the misapplication which becomes a distortion. The distortions result in morality, arrogance and self-righteousness producing a system which comes from Satan’s cosmic modus operandi: cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Many Christians, very moral and self-righteous Christians, live in the cosmic system and their morality is evil. The only legitimate morality is the morality produced in God’s game plan, morality produced inside of the divine dynasphere which we call integrity to distinguish it from the legalism of the cosmic system.

God has taken each one of us at salvation and commissioned us. He has given us two commissions, two appointments, and they are mentioned by the culminative aorist, “you have appointed.” The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by providing a royal power called basileia which is used here as a synonym for the divine dynasphere, “in fact you have appointed them a royal power.” The Lord Jesus Christ first tested the prototype divine dynasphere during His incarnation. He gave it approval for the royal family as the game plan for this dispensation. But one thing about it: this divine dynasphere is strictly a matter of the believer’s own free will. He has provided the means of operating it. He has given a licence for operating it — priest and ambassador. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine. The Church Age is the only historical era or dispensation in which every believer at the moment of salvation becomes royalty by regeneration. And with that royalty is given two commissions whereby he can function and make his own decisions either to glorify the Lord or not to glorify the Lord, to contribute to the uptrend of history or the downtrend of history.

Next in verse 10 we have a rare triple accusative. The triple accusative direct object of one personal and two impersonal objects. The accusative of personal object is in the plural, it is the intensive pronoun a)utoj used for the personal pronoun third person in the Koine Greek, translated “them” — royal family. This, of course, is an impersonal way of stating the doctrine but a personal way of reminding you that at the moment you believed in Christ you personally became royal family, and at the same time you became a priest. You are your own priest.

Then we have the accusative singular of impersonal object, basileia. The word means “kingdom” or “royal power.” Here it means royal power and it is a synonym for the divine dynasphere. “In fact you have appointed them [Church Age believers] a royal power.” And then the third part of the direct object, the accusative plural of impersonal object i(ereuj, and it is the word for priest. It is in the plural and it is translated “priests.”

The next phrase is “to our God,” “you have appointed them priests to our God,” dative of advantage. The future reward of the believer is given next, “and they,” connective kai. Next we have the future active indicative of winners, basileuw, which means to rule. Today it is basileia, the divine dynasphere, and if you stay with it then tomorrow it is basileuw, you will be ruler. Today you have royal power to choose for or against. If you choose for the royal power you will be a ruler in the future; if you choose against the royal power you will be a loser now and a loser at the judgment seat of Christ. So we have basileuw in the future active indicative, “and they shall rule.” This is a predictive future anticipating the fact that winners, believers who are decorated with the order of the morning star, will rule under the authority of Jesus Christ in the Millennium. The active voice: the mature believer of the Church Age, the one who makes the good decisions and becomes the anonymous hero of this dispensation will come back into history once again. Out of history — Rapture of the Church or death, whichever occurs first; back into history — second advent. Today the believer who makes the right decisions with regard to God’s game plan is a winner. This is manifest by the supergrace blessings in six categories but when he comes back he is going to be a ruler; a winner today, a ruler during the Millennium.

There are going to be believers during the Church Age who are going to be winners. And at the judgment seat of Christ when they are decorated with the order of the morning star and receive the uniform of glory and receive a royal title which goes into the book of life with their name and all of the blessings that go with it, when all of these things are received then you will see above all things in life, not the power of politics, not the power of muscle or physical strength, not the power of personality, but you will see the power of decision. No greater power exists than to have knowledge of God and to make decisions related to Him. This is the greatest system of power in the world and any other attempt to develop a system of power is always disappointing.

When it says, “they shall rule,” the active voice of basileuw refers to mature believers, male and female. In the Millennium with perfect environment women are going to rule nations, and do it successfully. There will be men and women as rulers of nations. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of future fact. Every mature believer, male and female, will be a ruler in the Millennium. And then we have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of gh, “on the earth” — “they shall rule on the earth,” a reference to the Millennium.

Translation of verse 10 — “In fact you have appointed them [Church Age believers, royal family of God] a royal power [the divine dynasphere] and priests to our God: and they shall rule on the earth.”

According to what we have studied in Revelation 4:10 there are three categories of worship.

The worship function of gate five begins with the love of God through perception of doctrine and as the momentum of the Christian life continues it eventuates in the highest form of worship which is occupation with the person of Christ. All worship demands that we give to God what we possess — what we have we give. Worship is essentially giving something special to God.

Category #1 of worship is the giving of glory to God. The word which is used in the Greek is doca. In giving glory to God we have the highest expression of worship. This is the form of worship we are studying in chapters four and five. This is the worship of the four angelic heralds, the twenty-four general staff officers, and the entire hosts of angelic creatures. As the highest form of worship it is only operational in the eternal state. Before we can give glory to God we must possess glory and there is no possibility of us possessing glory until after the Rapture of the Church and receiving the resurrection body. The glory we give to God has to be related to something we receive at the judgment seat of Christ: the crown of life, the crown of glory, the order of the morning star, the many decorations, the uniform of glory. The angelic heralds, for example, give glory to God because they possess glory. In worship you cannot give what you do not possess. For the royal family of God, the Church Age believer, this is impossible until after the Rapture of the Church when we receive our resurrection body.

In category #2 we are looking at something that we can give to God, timh, which is generally translated “honour,” though it has three connotations in the Greek and each one is related to worship. The giving of timh means first of all respect. Timh means respect and the believer can only respect our Lord Jesus Christ through understanding His thinking, which is another way of saying that you must reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, especially at gate four. Apart from positive volition toward doctrine and life in the divine dynasphere it is impossible to give respect to God.

There are three categories of believers in growth after salvation. There is the baby, the adolescent and the mature believer. The baby can give respect to our Lord Jesus Christ as he resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere and as he continues to take in doctrine. So timh is something that every believer can give. It is based, of course, by his life inside the divine dynasphere and his understanding of doctrine.

The adolescent believer takes one step further. Timh also means reverence. The adolescent believer is growing, advancing, and therefore he is capable of giving reverence under the concept of category #2 worship. Reverence follows respect. Respect is the worship of the baby believer; reverence is the worship of the adolescent believer. Reverence and respect are simply an extension of each other, both are the function of the believer’s royal priesthood inside the divine dynasphere.

The highest form of category #2 worship, also included in the word timh, is the concept of occupation with the person of Christ. Timh means honour and that is the function of the mature believer. The mature believer can actually give honour to our Lord Jesus Christ. So category #2 is as high as we can go in this life and to give honour to our Lord you must possess honour, and the possession of honour means advance to maturity, the erection of the edification complex of the soul and everything related to it. Category #3 worship is the giving of thanks. Thanksgiving is a most basic form of priestly function on the part of the royal family. The capacity for this worship is gratitude for the plan of God and for the grace of God. Capacity for thanksgiving comes from perception of doctrine and as one’s perception increases so does his capacity. The arrogant believer lives in the cosmic system and whatever thanksgiving he may show is merely superficial. There is something we may learn from this also: People who have no capacity for thanksgiving have no capacity for love. The words are no stronger than the honour, the integrity of the individual.

So we have contrasting forms of worship. We have in the Old Testament dispensation mankind functioning under a specialised priesthood. For example, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron became priests to Israel. In the Old Testament you had to go to a priest who represented you before God but now in the New testament the contrast is here: you are your own priest, you represent yourself before God. Two things changed the form of worship in the Church Age: the first advent of Christ, His strategic victory on the cross and, secondly, the universal priesthood of the believer in the royal family of God. Add to this the completion of the canon of scripture and you have the elimination of all ritual worship, except in one area, the Lord’s table. Even baptism has not been extended to this part of the Church Age. So we have the completed canon of scripture and we have thought as the basis of worship, i.e. Bible doctrine. Therefore, all ritual except the Lord’s table has been set aside. The object of worship in the Church Age is our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church Age is the first dispensation to follow His incarnation and hypostatic union. We worship Jesus Christ as eternal God; we worship Jesus Christ as true humanity. As God He united with His humanity, as Man He functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and demonstrated the principle of impeccability which qualified Him to go to the cross. As God He is not able to sin; as true humanity living in the prototype divine dynasphere for 33 years He was able not to sin. His impeccability led Him to the cross where He bore our sins in His own human body [as deity He could not have anything to do with sin]. It is the humanity of Christ that actually achieved the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and therefore made a new strategic situation in many ways. Man was created lower than angels but the Man Christ Jesus is now superior to angels and therefore we worship the God-Man. The ingredients of worship, therefore, must be related to who and what Jesus Christ is. It is impossible for any believer to worship Jesus Christ unless he knows something about Him. So, once again, the Eucharist is a test. When we come to the Lord’s table our ability to concentrate on the person of Christ and His work on the cross is always an examination; it is a way of telling us that we are either failing or succeeding in our spiritual life.

If the believer has doctrine in his right lobe he can express worship commensurate with capacity derived from that doctrine. If he has love of truth or doctrine he can express it in worship, giving concentration to doctrinal teaching. If the believer can apply doctrine, like soteriology and Christology, he can participate in the communion service because he is able to relate the ritual of the bread and the cup with the pertinent doctrine in the Word of God. If the believer has time he can give time to the Lord by his assembly in the local church for Bible class which is, of course, worship. If he has money he can give money but only as God has prospered him.

While the 24 angelic general staff officers gave their crowns they would always have the crowns because they had the source of the gifts. So in giving their crowns they still have the Lord and they still have the source. Therefore another principle of worship is very important: Everything that we have belongs to the Lord. For that reason everything that we have is secure. The Lord is eternal, He cannot in any way be destroyed, whatever He gives us is eternal. And when we give it back to Him in respect and reverence we are expressing therefore the highest form of worship.

The fifth chapter of Revelation deals with worship and we have come down now to the song. They are now singing this great song. The chorus of the elect angels is mentioned in verses 11 and 12.

When it says “I both saw,” the personnel of the angelic chorus described in this verse, “and heard,” this is the song of the angelic chorus. We note the correct translation of verse eleven. “I heard the voice of many angels around the throne plus the voice of the angelic heralds and the angelic general staff: and their number was beyond counting [an infinite number of angels].” Myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands merely expresses billions, an infinite number of angels.

Verse 12, we notice immediately that we have a present active participle from the verb legw, and legw means to say or to speak, but not here. Here it refers to singing. It says that they sang, the instrumental of manner for the adjective of megaj from fonh. Megaj is the adjective and fwnh is the noun, translated generally “with a great voice” or “with a loud voice.”

What they sang is now given. The music with its harmony must have been magnificent beyond description but all we have are the lyrics. The lyrics are the doctrine which closes out this chapter. The lyrics appeal to the mentality of the soul while the melody and the harmony appeal to the emotion of the soul. This, again, emphasises the importance of the mentality of the soul. Only the lyrics are given in the Word of God.

This is what they sang: “The Lamb who has been sacrificed is worthy to receive power.” This is not the way you find it in the King James version. The Lamb, of course, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He is worthy is the basis for the rest of the book of Revelation. He is going to give us the history of the world from the time of the Rapture to the end of the world, and He is going to give it to us by opening the history book, the book of the seven seals. Someone has to be worthy to open it. History cannot go on unless there is worthiness somewhere. You remember this in time of historical disaster and difficulty. History always continues because somewhere someone is worthy, some believer who has advanced to maturity as an anonymous hero in the Church Age. So when it says that the Lamb is worthy this is the subject of angelic singing, of angelic worship. The perfect passive participle of the verb sfatw is beautiful Greek. It was changed in the New Testament to the Koine, sfazw, a slur of sfatw. It means in the original writing of the New Testament, so that you could understand, and since understanding doctrine is the objective, to avoid any abstruse system of mystery we have the common language [Koine], and almost anyone can understand a common or gutter language. We have sfazw, meaning to sacrifice, to give one’s life, and it is a reference to the cross. The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action, the saving work of Christ on the cross, the basis of all worship for it is our Lord Jesus Christ who provided eternal salvation, who defeated Satan in the angelic conflict, and who makes our life meaningful at the present time. We are here for a purpose. There never was and there never will be a group of believers in any period of history who have a more meaningful life than we have. The whole outcome of history in our generation depends upon our decisions with regard to Bible doctrine, and therefore with regard to the principle of perception of doctrine.

It says then, “worthy to receive.” The word to “receive” is lambanw and the aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. The aorist tense, being a gnomic aorist, is for doctrine. It is an axiomatic concept to receive honour and this must come from doctrine, the gnomic aorist for a doctrine which is axiomatic. The active voice: our glorified Lord produces the action of the verb through His strategic victory on the cross. This is the infinitive of actual result.

Next comes the seven descriptions of our Lord’s third royal patent. These are all, by the way, in the accusative singular. These are seven direct objects of the verb. The first one is the accusative singular of the noun dunamij and it is correctly translated “power.” In fact, our Lord Jesus Christ received two categories of power which are related to His two advents. In the first advent Christ received power which is the prototype divine dynasphere with its eight gates making it possible for our Lord to be qualified to go to the cross and bear our sins. In the second advent Christ receives another category of power based on the success of the first advent, and that is the power to rule the world. That is the tactical victory over Satan. Satan is superseded at the second advent. In the first advent Christ received the power to sustain His humanity and win; in the second advent Christ receives the power to rule and to win. Notice that in each case dunamij relates to being a winner.

The second description of our Lord’s third royal patent is the accusative singular direct object of the noun ploutoj and this comes from power. It means wealth and abundance, wealth in the sense of money, in the sense of security, that which enriches one, hence prosperity. This is a reference to the prosperity of the Millennium. Our Lord’s rulership of the world will be characterised by prosperity. All temporal and eternal prosperity is related to who and what Christ is.

“wisdom,” this is number three, sofia, which is not only the Bible, the mind of Christ, but all application of doctrine is related to it. It belongs to Christ. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to history. Our Lord’s Millennial reign will be characterised by the greatest wisdom ever known to man. To possess wisdom one must have all the facts. Our Lord will have all the facts about every circumstance in His Millennial reign and He will deal sagaciously with those facts, therefore sound the judgment and discretion of our Lord’s rule, but by application these all belong to us. If they belong to Him because of His wonderful strategic victory these things by application belong to us.

Number four is the accusative singular direct object of the noun i)sxuj. It is another word for power but it is a different kind of power. This is endowed power, ability. With the third royal patent goes the ability to rule in time and eternity. Some of you are never going to reach your potential or your ability without truth. The possession of truth, the possession of Bible doctrine is the basis for exploitation of ability and without it you will never reach your potential in time, and certainly you will never be one of the anonymous heroes so necessary for the perpetuation of our nations history and prosperity. Of course, each one of these descriptive words refers to the humanity of Christ and, again, relates to His third royal patent. His resurrection, ascension and session is His ability, His strength, His energy plus His ability. That is the real key: to have energy plus ability. Many people have energy but no ability. The ability means acquired ability and they have never directed their energy to channels whereby their ability can be acquired. If energy is directed in the wrong channels it is because people have a wrong scale of values and they do not realise what is important in life. They never learn to concentrate so that their energy can be properly directed. The strength to rule combines energy plus ability to rule, to lead, to control. Energy is absolutely no good without ability. That is the great key in this principle.

Number five is timh again, “honour.” The highest honour ever given is given to the humanity of Christ after the ascension. This honour centres around His third royal patent awarded to Him as a result of His strategic victory of the cross.

Next comes glory. Just as honour was given to Christ as a result of His victory of the first advent glory will be given to Christ at the second advent. That will be fulfilled by those who succeed as anonymous heroes in this dispensation.

Finally, our last word is the accusative singular direct object from e)ulogia, which means the act of blessing. It refers to the fact that all temporal and eternal blessing comes from the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Several categories of blessing are involved. First of all blessings for the royal family in time. We have studied this under the doctrine of logistical grace and the doctrine of supergrace blessing. Secondly, blessing for the royal family in eternity. We have studied this under the profile of the winner, the doctrine of the crowns, the doctrine of the judgment seat of Christ. All blessing for you and for me as Christians, members of the royal family of God both in time and in eternity, is based upon our Lord’s strategic victory at the cross. Hence, all blessing, either temporal or eternal originates from our Lord Jesus Christ and apart from Christ there is no blessing in time. You can have success but success without blessing will make you miserable and disturbed, so simply being successful is meaningless. When it is a blessing then you have the capacity for happiness.

Translation of verse 12: “And they sang loudly, The Lamb who has been sacrificed [the spiritual death of Christ bearing our sins] is worthy to receive power [reference to the prototype divine dynasphere at the first advent and the power to rule at the second advent], and wealth [the prosperity of our Lord’s third royal patent], and wisdom [the sagacity of our Lord’s Millennial reign], and strength [energy and ability to rule the world during the Millennium], and honour [from the strategic victory of the first advent], and glory [from the tactical victory of the second advent], and blessing [both temporal and eternal blessing from the royal family originates from our Lord Jesus Christ].”

We need to emphasise the word i)sxuj, translated “strength.” It is a word that includes both energy and ability. Energy without ability is misdirected arrogance as in self-righteousness, as in self-righteous crusading. Ability without energy is lack of motivation, lack of self-discipline, and therefore becomes the arrogance of laziness. The energy of hard work produces ability, and ability channels hard work into fields of productive success. Energy plus ability equals the true drive in life. Both energy and ability must be related to doctrine and wisdom, in other words, truth, otherwise a pseudo-drive is created. Our Lord’s wisdom coupled with His energy and ability sets in motion the greatest rule in all of human history.

That brings us to the chorus of regenerate mankind singing to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The corrected translation of verse thirteen: “Then I heard every creature who is in heaven.” Now who is in heaven at that time in the future? Believers of the Church Age, the royal family of God. Then we find creatures on earth, living believers at the time of the Rapture, “and on the earth, and under the earth,” dead believers at the Rapture, “also on the sea,” living believers at the Rapture, “and everyone who is in them [who died at sea during the Church Age], singing to him who sits on the throne [God the Father], and to the Lamb [God the Son who executed the Father’s plan].” So at this point believers in heaven join the chorus.

When it says “in heaven” in the first prepositional phrase we are talking about all believers of the Church Age. They are there as the sea of glass which we have studied in Revelation chapter four, verse 6. “On earth” simply indicates the resurrection of living believers at the Rapture. “Under the earth” is the second category which indicates that the people who die before the Rapture are also there. But the thing that is interesting here has to do with the sea. It says in the middle of verse 13 — “and everyone who is in them,” i.e., every believer who died at sea. Why make the sea a separate category? It is a reference again to believers indicating the fact that because about two thirds or more of the earth is covered with water, and since man is quite often found on the sea, the same thing is true for them as on land. The personnel of the chorus in heaven is composed of all Church Age believers, the only members of the human race at that time who will have their resurrection body. They are resurrected from both the land masses and the seas of planet earth. The point here is that all have resurrection bodies.

Both God the Father, the author of the plan, and God the Son, the executor of the plan are honoured in this song. At this point the work of the Father and the Son is accomplished but the work of God the Holy Spirit continues on earth, but it should be noted that any praise and worship to the Father is also praise and worship to the Holy Spirit. His work is not finished until the end of the Millennium but this does not means that He is left out of the worship.

“and power,” ruling power, kratoj, the sovereignty, the ruling power of eternity belongs to the members of the Trinity.

“belongs to them forever and ever” means that eternity will once and for all eliminate all creature arrogance. The thing that destroys mankind is creature arrogance. There will be no doubt either among elect angels or regenerate mankind regarding the source of victory in the angelic conflict, nor the source of blessing or the one who gets the credit forever and ever. Without arrogance and evil competition it produces heaven in the presence of God and it will be a great blessing for all. It staggers the imagination. There is no human genius which can penetrate into eternity and begin to realise the total concept of love, appreciation, worship, glory, which regenerate creatures will be capable of having once they are in the eternal state. It stands at the moment as a principle of prophecy but in the resurrection body it will be a reality of total worship of our Lord. No one has yet to see the tremendous capacity or the total ability of believers in the resurrection body to worship God.

So there is a final response from the angelic hierarchy to what is sung by the Church in verse 13. “Then the four angelic creatures kept saying, Amen [I believe it].” They kept saying this because we have the imperfect active indicative of the verb legw. This is the angelic response to what the Church says. And why are angels responding? Because Jesus Christ as a Man is higher than angels — His third royal patent. We are royalty and in resurrection bodies we are higher than angels, and therefore, at last in eternity angels will be responding to what we sing.

“Then the angelic general staff fell down and worshipped.” This is the silent worship of thinking doctrine previously learned and now applied. It is fitting that angelic creatures who wear the uniform of wisdom should declare the antiphonal response from their maximum knowledge of doctrine. The uniform of wisdom emphasises to us the importance of knowing God from maximum perception of doctrine.

These four angelic heralds are the smartest of elect angels and they demonstrate a principle when they say, “Amen.” The smarter you are the more you can come to appreciate who and what God is. As far as we are concerned, the principle: it is smart to believe doctrine. Believing doctrine is the difference between academic perception and the inculcation of e)pignwsij. The e)pignwsij doctrine will result in spiritual growth and produce the wisdom that one needs to glorify the Lord now and forever. The uniform of wisdom is the eternal decoration given to these four angelic heralds as an eternal reward and a monument to the persistence of their positive volition toward doctrine during prehistory. Their occupation with Christ through maximum doctrine in their souls gives them the privilege of winding up this chapter with the antiphonal response to the hymn of victory in heaven. This is in contrast to the shouting or the shrieking of Amen during sermons in a church, which is superficial, disruptive, meaningless, and even arrogant. For “Amen” belongs to those with wisdom as a part of their eternal worship or as a part of their appropriate congregational response in liturgy.

The physical attitude or posture of the angelic general staff is one of total humility, emphasising the importance of humility in our relationship to the Lord, in our relationship to worship of Him, and in relationship to orienting to life. Note that these are the second highest rank in the order of battle in the army of elect angels and the posture of humility is not hypocrisy here because it is accompanied by thought and the thought is expressed in the posture. The posture without the thought is hypocrisy, it is ritual without reality. Remember that worship is thinking doctrine. Emotion is only legitimate in worship when responding to thought, and these angels are responding to thought.

The last phrase, “that liveth forever and ever,” does not occur again in verse 14.