Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

This will be a short lesson. Members of the missions committee used the first half of our class period to update us on the various missionaries we support as a congregation, and to allow us to sign cards of encouragement for them. It was a wonderful time!

In this lesson, we’ll finish studying Revelation 11. We studied 11:1-2 and 11:3-14 in previous lessons.

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V. 15 is the climax of the book of Revelation — not just what we’ve been waiting for in our study, but what God and all of creation have been eagerly expecting since the Garden of Eden:

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

The kingdom of the world has always been in direct competition with the kingdom of God. When the nation of Israel first demanded a human king to rule over them, Samuel took the request to God. God reassured Samuel that he shouldn’t take it personally – choosing a human form of government was a rejection of God Himself:

Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do. (1Sa 8:7-9)

Samuel told them as God said:

You have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your calamities and distresses. And you have said, `No, set a king over us.’ (1Sa 10:19)

Depending on human government to solve the world’s problems is putting your trust in something far less powerful than God. God will often work through human government, but ultimately it is God that will resolve the problems of our world. That will come in full when “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord.”

The many diverse kingdoms that have ruled mankind throughout history have a single source of authority - Satan. The Antichrist will concentrate this source of power when he rules. But God will play the trump card and rule over them all.

To understand and position this section of text we need to describe briefly a literary technique called prolepsis. We are all familiar with prolepsis, even if we haven’t heard the word before.

• One kid sees another kind doing something bad and says “Awww, you’re in trou-ble!”
• A bully loses his temper at someone who bumped into him and says “You’re a dead man!”

In both cases the speaker’s statement sounds as if something has already happened that really is about to happen. It creates a dramatic effect. The word “prolepsis” in Greek literally means “anticipation.”

Here, the angel says that the world’s kingdom has become God’s kingdom, but in reality that is just about to happen. The seventh trumpet sounding is just the beginning of the end (which an angel mentioned in 10:7). The “third woe” the angel decribed in 11:14 won’t actually come until the seven bowls are poured out in 16:1-21.

God will pour out His wrath upon the nations (14:7; 16:1ff.; 18:20; 19:19b; 20:11-15), but not against His own people.

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Continuing this prolepsis,

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great-and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (11:16-18)

Notice that the elders describe God as the One who is and who was - but not “is to come” (as they did in 1:4, 1:8, and 4:8). There is no more “coming” once the kingdom arrives. “Thy Kingdom come” is a prayer that will only be valid until the scene we’re studying today.

Helpfully, v. 18 provides a rough outline of the remaining chapters of Revelation:

• The nations were angry - they will oppose God and bring wrath on God’s people (12:12)
• The time has come for judging the dead (20:11-15)
• And for rewarding your servants  (21:1-4; 22:3-5)
• For destroying those who destroy the earth - i.e., Babylon, the Beast, the false prophet, and the dragon (19:11; 20:10)

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Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm. (11:19)

The temple was “in Heaven,” which supports our study of the description of the temple in 11:1-2 .

The presence of God is being opened up so that men may have unrestricted fellowship with Him. We fellowship with God today, but it’s always an indirect fellowship. Since the great fall, we do not have the joy of walking in the garden in the cool of the day with Him (Gen. 3:8). We will again have that direct fellowship with God when He finally completes the act of obliterating the things that Adam’s sin (and ours) introduced into the world.

This will finally be fulfilled in Rev 21:3: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.‘”