In addition to the presuppositions stated in the introduction to this study, the following observations appear to be justified by the research to this point, and may serve as an aid in decoding the remainder of Revelation.
Revelation is an event-table, not a timetable. It is designed to inform the church concerning what events will lead up to the Parousia and in what order, not when the Parousia will occur. It is important to note that only a prophet actually predicts future events, whereas a reader of prophecy (Rev. 1:3; Mark 13:14) correlates prophecy to past and present events.
Consistent use of the "Scripture interprets Scripture" principle is essential to understanding Revelation. Few serious Bible students would deny this. Unfortunately, just as few actually employ it. The distinction of the man of lawlessness from the antichrist, the definitions of such key motifs as beast, head, horn, diadem, and "666," and the understanding of prophecy in the preceding paragraph all result from reading Revelation in its biblical context.
Scenes in Revelation which appear to be secular in nature are relatively easy to decode, whereas scenes which appear to be ecclesiastical in nature (notably chs. 12 and 14) remain opaque. This is not surprising in view of the comparatively clandestine nature of divine operations. Secular and even diabolical evil tries hard to obscure its goals and methods, but typically enjoys short term success only. Divine secrets by contrast can lay buried indefinitely under the cover of outward weakness, as demonstrated in the career of every positive biblical character, including of course Jesus Christ. It may well be that the church will not need to know the identity of such characters as the woman and child of chapter 12 or the various angels until the Parousia has already occurred. For now, it suffices to believe that Revelation's descriptions of ecclesiastical triumph have been and are occurring wherever and whenever it pleases God.
The Christian church has always believed in the perspicuity or essential clarity of Scripture, and many readers of Revelation have hoped that its seeming obscurity would be overcome when its primary images were fulfilled. Assuming that the man of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2) is Communism, and that the beasts of Revelation 13 are the Soviet Empire and Maoist China, Revelation appears to be a fairly simple and straightforward survey of major events in human history during the last 500 years, with emphasis on the last 150, presented (with one major exception) in chronological order.
Revelation's outline has been widely recognized to have four basic parts:
The Main Sequence contains three cycles of seven elements:
The bowls of wrath are followed by a detailed description of the Parousia and its aftermath (19:1-22:5).
The relationship of the remaining section of the Main Sequence, chapters 12-14, to the rest of Revelation is a major puzzle to most commentators. The idealist school posits three additional cycles of seven elements besides the letters, seals, trumpets, and bowls of wrath in order to produce a symmetrical (but textually unsupported) outline of seven cycles. There is however no consensus among idealists concerning the specific divisions between the alleged seven elements of chapters 12-14. Chapters 17-18 are then detached from the bowls of wrath (but see 17:1), and two cycles are constructed out of chapters 17-21.
The key to associating chapters 13-14 with the rest of the Main Sequence is found in an interlude within the sixth trumpet. In 10:11 John is told that he "must prophesy again concerning peoples, nations, languages, and many kings." If chapters 13-14 constitute the fulfillment of that admonition, and thus a replay of the sixth trumpet, the scenes of the sixth trumpet should, like those of chapter 13, be connected to the Cold War period. Indeed, the vision of the horses (9:17-19) corresponds to the Vietnam War. The horses themselves are precise descriptions of flamethrowing tanks, and the colors of "those who sat upon them" are identical to those on the Vietcong flag (fiery = red, hyacinthine = blue, and sulfurous = yellow). The sixth trumpet material in chapter 11 also has at least two major parallels to the first half of chapter 13, namely, the forty-two month timespan (11:2 and 13:5) and the motif of a beast which conquers the saints (11:7 and 13:7). The two names of this beast are synonymous. An abyss (11:7) can describe a sea (Ps. 33:7) as well as subterranean aquifers and other "deep" places.
This "replay" section appears to extend through the cycle of the bowls of wrath. The events in the seventh bowl of wrath (16:18, 21) are identical to, in the same order as, and from the same source (the temple) as those in the seventh trumpet (11:19):
These motifs appear in several other scenes in Revelation, but with notable differences. Most similar is the introduction to the trumpet cycle (8:5), which contains the first four. However, the temple is not the source, the first three motifs are not in the same order, and the hail motif, although nearby (8:7), is clearly part of the first trumpet. The first three motifs also are found in the introduction to the seal cycle (4:5).
The place of chapter 12 in the outline of Revelation is the greatest puzzle of all. Most commentators assume with little debate that the seventh trumpet concludes at the end of chapter 11. There is in fact no more reason to posit a context break at this point than between 11:18 and 11:19. If, on the other hand, chapter 12 is an extension of the seventh trumpet, the obscurity of its images is quite understandable, inasmuch as these events have not yet taken place. Such a theory would of course have to posit a context break between chapters 12 and 13. The latter do indeed have one character in common (the dragon), but otherwise the scene shifts dramatically. The dragon's direct harassment of the woman's other offspring (12:17) finds fulfillment, not in the work of the beasts of chapter 13, but in Satan's deception of the nations and war against the saints in chapter 20. The Majority texts' reading of 12:18 as "I (John) stood on the sand of the sea" (as opposed to "it stood," meaning the dragon) offers evidence, if not of John's intentions, then at least of ancient Christian scribes' apparent support for a context break at this point.
An even more significant reason why chapter 12 is to be connected to the Parousia proper, not some prior period, much less the first advent of Christ, comes from material outside Revelation ("Scripture interprets Scripture" again). Contrary to a sentence in traditional Christian Eucharistic liturgies, Holy Scripture knows nothing of "archangels," but only of "Michael the archangel." Gabriel is "the angel of the Lord" (Luke 1:11, 19), and Raphael, a character in the "deuterocanonical" book of Tobit, is one of seven angels. As a result, the "voice of the archangel" (1 Thess. 4:16), which marks Christ's presence and the resurrection of the dead, is to be connected to the work of Michael in Revelation 12.
The motif of the "little lamb" (arnion) warrants notice at this juncture in view of its importance throughout Revelation, from the opening of the seven seals (6:1) to the defeat of the scarlet beast (17:14). Contrary to English translations, the name of this character is not related to, much less identical with, "the lamb of God" (amnos, John 1:29, 1:36; see also Acts 8:32 and 1 Pet. 1:19). Outside of Revelation, arnion occurs only once, in the plural as a metaphor for believers. Jesus' tripartite final charge to Peter begins with "feed my arnia" (John 21:15; the subsequent commands involve shepherding and feeding Jesus' probata, "sheep").
The first reference to the arnion of Revelation (5:6) contains a complete description of its attendant "seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God commissioned for all the earth." As elsewhere, the number seven suggests a succession rather than a contemporary group, and "horn" indicates a high, but not necessarily sovereign, authority. "Eye" is a symbol of spiritual perception (Matt. 6:22; Luke 24:31) and discernment (Matt. 7:5, 20:15). The verb apostelló ("commissioned") suggests seven pastors, or possibly seven theological documents.
The sufferings of the arnion are vividly portrayed in 5:8-9. At first glance, "you were slaughtered, and by your blood you bought us for God out of every tribe, language, people, and nation" appears to be an obvious reference to Jesus Christ. However, John's use of a term for believers rather than one unique to Jesus Christ, and the motif "standing like one slaughtered" (5:6), indicating successful endurance of suffering as opposed to a victorious resurrection following suffering, suggests rather an image of the church as the body of Christ, the community which shares his blood. Tragically, many nominal Christians have been taught to disconnect Jesus as amnos from the church as arnion, either because the church is viewed as a conglomerate of sinners rather than a communion of saints, or because Jesus' ascension is believed to have removed him to a different location ("heaven" as non-earthly place rather than non-worldly realm), with the church and the Eucharist mere shadowy representations of an absent Lord. John's powerful image confirms the principle:
Revelation's outline is marked by several triumphal encounters between believers and the arnion: before the seven seals (5:11-14), at the conclusion of the sixth seal (7:9-17), on Mount Zion during the "sixth trumpet replayed" (14:1-5), and of course at the Parousia (21:22-23, 22:1). The middle two events both involve the motif of the 144,000.
The sixth seal is interpreted by those who experience it as "the wrath of the arnion" (6:16). The work of the arnion is mentioned in several scenes where he himself is not a character (12:11, 13:8, 14:10, 15:3). At the Parousia, there are a number of references to ecclesiastical persons and things associated with him: the wedding feast (19:7, 19:9), the bride (19:7, 21:9), apostles (21:14), the book of life (21:27), and slaves (22:3).
The most significant reference to the arnion in Revelation, in terms of what Christians may expect in the future, is ironically one of the least well known. The Parousia begins, not with the triumphant appearance of the King of kings (19:16), but two chapters earlier where, for the first time in Revelation, the arnion directly interacts with evil characters (specifically, the scarlet beast and his accomplices, 17:14) and defeats them. As a result, the identification of the scarlet beast is the key to recognizing what for Christians will be the most significant event of their lives.
