A Study of Revelation 20 and Other Related Passages
If God is not sovereign, God is not God.
R. C. Sproul
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4
The nations redeemed to God by Christ’s blood reign with Christ a thousand years. Among the victorious are those who were apparently defeated. The souls of the beheaded who refused to worship the beast or his image are neither exclusive to nor excluded from the thousand year co-reigning with Christ. They are exemplified as a most pressing test case for the faith of the saints. To appreciate their centrality to John’s vision of the first resurrection and thousand year reign of Christ we have been examining this vision’s prophetic antecedents in Daniel 7:1-8 and Revelation 13:1-14:20. Understanding the full contents of Revelation 20:4 is vital for our continued interpretation of Revelation 20:1-15 in which we are learning about two resurrections and whether they are of the same nature or if there are even more in number.
We left off last time ready to take our reading of Daniel 7:1-8 into our reading of Revelation 13:1-10. The Sea beast in Revelation 13 is clearly Rome, the amalgamating culmination of the other three ancient empires directly significant to redemptive history.* The dragon (who is Satan) that tries to devour Christ and destroy the church in Revelation 12 empowers the Sea Beast of Revelation 13. His war against the saints continues. This Beast is described in ways that remind John’s reader of Daniel’s chronology and Rome’s current dominion.
Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13:1-8
Look with John at those seven heads and ten horns with ten crowns and one blasphemous name. What a mess! The numbers, like the features are prophetically significant. Rome was famously known as “the city of seven hills.” On these heads (or hills) are ten horns. We recall from our last post that these horns are symbols of rulers. This interpretation is supported by these horns wearing crowns. We also identified these ten Roman emperors last time as Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitelius and Vespasian. These kings matter because they pertain to the most significant events of redemptive history in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There is another passage in John’s apocalypse which echoes this one and provides confirmation for our interpretation. In Revelation 17:1-18 John has a vision of a wicked and filthy harlot who at first is in league with the beast, but then is later destroyed by the beast. This harlot is Jerusalem. Her fortunes in the vision match those of the city in the first century A.D. She is the foremost persecutor of the saints as the book of Acts testifies, but the beast also ramps up its assault on the church, just as we see in Revelation 13:5-7. When we read portions of Revelation 17 we see clear parallels to Revelation 13. For example:
“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
Revelation 17:9-14
Just as in Daniel, where the three kings prior to Nero were considered, so here seven of the ten kings are considered. John is writing about the current and close at hand political situation. Five kings have fallen: Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius (whose name means the one who restrains).** Once the last is removed out of the way, Nero reigns as the sixth king during John’s day. This is the king referred to by the expression, “one is.” There’s a seventh king, Galba, who will step into reign for just a few months, “a short time.” The beast itself is seen altogether as another ruler unto itself but it, like the kings, have only destruction ahead, with no lasting kingdom. Only those who are with the Lamb will overcome!***
The blasphemous name worn by these ten kings of Rome has to do with the God-denying, Christ-defaming claims made by the Roman emperors who saw themselves as gods. This beast is Satanically empowered. The insanity and brutality of the emperors is legendary. They and the Roman mythos were venerated, however, because of their power. Worship of Rome was tied to the fear of Rome. No one could oppose it, stop it, say to it, “what are you doing?” That was the mentality. One could not help but worship Rome. You had to do as the Romans did, or they would do you in.
And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
Revelation 13:3-4
The beast with its ten horns and crowns is Imperial Rome. Imperial Rome came, went away and came back in short order. The Empire of Rome began with Julias Caesar, and almost ended with him. Seutonius, Tacitus and Josephus list Julius as the first emperor of Rome. Famously, he was assassinated and it looked like the end of the imperial experiment, but Augustus revived the empire under his leadership and he elevated it to unanticipated heights. This comeback became the “proof” of divine grace. It is key to this image that emperor worship, the imperial cult of Rome began in Augustus’ time and only grew stronger until it was mandated in the days of John. John makes it clear that those who worshipped Rome, those who engaged in emperor worship were actually worshipping Satan. Throwing incense to the emperor’s image and confessing, “Caesar is Lord” was no small thing. For Christians, this was not an option. They clung fiercely to their Savior and Sovereign, confessing to their own risk and ruin, “Jesus is Lord!”
Times were tough enough, but they were about to get worse. John makes it clear in Revelation 13:5-10, that there would be forty-two months of war against the saints who must endure. Clearly, one beast is bad enough, but we find in Revelation 13:11-17 there was another beast, a front man and a hitman for the first beast. This second beast, the land beast operates just like Babylon the Harlot from later visions. Finally in Revelation 13:18 we receive confirmation of the name of the Sea Beast, the name of the current emperor who was about to wage war against the saints. We will think more on these themes next time.
*Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece.
**2 Thessalonians 2:7 comments on the well-established political situation which would have been familiar to these citizens of the imperial city of Thessalonica. Claudius’ wife (and niece) Julia Agrippina was manipulating the throne, trying to arrange for her son, Nero (not Claudius’ son) to come to the throne. Claudius “the Restrainer” remained in the way, for now….
***In Daniel 7, Revelation 13-14, and 17 we have the same pattern as in Revelation 20. The Beast fails and Jesus reigns! The prophecies of the Son of Man ascending to reign forever (Daniel 7:9-14), are repeated and exposited throughout the New Testament.
