Soliloquy

When the Lamb opens the sixth seal the terrible wrath of the divine is revealed. The fifth seal was the self-revelation of the Lamb as judge and avenger. Now the revelation discloses the face of the avenger. It is a face seen through the imagery of nature and natural events at their worst. The face, which to look upon is sure death, is as terrible as an earthquake. It divides violently, separates, devastates. When the face that means death shines, it blocks out the sun completely, and life on earth is threatened with extinction. The moon, long associated with light and water, becomes blood, changing its own nature, and hence its relationship to earth. Stars, long fixed and dependable, fell in abundance as figs from a shaken tree. And the sky, home of the divine, vanished, proclaiming the withdrawal, the absence of the divine. When the redemptive divine withdraws, all that remains is destruction. The avenger does not avenge by appearing as it is. It avenges by withdrawing its own real identity of grace, and allowing the void to be filled with its contrast, a likeness of wrath. The avenger’s absence allows it to re-appear as the counter-divine, the natural, rather than the divine, and to shed abroad its wrath upon the human. All stations of social order have come under judgment. In the immediacy of wrath, the orders of society are levelled. Kings and slaves no longer inhabit palaces and hovels. All have become cave dwellers. From the wrath of the natural, they sought shelter within the natural. The return to the cave symbolizes a new beginning. They pray, “hide us from the face,” save us from the wrath of the Lamb. The “face” of the living one and the wrath of the Lamb are one and the same. The sixth seal reveals the divine as wrathful, while still providing a place of shelter, the cave, the crevice of rocks, from its face. Even in its wrathful aspect, the divine works its grace upon the human. When the divine withdraws, the heavens and the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth, all lose their center, that which has held them together in their rightful, orderly place, keeping chaos at bay. “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.”

When the Lamb opened the fifth seal John receives the revelation of the martyred souls abiding under the altar. Where does this image of an altar originate? So far, what has been revealed is what is taking place in the throne room. The living one sits on the throne and is surrounded by the heavenly hosts who render praise and worship. This seems to indicate that the altar is the throne on which the living one sits. Under the throne of God is revealed a gathering of souls, the souls of those who had died for their word and witness. The “One” upon the altar was also slain. The image that is revealed in this scene is one where that which is above the altar and that which is below the altar is sacrificed blood, life given for word and witness. This is a hopeful vision. John is being told that the church, the suffering and ultimately victorious church, is built upon the foundation of the human soul that has been sacrificed, just as the life of the divine has been sacrificed to redeem those souls. The divine sacrifice and the human sacrifice are both essential. The divine above, the human below, convey the image of a church that is circumscribed by the redemption that has already taken place. There is further indication of this in the reply of the divine to the cries of the souls for vindication. They are given the white robe, the mark of redemption and renewal, along with the encouragement that their wait will not be long. They are awaiting the souls of those who are to come. The church of the present and the church of the future are seen in this vision, and there is continuity and sameness in their condition. The opening of the fifth seal is a proclamation that present and future church are built on the solid foundation of divine and human sacrifice. That two-fold sacrifice comes together in one place, in one person, in the Lamb who is opening up the seal. The Lamb is revealing himself, the divine human, the incarnate one, who is the foundation, the future church. The opening of the fifth seal is a self-revelation of the divine in the person of the Lamb who was slain, in whom there is hope for those who suffer.

What are we to make of the opening of the seals? It is clear that the living one, who has the power to open and shut, is the one who opens the seals. The opening is a revelation. Something is seen that has not been seen before, something that has been hidden is now in the open, something that was not known is now known. But what is this “something?” Revelation, Biblical revelation, and especially the Apocalypse, is always about the divine. Revelation makes known the divine for the first time in each new age and generation. Revelation presents the divine as it is in the act of making itself present, and in whose presence, there is cleansing. From this perspective, the four horsemen make present the divine as a warrior against the demonic. The divine comes forth in four different manifestations to confront four different aspects of the demonic. In each instance the victory is already assured, the faithful are already “sealed” as in 7:3, 4, 9. The warfare is not human but divine, and this goes back to the incarnation, the sending forth of the divine to reclaim the human. The fifth and sixth seals reveal some of the consequences of the warfare for humans. Human being are caught in the middle, they are the stakes. The revelation of the divine makes clear that all creation, all nature, all human beings are involved, and that some will indeed suffer greatly. The unfolding narrative of the intersection of the divine story with the human story has already disclosed that death is experienced along the way, from Eden to now. That the divine in the fourth seal is identified as Death demonstrates that the living one must become other than itself in order to reclaim those who are disposed to Death. He becomes Death and so receives his dead, and welcomes them to a place whose eternity is not yet revealed, until the opening of the seventh seal. There the divine again becomes itself in the theophany, and is revealed as Present, that is, as Eternal. The horsemen are not to be feared. They are to be embraced as the otherness of the divine, God as the Totally Other, the awesome one, whose countenance is sure death. To die in the Presence of the divine is to inherit eternal life. This is what the Spirit says to the Churches!

The opening of the seven seals is described in chapter 6, and in chapter 8:1-5. The scene is still the throne room, and the Lamb is about to open the seals. First seal: white horse and rider carrying the bow. The rider wins the victory and receives a crown. Second seal: red horse and rider carrying a sword. The rider deprives the earth of peace, and people kill one another. Third seal: black horse and rider with scales of balance, brings famine, but oil and wine, symbols of healing, are spared. Fourth seal: pale horse and rider whose name is Death. Hades follows him. This is the only rider who is named, indicating that the fourth seal is a summary. The living one is at war with Death, and will conquer. Further evidence in given in the fifth seal: the souls of the dead are under the altar, under the protection of the divine, as they await the appointed time of fulfillment, with the promise that the time of suffering is short. The sixth seal reveals the wrath of the divine upon all creation. Sun, moon, stars, that is, the heavens, are assaulted. Earth, mountains, islands, and its inhabitants from all stations in life are in anguish and seek shelter from the “One” who is seated on the throne. Remember, John is seeing all of this “in the throne room.” Even the place that the divine occupies is in travail. When the Lamb open the seventh seal, there is silence in Heaven for a brief time. Calm is being restored to the place of the divine. Prayer is cast upon the earth, that is, the church again prays in the midst of its suffering. With the casting of prayer upon the earth, there is accompannied flashes of lightening, thunder and voices. These are all symbols of a theophany, meaning that the divine is again present upon the earth. The Living one is with his people. The hope of the world to come has arrived. The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!

The Apocalypse continues in chapter 5 the theocentric vision in the throne room. “One” seated on the throne has a scroll in his right hand. The scroll is sealed, and no one is found in heaven or on earth, worthy to open it. The one who sits at the right hand of the “One” is Jesus. He is himself the scroll, the Word that is sealed, hidden from the enemies of the church. The vision is given in four parts. In the first part, a strong angel, i.e., the voice of the divine, calls out, “who is worthy to open the scroll?” A rhetorical question, since the living one is the one who opens and shuts. Who is worthy to know Jesus? No one in heaven, earth, or hades. No one, living or dead, can unseal this secret word. In the second part of the vision , one of the elders reveals that the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has already conquered can open the scroll, i.e., the living one. John looks into the center of the throne room, and instead of seeing a Lion, sees a slain Lamb. The Lion returns as the Lamb. The Lamb has seven horns, which means it is omnipotent, and seven eyes, which means that it is omniscient. The living one, as the slain Lamb, has complete power and insight to unseal the scroll and understand it, because the Scroll, The Word, The Lion, and The Lamb are one and the same. The slain Lamb gives itself to the church as the Word, the Lamb reveals who he is as what he is. In the next scene, the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures, the totality of which is all creation and humanity, worship the Lamb with music and prayers and a new song. The New Song is itself a revealing of the Lamb as the “One” who has redeemed the world by his blood, and the redeemed shall rule over all the earth. Those who conquer shall have dominion. The final scene of the vision takes us back to the heart of the throne room where large multitudes join in singing the New Song, the content of which is now disclosed. Jesus has power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory and blessing. The New Song reveals that Jesus possesses all the characteristics of the divine, the “One” on the throne. Jesus is revealed in the Song as the everlasting power of God, for which he is given worship, praise and honor. To all this disclosure, the four living creatures shouted “Amen!”, that is, invoking an earlier Name of the divine, and consecrating Jesus as the one who now bears that title. The worship continued in the prostration of the elders. The message of the vision is that the churches can be confident that God will deliver them through the Blood of the Lamb, and this is the true hope of the church.

The letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea amounts to a christolgical consolidation that will propel the living one through the rest of the Apocalypse. He identifies himself as “The Amen,” which in Isaiah is the name of the divine. He is also the Origin of God’s creation, and because he is such, he is the faithful and true witness. The Amen and Origin, that is the Alpha, demands complete obedience, and does not get it. He addresses a church that so depends upon their own joy, wealth, insight, and materiality that they have come to believe that they are their own source and origin. They have separated the creation from the creator. They have distanced themselves from the Alpha, the Amen, and are not in sight of the Omega. The Amen called them to repentance, because of his love. He offers that love as the place of unity, where they may experience the Amen in total relationship with what it has created. He who in the last letter can open and close, now stands outside and knocks, waiting to be invited. The Amen as true and faithful, remains true and faithful to the faithless who has rejected him and has left him on the outside of their lives. Yet he remains true to what he is: he who is the Alpha, now on the outside, offers himself as the Omega, the rejoicing of the end of the ages, the banquet of redemption, the messianic banquet, hidden under the Eucharist. He offers them renewed unity, a return to Origins, to the Alpha, so that they may enjoy the Omega. Just as in last letter the church shares his throne, now he offers this church the same thing. Those who repent will share the throne of the Holy One, who already has sat there with his Father. This is the picture of the new Jerusalem: seated on a throne, the Father, the Son, and the Church. This is what the Spirit says to the Churches.

What the Spirit is saying to the churches has reached a new level, and the angel of the church in Philadelphia is the very first to hear it. The living one calls himself “the holy one, the true one,” the one holding the key of David. Immediately something completely new is said, and it can only be said by the one who has a new name and abides in a new Jerusalem. The living one now takes on the identity of the divine almighty of the Old Covenant, holy and true, able to call, assemble, and define those who belong to the New Covenant, the new Jerusalem, the Church. Holiness and Truth are now the defining characteristics of the Church, as compared to the synagogue of Satan, the assembly that lies. The Church is also characterized as having little power, but enough to remain faithful, so faithful that they have already received their crown. They have not denied the Name, as the last church did, and for having kept the Name, they will be spared trials. The members of the new community of faith, the Church, will be pillars in the new temple, those who hold up what has been delivered and received and lived out. They will have the Name of God forever, and this is the new Name of the living one. The Apocalypse shifts focus here. In the Old Covenant, the heathens will stream in and bow before the chosen. In the Apocalypse a new vision is given, the formerly chosen will come in and bow at the feet of the church. The significance is that one only bows at the feet of him who sits upon the throne! That is, the Church now shares the throne with the living one, who is at the same time the True One and the Holy One. With the exaltation of Jesus, the Church is also exalted. The community of faith is not only the transfigured, it is also the transcendent community, everlastingly inviting into its midst those who will celebrate with the True and Holy One.

Chapter 3 of the Apocalypse opens up with the letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. The living one designates himself as holding in his hands the spirits and stars, that is, the one who holds the church and its future in his hands. Noteworthy is the command to awaken, to remember, to repent and to be vigilant. Again, there is no sign of external persecution. Rather, this church is dying from the inside. The command to awaken means that the church has forgotten the danger that it faces, that its work is less than perfect. This is corroborated by the command to remember. The living one is reminding the church that it has received the message of redemption, and that at one time it heard that message and became alive through it. The fact that the church is dead, that is, that it has removed itself from the living presence of the divine, means that it has already been judged. I identify a different form of pretense from what I identified in the last two letters. Now the church pretends to be alive! “You have the name of being alive, but you are dead.” The Name they have is “Jesus,” the living one, but that which is redemptive has become judgment. As I have commented, pretense is not simply deceit. Pretense is to make oneself what one is not. It is the essence of idolatry. This church has died, and is dying because it is not living out its baptismal covenant, because they have not kept what they have received. The command to repent and to be vigilant is a demonstration that the divine is still engaged in the battle for the soul of the church, that is, to recover those who have soiled their garments, rejected their baptism. The divine is present because there are some who are still pure. The living one will remember those, and confess them before his father. The Book of Life is the promise of remembrance, the affirmation of belonging, the sure sign of the embrace of the almighty. To be in the Book of Life is to be inscribed upon the heart of the divine, to be already sharing in the eternity of the almighty. The Spirit says this to the churches: you know not the day or the hour, therefore, Watch!

The angel of the church in Thyatira must confront the essence of idolatry, this is what the Spirit says to the churches. The living one of the Apocalypse announces his self-designation: the Son of God. This is the only time that this title is used in Revelation, and with good reason. The Son of God comes with feet of burnished bronze (to wage war inside the church), and flaming eyes (to wage war inside the individual). He affirms the church for many good works, love, faith, endurance, even pointing out that they are getting better at what they are as a church. But as with the last letter, there is pretense on the inside. There is a self-designated prophetess and teacher, corrupting the church from the inside. Pretense is not simply deceit. To pretend to be what one is not is to remake oneself in one’s own image. This is to usurp the divine, to claim a divinity for oneself as creator. The claim here is that the pretender knows (gnosis) the deep things of the counter-God. The pretender claims knowledge that is not revealed by the one with flaming eyes who sees all things and knows all things. God must battle the counter-God. The self-designated divine, Son of God, battles the self-designated human (prophet and teacher). The essence of idolatry is to make God into what God is not, to depose the divine, and to stand in its place, the creation claiming Lordship over the creator. The Son of God is the only one who can stand in the place of God. For this reason the pretender and those who follow her, “her children,” must be destroyed. The divine offers a time of mercy, time for repentance, for the rejection of this idolatry. But again, the divine is itself rejected. The Son of God has flaming eyes “that search the mind and heart,” and promises power and dominion to those who conquer. The divine alone has the power to grant power, to elevate into position of rulership. The divine is self-giving, promising to give itself to them as the “morning star” (22:16) that will be the light of revelation. Only by this revelation can the counter-God be defeated. Idolatry cannot abide in the divine light of the morning star.