Intrepreting Revelation

I've been listening to various courses at Covenant Seminary. One of the courses, Hebrews to Revelation, provides a quick overview of Revelation that I find particularly hits the mark on getting what I think is the literal sense of Revelation. I am going to walk though a example of a passage in Revelation that Dr. Daniel Doriani gives in his class. You can read his lecture notes here, or listen to it here.

The passage is Revelation 9:1-9 (ESV):

¹ And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. ² He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ³ Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶ And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. ⁷ In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, ⁸ their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; ⁹ they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.

What are we to make of this passage? There are 4 basic approaches to reading Revelation:

(1) Preterism -- The passage occurred in sometime immediately after the book of Revelation was written.

(2) Futurism -- The passage occurs sometime in the future, particularly during the last 7 years during the great tribulation just before Christ's second coming. Many of the futurists (certainly not all) say the locusts are helicopters, with tailguns that are the stingers.

(3) Historicism -- The passage occurred sometime in the past history of the church. One group of historicists says this happened in during the Muslim invasion of Europe.

(4) Idealist -- The idealist says all of these are true.

Being the agreeable type of guy I am, I like position 4. I don't have to limit my options, and I don't have to particularly disagree with anyone. This is good for a whimpy guy like me. But, there is more to the idealist position that just being wishy-washy. If we look at the symbols used in this passage, we can see the intent of this passage.

One of the first things to note is that no one takes this passage fully literally. First of all a star falls from the sky to earth. A literal star that we see in the sky is larger than the earth. If a star was heading towards the earth, the earth would be fully destroyed.

The first symbol in this passage is a falling star. There are several passages which speak of a falling star:

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground,you who laid the nations low! (Isaiah 14:12, ESV)

¹⁸ And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:18-20 ESV)

We see in these passages that a star falling from heaven is Satan. So, it is possible to see that the star in the Revelation passage is a symbol for Satan falling.

Next, the star is given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. In the Bible the bottemless pit is hell. The New Testament supplies further information. The bottomless pit is the place in hell reserved for the demons. You can see this in Luke 8:31 where the demons begged Jesus not to be sent to the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit also shows up in Revelation 9:11, 20:1-3, and 17:18. Satan is cast to the bottomless pit.

From the bottomless pit there is smoke. Earlier in the Bible we see smoke coming from Sodom and Gomorrah. It also rose from Mt. Sinai. We can see that in Sodom and Gomorrah that the smoke resulted from God's judgement on that city. What about Mt. Sinai? There was an element of God's judgement there to. Only Moses could go upon that mountain. Anyone else who touched that moutain, even an animal, was to be stoned because God is holy and the people we not holy. The people could not apporach the mountian because, if they did, they would be judged. Therefore, smoke and darkness are symbols of God's judgement.

Locusts come out of the smoke and darkness. Locusts were part of the ten plagues in Exodus. They were agents of God's judgement in Egypt. Locusts are also found in Joel. They were associated with the punishment of for the evil the people committed.

The locusts were given power like the power of scorpions. In the Bible there is not much said about scorpions. It is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament. For now, let's move on. The locusts were told not to harm the grass, trees, plants. Further, they were not to harm those who had the seal of God on their foreheads. There are several passages that refer to seals, either directly or indirectly. Ephesians 1 says:

¹³In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14, ESV)

We are sealed with the Holy Spirit, who will guarantee our redemption. Passover in Exodus, while not exactly a seal, it had a mark placed on houses which protected the inhabitants. Cross references in many study Bibles point to Ezekiel 8-9. The Temple was defiled with idolatry and God brought judgement on the people, including the leaders. Those who lamented over the detestable things were given a mark on their foreheads and were protected. This provides understanding for Revelation 9:4. The people of God are protected from the judgement to come.

The locusts do not kill. For five months they torture people. Five months is not found elsewhere in the Bible, but locusts live for 5 months. Thus the maximum amount of punishment is the lifespan of the locusts. People will not die, but they will long for death. This punishment comes from the pit of hell, from Satan who brings misery on his own. God will spare his own people from this.

This kind of analysis is called "idealist exegesis." It looks at the symbols, sees who Scripture uses it elsewhere, using the principle of Scripture interpreting Scripture. It then notes that these ideals hold in every generation. Idealists aren't the only ones who attempt to do this. Furturists, Preterists, Historicists all attempt to do this. But the idealist asks after this analysis: does this hold for right after the book of Revelation was written, say 90-95 AD? Yes it does. Does it hold for the year 900 AD? Yes. For 1500? Yes again. It holds for all generations and is helpful for all in each generation. Revelation 1:3 (ESV) says:

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

There is a nearness of Revelation for each generation. The idealist approach, I think, holds the best interprative model for reading Revelation.