Prayer & praise

I’m going to comment on Craig Blaising’s interpretation of Rev 20. To my knowledge, classical dispensationalism has a major commentary on Revelation (by Robert Thomas), but progressive dispensationalism does not. Buist Fanning is slated to write a commentary on Revelation, which may rectify that omission–although I don’t know if his editors will allow him the page count accorded Thomas. So, for now, Blaising will have to do:

Consistently through John’s visions, martyrs are those who lose their physical lives for Christ’s sake. They have a promise from the One who died and yet came to life in resurrection (ezesan in 2:8) that they will receive a crown of life (2:10) and that they will reign on the earth (5:10). These promises are fulfilled when at the end of the book they come to life (ezesan) and reign with Christ (20:4).

Nor can one establish the interpretation that the martyrs were simply alive spiritually in spite of being dead physically–an interpretation that eliminates the ingressive sense of ezesan (i.e., came to life, began to life [as would be the case in a resurrection])….The ingressive sense is the proper sense in the other uses of the word (2:8; 13:14), and they mean bodily resurrection. Even outside Revelation, ezesan or ezesan is never used to describe the life of a disembodied soul. On the contrary, it is used with an ingressive sense to denote resurrection ((cf. LXX of Ezk 37:10). John’s meaning is established by his use of the word “resurrection” (anastasis) to clarify “came to life” (ezesan). The word anastasis is never used in the Bible for the continuing existence of the physically dead…It always refers to the elimination of the condition of physical death through bodily resurrection.

The martyrs have been promised bodily resurrection (2:10) and a future reign with Christ (2:26-27; 3:21) on the earth. Their deaths by martyrdom, the spilling of their blood on the earth, has been a repeated theme up to this point. In their state of death they are never described as reigning or as seated on thrones, but as resting, waiting, and positioned under the altar until justice is done for them (6:9-10; 14:13). But in 20:4 their condition is changed. At the time that judgment comes on their enemies, they come to life and reign. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise and reward for which they have been waiting throughout the book.

D. Bock, ed. Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond (Zondervan 1999), 223-24.

i) I think Blaising is committing the totality transfer fallacy in his handling of ezesan. He treats the verb as if it were a technical term for bodily resurrection. But that imports a resurrection context into the meaning of a simple verb.

2:8 doubtless refers to the bodily resurrection of Christ. But that presupposes some background knowledge from the Gospels. If all we had to go by was Revelation, 2:8 wouldn’t be that specific.

ii) Apropos (i), his appeal to 13:14 undercuts his thesis. Since the Beast didn’t die, it wasn’t physically resurrected. The Beast was mortally wounded, but it didn’t succumb to its injuries due to miraculous healing.

iii) His appeal to Ezk 37:10 is treacherous, for that’s a highly imaginative depiction.

iv) Blaising is on slightly firmer ground with anastasis, which is a stock term for “resurrection.” Even so, it’s not clear to me that anastasis is a technical term for physical resurrection. In NT usage, it’s often qualified by an explanatory phrase, viz. “resurrection of/from the dead.” This suggests the word itself isn’t that specialized. Likewise, the Gospels of Luke and John to out of their way to emphasize the physicality of Christ’s resurrection. They don’t rely on the bare term “resurrection.”

v) In any case, we need to distinguish between resurrection imagery and a literal resurrection. This is not a historical narrative, like the Gospels or Acts. The Apocalypse is chockfull of picturesque metaphors. This is not descriptive, realistic language. And even dispensational scholars generally make allowance for figurative depictions in Revelation.

vi) Whether 5:10 is present or future is disputed due to variant readings.

vii) Amils get the “life of a disembodied soul,” not from the sense of isolated words like ezesan, but from the word-picture John draws of disembodied souls (6:9).

viii) 20:4 probably takes place in heaven rather than on earth. There the altar is the heavenly counterpart (6:9, 8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7) to the earthly altar of burnt offerings, where the blood of the sacrificial animal drenched the foot of the altar (e.g. Exod 29:12; Lev 4:7; 17:11). By analogy, the blood of the martyrs is like a libation that’s poured out at the base of the heavenly altar. That’s the sense in which the martyrs are “under” the altar. 

ix) How do the saints reign on earth (5:10)? How to they rule the nations (2:26-27; cf. 3:21).

I’d suggest they do so through the power of prayer:

8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

    and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

    from every tribe and language and people and nation,

10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

    and they shall reign on the earth.

(5:8-10)

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been (6:9-11)

2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake (8:3-4).

17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (22:17,20).

For exposition, see: R. Bauckham, “Prayer in the Book of Revelation, R. Longenecker, ed. Into God’s Presence (Eerdmans 2001), chap. 12.

Christians begin to reign with Christ in the here and now, although that will be consummated at the Second Coming:

4 Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (1:4-6).

Answered prayer is a major way Christians rule nations and exercise dominion on earth–beginning with first-generation Christians, to whom Revelation was initially directed. That’s especially apt in a persecution setting, as beleaguered Christians pray for divine intervention and preservation in a hostile world.