Our study of Revelation 11:1-13 is now complete. How can we apply what we’ve learned? How is this strange passage relevant to Christians living in the 21st century?
There’s a subset of Christians who are enamored with “the end times” and Biblical prophecy. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion in these circles, which are plagued by wildly speculative and erroneous interpretations. “End times” Christians (for lack of a better term) often speak of a future tribulation when there will be great turmoil on the earth. This then generates a second order discussion about what will happen to God’s people during this time of trial. Must the church endure the tribulation, or will they be “raptured” away and spared?
Our study of Revelation allows us to address these issues with confidence.
We’ve noted how the scroll is a central feature of John’s revelation. First seen in the right hand of God Almighty, the scroll was then taken by Jesus, the slaughtered lamb. By virtue of his faithful witness unto death, the lamb was worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. This document contains God’s secret plan for establishing his kingdom over all creation.
Christian teachers of the “end times” typically present a scenario whereby God’s people are evacuated to “heaven” while the earth is destroyed by a fiery conflagration. But this is not the story told by the book of Revelation. Rather, Revelation’s main theme is the coming kingdom of God. When Jesus returns, he will eradicate the evil which has corrupted God’s world. The people of God will then share Jesus’ reign over the rescued and redeemed creation.
How will this glorious ending come about? Revelation 11 reveals the contents of the scroll. God’s people are given the vital task of bearing witness to all the nations, warning them of God’s coming judgment and calling them to repentance. The agents of darkness, however, will not sit idly by while their sovereignty is threatened. The church will be viciously attacked by the beast. The followers of the Messiah will certainly suffer, and many will lose their lives on account of their fidelity to King Jesus.
But the crucial revelation of the scroll is this: the faithful witness of God’s people – even in the face of tribulation and martyrdom – will be the key factor in bringing people of every tribe, tongue and nation into God’s eternal kingdom.
It is not at all a coincidence that immediately after the story of the two witnesses, loud voices in heaven announce: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” We now know that this transfer of sovereignty will come about through the sacrificial witness of the church.
John provides us with a time frame for the great conflict between the cosmic forces of good and evil. The prophet Daniel prophesied that God’s people would suffer at the hands of the beast for “a time, two times and half a time” – a cryptic phrase which adds up to 3 1/2. Since the number seven symbolizes completion, 3 1/2 (half of seven) indicates an incomplete or limited period of time.
In the book of Revelation, John refers to this apocalyptic time period in different ways. Sometimes he directly employs Daniel’s phrase “a time, two times and half a time.” (12:14) Other times he converts the 3 1/2 years into 42 months or 1,260 days. (11:2,3) He also speaks of 3 1/2 days (11:9,11) in order to show how the death of the martyrs imitates the sacrifice of their Lord. But no matter what form he uses, John is still referring to the same reality.
It’s important to recognize that John does not intend to provide Christians with a detailed road map of the future, as if we might plot upcoming events on our calendar. Rather, John wants to emphasize two things. (1) This time of tribulation will not last forever; God will eventually destroy evil and consummate his kingdom. (2) The church has a crucial role to play in the coming of the kingdom.
The book of Revelation is a letter written to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia (Western Turkey) late in the 1st century. John prophesied that the time of tribulation would soon commence. Indeed, in some ways it had already begun. In the city of Pergamum, a man named Antipas had already lost his life on account of his loyalty to Jesus. And John himself had been banished to the Island of Patmos. John prophesied that the time of confrontation would not end until the return of the Messiah. This he depicts in Revelation 19, where Jesus rides forth upon a white steed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Therefore, we know that the time of conflict or tribulation stretches from the founding of the church until the return of Christ. This conclusion might be quite startling to many readers. But it’s crucial to recognize that what John is describing – the holy war between the cosmic forces of good and evil – is not merely some future event which applies to someone else. Rather, it’s a present reality! John’s message is an urgent call to faithfulness which the church has needed to hear throughout history.
Almighty God has given us a vital task: we must bear faithful witness to all people. The church’s role will require great courage and unwavering loyalty to Jesus. The early Christians were attacked and killed by the Roman Empire – the incarnation of the beast in the 1st century. We too will inevitably be assaulted by the beastly forces of wickedness which manifest themselves in every generation. Like our Lord, we must be prepared to lay down our lives for the sake of God’s kingdom.
This analysis inevitably raises questions in the minds of modern readers. How can we possible be in the midst of the tribulation? We who live in the United States have been largely shielded from a serious persecution. The mention of Christian martyrs conjures up images of men and women mauled by lions long ago in the Roman Colosseum. But we must not allow our sheltered existence to deceive us. In the past century, more Christians have perished on account of their allegiance to Jesus than in all the previous centuries combined.
In February of 2015, the world was horrified to witness the brutal execution of 21 Christian men in Libya by members of the Islamic State (ISIS). The victims were migrant construction workers who had been kidnapped weeks earlier. The murderers paraded their victims, clad in orange jumpsuits, onto a Mediterranean beach. There the men were given one final opportunity to spare their lives by renouncing Christ and converting to Islam. All steadfastly refused. On account of their faithfulness, they were promptly beheaded. The gruesome proceedings were recorded on a propaganda video which was subsequently released for the world to see.
20 of these martyrs were Coptic Christians from Egypt. But apparently one man, named Matthew Ayariga, was from Ghana. It seems that prior to his kidnapping, Matthew Ayariga was not a follower of Jesus. But this changed when he witnessed the courage and conviction of his fellow captives as they endured beatings and torture. In the moments before his death, the terrorists asked him “Do you reject Christ?” Matthew replied, “Their God is my God.”
Make no mistake, the cosmic war between the church and the beast is in full vigor. The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) has estimated that 80% of all worldwide religious discrimination is directed against Christians.
A common theme of “end times” Christianity is that God’s people will be raptured away from the world and so be spared of the tribulation. A sound study of the book of Revelation should dispense with this idea.
Revelation teaches us that the church must endure the tribulation, precisely because God’s people will play a key role in this conflict. The church’s faithful witness even unto death will be a crucial part of God’s victory. “They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Christians who proclaim the truth in the face of great suffering will overcome the lies and deceptions of Satan, the great red dragon. In this way, the nations will be brought into God’s eternal kingdom.
The early church father Tertullian wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” This is exactly the dynamic which played out in the life of Matthew Ayariga. The suffering of his fellow captives brought this young man into the kingdom. And the courage of the 21 martyrs in turn made a powerful impact around the world. I have no doubt that their sacrifice encouraged many others to give their loyalty to Jesus. May our courageous witness bear the same fruit.
