Why Future Events?-Part 6
| By: Dr. Renald Showers; ©2000 |
| In this article Dr. Showers begins to look at the sealed scroll of Revelation 5. How does this scroll relate to future events? |
Contents
WHY FUTURE EVENTS? PART 6
In our series of articles entitled WHY FUTURE EVENTS? we have examined three things that God must do in order to fulfill His purpose for history before the history of this present earth ends. We noted that these three things are directly related to three tragic consequences of the first Adam defecting from God by joining Satan in his revolt against God.
This present article will begin to look at a critical item related to how God will accomplish the first of these necessary things in the future. That critical item is the sealed scroll of Revelation 5. How does that scroll relate to God crushing His enemy, Satan, and removing him and his evil kingdom rule from this earth?
The Setting Of The Sealed Scroll
In Revelation 4 and 5, where John began to be introduced to things that “must” take place in the future (4:1), the apostle saw Christ take a scroll from the hand of God the Father. The scroll was sealed with seven seals. Christ took the scroll so that He could break its seals, open it and read what was written inside (5:1-7).
The identification of the scroll is critical to an understanding of the future events revealed in Revelation 6-20. To discern that identification, we must observe several things emphasized in Revelation 4 and 5.
First, Revelation 4:11 emphasizes that God created “all things” that have been created, and that He created these things for His own benefit or purpose.
Second, God’s power or authority to rule all of creation is emphasized in two ways in chapters 4 and 5. First, God’s throne is mentioned 17 times. The word for throne indicates dominion or sovereignty.[1]
In the second way, the doxologies in 4:11 and 5:13 use two words to ascribe great power to God. One of those words (kratos – 5:13) sometimes “is designed to stress the power of God which none can withstand and which is sovereign over all”.[2] “It denotes the superior power of God to which the final victory will belong”.[3]
The other word (dunamis – 4:11) was used in statements that express “the hope and longing that God will demonstrate His power in a last great conflict, destroying His opponents and saving those who belong to Him. Thus, the righteous wait for God to reveal Himself in power and definitively to establish His dominion”.[4]
These two words portray a divine power that is active in history; a power that shapes and sets a goal for history in accordance with God’s sovereign will and purpose.[5]
Third, Revelation 5:9, 12 portrays Christ as the Redeemer. It emphasizes His work of redemption through His death and shed blood, and that He alone is worthy to take the scroll from God’s hand, break its seals, open and read it because of His work of redemption.
Fourth, Revelation 5:12-13 points out Christ’s worthiness as the Redeemer to exercise God’s ruling power. There the same power words for God’s rule noted earlier are ascribed to Him. In fact, in 5:13 one of those words is used jointly for God and Christ.
In light of these four things emphasized in the part of Revelation that introduces the sealed scroll, the following conclusion can be drawn: The identification of the sealed scroll must relate to the facts that God created all of creation for His own benefit and purpose, that He has the power or authority to rule all of creation, and that, as the Redeemer, Christ alone is worthy to take the scroll from God’s hand, break its seals, open it and read it and to exercise God’s ruling power.
The Background Of The Sealed Scroll
Bible teaches that, because God created the earth and everything in it, He is its owner and sovereign King (Exodus 19:5; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Psalm 24:1-2; 47:2-3, 7-9).
When God established His theocracy, He gave His earth to mankind to possess as an inheritance forever (Psalm 115:16; Genesis 1:26-28; Isaiah 24:5 [“the everlasting covenant”]). Mankind, however, was not to regard themselves as sole owner and authority of the earth. Since God was the ultimate owner, mankind was responsible to serve as His representative, administering His rule over the earth for His benefit in accord with His sovereign purpose and in obedience to His commands (Genesis 2:15-17). God was the landlord; mankind was the tenant possessor.
Since God was the owner, and mankind was only His tenant possessor, mankind did not have the right or authority to forfeit tenant possession or administration of God’s earth to anyone else (to a non-kinsman). Tragically mankind did forfeit tenant possession of their earth inheritance to Satan (a non-kinsman of mankind) by following his lead to rebel against God (Genesis 3). Satan thereby usurped tenant possession of the earth from its original tenant (mankind) and, therefore, from God, and he has exercised administrative control of the world system against God ever since.
Mankind’s loss of tenant possession inheritance of the earth to Satan is temporary. This is so because God has established a program of redemption to prevent this loss from being permanent. This program is based upon the work of a kinsman-redeemer (a relative of the same human kind as mankind). That Kinsman-Redeemer is the incarnate Jesus Christ.
As the Kinsman-Redeemer, Christ had to pay a redemption price in order to redeem mankind and their forfeited inheritance. The redemption price He paid was the shedding of His blood (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 5:9).
Although Christ paid the redemption price, He will not return the administration of the whole earth to Adam, the man who forfeited mankind’s inheritance. As the Kinsman-Redeemer and last Adam, Christ will keep the earth to administer it for God’s purposes (Revelation 11:15). He “shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one LORD” (Zechariah 14:9).
Conclusion Concerning Identification
In light of the things emphasized in Revelation 4 and 5 and the background of the sealed scroll, the sealed scroll of Revelation 5 can be identified as the deed of purchase for mankind’s tenant possession inheritance of the earth that was forfeited when mankind fell away from God. Just as scroll deeds of purchase were made when Jeremiah paid the redemption price to redeem His cousin’s tenant possession of land (Jeremiah 32:6-12), so a scroll deed of purchase was made when Christ paid the redemption price to redeem
mankind’s tenant possession of the earth by shedding His blood. Alfred Jenour wrote, “We regard it as a COVENANT DEED, the book in which were registered the terms of man’s redemption, and his restoration to the dominion of the earth and all those privileges which he had forfeited by transgression”.[6]
Jeremiah’s scrolls were legal evidence of his payment of the redemption price and, therefore, of his right of tenant possession of the land. The word translated “evidence” and “book” in Jeremiah 32:12 was used for important legal documents that were usually in scroll for.[7] In the same manner Christ’s scroll deed is legal evidence of His payment of the redemption price and, therefore, of His right of tenant possession of the earth.
The next article will examine other significant things related to the sealed scroll of Revelation 5.
NOTES
- ↑ William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 365.
- ↑ Wilhelm Michaelis, “kratos,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. III, p. 907.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 908.
- ↑ Walter Grundmann, “dunamis,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 295.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 292, 306.
- ↑ Rational Apocalypticum, Vol. I, p. 202.
- ↑ Richard D. Patterson, “seper,” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Vol. II, p. 633.
