Christ Is King!
CHRIST IS KING!
REVELATION 11:15-19
Here at last is the seventh trumpet: an acclamation that the kingdoms of the world are superseded by another kingdom, decisively and permanently.
We now reach the same point as 8:1. The apparent difference and even contradiction is due to the nature of symbolism. A symbol never claims to represent more than one aspect of the truth. Therefore two symbols may be used for the same event, which at first sight are incompatible. Silence (8:1) brought out the completion of Christ’s work in the church. Here we have the response of the heavenly powers to it.
“The kingdom of the world” (11:15): better is “the sovereignty of the world” (NEB) or “the kingship of the world” (JBP). God has always ruled the world, but the majority of humanity have been in revolt against him. Since God willed to control the animal creation through humanity (Genesis 1:26–2:8; Psalm 8:5-8; Hebrews 2:5-9), humanity’s revolt and fall mean that God’s rule in the animal world is only partially discernible. At this point we see Philippians 2:10f. about to go into effect.
If we are to understand the frequent prosperity and well-being of the wicked—there are many exceptions; while Stalin died in his bed as an old man, Mussolini died by violence and Hitler by his own hand—we must grasp that the sufferings of this present time are seldom God’s punishment, which awaits the final judgment. They are partly the sequel of broken law, but even more God’s effort to bring humanity to their senses. The sufferings that precede the coming of Christ, “the birth pangs of the Messiah” (Mark 13:8), which have been repeatedly foreshadowed in history, are intended to break humanity’s will to resist, even though they do not necessarily bring them to faith.
“Your wrath” (11:18): God’s wrath is essentially “the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Matthew 3:7); that is why the NEB renders well, “Thy day of retribution.” It is revealed in mankind’s sufferings and above all in their being “given up” (Romans 1:24,26,28), but all this is only a foretaste of what is to come, which finds its climax in the seven plagues (15:1). We should avoid replacing wrath by anger. There is normally an element of reaction to the wrong done to oneself in anger; in God’s wrath there is merely the reaction to the wrong done to others. The climax of God’s judgment is on “the destroyers of the earth” (11:18).
For the temple in heaven (11:19), see 15:5. Presumably we are to infer that the earthly tabernacle and temple are merely symbols of the heavenly reality seen in chapter 4.