SEALS 5 AND 6
In
the previous article I discussed the breaking of seals 1 through 4. In the article on chapter 5, I described two
different ways of understanding the relationship of the seals to the book which
the Lamb received from the One seated on the throne. The seals could be markers or dividers that
divide the book into sections. When all
of the seals have been opened, then the book has been read. Alternatively, the seals could be guardians
to the contents of the entire book. The
seals would all have to be broken before the scroll could be unrolled and
read. This latter understanding is the
more natural, with the seals applied to the leading edge of the scroll.
In this understanding
of the seals and the scroll, all seven seals must be broken to read the
scroll. The seals are a preliminary
series of developments that lead up to the contents of the scroll. This understanding gives us some clue to the
meaning of the seals, but they do not give us absolute certainty. Quite frankly, I waver between two
interpretations:
·
All
or most of the events and developments take place between the first century
(John’s “present”) and the final days before the second coming.
·
The
events and developments all take place during the Tribulation period (the last
seven years before the second coming).
There could be some combination of these two
interpretations. We could consider that
the Tribulation period is a boundary that can be crossed, so some of the
developments may be throughout the time from the first century to the second
coming, with some of them definitely occurring during the Tribulation
period.
If we
consider that these are not singular events, but rather developments, then we
might consider that at least some of them would grow in intensity. Jesus spoke of the “beginning of the birth
pains” (Matthew 24:8) The following is the text of Matthew 24:4-8:
And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you
astray. For many will come in my name,
saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not
yet. For nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes
in various places. All these are but the
beginning of the birth pains.
This set of developments corresponds
fairly closely to Revelation 6:1-6. However,
the fourth seal (6:7-8) does not correspond to this description. The fourth seal gave Death and Hades power
over one-fourth of the earth to kill with “sword and with famine and with
pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”
That seems too extreme for the run-of-the-mill misery that Jesus
described in Matthew. So, the time frame
of the seals may stretch from John’s time through the church age and enter into
the Tribulation period, which is the last seven years before the Second
Coming. With this in mind, we examine
seals five and six.
Abbreviations: ESV = English Standard Version; ESVSB = ESV
Study Bible; NIV = New International Version; NIVSB = NIV Study Bible
Scripture quotations are from ESV
unless otherwise noted.
The fifth seal (6:9-11): The descriptions of the visions in
Revelation are so vivid that they capture our imagination and yet they defy our
logic. So, John describes a group of
“souls” of martyrs “under the altar.”
These souls cry out that their blood might be avenged. They are each give a white robe and told to
“rest” or “wait” a little longer until additional people are martyred.
The
“soul” (Greek psuche) is the
immaterial component of the person. The
word can simply mean “life” and can include the life that is in an animal. It can also be a generic term for a human
being. In this context, the first
meaning (immaterial component) applies.
These are people who have been slain.
One then assumes that they are in heaven, examples of Paul’s “away from
the body and at home with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8). Because they are dead and yet are conscious
and are visible in John’s vision, the assumption is that they are in heaven. Incidentally, this scene is Biblical evidence
(which is meager) for what the “intermediate state” is like. The intermediate state is the condition of a
person (in this case a saved person) in the time between physical death and the
resurrection of the body. These verses
give credence to the idea that the intermediate state is a condition of
conscious presence with the Lord.
Metzger states that the
“action shifts from earth to heaven…” (Metzger, 59). Only one commentator disagrees with this idea. Russell (see below under the Preterist
interpretation) believes that John is literally seeing the Temple in Jerusalem
(394). His interpretation—at least in
one part of his book—is that the vision of souls who were slain is a vision of
the actual slaying. However, the perfect
passive is used, indicating an action that has taken place and the effect of
the action is continued. The souls are present
because the people have already been slain.
Hence, his inference that the scene is on earth is not valid. Later, he seems to ignore his own conclusion
and understand the scene to be in heaven. (Russell, 396)
They
are “under the altar.” There are two
questions that are raised by this odd expression. First, we ask “what altar?” Then, we ask “why are they under it?” Ladd points out that there were two kinds of
altars in the Tabernacle/Temple worship.
One was an altar of incense and the other was an altar of sacrifice. (Ladd, 102-103) He and others (ESVSB and NIVSB) point out
that the death of these martyrs is associated with the altar, so this is best
to be understood as the altar of sacrifice.
When blood was collected from an animal that was slaughtered for
sacrifice, it was poured out at the base of the altar (for example, Leviticus
4:7). This description of the souls
“under the altar” is a vivid picture of these people’s lives being poured out
as a sacrifice unto God just as blood was poured out at the base of the altar. This does not replace or detract from the one
sufficient sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 9:11-14 and 10:1-18). Rather, these people have carried Paul’s
admonition to become living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) a step further and also
have conformed to the call of Jesus to take up their cross (Matthew 16:24-26).
Their
martyrdom came about because they had given the message of God and their
testimony concerning the gospel of Jesus.
These martyrs are not identified as being from any particular group or
of any particular time (Ladd, 104). We
could say, simply, they are the martyrs.
Throughout history, even to the present day, men and women and even
children have given their lives rather than deny the truth about Jesus. Jesus said:
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you
will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” (Matthew 24:9) Persecution is part of the deal of
discipleship. These martyrs represent
the martyrs of the church age in general.
The
martyrs cry out and ask “how long…?”
This is one of the themes found in the Psalms. (See Psalm 13:1-2, 35:17, 74:10, 89:46, etc.)
I have observed in myself that I can “take” something if I know it will be over
soon. I can be exposed to the cold or
the heat or I can experience hard work if I know it will be over in a short
while. It is far more difficult to
endure if I see no end in sight. These
martyrs have already experienced their suffering and now death has delivered
them from suffering. Nevertheless, they
find it difficult to enjoy that deliverance because they have not seen justice
to this point.
Two
commentators deal with this cry of the martyrs.
The issue is that this cry of the martyrs appears to be contrary to
admonitions not to exact vengeance. See
Romans 12:17-21. Rist comments: “This hope of persecuted Christians that God
will avenge them is at least understandable, even though it may be regarded as
far from commendable.” He refers then to
the examples of Stephen (Acts 7:54-60) and Jesus (Luke 23:34). (Rist, 414-415)
Ladd makes a distinction
between a prayer for vindication and a prayer for revenge. (Ladd, 104)
He cites Luke 18:1-8. Jesus’
parable of the “unjust judge” and the widow concludes with Jesus’ statement
that God will “vindicate” (Ladd’s rendering) the elect speedily. (Luke 18:8) NIV translates the verb as “get
justice.” The meaning of this word (ekdikeo) in other passages is generally
“avenge” (in four translations—NIV, ESV, King James, and New American Standard
Bible). In Revelation 19:2, God is
praised for He “has avenged on her [Babylon] the blood of his
servants.” The expression “avenged the blood” is the same, except for the
tense, as that used in Revelation 6:10.
Note the ethics of the situation:
·
The
martyrs are not taking vengeance into their own hands.
·
They
are appealing to God, who is “holy and true.”
Their appeal is not that God should abrogate His holiness, but should
uphold it through judgment on those who have killed the martyrs.
·
Further,
they are appealing to the God who is “true” and who will make a judgment based
on truth.
Ladd’s suggestion that they are
seeking “vindication” is not faithful to the text. The first definition of “vindicate” is to
“clear from criticism, blame, guilt, suspicion, etc.” Most of the other definitions of this word,
as this one does, focus on the person who has been accused or wronged rather
than on the one who has done the accusing or perpetrated the wrong. (Guralnik,
1585) On the other hand, the verb that is translated “avenge” (ekdikeo) focuses on the person who has done
the accusing or has perpetrated the wrong—on the persecutor.
As
a final word on this issue, especially to Rist, I ask: who are we to judge people who have given
their lives for the gospel? For Rist to
sniff that their prayer is “far from commendable” seems to me highly judgmental
and far removed from the reality of what it is to be persecuted. Note that the heavenly response to these
martyrs is to accept their cry for vengeance as valid.
The
martyrs are given a white robe, a symbol of blessedness (Ladd, 106, NIVSB). This seems to validate their cry for
vengeance.
The
martyrs are told to rest a little longer.
This implies that they have been resting for some time. They are to wait until the “number of” their
fellow martyrs is completed. The passage
at this point turns from the general to the specific. Whereas these martyrs represent all the
martyrs of the church age, the passage anticipates a group of martyrs at the
end of the age who will complete the number of the martyrs. Ladd does not believe that this is to be
taken in a rigid mathematical way: that
God has decreed a certain number of martyrs.
Rather,
it is simply saying there will be
some additional martyrdom. (Ladd, 106) We get the sense that we are pausing at
a critical juncture in history. The martyrs
of the church are honored and attended to and told to rest a little while
longer, because there is going to be some additional suffering.
This
implication of a brief period of time remaining leads one to believe that the
timing of this scene is in conjunction with the Tribulation period—the last
seven years before the Second Coming. By
that I mean this scene might be at the beginning or sometime into that seven
year period. Pentecost (see below)
places all of the seals during the Tribulation. He characterizes the fifth seal
as revealing “the fact of death among the saints of God because of their
faith…” (Pentecost, 360).
Just
as Seal 4 seems to “crank up the intensity” of the “beginning of birth pains”
(Matthew 24:8), so Seal 5 implies that, in the chronology of “what must take
place after this” (Revelation 4:1), we are entering into the last days. This would be, I believe, the beginning of
the Tribulation period.
The Sixth Seal (6:12-17): The description of events under this
seal takes about twice as much space as each of the first five seals. Moreover, the material that follows—the
entire seventh chapter—could be assigned to the sixth seal.
The
present passage, 6:12-17, can be divided into three portions, though they are
closely linked. Verses 6:12-14 describe
the “celestial signs” or “cosmic disturbances.”
Verses 6:15-16 describe the human reaction to these disturbances. The final verse provides an explanation for
entire passage: “[For] the great
day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Thus, the celestial signs are precursors to
the “great day,” or “Day of the Lord.”
PART A: THE CELESTIAL SIGNS
Many words are used to
pile up the terror of what perhaps is only a brief time, perhaps only a
day. A brief summary might be: heaven and earth are shaken. One is reminded of Hebrews 12:26-29:
At that time [at Mount Sinai] his voice shook the earth, but
now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also
the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things
that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things
that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship,
with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
There is also the following
description that Jesus gave in Matthew 24:29:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will
be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
Of these four events mentioned by
Jesus, two are almost exactly duplicated under the sixth seal—the sun being
darkened and the stars falling. The
moon’s not giving its light could correspond to a “blood moon” type eclipse,
which might correspond to the moon’s becoming like blood. The vanishing of the sky and the shaking of
the powers of the heavens might also correspond. There are three ways of interpreting these
descriptions (ESVSB).
1. One is to understand them as
figurative language for cataclysmic events among humans—war, political
upheaval, revolution, economic collapse, etc.
(See Metzger and Pentecost below.)
2. Another is to understand them as
literal description of some sort of horrific seismic and celestial events (for
example, the impact of an asteroid colliding with earth).
3. A third way of interpretation is some
combination of the first two—that is, celestial events combined with human
catastrophe. (See discussion of Ladd’s
view below.)
Metzger
considers that the cosmic convulsions that are described in Revelation 6:17ff
are symbolic/metaphorical pictures of “social and political upheaval”
(interpretation 1). He notes that the
use of these kinds of descriptions “to describe social and political upheaval
is well established in biblical prophecy (compare the picture of chaos in
Jeremiah 4:23-26, where the desolation caused by foreign invaders is
intended).” However, he admits that what
is “denoted by the details of this highly colorful language [in Revelation 6]
is difficult to determine.” (Metzger,
59-60)
Isaiah described the Day
of the Lord as a frightful day of judgment that included celestial signs:
Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
cruel, with
wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their
light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the
arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than
the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:9-12)
When one reads the entire 13th
and 14th chapters of Isaiah, it is clear that this description is of
the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians—which took place in 539
BC. (Although NIVSB interprets Isaiah
13-14 as primarily a prophecy of the downfall of Assyria, which used the city
of Babylon as a capital.) For a similar
description of cosmic events, see Isaiah 34, especially verse 4. When
one reads the Old Testament, it becomes obvious that God brought judgment upon
various proud empires throughout history.
It began at the Tower of Babel, continued with the plagues in Egypt and
the downfall of Assyria, and then continued through the rise and fall of the
empires described in Daniel 2. Often
poetic hyperbole that used cosmic signs were used in these Old Testament
descriptions of God’s judgment that brought catastrophe to great empires.
In
the divine judgment upon the ruthless empires of the Gentiles, God “put an end
to the pomp of the arrogant, and [laid] low the pompous pride of the ruthless.”
(Isaiah 13:11) As the people of the
earth anticipate the “great day” of God’s wrath (Revelation 6:17), they know
instinctively that the wealth and position can no longer protect them.
Ladd
considers that two considerations are operative in all of these descriptions
(in the Old Testament and Revelation) of cosmic disturbances. (Ladd, 108)
1. The language is “semi-poetic,” not to
be taken with “stark literalness.” Our
knowledge of the universe is certainly more advanced than that of the ancient
writers. We cannot conceive of stars
falling to the earth or of the sky rolling up like a scroll.
2. However, there is also Biblical
warrant for understanding that the physical universe and the biosphere share
with humanity the consequences of spiritual events. For example, the Fall manifested itself in
“thorns and thistles.” Also, the
creation is in a “bondage to corruption” and “has been groaning together” as it
awaits the “revealing of the sons of God.”
(Romans 8:19-22) So, the Day of
the Lord will have consequences in the physical world (interpretation 3).
PART B: THE HUMAN REACTION
It
should be noted that although these “celestial events” sound horrific, they are
not what creates fear in the people.
Rather, they understand these events as precursors to the “the great day
of their [the Father and the Lamb] wrath.” (Revelation 6:17) Metzger notes that “all classes of
society…make a futile attempt to escape God’s punishment for their oppression
and persecution of the Christians.” He
observes that Eastern society is represented together with Roman generals. (Metzger, 60)
This picture of society would correspond to the culture in which the
church was immersed in Asia Minor, since Rome would only be represented by its
army.
PART C: THE DAY OF THE LORD
Throughout
the Old Testament, celestial signs and cosmic disturbances are used to describe
the end of the age and approach to the “Day of the Lord.” Compare, for example, language similar to Revelation
6:15-17 in Isaiah 2:6-21. Joel also
writes of the Day of the Lord as follows:
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and
the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Joel 2:30-31
He also writes
Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the LORD is near
in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining. (Joel 3:14-15)
In Matthew 24, Jesus also described
the celestial events as occurring just before His Parousia (Matthew
24:29-31).
The term “Day of the
Lord” is a subject of great controversy, especially among Dispensationalists
and their opponents. Ladd believes that
it encompasses the “entire period that will end this age and inaugurate the age
to come.” (Ladd, 108) He equates all the various terms such as “day
of Christ,” “day of the Lord Jesus Christ,” “day of wrath,” etc. and does not
try to distinguish these. (Ladd,
108)
The Day of the Lord is
described in the Old Testament as both a time of judgment and a time of
blessing. For example, as a plague of
locusts approached, Joel uses the occasion to highlight the Day of the Lord:
Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my
holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble,
For the day of the
LORD is coming; it is near,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick
darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the
mountains
a great and
powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again
after them
through the years
of all generations. (Joel 2:1-2)
Amos warned people that they might be
foolish to long for the Day of the Lord:
Woe to you who desire the day of the
LORD!
Why would you have
the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and
not light,
as
if a man fled from a lion,
and
a bear met him,
or went into the house
and leaned his hand against the wall,
and
a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the
LORD darkness, and not light,
and
gloom with no brightness in it? (Amos
5:18-20)
The prophets countered these
gloom-and-doom predictions with promises of blessings:
In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and
the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And
he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone
who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of
Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site
of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining
of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from
the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. (Isaiah
4:2-6)
And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and the hills shall
flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from
the house of the LORD
and water the
Valley of Shittim. (Joel 3:18)
“Behold,
the days are coming,” declares the
LORD,
“when
the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of
grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills
shall flow with it.
I will restore the fortunes of my people
Israel,
and they
shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink
their wine,
and they shall make
gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant them on their land,
and they
shall never again be uprooted
out of the land
l that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. (Amos
9:13-15)
The people in the scene in Revelation
6:15-17 interpret the cosmic signs of 6:12-14 to be portents of the Day of the
Lord, and they understand that Day to be a day of wrath (6:17). In Revelation 19, three almost-simultaneous
events surround what could be understood as the Day of the Lord:
1. The powerful city Babylon is judged
for her persecution of the saints (19:2).
This is an answer to the cry of the martyrs in 6:10.
2. The wedding of the Lamb to His bride
and the great wedding supper takes place (19:7-9).
3. A rider comes from heaven on a white
horse and defeats the armies arrayed against him (which includes many of the
categories listed in 6:15) (19:11-21)
Thus, we see a mixture of blessing and judgment, of victory
and defeat in the Day of the Lord. No
doubt a number of other events and developments could be assigned to the Day of
the Lord. The point is that, with the
victory of Christ and the attendant blessings on His followers, there is the
defeat of the enemies of Christ and His followers.
ADDITIONAL INTERPRETATIVE SYSTEMS
Preterist interpretation of
Revelation 6:12-17: J. S. Russell consistently applies
one uniform principle of interpretation on all last-days Scripture. That principle is that these Scriptures all
refer to the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Since he had already applied this principle
to Matthew 24, he is careful to demonstrate parallels between Matthew 24 and
Revelation 6:12-17. He also refers to
accounts in Josephus of how various people hid in caves in Judea and in underground
tunnels and caves in Jerusalem and draws the connection between those incidents
and Revelation 6:15. So, Russell
considers this passage in Revelation is referring to the same set of events of
Matthew 24 and that both of them apply to the destruction of Jerusalem. (Russell, 397-401) Therefore, that event in AD 70 is the Day of the Lord. “It the expected consummation for which the
apostolic church was watching and waiting,--the day of judgment for the guilty
nation…and the day of redemption and reward for the people of God.” (Russell,
398, peculiar punctuation in original) I
have commented often about the fact that I believe that Russell’s theory is
inadequate. What I see consistently is
that Russell “reads into” the text any parallel that will bolster his
case. In this case, he uses the
incidents of hiding in caves in AD 70 as proof that 6:15 is referring to the
events of AD 70. However, this activity
was not typical of the vast majority of those in Judea nor in Jerusalem. Moreover, the description in 6:15 is not
really about people hiding in caves, but rather about people who are struck by
a realization of their enmity with God and the approaching wrath of God. The incidents that Josephus describes are
simply of people hiding out from the Romans.
The Dispensationalist understanding
of Revelation 6:12-17: Dwight Pentecost summarizes the
Dispensationalist understanding of the seals (Pentecost, 359-361):
·
The
seals are events or developments during the Tribulation period—the seven years
before the Second Coming.
·
They
are the “beginning of the unfolding of the judgment program of God.”
·
Once
each seal is opened, it may continue as a characteristic “throughout the period
when once unfolded.”
·
The
seals are “mainly divine judgments through human agencies.”
·
“The
sixth [seal] (6:12-17) speaks of the great convulsions that will shake the
whole earth…in which every authority and power loses its control over men and
anarchy reigns.”
In his argument that the seals all
take place during the Tribulation, Pentecost argues that the aorist tense of
the verb in 6:17 (“for the great day of their wrath has come”) means that God’s
wrath has already been (partially) expressed in the seals. His reasoning is that the Tribulation period
is a period of God’s wrath, and, since God’s wrath has come, the seals are
within the Tribulation period. (Pentecost, 183-184) I do not believe this argument is valid. First, the aorist tense does not necessarily
mean an event “which has taken place” (Pentecost, 184). There are a number of uses of the aorist
(Brooks and Winberry, 98-104). I believe
that, in this context, one can argue for “futuristic aorist.” This
is used “to indicate an event which has not in fact happened but which is so
certain to happen that it is depicted as though it had already happened…[The] emphasis
is on a strongly anticipated occurrence.”
It seems to me that the idea is that these people are hiding as they
recognize and anticipate the Day of the Lord, which is a day of God’s
wrath. Pentecost is interpreting the
celestial or cosmic disturbances as symbolic language for disruptions in human
lives. However, the parallel Scriptures,
such as Joel 2:30-31 and Matthew 24:29, indicate that the celestial events are
precursory signs before the Day of the Lord.
So, it seems that the sixth seal follows that pattern: celestial signs warn that the Day of the Lord
is about to take place.
SUMMARY
The fifth
and sixth seals in Revelation 6:9-17 appear to represent either a singular or a
pair of critical junctures in time. The
fifth seal indicates that additional people will die for the faith in the near
future from the occasion represented by the opening of the seal. The most likely time for this would be either
at the beginning of the Tribulation period or part way into that period. So, the martyrs “under the altar” are those
who have died for their witness throughout the church age, and the additional martyrs
will be those who die during the Tribulation period.
The sixth
seal depicts cosmic signs that are precursors to the Day of the Lord. The timing of this is best understood as late
in the Tribulation period shortly before the Second Coming. The signs in the earth and skies represent
the reverberations of the climax of the human condition lived out before
God. This is the final “groaning” of all
creation and the final “birth pain” before the great Day of the Lord when the
enemies God will experience His wrath and the friends of God will experience His blessing.
REFERENCES:
REFERENCES:
Brooks, James A. and Carlton L.
Winbery. Syntax of New Testament Greek.
Lanham, MD:
University
Press of America, 1979.
Crossway Bibles (2009-04-09). ESV
Study Bible. Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Guralnik, David B., ed. Webster’s
New World Dictionary. 2nd ed.
New York: Simon and
Schuster,
1986.
Ladd, George Eldon. A
Commentary on the Revelation of John.
Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans
Publ. Co., 1972.
Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking
the Code. Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville:
Abingdon
Press, 1993.
Rist, Martin. “The Revelation of St. John the Divine”
Exegesis. The Interpreter’s Bible. Vol.
XII.
Nolan
B. Harmon, Ed. New York: Abingdon Press, 1957.
Russell,
J. S. The Parousia, A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our
Lord’s
Second Coming.
(Google Internet Book)
London: Daldy, Isbister
&
Co., 1878.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publ., 2002