In our work, we show that Revelation chapters 1–11 align with the seven festivals of the Hebraic cultic calendar, focusing specifically on the antitypical Yom Teruah, or Feast of Trumpets.
We hold that the seven months between the Spring and Fall Festivals in the OT foreshadowed the seven church eras, and that the seven seals begin with the seventh church era, Laodicea, and the events of the seven trumpets begin with the seventh seal, confirmed in Rev. 8:1-6. Finally, the harvest commences with the seventh trumpet, confirmed in Rev. 11.15-18.
In this view, the seven seals
follow the two-part pattern of the Day of the Lord, which is also supported in
1 Peter 4:17.
1 Peter 4
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must
begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be
of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
The two-part pattern, or bifurcation, of the Day of the Lord is also supported by OT prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Furthermore, 1 Thessalonians 5:2–4, 2 Thessalonians 1:9-10, and 2 Peter 3:10-12 show that the Church should anticipate the Day of the Lord and not be overtaken like a thief if we are vigilant.
This evidence supports that the four horsemen and the opening seals represent judgment on God’s people, as made clear by the martyrs of the 5th seal. They want their blood avenged upon those who dwell on the earth, which refers to the phenomenon represented by the rider of the red horse, who takes peace from the earth so that they should slay one another.
They are told that the last of
their brethren must expire in the same manner and must wait a “little season”
before God judges those who shed their blood. At the opening of the seventh
seal, God begins to judge those who shed their blood, and the release of the
angels with the 7 trumpets reveals that the little season has passed. These
illustrations fit the two-part pattern of the Day of the Lord. Judgment begins
with God’s people and then shifts to those who refuse to obey him. Again, this
evidence supports the view that the seven seals represent the Day of the Lord
and that Revelation chapters 1-11 follow the pattern set forth by the seven
festivals in the Hebraic cultic calendar.
The interpretation of the four
horsemen as the Day of the Lord is also supported with the evidence that Sardis
is warned that Christ would come upon them as a thief if they do not repent,
which is idiomatic for the Day of the Lord. In 1 Thess 5:2 we read,
1 Thessalonians 5
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and
safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Paul connects the Day of the Lord to a phenomenon that comes as a thief upon those in darkness who fail to remain vigilant, supporting Christ’s delay rather than his imminence. Furthermore, the warning is to the Church in general and cannot be ascribed simply to one congregation, which supports the prophetic interpretation of the seven churches. In the prophetic interpretation, Sardis belongs to a period at the end of this age, as the Day of the Lord draws near. Furthermore, the trial before the next Church, Philadelphia, supports a linear prophetic narrative of the final three churches as this age draws to an end. In Revelation 3, starting in verse 7, we read,
Revelation 3
7 And to the angel of the church in
Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he
that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth,
and no man openeth.
8 I know thy
works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for
thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name…
10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
In support of the linear narration
of the seven churches, the antitypical Day of the Lord comes to fruition in the
Laodicean period, marked by the evidence that she is ignorant and separated
from God, which is the general condition of the people of God on the Day of the
Lord according to the OT. This condition of God’s people on the Day of the Lord
stems from scriptures like Amos 5:18-20, Joel 2:31, Zephaniah 1:14-15, Isaiah
13:6, and Ezekiel 30:3 that hold that the Day represents darkness, apathy,
spiritual ignorance, and separation from God. This is the condition of the
Church at the end, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 1 Timothy 4:1–3, 2 Timothy
4:3–4, Matthew 24:12, 2 Peter 2:1–2, and 2 Peter 3:3.
Further evidence that the Laodicean period is the period of judgment, the Day of the Lord, is supported by Daniel’s time of the end.
Daniel 12
4 But thou, O
Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased…
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the
words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Daniel prophesied that a time would come when knowledge and
travel would explode or increase, while at the same time the righteous would be
tried by the wicked doing wickedly, which relates to Christ’s delay in the NT.
As 2 Peter 3:3 prophesied, scoffers are common when Christ returns, which again
proves that the wicked do more wickedly in our days, coinciding with the
increase of knowledge and travel, according to what Daniel prophesied about the
time of the end.
In Jeremiah 4:19, the prophet
relays “the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” as a warning to flee from
“the noise of the horsemen and bowmen” in verse 29. Here we see a parallel with
the four horsemen in Revelation. Then in verse 30, he likens the people of
Jerusalem to a woman and declares, “And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou
do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with
ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt
thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.”
Jeremiah 4
19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very
heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast
heard, O my soul, the sound of the trump, the alarm of war…
29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the
horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks:
every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
30 And when thou art spoiled, what
wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest
thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in
vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they
will seek thy life.
In the typical historical account,
the Babylonians were the spoilers, and instead of showing atonement to prevent
the invasion, they relied on wealth, alliances with Egypt, and outward
appearances. After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, God turns against
Babylon to restore a remnant of his people to Jerusalem, following the pattern
of the Day of the Lord. In Jeremiah 51 we read how God ordained the typical
destruction of Babylon at the hands of the Persians.
Jeremiah 51
1 Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a
destroying wind…
25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying
mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch
out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee
a burnt mountain.
The pattern of the Day of the Lord
is obvious: God judges His own people first, then their enemies, and finally
restores a remnant of His people who repent.
This whole pattern is illustrated
in Christ's mediation to the Church in the apocalypse according to John. At the
sounding of a trumpet, the seven seals are opened, and the bowman and horsemen.
Christ’s voice sounds the trumpet, likened to Yom Teruah, the Feast of
Trumpets. In Rev 4:1 we read,
Revelation 4:
1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door
was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a
trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee
things which must be hereafter.
From a historicist’s perspective, at the sounding of
Christ’s trumpet-like voice, the things that must be hereafter would be the
phenomena of the four horsemen and the Day of the Lord, which judges God’s
people, according to the fifth seal. In Rev 6 we read,
Revelation 6
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I
saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and
for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every
one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little
season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be
killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Again, the little season ends upon
the sounding of the trumpets, since the judgments begin to fall on those who do
not obey the gospel, fulfilling the pattern of the Day of the Lord. The locusts
are commanded not to hurt those with the seal of God at the sounding of the
fifth trumpet. And at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, fire burns the third
part of men who refuse to repent of the worship of devils. They still hold to their idols of gold,
and silver, and brass, and stone, nor repent of their murders, sorceries, their
fornications, and their thefts, which affirms the little season has ended, and
God begins to avenge the blood of the martyrs.
In the apocalypse God warns his
people to come out of Babylon because she has become the habitation of devils,
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird. In Revelation 18 we read,
Revelation 18
1 And after these things I saw another
angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened
with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird…
4 And I heard another voice from heaven,
saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues.
Babylon is the enemy of God’s
people in the apocalypse, since she is drunk with the blood of the saints, and
with the blood of the martyrs in Christ. In Rev 17, we read,
Revelation 17
5 And upon her forehead was a name
written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw
her, I wondered with great admiration.
There is debate about who Babylon
is in the Apocalypse. In Jeremiah, Babylon is the ancient enemy of God’s people
that shed their blood. Still, under Christ’s mediation, the enemy of God’s
people is their own household, according to the gospels. In Matthew 10, we
read,
Matthew 10
34 Think not that I am come to send peace
on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in
law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his
own household.
Under the Old Covenant, God used
heathen nations to discipline His people, Israel, but under the New Covenant,
the Church isn’t tied to one nation—it’s spread worldwide. Consequently, the
four horsemen and Babylon can’t be interpreted as a heathen nation, and this
agrees with Matthew 10:36. And according to the New Testament, the day of the
Lord isn’t imminent until the church falls away and the enemy is within and
seated in the temple of God.
2 Thessalonians 2
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or
be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that
the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Historicists agree that, in this
age, God does not dwell in temples made by hands, according to Acts 7:48. In
this age, the congregation represents the temple of God, according to 1
Corinthians 3:16 and other sources. Paul’s warning to the Thessalonians is
that, as the Day of the Lord nears, the enemies of God's people will be in
their households.
Micah ch. 7 is the source of
Christ’s warning that the enemies of his Church would be those of their own
household. In Micah 7, we read,
Micah 7
1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have
gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no
cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.
2 The good man is perished out of the
earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood;
they hunt every man his brother with a net…
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the
daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother
in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
The gathering of the summer fruit,
the grapes, pertains to the final harvest and is idiomatic of the Day of the
Lord in the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement.
