by Jerry Huerta
copyright 2021
Ninetieth-century
theologian Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg wrote the book
Christology of the Old Testament and
dedicated a chapter to the book of Joel that has relevance in interpreting the
Revelation. In this chapter Hengstenberg holds a parallel view with another
theologian, Karen H. Jobes, who maintains that the
judgments of God are continually active in this age, commencing with the Church
and reaching their consummate climax on the Day of the Lord. In the words
of Hengstenberg that consummate climax is conveyed as “the last and highest
manifestation” of that judgment,
The day of the Lord is several times spoken of as
being at hand, which may be explained from the circumstance, that God's
judgment upon His Church is a necessary effect of His justice, which never
rests, but always shows itself as active. When, therefore, its object—the sinful apostasy of the people—is already in
existence, its manifestation must also of necessity be expected; and although
not the last and highest manifestation, yet such an one as serves for a prelude
to it. The day of the Lord is, therefore, continually coming, is never absolutely
distant; and its being spoken of as at hand is a necessary consequence of the
saying, “Wheresover the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together,”—a
declaration founded upon the Divine nature, and therefore ever true.[1]
Professor at
Wheaton College, Karen H. Jobes, also affirms the same nature of God’s active
judgment in this age in her book 1 Peter,
Peter is saying that eschatological judgment, understood
as the sorting out of humanity, begins with God’s house, defined in 2:4–5 as those
who come to Christ and are built as living stones into a spiritual house. The
contrast in 4:17b is between “those who reject the gospel of God” and “us,” a
group in which Peter probably includes himself and all whom he considers to be
genuine Christians. Those who profess Christ are the first ones to be tested in
God’s judging action, and it occurs during their lives and throughout history.
The Great Tribulation of the final days immediately preceding the return of
Christ is the most severe form of this testing. The testing that persecution
because of Christ presents, wherever it occurs, is of one piece with the final
eschatological judgment, because persecution sorts out those who are truly
Christ’s from those who are not.[2]
The active
judgments portrayed in the Revelation, starting with the seven churches, are
confined to the mediation of Christ under the New Covenant, affirmed by the
illustrations in the book. In Revelation 1:13, Christ is “clothed with a
garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle,”
representing Christ’s mediation. This illustration was typified in the Aaronic
office in Leviticus 8:7 that affirms Christ’s mediation in the Revelation. The
seven candlesticks, instrumental in the typical mediation, also indicate
Christ’s antitypical mediation. Consequently, the Revelation represents
Christ’s antitypical mediation under the New Covenant typified by the Aaronic
ministry. One cannot interpret the Revelation as a judgment upon a people under
the Old Covenant. God used heathen nations to chastise the nation or dominion
of Israel under the Old Covenant, such as in the preterist and futurist’s
views. Nevertheless, the Church is not a nation with borders and a semblance of
dominion as was Israel in the past. While Covenantalists hold the Church as
Israel, its people abide in all nations. God’s use of the Romans to punish and scatter
the Judaeans in AD 70 accorded with Deuteronomy 28:64 has no bearing with the
Revelation.
While it is true that Hengstenberg
rejected the dominant Protestant historicism of his time, he inadvertently
lends credence to it in his interpretation of the judgments in Joel and the
Revelation. Hengstenberg held that the judgments by the locusts illustrated in
Joel and the Revelation fall upon the Church and not the heathen, which fails
to support his rejection of Protestant historicism. While the active judgment
of God portrayed in the Revelation has been constant through the seven churches
eras, Hengstenberg interpreted the locust judgment upon the covenant people as the
highest and last, which cannot be restricted to the time of John,
The prophet thereby indicates that he transfers the
past, in its individual definiteness, to the future, which bears a substantial
resemblance to it. What was then said of the plague of locusts especially, is
here applied to the calamity thereby prefigured. From among all the judgments
upon the Covenant-people (for these alone are spoken of), this judgment is the
highest and the last; and such the prophet could say, only if the whole sum of
divine judgments, up to their consummation, represented itself to his inner
vision under the image of the devastation by locusts.[3]
Hengstenberg’s
interpretation of the locusts in Joel and John promotes the historicists reading
of the Revelation and not the preterist or the futurist’s view.
From the historicist’s point of
view, Hengstenberg’s interpretation that God uses the locust army as the highest
and last judgment against his covenant people for their apostasy renders
the traditional view of the seven seals and trumpets untenable. The interpretations
that the seals represent long past phenomena do not agree with the portrayal of
the locusts as the highest and the last judgment upon God’s covenant people.
Joel declares the locusts have “the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so
shall they run” (Joel 2:4), which is precisely how the apocalyptic horsemen in
the Revelation are depicted,
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat
on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering,
and to conquer. (Revelation 6:2)
There are several
scriptural reasons why the apocalyptic horsemen represent God’s highest and
last judgment upon the covenant people and not past phenomena, as
traditionalists have thought. The nineteenth-century historicist Edward B.
Elliott, for instance, held the first rider to represent the prosperity and
triumph of the Roman Empire following the first advent of Christ. Moreover,
Elliott’s contemporary, H. Grattan Guinness, held the first seal representing
the depiction of the first century Church missionary exploits. However, a
critical analysis of the symbolism and narration does not support the
traditional interpretations. Firstly, horses as symbols are predominantly
associated with apostasy for reliance upon their illicit power (Deuteronomy
17:16; Isaiah 2:6–7, 30:15–17; Amos 2:15), which is indicative of the end day
covenant apostasy prophesied of in the New Testament (Matthew 5:13, 24:12; 2
Thessalonians 2:1–12; 1 Timothy 4:1–3; Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10). In
Jeremiah, “horsemen and bowmen” represent God’s agent Babylon in judging
Jerusalem because “as a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of
deceit: therefore, they are become great, and waxen rich” (Jeremiah 4:29,
5:27). We see this same condition met as an admonition to come out of mystery
Babylon, as the highest and final event, and from a historicist’s perception.
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. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
(Revelation 18:2-3)
Furthermore, 2
Timothy 4:8 maintains we must await Christ’s next advent to receive a crown,
using the exact word for crown we see in Revelation 6:2, which does not support
the interpretation of the first seal as a first advent phenomenon.
There is every indication
that the symbolism and narration of the seven seals are associated with
covenant apostasy in the final days. The association with apostasy is
predicated on the warnings in final churches eras. The fifth church era,
Sardis, conveys a major falling away brought on by the denunciation: “thou hast
a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). The precedent for this
judgment is in Amos: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for
silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes” (Amos 2:6). Sardis represents the
fourth transgression of the seven churches, as Smyrna cannot be counted, and
the punishment is that Christ comes as a thief,
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard,
and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on
thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
(Revelation 3:3)
The symbolism that
this judgment will come unexpectedly, likened unto to a thief, is also part of
the imagery of God’s locust army.
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run
upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the
windows like a thief. (Joel 2:9)
The warning of an
impending, unanticipated and final judgment is also supported in the
admonitions to the church in Philadelphia,
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; 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… 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. (Revelation 3:7-8,
10)
The key of David
is a reference to Isaiah 22:22 by which additional discovery can be garnered.
Commentators convey the chapter in Isaiah pertains to a typical example of
impending judgment at the hands of an invading army and the intervention of a
Messiah type individual that determines who is fit or not to enter the city,
signified by the open and shut door. Again, we see this imagery as the
narration shifts from the seven churches to the seven seals.
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. (Revelation 4:1)
The progressive
guideline “after this” and Christ’s trumpet-like voice gesturing to show us
“things which must be hereafter” convey a contiguous, linear narration and that
the phenomena that follow overlap the last era of the churches. John hears the
same voice heard in Revelation 1:10 that announces the “Day of the LORD,” the
voice that sounds like a trumpet. The sanctuary visions in Revelation 4–5
commences with the sound of the trumpet that represents the call to judgment
and the release of the apocalyptic four horsemen that parallels the first part
of Joel. Here we have the “hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” (Revelation 3:7-8, 10). As the
time of the apocalyptic four horsemen draws near its end in Joel, it invokes a
cry for mercy, a solemn assembly that parallels the fifth seal of Revelation
(Joel 2:15-17). God answers the cries and turns back his locust army, while the
Revelation conveys the next event as the sealing of his covenant people in
chapter 7. This sealing precludes any further harm from the locust conveyed in
the fifth trumpet of the Revelation. The forensic evidence that the apocalyptic
horsemen represent God’s highest and last judgment upon the covenant people far
outweighs the traditionalist view that the seals and trumpet are, for the most
part, past eschatological events.
The connection
between the phenomena related as the open door in Revelation 3:7-10, the throne
scene, and seven seals are overwhelming. The discrimination between them “which
say they are Jews, and are not” and the true Philadelphian is figurative and
not by blood, considering that the church is comprised of people of all
nations. The intent is a parting of those who are indeed Christ’s from those
who are not. Furthermore, this parting is accomplished by the trial related to
the church in Philadelphia. The seven seals convey the trial, insomuch as the
saints depicted in the fifth seal petition for relief from the trial at the
hands of the four horsemen of the previous seals. Considering the impending
judgments conveyed in the fifth and sixth seals, Historicist Jon Paulien
recognizes the significance of said framework as it pertains to the judgment
scene in Revelation 8:3–5 that introduces the sounding of the seven trumpets,
at the opening of the seventh seal,
The seven trumpets, like the churches and seals before
them, are preceded by a view of the heavenly sanctuary (8:2–6)....
Thus
the prayers of the saints in Revelation 8:3–5 are probably cries for
deliverance from the oppression visited by their enemies as depicted in the
seven seals...
Two basic ideas are portrayed in Revelation 8:3–5,
mediation and judgment....
This
relationship is, perhaps, best understood by examining the apparent connection
between the fifth seal. In the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11) John sees martyred souls
under “the” altar crying out “How long, O Lord, the Holy and True One, do you
not judge and avenge our blood upon those who live on the earth....
The
spiritual connection between the trumpets and the fifth seal is made in Rev
8:3–5 where incense from the golden altar is mingled with “the prayers of the
saints (tôn katoikountôn epi tês gês).”14 This scene symbolizes Christ’s
intercession for His saints. He responds to their prayers by casting His censer
to the earth, with frightful results.
This
connection between the altar of 6:9–11 and that of 8:3–5 indicates that the
seven trumpets are God’s response to the prayers of the saints for vengeance on
those who have persecuted and martyred them. The martyrs were anxious for the
judgment to begin but it was delayed until all the seals had been opened.[4]
Paulien conveys
the very judgment that is to “come upon all the world, to try them that dwell
upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10) when one accepts the linear narration from
Revelation 1 through 11. One cannot put the trail that is about to come upon
the whole earth behind the throne scene in Revelation 4-6 if the scene overlaps
the era of the final “church of the Laodiceans,” especially when one accepts
“that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
[1] Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, Vol.
1 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1871) 303.
[2] Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter,
(Baker Academic, 2005), 293.
[3] Hengstenberg, Christology of
the Old Testament, 314-315
[4] Jon Paulien, “Interpreting the
Seven Trumpets,” A Paper Prepared for the Daniel and Revelation Committee of
the General Conference of SDAs (March 5-9, 1986), 6-7, 11-13.
http://www.thebattleofarmageddon. com/7trumpets
pdf/Interpreting%20the%20Seven%20Trumpets2.pdf
This post is a postscript to the book above, which is available here.
