What follows is a broad outline only, and is merely intended as a sketch map; but notice that on the basis here offered,
i. the 'seals' and 'trumpets' series belong together as one block of teaching (two dimensions of judgment); and
ii. the Millennium passages in ch. 20 are not to be treated in isolation - they belong in a sevenfold series that begins at 19:11 and does not end until 21:8.

SEVEN FIRST WORDS OF GRACE

1. God Who was and is to come, and the Spirit
2. Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness
3. Jesus Christ the Firstborn of the Dead
4. Jesus Christ the Ruler of Kings on Earth
5. Jesus Christ the Redeemer
6. Jesus Christ the Returning One
7. God Who is the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty

 

"In the Spirit" 1:10

2: 1-7	1.	Ephesus	Love
2: 8 -11	2.	Smyrna	Faithfulness
2:12-17	3.	Pergamum	Truth
2:18-29	4.	Thyatira	Holiness
3: 1- 6	5.	Sardis	Life
3: 7-13	6.	Philadelphia	Victory
3:14-22	7.	Laodicea	Whole-heartedness

Each of the letters is in the same sevenfold format:

1.	A Greeting	"to the angel of the church that is in ..."
2.	A Reference to Christ	from the vision of ch. 1
3.	A Commendation	headed "I know ..." - Laodicea excepted
4.	A Condemnation	headed "But I have against you ..." - Smyrna and Philadelphia excepted
5.	A Warning	with a call to repentance
6.	An Exhortation	beginning, "He who has an ear ..."
7.	A Promise	"To him who conquers ..."

Note how the promises to the Conquerors in each church are recapitulated in chapters 20 - 22.

 

GOD THE CREATOR, CHRIST THE REDEEMER

Open Door 4:1, In the Spirit 4:2

TWO Series combined : Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets

The Seals : Judgments and mercies in the natural dimension;
The Trumpets : Judgments and mercies in the spiritual dimension.

The lightning, voices and thunder of 4:5, following the Seven Churches, become ...

Lightning, voices, thunder and an earthquake at 8:5

These are judgments from out of the earth.
Following the Seven Trumpets they then become ...

Lightning, voices, thunder, earthquake and heavy hail at 11:19

These are judgments from out of heaven.
When the final judgments - the Seven Bowls - have been described, these become ...

A great earthquake 16:18, and great hailstones 16:21.

As John says at 15:1, the Bowls signify God's end-time wrath;
the earlier seals and trumpets, therefore, are concerned with His rule before the end.

THE SEVEN SEALS - 6:1 - 8:5 Creation Powers Blighted:

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (appearing only as the first four seals are broken) appear 'At the cry of the four creatures' meaning 'from earth'. Note the effect of the remaining three seals below.
That they affect a quarter only means the judgments are under restraint.

1.	White Horse	War	Dominion
2.	Red Horse	Strife	Brotherhood
3.	Black Horse	Want	Resources
4.	Pale Horse	Death	Life
5.	Martyr Church	Persecution (6: 9-11)
6.	Earthquake	Earthly Insecurity	Order (6:12-17)

PARENTHESIS - Ch. 7
a. v.1- 8 - The Church on Earth
b. v.9-17 - The Church in Heaven

7.

Silence

to hear the prayer of the Church

which, mingled with incense, casts fire on earth

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS - 8:6 - 11:18 Life Support Blighted:
'At the blast of Angels' means theses judgments originate in heaven

Area affected

1.	Hail, fire, blood	Earth	Vegetation
2.	Fiery Mountain	Sea	Food and Trade
3.	Blazing Star	Rivers & fountains	Drink
4.	Sun, moon, stars	Sun, moon, stars	Light and Warmth

(one third only means judgment is still under restraint)

THREE WOES
Note: The Horsemen came forth at the cry of the four creatures
The Earthquakes happened at the cry of the martyrs
The Trumpets sounded at the prayers of the saints
The Woes came at the cry of a vulture!

5.	Woe I 9: 1 - 12: 5	Smoke, locusts from the Pit	Peace of mind
6.	Woe II 9:13 - 11:14 6	Cavalry from Euphrates	Safety of life

(Includes parenthesis, and earthquake of 11:13)

Note:
Judgments 1-4 affect men's conditions
Judgments 5-6 affect men's persons

PARENTHESIS - Ch. 10:1 - 11:13 (See Luke 21:12-19 )
a. ch. 10 - The Gospel of the Kingdom for the world
b. 11:1-13 - The Church's unconquerable witness to it

7.

Woe III

Loud voices (not silence this time!)

The Announcement of the End (I Cor. 15:24-25)

 

The end has been announced, but before John describes it under the figure of the Seven Bowls he gives us a retrospective overview of the spiritual warfare behind the scenes which is the real truth about the meaning of history, and how God keeps Covenant faithfulness in it. 

Seven "I saws ..."

1. The Beast from the Sea (13: 1-10 ) - the Principalities and Powers of this world
2. The Beast from the Earth (13:11-18) - called "The False Prophet" in 19:20. In modern parlance, the 'System' and the 'Ideology'which "gives breath to its image," 13:15.

Note on '666' : Just as the Church is symbolised by a number, 144,000 (= 12 x 12 x 1,000 - twelve squared for completeness, multiplied by 1,000 for abundance) so is False Religion also, 666. If 7 is the number for the fulness of truth (as it is all through Revelation), the number for the Lie that Deceives is one that falls short of it time and again ('so near and yet so far'). Similarly, note how the features of the two beasts are a ghastly parody of the Lamb.

3. The Lamb on Mt Zion with the Church on Earth (14: 1-5 ), 144,000

1 & 2 - The World - are in contrast with ...
3 - The Church - in the world but not of it.

4. Three Angels: Gospel, Judgment and Doom (14: 6-13 ) A comment on Acts 2:38-40! The Gospel challenges us to resist the seduction of the world. How men respond settles their destinies, vs. 9-11 or vs. 12-13. Michael Wilcock's summary of Visions 1 - 3 above is splendid - a parallelogram of forces :

The fate of Babylon, v.8, will be elaborated in ch.18.

5. Son of Man Harvests the Earth with His Angels (14:14-20 ) (Cf. Mark 13:26-27 and Matthew 13:37-43)

Another Three Angels vs.15, 17, 18: the Cry for Judgment is from heaven.
The first three issued warnings, these call for a verdict.

6. Seven Angels with Seven Plagues (15:1 )

For completeness in this Cosmic Conflict Section John merely notes here the final judgments he will spell out fully in ch.16.

7. The Song of Moses and the Lamb by the Sea of Glass (15:2-4 )

The blessedness of the redeemed in contrast to the anguish of the lost, noted in 15:1 is now to be elaborated in ch.16. In the language of Ex. 15, God has smitten Egypt and delivered Israel.

Open Temple of Tent of Witness = Tabernacle
Compare Ex. 40:34-35, Num. 1:51, Isa. 6:1-6

Seven Bowls

Note: The bowls are given to the angels by "one of the four living creatures" (= the powers God built into creation) 15:7, for these are the judgments that take place in the earth

1.	Foul Sores	Earth
2.	Blood of Death	Sea
3.	Rivers of blood ("their due")	Rivers, fountains
4.	Men scorched but do not repent	Sun
5.	The 'world' in darkness	Anguish
6.	Armageddon - the Demonic Swan Song	Euphrates

Note: I take v. 15 to signify the Rapture of the Saints, for they will be spared the judgments (I Thessalonians 5:1-11).

7.

The end of the earth and of man's life upon it

Voice "It is done."

Note the parallel between these Bowl judgments and the Trumpet judgments, indicated by the right hand column above; through all ages, God has given fair warning of what the end will be.

"In the Spirit" into the wilderness

(The second "Come, I will show you..." of three: 4:1, 17:3, 21:9)

Note: What follows is shown to John by one of the Bowl Angels (cf. 17:1 & 21:9) and is therefore simply an expansion of the Babylon theme in the Bowl Series; it is a flashback section. This is one of the clearest examples of the fact that events do not unfold sequentially in the book of Revelation: in 14:8 Babylon has fallen, in 16:19 God 'remembers her,' but in 17:18 she still has dominion over the kings of the earth!

Seven Utterances

1.	17:6b-14	The Woman and the Beast
2.	17:15-18	The Waters and the Horns	v. 17 is a crucial statement of the way evil serves (unwittingly) God's purpose ... as it did at the Cross
3.	18:1-3	The Sentence of Babylon	The Angel pronouncing it must have an authority and a splendour greater than hers
4.	18:4-20	The Judgment of Babylon	John probably drew this picture from the trade of the Port City of Ephesus
5.	18:21-24	The Death of Babylon	Cf. Jer. 51:63, Matt. 18:6
6.	19:1-5	Praise Song over Babylon's Doom
7.	19:6-10	God's Alternative to Babylon	Announcement of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (To be expanded as the 'Babylon' theme has just been expanded - in 21:9-22

"Words" v. 9 = The Seven Utterances
Note the telling contrast between Visions 5 and 6 :
Woman on Scarlet Beast the Mystery of Iniquity
Man on a White Horse the Mystery of God (10:7)

Open Heaven

Note: Apart from v. 15 ("He will shepherd them" from 2:7, 12:5 ... and Ps. 2:9?), there are no future tenses in this paragraph, nor is there any mention of a "last" battle. This is a vision, not only of what Christ will be, therefore, but of what He is and has always been.)

Seven "I saws ..."

1.	19:17-18	The Supper of God	the conquest of His earthly enemies
2.	19:19-2	The Final War	the conquest of His spiritual enemies

Note: v. 21 underlines the Biblical conviction that evil is so virulent that it can be mastered only by the Word of God (by the 'breath' or 'sword' of His mouth, II Thess. 2:8, Eph. 6:17)

3.

20:1-3

The Devil and Satan

i. Bound so as not to deceive the nationsin the Gospel Age ii. Loosed so as to deceive at the end

The binding of Satan was announced by Jesus in Mark 3:27; his "fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18) at the time of the Mission of the Seventy which was symbolic of the Gospel being taken to nations, seventy being reckoned to be the number of nations in the world, Genesis 10 (note v. 32); and... his casting out in John 12:31.
His binding here in v. 3 is plainly referred only to his power to deceive the nations; in other respects John knows very well that his power is great, e.g., 12:17.
For another example of the way the devil's power is overcome in one respect whilst rampant still in another, compare 12:11 (where the saints have conquered him) with 13:7 (where the Beast he inspires may conquer them!)
As to his loosing at the end time to deceive the nations again (v.3b, 7-8), compare II Thess. 2:3-12 (see also Rev. 11:7). Michael Wilcock says: "Every time we see a new convert added to the Church, Satan's inability to deceive the nations (i.e. the Gentiles) is proclaimed afresh." Col. 1:13. (Michael Wilcock, "I Saw Heaven Opened" I.V.P. p. 189)

20:4-10 4. The Church's Reign and the Devil's Doom

4.

20:4-10

The Church's Reign and the Devil's Doom

Martyrs in the book of Revelation are often symbolic of all Christians; cf. 12:11 with, e.g., Matt. 16:24-5, Gal. 2:20, Col. 3:3, (to indicate only a few of many similar references).
The reign of the saints with Christ = Eph. 2:6. (Compare Eph. 1:20 and Rev. 3:21)
The word 'again' in v.4b is not in the Greek, which simply reads 'came to life, ' in the sense of Eph. 2:5 etc.
The 1st Resurrection is the one we share with Christ when we are "made alive with Him," Eph. 2:5-6;
The 2nd Resurrection is that of all men to judgment, John 5:28-9
The 1,000 years may therefore be understood as a symbol of the Church Age in which the Church shares the Reign with Christ, in the sense of Matt. 16:18-19, and Satan is powerless to prevent the spread of the Gospel among the nations.

The Millennium:
Whether you fit together many of the prophetic Scriptures of Old and New Testaments to include the Millennium depends on the 'story-line' you begin with. The story-line Jesus Himself supplied ought surely to be the regulative one - Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21; nothing said by the Apostles in the epistles strains the Lord's story-line at any point.
(NB: Luke 27:22-37 must not be overlooked; that there will be more than one 'Day of the Son of Man' is, in prophetic studies, a curiously neglected statement of our Lord's. I believe the ''Seal' and ''Trumpet' judgments of Rev. 6-11 are an exposition of such 'Days'; more than one age before the last comes to harvest in history.)
Many Old Testament prophecies which seem capable of fulfilment only in an earthly setting (and so appear to require a millennial kingdom) may equally well be realised in the 'New Earth.' (A. Hoekema, "The Bible and the Future", Eerdmans, supplies a lucid presentation of this way of understanding them.)

5.	20:11	The Great White Throne	God is ALL (I Cor. 15:21b)
6.	20:12-15	The Last Judgment
7.	21:1-8	The New Heaven and the New Earth

Hints of the glory that awaits beyond 'The End' have already been given: 7:15-17, 11:15, 15:2-4, 19:6-9. Now John is free to enlarge on it.

"In the Spirit" to a great high mountain.

This is the 3rd "Come, I will show you ..."

Seven 'Features'

1.	21:12	Walls - gates, foundations	Security, Access, Strength, Purity
2.	21:16	Foursquare plan	Unity, Completeness
3.	21:22	No Temple	All life is "sacred"
4.	21:23	No sun or moon	Light not mediated
5.	23:1 5	River of water of life	Life
6.	23:2 6	Tree of Life	Sustenance
7.	23:4	Night is no more	Light

Like Vision V, this is shown to John by one of the Bowl Angels. We may assume that it is the seventh and last of them who cried, "It is done!" (16:17) and thereby proclaimed that the Temple was now open to entry in accordance with 15:8. (Note also 21:6)

The whole section 20:11 - 22:5 is a marvellous recapitulation (like the last movement of a great symphony) in which many themes introduced earlier are gathered together into a final comprehensive statement. Below are suggestions of them (it is not an exhaustive list).

Alpha and Omega - 1:8 : 21:6
Tree of Life - 2:7 : 22:2, 14
Second Death - 1:11 : 20:14
Morning Star - 2:28 : 22:16
Book of Life - 3:5 : 20:12, 15; 21:27
White Raiment - 3:5 : 3:18; 4:4; 7:9, 13; 22:14
New Jerusalem - 3:12 : 21:2
New Name - 3:12 : 14:1, 22:4

1.	22:6-7	Reassurance
2.	22:8-9	Worship
3.	22:10-13	Final Warning
4.	22:14-16	Promise
5.	22:17	Promise
6.	22:18-19	Admonition
7.	22:20-21	Faith and Benediction

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