Framework:
Section 4A.d -
Options, advantages and disadvantages

There is only one occasion in this spatio-temporal analysis when allocation of verses to a space is uncertain: the appearance of the Lamb on Mt Zion plus the harvests (14:1-20) can be either biblical allegories (Option 1) or physical-spiritual events (Option 2) or there is a spatial transition at 14:6 (Option 3).  This ambiguity confirms Gilbertson description of 14:1-5 as spatially and temporally ambiguous (Gilbertson, 2003: 102-103, 132).  In all three options, the harvests cannot occur in the same space as the bowls[1] and the Lamb on Mt Zion (14:1) and the one-like-a-son–of-man on a cloud (14:14) appear on earth after the seventh trumpet’s blast and the sanctuary opens (post-11:15-19) – but onto which of the two possible earths?

 

The spatio-temporal choice is illustrated by the fall of Babylon (a city-harlot).  Babylon can only fall once in each space and each reference must refer to the same moment in time, i.e. 14:8 (announcement), 16:17-21 (bowl seven description), 18:1-3 (announcement) and 19:1-4 (celebration) are contemporaneous (time-parallel 10, Figure 4).  Both 14:8  and 16:17-21 refer to Babylon’s fall on earth and the contexts of the passages suggest it is unlikely that 14:8 is a ‘proleptic’ (anticiparory) announcement of 16:17-21 (contra Smalley, 2005: 363).  The interpretation in this study suggests that if 14:1-20 or 14:6-20 (i.e. 14:8) occurs on the physical-spiritual earth then the bowls (i.e. 16:17-21) are in the biblical space, or vice versa.

 

If Babylon is a physical-spiritual city-harlot then her fall in this space is recorded as part of the bowl torments (16:2-21), and 14:1-20 is a biblical allegory (Option 1).  If Babylon and the bowls are biblical allegories (16:2-21), then the Lamb, the three angels and the harvests (14:1-20) appear on the physical-spiritual earth (Option 2).  If the appearance of the Lamb (14:1-5) and the bowls (16:2-21) are biblical references, then the three angels and the harvests are physical-spiritual events (14:6-20) (Option 3).  Figure 6 illustrates Option 3 because, if an alternative option had to be chosen, this hybrid is probably the better choice.  

 

Option 1 (Figures 4-5) is the preferred option here because 12:1-13:18 is certainly part of the biblical story-line and 14:1-20 is its climax.  Advantages and disadvantages of each option are described below.

 

[1] Having harvests/ bowls in the same time-line is a linear model so the time-parallels disappear, thus creating temporal paradoxes.

a) Option 1 - 14:1-20 reflects the biblical narrative (Figures 4 and 5 in the Macrostructure Model)

The first option is chosen in this study and 14:1-20 reflects the biblical narrative.  The physical-spiritual events are the bowls (16:2-21) including Babylon’s fall during the seventh bowl (16:17-21), evil armies gathering (19:17-19) and the Great Battle (19:21).  This is the simplest structure and it is chosen in this study because 14:1-20 is the climax of the messianic war (Bauckham, 1993a: 94) and all the earthly spaces in chapters 12-14 in this war are in the same (biblical) dimension.


Having 14:1-20 as part of the biblical earthly space maintains the biblical ambiguity about the Parousia – whether Christ appears as the Lamb on Mt Zion or in the cloud(s) with power and great glory (Lk. 21:25-28, Mt. 24:29-31, Mk. 13:24-27 and Acts 1:9-11) or as the Rider, ready for battle (like Hebrew Bible expectations of the Day of God’s Wrath).[1]  This option treats the two visionary earths (physical-spiritual and biblical) as different dimensions within the same cosmic space (material earth) in Revelation and they actively interact with each other.  The strong links between the two earthly spaces and the Gospel narrative (see Framework 2C.b) are demonstrated by the Lamb appearing on Mt Zion (14:1-5) while the fifth bowl empties (16:10-11; time-parallel 8b).  John is told that Christ will come at an unknown time ‘like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake’ (16:15a) so it is entirely possible, in the proposed macrostructure and in reality, that Christ will come after the bowls.  In that case, the Lamb and the three angels (14:1-11, on the biblical earth) and ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! …’ (18:1-3, at the below-the-earth boundary) are part of time-parallel 11, but the celebration at Babylon’s fall in heaven (19:1-4) remains in time-parallel 10.  The bowls on the physical-spiritual earth and time-parallels 1-9 and 12-18 are otherwise unchanged.  The literary spiral (16:12-21:9) and the extent of the Day of God’s Wrath (15:1-19:21; time-parallels 8 to 15) are also unchanged in this scenario.


Accepting that the Warrior in 1:10-20 is the Rider who treads the wine-press in 19:15 then they are most likely in the same earthly space.  The Warrior stands among the lamp-stands (1:12-2:1) and the two witnesses are lamp-stands (11:4) and this indicates they occur in the same space – which in this study is the physical-spiritual earth – and when the Rider appears, he will come to the same earthly dimension.  This interpretation is supported by Richard Bauckham’s description that the witnesses are ‘prophetic witness’ rather than ‘strictly allegorical’ (Bauckham 1993b: 274-275).


John makes no distinction between the two earthly dimensions, other than characters in 12:1-14:20 are described in a more allegorical way than in the other earthly chapters.  In Framework 1.B.d, it is suggested that events on the physical-spiritual earth are more tangible than the more allegorical events on the biblical earth.  This is illustrated by the detailed, tangible descriptions of the trauma associated with the bowls (16:2-21), especially the fall of Babylon (16:17-21), and the Great Battle and its preparations on the physical-spiritual earth (19:17-21).  Whereas the Lamb on Mt Zion, the three angels’ announcements and harvests (14:1-20) are more described in more abstract, allegorical terms on the biblical earth, as are descriptions of the celestial mother and satan’s two beasts in chapters 12 and 13.  Allusions to the Hebrew Bible may be more numerous and clearer in the biblical time-line than in the physical-spiritual time-line, for example: Ez. 1:1-3:15, Dan.7:13-14 and Dan. 10:5-12:13 (Framework 1B.a) and the celestial mother on earth (Framework 1B.c), but this is a subject for further investigation.

 

Disadvantages of this option are that John’s anticipation of Christ coming with the clouds (1:7), as expected in Acts 1:9-11, is fulfilled in a less overtly physical or spiritual way, and more as a biblical reference in this option (see Framework 4).  A second disadvantage is that the required endurance by the faithful (14:12-13) and the Grain Harvest (14:14-16) are biblical allegories that do not have separate physical-spiritual counterparts – their counterpart on earth is the ongoing plea for heaven to rejoice at the fall of Babylon and the continuing lament by the unfaithful victims of her fall (18:4-24) (Figures 4 and 5).  These disadvantages may be disguised advantages because they illustrate how important it is to read the two dramas/ earthly spaces together.  The two earths are different perceptions of the same story and the one is not a recapitulation of the other.


[1] For example, Zech. 14:1-5: ‘See, a day is coming for the Lord (…) For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, (…destruction, exile …) Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations (…) On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives (… earthquake …). Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.’

b) Option 2 - 14:1-20 occurs on the physical-spiritual earth

The second option (14:1-20 occurs on the physical-spiritual earth) is structurally valid and it creates a spatial transition at 13:18/ 14:1, and the bowls follow the beasts on the biblical earth (13:18/ 16:2).  Time-parallel 8 in this option consists of the bowls being prepared in heaven, and then bowls 1 to 5 empty onto the biblical earth while the Lamb appears on Mt Zion on the physical-spiritual earth.

 

Advantages of this option are that it matches John’s expectation of Christ coming with the cloud (1:7), as anticipated in Acts 1:9-11.  The Parousia or his second ‘coming’ (14:1, 14:14, 19:11) and the harvests are in the physical-spiritual space and both the Gospel harvest motif [1]  and the winepress/ battle motif [2] are well established in the Hebrew Bible as eschatological symbols.  In this spatio-temporal analysis, the harvests cannot occur in the same space as the bowls [3] and the bowls empty onto the biblical earth, so this option endorses Richard Bauckham’s observation that the bowls are introduced in terms which only relate to the dragon and his followers (Bauckham, 1993b: 16).

 

Disadvantages of this option are that this interpretation implies that the Parousia will occur in three parts on the physical-spiritual earth: Christ appearing as the Lamb on Mt Zion (14:1), Christ as one-like-a-son–of-man appearing on a cloud (14:14) and Christ appearing as the Rider treading the wine-press (14:19-20, 19:15).  This option emphasises events on the physical-spiritual earth because it has all the notable events associated with the appearances of Christ but it undermines the definition of the biblical earth as reflecting the biblical narrative from Creation to the New Order. In the biblical space, the Parousia is only seen as Christ’s appearance as the Rider during the Great Battle (19:21, Figure 5 in the Macrostructure Model).  Gospel eschatological references to the Parousia are less apparent in this time-line because the bowls emphasise the hedonistic lifestyles of those who will see Christ’s appearance, and not the appearance of Christ on the cloud.

 

In this option, the biblical earth witnesses the ‘marking’ of satan’s followers (13:16-18) and the tangible torments of the bowls, including detailed descriptions of the fall of Babylon and (later) the Great Battle (16:2-17:18, 18:4-24, 19:17-19, 19:21) – so there is a switch at 13:18/ 16:2 from the more abstract allegories of chapters 12 and 13 to more tangible earthly descriptions which are like those described in 6:2-11:19 (see Framework 1.B.d).  This breaks up the flow of the Messianic war (12:1-14:20, Bauckham, 1993a: 94) and why this might happen is uncertain.

 

This study suggests that to have a spatial transition at 13:18/ 14:1 or at 14:6/ 14:7 accentuates the difference between the earthly spaces, rather than interpreting them together as the ‘whole’ earth.   Heaven directs events and the physical-spiritual time-line describes what happens on earth and the biblical time-line describes why events happen, i.e. satan and his beasts have been ‘behind’ or influencing earthly activities and wars since Creation (12:1-13:18, Framework 1A.d), until the presence of the Lamb changes everything (14:1).

 

[1] Harvest parables: Mt. 13:1-43, Mk. 4:1-34, Lk. 8:4-18, Jn. 4:35-38.

[2] For example, Is. 63:1-6, Lam.1:15; harvest and winepress: Joel 3:13.

[3] Having harvests/ bowls in the same time-line is a linear model so the time-parallels disappear, thus creating temporal paradoxes.

c) Option 3 - the hybrid option (a spatial transition at 14:6, Figure 6) 

The third option is structurally valid and Figure 6 illustrates this hybrid arrangement in which a spatial transition occurs at 14:6, so 14:1-5 may be a biblical allegory but 14:6-20 is on the physical-spiritual earth.  This option is a modification of Option 2, with its advantages and disadvantages, but it has the additional benefit that the Lamb appearing on Mt Zion on the biblical earth (14:1-5) establishes Christ’s anticipated Gospel/ Acts appearance in that space.  For this reason, Figure 6 is included to represent this spatio-temporal structural alternative.

 

Disadvantages of this option are that the Lamb appears before the bowls empty, not while the fifth bowl empties, so the two earths have less interaction with each other than in the other two options.  This is because time-parallel 8 consists of the bowls being prepared in heaven and bowls 1 to 5 being emptied onto earth after the Lamb appears on Mt Zion.  The bowls are emptied within a short time, because people are still experiencing the pains and sores of the first four bowls when the fifth one is emptying (16:10-11) but how long the Lamb stays on Mt Zion (biblical earth) before he appears on a cloud (14:14, physical-spiritual earth) is unknown.