The Seventh Trumpet—Christ’s Reign Foreseen

11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” To begin with, let’s note that the sounding of the seventh trumpet is not the last trump, "this seventh trumpet is the last of this series of seven, but not the last absolutely, and is not to be confused with the “last trump” of 1 Co 15:52."¹

To continue, it should not be doubted that Christ is Lord over His creation and that His kingdom is now and always has been in power and authority. However, Paul refers to Satan as "the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4, NASB95). As a result, this passage refers to the time when the kingdom of the world (11:15) becomes visibly what in fact it actually is, the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ (11:15). In fact, it is a little difficult to imagine when the kingdom of the world (11:15) was not the kingdom of our Lord (11:15) except in an eschatological sense in which this is corrected at the end of the world. “…the Greek word for kingdom here does not mean a region or country ruled by a king but the power to rule as king: kingship, sovereignty, dominion. God and his Messiah have now taken complete control over the world. The underlying thought is that they have defeated Satan and his servants, who had been allowed to rule for a while.”²

11:16–17 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. We read a similar statement at the end of the fifth cycle in chapter 19, "Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns” (Revelation 19:6, NASB95). This sounds very much like our current text. Again, this might, to some, look like an end of the world picture; the kingdom has now come in all its visibility; but it is not. Having died, been resurrected, ascended to heaven and defeated His enemy and murderers, Christ has begun a universal reign. This ascendancy of Christ will continue until God’s purposes are fully achieved. Those purposes are clarified in Isaiah 9.

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9, NASB95)

Notice that the phrase, who are and who were (11:17), is not concluded by the phrase “and who is to come” found in Revelation 1:4, 8, and 4:8. Why? Because that which was then future, His judgement coming, has now arrived, prophecy has become history; He has come.

11:18 And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth [land]. The nations were enraged (11:18) at the Jews because God put it in their heart to carry out His purpose for Judaism. For this reason they gathered in the Land to destroy Judaism. We are reminded in this passage of Psalm 2,

Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed….

Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury…

You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. (Psalm 2:1–2, 5, 9, NASB95)

The Romans rage against Jerusalem, and the Jews and the Romans rage against Christ, both having put Him to death. But His judgement has come and He now breaks them "with the rod of iron," and He will "dash them in pieces."

The reference, the time came for the dead to be judged (11:18), is not of the final judgement at the resurrection as this passage is at an intermediate point in the story in Revelation. This has reference to those that died as martyrs mentioned in Revelation 6:9–11. This judgement would refer to "the time in which they will be avenged or vindicated."³ Judgement can refer to both condemnation and acquittal. Here it refers to acquittal. They were judged by man, found guilty, and put to death. They are now judged by God, found innocent, and rewarded for their faithfulness. But while they are acquitted, their persecutors are "destroyed."

As God destroyed Babylon for destroying Judea in earlier years, so God will devastate the Romans, those who destroy the earth [land] (11:18), for demolishing Jerusalem in the first century. In their efforts to destroy Judea, in a very spectacular way they destroyed the land itself.

And now the Romans, although they were greatly distressed in getting together their materials, raised their banks in one-and-twenty days, after they had cut down all the trees that were in the country that adjoined to the city, and that for ninety furlongs round about, as I have already related. (6) And, truly, the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing; for those places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become a desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down: (7) nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change; (8) for the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste; nor, if anyone that had known the place before, had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again; but though he were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it notwithstanding.⁴

God forbade Israel to destroy the land of a besieged enemy.

When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? (Deuteronomy 20:19, NASB95)

Rome violated this law and was to be judged for it.

11:19 And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm. The temporary residence of the ark on earth has ended and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple (11:19) which is now in heaven.

The Temple on earth has lost what status it had. It never did contain the ark, which was lost when Nebuchadrezzar destroyed Solomon’s Temple. It was a confident hope of some apocalyptic writers that in the Great day it would be restored; but St. John holds out no hope of any such restoration. God’s covenanted presence is no longer the City of David; it is a universal covenant now “in Heaven“, visible to all mankind, and available for all. The earthly, local, temple is to be destroyed.⁵

~

[Bass, R. E. (2004). Back to the Future: a study in the book of Revelation (pp. 277–280). Living Hope Press.]

¹Jerome H. Smith, editor, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, electronic edition (Nashville, TN: Logos Library System, Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1997).

²Robert G. Bratcher, Rev. 11:15.

³Moses Stuart, vol. II, 242.

⁴Flavius Josephus, Wars, 6:1:5.

⁵Philip Carrington, 193.