Martyrs rule because the Martyr rules: The good news of the Apocalypse

 

The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it. Jerome

Elliot Ritzema, 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

Jesus is the witness, the faithful and true one (cf. Rev.1:5). μάρτυς-witness again edges toward its later meaning of “someone who dies for his faith.” Jesus has been faithful to death, and proven that the Father raises the faithful dead. He is the model for martyrs like Antipas (“in place of the Father”), who died in a Christlike way, and he is also the model for the two witnesses (Rev.11:3) and the witnesses whose blood the harlot drinks.

 Jesus’s blood, like Abel’s and like that of later martyrs’, witnesses against those who kill the saints, crying out for vindication and justice.

Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 1, The International Theological Commentary on the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 200.

According to Rom. 13:12ff the epoch since the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the time of daylight whose brightness is shunned by the world of demons (σκότος), so that Christians are under obligation not only to keep themselves from the immoral influences of this world but also from all inner possibilities in this direction. For Christians are children of this age of light. That is to say, they share in its brightness, their whole existence being illumined by it (1 Th. 5:5, 8). In 2 Pt. 1:19  faith, which is propagated by the OT Word, is the brightness of day before which the powers of darkness cannot stand.

 (Gerhard Delling, “Ἡμέρα,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 953.)

‘The image of the Emperor was at that time the object of religious reverence; he was a deity on earth; and the worship paid to him was a real worship. It is a striking thought, that in those times (setting aside effete forms of religion)

 the only two genuine worships in the civilized world were the worship of a Tiberius or a Nero on the one hand, and the worship of Christ on the other.’ 

James Stuart Russell, The Parousia: A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord’s Second Coming (London: Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1878), 183.

Kahn argues that Western fear of religious infiltration of politics is not originally a fear of theocracy but a fear that Christianity would expose the impotence of the state. What threatens modern Western states is not simply an idea that the state poses a danger to religion, but equally the opposite idea that religion poses a threat to the state because it reveals the insubstantiality of the concerns of the state and the limits of the state’s power over the individual. The state’s power is ultimately the power to threaten life, but Christianity begins with a sacrificial act that undermines that threat by announcing life to be death, and true life to be beyond death.

Because of the martyrs, Roman law was unmasked as brute power and arbitrary will and, what was worse, ineffective power and will. The martyrs operated with an alternative theory of power according to which suffering marturia (witness) in union with the chief martus, Jesus, triumphed over force. They overcame because of their testimony and because they did not love life even to death Rev.12:11

Martyrs rule because the Martyr rules. That is the good news of the Apocalypse.

 The apocalyptic gospel is the news that a new world has come into being ruled by human rulers, not angels or beasts. Martyrs rule from heavenly thrones, but their realm is not confined to heaven. With Jesus, they have authority on earth, and this authority is not ineffably spiritual, but concretely political. Martyrs reshaped the politics of the city of man, and have been haunting political life since the late first century AD. They will do, until after the millennium comes to an end. 

Martyrs became the foundation of the church in the first century, standing firmly in the face of the beast and the harlot. Over the following centuries, the Roman world itself came to acknowledge the rule of the True and Faithful Martyr and honored the martyrs who followed him.

 Constantine, that lover of grand gestures, kissed the eye sockets of a blinded martyr at the opening of the Council of Nicaea. Even before Constantine appeared, though, there was already a city within the Roman civitas for whom martyrs were heroes, whose holidays were celebrations of martyr deaths. 

Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 2, The International Theological Commentary on the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 321,325.

When Judah/Jerusalem sleeps with the bestial nations, she gives birth to monsters. They may not seem monstrous. They may seem perfectly tame, cuddly even. Their monstrosity needs to be unmasked to be seen, but Revelation is a book of unveiling. And it trains us to look with suspicion on political religious powers that seduce us to worship. The book of unveiling trains us in a political hermeneutics of suspicion, to tear away the friendly masks of ideology and liberate slaves from the tyranny of beasts. 

Having one’s name written in the book of life (and being sealed on the forehead) stands in contrast to being written on by the name of the beast. We will explore the significance of this below, but the structure suggests that the mark of the beast is liturgical and not—or not merely—economic.

Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 2, The International Theological Commentary on the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 48,49

the Great Church in Constantinople was dedicated to the Holy Wisdom

This large cathedral was dedicated to Christ as the "wisdom of God," a phrase originating from 1 Corinthians 1:24, where the apostle Paul writes, “But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

By his patronage Constantine aligned the former church of the martyrs—persecuted, powerless, and pacifist—with the military might and earthly glory of the state. Christianity would never be the same again.

Soon the wars of the Empire became holy wars; church leaders looked for civil sanctions to back up their ecclesiastical judgments (the Council of Nicaea deposed Arius; Constantine exiled him); rulers began to convene synods of church leaders and to influence or intimidate their proceedings; the church hierarchies learned how to invoke state coercion against heretics and schismatics, and they came to control increasing property and wealth.

 Persecution soon resumed of Christians by Christians, of pagans by Christians, of Jews and Moslems by Christians. Yet if blame must be apportioned, much belongs not to Constantine but to those church leaders who not only, it seems, failed to teach him any better, but even, like Eusebius above all, constructed an extravagant theology of the Christian emperor that made him almost the earthly embodiment of divine power.

David F. Wright, “Controversial Constantine,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 27: Persecution in the Early Church (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1990).

To no man shall I return evil for evil, I shall pursue a man only for good; for with God resides the judgment of all the living, and He shall pay each man his recompense. 

My zeal shall not be tarnished by a spirit of wickedness, neither shall I lust for riches gained through violence. The multitude of evil men I shall not capture until the Day of Vengeance; yet my fury shall not abate from Men of the Pit, and I shall never be appeased until righteousness be established.

  I shall hold no angry grudge against those repenting of sin yet neither shall I love any who rebel against the Way; the smitten I shall not comfort until their walk be perfected. I shall give no refuge in my heart to Belial. (Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 133.)

The dragon represents a false priesthood, a false ladder to heaven, a false way to draw near to God. 

Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. ( Dan 7:7; Rev 13:1; 19:12) His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Rev. 12:3–4.

 Jordan (1999a) also associates the seven diadems with seven titles given to the dragon in Revelation: Wormwood (Rev.8:10–11), the poisoner of wells; Abaddon and Apollyon (Rev.9:11), “destroyer” of Hebrew and Greek worlds; Dragon (Rev.12:3), devourer of children; Serpent (Rev.12:9, 15), the seducer of the bride (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3); Satan (Rev.12:9), the deceitful accuser of the brothers; Devil (Rev.12:9,10), the deceitful slanderer. 

These names give us a rich typology of Satanic attack and tactics. As dragon, he seeks to incorporate the child into himself and make them members of a bestial communion. As Abaddon and Apollyon, Satan is the commander of a horde of demons that can be released to torment people (Revelation. 9). Most Satanic attacks are not so Stephen King. Most are banal.

 They are mostly verbal, social, involving manipulations of news and public opinion. 

As Wormwood, Satan poisons the temple springs of water, God’s Word and God’s food, so that it becomes deadly instead of life-giving and refreshing. As serpent, Satan attacks the church as the cunning and slick-spoken seducer, presenting himself as lover, tempting the bride to leave her first love and devote herself to new lovers and lovers. As Satan, he accuses like an unscrupulous prosecuting attorney. As Devil, he is a political columnist or a talk show host.

Satan is a personal being. If angels are real creatures, there is no reason to think that fallen angels are unreal. Satan is not a power but a conscious, willing, reasoning being who accuses, slanders, seduces, scours the landscape seeking someone to devour. Yet Satanic influences work through the institutions and structures of social life. These institutions and structures are not evil in themselves, but they can become perverse and demonic, controlled by demonic powers.

 Perverse traditions and customs, false ideologies and widespread prejudices, patterns of authority and the influence of symbols and “role models” all come under the heading of “principalities and powers.” As we shall see, Satan is cast from heaven, and can no longer accuse the saints before God (Rev.12:10). That is great good news. But he can create plenty of havoc by his seductions and devouring, by promoting slanders and by urging on accusations through Twitter and Facebook. For that the saints need to be forearmed. 

Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 2, The International Theological Commentary on the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 24–25.

The beast is more successful in opening his mouth against the saints. But he does not remain content with verbal attack, slander and innuendo and libel.

 The cold war of words eventually turns hot (Rev.13:7). Slander dehumanizes the saints, paints them as monsters. Then, of course, some brave knight has to go out to destroy the monsters. The beast is first leonine, roaring with his lion mouth. Then his bear feet trample for forty-two months, pouncing with his leopard agility and flying at the saints on his leopard wings. 

Those with ears hear and resist beast-worship. They worship God and take encouragement from the assurance that God avenges. By their worship and witness, their non-worship and nonparticipation, they carry on the Lamb’s lawsuit against the nations. Their words, lives, and especially deaths provide the decisive proof of the bestiality of the beast, and seals God’s case against both Jew and Gentile.

 Those who send the saints to captivity will go into captivity themselves. Those who slay saints with the sword will be put to the sword. God is a God of eye-for-eye justice, and he will vindicate and avenge his church (Rev.13:10). The just God is a God of comfort for everyone he loves and protects. To his enemies, he is terrifying as a lion and an eagle.

Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 2, The International Theological Commentary on the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 48,49,60,61.

‘Nahum’s message has become the prototype of the destruction of all evil—from that of Nineveh to Nazi Germany to the final end of all evil like that of Babylon in Revelation 18.’ To apply the message in Nahum to inhumane oppressors such as Hitler and Stalin may give more validity to the LORD’S violent judgments, but is it sound hermeneutics to ‘substitute “Assyria” with the oppressor of your choice’? 

It is very easy to demonize the enemy, especially when the enemy has provided the written and pictorial record to do so and particularly when doing so makes the bitter pill of God’s bloody vengeance in Nahum slightly easier to swallow. In attempting to demonstrate that God’s punishment fits the crime, there has, perhaps, been a tendency to rely too heavily on these exaggerated records.

 ‘Shall those whose eyes you have gouged out shed tears at your death? Shall those whose ears and nose you have cut off lament now? Shall the tongues you have chopped off recite your praises?’

Compare this with Nahum 3:19.

There is no healing for your wound;
your injury is fatal.
All who hear of your destruction
will clap their hands for joy.
Where can anyone be found
who has not suffered from your continual cruelty? NLT

Julie Woods, “The West as Nineveh: How Does Nahum’s Message of Judgement Apply to Today?,” Themelios 31, no. 1 (2005): 8-9,16. 

Job and Ecclesiastes wrestle with the same problem: why does God, if he is just, allow the wicked to prosper and inflict disaster on the innocent? 

It is all the same; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the face of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it? (Jb. 9:22–24; cf. Ec. 3:16–4:3; 9:1–3).

And the psalmists express their longing for vindication in the face of their suffering at the hands of evildoers (e.g. Psa. 43; 79; 94). If they did not maintain faith that somehow, some time God would demonstrate his justice by delivering them from suffering, then suffering would be compounded by utter despair. 

When people look for a God of judgment whilst they suffer at the hands of a Pharaoh, an Antiochus or a Hitler, it is not necessarily because they wish to gloat in vengeance over the fate of the wicked. It is because if God’s just dealings with mankind are not ultimately to be demonstrated, they would think it necessary to give up faith in God’s justice altogether. 

All people will be judged. The New Testament has a way of emphasizing this in its repeated insistence that God (or Christ) will judge ‘the living and the dead’ (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5; cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). A few passages speak of a ‘resurrection of the unjust’ as well as of the just (Jn. 5:29; Acts 24:15), as if to make it plain that God will ensure that no-one escapes this judgment, whether they are dead or alive, Christian or not Christian... (Stephen H. Travis, “The Problem of Judgment,” Themelios 11, no. 2 (1986): 52-53.) 

There in heaven’s throne room the one like unto a Son of Man was given “dominion, glory and a kingdom.” Two points are emphasized about Messiah’s kingdom. First, it is universal, consisting of “all the peoples, nations and men of every language.” Second, it is everlasting. The triple emphasis on the eternality of Messiah’s kingdom seems to rule out any notion that the Millennial kingdom is in view. Messiah’s kingdom shall never pass away because no flaw would be found in it. It is permanent because it is perfect.

That Christ entered into heavenly glory and received a kingdom at his ascension is the clear teaching of the New Testament. The manifestation of that kingdom on earth is the church of Christ. This comports well with the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:44 in which the kingdom of heaven would be established “in the days of those kings,” i.e., during the course of history, not at its close. (Smith, J. E. (1992). The Major Prophets (p. 581). Joplin, MO: College Press.)

Readers of Daniel 7 in the twenty-first century must analyze not only ancient text but also modern context. What is the nature of the political and economic systems in which we participate? Do they destroy and devour, seduce, and exploit, or do they enact justice for humankind and for the earth?

Dempsey, C. J., Sweeney, M. A., Franke, C. A., Murphy, K. J., Bailey, W. A., Carvalho, C. L., … Coggins, R. J. (2014). Themes and Perspectives in the Prophets: Truth, Tragedy, Trauma. In G. A. Yee, H. R. Page Jr., & M. J. M. Coomber (Eds.), The Old Testament and Apocrypha (p. 815). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

The cloud, as it falls, moves over your head, and then fair weather comes, along with eternal sunshine and glory. Can you not watch with Christ for an hour or two? Hold your ground for a few days? If you give in, you are lost forever; persevere only until the battle is won, and your enemy will never rise again.

 Tell faith to peer through the keyhole of the promise and report what it sees prepared for the one who overcomes; tell it to listen and say whether it can hear the shouts of crowned saints, like those dividing the spoils and receiving the reward for all their service and suffering on earth. And do you stand apart, afraid to wet your feet in those sufferings and temptations, which, like a small puddle, run between you and glory?

William Gurnall and John Campbell, The Christian in Complete Armour (London: Thomas Tegg, 1845), 104.