Revelation 15:1,2

Revelation 15:1,2

Rev 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

Rev 15:2            And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

Rev 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

He sees another sign in heaven, just as he saw the woman (12:1) and the dragon (12:3), this introduces a new section. This is a sign and therefore the seven bowls should not be taken literally, but that does not mean that they do not express something that is real, behind every symbol there is something more real than the symbol, for example the Lamb or the woman of 12:1 or the dragon of 12:3. One key question is when does this happen? The sixth bowl is closely allied with the last battle between Christ's enemies and the Lord, the day of the Lord and the Second Coming. The seventh bowl describes the destruction of all the cities, but mankind is still around then. However the viewpoint is that of heaven, the events could take place over the gospel age and therefore refer to God’s final judgement on individuals through 'natural' disaster, this is the idealist's view. The futurist would regard it as all happening in the future, some climactic eschatological event. Certainly the sixth and seventh bowls are future and so is probably the forth and fifth. The seven plagues have sometimes been compared to the warning given in

Lev 26:21.     ' Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.

Lev 26: 24,   then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

Lev 26: 28     then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

'If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve’ they ignored the warnings of the trumpets and so God multiplies their afflictions with the bowls. The seven plagues are God’s complete outpouring of wrath, the trumpets were warnings but these plagues are not warnings, they are final judgements.

Trumpets warn; bowls are poured out, (Hendriksen). The seventh bowl (Rev 16:17) marks the completion of God’s wrath. The similarity between the trumpets and bowls is another example of parallelism. Hendriksen offers the following arguments for parallelism.

i.   The close resemblance of the trumpets and the bowls.

ii.  Both visions of the trumpets and bowls end with the judgement scene

Rev. 11:18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth."

Rev. 16:17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"

iii. The vision of the bowls

Rev 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

 has an opening almost identical with that of the vision of the woman and dragon,

Rev 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

iv. The bowls are poured out on those who have the mark of the beast, this is very general historically.

v.  We have in the vision of the bowls

Rev. 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

a description of the same forces of evil as in the vision of the dragon

Rev. 12:3 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.

, the beast out of the sea

Rev. 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

 and the beast out of the earth

Rev. 13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

Rev 15:2       And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

It is the same Greek word translated here as ‘victorious’ (Gk. nikao) which is translated as ‘overpower’ in 11:7 when the beast overpowers the two witness and it is translated as ‘conquer’ in 13:7 when the beast makes war against the saints. Those victorious over the beast are those who did not worship the beast or his image or receive his mark, Rev 20:4, they endured patiently their persecution and remained faithful to Jesus (13:10). They are now in heaven, they are the martyrs (either through their testimony or death), they also overcame (nikao) the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their own lives so much as to shrink from death (12:11). They held harps as did the 144,000 from 14:1-3, it is likely therefore that both groups are the same, just as the 144,000 from 7:3 are the same as the great multitude of 7:9.