Xchange - Discussion Notes
Week 2 – The Lamb on the Throne

The divine throne as an implicit criticism of the Roman Empire

1: The beginning and the end - Alpha and Omega

2: Worship

3: The Creator God

The Throne

The Lord's prayer begins with the words "Our Father, who art in heaven, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Richard Bauckham points out that the churches to whom John addresses the letter of Revelation, lived under the shadow of a powerful empire. It was a context in which the Father's name was not 'hallowed', his kingship was not awaited, and his will was not done. But in the fourth chapter of Revelation, John is exposed to a vision of how the world really looks. The Roman Empire is not the ultimate glory – but it is God himself who pulls the strings of history. In this vision of heaven, God's name is hallowed, his kingship is recognised and his will is done.

The Roman empire had a vision of how the world works, with the authority of Roma (the goddess of Rome) being ultimate. John's picture of the heavenly throne room is a direct challenge to the ultimate authority of Rome – showing instead how ultimate authority belongs to God himself, and only to God himself. Once God's ultimate authority is acknowledged, then it is inevitable that this authority will be played out in human history, that is, that his divine will 'be done on earth as it is in heaven'. This is why the rest of the book of Revelation hinges upon this vision of the throne room. It interprets all that is to follow. It comes after the so-called 'letters to the seven churches', which spell out the pressures and problems faced by the Christians who are addressed by John, and before the work of Christ that is described in Chapter 5. All that follows in Revelation unfolds and explains all that has happened in these first few chapters, just as these first few chapters show us how the rest of the book is to be interpreted.

It is worth mentioning that the heavenly throne room paints a picture that is rather different from pagan ideas about heaven, which have largely been adopted by well meaning Christians. The pagan view is that heaven is a place we go after death, in which there is no more suffering or strife, because God is in charge. But this has never been the image of heaven portrayed by Scripture. Far from being a place free of Strife, heaven is rather the place in which the ultimate reality of God's relationship with the earth is made clear. In Scripture there is war in heaven (Rev 12:7-9), Satan visits heaven (Job 1:6) and falls from heaven (Lk 10:18) . It is the place where human events find their ultimate origins and their ultimate outcomes – it is a place where ultimate realities are plain for all to see. At the end of Revelation, it is not Christians that go to live in a perfect place called heaven, but God himself relocates, and comes to live on a new earth, where his will is done. The idea of a new earth is much closer to what we traditionally understand as 'heaven'.

Revelation chapter 4 shows that it is from the throne room of heaven, not the marble palace of the Roman Emperor, that the course of world history is determined. The world is in the hands of God, not an Emperor who is worshipped as God. The imagery employed by John throughout the chapter are designed to emphasize this message:

1: The beginning and the end - Alpha & Omega

The phrase is one that is closely connected with other phrases throughout the book – the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The idea is one of transcendence. In light of the apparently ultimate authority of Rome, the idea being offered to these Asian Christians is that although Rome has an authority that may seem ultimate – in reality, it is God himself who grants authority to kings – He is the God of creation and the God who will bring all things to their ultimate fulfilment.

Now for John who wrote Revelation, these phrases are used not only of God, but of Christ – and it is important to remember that Christ is still understood at this stage to be a human role! The Christ is the one who is anointed to fulfil the purpose of God – it is God's King on earth. The Christ is an earthly King – and it is this anointed king – the crucified carpenter – who wields an authority that utterly relativises the supposed power of Rome's Empire.

The basic idea of this image is that the authority of God transcends the here and now. Both in terms of time and space. But this is not some supernatural version of authority that is just an amplified version of tyranny. Ironically, when the Emperor became Christian, the authority of the earthly emperor was sometimes viewed as a reflection of the ultimate authority wielded by God. But the images of Revelation 4 are deliberately not anthropomorphic – that is, they do not look anything like human versions of authority, but transcend them altogether. This is probably also why the One on the throne is not described, except by images of stone and light – there is no human image to be found in the one with ultimate authority. The worship of the one on the throne brings us to a second major theme of chapter 4.

2: Worship

Worship and Politics are inseparable, even if the modern world creates the impression that they not only can but should remain separate. But worship always has a political dimension, and politics always has a worshipping dimension. This was especially true of the Roman empire, where political authority was recognised by means of worship. (Jews were exempt from this, but Christians cast out of the synagogue were not). But the image of the 24 elders is a thoroughly political image. They are angelic beings, with authority over the earth – who nevertheless bow before the One upon the throne, because they know that all authority is derived from him.

Again, this is in deliberate contrast to the idolatry required by the Roman worshipping system. Worship, for Jews, was of the creator only – and to worship creatures instead of the one who made them is idolatrous. This is a major theme that will run throughout the entirety of the book – the worship of the beast is not the worship of a transcendent God – because the beast is merely a human projection into heaven. It is a creature – a beast – which attempts to displace the Creator God. (Because of this book and its reference to 'the Beast', we have come to understand a beast as another word for a monster – but strictly speaking, a beast is an animal – that is, a creature!) John draws our attention to the transcendence of God, and therefore draws us – along with the rest of the heavenly throne room – to worship the one at the Centre.

3: The Creator God

The creatures surrounding the throne – only one of which has a human image – but rather transcends notions of authority by showing that the One on the throne is worshipped not only by humans, but by all creatures – again, it is a critique of the Roman pretence to ultimate authority. In Revelation 4, it is the political authorities, the 24 elders, who bow down and recognise the ultimate authority of God – falling before him and declaring, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

As creator of the world, God does not sit safely on a throne – secure from all the difficulties and suffering faced in the present world – especially that faced by the Christians to whom this letter is addressed. Rather, in the next chapter we see a move that is crucially important for the theology of this book as a whole, and the fundamental message that it carries.

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