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Discussion Notes
Week 4 – Prophecy
(Read Zechariah 4:1-14)
1 – The Spirit
of Prophecy
2 – The Two Witnesses
3 – The Parody
of Prophecy
After reading the first five chapters of
Revelation, the question that is raised, and which it takes
the rest of the book to answer, runs along these lines: given
that the Empire is all-powerful, given that the sheer power
of the Beast is unstoppable, how can God's will "be done
on earth as it is in heaven"? The answer to that question
comes in the form of prophecy, both to and through the church
– a dual theme. It is highly likely that John had in
mind a passage from Zechariah the prophet (Zec 4:1-14), the
crucial phrase being an answer to the question raised by chapters
1-5: "Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit"
How is the Spirit to achieve victory over
the beast? The answer is prophecy! Prophecy, inspired by the
Spirit, is an important theme that runs throughout Revelation.
It has two dimensions (Jesus' word to the church, and the
church as mediator of God's word to the world). It is always
related to the work of the Holy Spirit, although the Spirit
is described in distinctive ways by John.
1: The Spirit of Prophecy
For John, prophecy is always inspired by
the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is described in two different
ways. Firstly, there are references to the seven spirits (1:4,
3:1,4:5, 5:5-6). This phrase does refer to the Holy Spirit,
but to a specific dimension of the Spirit's role. It is of
the Spirit's prophetic inspiration through the church, to
the world.
The seven spirits equate to the seven lampstands
(which stand for the churches) – the Holy Spirit active
in each church, making active the victory of the Lamb through
the prophecy of the churches. Playing the numbers game with
a biblical text, always seems like a questionable exercise,
but for John's Revelation it is not, because he seems deliberately
to make such hints:
There are 4 references to the 7 spirits
(total 28)
There are 7 references to 4fold descriptions
of the earth (total 28)
The number 4 denotes the world/earth, the
number 7 denotes completeness, so it is significant that there
are also 28 references to the Lamb!
The victory of the Lamb (in seeing God's
will done on earth) is made effective through the prophecy
of the church in the power of the Spirit! That is –
"not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit".
The second set of references to the Spirit
simply describe the Spirit in the singular, and it is here
that the Spirit is simply addressing the church that is charged
with its own prophetic task. But the Spirit in the singular
is always the carrier of God's word to the church. Hence,
each of the messages to the seven churches concludes with
the words, 'he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the church." Apart from the seven times
that the Spirit is described in this way, there are seven
further references to the Spirit, all which concern the Spirit's
enabling John to receive the vision of the book as a whole.
2: The Two Witnesses
The two witnesses are often regarded as two
Christian superheroes who will arrive at the end of time.
Again, if Revelation is read in context, with an ear open
to Zechariah 4, then these witnesses are connected with the
sevenfold Spirit. There are two of them, simply because in
a Jewish legal dispute – in order for a testimony to
be valid it had to be confirmed by two witnesses.
The two witnesses symbolise the church's
witness to the world in the power of the Spirit! They are
identified both with the Lampstands (if one reads Zec 4) and
with the Holy Spirit. It is God's word, as a witness to Jesus,
in the power of the Spirit mediated through the churches –
each individual church. The two witnesses, therefore stand
for the church in maintaining a faithful witness – and
it is through these two that the victory of the Lamb is to
be recognised. The witnesses are the churches when churches
are places where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven!
The witnesses then are not the ideal Christian
– they are the church as whole. Not every Christian
is a prophet, but it is the church as a whole that has a prophetic
role. Each Christian is not a lampstand – only a church
can be a lampstand
3: The Parody of Prophecy
The false prophet (and the second beast in
16:13 and 19:20) is a parody of the two witnesses:
His prophetic activity relates to the whole
world (13:12 -17, 16:13-14), as does that of the two witnesses.
He performs signs ( 13:13-14, 19:20), as they do (11:6). He
makes the world worship the beats (13:12), which is tantamount
to worshipping the dragon (13:4), just as the career of the
two witnesses brings the world to worship God (11:13), including
no doubt the worship of Jesus, which in Revelation is tantamount
to the worship of God. Whereas the two witnesses do all this
by the power of truth, the false prophet does it by deceit
( 19:20) and coercion (13:15-17). But the very killings with
which he enforces his lies are the Christian martyrdoms which
manifest the power of truth. This is how Revelation understands
the contrast: "not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit."
Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the
Book of Revelation, 115.
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