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Visions
of the Apocalypse
by Qamiel The movie The Apocalypse is based on the visions seen by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is written in apocalyptic writing which means that everything is symbolic and should not be taken as literal. John wrote in this style to disguise his message to the churches so the Romans would not understand what was written. Another thing, numbers had a more significant meaning back then than they do now. Revelation is commonly misinterpreted as just being about the end of the world, which is only partly true. The book more directly addressed to Christians in the 1st Century who was about to undergo persecution from the Roman Empire. Its major theme is to stand faithful, even to death, for your faith and you will receive victory in Heaven. This theme is true not only to them but to Christians today. The book opens as John, who is a prisoner on the Island of Patmos, sees a vision of a man in white and is surrounded by seven lamp stands. The seven lamp stands represent the seven churches in Asia Minor. The man in white is very obvious, it's Jesus the Christ. Jesus instructs John to write letters to the seven churches in Asia. In each letter He talks about each church's strengths and weaknesses. Attached to each of these personal letters would be the vision of things "shortly to come to pass". John then is placed in the throne room of Heaven where he sees a huge Throne and then 24 smaller thrones around it, each with 24 men sitting in the thrones praising God. It is not certain who these 24 men are but it is theorized that these men stand for the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles. Also in the throne room are four "living creatures" who are constantly praising God day and night without ceasing. These living creatures had eyes all over their bodies and each one had a different head: one with the head of a lion, one with the head of a man, one with the head of the ox, and the last with the head of a bird. These living creatures represent all creation. All creation is constantly worshipping God ALWAYS!! Next, John is directed to a scroll marked with seven seals in the hand of the one in the Great Throne (God). All in Heaven ask for someone who is worthy enough to open it but no one is found. John starts to cry because no one can open it but one of the elders comforts him and tells him that there is someone who can open it. Then John sees a "lamb who has been slain", who is also Jesus. Jesus is the only one who is worthy enough to open the scroll. Jesus begins to break open the seals to the scroll. The first four seals go together. The 1st seal reveals a man riding on a white horse, the second seal reveals a man riding a red horse, the 3rd seal reveals a man riding on a green horse, and the 4th seal reveals a man riding on a black horse. The first horse represents a man riding out to conquer other men. The second horse represents war, the agent men use to conquer other men. The third horse represents disease; when men to go to war they bring with them disease, sickness and suffering. The last horse represents death, because war brings death. In the four horses, the entire history of mankind is revealed. Men rise up and want to conquer others, they ride to war, they spread disease and bring suffering, and finally bring death on others. Jesus wants us to see that these things are just mankind’s nature and will always be so. The 5th seal is broken next and John sees many men dressed in red robes. These are the martyrs who have died for Jesus' name. They cry out to the one on the Great Throne "when will our deaths be avenged?" Jesus tells them to wait a little while longer and gives them all white robes. The 6th seal is broken and signals that the time has come for judgment on the Romans. God then begins to put his plan in action but first puts a special mark on all those who are Christians so they will not be harmed for God's wrath. He numbers them and the number comes to 144,000. Again, this is not a literal number of people to be saved. The number 12 was a number of completeness. In multiplication, 12 times 12 is 144. So, twelve times itself meant very complete. The number 1,000 also meant totality, so `12 times 12 times 1,000 mean total completeness. What Jesus was saying was that EVERYONE who is a Christian and is obedient to him will be saved. The seventh seal is broken and there is an hour and a half of silent in heaven to mark the big moment. Then there appears seven trumpets. In the movie, there was not a lot of detail about the seven trumpets but it does give a lot in Revelation. The sounding of a trumpet in biblical times was a sign of warning. Thus, the trumpets are warning signs to the Romans to change their ways or be destroyed. The first four trumpets go together as a whole. The 1st trumpet is blown and 1/3 of the earth is burned up, the second is blown and 1/3 of the sea turns to blood, the third is blown and 1/3 of the rivers turn to wormwood, and the fourth is blown and 1/3 of the sun was darkened. What does it mean? All these events are natural disasters so Jesus is saying that Romans will be warned with various natural disasters and history shows that Rome experienced many natural disasters in its time. The fifth trumpet is blown and locust come out of the ground and attack all the people except those marked with the sign of God. The locust are evil and they are attacking evil people thus this shows evil attacking itself. Rome will start to feel the effects of its own evilness. Basically, what you sow you will reap. This is another warning sign to Rome to change. The last warning comes with the sixth trumpet and the Euphrates River is dried up and two million soldiers march across it. The Euphrates was Rome's eastern border at its height. The two million soldiers are attacking Rome so they are outside forces. Jesus is saying Rome is vulnerable. Again, history proves this accurate. So, God is warning Rome by natural disasters, attacks from outside forces, and through its own wickedness to change or be destroyed. This is Rome's last chance. Rome does not change and so God will destroy it. The blowing of the seventh trumpet brings the seven angels with the bowls of destruction that will be used to destroy Rome. Before the book get to the seven bowls, the scene changes to a different picture. John sees a woman who is pregnant about to give birth to a baby. Right behind her is a dragon who is waiting to destroy the baby when it is born. The woman represents "the eternal plan of God". It was God's plan for Christ to go to the world and die on the cross for us. Thus, the woman who "gave birth" to the Christ here is "God's plan". The Dragon is Satan himself. Satan does not want God to fulfill his plans so he is going to do everything to try and stop it. Satan wanting to destroy the Christ child when he is born from the woman represents Satan's attacks on Christ while he was on Earth. Though Satan did get Christ crucified, that didn't stop Christ from doing his mission on Earth. When the child was born, God quickly took him up into Heaven from the woman so Satan could not harm it. This represents Christ’s ascent into Heaven after his crucifixion. Satan then decides to attack Heaven and kill Christ there to stop his mission. Satan wages war against Michael and his angels. Satan is beaten and thrown out of Heaven forever and onto Earth. Satan does not give up yet, his third effort is to attack the woman who gave birth to the child, God's eternal plan of salvation. He wants it stopped before it can take effect but God will not allow it. Angels give wings to the woman to fly away to a safe place. Satan has one last plan though. Since he could not stop Christ, he thinks he can stop the message from spreading. Thus, Satan's last attempt is to wage war on Christians. He wants to wipe them out. So, Satan rises up two beasts to help. The book goes into detail describing what they look like, but I will not here. The first beast represents the Roman Empire. In the book of Daniel, Daniel the prophet has a dream where he sees four strange creatures coming out of the sea. When the dream is revealed to him, the four animals represent four future kingdoms to come. The Persian Empire, The Greek Empire, Alexander the Great's Empire and finally the Roman Empire. The beast he sees in his dream is very similar to the one John sees here in his vision. The second beast is the Cult of Emperor Worship which was beginning to become law in Rome. With these two beasts, Satan thought he had what he needed to wipe Christianity off the globe, but he was wrong. In the end, Jesus would destroy the Roman Empire and foil Satan's plans again. Christianity is still alive and will always be for God said it would. The end of the book goes into (the last two chapters) the end of the world, the Judgment, and the new Heaven that Christians will live in one day when this world has passed away. Revelation is a book that gives hope to Christians to remain faithful because Christ is our victory over Satan and this world. Source: The book Unlocking Revelation by Dr. Stafford North, a distinguished professor of Bible at Oklahoma Christian University © Copyright 2005 by Qamiel |