The Trinity: Judgment and Rewards; Rev.
11:18
Revelation
We have a definition for the
Trinity: God exists as a unity of essence with three persons. These three
persons are co-equal, co-eternal and co-infinite. Each person is distinct, yet
the unity is not compromised. We can’t really grasp that and so we usually say
that God is one in essence and three in person. But it is suspected that when
we conceptualize the Trinity where we tend to go is more toward the three
persons than the one in essence and the unity. That is what is really brought
out in this term perichoresis. It is
a Greek term that simply means interpenetration. Another big word is circumincession. It was originally used
in the early part of the church age and it became a technical term for
explaining how the unity of the Trinity worked. Perichoresis in Trinitarian theology relates to the intimate union
between these three members of the Trinity, their mutual indwelling and mutual
interpenetration, so that each of these is always in the other two. What that
means is that when you say something of one it can be said of all three. So
there is this unity emphasized between the three. The term circumincession in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is
stated that in Christian theology it is the technical term for the
interpenetration of the three persons of the holy Trinity.
The point is that if we see
one person we see all three because of this interpenetration of the members of
the Godhead into one another. One figure on the throne portrays the unity of
the triune God. Jesus can therefore say to Philip in John 14:7, 9 NASB
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know
Him, and have seen Him … Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and
{yet} you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the
Father; how {can} you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” There was no need for another
manifestation, the Father and the Son were so close in that union.
Other passages that emphasize
this: Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God,
the LORD is one [echad]!” Echad means a unity of plural; it is not
a singularity. When something is one we often think of a singularity. In Hebrew
the word echad has the idea of a
unity of pluralities, a unity of things viewed as one unified whole. One place
where we see that word used is in Genesis 2:24 when God says of Adam and Eve
that the two shall be joined together and be one [echad] flesh. The word is used several times in the Old Testament
to describe the actions of a group. For example, when God is speaking to Gideon
and tells him that he would the Midians “as one.” The army of 300 would
operates as a single operating force, a single unity operating as if they were
just one. The entire nation is referred to as one in passages like Judges 20:8;
1 Samuel 11:7. So it has that idea of something that is integrally united. When
it refers to God, of course, it is a unity beyond anything that we can imagine.
John
An Old Testament example from
Exodus: The situation in Exodus is that God has appeared to the nation. They
had to be sanctified and they were all brought up before
When we get into the name of
God, the name of something, the Jewish idea was that name represented something
about the essence of something. Jacob’s name means “heal-grabber”; he was
always grasping for things. Isaac [laughter] because Sarah laughed when she
heard God say that she as an old woman was going to give birth to a son. So the
names mean something, they are not just tags like we have for things; they are
not simply nomenclature; they represent the essence of something. Likewise,
when we get into the New Testament we see, “Believe in the name of Jesus.” We
are not just believing in those five letters, J-e-s-u-s, that somehow those
five letters will save us; we are believing in the essence of who Jesus is as
the second person of the Trinity who came to earth, became a man and died on
the cross for our sins. So here we have a statement—the Father speaking, Yahweh speaking, “Be on your guard
before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not
pardon your transgression, since My name is in him…” and ascribing to this
angel that which only deity can do—forgive sin. “…since My name is in him.” He
is saying, My essence is in Him. So this angel mentioned in verse 20 is
distinct from the God who is speaking.
The problem that we have is
that there is a verse in John chapter one where John writes, “No one has seen
God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has explained {Him.}” We have taken that verse and have pushed it way too far.
We have made it seem as if nobody ever had ever had interaction with God the
Father in the Old Testament. In the past the personage who was speaking to
Moses on
Exodus
This personage is clearly
distinct from Yahweh but He has
divine prerogatives. Joshua fell on his face to the earth. Any time there is an
attempt by a human being to worship an angel in the Scripture the angel always
stops them because only God is worthy of worship. Does this personage try to
stop Joshua from worshipping Him? No, so the captain of the hosts of the Lord
is clearly divine and Joshua recognizes this. Joshua
Then after the major
campaigns are completed and there is another gathering of the tribes for a
covenant renewal ceremony at Gilgal the angel of the Lord came up to meet Joshua
and said: “I will never break my covenant with you.” Who said “I will never
break my covenant with you”? If we go back to Genesis 12 and 15 and 17, all
those passages where God makes a covenant with Abraham He asserts that he will
never break that covenant. If we look at those passages it appears to be God
the Father. It is unclear. But here we have the angel of the Lord saying, “I
said to your fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) I will never break my covenant
with you.” He also said, “I brought you up out of
Isaiah 6:1 is the same kind
of scene that we have in Revelation 4 & 5, which is the throne room of God.
NASB “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a
throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” This
is the scene where Isaiah is transported to the throne of God. [2] “Seraphim
stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with
two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. [3] And one called out to
another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory’.” Who
is on the throne? The Father because the Son doesn’t take the throne until the
end of the Tribulation. Who is the head of the hosts of the Lord? This is where
we get into this unity thing between the two. It is God, the triune God,
sitting on the throne.
John
Revelation
Revelation 11:17 NASB
“saying, ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and
who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign’.” The
term “the Almighty” always refers to the Father in the book of Revelation. And
in numerous passages there is the distinction between the one of the throne and
the Lamb who is before Him. The term “the Almighty” is always used of the one
on the throne because ultimately it is God the Father exercising His sovereign
justice over the earth that is bringing all things to a conclusion, and then He
will give (John 5) all judgment to the Son, and the Son in turn will take up
then reigns of power and rule over His kingdom on the earth. “You have taken
Your great power and have begun to reign” refers to God the Father here. When?
At the end of the Millennial kingdom.
Revelation 15:3 NASB
“And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the
Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the
Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!’” Here this is
a term related more to God’s sovereign rule—the Father’s sovereign rule, not
the Son’s messianic rule. The Father rules over creation.
Revelation 19:6 NASB
“Then I heard {something} like the voice of a great multitude and like the
sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder,
saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.’” This is
at the time of the battle of Armageddon when the Son is about to come to the
earth. This is not the Son because the Son is coming on a horse. This is talking
about the Almighty on the throne. Verse 15 talks about the Son: “From His mouth
comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He
will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce
wrath of God, the Almighty.” It is very clear that the one who is going to rule
with the rod of iron is distinguished from God the Almighty who is the Father.
The phrase “rule them with a rod of iron” is one which comes out of Psalm two,
verse nine. The speaker, starting in verse 7 is the Father NASB “I
will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
Revelation
What we should notice
about verse 18 is that two different forms of orge
[o)rgh] are used: orgizo
[o)rgizw] the verb, which means to become angry, and orge which means wrath or anger. “…the
nations were enraged, and Your wrath came…” So there is the conflict between
the nations, the kings of the earth, gathering against God, and “… and the time
{came} for the dead to be judged…” It just summarizes very briefly what happens
at the end of the Tribulation period. The use of the word orge is important, it
has the idea of wrath or anger as a state of mind. It is a mental state, it is
not God being emotional, it is an expression for the execution of justice. It
is in contrast to the Greek word thumos
[qumoj] which is sometimes also translated “anger” or
“indignation” but it has the idea of anger as an outburst of a vengeful mind or
more of an emotional state. Verse 18 ties back to what we see pictured in Psalm
2:1, 2 NASB “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples
devising a vain thing?
Revelation 11:18b NASB
“and {the time} to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and
those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who
destroy the earth.” The “bond-servants
the prophets” refer to Old Testament believers and “the saints and those who
fear Your name” would refer to Tribulation believers. The church isn’t present
here because the church has already been raptured and rewarded at the bema
seat, and they return with the Lord. This is a reference to Old Testament
believers who are resurrected at the end of the Tribulation and the Tribulation
martyrs who are resurrected at that time. “…and to destroy those who destroy
the earth” would include judgment on both the fallen angels and on the earth
dwellers who have rebelled against God.
There is another similar
summary passage in Daniel 12:1, 2 NASB “Now at that time Michael,
the great prince who stands {guard} over the sons of your people, will arise.
And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a
nation until that time [Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 24]; and at that
time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued
[salvation of the living Jews at the end of the Tribulation period].
There is a judgment at the
end of the Tribulation called the judgment of the sheep and the goats. Just
before this judgment the Antichrist and the false prophet are cast into the
lake of fire. At the sheep and the goats judgment the surviving Gentile are
judged and separated (believer and unbeliever); surviving Jews are judged and
separated (believer and unbeliever); Old Testament saints will be judged and
will be rewarded, and Tribulation saints will be judged and rewarded. Then
there is the Millennial kingdom which is followed by a second resurrection of
the unsaved. At that time there is the final judgment which is the great white
throne judgment which is composed of the unsaved dead. Just prior to that Satan
will be cast into the lake of fire for his eternal punishment, then the present
heavens and earth are destroyed and the new heavens and new earth are set up.
At the judgment seat of
Christ (Bema seat) there are going to be a variety of different rewards that
are handed out to those believers who have advanced spiritually. It doesn’t
matter how far you have advanced, but that you are advancing. Some believers
will not have been believers for very long but they will have been positive and
will have been growing; other believers will have been believers for a long
time, and maybe they will have spent some time in disobedience but recovered
and matured, and on that basis there will be a handing out of rewards. A series
of these are listed at the end of the seven letters to the seven churches. For
example, to the church at
Then we have crowns
mentioned: crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:8; crown of life, James 1:12;
crown of glory, 1 Peter 5:4.
The final judgment for
unbelievers is at the great white throne judgment. The dead are brought out of
Hades and torments where they have been kept, and they will be brought before
the great white throne where it will be determined whether their names are in
the book of life. If it is not then they will be evaluated to see if their
works are good enough to get into heaven. The term “works” is a neutral term.
It can mean good deeds; it can mean bad deeds. If it means good deeds then the
word “good” is in front of it; if it means bad deeds or dead works then a
negative adjective is in front of it. If there is no adjective it just means
works, it includes everything done, good and bad. And it is all piled up and
God somehow has the deficits and the credits all organized in such a way that
he is going to come up with the sum total and say, Okay you have this much but
you have to have 100 miles higher before you can come into heaven because your
righteousness doesn’t meet the righteousness qualification of God. It is not
that they are judged for their good works per se, or human good, it is whether
they have enough works to measure up to the righteous standard God demands for
anyone who is going to come into heaven. It doesn’t matter of sin is there or
not because it is the sum total of their work. They are not being judged for
human good, they are not being evaluated for sin; they are being evaluated to
see if they have enough brownie points to get into heaven. And they don’t! So
they are sent to the lake of fire because they are still spiritually dead and
under condemnation, and because they lack the righteousness of Christ.