Chapter 1: The Throne of God

 

The fourth chapter of Revelation is a continuation of the second and third chapters, for it starts by saying, “After these things.” In other words, after the time of the seven church ages of the Pentecostal Age, a door opens, and the throne of God is revealed to John. It signifies the judgment of the earth—and also of the Church after the 40 Jubilees of the Church have been completed.

Revelation 4:1, 2 – Is it the Rapture?

It has often been taught in recent years that Rev. 4:1, 2 is a picture of the “rapture of the Church,” and that the judgments are thus not applicable to the Church. It reads,

¹ After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” ² Immediately, I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.

We do believe in the harpazo, the “catching away” as taught by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thess. 4:17. But as fully explained in my book, The Laws of the Second Coming, the harpazo is the event that fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles. It is an event that gives one the ability to move between heaven and earth, or between a physical body and a spiritual body. The primary example of this is found in the story of Philip in Acts 8:39,

³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched [Greek: harpazo] Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself in Azotus; and as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Philip’s experience is similar to what we find in John 6:21, when Jesus transported His disciples and the entire ship to Capernaum. That event is the most significant parable of the coming of Christ, for it was also the time when Peter went out to meet Him (Matt. 14:29), even as Paul describes in 1 Thess. 4:17. But it must be noted that Jesus did not remove Peter from the boat, nor did He take Peter back to the shore from which He had come. Instead, Peter went out to meet Jesus to escort Him back to the boat. And this is the meaning of the Greek word apantesis, “to meet.” In his notes in The Companion Bible, Dr. Bullinger says about this word in his notation on Matt. 25:1,

“to meet = for the meeting (of two parties from opposite directions): i.e., the meeting and returning with.”

Obviously, in Matt. 25:1, the ten virgins (bridesmaids) are told to go out to meet the Groom. He does not snatch them away and take them away from the place where they awaited Him, but rather, they were called to meet Him to escort Him to the place where they were waiting. In like manner, going out to meet Christ does not mean leaving the earth, but escorting Him to the earth. It is, in effect, bringing heaven to earth, so that the Lord’s Prayer might be fulfilled in Matt. 6:10,

¹⁰ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The modern concept of the “rapture” as a secret and sudden removal of the Church from the earth is simply not taught in the book of Revelation. This is why some teachers have had to resort to placing it in Rev. 4:1. But it seems incredible that such an important event would have such an obscure reference in a biblical book that deals specifically with the events surrounding the coming of Christ.

Rev. 4:3, 4 – The Twenty-Four Elders

The purpose of John’s experience was to manifest to him the throne of God and the One who sat upon it. Jesus Christ is the Judge, as He Himself said in John 5:27,

²⁷ And He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

Though Jesus is the Supreme Judge, there are also lower-court judges under Him. Those directly under Him are the twenty-four thrones upon which sit twenty-four elders, as we read in Rev. 4:3 and 4,

³ And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. ⁴ And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns [stephanos, “victors’ wreaths”] on their heads.

Let us first discuss the primary throne of Christ. The throne was the universal symbol of law by which judgments were decreed. Thus, it is a picture of the earth’s judgment. This is said to take place “after these things” (4:1), that is, after the time of the seven churches had run its course. This essentially places the time of Revelation 4 and 5 any time after the Pentecostal-Age 40 Jubilee cycle that was completed in 1993 A.D.

Daniel and John were prophets of the same God in heaven. And so the throne that each of them saw must be the same throne. In Daniel 7:9, 10 the prophet says,

⁹ I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. ¹⁰ A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened.

Daniel’s vision of the throne was a picture of God judging the world according to His “fiery law.” It will not be a throne of injustice, for Psalm 9:7, 8 says,

⁷ But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, ⁸ And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

The Father “has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), and the Son has given the overcomers of His body the authority to judge the world as well (1 Cor. 6:2). The saints will be seated in His fiery throne (Rev. 3:21). So Deut. 33:2, 3 says (KJV),

² . . . From His right hand went a fiery law [Heb. esh dath, “fire-law”] for them; ³ Yea, He loved the people; all His saints are in Thy hand. . . .

Notice that in God’s hand is a fiery law, and at the same time “all His saints are in Thy hand.” The fiery law is in the same hand as the saints. Thus, the fiery law proceeds from the hand of God through His saints. These are the ones who know how to judge the world in righteousness and in equity, because they are of one mind with Christ. Their judgment is not their own, for they judge only as they hear from their Father, even as Jesus did. John 5:30 says,

³⁰ I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Being in submission to the higher Power is the key to righteous judgment. Any sentence passed by a judge that does not conform to the will and mind of the higher court is a misuse of authority and is the spirit of antichrist, for it usurps the place of Christ. (See my book, Bible Laws on Righteous Judgment.) The saints are the administrators of the law and of justice in the earth, and their ministry will teach the world righteousness. As we read in Isaiah 26:9,

⁹ . . . For when the earth experiences Thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

In Daniel 7:9 (quoted earlier), not only do we see God’s “seat” or throne from which He judges mankind, we also see “thrones” being set up. This speaks of more than one throne. Daniel does not tell us precisely how many thrones there are, but John does. Whereas Daniel concentrates upon the Ancient of Days Himself as the primary Judge, John sees the twenty-four elders judging upon thrones. Jesus alluded to this as well, saying in Matt. 19:28,

²⁸ And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The “Son of Man” is Jesus Christ Himself. He is the Ancient of Days who sits upon the throne judging the world. But yet the twelve apostles will also sit on thrones, as it were, in a lower court, judging the tribes of Israel. (Matthias replaced Judas for a time, but I believe that he was a temporary stand-in for Paul.)

These elders do not wear diadems [Greek: diadema] as in Rev. 19:12, but victors’ wreaths [Greek: stephanos]. They are the same ones that Paul himself expected to receive (2 Tim. 4:8), and James 1:12 tells us that all the overcomers will receive one:

¹² Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown [stephanos] of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.

And so the force of this word, stephanos, is not to portray little kings, but victors of a race. There are many who run this race, but only a few who win (1 Cor. 9:24), and these are called overcomers. To win, one must endure to the end, for 2 Tim. 2:12 says, “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” Paul also tells us in verse 5,

⁵ And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize [brabeion, “a prize in the public games”] unless he competes according to the rules.

Thus, there are more qualifications to being an overcomer than merely believing in Jesus Christ. A believer qualifies for immortality, but an overcomer qualifies to receive the prize of the highest calling of God (Phil. 3:14), which is to inherit the first resurrection and to rule and judge the earth in the Davidic Kingdom to come. These are given the stephanos, because it is the prize of one who has endured and finished the race to which he was called on earth.

When Jesus addressed His disciples, He limited His scope to them, saying that they would sit upon twelve thrones. Yet John sees not twelve, but twenty-four elders around the throne, for this includes twelve from the Old Testament and twelve from the New Testament period. When Jesus told His disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones, this did not mean that there were only twelve thrones. Obviously, there are twenty-four, as John saw. And even then, there is no reason to limit it to twenty-four, because all of the overcomers are called to rule and reign with Christ (Rev. 20:6) and “the saints will judge the world” (1 Cor. 6:2). There will obviously be many thrones from which true justice will be a refreshing change to a world that is used to bribery, corruption, and unjust laws coming from earthly courts.

God’s Judgment is Fire

The throne itself is a fire, from which flows His lawful judgments concerning mankind, and those judgments are pictured as a river of fire. This is not a literal fire, of course, because the law itself is the fire.

For example, when the law says that a thief must restore double (Ex. 22:4), this is the application of “fire.” Another example comes from Jesus Himself in Luke 12:47-49,

⁴⁷ And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes [as per Deut. 25:1-3], ⁴⁸ but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. . . ⁴⁹ I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

In other words, Jesus Himself calls the law a “fire.” It was never meant to be interpreted as a literal fire that tortures people. God’s law does not prescribe punishment, but judgment. God’s judgments are remedial, as we read in Prov. 22:15,

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

The purpose of the flogging is to inflict temporary pain for a long-term correction. God does not apply this “fire” to those He hates, but to those He loves. Prov. 13:24 says,

²⁴ He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

Not only does He love the Church, but God also loves the world (John 3:16), and this is why He judges the whole world. It is not that the world might be destroyed, but that the world might be saved, as John 3:17 says,

¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world [merely] to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

The Emerald Rainbow

In Rev. 1:14, John saw the Ancient of Days seated upon His throne. The description of the One sitting upon it matches the Ancient of Days that Daniel saw. However, John focused attention upon the Person on the throne, rather than upon the throne itself. He did not actually describe the throne until Revelation 4:3, where we read,

³ And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.

The rainbow around the throne signifies a covenant of peace. Its meaning is made clear by the story of the rainbow that appeared after the flood in Noah’s day. Gen. 9:12-15 says,

¹² And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; ¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Note that this covenant is not merely between God and the believers such as Noah and his family. It is a covenant between God and “the earth,” and “every living creature of all flesh.” It is a covenant of reconciliation and peace. Some have overblown the fact that God would not again use water to destroy the earth, but that the next time He would destroy the earth by fire. But this destroys the entire purpose of the covenant. Why would God go to the trouble of covenanting with the earth not to destroy it by water when He fully intended to destroy it by fire in the future? Such an interpretation makes this covenant relatively meaningless.

This is an unconditional covenant, made by God alone, to bind Himself and make Himself responsible to reconcile all creation to Himself. This does not mean that He will not use judgments to accomplish that end, but rather that He will not use judgments to destroy the earth. This is also why a rainbow arches across the sky and seems to cover the whole earth from horizon to horizon. It pictures God’s covenant with the earth itself and gives it special meaning.

And so the rainbow that John saw around the throne in heaven is like an emerald—that is, it is bright green. The color is the opposite of fire, signifying mercy in the midst of judgment. Green is the color that signifies resurrection, regeneration, and life itself. It is the covenant of the restoration of all things that the prophets and apostles described in so many of their writings. (See my book, Creation’s Jubilee.)

The Throne is the Ark of the Covenant

When God told Moses to build an Ark, He said in Exodus 25:22,

²² And from there I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

The Ark was the place where the presence of God dwelt on the earth. Whenever there was a need for revelation to resolve any question or dispute, Moses went to God at the Tabernacle and asked Him for a Supreme Court ruling. The Ark, then, was the place where God’s judgments were revealed. It was, in essence, God’s throne (Ps. 80:1).

He was said also to be seated on “the mercy seat” between or above the two cherubim that stood on either side of the Ark. Many people envision God’s judgments as being fearsome, but God judges from the position of mercy, not vengeance. God’s law is not an evil thing, as some have said. The law is certainly meant to bring justice, and this can be terrifying to a sinner who knows not the Judge and is tormented by the thought of his own guilt. But once the sinner is brought before the mercy seat and experiences God’s judgment, the divine encounter enlightens him and wins his heart by the mercy on which the judgments are based. When he discovers that the judgment is not meant to destroy him but to correct him in love, he cannot help but fall in love with the great God of the Universe, who came as a Man and was tempted in all points as he was.

Oh, that men would know the mind of God and see that His yoke is not grievous. His law is merciful, for it corrects the greatest of sinners and is the means by which he is restored to the purpose for which he was created. All of this is eloquently portrayed by the simple fact that God sat upon a mercy seat in the first Tabernacle housing His glory.

Psalm 47:8 says “God sits on His HOLY throne,” but it is also a MERCY seat. Men often teach that God’s holiness makes judgment necessary, without tempering that judgment with mercy. The result has been too much judgment—unending torture—instead of the kind of holy judgment that proceeds from the MERCY seat. His holiness makes it necessary to hold unredeemed men accountable for sin; but His mercy puts a time limitation upon that accountability by means of the law of Jubilee. We will have more to say of this later in this book.

Lightning: The Electrical Ark

The Ark of the Covenant was constructed in such a way as to act as a capacitor, or condenser. There is no doubt that touching the Ark would kill men with an electric shock. Since the Ark was an earthly representation of the throne of God, it is not surprising to find that John saw lightning and thunder coming forth from the throne in heaven. No doubt that every time they viewed the Ark, Moses and Aaron saw this “lightning” passing from one wing of the cherub to the other. Rev. 4:5 says,

⁵ And from the throne proceeded flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

An electrical engineer, Carlos Ricci, wrote about this in a letter to me, saying,

“The lightning, thundering, and sounds proceeding from the throne are at the physical level an electrical phenomenon. The physical Ark of the Covenant, being made after the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle (Exodus 25:9), represents the heavenly throne in the earthly tabernacle. It stands to reason, therefore, that the Ark would show itself to have electrical characteristics, and Scripture indeed reveals this to be the case. For example, in Exodus 25:10-11 we are given specifications for its construction:

¹⁰And they shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. ¹¹And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding [“crown”] around it.

“Here we can see an “exploded view” of the Ark, as a box of wood with gold overlay lining the inside and covering the outside. (We infer that the wooden box is hollow, as it must have an “inside” for the gold inlay to be placed “within”.) At this point we have the basic components of a type of electrical device called a capacitor, sometimes called a condenser. The simplest capacitors are formed by two parallel metal plates called poles separated from one another by an insulator called a dielectric. In the case of the Ark, the gold overlay on the inside serves as one pole, the gold overlay on the outside serves as the other, and the wood serves as the dielectric. Each face of the Ark comprises an individual pair of parallel plates. Each inside face connects only to another inside face, and likewise on the outside faces, so that the wood maintains the plate separation and parallelism over all of the faces. Together, they act like one huge parallel plate. (That they are a right angles from one another makes no difference electrically.)

“A capacitor collects and stores electric charge. To bring this to a level of everyday human experience, when you rub your shoes across the carpet on a dry day, your whole body acts as one pole of a capacitor. The house acts as the other pole, and the feeling that you have when you touch something metal like a doorknob is the effect of discharging your stored charge back to the house. Though it may be enough to startle you, the energy of such an electrical discharge is very small compared to the energy that can be stored on capacitors, even capacitors smaller than the Ark. While the maximum amount of charge that a capacitor can collect is limited by certain physical constraints, suffice it to say that the Ark could have easily stored enough to pack quite a jolt—certainly enough kill someone many times over. We see some evidence of this in 2 Samuel 6, where Uzzah was “struck” by God and died when he touched the Ark. In Numbers 4:6 we see that the Ark was to be covered with badgers' skins before being moved. In addition to their spiritual significance, the skins would also serve as a good electrical insulator, thus improving the safety of the priests who were to move it.

“The Ark was not constructed of just this, of course. The mercy seat was fashioned of pure gold and placed on top, thus covering the contents and completing the box. One potential problem with the capacitor theory arises in that if the mercy seat is constructed of one solid piece, it could act to electrically connect the inside and outside plates of the capacitor. This would “short out” the capacitor so that it could no longer store any charge at all. One key to solving this dilemma is found in the “crown of gold” at the end of verse 11 (KJV). It was (presumably) made all around the top of the box portion, but below the mercy seat, so that the mercy seat could have sat upon the crown. If this crown was fashioned so that it connected electrically to only one pole, say, the outside pole of the Ark, then the inside pole would be protected from shorting against the mercy seat. Crowning to the outside also seems to result in the soundest construction for the box, as it would provide a means to set the mercy seat securely into the crown. Of course, confirming these conjectures must be left to direct revelation from the Heavenly Father.

“Also of worthy note is the electrical performance of the capacitor. The ability of a capacitor to discharge quickly is limited to a great extent by the conductivity of the plate metal. As it would happen, at ambient temperature, gold is the best naturally available electrical conductor in the world.”

Though the Ark was a capacitor and could store electrical energy, this did not fully explain the glory of the Lord or the pillar of fire and cloud that stood over the ark in the Tabernacles of Moses. In fact, the glory of the Lord also came down upon Mount Sinai, where there was no Ark at all (Ex. 24:16). So there is no reason to rationalize the supernatural aspect of this “glory.” It was more than an electrical phenomenon. In fact, it really portrays the heavenly and the earthly together, showing the unity of the spirit with the physical world.

This is the real key to understanding this entire manifestation, for in the same way, the Feast of Tabernacles merges the glory of God with human flesh. This is the real mystery of God and the meaning of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” as Paul expressed it in Colossians 1:27. The Feast of Pentecost is likewise the Holy Spirit in flesh.

The connection between heaven and earth is in the fact that lightning is a biblical symbol for the Sons of God, and thunder is His voice speaking either directly to men or through His Sons. Lightning is said to be God’s “arrows” in Psalm 77:17, 18,

¹⁷ The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth a sound; Thy arrows flashed here and there. ¹⁸ The sound of Thy thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.

But “arrows” are also a symbol of sons, as we read in Psalm 127:3-5,

³ Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward. ⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. ⁵ How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. . .

The fact that the throne of God is portrayed as having lightning and thunder shows that the Sons of God play a role in judgment and divine revelation to the rest of the people of the earth. God Himself is Spirit and tends to remain in the background. When He manifested Himself to men on earth, He came in human form as Jesus, the Son of God, because that was the appropriate manifested form to bring heaven to earth.

Psalm 77:17 (above) says “the lightnings lit up the world.” Jesus said to His disciples in Matt. 5:14, “You are the light of the world.” The manifestation of the Sons of God (Rom. 8:19) is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles and begins the time in which the Sons of God give light to the world in the greatest manner. Prior to that time, their light is largely veiled, even as the glory of God was veiled by a cloud on Sinai.

Likewise, Jesus’ flesh was a “veil” (Heb. 10:20) that was pulled back briefly on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2) to reveal the glory of the Son. All of the Sons of God share in this inner glory, and the veil will be pulled back in their manifestation as well. In fact, the Greek word for “manifestation” in Rom. 8:19 is apocalupsin, which literally means “the unveiling.” When God unveils His glory in the Sons, they are sent forth as lightning to enlighten the world with the word and voice of God (thunder). Thus will the saints judge all men from the mercy seat to bring correction to the world.

The Judges Were Deliverers

The book of Judges tells how Israel followed false gods of the other nations, and how God judged Israel by selling them into the hands of those other nations. When Israel repented, then God sent “judges” to deliver them. These judges are Old Testament types of overcomers. Obadiah 21 speaks of a future time when:

²¹ The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

There are five deliverers in the book of Judges. Their names are as follows:

1. Othniel, “the force or power of God” (Judges 3)

2. Ehud, “united” (Judges 3)

3. Barak, “lightning” (signifying “sons of God”). He does his work in association with Deborah, the prophetess (Judges 4:8), whose name means “a bee; orderly.” (Judges 4, 5)

4. Gideon, “feller (of trees or men), warrior” (Judges 6-8)

5. Jephthah, “he will open” (Judges 11, 12)

After these judges, a final deliverance was done in 1 Samuel 7:10 after the Ark had been returned. In the story it is plain that the Ark itself played a central role in Israel’s deliverance. So in that sense, one can say the Ark of the divine presence delivered them.

If we put these names together, we see the emergence of a statement by which the overcomers themselves will be divinely used to deliver the earth from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The names read as follows:

“The power (voice, thunder) of God united with His Sons (“lightning”) and daughters (to bring things fully into the divine order) will fell the enemy and open the Ark.”

We see a number of elements in this. First, the power of God is synonymous with the voice of God—that is, the thunder accompanying the lightning. Thunder is the voice of God speaking in the lightning (Sons). But there is also the important feminine element in the person of Deborah, the bee, signifying orderliness. Sonship is important, but it is impossible to have Sonship without Motherhood.

Here is where New Covenant marriage becomes important. Though it is not a requirement to be married per se, there must at least be a unity between soul and spirit within the manifested Sons of God. Marriage between man and woman is helpful in that it gives us opportunity to see firsthand how these principles can operate in a practical manner, making it easier to learn the principles taught in Scripture about the New Covenant.

The idea of the manifestation of the Sons of God has always been taught in some way, but it began to gain some prominence in the mid-1900’s with a movement calling itself “the Manifested Sons of God.” They made a number of mistakes, not the least of which was that they claimed to be “manifested” NOW, not realizing that manifestation means unveiling so as to become visible to the world. If they had actually been unveiled, they would not have had difficulty convincing others of their manifestation.

Other “Kingdom” movements were also started, but most of them did not understand the importance or relevance of the feminine side of God, which the Scriptures call El Shaddai, or “The Breasted One.” I have more fully explained the significance of the feminine side of God in my book, Old and New Covenant Marriage, but it ought to be stated here that Sonship is not merely a male-oriented phenomena. It includes “daughters” of God in order to bring Sonship into divine order. The fact that Barak would not deliver Israel without Deborah’s help teaches this principle.

The Seven Lamps

Rev. 4:5 speaks of seven lamps, saying,

⁵ And there were seven lamps [Greek: lampas, “lamp, light, torch”] of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

This lampas must be distinguished from the lampstand itself. The lamps are the lights or torches from the seven-branched candlestick (lampstand) in Moses’ tabernacle that stood in the Holy Place before the Ark of the Covenant. John says that these seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God which are held by the lampstand itself. Rev. 1:20 says, “the seven lampstands [Greek: luchnia] are the seven churches.”

In other words, the seven lampstands are the seven churches, while the lamps, or torches, upon them are the seven Spirits of God. The seven churches were supposed to carry the light of the seven Spirits of God, but as we showed in our study of the seven churches, only the overcomers ultimately carried that light. The churches as a whole in those seven church ages of Pentecost remained in some degree of darkness.

The Sea of Glass

Rev. 4:6 says,

⁶ and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

This “sea of glass” is part of the heavenly Temple that finds its earthly counterpart in the laver of the tabernacle and temple. It was located in front of the Ark, God’s throne, as we read in Exodus 30:18,

¹⁸ You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

When Solomon built his temple, the laver was much larger than the original laver built under Moses. Only then is it called “the sea.” 1 Kings 7:23 says,

²³ Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits [diameter] from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference.

The purpose of the laver, or “the sea,” was for cleansing by washing. The priests could not enter the tabernacle or temple without first cleansing themselves at the laver. In former times literal water was used as a cleansing agent, but the physical rite represented a more basic truth in approaching God’s throne. In Jesus’ day many of the religious leaders relied on water rituals without really pleasing God at all. Matt. 23:25 says,

²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

In John 15:3 Jesus shows us the meaning of the laver when He says,

³ You are already clean because of [Greek: dia, “through”] the word which I have spoken to you.

The water cleanses the outside, but only the Word cleanses the inside of a person, making him acceptable to God. Ephesians 5:25-27 says,

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; ²⁶ that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.

When we distinguish between the Church and the overcomers, we do not mean to say that the Church will not be presented without spot or blemish. We need to make it clear that the overcomers will be the first to be perfected and presented as such to the Father. This will occur in the time of the “first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4-6). The Church will also be perfected and presented to God, but only in the general resurrection (Rev. 20:11-15) at the end of the thousand years. For a full account of the Scriptures teaching this, see my book, The Purpose of Resurrection.

Paul says (above) that the Church is cleansed “by the washing of water with the word.” It is clear from this that the water of the laver represents the Word itself, which is the true cleansing agent that alone can cleanse the heart of man.

Yet the term used in Rev. 4:6 is “a sea of glass,” not merely water, but a molten sea of fire. In the description of the great harlot sitting upon “many waters” in Rev. 17:15, we find that water is also a symbol of “peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” What could possibly be the connection between the Word and the nations? The Word is a sea of glass, but the nations are the seas in turmoil, for we read in Isaiah 57:20, 21,

²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. ²¹ There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

There are obviously two types of “seas.” One is at rest, and the other tosses with waves. When God’s glory finally covers the earth (people) as the waters cover the sea, then will the whole earth (“the seas” of people) be at rest. This is the final outcome of the divine plan, as He swore to Moses in Numbers 14:21 and repeated by the prophets. This will be the result of the Word going forth into the whole earth. What was started on the day of Pentecost will be completed in the day of Tabernacles in the seventh millennium that brings a Sabbath rest to the earth.