This is part three in a series of articles examining pretribulationist arguments concerning the church in the book of Revelation as put forth by Dr. Robert Gromacki. Click
here for part one and
here for part two.
The Twenty-four Elders
In
describing his vision of the throne room of God, the apostle John tells us that
he saw a group of individuals he refers to as “elders”:
Around the throne were
twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting,
clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. –
Revelation 4:4
The
identities of these twenty-four elders have long been a mystery. They are
mentioned a number of times in the book of Revelation, are depicted as singing
and worshipping God, and at least one of them interacts with John, but they are
not described in any detail beyond the passage I cited above. John does not
tell us who they are.
Posttribulationists
such as myself believe that the twenty-four elders are high-ranking angelic
beings. On the other hand, dispensational pretribulationists like Dr. Gromacki
believe that they are redeemed humans who represent the raptured church at
large. Gromacki comments on this as follows:
The more plausible explanation of
the 24 elders is that they represent a group of redeemed people. Who are these
people? Since the believers within the Old Testament period will not be resurrected
until the return of Jesus Christ to the earth (Dan. 12:1-3, Rev. 20:4-6), the
elders more likely represent the redeemed of the church.
Gromacki
offers what he believes are a number of evidences in favor of this
interpretation. I will examine these evidences in turn; however, the first
point I would offer in favor of the posttribulation position that the elders
are angelic beings has to do with the chronology issue I covered in part two of
this series. If, indeed, the future or “revelation” portion of the book begins
in chapter 6 (and not in chapter 4, as Gromacki believes), then the entire
issue of the elders is moot with regard to the rapture debate: the elders were
present in heaven two thousand years ago and cannot be raptured saints. I
believe that the text establishes this conclusion firmly and that
pretribulationists will find this an insurmountable problem in their theology,
but let’s look at Gromacki’s evidences and see what he has to offer.
The numerical adjective
“twenty-four” is significant. King David divided the Levitical priesthood into
24 orders (1 Chron. 24). Each order performed priestly functions at the
tabernacle and at the temple for eight days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. In the
distribution of the work load, each order would function two weeks per year. In
so doing, each order represented the entire priestly tribe and the nation of
Israel before God. Thus, the number “twenty-four” came to be representative of a
larger, more complete group. Thus, the “twenty-four elders” is a phrase which
denotes more than two dozen specific persons; rather, the elders stand in for
an entire group of personal beings, either angels or humans.
In
reply, I have to say that I’m a bit surprised that Gromacki would make this
comparison to David’s division of the Levitical priesthood. Ordinarily,
dispensationalists strongly resist applying Old Covenant, Israel-specific
terminology to the church, especially where prophecy is concerned. Later in his
article Gromacki goes on to point out items that he believes are prominent
symbols that distinguish Israel from the church in Revelation, allegedly
showing that God’s emphasis is on Israel rather than the church during the
Great Tribulation. I can hardly think of anything more symbolic of Israel than
the Old Covenant priesthood, so it seems odd to me that Gromacki would liken
the division of the priesthood to the elders if the elders represent the
church. Indeed, outside of the book of Revelation, the number twenty-four is used
only in the Old Testament; it appears nowhere else in the New, and in
Revelation it is used only in reference to the elders.
In
regard to the number twenty-four being a ‘number of representation’ based on
David’s division of the Levitical priesthood, several observations can be made:
A
“representative” Group versus a great Multitude
First,
why would it be necessary for John to be shown a representation of the church
in the form of twenty-four persons if the entire church is in heaven during the
events of Revelation 4? Why was John not instead shown masses of redeemed
saints surrounding the throne of God, just as he saw masses of angels around
the throne in chapter 5?
Then I looked and I heard the
voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders;
and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands… –
Revelation 5:11
In
fact, we see just such a depiction in Revelation 7, after the sixth seal is
opened:
After these things I looked, and
behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and from
all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they
cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb.” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around
the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before
the throne and worshipped God, saying,
“Amen, blessing and glory and
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever
and ever. Amen.”
Then one of the elders answered,
saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and
where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to
me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this
reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in
His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on
them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their
shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.” – Revelation 7:9-17
In
this passage, John sees a multitude of people so vast in scope that he could
not count them, gathered around the throne of God along with all of the angels. This is exactly what
we would expect to see (and when we
would expect to see it if the posttribulation view is correct. In chapter 6,
when Christ opens the sixth seal, John sees the following:
I looked when he broke the sixth
seal and there was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like
blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its
unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll
when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their
places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and
the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the
caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and
to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has
come, and who is able to stand?” – Revelation 6:12-17
The
opening of the sixth seal brings with it the Old Testament signs of the Day of
the Lord:
I will display wonders in the sky
and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
The
sun will be turned into darkness
And
the moon into blood
Before
the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. – Joel 2:30-31
These
are the same signs that Jesus said will follow the Great Tribulation, before he
returns to gather his elect:
But
immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be
darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the
sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and
then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a
great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of the sky to the other. – Matthew 24:29-31
Immediately
after the opening of the sixth seal and the cosmic signs of the Day of the Lord,
we see 144,000 Jews sealed before any harm is done to the earth (Revelation
7:1-8). This would make perfect sense if, as the Old Testament says, they will
be delivered from the wrath of God and will believe on Christ when they see him
coming:
In
that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem and…I will set about to destroy
all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of
David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication,
so that they will look on Me whom they
have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son,
and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping of a firstborn. –
Zechariah 12:8-10
Then the Lord will go forth and
fight against those nations [the ones attacking Jerusalem] as when He fights on
a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which
is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in
its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the
mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You
will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will
reach to Azel; yes you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the
days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the
Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him. In that day there will
be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. – Zechariah 14:3-7
The
Jews that are sealed are God-fearing but have not yet believed on Christ. For
this reason, they require a special seal of protection so that they will be
delivered when the wrath of God is poured out. Believers, on the other hand,
are already sealed by the Spirit of God (II Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13
and 4:30). They are caught up to meet Christ after the Great Tribulation,
before the Day of the Lord. Indeed, one of the elders tells John that they have
“come out of the great tribulation.”
Now
think back on the letters that Christ dictated to the seven churches (and
consider also the book’s concluding remarks where the churches are mentioned
once again) and compare them to what John saw and was told about the great
multitude.
“They have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
“But you have a few people in
Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white,
for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments…”
– Revelation 3:4-5
“I advise you to buy from Me gold
refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may
clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.” –
Revelation 3:18
“Blessed are those who wash their
robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the
gates into the city.” – Revelation 22:14
“They are before the throne of
God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple.”
“He who overcomes, I will make
him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore.”
– Revelation 3:12
“And He who sits on the throne
will spread His tabernacle over them…”
“And I will write on him the name
of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes
down out of heaven from My God…” – Revelation 3:13
“They will hunger no longer, nor
thirst anymore…for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and will guide them to springs of the water of life.”
“To him who overcomes I will
grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.” – Revelation
2:7
“To him who overcomes, to him I
will give some of the hidden manna.” – Revelation 2:17
“The Spirit and the Bride say,
‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty
come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” – Revelation
22:17
The
close similarities between the admonitions to the churches in the opening and
closing of Revelation, and the description of the great multitude of chapter 7,
are not coincidental. As I demonstrated in part one of this study, the emphasis
between Revelation chapters 3 and 19 is on the saints rather than the churches
because it is the saints—the holy ones, the consecrated ones, the sacred ones—irrespective
of their churches, who will overcome the Beast and emerge victorious from the
Great Tribulation. The great multitude is just such a group, appearing in
John’s account after the opening of the sixth seal and the cosmic signs of the
Day of the Lord, which Jesus said would follow the Great Tribulation and
precede his own coming, at which point he will gather his elect.
Note
also that John tells us that the members of this group had “palm branches…in
their hands” and were crying out, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb.” This imagery harkens back to the Old Testament description of
the Feast of Booths, which Leviticus 23 tells us was to be held for a period of
seven days following the harvest:
Now on the first day you shall
take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of
leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord
your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for
seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your
generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in
booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so
that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths
when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. – Leviticus 23:40-43
The
prophet Zechariah tells us that this feast will be celebrated during the
Millennial age:
Then it will come about that any
who are left of all the nations that went up against Jerusalem will go up from
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast
of Booths. – Zechariah 14:16
The
description of the Feast of Booths in Leviticus 23 shows us that it was meant
to be a celebration of Israel’s deliverance from bondage to the bounty of the Promised Land, which is
why it was held after the harvest: as the people prospered, they were to
remember the great deliverance that had made their prosperity possible.
Likewise, in Revelation 7, we see those of the great multitude, having “come
out of the great tribulation,” where they were heavily oppressed by the Beast
and his False Prophet, waving palms before the Lord and praising him for his
salvation. John is told that they “will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore;
nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of
the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water
of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The
parallels in the imagery of the great multitude and ancient Israel’s
celebration of the Feast of Booths seem clear. It was not only a celebration of
deliverance from bondage but also one of entering into blessing. For ancient
Israel, that blessing was entrance into the Promised Land; for the saints, it will
be entrance into the Kingdom of God.
This
is underscored for us in the book of Daniel, from which the book of Revelation
draws heavily in terms of its style and symbolism.
Consider the following from Daniel chapter 7, in which Daniel recounts a vision
he was given of the end of days, one in which he saw four “beasts,”
representing four gentile kingdoms, rise up with great power:
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. 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…
I kept looking in the night
visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was
coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And
to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations
and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be
destroyed…
As for me, Daniel, my spirit was
distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. I approached
one of those who was standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all
this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things:
‘These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise
from the earth. But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and
possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’ – Daniel 7:9-10, 13-18
Daniel
goes on to inquire about the fourth beast, the most fearsome one he had seen,
which gave rise to “a little horn” that waged war against the saints:
I kept looking, and that horn was
waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came
and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time
arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. – Daniel 7:21-22
Daniel
is then given the interpretation of this vision. The fourth beast is a powerful
empire that will give rise to ten kings, after which another king will arise
(the “little horn”) and make war on the saints of God until he is finally
overthrown by divine decree:
He will speak out against the
Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One…and they will be given
into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court will sit for
judgment and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed
forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the
kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of
the Highest One…– Daniel 7:25-27
The
one who spoke with Daniel in these passages emphasized that the saints would be
oppressed by “the little horn” until such time as God intervenes, delivers them
from their oppression, and they inherit the kingdom. All of this is pictured
for us in John’s description of the great multitude and in the explanation
provided to him by the elder with whom he spoke.
Moreover,
I believe Daniel 7 also provides a bit more insight into the elders themselves.
When John first sees the elders, they’re seated on thrones around the throne of
God (Revelation 4:4). For his part, Daniel tells us that “thrones were set up”
in the presence of God (Daniel 7:9) and that a divine court passed judgment in
favor of the saints (Daniel 7:22 and 26). Given the close parallels between
Daniel and Revelation, the thrones Daniel described seeing around the throne of
God almost certainly belong to the elders. Daniel does not mention the elders
directly, but he references the heavenly “court,” and John tells us in
Revelation 11 that the elders proclaim their agreement with God’s judgment of
the earth and his rewarding of the saints:
Then the seventh angel sounded,
and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and
ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on
their faces and worshipped God, 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. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for
the dead to be judged, 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.” – Revelation 11:15-18
Notice
that the elders are seated on their thrones when the seventh trumpet sounds and
the proclamation of the kingdom goes forth. Judgment has been passed in favor
of the saints. The parallels to Daniel 7 are unmistakable; they reveal that the
elders are not saints and thus cannot represent the church. They comprise the
heavenly court that sits along with God the Father in judgment of various
matters, or at least in the capacity of witnesses. Nearly every time they are
seen in the book of Revelation, they are quoted as affirming the “worthiness”
of the Father and the Lamb or the righteousness of some aspect of divine
justice.
Similarities
to the Levitical Priesthood
Dr.
Gromacki makes the argument that we should consider the number of the elders as
representing a larger group because of the division of the Levitical
priesthood, but I think he may have the order of things backward here. I do not
believe that the elders are based on David’s division of the Levites; rather, I
suspect that David was led to divide the Levites based on the pattern of the
elders (and possibly other members of the heavenly host as well).
The
Levites became the priestly class by divine decree during Israel’s time in the
wilderness. In Numbers 3, God tells Moses that he has consecrated all of the
firstborn sons of Israel to himself, and he has Moses perform a census to determine
their number, starting with the tribe of Levi. The number of Levite firstborn
comes in at 22,000. When the rest of the firstborn in Israel are numbered, they
come in 22,273. God then takes the entire tribe of Levi and sets it aside for
the priesthood instead of actually taking each firstborn son from every family
in Israel. Then, because there were 273 more firstborn in the rest of the
tribes than there were in the tribe of Levi, God commanded that a “ransom” in
silver be paid to Aaron and his sons to compensate them for the difference
(Numbers 3:39-51).
So,
yes, it is indisputable that the tribe of Levi represented Israel to God in the
performance of the priestly duties. More to the point, they represented the
firstborn of Israel: those who would receive the best of the inheritance in
each family and were primarily responsible for leading and teaching the next
generation. It was God himself who decided this, however, and he did so long
before David came on the scene. Consequently, it was not David’s division of
the Levites into twenty-four courses that made them representative of Israel
before God, and there is no natural reason to think of the number twenty-four
as a significant “number of representation” on that basis. In fact, it would
make more sense to think of the number twenty-two in that respect, given the
events of Numbers chapter 3, and especially considering how the census numbers
worked out between the tribe of Levi and the other tribes (which is why I took
the time to relay the details of that story).
Indeed,
David’s division of the Levites into their respective courses was not a matter
of representation; it was a simple division of labor undertaken as part of a
larger reorganization effort. This becomes apparent if you go back to I
Chronicles 22, where we see the beginning of the events that led to the
division of the Levites. David was old and knew that he would soon die. His son,
Solomon, was to succeed him, but as noted in I Chronicles 22:5, Solomon was
young and inexperienced, and David was particularly concerned that the building
of the temple be handled correctly. For this reason, David began to make “ample
preparations before his death.”
David
didn’t stop with preparations for the temple, however. He went on to divide the
Levites according to their various roles of service, from caring for the
sanctuary, to keeping the temple treasures, to serving as musicians, officers,
gatekeepers, and judges. He also reorganized the army into twelve divisions of
24,000 each and set up overseers for the king’s fields and storehouses. David then
called a general meeting of the leaders of Israel and charged Solomon before
them (see I Chronicles 28-29), thus making it clear to the entire nation that
Solomon was his, as well as the Lord’s, chosen successor.
The
Heavenly Pattern
When
David turned the kingdom over to Solomon, he attributed the changes he was
implementing to God’s own direction:
Then David gave to his son
Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses,
its upper rooms, its inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat; and the plan
of all that he had in mind, for the courts of the Lord, and for all the
surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God and for the
storehouses of the dedicated things; also for the divisions of the priests and
the Levites and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord… “All
this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me,
all the details of this pattern.” – I Chronicles 28:13, 19
Moses,
too, was given a pattern to follow for the Tabernacle and its furnishings:
Let them [the sons of Israel]
construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all
that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern
of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it…See that you make them
after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain… – Exodus
25:9, 40
Now this was the workmanship of
the lampstand, hammered work of gold; from its base to its flowers it was
hammered work; according to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses, so he
made the lampstand. – Numbers 8:4
The
author of Hebrews tells us that the tabernacle and temple furnishings were
based on objects in heaven:
Now if He [Christ] were on earth,
He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer gifts
according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just
as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for,
“See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was
shown you on the mountain.” – Hebrews 8:4-5
Lastly,
the apostle John speaks of a temple that exists in heaven:
And the temple of God which is in
heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and
there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an
earthquake and a great hailstorm. – Revelation 11:19
After these things I looked, and
the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened… – Revelation
15:5
What
do these things have to do with the twenty-four elders of Revelation? The point
is this: Given that the Old Covenant tabernacle and temple were built according
to designs conveyed to Moses and David by God, and appear to have been based on
objects that already existed in heaven, it is probable that the Levites and
aspects of the Old Covenant ceremonies and offerings (although not the sin
offerings) were also based on a pre-existent, heavenly pattern: namely, angelic
beings and their various functions in the worship and service of God.
We
see a hint of priestly duties within the angelic host several times in
Revelation:
When He [Christ] had taken the
book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the
Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints. – Revelation 5:8
Another angel came and stood at
the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that
he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was
before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the
saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. – Revelation 8:3-4
Of
Angels and Men
The
Bible tells us very little about the angelic host, but from the little we are
told it is obvious that there are divisions amongst them; they are not equal to
one another in duties, position, or power.
In
Daniel 10:12-13, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel that he was sent from God with
a message for Daniel but was unable to reach him for twenty-one days due to the
interference of a fallen angel, one whom he calls “the prince of Persia.”
Gabriel reveals that he was only able to reach Daniel “when Michael, one of the
chief princes, came to help me.” The Hebrew word translated “chief” here is ri’shown, which Strong’s defines
as meaning “first in place, time or rank.” “Princes” is translated from the
Hebrew word sar, which Strong’s defines
as meaning “a head person (of any rank or class): —captain (that had rule),
chief (captain), general, governor, keeper, lord, (-task) master, prince
(-ipal), ruler, steward.” Gesenius’
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon states that sar
refers to a “leader, commander, especially of soldiers.” The term is even used
to refer to the temple priests in Isaiah 43:28 (think back again here to the
priestly functions the elders appear to be carrying out in Revelation). In Jude
1:9, Michael is referred to as an “archangel.” This term is translated from the
Greek word archaggelos, a compound of
archo, which means
“to be first…to be a chief, leader, ruler,” and aggelos, which literally means
“a messenger, envoy, one who is sent,” and is usually translated “angel.”
Thus
Michael is one of the chief leaders, or commanders, of the angels. This is
significant in that it proves that various levels of rank and organization exist
within the heavenly host, just as they apparently do amongst the fallen angels,
given what we read in Daniel 10 and also in Ephesians 6:12, where Paul says
that believers are struggling against “principalities, powers, and rulers of
darkness…in the heavenly places.”
It
is my contention that the twenty-four elders are archangels, the chief rulers
of the angelic host. This is probably why they are depicted as sitting on
thrones and wearing crowns. Dr. Gromacki, on the other hand, sees the crowns of
the elders as an indication that they are saints:
The elders had crowns (stephanos)
on their heads. These are crowns gained by achievement and victory…believers in
this church age are promised crowns for specific achievements…Holy angels do
not wear crowns, but believers can and will wear them.
How
does Gromacki know that angels do not wear crowns? As previously stated, the
Bible tells us very little about the angelic host. We do know for certain that they have rulers among them, however, and
rulers often wear crowns. Gromacki points out that the crowns of the elders are
(in the Greek) specifically stephanos
crowns, crowns given for victory and achievement; but although we know
relatively little about the activities of angels, it’s clear from the
scriptures we’ve seen that angels engage in warfare. Is it really so
unbelievable that they might be honored for their achievements in war or in
other aspects of service to God? The Bible is clear that angels can be punished;
why can they not also be rewarded?
Gromakci
also has a problem with the elders being angels because they are sitting in the
presence of God:
They are “sitting” on thrones.
They are not standing, flying, or hovering. Have angels ever sat in the
presence of God? No scripture verse says that they ever done so.
No
scripture says that they haven’t done so, either. If they are rulers, and
especially if they are engaged as a heavenly court (per Daniel 7), it would
make sense for them to be sitting. Scripture often depicts judges as seated
when hearing a matter or issuing a verdict.
Gromacki
continues:
Jesus promised every believer in
the church age: “To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My
throne, as I also over came and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Rev.
3:21 NKJv). God positionally has made every believer to “sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). The “sitting” feature of the
elders better suits men than angels.
A
careful reading of Revelation 3:21 reveals an exegetical error in Gromacki’s
argument. Jesus does promise believers that they will share his throne, but his
throne is not the Father’s throne. It
is crucial that this be understood. The Father rules in heaven, and Christ
shares his throne now because he has not yet received his own. And what throne
is it that he will receive?
“And behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bring for a son, and shall call his name JESUS. He will be great,
and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the
throne of His father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of His kingdom there will be no end.” – Luke 1:31-33
I will surely tell the decree of
the Lord:
He said to Me, “You are my Son,
Today I have begotten You.
‘Ask of Me and I will surely give
the nations as your inheritance
And the very ends of the earth as
your possession.
‘You shall break them with a rod
of iron,
You shall shatter them like a potter’s
vessel.” – Psalm 2:7-9
Jesus
is the heir to David’s throne, which he will assume in the city of Jerusalem
during the Millennial Kingdom, and will rule over the entire world. Thus
Christ’s throne, in which believers are promised a share, is an earthly throne.
Jesus underscores this for us in Revelation 2:25-27:
He who overcomes, and he who
keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are
broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father.
Believers
will not begin to reign with Christ until he receives his throne, at the
beginning of the Millennium. Until then, he sits on the Father’s throne in
expectation of receiving the promised kingdom.
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at
my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” – Psalm
110:1
Therefore repent and turn so that
your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from
the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for
you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things
about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. –
Acts 3:19-21
…but He, having offered one
sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting
from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. –
Hebrews 10:12-13
It
is true that believers “are seated in the heavens” with Christ now after a
fashion, but this is only in the sense that his current exaltation at the
Father’s side guarantees that the promises to us will also be fulfilled. We
“sit” with him because we are considered to be “in him,” and are thus heirs
along with him (see Galatians 3:29).
Gromacki
also sees a clue to the identity of the elders in how they are dressed:
The elders were “clothed in white
robes” (himatiois leukois). These words were previously used of believers
within the churches (3:5, 18).
Believers
are indeed promised white garments, but the Bible also describes angels as
wearing white:
An angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his
appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. – Matthew
28:2-3
But Mary was standing outside the
tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and
she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had been lying. – John 20:11-12
White
is a symbol of holiness and purity in the scriptures, and is not applied
exclusively to the saints. In addition to angels who were seen clothed in
white, Jesus is described as appearing in white during his transfiguration
(Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, Luke 9:29), and Daniel describes God the Father (the
Ancient of Days) as wearing a “vesture like white snow” in Daniel 7:9.
What’s
in a Name?
On
another front, Dr. Gromacki believes that the term “elder” strongly hints that
saints are in view rather than angels:
The term “elder” (presbuteros) is
never used of angels in the Bible. The word itself denotes maturity and growth.
It is contrasted with “younger” (1 Tim. 5:1-2). How could angels be designated
as elders when all of the holy angels were created at the same time. In other
words, they are of the same age. In contrast, the elders of a local church were
to be men of spiritual experience…
I’m
curious how it is that Gromacki knows that all of the angels were created at
the same time and are of the same age, since the Bible never tells us this nor
even implies it. Jesus told us that angels do not marry, and so we know that
they must not reproduce as humans do, but this does not mean that they were all
created at the same time. It is entirely possible that the angels were created
in ranks, with the chief angels being created prior to rest.
There
is a possible parallel here in the creation of mankind. The Bible describes man
as the “head” of the woman because he was created first (I Timothy 2:12-13).
Genesis 2 tells us that God created Adam, put him in the Garden of Eden, gave
him instructions on the care of the Garden, and brought the animals to him to
see what he would call them, all before the creation of Eve. At least one
likely reason for this is so that Adam would have time to learn enough to
become a leader, teacher, and provider for Eve. How long this went on, we don’t
know, but it seems clear from scripture that a fair amount of time must have
passed.
A
similar scenario may have taken place with the angels. It is possible that the
elders were created first and taught what they needed to know so that they
could more effectively assume leadership once the rest of the angelic host were
created. Thus, the archangels may indeed be older than the rest of the angels.
We cannot know this for certain, but, again, we know very little about angels
to start with, and next to nothing about their history.
Lost
in Translation?
Translation
issues have also arisen in the debate surrounding the identity of the elders.
In Revelation 5:8-10, the elders sing “a new song” in praise to Christ, and the
perspective of the song changes depending on what text you’re reading from.
Bible
translations based on the Textus Receptus (such as the King James, New King
James, and Young’s Literal Translation) read as if the elders are singing the
song in the first person, referencing themselves. Here is the passage as it
appears in the King James Version:
And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the
prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, “Thou art worthy to
take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign
on the earth.”
Versions
based on the Alexandrian and Majority Greek Texts, however, such as the New
International Version and New American Standard Bible, render this passage in
the third person. Here it is as it appears in the NASB:
When He had taken the book, the
four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the
book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with
Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made
them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign upon the
earth.
Gromacki
comments on this as follows:
With the use of the third-person
pronouns, the elders seem to be praising God for the salvation of another
group. Those who believe that the elders are angels are quick to point out that
interpretation. However, can people speak about themselves in the third-person
rather than in the first person? The song of Moses and of the children of
Israel, expressed after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage and their
passage through the Red Sea, contains these words: “You in Your mercy have led
forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength
to Your holy habitation” (Exod. 15:13 NKJV). The Israelites are definitely
singing about themselves, and yet they sing in the third person. Thus, if the
third-person text translation (in Rev. 5:8-10) is accepted as the preferred,
original text translation, that fact alone does not preclude the possibility
that the elders are singing about their own salvation.
Gromacki’s
point is valid enough as far as it goes; but aside from the issue of pronoun
usage, the text provides us with a strong indicator that the elders cannot be
singing about themselves. Note that both
translations I quoted above tell us that the
four living creatures as well as the twenty-four elders fell down before
the Lamb and sang the new song. While we might reasonably debate the identity
of the elders, I think we can all safely agree that the four living creatures
are not human and thus could not possibly be singing about their salvation. The
fact that the creatures as well as the elders sing the same song is a powerful
indicator that the elders are not human beings and the third-person rendering
is likely what the apostle John originally wrote.
The
Elders contrasted with the Angels
Gromacki
follows his observation on the translation issue by arguing that the next song
sung in heaven in Revelation chapter 5 indicates that there is a distinction
between the elders and the angels:
Angels are set in contrast to the
elders: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne,
the living creatures and the elders” (Rev. 5:11 NKJV). They sang praise to
Christ without any reference to their redemption or to the salvation of others:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and
strength and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12 NKJv). If the elders are
angels, then the song would appear to be redundant. The second song and the
contrast between the elders and the angels suggest that the elders are human.
The
first observation I would offer here is that the angels are not only contrasted
with the elders, they are also contrasted with the four beasts, yet both the
angels and the beasts are heavenly beings; so this does not necessarily prove
anything with regard to the elders.
Secondly,
if the elders are indeed angelic chiefs or archangels, and particularly if they
are seated as judges in a kind of celestial court when John encounters them, it
would make sense for a distinction to be drawn between them and the more
numerous rank-and-file “messengers” over whom they preside. We often see such
distinctions drawn in human institutions, where high-ranking persons are
referenced by rank or title in order to differentiate them from those of lower
standing. For instance, most people will not refer to an admiral or a general
by the generic term “soldier,” whereas they have no problem doing so with
regard to lower-ranking military personnel.
The
Elders are High-Ranking Angelic Beings
The
pretribulationist case for the twenty-four elders representing the raptured
church is based primarily on unsubstantiated assumptions and faulty exegesis. As
I hope I’ve demonstrated here, a much stronger exegetical case can be made that
the elders are, in fact, high-ranking angelic beings who lead the heavenly host
and sit as a type of court in matters of divine judgment.
Click here for part four.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the NASB.
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