The Coronation of the King

By Darryl Barton

There exists a place, a throne room, more immense, more majestic than any that have ever or will ever be found on this planet. In that throne room there is a throne upon which the LORD God Almighty, Creator of the Universe and all that exists within it, sits. He sits, who is called YHVH or Jehovah, the great "I AM," who alone exists independent of all else, who has no material form, yet chooses to appear in such form for the benefit of His creation. Few mortals have ever been granted the miraculous privilege of witnessing this place. Those that were, Isaiah and Ezekiel and possibly the apostle Paul, fainted in awe, speechless at the sight. The apostle John too was summoned to see this sight, to reveal it to the children of God as they await that glorious day when their Lord, in that very throne room, will be crowned sovereign over all creation. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is that revelation to us.
This work is an attempt by the author to demonstrate that Revelation is a glimpse of the coronation ceremony of our Lord as He is crowned King of all kings and Lord of all lords, sovereign over all the creation of God. It is not a detailed commentary of this book of Scripture but rather it paints a broader picture.
The author lays out his presuppositions in the first chapter, discusses the structure then gives an overview in chapters two and three. The remaining chapters, four through thirty-two, take one through the Book of Revelation from beginning to end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darryl Barton
• Release date: May 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311581211

Darryl Barton

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, my family moved to Arlington, Texas where I grew up and graduated from High School. After graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington I entered Dallas Theological Seminary, married and graduated in 1973. My wife, Paula, and I moved to North Bend, Oregon then to Gulfport, Mississippi. There I pastored a small independent Bible church for many years. In 1989 we moved to the Kansas City area and taught in a small Christian school until 2004 when I started working for Cabela’s.I continue to minister in my local church, Calvary Bible Church, in Bonner Springs, Kansas teaching Sunday School and occasionally filling in for our pastor and I maintain a Bible Study Website. My hobbies include herpetology (I have a ball python named Fuzzy!), photography and gardening.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - In The Beginning

Chapter 2 - Outline And Structure

Chapter 3 - Overview Of The Book

Chapter 4 - The Title And Introduction (1:1-8)

Chapter 5 - The Things He Had Seen (1:9-20)

Chapter 6 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Ephesus (2:1-7)

Chapter 7 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Smyrna (2:8-11)

Chapter 8 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Pergamum (2:12-17)

Chapter 9 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Thyatira (2:18-29)

Chapter 10 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Sardis (3:1-6)

Chapter 11 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Philadelphia (3:7-13)

Chapter 12 - The Things Which Are: Letter To Laodicea (3:14-22)

Chapter 13 - The Scene Is Set (4:1-11)

Chapter 14 - The Crown Is Claimed (5:1-14)

Chapter 15 - The Opening Of The Seals (6:1-17)

Chapter 16 - The Saints Of The Tribulation (7:1-17)

Chapter 17 - The Trumpet Fanfare (8:1-12)

Chapter 18 - The First And Second Woes ((8:13-9:21)

Chapter 19 - The Earth Is Claimed (10:1-11)

Chapter 20 - The Two Witnesses (11:1-14)

Chapter 21 - The Seventh Trumpet/The Third Woe (11:15-12:17)

Chapter 22 - The Two Kingdoms (13:1-14:5)

Chapter 23 - The Announcements Of Judgment (14:6-13)

Chapter 24 - The Symbols Of Judgment (14:14-20)

Chapter 25 - The Seven Last Plagues ((15:1-16:21)

Chapter 26 - The Identity Of Babylon (17:1-18)

Chapter 27 - The Judgment Of Babylon (18:1-24)

Chapter 28 - The Return Of The King (19:1-21)

Chapter 29 - The Kingdom And Rebellion (20:1-15)

Chapter 30 - The New Creation (21:1-22:5)

Chapter 31 - The Conclusion To Revelation (22:6-21)

About the author

CHAPTER 1 - IN THE BEGINNING

When the announcement is made that there is going to be a study of the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ reactions can be quite varied. Some people become truly excited and eager to study. They want to be able to look at the present political/historical context and identify the players named in the book of the Revelation. They want to know what is going to happen and, if possible, when. Others frown and are quite negative toward the idea of studying this portion of Scripture. Their reasoning is this book is about events sometime yet in the future or possibly about events that have already occurred in the past. Since its over or since we cannot know when it will be, why worry about it. Others are negative because they believe one cannot be sure of any interpretation since, as they believe, this book is so symbolic. Between these two extremes are many other views as well. I am not certain what your reaction to this study or what your expectations for it might be.

Therefore, we begin with a word of introduction about the profitability and prophetabity (Yes, I made this word up!) of this study.

Revelation, a Profitable Book to Study

The book of the Revelation is a PROFITABLE book to study. It is part of scripture and it is therefore profitable. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states:

3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

3:17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Studying the Scriptures is like mining. Some portions of the Scripture are very easy to mine. The mother lode runs close to the surface and is easily accessible. You can casually walk along the surface and pick up gold nuggets and precious gyms. Other portions of Scripture take much more work. The good stuff is there, but you have to dig deep for it. If you were to ask me where the book of the Revelation fits in this analogy, I would say there is a tremendous amount of wealth lying about on the surface to be picked up and much more to be found by digging in to it. But God's promise is that it is profitable.

The book itself tells us this. It starts and ends with a special promise. Revelation 1:3 and 22:7:

1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

22:7 And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.

Now it is very, very important to take notice that this does not say that you will be blessed because you study or read the Book of Revelation. Read these verses again. Listen carefully to them. What does the text say? Blessed are those who READ and HEED the words of this prophecy. Studying or reading it is not enough. It is only step one to be sure. You have to do more! You have to put into practice what it teaches. Then, and only then, are you blessed.

If you are looking forward to this study primarily because you want to know what is going to happen in the future, if you want to be able to identify (if that is at all possible!) the players, then this study will not be as profitable for you as it could be. I suggest you need to set your goals a bit higher. The question is not what the antichrist, or the false prophet, or Israel, or anyone else is going to do in the days to come, but what you are going to do right now in the days in which you are living! Knowledge of future events may be interesting, but obedience to the Word brings blessing! Even though most of his book is about prophecy, things yet to take place, there is application in it that is relevant right now, right where we are living! That is what the Lord wants you and me to see and understand and put into practice.

Revelation, a Prophetable Book to Study

It is a PROFITABLE book to study; it is also a PROPHETABLE book to study, that is, it is prophetic. Verse 3 of chapter 1 calls this book prophecy as does verse 7 of the last chapter. There are some who will now reply, Ah, but the word prophecy means the forth telling of God's Word not necessarily the foretelling of events to take place. That is certainly true! Yet it is also true that the declaration of future events is a characteristic of prophetic literature. And this is prophetic literature. The first verse of the book of the Revelation itself declares it concerns things that must soon take place. These things, which were future in the day in which John penned this book, still are yet to take place.

Before you read this study it is well that you understand the presuppositions of the author. These are some things that I accept as true and are a foundation for what is taught in this work.

There is a God - He is the creator of our universe, world and life.

Is there a God or isn't there? Atheists, claiming to be scientific, insist that the evidence proves there is no god. Believers on the other hand declare that the evidence proves that there is one. Who is right? In a strict sense, neither camp. The existence or nonexistence of God is not something that can be strictly proven deductively. It is an assumption or postulate with which one starts.

Everyone starts with certain assumptions in their lives. This is true even in the math or sciences. In order to prove a thing deductively, you must have a starting place, something that you know to be true or assume to be true. What one begins with are axioms and postulates. These are things one assumes without proof. Even inductive science rests heavily upon a foundation of assumed truth. The issue of whether or not there is a God, who is the creator of our universe, world and life, is one such assumption regardless of what is claimed by evolutionists and atheists.

If you believe there is no God, then all there is, our world and universe, life itself is a simple product of time and chance. You accept this not because the evidence points to this conclusion, you accept this as a beginning postulate. If you believe there is a God, then you do so as an assumption and work from there.

One's postulates, however, may be weighed and evaluated in the light of the data we observe in life. While one cannot PROVE these postulates true or false, it is possible to determine if they are LIKELY or REASONABLE. For example in math we assume that one real number added to a second real number is equal in value to the second real number added to the first.

(The Commutative Property: a + b = b + a)

We cannot prove that, but it seems reasonable and all experience has confirmed that it is likely true.

A person has essentially two choices, possibly three. You can assume there is no God, or you can assume there is one. Therefore you are an atheist, a person who believes there is no God, or a theist, a person who believes there is a God. Realize that you choose believe one of these, not because the evidence indicates one or the other is true, but you choose it as a basic axiom or postulate in your life. A third possible choice might be to assume that there might be a God, but that you do not know for certain. In this case you would be an agnostic, a person who does not know if there is a God or not. However, most people who claim to be agnostics indicate by their lives that deep down they either believe there really is a God, or they believe that there is no God. Few people are true agnostics.

While atheists often take great pride on being more scientific than theists, they blindly fail to realize that their position is no more or less scientific than the theist or the agnostic. Both have simply made some basic unproven assumptions in life.

While it cannot be proven that the existence of God is true, it is a more reasonable view than the other views. The data found in our physical world is more consistent with the theistic view than any other view. I have a grapefruit size piece of obsidian that my oldest son found in the Kansas River while we were out walking on a sandbar one day. I believe that Indians who used it for trade brought it down here to Kansas. I cannot prove that, I assume it to be true. But it is much more reasonable to assume that than to assume it just occurred naturally, or was washed down the river from somewhere upstream. The fact that there are few igneous deposits in Kansas from which this may have washed down, the fact that Indians historically were known to have met and traded not far upstream from where it was found and that obsidian was an object of barter make it more reasonable to assume that is how it ended up here, than that it naturally just occurred.

Looking at all the data to be found in our natural world it is much more reasonable to assume that it was created and ordered by an intelligent being who exists apart from our universe than to assume that it all occurred by chance. Looking at all the data from geology, it is more reasonable to assume that the formations and fossils were formed by a world wide cataclysmic flood than through the slow process of evolution.

Assuming that there is a creator is more reasonable than assuming man is simply the product of time and chance. Apart from God, right and wrong, moral and immoral do not exist. They are derived from Him. If evolution driven by the survival of the fittest and strongest is the mechanism by which we are here then why not kill off the old, the weak and infirm, the diseased and genetically deficient and spur evolution onward? Who can say this is not the right thing to do? No one could reasonably argue that it was wrong or immoral if the assumption that there is no God is true.

Our Creator has communicated to us in a written record - the Bible.

If there is a God; it reasonably follows that He would communicate to us. It is reasonable to believe that if we were created and placed here on earth, the Creator would have communicated to us in some way. To believe that He created and then abandoned His creation to the vagaries of time and chance, never to communicate with us would mean that the God whose existence we postulate has little interest or purpose for what He has brought about. It would make Him to be a most terrible and heartless tyrant to thus place us here and then abandon us to our own selfish and heartless nature.

Yet if we examine the world he has created to be our home it seems clear that not only is He a powerful God, but one who is characterized by beauty and grace. He has provided a wonderful and marvelous home for mankind. What we do with it is another issue entirely. Therefore it seems reasonable that this God, powerful, good and gracious would have communicated to us.

The most reliable way to communicate would be through a written/recorded message. While this creator could have communicated in any number of ways, and no doubt did, it seems likely that He would communicate in a written form. This is reasonable since a written communication is least likely to be corrupted over a period of time. The transmission of a verbal message from one person to the next depends heavily upon the memories of those involved. Such a message is soon altered as can be seen in the children's game gossip. We believe that the Bible is this written communication from God.

The way we should interpret the Bible is by a normal literal method.

The question often is raised, how can we know what the Bible means when there are so many different ways to take it? The simple and most logical answer is that we should simply take it at face value, that is, in a literal method of interpretation. This is the normal way we communicate in daily life. If someone shouted Duck! We would not stop to consider all the symbolic and allegorical meanings involved in this short verb. We would take it at face value and duck! (Or possibly, if the word was a noun rather than a verb, look around for waterfowl!) In everyday conversation we interpret what people say in a normal literal way. We can reasonably expect that, if God communicated to us in a written form, He would usually intend us to understand what He said in a normal literal way.

It is the least subjective and most objective way to proceed. The more symbolically one interprets a passage, the more it is open to a person's own ideas and views. Take for example the statement, I saw a black cat cross my path. If we take that statement in its normal literal sense it means simply that the speaker visually perceived a small mammal of the feline family, black in coloration, move across the route the speaker was traveling. Almost anyone would understand that if they take the normal literal understanding. It can mean little else. If, however, we were not to take it at its face value, but insist that the speaker was speaking figuratively, the number of possible meanings increases directly with the number of people who attempt to interpret it. Does it mean an evil presence has entered the speaker's awareness? Does the speaker foresee bad luck? Does it mean that a beautiful raven-haired girl is about to come into the speaker's life? Who knows when we begin to assign symbolic meanings what this might mean. A literal interpretation is usually the best and least open to subjectivity.

This method does not ignore the normal use of figurative language. Figures of speech are normal and common. They are recognized grammatical and literary forms. A normal literal approach recognizes these legitimate figures as they were ordinarily used by the people who wrote them and the people to whom they were written.

This approach also recognizes the historical context in which the statements were made. An important question anyone must ask when interpreting a passage of Scripture is, What did this mean to those to whom it was written? A figure of speech, a phrase used in that day might have had a different meaning than the same phrase used today.

The final authority of what is right/wrong, true/false, real/unreal is God's Word.

If there is a God, He, not we, is the final authority. If God speaks directly to an issue, that is that. Ultimately our determination of what is right or wrong derives from Him. He is the source and definition of what is moral and what is not. Indeed if there is no God, then in the final analysis there is no right or wrong. They are meaningless concepts in a universe governed by random chance.

Without a God to define good and bad, moral and immoral, they become cultural concepts subject to the whims and fickleness of culture. They depend only upon one's opinion and who is to say that your opinion is better than mine, or the majority opinion is better than the minority.

If survival of the fittest and strongest has been the guiding principle of evolution in the development of life on our planet as they so claim who deny the existence of God, then it would only be natural and right for those who are strong to seize power and eliminate the weak and feeble. Who then could claim that would be wrong?

But there is a God. And because there is a God, we know that the qualities of love, kindness, mercy and such are good and right. He defines them. Our society does not define morality, God does. When He speaks it is authoritative!

We must not however confuse our traditions and opinions with God's word. All too often we have taken our own ideas, values and traditions and have elevated them declaring them to be God's will. For example, today most Christians, in the Western World at least, firmly believe that a democratic form of government is Christian, that it is God's will. The truth of the matter is that God has not declared one form of government to be Christian and another pagan. God has not spoken to this issue. While it may be the best form of government based on a certain set of human criteria, it has not been declared to be God's will by the Bible. Much, if not most, of what believers do today is determined not by God's Word but by our traditions. While these may be good and honorable traditions (or sometimes not so good and honorable), they are just traditions and not God's Word. God's Word alone is authoritative.

In many areas God does not speak. In many areas what He has declared may not be clear in every instance. He does not address every issue we face in life. There are many questions that we may ask to which God has not given us answers.

We, in this life, will never fully understand this Book. Although we are to interpret the Word of God in a normal literal way, this does not mean we will fully understand this divine book in our lifetime here on earth. There are passages that are enigmatic. There are those which raise more questions than they answer. Yet the more we study it, the more we will come to comprehend it for our God gave it to us intending that we come to know and understand.

The reader should also know from the outset that this writer approaches the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ with a futurist view believing that the preponderance of the prophecies are still future. He is also dispensational, premillennial and pretribulational to add a few other labels.

To Table of Contents

CHAPTER 2 - OUTLINE AND STRUCTURE

The Outline

The basic outline of this book is easy to determine. Our Lord Himself gave it to John in a vision. In Revelation 1:19 our Lord instructs John:

Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

How do we correlate what John was instructed to write with what he did in fact write? It is not very hard at all! The first thing John was to write about was what he had seen. What he had already seen up to the point of the instruction was the vision of the Lord that is found in 1:9-20. This then is the first major point in the outline. Then in chapter 4:1 John is told this:

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 here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.

What follows in chapter 4 to the end is what will take place after these things and is the third major point in the outline. What is found between these two sections then must be the second major point or the things that are.

The three major divisions are: the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. The things which he had seen, is the vision of the Lord in chapter 1, verses 9-20. The things which are, makes up the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. The things, which shall take place after these things, comprises the largest section, chapter 4 through chapter 22 verse 5, dealing with the Tribulation Period, the kingdom and the new heavens and the earth. John then adds a title and introduction in verses 1 through 8 of chapter 1, and a conclusion in verses 6 through 21 of the last chapter, chapter 22.

This is then the broad outline to the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

I. Title and Introduction (Rev. 1:1-2)

II. The Things Which You Have Seen (Rev. 1:9-20)

III. The Things Which Are (Rev. 2-3)

IV. The Things Which Shall Be After These Things (Rev. 4:1-22:5)

V. The Conclusion (Rev. 22:6-21)

For those who are more visually oriented and who prefer the chart form (as is this writer) the following is offered:

Chapter 2 Slide 1

The Structure

Whereas the outline of the book is very easy to discern the structure of the book is far more difficult especially when one is considering the largest section, The Things Which Shall Be After These Things (Rev. 4:1-22:5). To a large degree how one interprets the text will determine one's view of the structure. Those who employ an allegorical hermeneutic have a multitude of possible structures but the more literal the method of interpretation becomes the narrower the choices of structure there are. If words do not mean what they say but have a deeper underlying or hidden meaning a person can erect whatever structure he or she can conceive since the person determines the meaning of those words, but if words mean what they say a student of the passage is constrained by those words.

The general principle which I follow and which I am convinced should be followed in the study of all Scripture is that we are to understand a passage in a normal, literal, historical sense. This is not to say we are not to recognize normal figures of speech used by those that wrote; nor are we to disregard the genre of the literature itself. That being said, the fact that this book is considered to be apocalyptic literature does not mean we should take everything in as symbolic. Not at all! As a general rule we should understand something literally unless it is specifically stated to be symbolic, or is a common symbol used elsewhere and widely understood as such by the readers of that day. That, at least, will be the approach taken here.

Since John, apart from his title and introduction and his conclusion to the book, simply recorded the visions as they were revealed to him, the structure is not something carefully thought out and crafted by him to convey a message, but is rather determined the content of those visions.

In the first section where John was instructed to write, The Things Which You Have Seen (Rev. 1:9-20), there is no question to the structure. John simply gives the background to the vision of the Lord and then records the vision for us. In the second section, The Things Which Are (Rev. 2:1-3:22), there is also very little questions as to structure. John records seven separate letters one after the other to seven literal churches in existence in his day. The letters also follow a general pattern as well.

When we come to the Third section, The Things Which Shall Be After These Things (Rev. 4:1-22:5), there are more questions. Among the commentators that take a normal, historical, literal approach there are many different views on the structure of this book in chapters 4 through 19. Many of the early commentators took a general chronological approach with events occurring, one after another, from beginning to end. First there were the seal judgments, then the trumpet judgments concluded by the bowl judgments. These repeated sets of seven raised many questions with some authorities. Why have three series of judgments? An approach that has been popular recently is to see these three series as occurring concurrently. Each series take us through the seven years of the Tribulation, but each stress a different aspect of God's judgment on Israel and on the nations of the earth.

It is best, I am convinced, to take the former view of a general chronological progression from the end of the church age and the beginning of the Tribulation Period with the rapture in Rev 4:1 to the conclusion of the Tribulation Period with the destruction of the Beast and False Prophet and their armies in Rev 19:11 and following. This is how it was revealed to John and how he recorded it. What tends to confuse the understanding is that the action takes place on two different theaters or stages. There are events taking place in heaven in God's throne room; concurrently there are events occurring on the earth.

One question that always comes up is this. Will we, present day believers, have to go through the time of testing known as the Tribulation? The answers given vary because different opinions on when an event known as the Rapture takes place. This event is spoken of in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us a time is coming when several things will take place. First a trumpet will sound and the Lord will descend from Heaven. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ (died as believers) will rise (be resurrected, given new perfect physical bodies). Next we who are alive and remain (living believers) will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air to be with Him forever. From other passages of the New Testament we know we shall be instantly changed, our present physical and spiritual bodies will be perfected and transformed.

The debate is when this event, the Rapture, occurs. There are some who believe it will occur at the end of the Tribulation Period (post-tribulational view), meaning that we today as believers can look forward to suffering through this terrible time coming upon the earth. There are others that believe the Rapture will take place at the middle of the Tribulation Period (mid-tribulational view). This means we as believers today might experience the first three and one-half years but miss the last three and one-half years that are much worse. Finally there are those that believe that the Rapture will take place immediately before the Tribulation Period (pre-tribulational view). We, believers today, will not experience any of the events of the seven years of judgment upon the earth, having been taken from the earth before these times start.

This study assumes the last view to be correct. It is supported by more evidence from the rest of Scripture than do the other views and also fits the picture of the events here in Revelation much better than do the others. John, in chapter 4:1, himself is a picture of the church (present day believers) being taken up to heaven after the events of chapters 2 & 3 (The Church Age) and the before the beginning of events in chapters 4 and following (The Tribulation Period).

From Chapter 4 through chapter 19 events occur and our view is shifted first from one stage then to the other. Events occur in heaven, in God's great throne room, and events also take place on earth. It is similar to a novel in which an author takes two different characters in different places and alternates back and forth between them until finally they are brought together in a later chapter.

If a person reads through chapters 4 through 19, taking the events taking place in heaven, putting them all together, he or she will quickly recognize that what is taking place is a coronation ceremony, in which our Savior assumes the position He is rightfully due, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the creation of God.

The sequence of events in these chapters is for the most part chronological. The events taking place in the heavenly throne room proceed in chronological order and the events taking place on earth also take place on chronological order. What complicates this picture, and what has been often overlooked, in fact what has been almost impossible for readers to conceive prior to the last 75 years or so is that the time flow on these two stages takes place at two different rates. The events in heaven take place over a