The Scroll and the Lamb

There was a door standing open in the sky. “Come up here,” the trumpet voice said, “and I will show you what must happen.” And there was a throne, with somebody sitting on it. John says it looked like jasper and carnelian, and that a rainbow went round it, green as an emerald, with lightning and thunder coming out of it, and seven lamps burning in front of it, and something like a sea of glass. Round about sat twenty-four old men in white, with gold crowns.

Four living creatures were there, covered all over with eyes, in front and behind: one like a lion, one like a young ox, one with a face like a man’s, one like an eagle flying. Six wings each, and they never stop. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is coming.” And every time they say it the old men throw their crowns down in front of the throne. “You are worthy, our Lord and God, because you made everything.”

In the right hand of the one on the throne was a scroll, shut with seven seals. “Who is worthy to open it?” a strong messenger called. Nobody was — not in heaven, not on the earth, not under the earth — and John stood there and cried. “Do not cry,” one of the old men said. “The lion of the tribe of Judah has won. He can open it.” So John looked for a lion. What he saw was a Lamb, standing in the middle of the throne, and it looked as if it had been killed. It took the scroll, and everything there went down in front of it with harps and gold bowls of incense — the prayers of God’s people. “You are worthy, because you were killed, and with your blood you bought people for God out of every tribe and language and nation.”

Then the Lamb began to break the seals, and each time a living creature said, “Come.” At the first: a white horse, and the man on it had a bow and was given a crown, and he rode out winning. At the second: a horse fiery red, and the man on it was given a great sword, to take peace off the earth so that people would kill one another. At the third: a black horse, and the man on it had a pair of scales, and a voice said, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay — and do not spoil the oil and the wine.” At the fourth: a horse the color of a dead leaf, and the man on it was named Death, and Hades came behind him, and a quarter of the earth was given them, to kill with sword and hunger and sickness and wild animals.

At the fifth, John saw under the altar the souls of the people killed for the word of God. “How long, Master, holy and true?” they called. They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the rest of them had come in. At the sixth the ground shook, and the sun went black like a hair sack and the moon went red, and the stars fell the way a fig tree drops its green figs in a gale, and the sky rolled up like a scroll. And kings and soldiers and rich men, and slaves and free men, hid in the caves and said to the rocks: “Fall on us. Hide us from the face of the one on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb.”

Before the seventh seal there was a pause, while the servants of God were sealed on their foreheads: a hundred and forty-four thousand, twelve thousand out of each tribe of Israel. And then John saw a crowd nobody could count, out of every nation and language, standing in front of the throne in white robes with palm branches in their hands. “These are the ones coming out of the great trouble,” an old man told him. “They will not be hungry again, or thirsty again, because the Lamb will lead them to springs of the water of life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

When the seventh seal was opened there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then seven messengers were given seven trumpets, and another burned incense at the altar with the prayers of all God’s people, and then threw fire off the altar down on the earth. The first trumpet: hail and fire, and a third of the earth burned, and a third of the trees, and all the green grass. The second: a burning mountain went into the sea, and a third of the sea turned to blood, and a third of the living things in it died. The third: a star called Wormwood fell on the rivers, and the water went bitter, and people died of it. The fourth: a third of the sun and moon and stars went dark.

The fifth: a fallen star opened the shaft that goes down to the deep, and smoke came up until the sun went dark, and out of the smoke came locusts with power like scorpions, told to sting for five months the people who had no seal on their foreheads. They looked like horses dressed for war, with faces like people’s faces. Their king is the messenger of the deep: Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek. The sixth: four messengers were untied at the great river Euphrates, and an army came, twice ten thousand times ten thousand horsemen, with fire and smoke out of the horses’ mouths, and a third of the people on the earth were killed. And the ones left did not change their minds; they went on bowing to things their own hands had made, which cannot see or hear or walk.

There was more: a strong messenger with one foot on the sea and one on the land, and seven thunders that spoke, which John was told to seal up and not write down; a little scroll he was given to eat, sweet as honey in his mouth and sour in his stomach; and two witnesses in sacking, killed by the beast out of the deep, who lay three days and a half in the street and then stood up on their feet.

The seventh trumpet: loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, and he will reign forever and ever.” And God’s sanctuary in heaven was opened, and inside it John saw the chest of his forever promise.

Then a great sign in the sky: a woman with the sun round her like a coat and the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars, crying out because her baby was coming. And another sign: a great dragon, fiery red, with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns, and his tail dragged a third of the stars down out of the sky. He stood in front of the woman, waiting to eat her child the moment it was born. She had a son, a boy, who is going to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod — and the child was snatched up to God, and the woman ran into the wilderness, where God had a place ready.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his messengers fought the dragon, and the dragon was not strong enough. So he was thrown down to the earth with his messengers — the old snake, the one called the Accuser, and Satan, who fools the whole world. “They beat him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of what they said,” a loud voice called, “and they did not love their own lives so much that they would not die. But woe to the earth: the Accuser has come down to you in a great rage, and he knows he has only a short time.” He went after the woman, and she was given eagle’s wings to fly into the wilderness; and he threw water after her like a river, and the earth drank it up. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

And out of the sea a beast came up: seven heads, ten horns, ten crowns, and names on the heads that insulted God. It was like a leopard, with a bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth, and the dragon gave it his own power and his own throne. One of its heads looked as if it had been killed, and the wound had healed, and the whole earth followed it and said, “Who is like the beast?” And it was allowed to make war on God’s people and beat them.

Then another beast came up out of the ground, with two horns like a lamb, talking like a dragon. It made everybody bow to the first beast, and did great signs, even bringing fire down out of the sky where people could see it. It had them make an image of the first beast, and put breath into the image so that it could speak. And it made everybody — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave — take a mark on the hand or the forehead, so nobody could buy or sell without it. “Here is where wisdom is needed,” John writes. “Let whoever has a head for it count the number of the beast. It is a man’s number, and it is six hundred and sixty-six.”

Then the Lamb stood on Mount Zion with a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name on their foreheads, singing a song nobody else could learn. And three messengers flew over, one after another: “Fear God and give him glory.” “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.” And a warning for anybody who took the beast’s mark.

After that, seven messengers came out of the sanctuary with seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, and a voice said, “Go and pour them out.” The first, on the land: sores on the people with the mark. The second, into the sea: it went like the blood of a dead man, and everything alive in it died. The third, into the rivers: blood. The fourth, on the sun: it scorched people, and they cursed God and did not change their minds. The fifth, on the throne of the beast: its kingdom went dark, and still they did not change. The sixth, on the Euphrates: it dried up to make a road for the kings from the east, and three unclean spirits like frogs went out to gather the kings of the world to the place called in Hebrew Harmagedon. And the seventh, into the air — and a loud voice came out of the throne: “It has happened.” And there was an earthquake bigger than any since there were people on the earth, and the islands ran away, and the mountains were not there any more.

Then a messenger showed John a woman on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, dressed in purple and gold, with a name on her forehead, a secret: Babylon the great. The heads and the horns are kings, he said, and they will make war with the Lamb; and the Lamb will beat them, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And another messenger came down with the earth lit up from his glory: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.” And another voice said, “Come out of her, my people.” The kings stood a long way off and cried at the smoke of her burning; and the merchants cried too, because nobody was buying their cargo any more — gold and silver, linen and silk, ivory and marble, spice and wine and wheat, cattle and horses, and bodies — and the souls of people. And a strong messenger threw a stone like a millstone into the sea. “Babylon will go down like that,” he said, “and nobody will ever find her again. No mill will turn in you, and no lamp will shine, ever again.”

And a sound came out of heaven like a huge crowd: “Hallelujah — the Lord God the Almighty has begun to reign. The wedding of the Lamb has come.” And heaven opened, and there was a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True. His eyes are a flame of fire, and there are many crowns on his head, and a name written that nobody knows but himself. His coat has been dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. The armies of heaven came behind him on white horses, in linen white and clean. A sharp sword comes out of his mouth, and on his coat and on his thigh a name: King of kings and Lord of lords. The beast and the kings of the earth gathered their armies to make war on him. The beast was caught, and the false prophet with it, and both were thrown into the lake of fire.

Then a messenger came down with the key of the deep and a great chain, took hold of the dragon — the old snake, who is the Accuser and Satan — and tied him up for a thousand years and shut him in the deep. And John saw thrones, and the souls of the ones killed for what they said about Jesus; and they reigned with the Christ a thousand years. When the thousand years were finished Satan was let out, to fool the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, as many as the sand of the sea; and fire came down and ate them up, and he was thrown into the lake of fire. And John saw a great white throne, and the one sitting on it, and the earth and the sky ran away from his face. The dead stood in front of it, great and small, and scrolls were opened, and another scroll, which is the book of life; and every one of them was judged by what he had done. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, the second death.

And it went on like that, one thing after another: lampstands and trumpets and horsemen, a woman, a dragon, a scroll nobody could open, a Lamb standing as though it had been killed. He said what he saw, and wrote it down, and went on to the next thing. And then it changes.