Revelation(4v6): The Structure of Creation

THE BOOK OF
REVELATION

(Rev.4:6)

The Structure of Creation

What is my purpose for discussing this topic? Well, it is certainly not primary doctrine that we need to know and that can save us. But, it can inspire us and provide us with some sense of the greatness of God and His multi-layered creation. We know from scripture, and from our knowledge of the physical realm, that God is ordered and structured, so we can easily accept that when it comes to the invisible and metaphysical realms, this same order and structure would be maintained. We cannot measure and fully understand the nature of things in the spiritual realm, but the principles that govern that realm can be related to by our understanding of the realm in which we live. If we project our knowledge from this realm into the invisible, knowing that the physical realm is a mere shadow, or reflection, of the invisible realm, then we can only stand in awe and wonder at what we can expect to find when we, as the body of Christ, pass over into that realm at our call to come home (Romans 8:23). Remember, you and I have a heavenly destination. Our eternal purpose, as the body of Christ, is to govern this realm. So, this is why it is motivational and insightful to delve into this topic, even though we cannot even fully fathom the basics of it yet.

The slide above contains some Old Testament scriptures (from the Hebrew texts) that provide us with some (could I say, metaphorical) insights into the structure of creation. There are phrases referring to the "heaven of heavens", the "gate, door, and windows of heaven", the "firmament", the "foundations of heaven and earth", and the "face of the deep (or great deep)". I have no doubt to the legitimacy of these biblical descriptions, and they certainly can provide us with quite an imaginative view on the design of creation, (as depicted above in the image of an artists impression of these phrases), but how how you want to position these descriptive puzzle pieces is completely up to you.

As for my understanding on the structure of creation, I'm going to reference an easier imaginary design. Have a look at the following image and allow me to add my comments to elaborate,

In this slide we get some additional, very interesting, statements,

• Sea of glass like unto crystal
• For me, this sounds like an enormous stretch of pure, frozen water, and acts as the divide between the 3rd heaven and the creation. 
• Revelation 4:6 seems to indicate that God's throne is upon, or above, this crystal sea. 
• As for the scripture below, John appears to describes the brilliance of this sea, how that light seems to sparkle within it like fire, and that upon this heavenly base stood the souls of the tribulation martyrs,
  Revelation 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
• Face of the deep (which is frozen)
• In this description we are actually informed that the face of the deep is 'frozen'. This gives validity to the thought that the crystal sea is also frozen.
• If the crystal sea is at the top edge of creation, in the immediate vicinity of God's throne, then by name we can conclude that the 'face of the deep' is the frozen bottom edge of creation. One could state that this location is the part of creation that is furthest away from God's throne. This seems to agree with the next description that darkness was upon the face of the deep.
• Darkness was upon the face of the deep
• When Satan and a third of the heavenly angels rebelled and were cast out of heaven, it is likely that this is the location to which they were banned. 
• A place that is furthest away from God's presence. 
• This is the place where the rebellious angels roamed before the creation of the heavens and the earth. The description of this point is fitting of this understanding.
• The mount of the congregation (in the sides of the north)
• As the name suggests, and from my current understanding, this location is a place where the angelic hosts congregate. Consider this. In the book of Job, we have Satan coming before God and accusing Job of serving the Lord because Job is in a measure of comfort. The point I want to make is, how was Satan able to come before the Lord if he was cast out of the highest heaven? Well, his accusations, as well as all other governmental and administrative dialogue between the ranks of angels, occurs at this place called, 'the sides of the north'. 
• The word 'mount' means a place of government or power
• The word 'congregation' simply means a gathering or collection of, in this case, angelic beings. 

Now, if we take what we have discussed above, and combine it with the content of our previous post regarding the 24 elders, and them being in positions of authority over 24 regions of creation, 12 in the invisible realm and 12 in the visible realm, according to Colossians 1, then a reasonable picture starts to come forth from these pieces of information. This picture is the square diagram I have above. This is of course simply an impression of what creation could look like, and all I had at the time of producing this diagram was a blue square. So don't go thinking that we live in a very large box!!! :)

What does all this mean though? Well, it does provide us with a way to envision creation. This image will help us conceptualize the value and extent of the title deed that Jesus will receive in one of my upcoming posts. In Revelation 5, Jesus is the recipient of a title deed which contains seven seals. This deed is going to place authority and power officially back into His control, as the owner of the deed of creation. This discussion about creation is simply to provide one with a sense of the value and might and vastness of that which Jesus Christ receives from His Father, and of which you and I will have a role to play.

In the next post, we will wrap up on the sights and features which John saw in heaven before we get to Revelation 6 and the official start of the tribulation on earth.