THERE IS A HAND AGAINST THE THRONE

THERE IS A HAND AGAINST THE THRONE

Roger T. Forster


CHRIST made it clear to the Laodicean church that He had reached His Father's throne not just by birth or by favour, but by overcoming. It follows, then, that since the essence of Christianity is "Christ in you" the Christian life must be full of conflict, a battle even to the death. Moreover, what is true at the earlier stages of our Christian experience continues to be true right up to the end, there is no real respite from the war with Satan's kingdom. Those who have thought of Christianity as anything less than a fight from beginning to end may well be disappointed and feel themselves to have been cheated and deluded when, having expected to find life all smooth and pleasant, they discover themselves to be caught up in a great conflict between two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of evil.


Now you and I are on the periphery, the outside edge, of this world conflict, and we are not to turn our backs to the enemy, but to face him and throw ourselves into the fight. Unhappily we do sometimes find the pressure so fierce that we turn our backs on the serious issues and prefer some soft, sentimental kind of religious experience rather than the virile, fight-it-out faith which is characteristic of the cross. The cross was no make-believe; it was bloody, horrific and devastating; the early Church knew this and the book of Revelation shows the severity of the outward conflict. Nowadays the battle may be more inward for most of us, but the issue is still the same, and the consequences of refusing to give worship to man are as harsh as ever.

In those days even an old saint like John was not allowed to die comfortably in his bed, but was exiled to the rough work of the Patmos mines. To the unenlightened it looked -- and still looks -- as if the crucified Lamb is not, after all, the final answer to Satan, for still evil has the advantage and the world is overrun by harshness and oppression. The early Christians seemed to have everything against them, and they might well have asked, "Is this all there is to offer after all? To fight and suffer and die, and have no victory, in a world which is as strong as ever? Is the cross really the answer to life and eternity, and to the ever-present problems?" It must have seemed that the enemy always won, and that there was no real hope of victory for the followers of the Lamb. For this very reason John was given a vision -- in fact four visions -- to reveal the true nature of the conflict, showing how it is being fought and who is winning. We need such a vision continually if we are to be nerved for the fight, to face the foe and to know that the victory is the Lord's. We need John's vision, and perhaps we can catch something of it if we consider the four occasions in which he claimed to have been "in spirit". These are mentioned in Revelation 1:10; 4:2; 17:3 and 21:10. Only as we too are "in spirit" can we catch a glimpse of the glory of Christ's throne and the consummation of the spiritual war.

In each of these four sections there is seen a throne. This does not mean, of course, that there are four thrones, but we are called to consider four aspects of God's throne, so that we can see the authority by which He is holding and governing the universe. By means of the four thrones God's rule is analysed, so that with John's help we can be shown what it is that Satan is really attacking and how his hand is against the throne of the Lord (Exodus 17:16 R.V. margin). His hand is not just against you and me. It really doesn't [61/62] matter much to him whether or not we are successful; what does matter, though, is God's authority, for this is what he hates. We, in ourselves, are nothing to him; what he hates is God's Son, the chosen Ruler. We are unimportant, but Satan is against us if by hurting us he can express his spite against the Lord. So, though nothing in ourselves, we are totally involved in this attack on the throne. By seeing clearly what Satan is aiming at, we are better equipped to fight back. We need to know his strategy, to know our weapons, and to know how to keep in touch with the Lord on the throne. We are completely committed to this war by virtue of our union with Christ, so we do well to pay attention to this vision of the four thrones.


1. THE FATHER'S THRONE (3:21)

This is the first expression of God's authority, and it is against this as part of God's right and rule that Satan is always seeking to incite men to rebellion. God's Fatherhood is eternal: it existed before the creation. In due time it has found its expression among men; and so every time the enemy attacks the Father's authority he is trying to destroy God's eternal purpose for men, which is sonship. Every time he can trick us into carelessness about sonlike behaviour, tempting us to say or do that which is unworthy of our Father's holy name, he is making an attack on the eternal Fatherhood of God. God plans to have sons, conformed to the image of His Son, so if we can be induced to act in an unChristlike way, to fail in proper obedience as sons, then a blow has been struck at the Father's throne -- even through us! So our selfishness can mean that we are being used as tools to undermine the authority of God by seeking to diminish or contradict the glory of His Fatherly throne. In a similar way, when Satan tempts us to fail to show fatherly love to others he does this not merely to mar our spiritual life, but as a deliberate insult to God's character as Father. When he hinders or deflects us from spiritual fatherhood or reproducing as maturing Christians, then the Devil wins a battle (1 Corinthians 4:15). And so the war goes on -- the war against the Father's throne.


2. THE GOVERNMENTAL THRONE (5:13)
This throne, associated with the Lamb, is surrounded by various classes of beings who represent the totality of God's creative activities. The presence of the Lamb shows us that the secret of God's government of His creation is suffering love. Man does not understand this kind of throne, he relies on the forceful rule of the strong arm, the mailed fist, and wrongly imagines that God is a kind of super-despot who does the same thing as man and Satan, only on a bigger scale. As for the slain Lamb, the crucified, well to natural eyes His experience seems to give conclusive proof that Satan has prevailed. This, however, is not the case -- far from it! God's way of ruling is by suffering love, and every time we share the bread and wine at the table of the Lord we declare that we repudiate force as a way of government and have complete faith in a God who rules by the cross. Other world rulers have their hands stained with blood, but it is the blood of their opponents. God's King has His hands stained only with His own blood.

In the light of human misery people sneer at this throne, asking how it can be a throne of love when wars, calamities and wickedness produce so much human suffering. These are ill considered arguments. If God's throne were one of naked might He could soon end human selfishness with crushing judgments, but if He did this, which of us would survive? Once He began to crush sinful people then which of us would not be destroyed? No, brute force is not God's method; His king reigns from the tree. It is difficult for us to maintain a steady faith if we do not have a clear vision of this governmental throne. Satan attacks it constantly, by whispering to us that God cannot be love. He is always trying to express his enmity to the throne by seducing us into doubting the efficacy of the cross as the divine method of government. Every unlamblike outburst of ours, every carnal effort to rule affairs or people by force, in fact everything in us which savours of harshness, is really a devilish trick to belittle God's throne. Satan not only wants to entrap us -- he wants to wound God through us.


3. THE JUDICIAL THRONE (20:11)

This vision portrays the last assize where all men must stand, with the records open and all judgment committed to the Son. The enemy tries to convince us that the throne is not really white -- not as white as all that -- but that there are shades and degrees, and that everything is relative. This is his lie, for the throne is as pure white as the Man on it. Now what makes this throne the more terrible is that its occupant is not some austere inquisitor, but is incarnate love. Heavenly love opens the books; heavenly love investigates [62/63] every detail; heavenly love will never be satisfied until it has penetrated the deepest recesses of the object of its love.



We don't always like being investigated. Our prayer tends to be, "Don't search me; don't try my heart; don't turn Your white light too intensely into certain recesses of my life. Let me run away from the great white throne!" Every time that we re-act in this way, however, we are in complicity with Satan against God's judicial throne. We may not mean it in this way, but this is what lies behind it all. It may be even more surprising to realise that of the many ways by which we can unconsciously aid Satan in his attack on this throne there is probably none worse than self-righteousness. The man who tries to write his own account and stick it down over the record written on the pages of God's book, is playing the enemy's game, trying to hide the stark truth with his own biased version of what happened. We often do this, little realising that we are insulting the great white throne and the Man upon it whose name is the Truth. What a fight it is, though, to keep our actions and motives exposed to this white light of God's judgments! And it gets harder. We begin our Christian lives in such simple sincerity that we are glad to open ourselves up to God's Word but we so often succumb to Satan's wiles to make us cover up and excuse our faults. When we do this we are taking his side in the battle against the throne.


4. THE IMPERIAL THRONE (22:3)

This city here revealed is the administrative centre of God's universe; it is transparently clear, and its focal point is the throne. The servants of God function in relation to this throne. They bear the Emperor's name on their foreheads and they reign in loving service. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Satan's present assault upon this imperial throne is to induce us to stop working for God, to yield to slackness, to take offense and leave the work to others. Or it may be to try to get us to work without having that name stamped on us, to be active without being Christlike. All this is an expression of the hand against the throne. Why is it that in any church almost all the work is in the hands of a very small number of people? Why is it that the one-talent members refrain from playing their part? Is it not the result of the cunning plots of Satan to vent his spite against God's imperial throne? He attacks the Emperor by discouraging or corrupting His throne servants. But he must not succeed! We who have come "in spirit" to know something of the importance of that throne must rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit to serve wholeheartedly for the honour of His great name.


OUR WEAPONS


As we do so we ask what are to be the instruments of our service, or the weapons of our spiritual warfare. Some of the answers to this question may be found in the book of Revelation. There are three in 12:11. One is the word of our testimony: we must be bold and understanding in our use of the Word of God. Another is meekness: Satan's kingdom is built on and maintained by pride, so that the humility of the Lamb is an essential instrument to break its power. Then there is "the blood of the Lamb": Christ's blood is the full answer to all Satan's accusations and claims. Moreover the God who has destroyed the kingdom of death by the blood of His Son will not waste the blood of the martyrs. He will use the blood shed by His suffering people in China and elsewhere to intoxicate and destroy Satan's kingdom. The harlot, Babylon, is seen actually to destroy herself by drinking the blood of the martyrs.

There are many other instruments which could be mentioned, but we limit our consideration to the great weapon of prayer. We can see in this book how the prayer of the saints is the way by which God's throne, particularly His governmental throne, can be brought into operation. When the Church prays, then things begin to happen.

The whole matter is illustrated by the golden bowls, or vials. We are told that these golden bowls full of incense are the prayers of the saints (5:8). As God's people begin to praise and worship, offering Him these bowls of prayer, things start happening here on earth. Seals are broken. As each of the first four seals is broken there is a command to a rider to go forth. One by one the various riders emerge and move out -- because of prayer. After this three more seals are broken each consequent upon the prayers of the saints. Then again, more prayer is offered with incense (8:3). When the censer is filled with coals which are poured out on the earth, then seven trumpets are sounded, and further events are precipitated by these trumpets. Following these, seven bowls are taken and used to pour out the wrath of almighty God (15:7). The same words are used at the beginning of the seven seals and the seven bowls of wrath, namely "golden bowls", and these [63/64] would appear similar to the "golden censer" at the beginning of the seven trumpets. Both bowls and censer have incense added to them for offering, but it must be noted that it is the bowls which are the prayers of the saints (5:8 Greek) and not the incense itself. As we offer ourselves as empty bowls or centers -- not knowing what to pray for as we ought -- God will add the fragrant incense of Christ by His Spirit (Romans 8:26).

From all this we see that there is an intimate connection between the working of God through the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, and the prayers of His people. When we lay hold of God's throne in prayer, things happen on earth, they happen in the spiritual world, and they happen in men's hearts. The seals unloose political events -- precipitated by prayer. The trumpets deal with the spiritual world -- in answer to prayer things go from heaven to earth, stars fall out, demon forces are unleashed. All this is in answer to prayer. Again by means of the bowls, the wrath of God is poured out -- and people know it. They are not able to get up thinking that they are suffering just from a bad Monday morning feeling which they can shrug off, but they are forced to realise that God's displeasure is against them. Men are not allowed merely to deplore that they are depressed or to wonder why they are anxious, but they are made aware that there is something between them and their God -- and all because of prayer. The Church has left the world in its present psychological condition by not praying for it, and as a consequence men are able to ignore the fact of the wrath of God.


IN TOUCH WITH THE THRONE

All the great events described in this book are connected with the golden bowls. A praying Church affects political events, it affects the supernatural, it affects the hearts and consciences of men who are far from God. If we do not pray, then politics will just go on as before; if we do not pray, then nobody is aware of supernatural powers and warned against them; if we do not pray, then how can men know that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness? If we do pray, then we can influence those who are in authority, for whom in any case we are commanded to pray, and we can exploit for God the inevitable happenings among the nations. There will always be unrest and wars, bloodshed and famine -- Jesus Himself said so -- but as we pray, these things can be steered and exploited to bring to a head God's purpose in history. There will always be demonic forces, evil spiritual powers which affect and infect men and women, but as we pray the warning trumpets may be sounded. God's wrath will always be revealed, but as we pray men may be led to sense what it is all about. So by these three means, the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, the world can be made to see, hear and feel the reality of the throne of God. A praying Church is a disturbing Church -- it is meant to be. Kings and rulers take counsel together when the Church prays. The beast and the false prophet make war with the followers of the Lamb and there bursts forth war in heaven when the Church prays. We are a disturbing, troublesome people when we are in touch with the throne by prayer.

Some will say, "but I don't know how to pray like that." All that God asks of you is that you will be a bowl. Surely that is not too difficult! And yet perhaps it is difficult to many of us, for the bowl must be empty. When, however, we do offer ourselves in this way for the service of prayer, then it is that incense is added to our prayers, and it is this incense which ascends to God. We are to be empty bowls, but the Spirit is able to add that which is inexpressively valuable to God. We are to pray always in the Spirit, but this does not mean that we are to wait until the Spirit moves us (or until we think that we feel Him doing so) before we pray. If we do that, some of us will wait for ever. No, "praying always in the Spirit" means that as we always get going, offering ourselves as bowls, the Spirit begins to move and leads us out in our prayers far beyond what we knew or thought.

Sometimes, of course, we do know what to pray for. I was once in an R.A.F. camp where we had arranged to take 300 men to an evangelistic meeting in coaches, when an order went out confining all men to barracks. We just had to cry to God, and one of the Christian men, in praying, quoted the verse "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Proverbs 21:1). From this we concluded that a mere Wing Commander was nothing to the Lord! And so it proved, for an unheard of thing happened: the order was rescinded and an exception made in our case, so that the crowd of men could go to hear the gospel. We are meant to be movers of things here on the earth by being in touch with God's governmental throne, taking up current affairs and steering them to a Christ-glorifying end.

We are also meant to get involved in the realm of unseen evil. In one of my university gospel [64/65] teams I found a girl student who was not even converted, so naturally I enquired her history. It appeared that she had become involved in the spiritist activities which are carried on at all our universities nowadays, and as a result had woken up in terror. Her fears were so great that all she could do in her desperation was to cry out, "Love of God, help me!" This brought her relief and the next day she consulted a Christian student who took her to a C.U. meeting. At this meeting appeals were made for helpers at the mission, and she felt so grateful to the "love of God" that she signed up to assist in the campaign. After two days of vainly trying to lead others to Christ, she discovered her own true need, and passed from the vague "love of God" to a vital faith in Jesus Christ, and knew the transforming and lasting power of the gospel. What had begun this sequence? I feel sure that someone had been praying, and so the trumpet of warning against tampering with demonic forces had sounded for her. There can be no question about the spread of spiritism, but let us not be frightened, but pray. Prayer brings in God's throne.

By our prayers men must also be made to know that it is not just frustration which is dogging them, but the terrible wrath of God. One night in the Hebrides there was an R.A.F. man monitoring radar. He had hitherto been an atheist, but during the night he became deeply troubled about his soul, and as he watched a moth flying round his light it seemed to illustrate to him in a vivid manner how he was drawing nearer and nearer to destruction. He could get no rest. The wrath of God seemed so real and so imminent. In the end as soon as he was free he walked five miles to seek the help of some Christians, and so found salvation and peace in Christ. When the Church prays then such men come to know that they cannot afford to be atheists, for they have to deal with an angry God.

All God requires is bowls. When we feel that we do not know how to pray we must remember that we are followers of the Lamb. The people of God do not have to look or feel lionlike, they are not expected to give outward impressions of strength or ability, but in all their weakness they may offer themselves as vessels for throne prayer and so trouble history and make it move towards God's final end. If we do not pray, time and happenings are being wasted. If we do pray, then everything can move swiftly towards the great day when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. There is no doubt that when that great day does come, there will be much deeper joy for those who have helped to hasten it by using their weapons for God, than for those who have only been spectators or theorisers. Christ reached the throne by overcoming, and so must we. Prayer has a real element of warfare against great odds; but let us not fail God at this critical hour in world history.

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