Saturday, January 13, 2024

Does Revelation 6:9 teach the righteous go immediately to Heaven?

  

under the altar: During sacrificial rites belonging to the tabernacle, the blood of the victim, symbolic of its life, was poured at the altar’s base and seeped beneath it (Lev. 4:7; 17:11). John’s view of the soul of the martyr as being under the altar probably echoes this idea. Of course the souls of these martyred saints do not literally dwell under the altar—they are in Paradise, but symbolically, they, like their Savior, have given their lives for a righteous cause. That the souls of the saints reside there emphasizes the idea that, in spite of the fact they have suffered physical death, they are watched over by God and under his ultimate care. Thus, like their Lord before them, what seems like an earthly defeat will turn out to be their ultimate victory. (Richard D. Draper and Michael D. Rhodes, The Revelation of John the Apostle [BYU New Testament Commentary Series; Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2013], 171-72)

 

While he was a proponent of “soul death,” Ron Abel (a Christadelphian) raised the following interesting point:

 

It is a principle in Scripture that "the life of the flesh [soul, 'nephesh'] is in the blood". (Lev. 17:11). By personification, a slain person's blood is said to "cry" or "speak". (Gen. 4:10 cf. Heb. 12:24). The Revelation contains over 500 references to the Old Testament, and in this text the allusion is to the blood of the burnt offering which was poured at the base of the brasen altar. (Lev. 4:7). The passage, therefore, refers to the lives of martyrs given as a testimony to their faith. (Paul makes a similar allusion: "For I am already on the point of being sacrificed ['poured out'1]; the time of my departure has come." (2 Tim. 4:6R.S.V.) (Ron Abel, Wrested Scriptures: A Christadelphian Handbook of Suggested Explanations to Difficult Passages [Pasadena, Calif.: The Christadelphians, n.d.], 115)