And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)
Mysterious as the book of Revelation is, some things are quite evident. The book depicts the end times and focuses on Christ’s return for the cosmic battle against the forces of evil, culminating in the ushering in of the new heaven and earth. The theme: Christ will be completely victorious, and God will reign forever and ever.
In this great apocalyptic prophecy, “Christ” and “God” are both distinguished and identified indistinguishably—not surprising given the nature of the Trinity and incarnation. For our purposes here, the names of God, we see one sitting on a throne, “The Lord God, the Almighty” (repeated at least seven other times in Revelation). The angels echo the praises of their counterparts in Isaiah 6:3, where clearly Yahweh is in view. The angels continue to “give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever…”
At the same time, we find “the Lamb in the center of the throne” (Rev 7:17) and repeated phrases like “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1). Considering the sharing of other epithets such as “the beginning and the end” and the “alpha and omega” (Rev 1:8, 21:6, 22:13), we can see that the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is clearly being presented as God, and in particular, the Lord God, the Almighty.
Some might quibble theologically that the distinction between the Lamb and God is more dominant than the identification of the two. Relative dominance is really a side issue, but is only important to those who struggle with the concept of the Trinity. But the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is clearly God. He is the Lord God, the Almighty. He may distinguish His roles and His place in the Trinity, but there is one God, not three. And He exists in three persons. Church councils wrestled with this concept, but Christians through the centuries have accepted and believed it as a settled matter, and the deity of Christ is central to Christian theology and thinking.
To our point, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord (Yahweh) God of the Bible. If He were not, then the book of Revelation would be grossly blasphemous in exalting Christ to God’s throne and extolling Him as worthy of the praise that is only due to Yahweh, God of Israel.
Lord Jesus, mysterious as it seems, I worship You as my Lord and my God.
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