Descent, Ascent

The action of Revelation 12-15 moves from the sky to earth to the sea and then back up.

In 11:19, the temple of God in heaven is opened, revealing the heavenly ark. Then there is a sign in heaven, in the firmament where the sun, moon, and stars are, the woman and the dragon, and a war in heaven follows.

From that point, the focus moves down to earth, where the dragon attempts to kill the woman and then to drown her. He tries a direct attack and then a river attack. 

When that fails, he goes to the seashore and calls up the first beast from the sea, also called the beast of the abyss (11:7). 

From that point, the action begins to rise again. You can’t get lower than the sea/abyss, so after the sea beast comes a land beast, as the scene moves up again from sea to earth. In the following vision, the saints are on Mount Zion, an earthly location but an elevated one. Then three angels make announcements in “mid-heaven,” between earth and heaven, and one like the son of man appears on a cloud riding across the firmament (14:14). From the sea beast, we are moving to a mountaintop, then to the sky.

We finally go back up to the temple of heaven with the angel who comes out in 14:17, and the final scene of the seventh seal takes place above the sea of glass, now mixed with fire. The whole sequence ends with the “temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven” open “(15:5).

Schematically, we can diagram the progression this way:

A. Temple of God opened in heaven.

B. Signs and wars in the firmament.

C. Dragon attacks woman on land

D. Beast from the sea.

C’. Beast from the land.

B’. Angels in midheaven and on clouds.

A’. Saints in heaven, on the sea of glass.

The first part of this sequence resembles the creation week, which begins with God creating light, moves through the firmament, down to the land and sea. Day 4 is again in the firmament, with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, but the last half of the week moves upward, from the sea creatures of Day 5 to the land creatures of Day 6 to the Sabbath rest of Day 7. Creation, we might say, is a descent and a partial ascent; it’s unfinished, because Adam has not yet been elevated from earth to heaven, as he is destined to be.

Though Revelation 12-15 is in part a decreation sequence, it is ultimately a new creation sequence, as the world is harvested and the saints raised to an unprecedently high position in heaven. 

The result of the descent and ascent is the replacement of the dragon in heaven. At the beginning, the dragon is exalted, with a position before the ark-throne. He is cast out of heaven to earth; he calls up beasts to attack the saints, but, against the dragon’s intentions, that attack elevates the saints to heaven. By chapter 15, the saints are where the dragon was, even higher: Before the ark throne above the firmament, joining the angelic orchestra.