Why Will the Censer in
Revelation 8:5 Be Thrown Down?
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“Another angel,
who had the golden censer, came and
stood at the altar. He was given much
incense to offer, with the prayers of
all the saints, on the golden altar
before the throne. The smoke of the
incense, together with the prayers of
the saints, went up before God from
the angel’s hand. Then the angel
took the censer, filled it with fire
from the altar, and hurled it on the
earth; and there came peals of
thunder, rumblings, flashes of
lightening and an earthquake.”
(Revelation 8:3-5)
John saw an angel
conducting a service at the golden
Altar of Incense. Then, John saw the
angel take the censer and after
filling it with fire, hurled it to
the Earth “and there came peals
of thunder, rumblings, flashes of
lightening and an earthquake.”
What service did John see? What is
the meaning of this event?
John saw the
termination of “the daily”
in Heaven’s temple, that is,
John saw the termination of corporate
intercession on behalf of Earth. The
termination of corporate mercy may be
a new concept for some people so we
are going to examine this important
topic. Many Christians are not aware
of the fact that the plan of
salvation operates on two levels: the
corporate level and the individual
level. When most Christians read John
3:16, “For God so loved the
world…” they do not realize
that is a corporate statement. God
deals with Earth as a single unit.
Jesus reconciled the world to the
Father through His death. (1 John
2:2) God also deals with people as
individuals. The point is that a day
is coming when the limits of
God’s patience with Earth’s
violence and decadence will be
reached. When that day arrives, Jesus
will stop interceding on behalf of
the world as a corporate body and
God’s wrath against all mankind
will break out. This wrath will come
in two phases: the seven first
plagues and the seven last plagues.
During the seven first plagues,
salvation will be extended to the
people of Earth, but corporately
speaking, Earth itself will be doomed
for destruction. To understand the
importance and seriousness of the
angel hurling the censer to Earth, we
need to examine six biblical concepts
that flow together to make sense of
this highly important service.
1. Full Cup
Principle: God grants a period of
grace to every group of people
throughout history. However, if
that group fills up its “cup
of sin” with degenerate and
violent behavior, God acts and
destroys that group of people.
The action He takes is fair and
just. It is not an arbitrary act;
instead, it is based on eternal
law. This law mandates that when
a group of people (even angels)
reaches the point where they no
longer submit to the demands of
the Holy Spirit, that group must
be destroyed. Review this text:
“Then the Lord said [to
Noah], ‘My Spirit will not
contend with man forever, for he
is mortal; his days will be a
hundred and twenty
years.’” (Genesis 6:3,
insertion mine) The Lord told
Noah that His patience with
mankind had reached its limit
because He “saw how great
man’s wickedness on the
earth had become, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil all the
time.” (Genesis 6:5) So, the
Lord told Noah that the end of
the world would occur in 120
years – and it did. Many
groups since the days of the
antediluvians have filled up
their “cup of sin” and
God destroyed them. (For further
study on this subject, please go
into the reading room of this
site and there is a seven-part
study on this comprehensive
discussion on this topic.)
2. Jesus’
Present Role in Heaven: Review
these verses: “The Son is
the radiance of God’s glory
and the exact representation of
his being, sustaining all things
by his powerful word. After
he had provided purification for
sins, he sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty in
Heaven…. Therefore, he is
able to save completely those who
come to God through him, because
he always lives to intercede for
them…. The point of what we
are saying is this: We do have
such a high priest, who sat down
at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, and who
serves in the sanctuary, the true
tabernacle set up by the Lord,
not by man…. If he were on
earth, he would not be a priest,
for there are already men who
offer the gifts prescribed by the
law. They serve at a sanctuary
that is a copy and shadow of what
is in heaven. This is why Moses
was warned when he was about to
build the tabernacle: “See
to it that you make everything
according to the pattern shown
you on the mountain.”
(Hebrews 1:3, 7:25, 8:1,2,4,5)
The author of Hebrews says that
Jesus became our High Priest and
sat down at the
right hand of the Father after He
“provided purification for
sin.” Presently, Jesus
serves in Heaven’s temple,
“the true tabernacle set up
by the Lord, not by man”
whereas the temple built by Moses
was “a copy or shadow of
what is in Heaven.” This is
why Moses was warned that he must
not deviate from the pattern that
God gave him because the services
conducted in the earthly temple
must accurately parallel certain
processes in Heaven’s
temple. God has given us a model
of the processes that occur in
Heaven’s temple and we need
to understand these processes in
order to appreciate the
dimensions of salvation.
The wisdom of
using models is simple and
powerful. In fact, NASA does this
regularly. Many of the satellites
circling Earth have identical
models sitting in special clean
rooms so that if a problem occurs
out in space, scientists can
accurately diagnose the problem
by examining an identical
satellite on Earth. Similarly,
once we understand the
fundamental operation of the
earthy temple, we can understand
the services in Heaven’s
temple.
3.
Salvation’s Model: The
earthly temple model had two
altars to teach mankind that
salvation requires two levels of
atonement. The golden Altar of
Incense was placed inside the
first room of the temple (called
“The Holy Place”) and
it served as the corporate altar.
Israel’s priests conducted
atonement services for the sins
of the whole camp at this altar
each evening and morning. The
bronze Altar of Burnt Offering
was located outside, near the
entrance of the courtyard. This
altar was used to atone for the
sins of the individuals.
(Leviticus 4) So, God set up two
altars in the earthly temple,
each with a different purpose
– one for corporate
atonement and one for individual
atonement.
Most Christians
understand the role of the bronze
Altar of Burnt Offering because
it is easy to understand that
Jesus died in our place and is
our flawless Lamb of God
substitute. (Deuteronomy 15:21; 1
John 3:5) However, most
Christians do not understand that
God’s law demands the
immediate execution of sinners
– on the very day of sin
(Genesis 2:17) and the atonement
offered on the golden Altar of
Incense represents a stay of
execution. Think about this:
Sinners are not killed on the day
they first sin because Jesus
began corporate intercession on
behalf of Earth before anyone was
born!
4. How Individuals
Became a Corporation: Adam and
Eve were created as separate and
distinct beings. (Genesis 1) Each
person was endowed with half of
the power needed to procreate.
(Genesis 1:28) After their
marriage, they did not lose their
individuality; but instead, they
became officers in a corporate
unit called “family.”
No person loses his or her
identity or accountability to God
in marriage. In fact, the Bible
teaches that two people can be
married and one be lost and the
other saved. (Luke 17:34)
Similarly, one spouse can go to
jail and the other remains free.
Therefore, a family unit,
according to God, requires the
union of two individuals, a man
and a woman. The Bible says,
“For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother and
be united to his wife, and they
will become one flesh.”
(Genesis 2:24) The union of a man
and woman reflects the image of
God. The Godhead is a corporation
made up of three Gods – the
Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. They make up a family
unit called “God.”
(Deuteronomy 6:4) Their threesome
as one God parallels the twosome
of a husband and wife becoming
one flesh.
5. Sudden Death:
God warned Adam, as president of
the human corporation, that no
one should eat of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. The
penalty for violating this law,
God said, would be death by
execution on the very day
that sin occurred. (Genesis 2:17)
Because no one died that day,
Genesis 2:17 has been distorted
in many different ways.
Nevertheless, the scriptures are
clear – the penalty for sin
is sudden death. This law is
eternal and it cannot be changed.
However, on the day Adam and Eve
sinned, their execution was
temporarily postponed by special
circumstances.
Let us consider the
special circumstances that permitted
their stay of execution. Eve’s
sin was a third degree felony. She
was led into sin through deception.
Adam’s sin was a second-degree
felony, since he willfully sinned
because of his love for Eve.
Lucifer’s sin was a first-degree
felony because he defiantly sinned. *
Lucifer’s angels also defiantly
sinned. They had committed the
unpardonable sin. (Isaiah 14:12-17;
Ezekiel 28:12-18; Matthew 12:31,32)
For a legitimate reason, God did not
kill Lucifer and his followers the
day they sinned either. Instead, God
cast them out of Heaven, allowing
them to live so that sin might
flourish for a predetermined period
of time. Of course, at the end of the
age of sin, Lucifer and his followers
will be annihilated. Similarly, Adam
and Eve were not killed on the day
they sinned. However, at the end of
the age of sin, all of the wicked
will be annihilated. The law cannot
be changed. However, these two
temporary stays from execution
demonstrate that the Father is
purposeful and merciful in His
administration of law.
The laws created by an
all-knowing God cannot be changed.
Ask the people on death row in any
prison; a stay of execution does not
change the demands of the law.
Rather, a stay of execution is a
legitimate delay in executing the
demands of the law. Because Jesus
offered to die in their place, God
stayed the execution of Adam and Eve
and their future offspring. This is
the meaning of corporate
intercession. The Bible says that
Jesus was slain from the foundation
of the world. (Revelation 13:8) Jesus
was as good as annihilated from the
beginning of the world, but He came
to Earth 4,000 later to actually die.
Jesus died when the Father decided
the timing was perfect. (Galatians
4:4, Romans 5:6) There should
be no question about God’s
character of love. The father is not
arbitrary. He is committed to the
rule of law in His universe and the
death of Jesus proves that His laws
cannot be changed.
Sin has been permitted
to exist for a short season (6,000
years is a minuscule slice of time
when compared to eternity) because
Jesus was allowed to corporately
intercede on behalf of the human race
the day that sin began. The Father
granted a stay of execution so that
He could demonstrate the horrific
properties and consequences of sin.
Everyone in the universe has the
knowledge of good and evil. Of
course, wicked people cannot
understand the properties of sin
because these matters are spiritually
understood. (Daniel 12:10; 1
Corinthians 2:14) God’s biggest
problem at the moment is not the
presence of sin; God’s biggest
problem at the moment is preventing
the second rise of sin.
Think about this.
After sin has run its course, and the
differences between good and evil are
clearly understood, what virtue could
there be in permitting sin to exist
within God’s kingdom for a
single day? Will God remove the power
of choice from His children to
prevent sin from happening again? No!
God is a God of love! So, how does
God prevent His children from sinning
again? This is a serious question.
God’s laws are not righteous
because He says so – they are
righteous because they have been
demonstrated to be so! Carefully
consider this: After sin has been
destroyed and the sin problem has
been fully resolved, the penalty for
any future sin will be carried out on
the very day that it occurs. If sin
occurs and the sinner immediately
annihilated, everyone will clearly
understand the necessity fro
destruction and the righteousness of
doing so! It will be as though God
said, “We’ve been there,
done that – and I am not
allowing sin to contaminate my house
and hurt my children anymore.”
