Revelation 5:7: “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.”
Remember, God the Father is sitting on this throne, and He’s holding that seven-sealed book in His right hand, so Jesus comes and takes the book out of His right hand because He’s worthy and He’s going to unleash it.
Revelation 5:8 :“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”
“And when he had taken the book,”
When He does that, do you know what you and I are going to do?
“the four beasts”
Those four cherubims.
“and twenty elders”
That’s the entire Christian church and can include those Jews.
“fell down before the Lamb,”
They bow down before Him.
“having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours,”
All of these saints here have harps and they have these vials filled with odors here. What is this vial filled with odor?
“which are the prayers of saints.”
When we’re up in heaven, we’d be holding a harp singing, and we’ll have a vial here that’ll contain the odor which is the prayer of the saints. So the vial consists of the prayer of saints.
This is the proof text of the Roman Catholic Church that one can pray to dead saints. Is that what it means? No! Notice in verse 8 that no one is praying to the saints. It’s the saints who are down on earth praying up to heaven, not to the saints.
They might argue that this refers to the 24 elders, that these are the saints that people are praying to. The simple answer to that is you’ll notice nowhere in your Bible is anyone praying to the 24 elders. It simply says they’re holding the prayers of the saints. Let’s look at the context of this prayer of saints, see what they do with it:
Revelation 8:3-7: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”
And if you read Revelation 8:9 and Revelation 9:1 onwards, you’ll notice there was this mighty angel who comes down out of heaven, what he does is that he takes the prayer of the saints and he casts it into the altar up in heaven. Suddenly, God’s judgment starts falling, and when His judgment starts falling, the first angel, second angel, third angel etc. all start to unleash judgment.
The point is that judgment falls out of the prayers of the saints. So whatever these prayers of saints are, it has to commence God’s judgment somehow. Why would these prayer start God’s judgment? Because look what they were praying.
Revelation 6:9: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:”
Notice these are tribulation saints who are executed and killed by the Antichrist system.
Revelation 6:10: “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
What’s their prayer? “avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.”
When does God answer that prayer of vengeance?
Revelation 6:11: “And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
God’s saying, “Wait till all the other saints are killed because I’m storing up that wrath, then I can have all your prayers together, crying out for vengeance and when you cast on the altar, I’ll send vengeance upon this earth.”
By the way, this is the perfect proof text that debunks praying to saints. Look at verse 10, who were they praying to? The prayer is to God Almighty.
So if anyone argues that the verse proves that you can pray to dead saints, here’s how you argue back:
One, it’s the saints praying, not being prayed to.
Two, you’ll notice that they’re praying to God, not praying to people over here.
Keep these two passages in mind.
Revelation 5:9: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;”
“And they sung a new song,”
In the hymns, sometimes it talks about a new name and a new song to sing as well. Sometimes, these songwriters will mention ‘I will have a new song in my heart’, but what that phrase refers to is that there’s going to be a new song up in heaven.
Isn’t it amazing that 500 songs about your Savior are not enough? It means that there’s going to be a song that’s not found in the existing hymnal, and that new song is just going to glorify the Lord.
Can you imagine all these songwriters who had such a song in their heart when they wrote those hymns, like Horatio G Spafford where he had to have his wife and children dead to produce the song ‘It is well with my soul’? Even that song alone is not as wonderful compared to the new song God’s going to give to all of us. Fanny Crosby wrote scores, if not hundreds, of songs while she was blind, and God’s going to provide her with a song that she never thought of before.
“saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
Amen. Jesus is worthy to take that book.
“and to open the seals thereof:”
He’s going to break off these seals.
Remember, it makes more sense if this is the book of Revelation, because if He breaks off the seals, then all the tribulation doctrines in all these chapters can start unleashing now. Also, in Revelation 6:1, He breaks off that seal and the tribulation commences all of a sudden.
That’s why you can’t be a non-dispensationalist or weak dispensationalist thinking that Revelations 2 and 3 completely applies to the church only. No, Revelations 1 to 3 has a lot of good instruction for the tribulation saints because their salvation, works, and perseverance are mentioned there. All those wordings about perseverance, endurance, and works will match up with those general epistles from Hebrews through Jude talking about enduring to the end. Double application is a must. If you deny double application, it is a guarantee for a wrong doctrine.