“Worship and Open Heaven in Revelation”

Worship is a central theme in the Book of Revelation. The whole book is framed as a service of worship and is punctuated by graphic scenes of worship in heaven. Worship is at the heart of cosmic reality in Revelation’s worldview. Worship is the issue in the conflict between God and his enemies in the story told by Revelation. Worship interprets the narrative and helps drive it forward. Worship is expressed in very specific, even dramatic, ways that may reflect the worship of the first century Christians or their Jewish forebears. Hence the styles and content of worship in Revelation have been used as arguments for the worship style and theology of a number of different Christian churches (including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Seventh-day Adventism and Pentecostal movements). In this paper, I intend to critically survey existing scholarship on these points, discuss whether or not Revelation’s portrayal of heavenly worship can validly be used as a model for the church’s earthly liturgies, and discuss specifically the relationship between worship and an “open heaven” in Revelation as seen in four key passages: Rev.4:1; 11:15-19; 15:2-6; 19:5-11.