Liturgical Warfare

The Book of Revelation, which the Church may read as a manual of spiritual and liturgical warfare (see the Study: The Book of Revelation), discloses a truth that runs through the whole of the Scriptures: the decisive battles against the powers of darkness are fought and won in worship. Its central scenes are liturgical. Before any seal is opened or any trumpet sounded, heaven is shown at worship around the throne and the Lamb “standing, as though it had been slain” (Rev 5:6), and the elders fall down before him, “each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8).

In the eighth chapter, the prayers of the saints are offered with incense upon the golden altar before the throne; then the angel fills the censer with fire from the altar and casts it upon the earth, and the seven trumpets begin to sound (Rev 8:3–6). The prayers of God’s people, offered in the one liturgy of heaven and earth, are thus shown to move the course of history. What the world takes for helplessness, the Church at prayer, is in truth the place from which the victory of God goes forth.

The same pattern recurs throughout the book. The seventh trumpet is answered by the hymn of the elders: “We give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast, that thou hast taken thy great power and begun to reign” (Rev 11:17). The victorious martyrs stand beside the sea of glass and sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb (Rev 15:2–4), as Israel sang after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exo 15). Babylon falls, and heaven answers with a fourfold “Alleluia!” before the Rider on the white horse goes forth, whose name is “The Word of God” (Rev 19:1–13). The saints overcome the dragon and the beast not by the sword, but “because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11), and by “the endurance and faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10; see the Study: On World Powers and Beasts).

The worship of the Church is therefore not an escape from the struggles of this world, but her chief engagement in them. Several elements of the Orthodox services express this directly:

• The psalms of spiritual combat. The Paschal verses open with the cry: “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before his face” (Psa 68:1 [67 LXX]); and the psalm “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High” (Psa 91 [90 LXX]), prayed at Compline and in every danger, has been sung by Christians from the earliest centuries as the psalm of divine protection.

• The incense, which at every Vespers accompanies the verse, “Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice” (Psa 141:2 [140 LXX]), and which, as in Rev 8, carries the prayers of the saints before God.

• The Cherubic Hymn, in which the assembly “mystically represents the Cherubim” and lays aside “all earthly cares,” to receive “the King of all, invisibly escorted by the angelic hosts” (Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom).

• The Trisagion, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” which joins the Church to the ceaseless song of the living creatures before the throne: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty” (Rev 4:8; Isa 6:3).

• The litanies and intercessions, by which the Church, as a royal priesthood, prays “for the peace of the whole world,” for those in authority, and for all who suffer (1Ti 2:1–2; see Q319, Q561).

St Ignatius of Antioch, writing on his way to martyrdom, already taught the Church that her common worship is a weapon against the enemy:

Make haste to come together more frequently to give thanks (eucharistia) and glory to God. For when you come together often, the powers of Satan are overthrown, and his destructive work is undone by the concord of your faith. (St Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians, 13)

In the Divine Liturgy, the Church offers the one pure sacrifice (Mal 1:11; see Q319), and so proclaims each time the victory of the Lamb over every beast and every Babylon of this age. Faithful participation in the worship of the Church is therefore the first and greatest service that Christians can render in the spiritual warfare of their generation.