Revelation 7:1
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After his I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. (ASV)
Pro
It seems like the author of Revelation regarded "the four corners of the Earth" as more than a throwaway figure of speech, because we learn that there is an angel at each corner, holding back one of the winds.
Con
It is obvious that John is writing of a vision that he had. John writes, "...one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals...I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth....Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne." (Revelation 5:6-7)
Then, "I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” (Revelation 6:1) and "I looked when He opened the sixth seal,..." (Revelation 6:12)
It is after this that John tells us in the verse contested in PRO, "After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree." (Revelation 7:1)
The clear implication is that no wind blows on the earth at this time (if we are to take this literally as the physical outcome). That the verse includes the imagery of four angels holding the four winds may simply reflect four major forces acting to generate winds, those that generate north and south winds and those that generate east and west winds. However, the imagery does not necessarily represent true physical processes (angels holding the wind) even though the outcome, lack of wind, may be physically true.
The imagery does not require that the reader understand John to be promoting the idea that the earth has four corners and PRO does not provide a convincing argument that this is the intended purpose.
Neutral
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