As noted in the commentary on Rom. All is then fixed. The particulars are reserved for a later point in this prophecy. . God doesn't want you taking credit for the work that He does, receiving glory for His work. But now, when those symbols disappear, because of a new action of God (namely, the consummation of the church's joy), the elders and the living creatures disappear, and we have not the bride alone, but another class of saints, who at once come forward. Preparations and celebrations were much more I think, therefore, that the elders and the living creatures comprehend both the Old Testament saints and the church, the bride of Christ, that consequently, when the bride is mentioned, there were these others who had been included in the elders and the living creatures, but who are now seen as a separate body. And there shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth, nor making abomination and a lie: but only those written in the book of life of the Lamb." Here it would seem we have just what answers to that: this name none knew but He Himself. Therefore be zealous and repent. I believe that religion is vastly different from Christianity. Our own righteousness had been as filthy rags, but THE TE DEUM OF NATURE AND THE CHURCH ( Revelation 19:3-5 ), 19:3-5 And a second time they said: "Hallelujah! Here we have described to us the visions of The Conquering Christ (19:11-16), the judgments of the beast and of the false prophet and of Satan (19:17-20:10), the judgment of the wicked (20:11-15), the visions of the New heaven, the New earth and the New Jerusalem (20:16-22;5). Then we have another glorious description. "And fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them. The mighty angel. Rev. Even the worst of governments is better than none. And that is the question the prophet asks and Jesus answers, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Hallelujah literally means "Praise God". Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian . It is no longer a question of sustaining His saints in grace, but of sovereign power for judging the earth. The Complutensian edition, and all the Oriental versions, with the Vulture Latin, read, "a sharp twoedged sword". union of the church with Christ following the Rapture (see 1 Thess. Verse 2. Before God we have that which is found only by and in Christ, which is another and a higher character altogether as compared with the righteousnesses of the saints. The iron rod is showing his ability to protect them. It is partly because of this that many excellent men have endeavoured to apply the vision to Romanism; and I admit that there is found a measure of analogy. they said, "because the Lord our God, the Almighty, has entered into his kingdom. In any event, the name singles him out as the greatest of all rulers, the only true divine One and the universal King. There we interpreted as "CHRIST EVANGELISING". The ten horns with the beast are all to receive authority the beast of course wielding the imperial power, they as kings, all during one and the same time before the end comes. As R. H. Charles puts it, it is essential to remember that the Heavenly Leader is this time, not the Slain One, but the Slayer. Pilate said, "I find no fault in Him. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He will tread the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God. And it was so. Again the righteousness of His judgment attested to. Nothing is hidden from Him. shed by them. It is not meant that he who was more honoured in service than any of the twelve, he whom the Lord used for bringing out the church of the heavenly places, will not have his own most singular dignity in this glorious scene. If you preach on prophecy, you are bringing the testimony of Jesus. the wilderness, the High Priest wore a very ornamented robe with a breastplate 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. If not blessing it judges. bring the climax of the Book of Revelation: the return of Christ to establish Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, He will tread the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty. It clearly contrasts this mystery with another. Jewish dreams were full of the warrior Messiah, who would lead God's people to victory and smash his enemies. The wrath of God is fierce! But there is really no good work that you can offer to God that would be acceptable in His sight, but He will accept you just as you are if you will just cast yourself upon His mercy and just ask for His mercy and grace. Patience or endurance of hope is what becomes us. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-10273872-1']); Second Edition, Revised - 1871 To be sure, the language here suggests Armageddon, the great spiritual conflict going on throughout history, the results of which will be announced and executed on the last day. Verse 8. (verses 1-10), and returns with Christ in His Triumphal Second Coming (verses The seven Spirits of God (Greek: , ta hepta pneumata tou theou) are mentioned four times in the Book of Revelation, and in the Book of Isaiah it names each Spirit.Revelation 1:4: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven . Here is the idea in Hebrews 4:12: "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.". Then follows a description of the wall, gates, foundations, and general position. My righteousness is not on such a tenuous thing as my faithfulness to devotions or works or whatever. rule . This may suffice for Revelation 18:1-24. The Sword--The Word of His mouth--is now wielded in judgment. Whether it were the Old Testament saints and the church, or the Apocalyptic saints, if I may so distinguish them, it was in an instant that each were raised, but there was some space between them. "Come," he said, "assemble for the great feast which God will give you, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who ride them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, both small and great.". The guests also will include tribulation saints To free men from the restraints that they may feel that have any kind of a Biblical base, so that you will not be feeling guilty over those things that are prohibited in the scriptures. Believers long for a world of justice and it will Here were joined good and evil in godless union, for the worse, not for the better, this alliance, unholy in principle, irremediable therefore in practice, between God and the natural man, who substitutes rites for the grace and word of God, for the blood of Christ, and the power of the Spirit, and employs the name of the Lord as a cover for grosser covetousness and ambition, yet more aspiring than the vulgar world. With this agrees His coming out of heaven in judgment of the earth, described inRevelation 19:1-21; Revelation 19:1-21. There was judicial discernment with the distinct possession of all titles to sovereignty. "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them (for he is Lord of lords and King of kings), and they that are with him, called, and chosen, and faithful.". The eternal smoke is a myth. Only God is Even the proclamation of the grace of God is powerless save it be brought home by the quickening energy of His own Spirit. A further account of the triumphant song of angels and saints for the fall of Babylon, ver 1-4. "The woman" is the more general symbol designating her as the great imperial city; "the harlot" is her corrupt religious character, embracing papal Rome, but not ending with Popery as it is. It "shall go into perdition," it is therefore added, "and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and shall be present." "The armies of heaven" wear the fine linen, white and pure" "which is the righteousness of the saints" (19:8). Reuchlin. It is not a righteousness of works. We begin the description of the conquering Christ. Who were they? "And no curse shall be any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him." When Christ at God's right hand was announced, even from the very beginning, He was ready to judge the quick and the dead. I admit that there may be something more in the symbol than the literal hills of Rome, because they are said to be also seven kings. It is a picture of final judgment. But still it is a very solemn fact to read, and that which we are bound to preach that even in the perfect state of eternity, while there is the brightness of the heaven and of the earth into which no evil can enter, you have all the evil that ever has been all the wicked of every clime and of every age cast into the fixed condition of eternal judgment in the lake of fire. Peculiar energy indeed attaches to symbolic language. "Which did corrupt the earth with her fornication": Drew the kings and It is also clearly a personal reward to those who had suffered. In other words, this is the characteristic title for God in the Revelation. The return of Christ to earth 19:11-16. His name: The Word of God, a name that none fully knows but himself, only this we know, that this Word was God manifest in the flesh; but his perfections are incomprehensible by any creature. It will be remembered that it was said to them that they must wait. H. B. Swete says that this comprehensive phrase embraces "Christians of all intellectual capacities and social grades, and of all stages of progress in the life of Christ." Gods deliverance of His people from their enemies (verse 1); (2) Echoing an earlier rabbinic comment found in the commentary of Rashi to the Songs of Songs (4:5) Ginzberg explainedthere is also a great bond of union between the first five commandments and the last five. "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.". "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled; and place was not found for them." God will judge Israel, namely, Jews living when He returns (Ezekiel 20:33-38), and the Gentiles living then (Matthew 25:31-46). At the beginning there will have been carnage, as we know, among both the western powers and the eastern powers. faith during the Tribulation (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Zech. The Bible with its 66 books can be compared to a novel having 66 chapters. purified at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor. Consequently there will be an increase in population such as never has been approached since the world was made, yet it afterwards appears, that Satan will not fail to turn the masses of the nations into one vast rebellion against the objects of God's special favour on the earth the saints wherever they may be, and the beloved city of Israel, as we have seen. absence of the Church from the earth during the judgments of (Rev. STUDY NOTES--Revelation 19:11-16 --THE CONQUERING CHRIST. He has many crowns, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. In any real marriage there must be four things which must also be in the relationship between the Christian and Christ. . The fine linen, clean and And who would defraud either the soul of salvation, or the Lord of showing it? Especially they will be now, when the nation of the Jews shall be born at once, Are we to infer from 1 Chronicles 21:12 what this sword will be? I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright the morning star. There are a lot of people today fighting against God. 1 Thessalonians 3:4-5 Commentary. If so, we can define the true prophet as the man who has received from Christ the message he brings to men, and whose words and works are at one and the same time an act of witness to Christ. It is not the magnitude of each voice. on the other, she had, when she could, gone on increasing in both, until at last the blow of divine judgment came. No sooner was the marriage solemnized between Christ and his church by the conversion of the Jews than the glorious head and husband of the church is called out to a new expedition, which seems to be the great battle that was to be fought at Armageddon, foretold Revelation 16:16; Revelation 16:16. see that it is in connection with the foregoing not merely His coming for us who will keep the sayings of it, but for those whom He will find here below "to give to each as his work is.". On the head of the victor Christ there are many crowns to show that he is lord of all the kingdoms of the earth. In the last chapter, we saw the terrible destruction of commercial and political rather than differing reality. Revelation 19:1-3. the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, We may illustrate it by the members of a family. Some evade the difficulty by referring the desolation to the Gothic powers; and these Protestants, as if they were mere Praeterists! the holy city Jerusalem. Hence arose the prominence of angels. When John here called the warrior Christ "The Word of God", he means that here in action is all the power of God's word; everything that God has said, and threatened, and promised is embodied in Christ. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. That is why religions fail. Like when this guy was breaking up with his girl, he said, "Can I have one final kiss?" at Revelation 14:19; while here we have the fuller phrase, the winepress of the wine of - CBSC, he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty . But here there is none; a temple is for the earth. This is just a statement telling us it will never be built There is a contrast with the scarlet and gold of the great harlot. For her sin., have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." And if you are wise and involved in any kind of ministry at all when attention and adulation and these kinds of things come your way, you will be wise as the angel and say, "Don't worship me. 10:13; Jude 9). Hallelujah is a very common word in religious vocabulary but the only time it actually appears in Scripture is on the four occasions in this chapter. And he says to him not to do that because he is a fellowservant, but to worship God.You see it is a apart of man to need and want to worship something, and man seems to find it easier to worship an object that he can see rather than an object that he cannot see. Ruling includes destroying as well as reigning over (Psalms 2:9). The judgment of the dead is strictly individual, judgments in this world are not. The final shout is the praise of the host of the redeemed. Such is God's account of Babylon the great. 23:5). Verse 6 commends these sayings afresh. These were simply the characters of provisional judgment that filled the interval after the church was gone, and before the reign with Christ. However, Satan is not yet destroyed. And when God does judge, it is not merely for the evil of those then judged, but of all from the first budding of it till that day. faith during the Tribulation (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Zech. After that we have the admonitions to the end of this book. The horns and the beast join in hating the whore. The temple would suppose a medium. Religion is threatened by life, by spiritual life.So, God has judged that religious system and has avenged the blood of His servants at her hands. It should be, "and shall be present. Sometimes, again, they have sought to turn it aside toward Jerusalem in her corrupt state. "The tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God. | I do not acknowledge the language to be either difficult or ambiguous. At the same time you will mark that these are not said to be executors of judgment as Christ is. The thief said, "We are here because we deserve to be here, but this man has done nothing amiss"( Luke 23:41 ). He was a divine person, whatever new position He assumes for the world. The Gothic hordes were not yet incorporated with the empire, still less were they horns of the beast, nor did they give their power to it, but destroyed it rather. WATCH ON YOUTUBE Book of Revelation Explained 2: The Last Days (Revelation 1:1-5) Indeed it must be so, because, as we read in the end of the last chapter, there the lost were cast. The word is pistos ( G4103) ; it means absolutely to be trusted. This is accordingly traced in our chapter with considerable detail, and with the sorrow and vexation of all the different classes who on the fall of Babylon groaned over her destruction, and the loss of their wealth and enjoyment. I don't know exactly what He will say. (Hebrews 4:13). You can trust in this. Revelation 19:1 "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God:" In the last chapter, we saw the terrible destruction of commercial and political Babylon symbolized by its capital city of Babylon. This is the kind of double meaning of which the Greek language is capable. 21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. 25:1-13; Luke 14:15-24). Here we have a repetition of the imagery of chapter 13. Verse 10. What is it? But the graphic account does not end until the Spirit of God shows us another view of Babylon altogether. overwhelming understanding of Who this is. (This takes you to our other website), News Links, Recommended Books, News Sites, and Bibles supper of the Lamb represents the millennial kingdom of Christ, which will take She followed and had inherited the spirit of all, from the days of Cain, who had lifted up their hands against their righteous brethren. by His sacrificial blood. First, there are his servants. "And hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand": And by these judicial Those festivities could last up to a week and sometimes even Then again the character of it, as derived from Christianity having already taken its place, is asserted. When its own season arrives, as it surely will, the divine hindrance is to be removed, and the devil then is allowed to do his worst. there is rejoicing and giving of honor. Thus the language of symbol is as definite as any other. Justly does she gather her title from the old fountain of idols and of combined power without God: confusion being here the characteristic element, the designation is taken from the renowned city of the Chaldeans, the first spot notorious in both respects. On the other, it is the first of seven final things that John saw and recorded. "The ten horns which thou sawest AND the beast" would give unquestionably the right form of the verse. Here is seen the holy city coming down out of heaven from God, which is declared to be the bride, the Lamb's wife, in the plainest contrast with the great harlot. We have not to learn what the other mystery means; we know well that it is according to God and godliness. Verse 7. Verse by Verse Ministry International is a non-profit, non-denominational, unaffiliated Christian ministry that is dedicated to promoting the preaching and teaching of God's Word clearly and boldly. Jesus Christ. The principle is very clear. Commentary on Revelation 19:11-21. The Word of God is alive and powerful, if we would only realize the power of the Word of God. Amen - WG, and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty . It was the barbarians who brought in the prevalent ideas of liberty as well as feudalism, and accordingly it is they that have firmly stood for freedom; so that all the efforts to reconstitute the empire which have been tried over and over again have hitherto issued in total failure. And God said is the recurring phrase in the narrative of creation ( Genesis 1:3; Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:9; Genesis 1:14; Genesis 1:26). A single verse dispels clouds of arguments. But alas! I. ). Stephen Armstrong. "The nations shall walk in the light of it," Any one of spiritual judgment can see that it should not be "nations of them which are saved." The armies of the church militant on earth, and the church triumphant in heaven are not engaged in physical battles of guns and bloodshed, but in spiritual struggles for control of the minds and spiritual forces of men and women. You have to accomplish certain works in order to be accepted by God. This "great voice" here is The picture is not of an "iron rod" he uses to "club" or beat his sheep! Over and over we will find this repeated as we approach the end of the book, these are the true sayings of God. I agree with the majority. In fact, we may say, all nations will be desolated by judgments of one kind or another; but for all this the world proceeding for a thousand years with every outward blessing, and the most admirable government administered by the blessed Lord Himself, will issue in the teeming and prosperous races of mankind. The word is pantokrator ( G3841) , literally the one who controls all things. He spoke it into existence. The fallen angels are not called, and the holy angels never need to be they are kept. . He shall destroy the pride of the sinner as a potter's vessel. It is remarkable, that all along this book, idolatry and Hence this certainly must be future. It means true in the sense that Jesus Christ is the one who brings the truth and who never at any time has any falsehood in anything that he says. But in the time really contemplated here all this political shuffling will be over. That a corrupt religion is better than none I will not say: at any rate it troubles men; it is a thorn in the side of those who want no religion at all. I say not on but over the earth. To be crowned with more than one crown may seem strange, but in the time of John it was quite natural. The vials have all now been dispensed upon the earth of the judgment and the wrath of God. We do know some of His names "Jesus, the Christ, The Son of God, Shepherd, Redeemer, Saviour, Prince of Peace, King of Kings and Lord of lords"----but the fullness of His love and power none of us has yet realized. Here we find the term "Alleluia" used really for the first in the New Testament and it is used four times here. The book of life will confirm what is gathered from the books. This testimony here is not Jesus giving it, but we believers who testify of the Not so. After the destruction of Babylon at There was the sad register of undeniable sin on the one side; there was no writing of the name on the other side. What is there to hinder it? Voices cry out joyfully that the Lord reigns and the marriage supper of the Lamb is ready. It is the active word which carried out the commandment of God. Revelation chapter 19 English Standard Version 1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! The word of God, or the judiciary sentence of Christ according to it, and which he will fully execute, to the utter destruction of all his enemies; :- that with it he should smite the nations; the Gentiles, the Papists, the antichristian states, those that have adhered to Babylon, and have drunk of the wine of her fornication. - CBSC, the winepress . Righteousness of saints: Not Christs imputed righteousness granted to For according to unquestionable testimony the Reuchlinian copy has like some half-dozen cursives, which was probably a mistake for . This is what drove men to the idea of making the pope to be the beast. number. He wrote several tracts and was instrumental in leading several Muslims from their religion to a real relationship with God in Jesus Christ.