Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible ® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.
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REVELATION CHAPTER 19
KJV
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1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, " Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;
Rev 19,1-9
(136i) Temple
>>
Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of
Christ >> Body of Christ is the Church –
The “bride of Christ” is also known as the body of Christ. One
refers to someone other than Jesus (His wife), while the other refers to
Christ’s body, only not His own. How could these terms refer to the same
person but to separate individuals at the same time? Genesis 2-23 says, “The
man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be
called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’” This verse is talking
about Eve as a separate person from Adam, yet having the same flesh and bones,
physically alike to Adam. The same holds true with Christ and the Church. The
Church represents every person who has died in faith since the beginning of
time, including Old Testament believers. It is the Church in heaven. Each of
us is a member of His body. The body of Christ suggests that we will
represent Him to His creation, while the bride of Christ is a separate
entity, yet one flesh and Spirit with Him.
Rev 19,1-7
(252h) Trinity
>>
You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship
God >> Worship God for being God –
God’s people worship him not just for being the creator, but also for being
the judge of all creation, and not just for being the judge, but because His
judgments are true and righteous, and as a result we can trust Him with our
lives. There are things He wants from His creation, and for this reason He
allows suffering. He is creating His people for His own possession who after
this life will be able to trust Him in eternity. He is setting precedence
for the future and preparing our hearts to understand that He is completely
trustworthy. Even if we have to suffer it is better in the end and there is a
reward waiting for us. He knows what He's doing, and we believe in Him. We put our beliefs and ideas aside and our opinions about what we think
He should do, and trust Him that what He’s doing is for the best.
Rev 19,1-6
(40l) Judgment
>>
God is glorified >> God defends His
righteousness through judgment –
One of the major points of faith in God is His justice that He apportions to
His creation. In eternity He will make judgments that will seem strange and
illogical as they seem today. Nothing will change in the future that way. In a
million, billion years from now God will do things that will not seem right to
us, yet each of these confounding circumstances will help understand Him a
little better as we trust Him. Our big mistake is that we think that this life
is all about us. This outlook makes God seem like our servant, as though
everything He does is for our sake, as though nothing He does should ever be for His own sake, as though that would be selfish
of God to think about Himself once in a while. We are so self-centered that we
never stop to consider what God may be trying to accomplish through us. He is
trying to create us in the way that He wants, but we want Him to make us so we
never suffer. It says that in heaven all pain and suffering will
cease, but that doesn’t mean we will never have to trust God again; we just
won’t live in a fallible body immersed in poverty. It is important to God
that we believe in Him, because He knows the future in a hundred billion years
from now; the things He will call us to do will require us to trust Him, no
different from this life. God is always planning for the future and lives in
the present; He always has the big picture in mind. God seems strange to us
because our future with Him will be different from our present circumstances,
not just our future in heaven when we get there, but the future billions of
years from now, how things will change. There will be all kinds of bends in
the road, tight corners and confounding circumstances just as there are in
this life, and we will need to trust God in eternity, and He is setting
precedence in this life.
(49f) Judgment
>> God's enemies are destroyed >> Enemies of the prophets are destroyed
-- These verses go with verse 21.
All of us in heaven trust God for the judgments that He has executed against
our enemies, those who oppressed us and made martyrs of the prophets and of
the saints. We understand the justice of God against our enemies for what they
have done to us, and the fact that we are giving praise to God and worshipping
Him is affirming that His judgment is true and righteous. However, many people
are falling away from the faith these days, and there is only one reason they
are doing it: they don’t believe in God’s justice. They don’t agree with
Him about what He is doing. They think that He should be doing something to
counteract the circumstances in the world that keep getting worse; He sits
back and lets it all happen, and they are mad at God because of His idleness.
However, keep in mind that the bondservants in heaven are worshipping God. It
says that many of His worshippers were martyred, meaning that they trusted God
when they were alive in the flesh, but people these days who are falling away
from the faith have lost their trust in God. They don’t believe in His
justice; instead, they believe God should be more active in our lives, and
bring about justice swiftly. They quit worshipping God, which means that if
they don’t repent of their unbelief, they may not be counted in the roles of
heaven. We who believe in God are the only ones who understand how much is at
stake.
(50g)
Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations
>> First half of the tribulation
>> The seals of Satan's wrath >> Fall of Satan –
Finally, God has used His power and has begun to reign! Man has been waiting
for this ever since the Garden of Eden. Now things will be easier, because
Satan is no longer in charge. God has taken his place and has become Prince of
the Power of the Air. The kingdom that He builds will be one that incorporates
all the fruits of the Spirit. The saints are very happy that God is in charge
of the creation and that they don’t have an ogre for a leader; instead, they
have someone they can trust. As many people who are His worshippers testify
against the wicked who have found their place in hell, who refused to serve
the Lord, but tried to be their own god and ended up worshipping the devil
instead, God’s opposite.
Rev 19,1-3
(39ja) Judgment >>
Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world
system >> Jesus defeated people who serve Satan -- These verses go with verses 11-21.
Everything
reduces to trust regarding faith in God’s righteous judgment. For example,
we don’t understand why punishing somebody forever just for a few decades of
rebellion is true and righteous. There are many things we don’t understand
about God, and part of the reason is that we don’t understand ourselves. We
don’t even understand what we know, for without the Bible we still would
know in our hearts that we have been created in the image of God in that no
other animal can do what we have done. No other animal comes close to the mind
that God has given us, the ability to reason that we might reason with Him,
and come to realize that we owe Him our allegiance. He deserves that, and we
know it, and so it is a simple matter of trust. As eternity progresses,
everything will come into focus.
Rev 19-1
(130b) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Unity >>
Being in one accord >> Having one voice
KJV
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2-6 BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." 3 And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER." 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" 5 And a voice came from the throne, saying, " Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great." 6 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, " Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Rev 19-2,3
(29c) Gift of God
>>
God is our advocate >> Delivered from death
(134i) Temple
>>
Your body is the temple of God >> Sins of the
body >> Immorality >>
Adultery >> Spiritual adultery –
Who
is the audience of this passage; is it not the Catholic Church? Once again we have paired up the corruption
of the harlot’s immorality with the blood of the saints, suggesting their association is
embedded in the world's pursuit of happiness at their expense. “Adulteress”
gives her marriage status. She is not just having sex with a married person;
she is the married person having sex with a man who is not her husband. Of
course this is spiritual adultery, and she is married to Jesus, committing
idolatry with demons.
Rev 19-2
(12f) Servant >> Nature of a bond servant
-- This verse goes with
verse 5
(28i) Gift of God
>>
God is our advocate >> God crushes those who
make us stumble
(107f) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >> Hearing From God >> Truth of the trinity >>
Father is truth
(189f) Die to self (Process of substitution)
>> Separation from the old man >>
Martyr >> Martyrs bring about the judgment of
God – The book of Revelation has
symbolic meaning
and literal meaning attached to almost everything it says, so this word
“immorality” means exactly that, sexual immorality, but it also refers
to the immorality of seeking monetary gain at the cost of human lives. One
thing we know for certain is that martyrdom is the reason God has judged the
harlot; martyrs were killed during
the seals.
Rev 19-3
(40k) God Is Glorified Through
Judgment
(Key verse)
(47a) Judgment >> God Judges the world >>
Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and
his angels >> The lake of fire -- This verse goes with verse 20. John the revelator is equating the burning of
Rome with the subsequent judgment of hell, showing the transparency between
her judgment on earth with her judgment in eternity, as
though hell has opened up and swallowed the Vatican city of Satan.
(189aa) Die to self (Process of substitution)
>>
Separation from the old man >> Holy sacrifice >>
The smell of death >> Stench of the dead
(189c) Die to self (Process of substitution)
>>
Separation from the old man >> Holy sacrifice >>
Acceptable sacrifice
-- Since those in hell determined not serve God, God decided to use them as an
object lesson for the rest of His creation what it means to rebel against Him. In that sense God views those in hell as having sacrificed their eternal
happiness for the sake of the elect.
(245g) Kingdom of God
>>
Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >>
Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s
righteous judgment >> Manifestation of God’s
justice
–
Part
of our rejoicing in heaven pertains to God’s judgment on the wicked; it says,
"Their torment rises up forever and ever." Some of us are already
happy that our enemies are going to hell, but if they were honest with
themselves, they would think that it was a little too severe to give people
bodies that cannot die and then throw them into a lake of fire and leave them
there to suffer forever and ever. None of us would wish a fate like this on
our worst enemy, not even on the most ruthless serial killer; anybody who
seriously thought about this would have to say that it seems over-the-top.
Some people think it would be just of God that He should annihilate them, but
God would retort, ‘I won’t do that because I made man an eternal
spirit’. We might reply, ‘Why then did you create them in the first
place,’ and God would say, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to
God?” Who are we to tell God what to create and what not to create? What
will we do about God’s seeming distorted sense of justice? Will we give up
on Him, or will we trust Him? Let’s face it, we don’t really know Him that
well; we have only been alive for a handful of decades, some maybe seven or
eight… that’s nothing. We haven’t even begun to understand God, but as
we trust Him the longer we know Him, the more time in prayer we spend with Him
and learn about Him, the more He makes sense to us. God created the righteous
and the wicked so that He could create a people for his own possession, who
were zealous for good works. In the process, God made people with in eternal
spirit who grew wicked based on their own volition, who have no place in His
kingdom, whom God has no intension of annihilating. They will deserve whatever
judgment they receive, for they have defied the God of all creation. They
should have known, and in fact they did know exactly what they were doing, and
that is why God sent them to hell.
Rev 19-5
(12f) Servant >>
Nature of a bond servant – This verse goes with
verse 2
(88j) Thy kingdom come
>>
Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom >> It
causes repentance
KJV
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7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."
Rev 19,7-10
(50j)
Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations
>> Second half of the tribulation >> The seventh seal >> Marriage supper of the lamb
–
Most people moan with terrible despair and disappointment at the idea of
living a celibate life in heaven, but that will not be the case at all. Mat
22,24-30 has the Pharisees asking Jesus a question about sex in the afterlife,
“Teacher, Moses said, 'if a man dies having no children, his brother as next
of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.' Now there
were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no
children left his wife to his brother; so also the second, and the third, down
to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore,
whose wife of the seven will she be, for they all had married her? But Jesus
answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not understanding the
Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.’” There will be
no marriage between Christians in heaven, but there will be marriage between
the bride (all Christians) and Christ. Many people moan that there will be no
marriage like we know in this life, but the heavenly marriage between Christ
and the Church will far exceed what we currently know about sex in the flesh.
People say, ‘What good is heaven without sex,’ and they are pointing out
the profound significance of sex, saying that without it life isn’t worth
living. God would tell them to hold on to their britches, for the sex they
love so much is just a symbol of what is coming!
(224e) Kingdom of God
>>
Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of
heaven >> The joyful kingdom >>
The marriage supper of the lamb – We don’t understand eternity in the life to
come. This brings up an important question regarding when the Marriage Supper
of the Lamb occurs in the sequence of endtime events. Every soul who has ever
been saved since Adam will be there, involving billions of people, and they
will all have a chance to stand up and tell their stories about what God has
done for them, which will take a really long time. We don’t know exactly
what the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will entail, but we do know that it will
be similar to the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples in the upper
room, which was a time of sharing and fellowship. He will bring us all
together in the first joyous celebration of victory over death, victory over
Satan, and victory over the world of sin through the blood of Christ. In this life we live
on a sequential timeline of events that cements the past behind us while the
future remains somewhat malleable, but God’s experience of time in eternity
is not the same as ours. For example, prophecy is cemented into the future. God can squeeze a thousand years into one day, and make
one day last a thousand years. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb happens before
God makes the new heavens and the new earth, which He will do sometime after
the Millennium. Most people believe that directly after Christ defeats His
enemies in the war of Armageddon, He will set foot on the Mount of Olives,
which is the official beginning of Millennium. There are two problems with
this: first, when does the Marriage Supper of the Lamb take place? Don’t
forget, the earth will still be smoldering from the judgments of the trumpets
and the bowls, hence problem two: Why would God want to set up His kingdom on
a smoldering planet? Remember, the iconic image of the endtimes according to
Scripture is that smoke will block out the sun and the moon will be turned
blood red on the great and awesome day of the Lord (Joel 2,28-32). If the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb is held here on earth during the Millennium we
will be held to a natural concept of time, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
may conceivably last thousands of years. Besides, if the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is
held on earth in the natural realm directly after the war of Armageddon, we
could be looking across the table at one another through a cloud of smoke.
This marriage feast is not something Jesus will want to expedite in order to get on with his
millennial kingdom; He has been looking forward to this moment for a very long
time. He said in Mark 14-24,25, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many… I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the Kingdom of God.” Jesus was referring to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when He said
this. Therefore, based on these facts: 1) this celebration will likely take
thousands of years to complete, 2) the earth will be in no condition to host
Jesus and His Church, 3) the Marriage Supper is mentioned at this point in
Scripture, 4) the remnant is not included in the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb, and 5) all are in attendance, it seems most likely that
this celebration will occur in heaven between the Bowls of God's judgment and
the war of Armageddon, after which He will set up His
millennial kingdom. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is a
celebration of eternal life; why would we celebrate it in the natural realm?
Rev 19,7-9
(208ja) Salvation >>
The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >>
Being married to God >> Knowing God >> Church knows Christ as a woman
knows a man –
Believers in Jesus tend to forget that we will one day be married to Christ.
That doesn’t sit very well with some Christian men, who don’t want to be
anyone's bride,
and perhaps that is one reason more women than men go to church. Salvation and
faith in Jesus is very much like a marriage relationship. When we got saved, we
all took our vows to faithfully serve Christ for the rest of our lives. I prayed
something like this: ‘Lord, from now on my life belongs to you; use me as you
wish and I will do all I can to help make your plan and purpose a reality in my
life.’ Many people get saved just to appease their conscience, which is not a
bad motive, but the best motive of salvation is to develop a genuine
relationship with Christ through the Spirit.
Rev 19-7
(4j)
Responsibility >> The choices you
make >> Accountable for your deeds –
When
it says, "The bride has made herself ready," it is alluding to
putting on her wedding clothes. Clothes are a symbol of our
deeds. The last day works of the Church will be different from the works of
any other time in the Church’s history, being that this is the time of her
wedding! The actual wedding will occur just prior to the millennium, but the bride
will get dressed for it prior to Christ’s return.
Therefore, we had better start preparing and putting on appropriate apparel
for a wedding, because His return is sooner than it has
ever been.
(125g) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Joy >>
Joy is the result of unity –
Our relationship with Christ is intimate, both individually and as a group.
Individually, the relationship bears resemblance to a sexual relationship
between a man and a woman in that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer,
reminiscent of a man going into a woman, but collectively, this experience
will be greatly magnified to become the ultimate mystery of the afterlife, a
mystery that God has not revealed to us. The relationship is like the
indwelling Holy Spirit, but it is also like sexual intercourse. How could God
reveal this to us, since we have no experiential basis to compare? Sex is
actually the symbol of what is to come. When Christ goes into His Church, it
will have to be different from the way the Holy Spirit dwells in us now,
otherwise it would be the same. An experience is coming that will be
completely new, resembling sexual intercourse, and the best way to explain it
is with the word Unity, since the term bride of Christ is
defined by unity, one body with many members. It is the heavenly relationship
between Christ and the Church that is the real substance; that which is
familiar to us between a man and a woman is the symbol. Just as symbols are
not an exact match of what they are supposed to represent, so sex is not an
exact match of the intimacy we will come to know in heaven with Christ.
(234e) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Set your mind on the glory of God
KJV
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8-10 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' " And he said to me, "These are true words of God." 10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Rev 19-8
(36b) Gift of God
>>
Gifts from the Holy Spirit >> The gift of
repentance
(50h)
Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations
>> Second half of the tribulation >> The saints flee into the wilderness - spiritual warfare
(Pre-rapture ascension)
(90i) Thy kingdom come
>>
Keeping the law >> Righteousness of the law >>
All righteousness is covered by the law
(92d) Thy kingdom come
>>
The narrow way >> Trail of good works >>
Putting on His good works -- This verse goes with verse
14
(103h) Thy kingdom come
>>
Purifying process >> Cleans yourself
(113a) Heaven’s clothes
(Key verse)
(113c) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >> The anointing >> Heaven’s clothes >>
Clothe yourself with good works -- This verse goes with verse 14. The
very first thing the Church lost after the apostles fell asleep was the
anointing. It was the most valuable and vulnerable of spiritual attributes,
making it Satan’s top priority to smother it by erasing it from church
doctrine, for without the anointing in writing it became illegitimate to
Christianity. Now the only people who teach the anointing are the flakes and
nuts of televangelism who know less about it than the people who reject its
teaching. When we look up the word anointing in the Bible, we see it
mentioned more often in the Old Testament than in the New, except that the name
Christ is literally translated “Anointed One,” hence Christians are
“anointed ones.” The anointing is associated with temple worship, consisting
of fragrant oil that the high priest wore in preparation to enter the Holy of
Holies each year to make propitiation for the sins of the people on the Day of
Atonement. Therefore, the anointing is in reference to dying to self. Jesus manifested this symbol of old covenant worship and has called
us to take up our cross and follow Him. After partaking of the showbread as illumined by the four
golden lampstands, representing the word of God revealed by the Holy Spirit, and
passing the golden altar of perpetual incense representing prayer, placed just
outside the veil along the way to the Most Holy Place, we discover the
anointing that God has prepared for us. We are to wear this anointing like
clothing in the form of good works that God produces in us through the
anointing, even as Aaron wore the ceremonial robes.
(115l) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Working the grace of God >> Through Good Works >>
Works that God prepared for you – This woman who clothed herself with a wedding gown
knows how God has called each member of her body; He has granted to her
the authority to make herself ready for her groom. Note that God did not clothe the woman, but
she “clothed herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is
the righteous acts of the saints.” There are doctrines coming mostly from the
Evangelical point of view claiming that God must do everything for us, and that
we can do nothing for ourselves, because our works are as filthy rags, quoting
this from Isaiah 64-6. These are those who would sit around and wait for God to
clothe them with good works, and if it never happens, then it is not their
fault. This is absurd, yet
there are many people who believe this. In other words, we are like
two-year-olds and we need God to help us put on our pants. Those who would
believe this have not matured one iota regardless how long they have been Christians. While it is true that our works are as filthy rags, yet
it is only true prior to being saved. After we are saved by grace through faith,
though, God calls us with a holy calling, and all our works based on His calling are
holy to the Lord, seasoned as it were with grace, so that
our works are not as filthy rags anymore, but blessed as the fruit of our
lives. This process of producing good works through our calling is called "working the grace of God." Note that these good works are not just any works that
we might determine for ourselves, as though we can do anything and God must
bless us. It is not the works that the Christian determines on
his own, but the works to which God has called him that God blesses, for these works are based on
obeying the Holy Spirit who revealed our calling in the first place. The works of our calling are
proof that we have an ear that can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and that we
are listening to Him and are ready to do whatever He says. By doing this we are staying alert; we have
a hearing ear to what the Spirit is saying; we
are staying busy doing His will; we possess all the attributes that Jesus spoke
about a Christian's life.
Rev 19-9
(33j) Gift of God
>>
God is our Father >> God serves His people who
serve Him >> He treats His people with special
care
(34h) Gift of God
>>
God is willing to Give >> The blessed First Resurrection
(107l) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >> hearing from God >>
The Bible will lead you to truth >>
Thy word is truth
Rev 19-10
(12k) Servant
>>
Bond servants the prophets
– There is a one-to-one correspondence between the
testimony of Jesus and the Spirit of prophecy. We can testify that Jesus is
in our hearts, but not every Christian has a
spirit of prophecy. We can read the Bible to understand His will, but it is the spirit of prophecy
that testifies about His specific plan for us. There are those who don’t believe there are prophets
anymore,
but we read endtime prophecy in the Bible about prophets being martyred for their faith. We can learn a lot from Scripture if we study it, but if
we reject the word of the prophets, it is proof we don't understand the
Scriptures, for it was through the Spirits of prophets that wrote the
Scriptures. If we receive the word of prophets from ages past but reject the
prophets of our own time, how are we any better that the Pharisees who
praised the prophets of old, but had Jesus crucified?
(15c)
Servant >> Ministering spirits >> Angels give help in time of
need – The fact that the angel said, “Do not do
that [worship me]; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren,” is declaring
that angels are not that different from mankind. The thing we have in common
with angels is that we are both servants.
(131a) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Unity >>
Interdependent on each other to do the will of God
(144i) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus
>>
Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus
(147i) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >>
Solemnly testify about Jesus
(152f) Witness
>>
Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the
father >> Prophets >>
Jesus is a prophet >> Jesus prophesies to the Church
(196c) Denying Christ
>>
Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping angels
(252a)
Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship
Jesus (Because He is equal with God) >> Jesus is worthy of our worship
>> Worship Jesus for His inherent worthiness – An angel is commanding the apostle John
not to worship him. This is a verse for the trinity. In the Bible is says
that people worshipped Jesus and He did not stop them
in contrast to worshipping angels (196c).
KJV
NAS
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11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
Rev 19,11-21
(39ja) Judgment >>
Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world
system >> Jesus defeated people who serve Satan -- These verses go with verses 1-3. This is referring to the war of Armageddon,
the war against God, which is pure insanity, showing how low man has
regressed. This so-called war marks the end of man’s reign upon the earth.
Their intension was to encircle Jerusalem to completely destroy it, but Jesus
stepped in at the last second and destroyed her enemies for the purpose of
establishing his thousand-year reign, stationing His kingdom in Jerusalem. The Lord comes to make war against His enemies
and to protect Jerusalem from annihilation. He comes to speak to His remnant
who believed in Him, seeds of His millennial kingdom. He called them like
Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth during His thousand
year reign on earth.
(40d) Judgment
>>
Jesus judges the world through His own death
–
In these verses we are seeing the age of grace coming to
an end and ushering in the glorious age of Christ’s millennium. God always starts a
new age when man grows depraved. Jesus came and shed his blood during a time
of Israel's depravity, and now Jesus is about to
return under the same circumstances, during at time again when man has become willing to
serve Satan rather than God. There will be more people saved during the thousand-year reign of Christ than all those who have been saved
throughout time. Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron;
He will be there to put the kibosh on folly and wickedness that people will
perpetrate during His reign. Since He will rule the
nations with a rod of iron, He will not merely slap their hand, but put them
to death. Sin and rebellion is an ongoing
saga, and God continues teaching His creation that
mutiny is in vain.
(50l)
Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations
>> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church
>> Armageddon –
The Apostle John is describing the war of Armageddon. He saw heaven open and
one proceeded from it who sat on a white horse, and others came with Him. It
is fair to say that John wrote the book of Revelation based on
what he saw, and what he saw is how it will appear to the inhabitants of the
earth on that day. The entire inhabitants of the earth will take part in this
war, save a remnant. There had been a great migration, and all that is left of the
populations of the world will be camped outside Jerusalem, preparing to invade
it. Civilization by then will have collapsed to such an extent that their
weapons will have regressed to swords and clubs. This indicates just how few
people are left on the earth at the time, just a drop in a bucket compared to
seven billion people today.
(245i) Kingdom of God
>>
Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >>
Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s
righteous judgment >> Manifestation of Jesus’
victory over sin
– This will not be a conventional war, nor will
it be a nuclear war. Albert Einstein said, “I know
not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but world War IV will be
fought with sticks and stones.” The war of Armageddon will be a
one-sided bloodbath. Note that horses will be the mode of transportation,
since our current industrial and technological revolutions will have stopped
turning, having been blown to smithereens with the nuclear holocaust of WWIII,
having cracked over bone-shattering earthquakes during the seals, trumpets and
bowls of God's judgment. There will be no semblance
of a technological age except roads that are in the process of being paved
over with vegetation and soil, and the remnants of buildings that occasionally
fall in a heap with a strong wind. After Christ has revealed Himself to be
this undefeatable foe, man will assemble against Him through the leadership of
Satan. The nations will gather together just outside Jerusalem, where the
people who represent what’s left of the world would attack the holy city,
except that Jesus will ambush them along the way, and the armies of the
nations will turn their swords and clubs against Jesus, who is coming against
them from the sky. These are the ones who have taken the mark of the beast
during the seals and have damned their souls to hell, who have nothing to
lose, whose sanity has been lost to the mind of demons. An angel seized the
false prophet and the beast (the antichrist) and threw them alive into the
lake of fire, which suddenly appeared through a portal leading
into hell, and then closed over them. It says that the
sword of Jesus’ mouth destroyed His enemies. Jesus simply said something
"I Am He" (Jn 18,4-6) and
they all fell to the ground and died.
Rev 19,11-16
(82k) Thy kingdom come
>>
Power of prayer >> Prayer prepares you to meet
Jesus
(111j) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Spirit and the word >> Word and the judgment of
God -- These verses go with verse 21
Rev 19,11-14
(60f) Paradox
>>
Two implied meanings >> Second coming of Jesus
Christ / How God answers prayer
–
People have been praying for the Second coming of Jesus Christ, and finally
here He comes. A passage similar to this is spoken in Mat 24-30,31, “And
they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and
great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they
will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky
to the other.” There is only one difference between this rendition of the
coming of Christ and the one in Mat 24,29-31: those following behind Him. In
Matthew they are angels, but in this passage they are people, clothed with
fine linen white and clean (v8). The robes are significant in that they
represent the Church that Jesus cleansed with His blood. This indicates that
the second coming of Jesus Christ is a two-fold event, once for His people
at the First Resurrection/Rapture, and once again to destroy His enemies and
set up His thousand-year reign on earth.
Rev 19,11-13
(40a) Jesus Is The
Judge
(Key verse)
(107e) Thy kingdom come >>
Faith >> Hearing from God >> Truth of the trinity >>
Jesus is truth –
This passage is where we get the idea that Jesus is the word of God, as He
also said in Jn 14-6, “I am the way, and the Truth, and the life.”
When we add that He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, we see that the
cross epitomized God’s truth. It is how God revealed Himself most succinctly
to mankind. The cross gives Jesus the right to judge the world in
righteousness. Trying to expound on all the ramifications of Jesus being
God’s Truth would be almost impossible, since it is interpolated throughout
the Scriptures. For example, we know that God created the heavens and the
earth. He creates things through His word, and by that we know that He created
all things through His Son. The Father gave the words to His Son to speak, and
when He spoke them, God created the universe through Him, and there is no
greater truth than that.
Rev 19-11
(102m) Thy kingdom come
>>
Faithfulness (Loyalty) >> Loyalty is unswerving
KJV
NAS
/ Navigation Bar
12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
Rev 19,12-16
(40b) Judgment >>
Jesus is the judge >> Jesus judges the world’s
disobedience –
Most people consider their own lives more important than anyone else’s, and
when everyone has this opinion, it makes for an evil world. They even gave it a
name: capitalism. Jesus did just the opposite; He sacrificed His life in place
of others. The most profitable economic ideology though least likely to work in
this world is the system that God intends to use in heaven, starting in the
Millennium, and He will have to use a rod of iron to enforce it, and that
economic ideology will revolve around people putting the interests of others in
front of their own. Phi 2-3 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty
conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than
yourselves.” This will bring about more prosperity than this world has ever
known. Jesus would not consider any other system, but because of man’s evil
nature, this concept is kicked to the curb.
Rev 19-12
(66j) Authority
>> Jesus’ authority
>>
His words are the authority of God
(104c) Thy kingdom come
>>
Purifying process >> Purified by fire >>
Purified through fiery judgment
– There will always be mysteries about Christ.
Had it been a statement written on Him that no one knew, that would be an
incomprehensible thought or idea, but since it was a name written on
Him, the fact that it was a name refers to an aspect of His identity, it represents a whole side of Himself that we
will never know. It is the only aspect of Christ that those condemned to hell
know about Christ, for it refers to eternal judgment against sin.
(231e) Kingdom of God
>>
God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery
of godliness >> Revelation of Jesus is the
mystery of the kingdom >> Jesus is the mystery
of the kingdom –
There is a point at which our understanding of Christ will
fail us. The name written on Him may resemble “I Am.” Jesus never had a
beginning, and we will never be able to relate to this since we did have a
beginning. We do know Him in the present, which is the most important
moment in eternity, thus we know the most important aspect of Christ. Jesus
lives in the present and He taught us to live in the present, and He has also
given us a future in eternity, but we will never comprehend eternity past. This name written on Him will therefore
remain an eternal mystery that will forever keep us amazed at our God. There
will be things in heaven that point to His distant past, but going back
further there was time when only God existed, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
that length of time would have been an eternity.
(253ec) Trinity
>>
Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is
equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the
internal qualities of the Father
>> Jesus is God in heaven –
What makes God such an amazing person is that Jesus went to the cross and took
upon Himself every evil thing man has ever done with complete consciousness of
sin. This shows the mental stability of Christ: When God raised Him from the
dead, He showed no signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is
unimaginable that He could have gone through that and come back unscathed, but
this is what the Bible says. This is how He was able to hush the sea in a
raging storm; He is just that calm and at peace in His heart. Some people are
committed to a mental institution because they can't handle their own sin, let
alone the sins of the whole world. This is how big God is as a person. Anyone
else would have been emotionally scarred forever, His life would have been
useless to Him, but Jesus came back in perfect physical, mental and emotional
health. Someone might say that God simply dumped all man’s sin into hell.
That is the case with the residents of heaven whose names are written in the
Lamb’s Book of Life, but it is not the case of unregenerate man who has
rejected Him; otherwise, how could God judge them if He couldn’t remember
their sin? Jesus remembers what unforgiven people have done, because He
personally experienced their sin. At the White Throne Judgment God will judge
those who appear before Him for every evil thing they have said and done,
which means God maintains a consciousness of their sin, which also means that
Jesus has retained the sins that He personally suffered on the cross of those
who have rejected His forgiveness. God is by no means a prude.
KJV
NAS
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13-16 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
Rev 19,13-15
(38b) Judgment
>>
Blood of Jesus >> God judged man through the
blood of His son – When it says that he will rule the nations
with a rod of iron, it is referring to the Millennium, but as for now “He
treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.” He’s got
the red grapes and is stepping on them, and out comes the juice, and He’s
going to make wine. There was wine in the harlot’s glass consisting of the
blood of the saints, and now He will make His own wine from the blood of those
who martyred the saints. It is only fair and just, for God intends to reward the
world for the willful sin it has committed.
(113f) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
The anointing >> Heaven’s clothes >>
Garments of warfare –
The Old Testament speaks of the Millennium as a time of peace, yet Christ will
rule the earth with a rod of iron, suggesting that coercion is necessary to
make peace in a world of sinners; the trick is putting the scepter into the
right hands. In a world of evil no one is righteous enough to hold the
scepter, but Jesus wields the scepter in that He has earned the right to judge
the nations when he gave his life to save the world from their sins. He used
the rod of iron to subdue His enemies during the Great Tribulation prior to establishing
His kingdom. This set precedence for His thousand-year reign of peace that
only comes through coercion.
(255c) Trinity
>>
Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >>
God’s word is Spirit >> Jesus is the word of
the Spirit >> Jesus is the manifested word of
God – The Father has sent His Son to judge the world
based on their rejection of His cross, and there is a name written on
Him, but that is not what they call Him; they call Him the word of God. John
1-1,2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Before the creation, before anything was
created He was with God in the beginning. God Himself
never had a beginning and neither did Jesus. It is
impossible to know the full experience of Christ on the cross, having been
alienated from His Father after sharing an eternity with Him.
Rev 19-13,14
(116d) Thy kingdom come >>
Faith >>
Working the grace of God >> Through worship >>
Through His authority
Rev 19-14
(92d) Thy kingdom come
>>
The narrow way >> Trail of good works >>
Putting on His good works -- This verse goes with verse
8
(93g) Thy kingdom come
>>
Following Jesus >> Disciples follow Him
(113c) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >> The anointing >> Heaven’s clothes >>
Clothe yourself with good works -- This verse goes with verse 8
(224f)
Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of
heaven >> The joyful kingdom >> We shall always be with the Lord
Rev 19-15
(61k)
Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged
sword: That cut them to the quick / That cut them to the grave -- This verse
goes with verse 21
(150e) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Confessing Jesus >>
Making the good confession
(Son of God) -- This verse goes with verse
21. The
great and the small will finally meet in the fields of Armageddon, where God
will mow them down, and they will all perish together. On the fields of
Armageddon they will discover the small are not smaller than the great and the
great are not greater than the small, but they are all equally dead, defeated by
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one they defied since Adam ate the
forbidden fruit. Man has continued thinking in his heart over the millennia that
he was greater than His creator. He came and visited them, and He made Himself
smaller than any man. He didn’t try to be more humble but revealed His true
identity in His actual character, and it turns out that God is more humble than
any man, though He is infinitely greater than all. He died for man’s sin, so
now He wears a robe dipped in blood, so those who would believe in Him for
eternal life will be given fine linen white and clean and a white horse that
they ride behind their Lord and Master to fight against the enemies of the
blood-stained earth below the cross of Christ. They defied His person, defied
His humility, defied His love and inner qualities, and dared to challenge Him in
a duel with the elementary principles of their sinful flesh. Who would win the
war against God? It was decided in the fields of Armageddon at the second coming
of Jesus Christ, at the revelation of a sharp two-edge sword in the form of
words that proceeded from His mouth, "I Am He" (Jn 18,4-8), that
literally cut them to the quick.
Rev 19-16
(66a) Authority
>>
Lordship of Christ >> He is Lord over all
creation >> over life and death
KJV
NAS
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17-19 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in
midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great." 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
Rev 19,17-21
(163k) Works of the devil
>>
Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >>
Entertaining demons >> Disciplined by the devil
as a son – Jesus came and died for the sins of the world
at a time when mankind was utterly corrupt, and when He returns He will find
the reprobate mindset again established within the human gene pool that
wouldn’t repent even if it could. All the birds will come and eat their
flesh. God called them to the field prior to battle, knowing the outcome.
There are a lot of people who think that God is hard on mankind, but if they
saw the kind of people these men have become, reprobates without the slightest
hint of repentance in their stony hearts, maybe they would understand God’s
reasons. These days are coming and they are coming fast. The only thing
necessary for the book of Revelation to unfold is
for the global economy to collapse. The economy even now is teetering
on the brink of destruction, and nobody seems all that concerned. When it does
collapse, it will
cause a domino effect that will not stop toppling this world system until
everybody is pointing spears at heaven and cursing his wonderful name. So, will a faltering
economy turn everyone into reprobates? No it won’t, but this domino effect will, suggesting that there are already enough people in the world who will
misbehave in a state of chaos, causing riots, killing people for food and shelter, being the first step in
hardening man’s heart to stone, and no one will step in to break the
downward cycle of human depravity, until he creates hell for himself on earth. People
will blame God for
everything that is happening to them, even though they are the ones causing
the terror. Instead of repenting and turning to God for mercy they will turn
away from Him.
(170l) Works of the devil
>>
Manifestations of the devil >> Outward
appearance >> Vanity >>
Vain effort >> Effort lacking direction
Rev 19,17-19
(56j) Paradox
>>
Opposites >> He who exalts himself shall be
humbled
Rev 19-17,18
(51k)
Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world
>>
No partiality with God’s justice
Rev 19-17
(15h) Servant
>>
Angels have authority >> They have the power to decree an order
(112h) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Light >> Light exposes sin >>
Light reveals hidden deeds
Rev 19,19-21
(19c) Sin
>>
Mocking God Without a cause >> Motivated by
demons
(160g) Works of the devil
>>
Essential characteristics >> Satan’s
attitude determines our direction >> Led by
the devil to fight against God
(164d) Works of the devil
>>
Manifestations of the devil >> The world
system >> Satan rules the world >>
Satan is a tyrant over the world –
The book of Revelation uses the word “beast” interchangeably, sometimes
calling the false prophet the beast, but in this case He used “the
beast” to mean the antichrist. The false prophet initially was the beast,
who essentially owned the world and then gave his power to the antichrist,
the voice of his one-world religion (the Pope). In fact, “antichrist” is
a fabricated title; the Bible doesn’t say there is an antichrist,
but calls him the man of lawlessness. The title “beast” comes
from the book of Daniel, from the fourth king that arises to take control of
the world during the period of anarchy when the global economic system
collapses. There will be three attempted coups prior to the fourth, whose
success will be attributed to deception and intrigue. That is, there won’t
be any qualities within him that led to his success, just a big mouth.
That’s the beast; the false prophet controls the one-world government and
institutes the Mark of the Beast. Meanwhile, a Great Endtime Revival will
ensue throughout the earth, leading many millions of people to be saved, and
it will reek havoc on Satan’s efforts to take over the world, and so the
false prophet will hire the Vatican to become his religion and requiring the
world to fall down and worship the Pope in effort to counteract this
Christian revival that is quickly gaining momentum.
Rev 19-19
(65h) Paradox
>>
Anomalies >> Satan unites the world for the
cause of deception
KJV
NAS
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20&21 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
Rev 19-20
(47a) Judgment >> God Judges the world >>
Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and
his angels >> The lake of fire -- This verse goes with verse 3.
God
will command His angels to lay hold of the beast and the false prophet and
throw them alive into the lake of fire. Where is the lake of fire? It's
whereabouts is a mystery prior to God destroying this present creation and
building a new one in its place, but in the new creation, the lake of fire
will be at the center of the new earth. This suggest that the lake of fire is
currently a spiritual place, and these men were thrown alive into it. Their
bodies died and were vaporized by the intense heat before they reached the
bottom of the abyss, and it doesn’t say they took part of the second
resurrection (the resurrection of the wicked). They were given new bodies that
could not die, while they continued the descent into the lake of fire.
(50m)
Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations
>> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church >> White-throne
judgment - Lake of fire ( the second death)
(179g) Works of the devil
>>
Practicing witchcraft >> Wolves >>
False prophets
>> False prophets confess to be the Christ
(183d) Works of the devil
>>
The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >>
Witchcraft >> Anointing of error
(195i) Denying Christ
>>
Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >>
Worshipping other gods >> Worshipping other gods
as a god yourself
Rev 19-21
(49f) Judgment
>> God's enemies are destroyed >>
Enemies of the prophets are destroyed -- This verse goes with verses 1-6. What
did Jesus say to the army of His enemies to make them all suddenly keel over
dead? “I Am He” (Jn 18,4-8)! Jesus is the life of God, but He can also
destroy, though “destroyer” is not in His title. Ironically, Jesus is a
better destroyer than Satan, whose title is literally “destroyer”. God is
better than Satan even at the things of which Satan boasts the most; Jesus
destroyed every soldier in that army with a single breath; it wasn’t even a
battle; He never had to lift a finger against them. Jesus merely spoke to
them, performing the function of His identity as the word of God, and they all
laid down and died in obedience to His voice. Later after the Millennium, fire
will come down from heaven and consume His enemies again. Then Christ will
destroy the entire universe and create a new one in its place. The word
“destroyer” is not in His title because it is not anything He values. The
only reason “destroyer” is in the title of Satan it because that is the only
thing he can do, not that he’s good at it by comparison. Actually, when
we think about Satan, he never really destroyed anything; he only lied to
people and people destroyed themselves, and so in a sense we could say that
the destroyer is just a liar. Think of all the wars and destruction he caused;
the fact is, he didn’t do any of it; he only deceived the nations into
destroying themselves.
(61k)
Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged
sword: That cut them to the quick / That cut them to the grave -- This verse
goes with verse 15
(111j) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Spirit and the word >> Word and the judgment of
God -- This verse goes with verses 11-16. 2000 years earlier when He visited man in the
weakness of human flesh, before they took Jesus into custody Judas kissed Him
as an identifying sign, and when they asked Him if he was Jesus, he said “I
Am He,” and the force of his words, as it were a mighty wind, caused them
all to fall to the ground (Jn 18,5-8), but He was shooting blanks. Instead of His enemies repenting at His word,
they got back up and proceeded
with God’s predetermined plan to execute Him. However, at the end of the age
He will not be shooting blanks; when He speaks to the world, they will all fall to the ground as before, but this
time they will not get back up.
(150e) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Confessing Jesus >>
Making the good confession
(Son of God) -- This verse goes with verse
15
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