Chapter 19
Verse 11. Heaven is now opened, and behold; He comes who is called Faithful and True. He comes in righteousness and strength, “and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” He comes to judge the quick—that is, the living nations. Nothing can be hidden from His eyes, they are “as a flame of fire.” He comes now to take vengeance on an ungodly world, “clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.” Compare Isa. 63:1-6, “For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” We must not forget this, that though He comes in righteous judgment on the wicked, yet it is to set up His kingdom, as He says, “The year of my redeemed is come.” It is when the enemy has come in as a flood, that the Redeemer shall come to Zion. Oh, how much has now to be fulfilled to His redeemed nation of Israel; and through them what blessing to the earth!
Now mark, the armies in heaven come with Him. Surely He does not come to judge the saints who have long been with Him in heaven In that sense He has assured us, we shall riot come into judgment; and His word is enough for those who believe Him. (John 5:24; Heb. 9:28.) It is a blessed truth, that when He comes to judge the wicked rejecters of His grace, all His saints will come with Him. Nothing can. be more clearly revealed in scripture, “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” “Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment,” &c. (1 Thessalonians 3, 4; Jude 14, 15.) Thus the armies of heaven shall come with Him, when He comes to judge and reign. This is that coming to rule and reign spoken of in the prophets and the Psalm (Compare ver. 15 with Psalm 2:8-10, Isa. 11, Dan. 7, and many other scriptures.) In those scriptures the object of this judgment is most distinctly to set up His glorious kingdom on earth.
Then, instead of sending missionaries to the Jews, the Jews will be God’s missionaries to all that are spared in the whole world. (See Isa. 66:15-20.)
But to return to our chapter. Verses 17, 18, describe a judgment which seems to refer to Eze. 38; 39 In those chapters a vast northern empire came up against restored Israel, only of greater dimensions than the empire now known as the Russian empire. There can be no doubt, from the Septuagint translation, that Rosh or Russia, is here meant. When they come forth finally to settle the Eastern question, God will settle their boasting and blasphemy, as described in those chapters and in these verses.
Then there is the last great effort of the ten kings, and the beast, and Antichrist, who is the false prophet. These, in their madness, come against the King of kings and Lord of lords. The judgment of God falls upon them, and in the most remarkable way upon the head of the Satanic empire of Rome, and upon the false prophet, or man of sin. “These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone.” These are the two world powers that divide the earth—Russia, embracing Germany, all north of the Rhine, portions of Asia and Assyria; and the other the whole of the old Roman empire restored. After the judgment on the professing church, the judgment falls upon these apostate political powers.
Chapter 20.
Then the judgment on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan. He is bound for a thousand years, and cast into the bottomless abyss. He shall deceive the nations no more for the thousand years; after that he must be loosed a little season. He now deceives them, and will deceive them more when the church is gone, as we see in this book.
Verse 4. We come now to the commencement of the millennium. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them” (those slain in chapter vi. and afterward), “And those which had not worshipped the beast.... they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” This prospect will be most comforting to the remnant of saints after the church is completed. They have the blessed privilege of being part of, yea, the completion of the first resurrection. This does not imply that they will form part of the heavenly bride. The bride is complete, and the marriage of the Lamb has taken place in heaven, before these companies of saints are raised from the dead. They have thrones on earth, and share in blessedness with Christ in His earthly yet glorious millennial reign. Their being raised from the dead completes the first resurrection. No more will be raised from the dead till the thousand years be finished. Blessed and holy are such. The second death hath no power upon them.
Ignorance of scripture has confounded all this, in a general resurrection of all the dead together, in direct contradiction of scripture.
When Christ comes to take His own to Himself, then the dead in Christ shall rise first, and all living believers will be changed, and both be caught up together to meet with, and be with the Lord; to be like Himself, in everlasting purity and incorruptibility. They are with Him as worshipping elders all through the woes and judgments of this book. Then after the judgment on apostate Christendom, and on the Russian and the restored Roman empire, with the false prophet; and after the binding of Satan, then the two classes here spoken of—all who have believed the testimony of Jesus during the intermediate period of judgments, from chapter 6 to 19, will be raised in great blessedness, to reign with Christ. Thus we see them sitting on thrones. Then will be fulfilled every promise of God as to this earth, from Abraham downwards. Yes, every glorious promise in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in all the prophets. All have their place, not mow during the presentation of the gospel until Christ comes in judgment, but then, when He has come, whose right it is to reign. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
What a large amount of the Old Testament is occupied with this period of the earth’s blessedness; all of which has been spoiled or made of none effect by the great mistake, that those promises belong to the church. But surely this Book of Revelation makes all clear. The millennium will never come until after the destruction of apostate Christendom; what a delusion then to teach, that that very Christendom will convert the world! Alas, as this book shows, she has corrupted the nations.
Who is it that teaches them how to lie, and the cruel practice of boycotting, so called? Who teaches them to despoil and to shoot any that would be honest, and pay their just debts? Who teaches them to cut off the ears and tails of poor dumb animals? Who teaches them to hate their fellow men with Satanic hatred? It is not the old heathen Rome, but the apostate church! Yes, her judgment must come before the millennium can commence. Oh, what a change must take place, and surely will! Satan, the present prince of the world, the prime mover amongst men, must be cast out, and the now rejected Christ shall come, whose right it is to reign.
But there remaineth one more test. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” And who would have thought it possible, if God had not told us? The nations will listen to him, and be deceived again. (Vers. 8, 9.) This ends in the final judgment of the living. The devil is now “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Well did the Spirit of God know how the infidels of our day would seek to deny the awful truth of everlasting punishment. So that He presents it here as it cannot be denied. Two persons have been in that lake of fire one thousand years, and the character of that punishment is “and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Is not this as clear as words can be given to prove the punishment of that lake of fire to be everlasting—“day and night forever and ever?” Oh, beware of listening to the devil that it is not so, he would fain make you believe that God does not mean what He says.
Verse 11. We now come to the awful judgment of the rest of the dead who live not again until the thousand years are fulfilled. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,” &c. All these were personally judged, every man according to their works. It is into this judgment the believer can never come, on the assured word of Christ. (John 5:24.) How can the justified from all things (Acts 13:38, 39; Rom. 5:1), come into this judgment of the dead? We implore the reader to ponder the difference between, these things; or take two persons—one has been justified from all sins; the other has to be judged. For every sin, for every secret thing and word, he has to be judged and dealt with according to God’s wrath against sin. One of these things must be your case and mine. Justified or judged, we must be. Oh, have you fled for refuge to the only Savior? Do you believe God the Justifier? Do you believe He is righteous in. justifying you through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? Has He loved you, and washed you from your sins in His own blood? Dear reader, it is a personal question. Can you say, He has loved me and given Himself for me? Can you say, He was delivered for my iniquities, and was raised again for my justification? If not, look at that great white throne. There is no escape from those eyes. He who sits there knows you through and through. If you reject Him as Savior, you must meet Him as Judge. To none, however, will that great throne be so terrible, as to the many who will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have east out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works.” What does Jesus say to such? “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matt. 7:22, 23.).
None shall escape who have refused to do the will of the Father. And “this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29.) Oh, ye who think you are doing great things in Christendom, do you believe in Him, even Jesus the sent One of the Father? Does faith rest in Him alone? If in anything besides Jesus and His finished work—be it baptism, mass, Eucharist, the church, temperance, or any of the fashionable helps of this day—oh beware, lest you hear those awful words, “Depart from me.” Rest not until you know your names are written in the book of life, for “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Yes, it surely will be so.