Revelation 19:17-21

Here we are at the very last battle of the war that began before humanity came into being. It involves humanity, and in many ways, it is about humanity. This is a tactical concept we should discuss. From the texts we have looked at thus far, we know that the Dragon is at a numerical disadvantage. Only about a third of the angels followed him into treacherous rebellion. We saw this when we looked at chapter 12:3-6. Verse 4 reads, “And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.” At that time, we discussed why these ἀστέρων represented angels, the heavenly beings that the dragon figuratively swept along in his own treason and rebellious insurrection.

Why would a created perfect being rebel in such a fashion? Doctor Del Tackett, in his series of lectures on Christian Worldview named The Truth Project, does so by identifying what was going on. Lucifer, the greatest of all created beings, was placed in the favoured position of leading and collecting all the worship of YHVH for all of creation. He may have already given in to the pride of position of being the best and most favoured by God, and perhaps God was standing beside him and showing him all of creation, and revealing His plans for what else He was going to do. God said, “Is it not grand? My detail in the Creation?” Lucifer would have had to agree. “Have you seen my latest creation?” Lucifer said, “No, Lord. May I see them?” God smiled and said, “Of course, my son. They are not ready yet, but I will show you them now,” as he revealed man and woman together. Lucifer would have smiled at the power of God, and secretly, that God was showing them to him first. Being in charge of leading the worship of all creation and its administration, he would have innocently and naturally asked, “And these are to be mine?” He would have assumed that, I think, given his position. God, without missing a beat, simply said, “No. They will be your replacements.”

Have you ever received bad news while you were in a fantastic mood? Do you remember the smile freezing on your face? My guess is that is what Lucifer experienced in that moment. Perhaps he had not yet learned that God always has something better to give you when He takes away a privilege you have held for some time. Perhaps he liked the power and the prestige of what he did for the Lord. I cannot really say, I can only guess, though my guess is somewhat educated. Whatever the case, I think Del Tackett is correct. This is what caused the treason and insurrection. From Lucifer’s perspective, it was an unfair and unforgivable insult to Him, perpetrated upon him by none other than the living God. He went away angry. He allowed it to fester. It grew into bitterness. He shared it with his friends. In the end, the rebellion took away a full third of the angels.

Now comes the numerical disadvantage; Lucifer and his armies were outnumbered 2 to 1. The armies of the Lord had twice the number. How could he make up the deficit for the intended coup that he is currently setting up? He could enlist the creation of God, who was humanity in this case, and use them against the Father. And in this text, that is what he does. Have you noticed that he has only turned to them as a last resort? He understands that in our current form, we are powerless and useless against the kind of heavenly warfare that must take place if his insurrection is to succeed. He knows this. He directly caused this. I struggle with the idea that people think he cares about humanity at all. In his horrible math, we are nothing but cannon fodder in his war with the Almighty. In our text this evening, we are going to see how this turns out for him. I don’t think it is a spoiler to tell you that it doesn’t work out for him. How is it that you can go to war with the One who made everything and set the rules of how things work on His terms and expect to win? I think it is, at its root, a fool’s dream. Given how much more intelligent he is than we humans at present, he doesn’t see it that way; he probably thinks I’m the fool for holding that opinion. Who knows? Maybe I am. Let’s look at the text and see if I am nothing but an uneducated lump of clay.

I broke the text down like this:

KV19: Armageddon, Carry Me Home

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.

17-18: The Wedding Feast of the Lamb

19: The Battle-Ready Assembled Armies

20-21: The Battle of All Battles Ends

Those of you who are about my age will recall from 1979 the Album by the great Canadian rock band Prism by the same name. The title cut of the album is Armageddon. The chorus of the song reads like my title, “Armageddon, carry me home.” The difference is that this song had something to do with the death of Elvis Presley, and a fictional third-world war that has references to WWI and WWII. (U-Boats, F-15s, like that).

This text is about the very real final climatic battle of a war that began before humanity was on the scene, likely was about them, and will end with the death of most of them. I will say this at the start, I find it interesting that the battle itself is not recorded. We are simply given the results, which we will see when we get there. The text has some other, honestly, strange things about it, including the name that the angels give it. Perhaps it is like some of those US Government operations we hear in the news from time to time, like Operation Desert Shield, Crossfire Hurricane, or Arctic Frost. Maybe it was given a nondescript name for intelligence reasons, but somehow, I think there may be more symbolism here than meets the eye. Let’s get into the text.

KV19: Armageddon, Carry Me Home

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.

Last time, we had a very brief glimpse of the important part of the Holy Armies coming from Heaven as a liberating force. We saw the incomparable Christ leading His Bride and all of His armies from heaven against the arrayed forces against Him, and not all of them are visible here. Where are the fallen angels? Where are the demons? Surely they will be there. John does not tell us, and we will therefore not consider them. We see the beastly offspring of the Dragon, the kings of the earth, and their armies. Perhaps, since these devils and their boss are no longer permitted in Heaven, these are now included in the armies of Earth.

Beloved, as much as I hate the thought, there is only one reason to deploy armed forces: these armies. It is to fight an enemy. All of the armies gathered for this war are now committed to winning. I wonder what the ebb and flow of battle will be like. I personally think that it will be very short, but I could be wrong. Let’s jump in here.

17-18: The Wedding Feast of the Lamb

Technically, this is more properly called the great supper of God, but think about this for a moment. We never got to read the details of the events of the Marriage of the Lamb, which at this point in time will have happened. We know the language of the wedding feast is a metaphor of sorts (the level of intimacy described is what I think the author meant), so all we saw were the results, like this text. Like that part of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, oaths had been taken. Like a marriage, vows of those identified collectively as the Bride and the Groom, our Lord Jesus, have exchanged unbreakable and eternal vows. The Groom leads the charge, with His Bride now with Him, and an innumerable number of angels, which were described as “armies,” plural. Think of what the layout of the battlefield was like. The armies of the evil one were deployed for their assault on the city of the white tree on the fields of Pelennor. The army of the Rohirrim arrived at the crest of a hill that descended on a shallow slope to the fields. They formed up and charged downhill at the flank of the enemy and cut them to pieces eventually. This battle will be nothing like that. The only one in the logs with a weapon is our Lord, and John’s metaphor has it coming out of His mouth. We saw a picture of that last time, and I doubt that’s even wieldable, though if anyone could do it, He could. Question: Where was the wedding feast? Did we miss it?

I don’t think we did. Who eats that feast, primarily? Mostly, it is the guests. Who are the guests? I think the angel that is standing in the sun, the center of our solar system, is calling them to the feast. Let’s look.

17: 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,

It brings to mind another question. Why is the angel standing on the sun? I suspect it is to be visible and conspicuous to the Earth, as he calls all the “birds which fly in midheaven.” I will pause for a second to explain that this is a reference to our lower atmosphere, where there is breathable air.
The birds themselves may be a reference to Ezekiel 39:17-20, which reads, “‘As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,’ declares the Lord GOD.” It is astounding to me that this passage says nearly the same thing, and it was written about 700 years before John penned Revelation. It will be awesome to behold the unfolding events, and every real believer and follower of Christ will see it.
It is a little earlier in the chapter (v.9) that mentions the wedding supper, but we never read more detail than that, just that everyone who was invited was specially blessed. Are these birds of the air being invited to that feast here? Ezekiel paints this battle as a sacrifice made by God, and He says He will give the best in that sacrifice, and that they will all be men of war. Moving on.

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.

Well, now we know why the birds have been called to assembly, as it were. There are other details we can learn about the battle in Revelation. We have already looked at them. One of the things that we have discovered is that Revelation isn’t entirely a chronological list of events, and that makes it difficult to chart (sorry, Dispensationalists). I would place the first reference to at least the prelude to Armageddon in Revelation 14:8, which says, “And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.'” The fall of Babylon is described in detail in chapters 17 and 18, and we have just looked at that, but this is all part of the same set of events. I think you will agree that makes the details a little difficult to sort out. Notice the angel in Revelation 14 is using the aorist tense, which, for the most part, is just a simple past tense to declare something has happened. There are exceptions, but this does not seem to be one of them. What happens between Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 19:17? The bowl judgments of Revelation 16. Before that, 14:19-20 talks about the treading of the winepress of the wrath of God. The Lord’s clothing is already stained in the blood of His enemies, beloved. Can you understand why this is difficult to keep straight in terms of timeline?
Things that kind of help form a picture are related prophecies, and for this, I will have to give a nod to Dr. Bill Salus from Prophecy Depot on YouTube. The Lord’s armies will first descend to earth at Bozrah. The context of this verse in Isaiah 34:6 seems to be the Day of the Lord, which we are now smack-dab in the middle of. It says, “The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.” For the record, this is in the vicinity of the city carved into the Rock called Petra in Idumea, current Jordan. Interestingly, it gives a distance of how far the blood comes out of the winepress of about 140 miles. The distance between Bozrah and Megiddo is 140 miles. If that army is aimed for an assault on Jerusalem, Christ’s armies will flank it as the Rohirrim did in LOTR: ROTK. Just noticing. I may have all the directions mixed up; I don’t know my Biblical geography as well as I would like to.
What I do know is that Christ will win. Probably by Himself. He who made everything in existence can just as easily unmake it. Remember that we looked at Isaiah 63:1-6 last time? Let’s review that, because it is referring to this very set of events. It says,

“Who is this who comes from Edom,

With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah,

This One who is majestic in His apparel,

Marching in the greatness of His strength?

‘It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’

Why is Your apparel red,

And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?

‘I have trodden the wine trough alone,

And from the peoples there was no man with Me.

I also trod them in My anger

And trampled them in My wrath;

And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,

And I stained all My raiment.

For the day of vengeance was in My heart,

And My year of redemption has come.

I looked, and there was no one to help,

And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;

So My own arm brought salvation to Me,

And My wrath upheld Me.

I trod down the peoples in My anger

And made them drunk in My wrath,

And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.'”

None will be spared, according to the text. The commanders of 1000s (Greek, χιλιάρχων), down to the enlisted men, will all be slain. I would have an easier time feeling bad about that if they did not ALL bear the loyalty mark of the Antichrist. This is important. It is how we know their souls are eternally lost. They have not turned to Christ the King in repentance for their sins and in the belief (faith, same Greek word) that He paid the penalty for them on the cross the first time He was here. It isn’t as if they never heard it. Remember that in Rev. 14:6-7, an actual angel preached the gospel to men on Earth from the same midheaven that the birds are being called from. It reads, “And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.’” When the end comes, men will perish not because of a lack of knowledge; they will perish because they joined that Satanic rebellion that began before humanity did. With all the voices coming from heaven, all the supernatural things going on, all the demons visibly running around harming and killing people, and then an angel preaches the gospel to the whole world, anyone who ignores all of that and sides with Lucifer deserves what they get. So says our King of all kinging and Lord of all lording. I’m just the messenger.

I know that is a lot of heavy condemnation I just dropped, but it is the absolute truth. I have done nothing to soften it or mitigate it so that the hearer can understand how serious this is; your eternal soul is what is at stake here. Follow the replacement christ, meet the same end he does. There is a way that you can escape this now, however. You can turn to the real Christ now. He is waiting for you to do it! He bled and died for you on the cross nearly 2000 years ago now, and He will be returning soon. Before this return, I am describing from the text, you have the opportunity to repent. The Greek word means to change your mind and change your course in life. Turn away from your sinful nature and deeds with the intention to never do them again. Turn toward Christ Jesus and follow Him instead. He will give you His own Spirit to live inside you to change you and your priorities so you will WANT to obey and please Him. Confess that He is now your Lord with your mouth, so out loud, and He will save you. It isn’t hard unless your pride stops you. Ask yourself this if that’s true: Is this really worth a horrifying death and eternal, conscious suffering in a burning Hell of fire? If you do not repent in faith, that is what will happen to you. This isn’t my opinion, friends. This is what the Bible says will happen to sinners unless they turn to Jesus. Enough said. Moving on.

19: The Battle-Ready Assembled Armies

Think for a second about where Lucifer came from. He was the first and best created being before his rebellion. Outside of the Godhead, he was the right hand of Almighty God. Now here he is, with his fallen angels to be sure, and his dead Nephilim we call demons, filling in the gaps now with despised and deceived humans as cannon fodder. How the mighty have fallen, speaking from a tactical perspective. He has thrown away any chance he may have had of ever sitting on the throne of God, though I doubt any kind of redemption was ever an option for fallen angels. Think about it. Angels were created as they are now. God gave them all the knowledge they would ever need right at the start. They have amazing abilities to travel through the dimensions (I’m using physics terms because I can make a rough equivalence) and speak with God and with men, regardless of language. And Lucifer, the chief among them, deliberately and consciously, threw it all away, as did all those who followed him into his cosmic treason. All those who would take his loyalty mark are doing exactly the same thing after the truth has been declared and they have turned away. This really is a last, desperate stand for Lucifer against an Almighty Opponent, who also created him. Lucifer called the tune. Now it is time for the dance. Let’s look at the verse.

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.

There they all are. His commanding General, the Antichrist, is there. Those kings of the earth that found dominion for one hour with him are here; time’s up, gents. His armies. It leaves out the detail about his armies, and we have filled in the logical ones on the field. I don’t think I missed any. General, kings of the Earth, fallen angels (devils), dead Nephilim (demons, perhaps rebodied especially for this battle, like those earlier scorpion-like monsters), and human armies. Probably all of them. Nope, I think I got them all.
It says that they were assembled to make war against one single rider and everyone who followed Him, now gathered in one place and charging at them. Their whole purpose is for this battle.
I wonder how many of them will wake up on that morning and think, well, I’m going to die horribly for the Antichrist today. None, if I’m correct. They will have turned away from the truth and believed the lie that they are gods themselves, or that the Antichrist is anything more than a puppet tyrant for the enemy of their own souls.
I wonder if it will play out like that cavalry charge in LOTR: ROTK. Will the assembled army be pointed at Jerusalem, and Christ and His riders approach from their flank? I don’t really know, and I admit I’m kind of jazzed to get to find out, because I believe I will be in those Heavenly armies following Jesus, however that real battle will play out.

Why do I speak as I do? It is because even with the given details, we have to understand that there is a great deal of metaphor involved. A common error in interpreting Scripture is failing to understand that a literal interpretation still allows for metaphor, and such allegorical language must be read and interpreted consistently and always in context. Will we be riding actual horses? I don’t know. Will the armies of the Antichrist be riding actual horses? Will they have military equipment that is, say, newer than a chariot? I knew a man who once said that you can interpret heavenly things metaphorically and earthly things literally. That isn’t consistent with Scripture, though. The parable of the ten virgins, anyone? That isn’t about anything other than really believing and following Christ in readiness for His return. And we’ve noted a couple of times in our book of Revelation that it is not clear where John is! I wonder how much John realized. I think he may have written about things he saw but did not understand. Now that he is with Christ, he probably knows. We aren’t with Him yet. We do not. However, it is good for us to struggle with these things. It is the glory of man to search these things out, though I don’t remember the source of that quote. Press on, Beloved. Moving on.

20-21: The Battle of All Battles Ends

I may have mentioned this before, but I find it astounding that there are very few details from the battle itself, but instead, just results. There are no astounding stories of heroism, there are no horrible stories of atrocities, there are only the results. Does that mean there will not be a battle? There are two schools of thought on this.

The first theory of how this battle will go is that the Bride will figure into the battle and be instrumental in swinging the results to what John records. Those in favour of this will say that it is a poetic ending, with the Lord of Lies captured by the race he deceived with his lies, and they become his replacement. Those against will say that humans are too small. Both positions have weaknesses.

The second theory is that while humans watch, even though they ride with Christ, angelic forces will carry the action and do the capturing. Perhaps there is a position that can combine elements of both. What I find interesting is that there is only one weapon recorded by John. Did he see more? Did he witness the entire battle? Or was it just a series of shorts he was shown, as it were?

As it turns out, those who hold these theories need to read the text more closely, because it does tell us about the battle. Let’s get into the text.

20: 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.

John records the capture of both Antichrist and the False Prophet. This individual, and I do believe it is a figurative representation of an individual that is somehow specially selected by and perhaps even indwelled by Satan himself, and a powerful devil who is energizing the False Prophet and performing all of the deceitful miracles meant to fool humans into following the Antichrist, is captured by the forces of the bloodstained Rider. Few details of the capture are given, but it says they were “seized,” or arrested, caught, captured, laid hold of, or words to that effect. It does not tell us who did it. It may have been Christ Himself who dragged them both by their ears to a spot where John could see them. It could be angels, with Michael in charge. It could be the Bride of Christ who has now been forever changed into our eternal form and elevated over angels. There is no way to know until we get there.
They were seized in the midst of what promises to be the battle that will put all others to shame in size, but they were seized because they conned to entire planet to be loyal to the actual enemy of mankind, and to worship him as a god. That is a first commandment violation: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exo. 20:3) These two will cause the largest real apostasy on the planet with their false religion, and then lock it all down and start killing dissenters, who will be unable to remain silent while their civil liberties are stripped away. I’m not really angry about that; it happens all the time, and besides, we serve a different master, one who loves and values us, not one who thinks nothing of humans being destroyed in crossfires between angels in battle. Their punishment will be just for these reasons alone, and many more. What will their punishment be?
In the text of the verse, it says that these two will be thrown into a lake, presumably of burning sulphur, to suffer conscious torment for eternity. How do I know? I’ve read ahead a little. I’ll share a verse. Revelation 20:10 says, “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Those two are still there, they are still alive, and they are “tormented” (Gk., “battered”) “day and night, to the ages of the ages.” That’s a rough literal translation. Notice the use of the present tense in John’s statement of location. A thousand years have passed in the kingdom of Christ on Earth. They ARE there, present tense, relative to John’s vision. And they are being punished actively every day of it. I am reminded of a line from a Bob Dylan song called “Precious Angel” from the Album Slow Train Comin’. It says, “Can they imagine the darkness // That will fall from on high // When men will beg God to kill them // And they won’t be able to die?” I’ve seen tough men reduced to tears by pain. We think we are so tough. No one will be able to endure that. We’ll say more when we get to this text. This will be the punishment for leading the entire Earth into a traitorous violation of the first and greatest commandment of the King who has now returned to set up His kingdom on Earth. That is the result of the battle.

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.

Everyone else in those collective armies that opposed the coming King, here it says, was killed by the One Rider, who we know from last time to be the One True King, our Lord Jesus Christ. We will be riding with Him, we will be accompanied by angels, and the Holy Spirit will join us in true union with Him.
Cooper’s rules of interpretation state, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” I think we can all agree that this sentence makes plain sense, even though it is clearly metaphorical in nature. No one has an actual sword coming out of their mouth. Then what is that sword?
The Scriptures tell us in more than one place. In Hebrews 4:12, it says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The other reference comes from Eph. 6:17, which says, “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Beloved, the Scriptures themselves are the weapon used here. Who is it wielded by? Christ Himself. John 1 names Him as the Word of God, God Himself, with God, as God, and the one who not only created everything that has come into being, but the one who became human to pay for our sins on the cross about 2000 years ago. He did that to redeem us from the penalty we needed to pay for our sins because we could not, and He set us free from the slavery we all have in common as humans to our own sinful natures. By faith, we can turn as He grants us that repentance, and He has commanded that all everywhere turn in repentance and faith, and as we make Him our Lord and Master, and confess that to Him, and then later to others in word and deed, He saves us, first by justifying us before a holy God, substituting His own payment of death (the atonement) for His life put into us through His Holy Spirit (the exchanged life), and expunging our criminal record of all our sins (known as expiation). All of this justifies us before a holy God. Then He takes that nature planted in us and begins to clear away the debris of our sins committed in the flesh. Hey, I was a sinner for 18 years before Christ saved me, and I filled my life with very nasty sins. It has taken literally forty years to get to where I am now, and I know He has a lot to accomplish in me as He makes me holy like Him, that is, He sanctifies me as I learn to obey Him. At this point, as a part of that organism called the Bride, we will all be finally saved from the very presence of sin in our lives and be glorified and united to Him for all of eternity. That is the destiny we have as believers.
The alternative we have is to stand before Him, either here as His enemy in battle, which they will be doomed to lose, or before Him as He sits on His great white throne, which we will see in Revelation 20:11, and be judged as the mess that we called a life is rolled out before him in all of its ugliness and sinfulness, and be found guilty of cosmic treason, as Dr. Sproul so aptly put it. That is the choice that has always stood before humanity. It stands before you now. Choose wisely.

To help you, I will invoke the charge that Yeshua, son of Nun, challenged the nation of Israel with as they crossed into the land of possession, a spiritual allegory of our sanctification as we follow Christ on Earth. Joshua 24:14-15 says, “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” All of the symbolism and archetypes seen in this text can be boiled down into simple, modern English. This is a final challenge of sorts, based on everything we have studied so far in this book. Ready? Here we go.

Choose Life. Choose the Lord Jesus. Believe Him and say it out loud. He will set you free from those things you know are wrong but cannot stop doing. Don’t wait; time can unexpectedly run out on making that decision. This will not give you a better life; in fact, for many, it will get worse. Mine did, but no matter what has happened, the Lord has been beside and within me with His grace, helping me face it head-on. I know I will finally see Him on the day we just read about, and that thought fills me with joy and peace.

Or:

Choose death. Continue in your ways, now knowing they are wrong, and you are continuing in disobedience to God’s command to repent to every person on Earth. Choose death. Crawl away and die as slowly as you like in whatever hole you think you can hide in, and in whatever fashion seems best to you. At the end, your pleasures and comforts will bring you nothing but suffering forever. You let your passions burn during your earthly life, and then they will burn in you for all eternity, and you will not be able to satisfy or even relieve them. If this makes you weep in sorrow, there will not be enough water in you to form tears. If this makes you rage in anger against a holy God, welcome to the category that will be angry for all eternity. Day and night, you will face the consequences as your emotions will run beyond your control and add to your pain, day after day. This is the result of the choice for all those who will not turn to the God who created you and to whom you owe life, and to whom you owe your soul, which you will have forfeited by not turning when you had the chance. There will be no chances here.

The end of that battle marks the beginning (roughly, there is a 75-day period that happens to purify Earth that will go into the 1000-year kingdom about to be established) of a period of 1000 years where Christ will reign with His saints on Earth. There will still be people, survivors of the last 7 years, who will need to learn to worship God properly, and I expect we will be involved in that work as well as other work we cannot yet imagine, at least I can’t. And that’s what I saw in the text this time.

Next time, we will look at chapter 20:1-6.