Revelation 19:21

The most graphic portrayal of Christ’s second coming is found in Revelation Rev. 19:11-21+. In this extended passage Jesus Christ is described as leading a procession of angels and saints or armies in heaven to claim the earth, destroy the armies of the world, and defeat the Antichrist and False Prophet. This passage shows that Christ’s return will be one that entails great physical destruction and many deaths. For those who are not Christ’s own, it will be a terrifying and terrible event. For those of us who know Him as Savior, it will be a time of great joy, vindication, and anticipation. . . . Let us remember that for the believer this present life on Earth is the worst things will ever be for us. But, for the unbeliever, this present life will be the best they will ever experience.⁴

People may indulge their unbelief and passions during these days of forbearance and grace, and see no disadvantages growing out of it. They may be angry at our earnestness, and account us croakers and fools when we put before them the demands and threatenings of the Almighty. But “woe to him that striveth with his Maker!” There is a deluge of bottled fury yet to be poured out on them that refuse to know God, and on the families that call not on his name, from which there is no escape, and from whose burning and tempestuous surges there is no deliverance. God help us to be wise, that we come not into that sea of death!⁵

Notes

¹ Concerning Israel as the chosen nation: Ex. Ex. 3:7, Ex. 3:15, Ex. 3:18; Ex. Ex. 6:6; Ex. 19:5-6; Lev. Lev. 20:26; Deu. Deu. 4:34, Deu. 4:37; Deu. 7:6-8; Deu. 10:15; Deu. 14:2; Deu. 26:18-19; 2S. 2S. 7:23; 1K. 1K. 8:53; 1Chr. 1Chr. 16:13; 1Chr. 17:21; Ps. Ps. 105:6; Ps. 106:6-7; Ps. 135:4; Isa. Isa. 41:8; Isa. 43:1, Isa. 43:10; Isa. 44:1; Isa. 45:4; Jer. Jer. 10:16; Mtt. Mat. 24:22; Rom. Rom. 9:4; Rom. 11:5.

² Some try to make His brethren mean the redeemed in general. But this has the fatal objection of being unable to explain who the sheep are. If His brethren are the redeemed and the sheep inherit the kingdom (Mtt. Mat. 25:34), then the sheep must be the redeemed as well and the distinction collapses. The Jewish context of Matthew Mat. 24:1 and Mat. 25:1 indicate that His brethren are the Jews of the Tribulation, among them the 144,000 sealed of God (Rev. Rev. 7:4+).

³ Frederick William Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 883.

⁴ Thomas Ice, “Some Glorious and Incomparable Promises of the Bible,” Pre-Tribe Perspectives, vol. 8 no. 10, February 2004, p. 5.

⁵ J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse: Lectures on the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1966), 443.