END OF TIME PROPHECIES 103

A GREAT MULTITUDE IN HEAVEN        Revelation 7v9-17.   

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb....."

In Matthew 24v14 Jesus said  "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."   This chapter is an exposition of that prediction.   At the same time as the devil's antichrist will traverse the earth in the conquest of political supremacy, the armies of Christ will flood the earth with the gospel of the kingdom.   In the midst of this darkest day in human history, when the God of heaven will pour judgment on this world, there is recorded here the greatest act of saving mercy.   Through the zeal and the thoroughness of these servants of God, He will bring about mass blessing to the world of men.   These are the true Jehovah's witnesses, not the ones who are masquerading as such today., who deny the deity of Christ.   The details are phenomenal and we must savour every last one.   We will consider the passage under a number of headings:

• Their conversion
• Their position.
• Their condition.
• Their jubilation.
• The adoration which they bring forth.
• Their identification.
• Their occupation.
• Their satisfaction.

Here we have a wonderful glimpse of heaven arising from conditions of hell on earth.   All these are martyrs, who in a time of apostasy have paid the ultimate price for their faith.  

Their conversion.

"After these things I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and people."   Human beings saved in vast numbers in the midst of earthly tribulation.   He says  "a great multitude"...... the word is "mega"- so vast was the multitude they could not be numbered.   An army of missionaries, with only one purpose in mind (their dedication we shall see as we proceed) have by the grace and power of God preached the gospel resulting in conversions of mega proportions.   There is now a description of the many groups of humanity who have been reached during this period.

1. All nations   - "ethnos";  The minute detail of this is significant.   The phrase is in the singular number while quoting a plurality of nations.   What it means is not only a blanket term for all nations but rather does it mean from out of each and every single nation on earth these converts came.   There are over 200 hundred nations on earth today, and from every last one of them there will be converts in numbers.   This means that the missionaries who took the message covered the globe in its entirety.   In the language of Acts chapter 1  "the uttermost part of the earth" will be reached.   Whilst Satan is building his kingdom, God is saving men and women out of it.  
2. All kindreds   -   That is all families ("phule").    This is in the sense of those related by birth, but it is separated in scripture from close families and carries the idea of wider families.   In these smaller family or tribal groups God will save in fulfilment of His promise to Abraham  "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."   (Genesis 12v3).   In Psalm 22v27 the Psalm of the cross, the fruit of that work is described like this  "all kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee."   So thorough is the penetration of the gospel, it reaches all family groups.
3. All tongues   - "glossa"  Within any one nation there may be different languages; there will certainly be different dialects; there will be no tongue on earth missed so far as gospel blessing is concerned.   When God divided the earth into nations after the flood He did so "after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations."   (Genesis chapter 10).   At the destruction of Babel God confused the languages of earth to break them into small groups, and all groups will be reached by the gospel.