The aftermath Revelation 19v20-21.
Here we have the destruction of the empire of the beast, the eighth great world empire in opposition to God, The details of this destruction are many, and they are best understood in the context of the Lord Jesus Christ returning to earth, to set up His kingdom. The general programme of events are as follows:
- Heaven opens and the Lord returns, accompanied by the armies of heaven: (Revelation 19v11-14).
- The regathering of the nation of Israel from the four corners of the earth. "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24v31).
- His feet shall touch the Mount of Olives; (Zechariah 14v4). The mountain will cleave in the midst from east to west because of a great earthquake, so great that it will be as the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judea. (Zechariah 14v4-5).
- The earthquake which shall cleave the mountain will cause a ravine stretching from the Mediterranean sea to the river Jordan and down to the Dead sea, opening up deep wells of water from underneath Jerusalem (Ezekiel 47v1-10, Zechariah 14v8 & Joel 3v18).
- Following this there will take place what we have already described as Armageddon, when the Lord Himself will travel a two hundred mile journey (Rev. 14v20) from Bozrah in the south to Megiddo in the north to pulverise the enemies of God. The details of this are many and astonishing but the best description is in Zechariah 14v12-15 "And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in the holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall some to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them......and Judea also shall fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of all the heathen roundabout shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague."
- The angel standing in the sun summons the vultures of the heavens in the great clean up called "the supper of the great God. God will rid the land of all dead bodies man and beast.
- There will be what is known as "the judgment of the living nations," in which there will be three separations of human beings. The separation of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13v40-42); the separation of the good fish from the bad fish (Matthew 13v47-50); the separation of the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25v31-46). Each of these deserves individual consideration, but for now it is enough to understand that all living beings on earth at this point will stand before the judge.
- There will be an allocation of the promised land to each of the twelve tribes of Israel )Ezekiel 48).
- The Lord will set up His kingdom at Jerusalem (Zion) (Isaiah 2v1-5).
During the judgment, which is Armageddon, the beast and the false prophet (described in chapters 13 & 14) will be taken. These are the political head, and the religious head, of the final world empire and they will be cast alive into the lake of fire. These two men will be the first to enter the eternal place of condemnation called the lake of fire. In Revelation 20v10, one thousand years after their initial banishment, they are still seen to be there, and will be there throughout the unending ages of eternity. So far as the rest of their armies are concerned, they will enter Hades awaiting the judgment of the great white throne in chapter 20. The scene is now set for the ushering in of the great kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment