Chapter 14

The subject of Revelation chapter fourteen is the divine victory during the time of the devil’s desperation. In the first five verses we see the victory of the plan of God, and in verses six through twenty the victory of the judgements of God. Then in chapters fifteen and sixteen we have perhaps the most dramatic part of the entire book, the divine judgment during the devil’s desperation: the Armageddon campaign.

Verse 1, we have a sequential use of the conjunction kai which begins the passage, “Then,” and with it the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which means to see or to look, “Then I looked.” We have the constative aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. This is the sequence which gathers together everything in John’s vision of this chapter. The active voice: John the apostle as the human author produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of John’s vision recorded as part of the New Testament canon. Then we have a conjunction kai again but this time it is used in its connective sense and is translated “and.” Then a demonstrative particle i)dou which means “behold.” “Then I looked, and, behold. I)dou is always used to introduce something new. The form is actually based on the aorist middle imperative of o(raw. We translate it “behold” but it must be understood that this is a new vision and we begin a new subject.

We begin with the nominative singular subject a)rnion, translated “Lamb” and referring to our Lord Jesus Christ is His first advent. It refers to the fact that there were many ways of portraying Christ before the first advent occurred. The first advent is the transitional period between the Age of Israel and the Church Age and, of course, in the Age of Israel they did not have a completed canon of scripture. They needed many illustrations in the field of soteriology and Christology and so had a modus operandi related to the tabernacle and the temple. All of the articles of furniture spoke of some phase of the work of Christ on the cross, some phase of His unique person as the God-Man in the first advent. Also, of course, they had five different Levitical sacrifices: three were used to portray the cross; two of them to portray the rebound technique. So the word “Lamb” simply brings into focus everything that the Jews learned in the Old Testament through the various ritual concepts. They had ritual teaching, but ritual without reality is meaningless and when the Jews rejected Christ as saviour that meant that they had ritual without reality, and they would simply hang on to the ritual and say no: negative toward the reality, the reality being the person and the work of Christ on the cross. The word “Lamb” refers to the fact of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in John 1:29. The Lamb always emphasises the humanity of Christ in His hypostatic union. As eternal and infinite God Jesus Christ cannot sin. He cannot be tempted, He cannot solicit to sin, or have any contact with sin. Hence, the Lamb emphasises the true humanity of Christ; the true humanity of Christ received the imputation of our sins on the cross. “Lamb” emphasises, then, the strategic victory of Christ on the cross during His first advent, and now through the verb it is related to the tactical victory of Christ at the second advent.

We find the Lamb under the perfect active participle of i(stemi, “standing.” The perfect tense connotes completed action with emphasis on the result. This is a dramatic perfect describing the existing state of our Lord in a very vivid and realistic way as the resurrected Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb when He returns to the earth at the second advent. The participle is circumstantial. So in the first advent our Lord went to the cross and provided eternal salvation by being judged for our sins. At the second advent we have His tactical victory, the superseding of Satan as the ruler of this world, and the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. So i(stemi is used in the sense of the second advent, the tactical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of o)roj, “on mount.” Then we have the indeclinable noun, Siwn, but we stay with the Hebrew form, Zion, “the Lamb standing on Mount Zion.” When we get to chapter sixteen and study the Armageddon campaign we will see that the Lamb standing on Mount Zion is the ultimate in ending that campaign. Mount Zion, of course, refers to the Millennial Jerusalem. The time noted will be immediately after the regathering of Israel, and the second advent as the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, then, marks the termination of the time of the devil’s desperation. Mount Zion is chosen as the place of the victory celebration since Israel will be a client nation in the Millennium. The title of our Lord Jesus Christ as Lamb emphasises the fact that the cross must precede the crown. Faith in Christ must precede an eternal relationship with God. At the cross Satan was the ruler of this world but at the second advent Christ will be the ruler of this world forever. Satan will make one more attempt to overthrow our Lord at the end of the Millennium. In the meantime our Lord Jesus Christ will be ruling the world during that period of one thousand years, and that is the significance of His standing there.

Then we have a connective conjunction kai to add another accusative. This time we have the word o)noma, “and the name.” We translate so far: “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him ...” When it says “with him” we are going to be looking at the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, and “with him” is meta plus a)utoj. With Him are those who are going to be the great evangelists of the future.

Once the Church is removed from the earth by the resurrection, the end of the Church Age, we have no client nation to God because we have no pivot, we have no believers. We studied in chapter seven, however, that 144,000 Jews will accept Christ through reading the Bible. These 144,000 Jews will enter into one of the greatest periods of evangelism the world has ever known. They are said to have a name now: the present active participle of e)xw, meaning to have. They are going to have the name of our Lord. The present tense here is the perfective present, it denotes what has come to be in the past but emphasises a present reality. The 144,000 great evangelists of the future produce the action. The action is circumstantial and the name of Christ is on some kind of a priestly mitre which comes down over the forehead. It is not actually on the forehead itself but is on some kind of a mitre.

Translation: “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name [the name of Christ] and the name of his Father written in their foreheads [on a priestly mitre which covers the forehead].”

This is a reminder to believers of the Church Age that evangelism is motivated by our royal priesthood and the function of our royal ambassadorship. Every believer is a priest and represents himself before God; every believer is an ambassador, which means he represents God to mankind. So each one of us has a dual function in life. The very fact that the priestly mitre comes into view here and that the 144,000 have it emphasises the fact that all evangelism in any dispensation must be related to our attitude toward God. Therefore the priestly mitre is used.

The name of the Father demands some explanation. God the Father is the author of the divine plan: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” The plan always begins at salvation. Jesus Christ is the one who executes eternal salvation as God the Son; God the Holy Spirit reveals it. The name of the Father is written because He is the author of the divine plan; the name of the Son is written because He is the entrance into the divine plan. The name of God the Holy Spirit is not written because He is the unseen power of evangelism and the unseen power of the spiritual life after one is evangelised.

So written in the priestly mitre on the foreheads of the 144,000 evangelists is a reminder to believers of the Church Age that evangelism must be motivated by our royal priesthood and must be the function of our royal ambassadorship. But the mitre in context is a special type of head gear related to the fact that certain Jewish believers in the Tribulation will function in special evangelism to take up the slack for client nation Israel. That is the major factor at this point. There is no client nation once the Rapture occurs and there will be no client nation to God during the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation we have 144,000 Jewish evangelists taking up the slack; in the last half two Jews are brought back, Moses and Elijah, to take up the slack for that principle.

We are dealing in verses 2 and 3 with a passage where we have a heavenly celebration of the tactical victory of Jesus Christ. We begin verse 2 with a sequential conjunction kai, translated “then.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, which means that John is tuned in with his musical ear, “Then I heard.” The aorist tense is constative aorist, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The entirety of this action will take place in verses 2-5. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action and now he has to write, put into words, what he hears in terms of music. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that John not only saw the heavenly choir, the heavenly orchestra, but he also heard their concert as it will be conducted at the second advent.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun fwnh, referring to sound, “Then I heard a sound.” The sound must have a source and John identifies it as being from heaven: e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj, “from heaven.” The sound from heaven is the singing of the angelic choir. Millions and millions of elect angels blending their voices in harmony to form the awesome sound of the victory celebration of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent.

There are two analogies which John made to the sound. The tremendous volume seems to be in mind with the first analogy: he says, “like the sound of many waters.” This means a very majestic sound. So the volume of many thousands of voices blended in perfect harmony is an awesome thing, like a waterfall. The second analogy is “like the sound of loud thunder.” The loud thunder again gives us the tremendous volume where so many voices are involved. It is a perfect choir and this means the balance of the voices is absolutely perfect. The angelic choir of heaven is compared to the majestic and awesome sounds of nature. The singing of millions of elect angels is both worship and celebration. It is done in perfect musical form. The principle is that singing is a bona fide part of worship.

The conjunction kai advances from the analogy to the reality and it is translated “furthermore.” Again we have the nominative singular subject fwnh for the sound, the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o)j, and repetition of the aorist active indicative of a)kouw; which means in the repetition that he was very happy to hear this sound, it was totally and completely inspiring. O(j introduces a true analogy. The real musical instruments will be used to accompany this hymn of tactical victory. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and we have a descriptive genitive plural from a noun kiqarwdoj, referring to one who plays a musical instrument known as a harp. The playing of the harp is in the present active participle of kiqarizw, and it means to play a harp. The pictorial present presents to the mind of those of us who are the readers a future event in the process of occurrence, but an event which John had the opportunity of both seeing and hearing. The elect angels produce the action of the verb, which again shows us that they were instrumentalists as well as great vocalists. They are said to be playing, the preposition e)n plus the instrumental plural of kiqarw. They are playing on their own harps, the possessive genitive of a)utoj. Literally, it is “like the sound of harpists playing the harp with their harps,” but it comes to mean “harpists playing on their harps.”

In the next verse 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation are going to join the angelic choir in heaven so that a remarkable musical rendition is performed with the sound of music carrying through the entire universe.

Principle: Musical instruments are a legitimate function in worship. Musical accompaniment is not only legitimate but so often necessary in the expression of singing of hymns. In fact, the very word “psalm” means hymns accompanied by musical instruments, Psalm 93:2; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19. The use of musical instruments for worship is found in many passages such as 1 Chronicles 16:42; Nehemiah 12:36; Psalm 33:2; 92:1-3; 144:9.

Translation: “Then I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder; furthermore the sound which I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps.”

Anticipating the next verse, they are going to sing a song and, of course, one must understand the words to sing it. Since the words are doctrine only those who know doctrine can sing the hymn of tactical victory. In heaven the elect angels understand the whole realm of eschatology. They understand the significance of the second advent of Christ and therefore they sing about that subject in the heavenly choir, accompanied by other elect angels who are musician angels. This is a phenomenal vision and the principle is very simple: there is no phase of worship which is meaningful unless one understands doctrine and relates the lyrics to the music. Music always appeals to the emotion. The point is that all amusement and all entertainment is a balance in the soul of the response of the emotion to the mental function. There must be a relationship. Music is one of the greatest sources of entertainment because when it is done right it balances between the emotional and the mental. The principle here is that worship is not meaningful unless we can balance out the lyrics. The lyrics must appeal to the mentality while we are having an emotional experience. Bible doctrine is not only the key to understanding the plan and will of God but Bible doctrine is also the key to expressing our worship.

Verse 3, the new song in heaven about our Lord’s tactical victory. We have the conjunction kai which introduces the verse as the result from what precedes, and we translate it “And then.” Next we have the present active indicative of a)idw which means to sing, “And they were singing.” The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as coming to pass. The futuristic present is simply a way of explaining the vision as the writer saw it and relating it to the future. The active voice: the angelic choir of elect angels in heaven produce the action of the verb initially while the 144,000 evangelists on earth in resurrection bodies join the angels in heaven in singing this hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory. They are the only ones who understand it. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. A comparative particle o(j is omitted in the best manuscripts and is not really necessary. We should read, “they were singing a new hymn”. The word “hymn” is o)ide.

Now we have a series of prepositional phrases. The first one is “before the throne,” a reference to the throne of God in heaven. The second is “before the four angelic heralds [the four living creatures],” seraph heralds, ranking third behind the king of arms and the officer of arms. So we note that there is an audience in heaven: the members of the Godhead [it is before the throne], and it is also said to be before the “elders” which are the staff officers.

It sounds like this: “And then [after the instrumental introduction by the harps] they were singing a new song [the hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent which terminates the time of the devil’s desperation].” It is interesting to note that the worst period of human history ends in triumphal singing; “before the throne [in the presence of God the Father], and before the angelic heralds, and before the angelic staff officers [the 24 elders in the angelic order of battle].”

This is the hymn of tactical victory or the new song. It is used to dramatise the fact that Satan is the loser in the angelic conflict: he has lost; he has been set aside.

Since Christ is on earth in the second advent there is the antiphonal part of this hymn sung on earth at the second advent. The conjunction kai introduces limited participation on the earth. It is used to emphasise a fact that is surprising, unexpected, noteworthy, and is translated “furthermore.” But we find out that the singing on earth is limited to one group. The adjective o)udeij is used as a substantive and in the nominative singular is translated “no one.” It is referring to those who do not participate: the imperfect passive indicative of dunamai, “no one was able.” Then we have a strange thing: not to sing. Obviously you can’t sing it unless you have learned it. We have the aorist active infinitive of monqanw, which means to learn, meaning that people on the earth do not sing this because they do not know it. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. The active voice: mankind on earth produces a negative action, they do not learn it, the infinitive of actual result. With this we have again o)ide, the song, the hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory. So it should be translated, “furthermore no one was able to learn the song [the hymn of our Lord’s victory],” except the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

The hymn of tactical victory is sung in heaven by the choir of elect angels accompanied by musical instruments which we call harps. The hymn was unknown on earth except for 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation who sang it as an expression of their knowledge of Bible doctrine in worship. The hymn of tactical victory was the source of great encouragement to those 144,000 evangelists who faced tremendous opposition in the first half of the Tribulation, and apparently were all martyred because they are standing there in resurrection bodies as they sing. Music, of course, could be a stimulus and an encouragement under great pressure, and these evangelists were under great pressure. But in their greatest adversities the 144,000 evangelists maintained their doctrinal integrity as part of the system, the plan and purpose of God for their lives, because they knew doctrine. And part of their integrity and modus vivendi is stated in the next two verses. Obviously they lived, as we studied before in Revelation chapter seven, abnormal lives by human standards. They were motivated by doctrine and especially doctrine set to music. The new song was composed in heaven where it was sung before the throne of God and the angelic college of heralds in the elect order of battle. The victory hymn was revealed to one category of believers when they went to heaven and the 144,000 evangelists did learn this song, did come back with Christ, were their in resurrection bodies, and when He stood on Mount Zion they sang the same song that was sung in heaven, on earth. The fantastic doctrine as stirring music was a source of blessing and motivation to these honourable and courageous believers, and they have the privilege of being the travelling choir who brought the message from heaven in song.

“… furthermore no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000.” “No one” refers to mankind. We have one more thing about them: they are said to have been redeemed from the earth. We have the articular perfect passive participle of the verb a)gorazw which means to buy, to purchase, to redeem, and it means here, “who have been redeemed”.

In this verse we have the words, “who have been redeemed.” There are two categories of redemption found in the Bible. The first is redemption at salvation, the doctrine of being delivered from the slave-market of sin by personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the redemption of the soul. The second redemption, the redemption of the body, occurs at resurrection. Here we have the word “redeemed” used in the second sense, the redemption of the body. They are serenading our Lord in their resurrection bodies. Redemption as a doctrine of soteriology is directed toward sin, while propitiation as a doctrine of soteriology is directed toward God; reconciliation toward man. Redemption of the soul at salvation is actually discussed in the next verse where it is pertinent to the context, but in this verse we note the redemption of the body: they are singing in resurrection bodies. In other words, when they went to heaven after their martyrdom sometime during the first half of the Tribulation they were taught this song by the angelic choir.

Romans 8:23 gives redemption in the same sense we have it here: “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our body,” a reference to the resurrection.

Ephesians 4:30, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.” The day of redemption is the day of the resurrection of the body.

Next in our verse we have a prepositional phrase: “they have been redeemed from the earth.” This takes us back to a)gorazw. The definite article of that perfect participle is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. They now stand in resurrection bodies at that famous castle Zion with our Lord Jesus Christ. The dramatic perfect tense completes the action with the emphasis on the existing result. The existing result: they serenade our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of David returning to the place where the Davidic covenant will be fulfilled. Apparently the 144,000 Jewish evangelists were all martyred before the second advent. The passive voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists receive the action of the verb, their resurrection bodies, redemption. The participle is circumstantial.

In these first three verses we have a number of things that deal with sound. We have the sound of music and the 144,000. In verses four and five we will see something about these people and why they are standing there.

There are three explanations in verse four and the first one has to do with the fact that they have not been distracted by normal living. We have the nominative plural of the demonstrative pronoun O(utoj, “These.” It refers to the 144,000 and no other. These are the ones we have seen in their resurrection bodies on Mount Zion and they are the only ones who know this hymn which is sung in heaven. Then the present active indicative of e)imi, “These are.” The predicate nominative plural is actually a relative pronoun, o(i , “These are the ones who.” The relative pronoun has an antecedent which is the demonstrative pronoun referring to the 144,000. So far then, “These are they [“they” is not found here but is necessary as a part of an ellipsis] who.”

Then we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb molunw plus the negative o)uk. Molunw means to be made impure and we translate it, “have not been defiled.” Originally it meant to soil, to smear with dirt, but came to connote sexual defilement of some sort. It is used for a general function in contrast to various aspects of sexual activity. The verb is used primarily for the function of the phallic cult but in 1 Corinthians 8:7 it was used for the defilement of the conscience. So it isn’t altogether a term related to sex. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the restraint in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. It is hard to imagine but what we are going to have here is the fact that these 144,000 evangelists managed to be happy without sex. The passive voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their self-restraint with regard to sex. Normal sex is with women, so we have meta plus the genitive of the noun gunh, “with women.” The explanatory phrase which follows indicates that we are not talking about fornication or any abnormal sexual activity. We are talking about the normal function of the human race.

These 144,000 Jewish evangelists are actually normal men who have the right to expect that at a certain point in their life to enter into sexual relationship on a non-sinful basis. But they are not going to do so. We are talking about the fact that they could but didn’t. The reason they didn’t is because of the nature of their job which will not be finished until the middle of the Tribulation. They have to complete their work in three and a half years, starting at the beginning of the Tribulation when they are saved. They must evangelise throughout the world in that short period of time and that means their responsibility to God calls for great concentration. It means that they are not going to live normal lives, e.g. family life, domestic life. The secret is concentration.

The point is that when God gives certain people a job to do and they only have a short period of time in which to do it, concentration is the secret. Life on this earth is short and therefore one of the secrets to life and happiness is not pleasure, the one word is “concentration.” What everyou are doing concentration is the key. Happiness comes from concentration. When you concentrate on something in which you are interested that is happiness, mental happiness. Successful people are people who can concentrate. Talent can never be manifest without concentration; nothing in life is ever achieved without concentration. Concentration is the key.

The impressive thing about these 144,000 evangelists is that they are good. And why are they good? Because they are concentrators. The average evangelist today is all talent and no message, or very little. They demonstrate no doctrine. The evangelist should go through theological seminary just as much as the pastor; he should know doctrine just as well as the pastor. The evangelist without doctrine is just another entertainer, so the evangelist must be a concentrator and know his message. His job is to get out the message.

There are three categories of believers who cannot live an absolutely normal life:

The missionary, because he leaves the normal circumstances of life and goes to unfamiliar circumstances.

The evangelist, because the study requirements of an evangelist if he is going to do his job right are great. He has to know the doctrines of soteriology and Christology better than anyone else, and he has to know what is going on in circumstances of life currently so that he can relate his message to what is being taught without having opinions that are controversial. He is not teaching the whole realm of doctrine and therefore is not allowed to have opinions, but he has to know what is going on and blend into it with his message. He has to be a concentrator.

The pastor, who has a better chance of living a normal life but too much normal living becomes a distraction to him too. His job is communication to people so his social life has to be relatively limited.

The point is that these three categories of Christianity require concentration above and beyond normal concentration in life: concentration in learning, concentration in communication. It is very wearing from time to time and occasionally a missionary, an evangelist, a pastor, will be completely mentally fatigued, worn out, because there is so much of the day that is required for concentration. Yet, concentration is happiness and it isn’t a bad thing at all.

Here in our passage we are talking about refraining from legitimate sex. In order to achieve their objective these 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation operate under a law: the law of supreme sacrifice. They have three other laws under which they could operate — the law of liberty, the law of expediency, the law of love, but they are operating under the law of supreme sacrifice as noted by the next three words in the Greek: parqenoi gar e)isin. There is the post positive explanatory gar, the present active indicative of the verb to be, e)imi, and the predicate nominative plural from parqenoj which means virgin, “for they are virgins.” We will translate it, “for they are celibates.” The progressive present tense of e)imi is for action in the state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the 144,000 evangelists produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. So we have: “These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are celibates.” That is a statement of the law of supreme sacrifice.

There are four laws of Christian behaviour

1. The law of liberty, always directed toward self and your rights as a Christian. Biblically you have the right to do certain things that will not cause you to sin and lose fellowship with the Lord. That is your freedom, your law of liberty, expressed in 1 Corinthians 8:4,9.

2. The law of love, directed toward God and others. Gate 5, motivational virtue: personal love for God; Gate six, functional virtue: impersonal love directed toward all. In essence, this law avoids offending the weaker brethren and becoming a distraction to their spiritual growth. This law is expressed in 1 Corinthians 8:13.

3. The law of expediency, directed primarily toward the unbeliever. Expediency deals with evangelism and the individual’s testimony toward the unbeliever. The unbeliever often superimposes certain standards on the believer, standards which are nonsensical. He expects the believer to comply and exemplify these standards regardless of their spiritual connotation. Therefore the Christian must often refrain from doing certain things not because they are wrong but because they prevent the unbeliever from seeing the true issue of salvation, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This law is expressed in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; 10:23.

4. The law of supreme sacrifice, always directed toward God. This is the highest law of Christian behaviour. It requires the believer to often forsake normal living and legitimate function in life in order to serve the Lord in a specialised capacity or in an historical emergency. This law is stated in 1 Corinthians 9:1-15.

The 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation demonstrate the highest possible spiritual life by functioning under the law of supreme sacrifice. Their personal love for God supersedes their normal desires in life. They can concentrate on God. The gift of evangelism carries a tremendous responsibility, the time is short in the Tribulation, and therefore these honourable believers cannot have normal relationships in life and at the same time do their job. They must choose between their job and normal relationships in life. For them marriage would be a distraction to the normal fulfilment of their mission which requires unusual concentration and expenditure of energy. Even in the best of times it is difficult for those who have the gift of evangelism to do their job right and at the same time have a normal life.

We come to the principle behind the use of the law of supreme sacrifice in the evangelistic function of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. There are two reasons why this happens. The first, as we have seen, is concentration. Marriage would have been a distraction to their mission of evangelism in the Tribulation. The Tribulational generation is under extreme historical disaster and is generally characterised by world-wide degeneration. That is an important point for the second concept. When there is evangelism in any time of historical disaster there are always very moral unbelievers even in the presence of all the degeneracy. Moral unbelievers always exist in a degenerate society. They are generally characterised by great self-righteousness, self-righteous arrogance. Arrogant people, especially arrogant self-righteous people, are always the most difficult to reach in a time of historical disaster. What reaches the immoral unbeliever? The judgements. In other words, immoral unbelievers are sensitive to divine judgment. In fact divine judgment is always the last system for evangelisation. But the people who are not sensitive to judgment are moral unbelievers — self-righteous arrogance. So we have a second principle and that is the fact of this law of supreme sacrifice to evangelise everyone in that generation because everyone includes, always in a degenerate society, a certain number of very moral self-righteous people. Morality and self-righteousness will never save anyone. That is works.

Matthew 24:34, “Truly I say to you, this race [Jewish race, not generation] shall not vanish [pass away, a reference to the Jews in the Tribulation] until all these things take place.

In both halves of the Tribulation we have a very unusual category of people. Just because society is generally degenerate it doesn’t mean that all unbelievers are degenerate, far from it. There is always the moral unbeliever and the moral unbeliever will be very prominent in the Tribulation as in any other period of history. What we are really dealing with here is the moral unbeliever. In any dispensation or period of history the most difficult people to reach with the gospel are the moral, self-righteous unbelievers.

Verse 35, our Lord makes a statement that has nothing to do with the Tribulation but has to do with a principle that will be fulfilled in the Tribulation. Many of the Jews, both believers and unbelievers, are going to live through the Tribulation. When our Lord returns at the second advent there will be Jews alive. “Heaven and earth shall pass away [reference to the end of the Millennium], but my words [doctrine, eschatology] will not pass away.”

Verse 36, “But concerning that day and that hour [the day of the second advent, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel] no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” God the Father is the author of the plan. Israel’s future is the Father’s plan. Jesus is speaking from His humanity. His deity will know.

Verse 37, “For just as in the days of Noah ...” There is an analogy to just before the flood came and just before the second advent comes. This is not an analogy between Noah’s day and the Rapture. The Rapture isn’t even taught in the book of Matthew. Noah evangelised for 120 years and people asked him why he was building a boat when there was no water. He said the judgment is going to come and when it does it will be final, all unbelievers will drown. The only way that unbelievers could avoid drowning was to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in the Tribulation the 144,000 are going to preach for three and a half years and then there will be Moses and Elijah, and so on. That means there will be seven years only and that everything is more concentrated and that more concentration is necessary. It means that the law of supreme sacrifice is necessary for the evangelists in the Tribulation. The judgment of the second advent is just as final on unbelievers as the judgment of the flood in the days of Noah. All unbelievers drowned in the days of Noah; in the day of the second advent all unbelievers are going to be cast off the earth — the baptism of fire. In Noah’s day it was water; in our Lord’s second advent it will be fire, they will be executed by burning, so that only believers will go into the Millennium as the cadre to repopulate the earth under the perfect environment of the Millennium.

“… so shall the coming of the Son of Man [the second advent, not the Rapture] be.”

Verse 38, “For in those days which were before the flood ...” Degeneracy is obvious but moral degeneracy is not. What do moral people always do — even moral degenerates? They marry. So we are dealing now with moral degeneracy. And what is moral degeneracy? Not sin. “… they were eating and drinking [which is not talking about sin here], they were marrying and giving in marriage,” all moral activity. They were moral people carrying out moral functions in life. Obviously in the Tribulation we have a generally degenerate situation throughout the earth but degeneracy never hinders a moral person from living a moral life. Moral people go right on being moral no matter what is happening around them. Where did these people get morality? Training in the home. It never leaves them. There never was a time in the history of the world when there were not moral unbelievers. There is no reference in this verse to the degeneracy. Where do you find degeneracy? In Genesis chapter six.

‘… until the day that Noah entered the ark.” And why did Noah enter the ark? Noah and his family all entered the ark because they were the only believers on the earth, and Noah as an evangelist had been preaching for 120 years. But notice: Noah not only did not reach the degenerate but Noah did not reach any of the moral. Why? Because he was married and had children. Frankly, they said, “He’s no better than we are. He is moral; we are moral.” And at least three families gave their daughters in marriage to the three sons of Noah.

But what does our passage in Revelation say? “These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are celibates.” Not married, not having legitimate sex, not marrying and not giving in marriage. Note that in the time of Noah the degeneracy in the earth was so great and the immorality was so great that God had to destroy all the human race but Noah and his family. Note also that with all of these immoral people in the world there were moral people on the earth who also drowned, who also rejected Christ as saviour. They drowned because they didn’t accept Christ as saviour. Why didn’t they accept Christ? The evangelist was no better than they were! He was married, he was obviously having legitimate sex in marriage, he had three sons. Three different families gave their daughters to those sons on marriage but it didn’t change their attitude toward the gospel. The most difficult people to reach in evangelism are the moral self-righteous unbelievers. They are just as good as you are, why should they accept Christ? That is their attitude. There were a lot of moral people that drowned. They heard the gospel but they didn’t accept it.

There comes a time in history when the only impact on the moral unbeliever is a super morality, the law of supreme sacrifice. But we don’t happen to be living in that dispensation, although it may be true that is required from time to time even in ours because every truly great missionary, every great pioneer missionary, was a single man who went to the field and burned himself out.

Verse 39, “and they did not understand [ignorance based on preoccupation with their morality, with living to the rejection of eternity] until the flood came and took them all away [they were drowning before they understood], so shall the coming of the Son of Man be [the second advent].”

Verse 40, the analogy is related to the second advent. “Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken [by judgment, the baptism of fire], and one will be left [the believer who goes into the Millennium].” The one who is taken here is a moral person by the context, a moral unbeliever.

Verse 41, “Two women shall be grinding at the mill [normal living]; one will be taken [a moral woman, an unbeliever], one will be left [a believer going into the Millennium].”

Verse 42, “Therefore be on the alert [normal and moral people can handle historical disaster but they cannot handle the terminating judgment of the second advent], for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

This is an alert for the moral unbeliever. Why? Because he is so good he doesn’t bother with eternity. He doesn’t give it a thought. He hears the gospel message and he says, “I am as good as that person”. The only evangelism which reaches the moral unbeliever is the law of supreme sacrifice. That makes him sit up and take notice and then listen to the message. That is why the 144,000 had a super morality and righteousness. They denied themselves normal things in life, such as marriage and legitimate sex.

With that in view let’s take the second principle. The first principle was the importance of concentration. The second principle is the evangelism of the self-righteous and moral unbeliever during the Tribulation:

1. In time of great degeneracy and historical disaster there are always a certain number of moral and self-righteous unbelievers. Immorality-type degeneracy does not influence them at all.

2. Like the rich young ruler in our Lord’s day they are very moral, very self-righteous, and very unsaved. The man had the gall to go to Jesus and say, “What do I lack for eternal life?”

3. Morality cannot save, only faith in Christ.

4. Morality is human works and only the work of Christ on the cross can provide eternal salvation.

5. Therefore, the evangelists of the Tribulation to get the attention of the moral and self-righteous unbeliever must be super moral without self-righteousness. Therefore he lives under the law of supreme sacrifice and adds virtue to his morality. The moral unbeliever has no virtue to add to his morality.

6. The arrogance of self-righteousness is manifest in the principle that the moral unbeliever will never listen to anyone he considers inferior to himself in the function of morality.

The unbeliever has a problem. He has morality but he doesn’t have something that only the believer can have, and only the believer with doctrine: + virtue. The only thing he can add to his morality is + arrogance. What keeps the moral person from adding arrogance to his morality so that it is self-righteous morality? One thing: humility. Humility is a basic virtue and he can have humility by his enforced obedience to authority. He cannot have the genuine humility that belongs, however, to the believer in the sense of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the function of the Word in his life. But he can have humility and only that humility can protect him from arrogance. But the moral unbeliever says, “Look, before I will listen to you I must be impressed with you.” The degenerate unbeliever doesn’t say that, only the moral unbeliever. And how do the 144,000 evangelists prove they are greater? They look over to the moral unbeliever and say, “Look, you are having legitimate sex in marriage. I am not married and I am not having sex.” And the unbeliever says, “Okay, I’ll listen to you.” That is the principle.

We have next the second reason for their learning the new song when no one else could learn it, and that has to do with their momentum of tactical victory. We begin with the nominative plural subject from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, “these.” The demonstrative pronoun emphasises a designated object in the eschatological vicinity of the writer and refers, of course, to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and why they are the only ones who are singing this song on earth. We have an ellipsis which demands the verb to be, “these are,” and then we have the articular present active participle from the verb a)kolouqew, “to follow,” and we translate it “they who keep following.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and the relative pronoun is introducing a relative clause. The progressive present tense: an action in the state of persistence, hence present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the 144,000 Jews we have been studying produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. Then we have a dative singular indirect object from a)rnion, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. It is a reference to our Lord’s saving work on the cross which is the subject of the teaching of the 144,000 Jews. “These are they who keep following the Lamb”. This is a reference to motivational virtue. The 144,000 Jews who are acting as the evangelists of the Tribulation have to be very strongly motivated to follow their modus operandi. Motivational virtue is their personal love for God, their occupation with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The principle is a very simple one: The law of supreme sacrifice can only function from motivational virtue of personal love for God, sometimes called occupation with Christ. If you do not have a very strong motivational virtue there is no possible way that you can function under the law of supreme sacrifice. It is the one of the four laws of Christian behaviour that demands very strong motivational virtue. To use the law of supreme sacrifice requires the greatest motivation of the spiritual life and the 144,000 Jewish evangelists are motivated in their application of the law of supreme sacrifice.

Next we have an adverb of place, o(pou, “where,” followed by a present active subjunctive of u(pagw plus a)n, “wherever.” The verb u(pagw originated in Homeric Greek and had the connotation of leading someone somewhere, and it continued that connotation. It also means to lead under, like leading horses under a yoke. In the Koine Greek the verb means to go, e.g. to go on a journey. It means here to lead and we translate it “wherever he may lead,” a)n is where we get the word “may.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs and may be reasonably expected to occur, that is, their obedience to divine will and purpose in a very difficult time of history. The 144,000 Jewish evangelists produce the action. The subjunctive mood is potential implying a future reference and qualified by the element of contingency. You have to be in fellowship with the Lord, you have to know doctrine. The contingency means you have to know a lot of things. You just simply cannot say, “I am a Christian, I am doing the will of God.” It just isn’t that simple. Being a believer does mean that you are automatically doing the will of God. So that brings into focus the principle of divine guidance, a doctrine of determining the will of God for your life and doing it.

Divine guidance has two principles: cognisance and execution. First of all, you cannot do the will of God without knowing it. No one does the will of God in ignorance. The principle of execution has to follow it. Divine guidance is first of all the communication of the will of God through Bible doctrine. Obviously the more doctrine you know the more you can understand the will of God in any given moment and situation. The only classification for knowing positively what the will of God is relates to Bible doctrine. When it says they were following the Lamb wherever He may lead remember that during the Tribulation Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is in heaven. They are not following Him into heaven, they are doing His will on earth. So we follow Him through the function of the soul. Executing the will of God is the function of the soul’s volition, and the tool by which you use it is doctrine. You have cognisance of doctrine in your soul and with that doctrine you can then decide to do God’s will or not. And there is no excuse for believers not knowing what God’s will is in a general way from learning basic doctrine. Doctrine in the soul is your weapon. There is your knowing the will of God.

There are three categories of divine will which exist in history. First of all there is divine sovereignty, a volitional factor: the sovereignty of God the Father, the sovereignty of God the Son, and the sovereignty of God the Holy Spirit. There are three members of the Trinity, they are one in essence, they all have the same amount of sovereignty. So the first of the three categories of will to exist in history is the sovereignty of God. The will of God, of course, must be consistent with His other attributes and personality. God cannot compromise His essence. God is a person; there are three persons in the Godhead, and personality connotes self-consciousness as well as self-determination. God recognises Himself as a person and as such He thinks, He decides, He acts rationally. The sovereignty of God is manifest in the divine decrees. God’s sovereignty is related to His omniscience, He knows everything that is knowable: what will actually happen and the alternatives; what could have happened but did not. Only what you really think, only your motivation, only your decisions and actions are entered into the computer of divine decrees. Then, of course, you get your printout which is history. That is a part of the decrees. Omniscience knows the alternatives as well but they are never entered into the divine decrees. The will of God or the sovereignty of God is His all-inclusive purpose concerning all that ever was or ever will be among creatures, angelic and human. This will and purpose originates within Himself and therefore the will of God was objectively designed for His glory, for His pleasure, for His satisfaction. God’s decrees do not originate from His foreknowledge. In the logical order of function the foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it is merely one of the printouts from the computer of divine decrees. In essence, then, all things depend on God’s will and nothing is certain apart from God’s will; which is another way of saying that nothing has ever taken God by surprise, He knew it in eternity past.

The principle of the will of God is grace. The divine outline of human history in the dispensation or the programming of the ages is purely a reflection of His will. The divine objectivity is preservation and deliverance of believers. The work of God we call providence by which He moulds all events into the fulfilment of His purpose. Preservation is another technical word which means the existence of things. Providence directs their progress. Existence is preservation; providence is their progress. Hence the will of God can be described by four theological words. The will of God is directive: God has a plan for our lives; the will of God is determinative: God has permitted non-meritorious volition to bring us to the place of blessing or the place of cursing; the will of God is permissive: negative volition toward doctrine is permitted but divine justice provides awesome and painful discipline; the will of God is preventative: it provides doctrine, establishment laws, and discipline to keep human volition inside the will of God.

The second category of will is the will or the volition of angels. Angels have negative and positive volition. Negative angelic volition is the basis of the angelic conflict. Satan was the first in that category.

The third, and the one that relates to human history is human volition, which is the subject we are studying at the moment under the phrase “these are they who keep following the Lamb wherever He may lead”. We are talking about divine guidance and that brings into focus the concept of human volition. 1 John 3:23 is a good place to start with divine guidance because it gives us a simple axiom on which to start as members of the human race: “This is his mandate [will].” First of all it is a mandate to the unbeliever to believe in Christ, and secondly it is a mandate to the believer: virtue first, “that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, then love one another [the principle of virtue first], just as he has given us commandment.”

Three categories

There is the viewpoint will of God. In essence, what does God want me to think? What is orthodox thinking? What is thinking that is the will of God and thinking that is not the will of God? Obviously, thinking that is not the will of God deals with arrogance in cosmic one and sin in cosmic two. The only way that you can ever execute the viewpoint will of God is through cognisance of Bible doctrine. You must be positive toward doctrine. The less doctrine you know the more it is impossible for you to think the will of God. The will of God always starts with thinking.

There is the operational will of God. What does He want me to do? This can be very subjective or objective. How do you keep it objective? Doctrine again. There are a lot of things that we do where we don’t say, “Is this the will of God?” But there are major functions in our life that are definitely things that we do and we have to ask, “Is this the will of God?” Violence and maligning people who disagree with us is definitely not the will of God. “What does God want me to do?” has many answers and they can never be answered without learning doctrine. It is not only what God wants us to do but what God does not want us to do. You learn both ways through doctrine.

There is the geographical will of God. Where does God want me to be? We have to answer that for ourselves. Does God want me to be at Bible class or does He want me to be at a football game?

That brings us to the classification of the will of God and we have three categories: First of all there is the directive will of God — this is what God wants you to do; secondly there is the permissive will of God — He lets you do it and live even though He said you couldn’t; thirdly, there is the overruling will of God. In Numbers 22:12 God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them,” the king of Moab wanted the Jews cursed so they called Balaam to do it, “you will not curse the people; for they are blessed.” But there was a big fee involved so Balaam went. Verse 20 — “And God came to Balaam at night and said to him [God does not overrule volition], “If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do.” That was the permissive will of God; He let him live. Finally in verse 23 there was the overruling will of God. Balaam stood up to curse them but God put words in his mouth that blessed them. Three times Balak said to curse them and three times Balaam tried to and he couldn’t. Finally Balaam said to Balak, king of Moab, “I’ll tell you what you can do. You can’t destroy them this way but send all your beautiful women down to the men’s camp, get them to fornicate, that will destroy them.” And that is what happened. Even the overruling will of God didn’t stop Balaam. He loved money.

Then there is the academic concept of divine guidance, the principle of doctrine in the soul. Like Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” The word is “instruct” here, it means to teach doctrine. That is the key.

Or Isaiah 58:11, “Therefore the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your soul in scorched places [in time of depression], and give strength to your bones; therefore you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water who waters do not deceive.” The key is, the Lord will continually guide you and He does this through Bible doctrine.

Proverbs 3:1-6, “My son, do not forget my doctrine, but let your heart keep my commandments [you have to know doctrine to do the will of God]; for length of days and years of life, and prosperity they will add to you. Do not let grace and doctrine leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your right lobe. So you will find grace and good understanding in the sight of God and man [being guided by God not only gives you a wonderful relationship with God but with man as well]. Trust in the Lord with all your right lobe, and do not lean to your own understanding [don’t depend on your understanding, depend upon doctrine]. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.”

The filling of the Spirit is an issue, Ephesians 5:14-18. In this dispensation this is said to be definitely a part of the will of God. The principle of spiritual growth, momentum in the spiritual life, is also the will of God. It is momentum, of course, that makes it possible for us as those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to know the will of God and to execute the will of God.

The will of God has a mechanical aspect: the principle of guidance through prayer, Acts 11:5; guidance through thinking, Acts 11:6; guidance through perception of doctrine, Acts 11:7-10; guidance through providential circumstances, Acts 11:11; guidance through the Holy Spirit, Acts 11:12; guidance through fellowship with believers and comparison of spiritual data, Acts 11:13,14; guidance through the recall of doctrine, Acts 11:16.

This is the second reason why these Jewish evangelists were the only ones who sang the new song on earth. “These are they who keep following the Lamb wherever he may lead.”

We now have the third phrase which explains why they were the only ones singing this song: their strategical victory which preceded their tactical victory. Again we have the nominative plural subject from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It is referring to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and is translated “these.” Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)gorazw meaning to purchase, to redeem, to buy. There are two categories of redemption as we have noted: the redemption of the soul and the redemption of the body. In this verse the redemption of the soul applies, it refers to the doctrine of redemption from soteriology. The concept of redemption is very simple. We are all pictured as members of the human race inside the slave-market of sin and the principle is that at the cross our Lord provided the necessary freedom; He paid the purchase price and now we are free to leave the slave-market. We leave by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The aorist is the culminative aorist, it refers to a fact which has come to be in the past and contemplated in its entirety but emphasised from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results: these people have salvation, they received Christ immediately after the Rapture. The passive voice: the 144,000 evangelists receive the action of the verb — redemption. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their eternal salvation after the Rapture of the Church. Since there were no witnesses they have not been saved through witnessing. They did not hear any preaching of the gospel through evangelists, they simply read the passages of scripture for themselves and responded to them by faith in Christ.

They are said to be “from among men,” the prepositional phrase a)pw plus the ablative of a)nqrwpoj. There were no saved people. “Men” here does not mean male, it is a generic term for mankind, “these have been redeemed from among mankind.”

Then we have the nominative singular of apposition a)parxh, “firstfruits.” It indicates that these 144,000 Jewish evangelists scattered throughout the world were the first believers of the Tribulation. They are also the evangelists, they begin the great harvest of souls during that period of time. With this we have the datives of possession from two nouns, qeoj referring to God the Father, and the noun a)rnion referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as our saviour. The word “Lamb” connects the presentation of salvation in the Old Testament when they slaughtered the lamb on the altar, the physical death of the lamb representing the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. So it links the lamb sacrifices of the Levitical offerings with the work of Christ on the cross.

Translation of verse 4: “These are they [the 144,000 Jewish evangelists] who have not been defiled with women; for they are celibates. These are they who keep following the Lamb wherever he may lead. These have been redeemed from among mankind, the firstfruits belonging to God [God the Father, the author of the plan] and to the Lamb [God the Son, the executor of the plan on the cross].”

The reference, then, is to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation and they have fulfilled the divine system of priorities as the firstfruits to God the Father and God the Son. These priorities are the same in very dispensation. The principle remains the same: in God’s plan, mandates first; in God’s system, virtue first; in God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine first.

This last phrase really belongs with the next verse. The end of verse four which says, “these have been redeemed from among mankind, the firstfruits belonging to God and to the Lamb,” is a part of the doctrine of sanctification as it occurs in the Tribulation. There are three categories of sanctification and they are analogous to the three phases of the plan of God.

The first category of sanctification is phase one sanctification: salvation. The moment we believe in Christ in this dispensation we enter into union with Christ. Union with Christ at salvation is phase one sanctification. In other words, this is one of the 36 things that God does for every believer at salvation. And so it will be in the Tribulation except there will not be 36, there will be something less than that.

Then, phase two salvation is God’s plan for the believer in time. Phase two of the plan of God has its own system of sanctification which has to do with advancing to maturity.

Then there is phase three sanctification which is the possession of eternal life or enjoying eternal life in the possession of a resurrection body.

So we have phase one, salvation; phase two experiential sanctification; phase three, ultimate or eternal sanctification. We have just seen in the last part of verse four a reference to phase one sanctification. God does a certain number of things in every dispensation for a person at the moment he makes the decision to believe in Christ, and they are irreversible and unchangeable. The next two categories of sanctification are found in verse five.

Verse 5, the sanctification of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. We begin with the experiential sanctification of phase two. Once the Church is removed we go to the Tribulation and we go to the manifestation of spirituality. They are not all indwelt by the Spirit. The indwelling and the filling of the Spirit is unique to the Church Age and will exist in the dispensation of the Millennium.

God the Holy Spirit only indwelt a few people in the Old Testament dispensation: kings, prophets, writers of scripture, very few. So experiential sanctification was manifest in an entirely different way, by overt function. But once you come to the New Testament and the Church Age all believers are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. All believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit, the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. As a result experiential sanctification is always related to the filling of the Holy Spirit and the consistent perception of Bible doctrine. Once the royal family is removed you go back to Old Testament times and when dealing with experiential sanctification or spirituality in the Tribulation you go to an entirely different system. The emphasis is on how you handle your mouth, what you say or do not say. It is not until the second advent that every believer is again filled with the Spirit, Joel chapter two, which is a Millennial passage.

We start with the conjunction kai, introducing a result from what precedes, “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative singular subject yeudoj and with it the negative o)uk. Yeudoj means “lie” and o)uk means “no” or “not.” So we translate, “Furthermore no lie [or deception].” What this is saying is that virtue is first in every dispensation as a principle of the spiritual life and experiential sanctification. So “no lie” means virtue. This is the status of experiential sanctification in phase two of God’s plan for the believer in the Tribulation and, as a matter of fact, the principle for the believer in any dispensation. “Furthermore no deception was found.” This does not mean they were sinless, it means that they produced virtue in their spiritual lives. We have the aorist passive indicative of e(uriskw, “was found.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the general characteristic of these 144,000 believers scattered throughout the world preaching the gospel is virtue first. No deception was found in them. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, they were nor deceitful. That means they were virtuous. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their integrity, including their humility, their motivational and functional virtue. And where is this manifest? Not in the overt function of their life, not even in thought as such, but we have a prepositional phrase to tell us exactly where it was found, e)n plus the locative of stoma, “mouth,” and with this we have a)utoj, the possessive genitive plural, “in their mouth.” This is experiential sanctification of the firstfruits, the first people to be saved in the Tribulation, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. This fulfils the system in the divine plan for the believer: virtue first, humility as the foundation for virtue, motivational virtue which is always directed toward God, and functional virtue which is directed toward mankind and the circumstances of life.

There is more than meets the eye in this because we are dealing with the doctrine of the sins of the tongue in effect. It must be remembered that sin is defined as any transgression of divine law but it is much more emphatic than that because sin is actually defined as failing to meet the standards of God. For example, the Mosaic law represents the standards of God in part, and there are many other standards of God and many other statements of sin besides the hundreds of commandments that are found in the Mosaic law. There are, of course, two categories of sin: known sin, a transgression or violation of a divine standard — you know the standard. Therefore it involves human perception or cognisance of the standard and you deliberately use your volition to violate it. In other words, you not only wanted to do it but you knew that when you were doing it you were sinning; and there is the unknown sin, a transgression or violation of divine standards in which the act is committed without human perception or cognisance. You wanted to do it but you didn’t know it was a sin. You are still responsible because you wanted to do it, volition being the issue.

There are three kinds of sin. The first category is what we might call imputation. This is the sin that we received at birth, Adam’s original sin which is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. The second is the perpetuation of sin, the old sin nature, since each member of the human race receives at birth the old sin nature. It is the source of temptation to sin. Then there is personal sin the source of which is human volition.

Our subject deals with experiential sanctification which is said to relate to personal sins, “Furthermore no deception was found in their mouth.” There are three categories of personal sin. The first category is mental. For example, all motivational evil at cosmic one, gate one, is a personal mental sin such as arrogance, jealousy, hatred, etc. The second category are verbal sins: gossip, maligning, slander, judging, lying, etc. And the third category is the overt category: murder, adultery, stealing, drunkenness, drug addiction.

James 3:6 introduces the category of verbal sins. The greatest manifestation of humility verses arrogance, or virtue versus carnality, is found in verbal sinning because all verbal sin is the result of mental sins. The mental sins come first. Mental sins motivate verbal sins. If you are jealous of someone you malign them, if you are bitter toward someone you attack them with slander. So the actual overt manifestation of experiential sanctification is the control of the tongue or the sinning of the tongue in the Tribulation, because the verbal is the manifestation of the mental attitude. Therefore, verbal is emphasised.

“And the tongue is a fire [in the sense of being destructive]...” The tongue is the instrument of speech and we are talking about speaking sins, verbal sins “the cosmos of wickedness [or deceitfulness].” When you are guilty of sins of the tongue you are in the cosmic system, “the tongue is set among our members as that which contaminates the entire body, therefore setting on fire the cycle of existence, and being set on fire by the agency of Gehenna [a synonym for the cosmic system].”

So the sins of the tongue are described by James as being the most destructive. They are like a fire, they start in one spot and they go everywhere.

Proverbs 6:16-19, a passage where sins are categorised, the seven worst sins. Out of the seven sins which God despises three of them are related to the tongue. Three of the sins are mental, three are verbal, and one of them is an overt sin.

“There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to his soul: arrogant eyes.” The eyes are the window of the soul, they reflect the thought. So number one is a mental sin: arrogance, “a lying tongue,” a sin of the tongue, “and hands that shed innocent blood,” murder, the only overt sin in the list, and completes representation from all three categories.

Verse 18, “a right lobe which devises evil plans,” conspiracy, revolution. Related, therefore, to any system of combining these three sins. All conspiracy and revolution is spawned and motivated from arrogance. All conspiracy, revolution and civil disobedience involves the sins of the tongue, and all conspiracy, revolution and civil disobedience eventuates in violence, and that brings us to murder. So what we have by way of structure in verse 17 is one from each category of sins: arrogance, lying and murder. Then we have it all brought together in verse 18, “feet which run rapidly to evil,” referring to other mental sins which are motivational evil. Running to evil is motivation: gate one of cosmic one, “a false witness who utters lies,” a sin of the tongue, slandering by introducing false evidence, “and the one who spreads strife among the brethren,” done with gossip, maligning, and slander.

The sins of the tongue never exist without mental attitude sins. Six out of the seven sins in Proverbs relate to mental and overt modus operandi. Evil, therefore, is always related to the sins of the tongue. Self-righteous people have rejected grace standards of doctrine and are therefore involved in the cosmic system. The existence of their self-righteousness is always morality plus arrogance.

These 144,000 Jews are great evangelists and one of the things that is manifest is the fact that no deception was found in their mouth. They were virtuous with regard to the sins of the tongue. This means, as per Psalm 5:8,9, that there was no implacability or vindictiveness motivating them, “O Lord, lead me in your grace righteousness because of my enemies; make your way smooth before me. There is nothing in what they say [they were slandering, gossiping, maligning; their inner soul is destruction [mental attitude sins]; their throat [from which they speak] is an open grave [what comes out of their mouth by way of conversation is the stench of death. They slander, they malign]; They flatter with their tongue.” Slander is a sign of cosmic involvement, James 4:11.

The doctrine of sanctification is not only a categorical development of the plan of God but also it helps us to understand the spiritual life in any given dispensation. The Old Testament dispensation had one category of spiritual life, the Church Age has another, the Tribulation goes back to the Old Testament times, and then the Millennium has an entirely different one. Sanctification is the technical term for describing the plan of God in terms of the divine objective as far as each phase of God’s plan is concerned. Therefore sanctification becomes a very technical theological word for the status of the believer in the three phases of the plan of God. Phase one of the plan of God is salvation. That decision: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”; phase two is the believer in time, beginning at the point of salvation and going to the point of death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first; phase three is the believer in eternity. Each one of these phases, therefore, has a category of sanctification. Sanctification, then, means to set apart, to consecrate; it means the plan of God in terms of this concept. The resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ abrogated the old contract of the Mosaic law and simultaneously interrupted the Age of Israel. So the Age of Israel which had been continuing until that time was suddenly brought to a halt by the death, burial and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father He was there without a royal family for His third category of royalty, and therefore the Church Age is inserted in order to call out a royal family of God to compliment our Lord’s third royal warrant. Having no royal family, therefore, the Age of Israel had to be temporarily disrupted and will be continued in the Tribulation. The royal family of God functions under these three phases of God’s plan as did the Old Testament believer who was saved the same way that we are but with a slightly different approach. Everything for the Old Testament believer was in the form of prophecy and the fact that they had Levitical offerings, animal sacrifices, and the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood merely was used to reach not only salvation, by grace through faith, but also at the same time, to teach the spiritual way of life which always begins with rebound. So there was for the Old Testament believer a way of salvation the same as ours, only he looked forward to the cross, we look retrospectively at the cross historically. Therefore the material is slightly different because in the Old Testament they were taught with ritual. Now, of course, the ritual is all set aside, we have the completed canon of scripture, the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Therefore, of course, we have in every dispensation the problem: not what is the way of salvation, because it is uniform for all of the dispensations, but the question always arises: after salvation what is the plan of God? what is spirituality? what are the divine objectives? They are always the same in the sense of glorifying the Lord but the mechanics are different. Basically the experiential sanctification of the Old Testament was the function of the faith-rest drill; now we have added to that the function of the divine dynasphere. In the Tribulation it goes back of course to Old Testament times and the function of the faith-rest drill. Then at the second advent it changes once again in compliance with the characteristics of the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the last dispensation lasting one thousand years. Sanctification is a word, therefore, that means that God has a purpose for every believer from salvation to eternity. Every believer, then, has a life which has meaning and purpose and definition as far as the Word of God is concerned.

In John 6:69 we read: “And we have believed, in fact we have come to know that you are the Holy One from God.” Sanctification takes its title from this phrase referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, “you are the Holy One from God.” In other words, the phrase reads in the Greek o( a(gioj tou qeou. The word a(gioj is the word that means Holy One. A(gioj also means sanctified or sanctification. It is a Greek word that also has other meanings as well; it means “saint.” So we have the word a(gioj first used of our Lord Jesus Christ, and because it was used of Him and because he is the prince ruler of the Church, therefore it has entered our vocabulary under a very technical sense. The Lord Jesus Christ, being the Holy One of God in hypostatic union, those in the Church Age who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are also called a(gioj, and it is translated “saints.” A(gioj is, of course, one of the words of sanctification. The noun relates us to the plan of God for the Church Age, the calling out of the royal family, and that special gift of the divine dynasphere.

The first phase of sanctification is salvation, phase one. It is the same for every dispensation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The third phase of sanctification is eternity which either begins with death or resurrection, whichever occurs first. It is the same for all dispensations in that if you die physically you have an interim body in heaven until your appropriate resurrection, and then a resurrection body forever and ever. So believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for phase one sanctification and phase three sanctification, the possession of a resurrection body, are always the same for every dispensation. The only differences come in phase two or experientially, what is the Christian way of life?

Experiential or phase two sanctification is therefore a major issue, and when we learn something about one dispensation and its system of experiential sanctification we learn something about others, whether by way of contrast or the similarity. For example, in our dispensation we have the divine dynasphere. Sanctification means to be set apart unto God, and residence in the divine dynasphere is being set apart unto God. Experiential sanctification — phase two sanctification — is gate one, the filling of the Holy Spirit; gate two, which is basic Christian modus operandi. That brings into view the spiritual way of life in other dispensations — the function of the faith-rest drill, the function of the rebound technique. So actually gate two brings into the picture all that is required of Old testament believers, all that is required of Tribulational believers, and adds it to the Christian way of life for the Church Age. Then, of course, gate three, basic virtue which is directed toward authority, enforced and genuine humility; gate four, perception and application of doctrine, perception based upon the function of our royal priesthood, application based upon the function of our royal ambassadorship.

The perception and application of doctrine also belongs to experiential sanctification in any other dispensation. However, doctrine was presented in a different way. There was no completed canon of scripture in Old Testament times and as a result of that it was difficult to have one system of teaching. So there were dreams and visions, various forms of extra-natural and supernatural revelation. There was the function of teaching angels, there was communication through ritual, and then there were portions of the Word of God as they existed at various stages of history. So perception of doctrine has always been a part of God’s plan for the life of the believer on this earth. Gate five is motivational virtue directed toward God; gate six is functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. Testing exists as a part of the spiritual life in every dispensation. In this particular dispensation, the Church Age, there are eight categorical tests that must be passed before we attain maturity. Gate eight, the attainment of maturity, is actually the point at which we arrive at experiential sanctification. Experiential sanctification in principle is the same in every dispensation, it is the attainment of spiritual maturity.

But when the Rapture of the Church rakes place the Church is removed. At that point there are no longer any client nations on the earth. At that point the divine dynasphere goes to heaven, it is no longer operational. At that point (those who are saved, the firstfruits of the Tribulation, are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists whom we have noted as the first people to accept Christ as saviour in the Tribulation) what was the believers’ way of life, what was phase two for them? We go back first of all to the function of rebound, then the function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill, and we go back to the principle of the perception of Bible doctrine as the means of advancing to maturity. And when you put all these together you have some mature believers. The 144,000 are said to be mature believers and the reason for it is that they attain through the daily perception of doctrine a very rapid spiritual growth which results in this fantastic thing that happens to them — spiritual maturity, which is absolutely necessary for the job the Lord has for them.

There are different words that describe sanctification. A((gioj is the first, a noun which means “Holy One” when applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, as in John 6:69. It is also used sometimes for the Holy Spirit, and is also translated “saint” and becomes a synonym for members of the royal family of God. A second word is a(giothj, generally translated “holiness” in the New Testament. This means the status quo of the royal family of God, to share the holiness of God. A(giothj is used primarily for one of the 37 things that happens to every believer at salvation: he enters into union with Christ, he is said to be a(giothj, he is in union with the a(gioj tou qeou forever. A(gioj means holiness, the status quo of the believer in phase one sanctification, for phase one sanctification is union with Christ. Then there is a third word, a(giwsunh, which means sanctification and is translated that way: it means blessings flow through the grace of God down the grace pipeline, and these blessings include our contract [we have the new covenant forever] and the three categories of sanctification that go with it. There are two other words. There is a(giosmoj which is both an adjective and a noun. It means holiness, consecration, and is also translated “sanctification.” Thenwe have the verb which means to sanctify, a(giazw. They all have one thing in common: a(g, the suffix of the word, and it means to set apart, to consecrate, and this is where we get the concept of sanctification.

There are certain agents of sanctification that are mentioned in the Bible. For example, the agent of phase one sanctification or salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ — Hebrews 10:9,10. “At that time [in the cradle] he [our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union] said, ‘Behold, I have arrived to accomplish your plan.’ He therefore abrogated the first covenant [the law] in order that he might establish the second.” That means that the Christian way of life would be different from the Old Testament. It would include the faith-rest drill, rebound, and other factors, but the entire experiential sanctification would be different as noted by the fact that the first covenant or contract was abrogated and a new contract was established, “by means of which will [or purpose] we [believers of this dispensation] have been sanctified [sanctified in the past at salvation with the result that we remain consecrated to God forever] through the offering of the body of Christ.” In other words, when we believe in Christ we enter into union with Christ and we can never lose our salvation. This is phase one salvation and our Lord is the agent of sanctification, Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

As far as phase two sanctification, life after salvation. There are two agents. These two refer to this dispensation specifically: God the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:16, “sanctified by the Holy Spirit,” or 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “sanctification by the Spirit [Gate one of the divine dynasphere] and faith in doctrine [Gate four whereby gnwsij is converted into e)pignwsij].” That is essentially the principle of sanctification in the New Testament and in the Church Age. Bible doctrine, then, is also an agent of sanctification experientially, John 17:17, “Sanctify them by means of the doctrine, your word [the Bible] is doctrine,” and Ephesians 5:26, the water of the Word is Bible doctrine. These are the agents of sanctification as far as phase two is concerned. The agent of sanctification as far as eternity is concerned has to do with receiving a resurrection body. That becomes the agent from which all blessings of eternity relate.

Phase one sanctification takes cognisance of the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ as the Holy One of God went to the cross where He received the imputation of our sins. The justice of God the Father judged those sins when they were imputed to Christ on the cross so that the work of salvation was accomplished. Salvation was completed on the cross, nothing can be added to it, so that the way of salvation has to be compatible with the finished work of Christ on the cross. The compatibility is found in the word “faith,” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” This is compatible because faith is a non-meritorious system of perception, the object of faith has the merit.

The sanctification which follows is everything that God does in any given dispensation for the person who believes in Christ. In our dispensation God does the most, 37 things, and positional sanctification or phase one sanctification is primarily our union with Christ. This distinguishes Christianity as a relationship with God from all religions. Religions all originate with Satan; Christianity originates with God and Christianity is a relationship with God through faith in Christ, union with Christ forever. The believer never gets out of that union and he shares the life of Christ, His sonship, His heirship, His destiny, His election, everything that belongs to Him. That can never be changed and that distinguishes the royal family of the Church Age, believers of this dispensation, from all other dispensations. That essentially, then, is phase one sanctification and that is why it is called “sanctified in Christ Jesus,” because it is related to positional truth.

Phase two sanctification goes right back to the divine dynasphere. We can never get out of that top circle but we can, of course, get out of the divine dynasphere. We fail by sin, getting us into Satan’s cosmic system, therefore the importance of the rebound technique to recover life in the divine dynasphere. This is, of course, the whole realm of experiential sanctification. Experiential sanctification has a purpose, an objective, which is to advance to maturity. But this is the experiential sanctification of the Church Age.

Phase three sanctification is divided into several parts. It can begin at death, absent from the body, the physical body of this life and face to face with the Lord. They have an interim body in heaven and great blessing. During that time the Tribulational martyrs are going to offer imprecatory prayers. These martyrs who offer the prayers are going to return with our Lord Jesus Christ in a resurrection body, also a part of phase three or eternal sanctification. 144,000 of those Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs are going to stand on Mount Zion and they are going to sing that song that no man knows except the 144,000 among members of the human race. They are going to sing that song in the presence of our Lord at that time.

Notice the development of a principle. At the end of Revelation 14:4 we have salvation: phase one sanctification, “These [the 144,000] have been redeemed from among mankind,” phase 1 sanctification, “the firstfruits belonging to God and to the Lamb.” Then we noted something about how spiritual life is manifest in the Tribulation. We find that spiritual life is mentioned under the concept of the sins of the tongue, that those who avoid slander, maligning, judging, lying, and other evils related to the sins of the tongue, these are the ones who achieve experiential sanctification. The manifestation of the spiritual life of the Tribulational believer is his control and his use of the organ of speech, the tongue, “Furthermore no deception was found in their mouth.” So that is phase two sanctification or experiential sanctification.

We move on to the end of verse five where we have two words only for ultimate sanctification. In the King James version this is incorrectly translated. These two words are a)mwmoi e)isin in the Greek, “they are blameless.” We have first of all the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “they are.” The present tense is a static present it denotes the eternal state of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. In other words, their eternal sanctification. They are standing on Mount Zion with our Lord Jesus Christ in their resurrection bodies, they have entered phase three of the divine plan which we call the status of ultimate sanctification. The active voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb at the beginning of the Millennium. This, of course, means they are in a state of ultimate sanctification. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine regarding the eternal state of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists — status, ultimate sanctification.

With this is the predicate nominative plural from the noun o)mwmoj which means unblemished or blameless. The King James version has “before the throne.” It does not occur, it is not found in the original, it simply says they are blameless. We know they are not before the throne, they are on Mount Zion. Phase three sanctification: “they are blameless.” They are in resurrection bodies and that means they are blameless forever and ever. No matter how the believer has failed in time he is absolutely blameless in the resurrection body. He may be deprived of the great blessings that belong through rewards but he will be in a resurrection body forever. All believers are going to terminate blameless in the resurrection body. That is one of the greatest acts of God. Not only are we saved through faith in Christ but He is going to take the worst believers, the best believers, all having committed some form of sin during their time on this earth, and He is going to make all of them blameless. Only God can do that.

In verses 6-20 we have the victory of the judgment of God. God is victorious in judgment just as God is victorious in the function of His grace. No matter what God does He always comes out the winner. The judgements which are administered through Jesus Christ the Son of God as the angel of the Lord, and through the six angels of this context from the angelic college of heralds, makes God a winner. The first angel is found in verses 6 and 7, and the first angel teaches us the principle that grace precedes judgment. We note in verse 6 that the world is evangelised during the devil’s desperation and from this point on in the next few verses we are going to study operation high noon. We have six angels plus our Lord Jesus Christ in the rest of this chapter.

Verse 6, we begin by noting a few things from the Greek. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of o(raw indicating the fact that the vision of John continues. Much of the Word of God was revealed to the writers of scripture in the form of visions. We have “Then I saw.” We have a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb is verses 6-20, the victory of the judgment of God. The active voice: the apostle John as the human writer of the book of Revelation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for eschatological reality, the doctrinal content of this vision.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object of two words: the adjective a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind, and with that the noun a)ggeloj meaning angel, “another angel.” The angel involved is a pur sui vant officer in the angelic college of heralds and he is assigned to the administration of grace before judgment. Therefore he must disseminate the gospel to the entire world. He is said to be flying, the present active participle of the verb petomai. The present tense is descriptive for what is now going on in the eschatology of the vision. The active voice: it is a deponent verb which mean that it is middle in form but active in meaning. The pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds produces the action.

The next phrase gives us our title for this particular part of our study. We have e)n plus the locative of mesouranhma, “in mid-heaven.” High noon or the zenith of the sun is the meaning of it. So we translate it: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon,” the zenith point of the sun in any given time zone. So we now have operation high noon. Hence, mid-heaven refers to the first heaven or the atmosphere at midday. Since the zenith of the sun is midday it would be the best time for the communication of the gospel.

The purpose of the pur sui vant officer is given next, “and he had,” the present active participle of the verb e)w. This is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of the eschatological event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer in charge of the everlasting gospel produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it expresses an attendant set of circumstances and it is best rendered into the English by the word “and” plus the finite use of the verb.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from two words: a)iwnioj, which means eternal, and with it the word e)uaggelion, the word for gospel. Translation: “and he has the eternal gospel.” That is, he has the doctrine: category one, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation.

What is the eternal gospel? Does it differ in any way from the gospel, period? The eternal gospel emphasises the fact that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only preparation for eternity. The gospel is always the same; the good news is the fact that Christ provided eternal salvation for us. Remember that the word “gospel” means good news, always. The fact that we are sinners is bad news and that is not the issue in the gospel. The fact that we are born into the world is where the gospel begins because when God gave us human life and imputed that human life to the soul He simultaneously imputed Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. That is where spiritual death occurs. God didn’t wait until we sinned personally. If God had waited until we sinned personally He would have been unfair because a lot of people die before they sin personally and therefore would automatically be assigned to hell. But if anyone dies before reaching accountability he automatically goes to heaven because you can’t be saved until you are condemned. Salvation demands condemnation first, and the condemnation is “the wages of sin is death,” and the wages of sin is the imputation of Adam’s sin at birth. The fact that we have all these personal sins is not the issue because those personal sins are never imputed to us. God imputed Adam’s sin to us and saved our personal sins for the judgment of the cross. That is our Lord’s spiritual death on the cross; He was judged for our sins.

The point is that the wages of sin is death, and that is bad news. The gospel begins with the fact that Christ then judgment of our sins on the cross. That is where the good news begins because the good news says that Christ did something about it. Christ is the only saviour, He is the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Him. And only by believing in Christ can you have eternal life, and the fact that salvation is free because Christ said it is finished. He did all of the work; is good news. So the work of Christ — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification — is good news, and Christ is the issue of salvation. The eternal gospel is the same gospel we have today, it is the fact that Jesus Christ was judged for our sins, He took our place. And there is an historical trend that before any great historical disaster there must always be the proclamation of the gospel. In the Tribulation there is going to be the greatest of disasters in all of history and therefore the gospel must be proclaimed first. So the eternal gospel emphasises the fact that the gospel is the only preparation for eternity. Furthermore, historical disaster is used as warning judgment and before even the greatest of historical judgements come there is first of all the proclamation of the gospel under the principle of grace before judgment.

The eternal gospel is preached or announced by a pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds, hence emphasis on the fact that the second advent which terminates the time of the devil’s desperation is the last chance for that generation to be saved prior to the baptism of fire. For when Jesus Christ returns to the earth He is going to separate the sheep from the goats, the good fish from the bad fish, the wise from the foolish virgins, and the unbelievers are going to be cast alive into the lake of fire. The believers will form a cadre for the population explosion in the Millennium. So the Millennium begins with believers only, which means that it is not only the beginning of a dispensation but it is also the beginning of a civilisation.

The adjective a)iwnioj [eternal] does not change the nature of the gospel, it remains the good news that Christ died for our sins on the cross. The issue of the gospel, again, is not sin but the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in bearing our sins. The pur sui vant officer will present the gospel message and he will therefore present the saving work of Christ in perfect form. He will be the greatest of all evangelists, a teaching angel. He will avoid all false issues of legalism, he won’t have people raising their hands or walking aisles, etc. He will provide accurate information without adding to the gospel. In other words, he will not get in the way of God the Holy Spirit with regard to that very important decision, personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are six different adjectives which are used with the word “gospel” in the New Testament. In Romans 1:16,17 we have “the gospel of Christ.” Here we have emphasis on the person of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ as the only saviour. The apostle Paul uses the phrase “my gospel” or the phrase “our gospel,” 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 and 2 Timothy 2:8. This emphasises the fact that every believer possesses the gospel, though in the context of these two verses the apostle Paul possesses the gospel and is responsible for its dissemination. The pronoun “my” refers to Paul, the pronoun “our” refers to all believers, but the emphasis is on Christian responsibility in communicating the gospel as opportunity presents. Then there is the phrase, “the glorious gospel” from 1 Timothy 1:11. This emphasises the source of the gospel, the eternal and infinite God, and therefore we are dealing with an absolute truth. The “gospel of peace” in Ephesians 6:15 emphasises the doctrine of reconciliation in the presentation of the gospel. Because of the gospel the barrier between God and man is removed — the good news that man is reconciled to God because Christ has broken the barrier between man and God through His saving work on the cross. The word “peace,’ of course, is technical for reconciliation. The “gospel of the kingdom” in Matthew 24:14 is not a different gospel but it has a different emphasis. It emphasises the fact that the unconditional covenants to Israel — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants — are only fulfilled to those Jews who believe in Christ. So it is a message to Israel: You must be born again to benefit from the unconditional covenants given to Israel. Then our passage in Revelation 14:6 has “the eternal gospel” and has emphasis on the fact that grace precedes judgment and that the second advent is the last chance to be saved because of the baptism of fire. The gospel is the only preparation, then, for the eternal state and the eternal state begins for the unsaved Jew and Gentile at the second advent.

So far, then, we have noted: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon, and he has the eternal gospel.” Regardless of any qualifying adjective or any other word that qualifies the gospel the gospel always remains the same in every dispensation. The content of the gospel is the same, the means of salvation, faith in Christ, is always the same. This means that no one is saved in the Age of Israel by keeping the law. That is legalism or salvation by works — Ephesians 2:8,9. The gospel preaching, then, of the pur sui vant officer dramatises the principle that the world is evangelised in every generation of human history. The fascinating part of the time of the devil’s desperation or the last half of the Tribulation is that the angelic college of heralds is involved in evangelisation along with the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. The principle is: grace precedes judgment. No generation of human history has been judged without ample opportunity to use their own free will to receive Jesus Christ as personal saviour. The fact remains for every generation from the salvation of Adam and Eve right down to the present that “neither is there salvation in any other, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

Next we have an aorist infinitive of the verb e)uaggelizw which means to announce or proclaim the gospel or good news. The culminative aorist tense views the communication of the gospel in its entirety during the time of the devil’s desperation but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the completed evangelisation of the world in the last half of the Tribulation. By evangelisation is meant a clear delineation of the gospel, it does not mean that everyone is saved. Everyone has a chance to be saved, there never has been a human being in all of history who has not had a chance to be saved, either at God-consciousness or gospel hearing, or both. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds produces the action of the verb at operation high noon. At high noon every day in every time zone he announces the gospel. The infinitive is the infinitive of local time derived from the locative of time en plus mesouranema, the word for high noon or the zenith of the sun. So operation high noon is a saturation of the gospel.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative plural of the present middle participle kaqhmai. E)pi actually occurs three times in three different phrases. E)pi plus the accusative occurs twice, each time emphasising direction and would be translated “to.” E)pi plus the genitive occurs once and connotes contact with planet earth and will be translated “on.” This is e)pi plus the accusative and it should be translated “to those who are residing on the earth.” Kaqhmai has a definite article with it and it is used as a personal pronoun for the living population of the world in the last half of the Tribulation. The last half of the Tribulation will be the greatest period of historical disaster that the world has ever known and yet there is a tremendous population throughout the world despite a great disaster, proving again the principle that there is no system of military destruction, no system of tyranny, no natural disaster of any kind that will completely destroy the population of the world. The population of the world will continue and there will be people on planets earth until the end of the Millennium. This phrase indicates a total saturation of the gospel under the principle of high noon evangelism. The present tense of the participle is a progressive present signifying action in a state of progress and is a reference to unbelievers living in the last half of the Tribulation. They continue to live in spite of everything. This is a middle voice, deponent verb, middle or passive in form, active in meaning. The unbelievers of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb, they continue to survive in spite of all kinds of disaster. One of the great disasters will be warfare. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we have another participial phrase following, e)pi plus the genitive of gh, referring to planet earth in the last half of the Tribulation and it is translated “on the earth,” “to those who are residing on the earth.” And then immediately we have another prepositional phrase, e)pi plus paj plus e)qnoj, “and to every nation.”

Translation: “Then I saw another angel [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] flying at high noon [the zenith point of the sun in any given time zone], having the eternal gospel to announce the good news to those who are residing on the earth, both to every nation, and tribe ...”

Operation high noon starts out “to every nation and tribe.” Every nation comes first as a part of this final prepositional phrase. Operation high noon evangelises people of nations. All evangelisation in the history of the world must consider the four categories that we have in this passage. The first category is e)qnoj as the object of the preposition, and operation high noon evangelises people by nations. God does not recognise internationalism, His plan is by nations. Furthermore, freedom is guaranteed through divine institution #4, nationalism. But freedom is destroyed by internationalism which is a Satanic device for cosmic evangelism in the world’s population. All systems of internationalism are evil. All evangelism is done within the framework of a national entity; God rejected internationalism when he destroyed the tower of Babel and therefore we have nations. The missionary, the evangelist goes into each nation with the gospel. That is God’s plan. In this case we have one messenger announcing to nations at high noon in every time zone of the world. World communism, of course, is a convenient vehicle for Satan’s modus operandi and word communism is another form of internationalism and, again, evil.

Before each one of these categories we have the connective conjunction kai, so it is “both to every nation [“both” comes from the repetition of kai. When you have a series of kais the first one is generally translated “both” and then after that “and”] and tribe.” Tribe is in the accusative, it is also the object of the preposition, and it is the noun fulh. Fulh or tribe is specific, it refers to the evangelisation of the Jews. Jews throughout the world are evangelised in operation high noon. Then we have another connective kai and this time the accusative singular from glossa, a word that is generally mistranslated in the Bible. It should not be translated “tongues,” it is a reference to languages. So it is “to every nation, and tribe [the nation Israel], both language,” the word here refers to every language of the world and refers to the floating population of the earth not associated with either a Gentile nation or with the Jews. The eternal gospel will be communicated to every floating population on planet earth, their language will be included and they will receive the message. The final word is the word laoj, also in the accusative, then object of the preposition e)pi. It is correctly translated “people,” and this refers to wandering people or dislocated persons in every time zone of the earth. So the last four nouns, nations, tribes, languages, people, define categorically the participle kaqhmai, those who are dwelling on the earth. There is nothing left out, every category is included.

Translation of verse 6: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon, and he has the eternal gospel to announce the good news to those who are residing on the earth, both to every nation, and tribe, and language, and people.”

The principle: The time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation, is a time of complete and total evangelism. The world will be completely evangelised at that time, just as in every generation, every period of history. The fact remains that there never was a time when anyone was without the opportunity of believing in Christ.

At the second advent of Christ which terminates the Tribulation there is the baptism of fire which takes all the unbelievers off of planet earth (This is there verse of the Rapture) and places them in the lake of fire. So the time is short; people must make a decision in the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 7, what is given here is in addition to the gospel of the saving work of Christ on the cross. The angels emphasise redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, every aspect of the saving work of our Lord on the cross. In this verse we are given two additional gospel approaches. The inference of this extrapolation is that you already understand the saving work of Christ. In other words, this angel is going from time zone to time zone and giving additional information that these people do not as yet have. They have the gospel, they have heard it, they have been saturated with the message, but they are given some new information, something that is added to propitiation or redemption, or reconciliation, or unlimited atonement. The eternal gospel includes everything pertaining to the work of Christ on the cross, and the gospel approach is given this time from a slightly different standpoint. First of all, from the standpoint of coming divine judgment, and secondly from the standpoint of relating the saviour on the cross to the creator of the universe. Hence, the angelic herald adds several new inferences which have not been given so far: the fact that judgment is coming and the fact that the only saviour is the creator of the universe.

One final principle in anticipation of this context: the message of the gospel must have good acoustics. There is no sense in giving a message, no matter how clear, no matter how eloquent, no matter how lucid, unless the acoustics are good. No message can be better than the acoustics which carry that message and no matter how great the message if the acoustics are bad the message is lost. This is why the canon of scripture is in written form because it eliminates the acoustical factor. The message must be disseminated, however, through the voice and therefore acoustics must be good enough for everyone to hear. Hence, the tremendous voice of the angelic officer preaching at high noon is the acoustical system. This acoustical system is introduced with the present active participle of the verb legw, “And he spoke.” This is a futuristic present, it denotes and event which has not yet occurred, the communication of the gospel by the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds. However the eschatological event is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. It is translated therefore as a finite verb with the conjunction “and,” “and he spoke.”

Then we have his acoustical system. Angelic creatures apparently have the ability to be heard in the same manner that we can hear thunder. They have tremendous vocal apparati and the vocal apparatus of this particular angelic creature is absolutely phenomenal. All of the acoustical adjustments are made in the vocal cords of the angelic creature, and this is not surprising since in one of the descriptions of Satan as an angelic cherub in eternity past indicates that he has a voice like a pipe organ. They apparently have the ability to project their voice and be heard for miles just as thunder can be heard. They also can be heard with tones that are very clear and magnificent, and so we have the prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental singular of two words: megaj, meaning “loud” here, it could be heard in the whole time zone; and then the noun fwnh, “and he spoke with a loud voice.” His voice could be projected so that every word could be understood very clearly, and it is projected at high noon, the zenith point of the sun, in any given time zone. Furthermore, it has to be repeated in all the languages of that time zone, so the ability of this pur sui vant officer in communicating the gospel is phenomenal.

Next we have the gospel approach from the standpoint of divine judgment, and the principle should be noted: It is to be understood that the entire field of soteriology and Christology was presented to mankind every day at high noon during the last half of the Tribulation. Consequently, what is emphasised in this verse is merely additional material pertinent to that time. The gospel is presented in every generation of human history. Quite often historical trends of a certain generation determine a different emphasis in the presentation of the gospel. Presentation in the communication of the gospel will have an emphasis that relates to the time, the historical times, customs, culture, that may exist. The approach here is the fact that there should be fear if you reject the gospel. This is not always the approach in every generation but it is the approach of this angelic messenger. He does this every day at high noon. Everything is silent and only one voice is heard, a voice like thunder but which is broken down into languages in that time zone, and in every language some emphasis of the gospel is given. Here we have that which is unique to the last half of the Tribulation.

The aorist passive imperative is given first for this is the emphasis given by the angel, fobew. Fobew means two things: it means to fear and it means to respect. It also means awe added to respect and fear. This is an aorist passive imperative and so we translate it “fear.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: deponent verb, passive in form and active in meaning: the unbelieving population of the planet earth is given this mandate. They are to produce the action of the verb. They are to have such awe, such respect, such fear of eternal God that they respond to the gospel by believing in Christ. This is not the imperative of command but the imperative of entreaty which dopes not convey the finality of a command but has the force of urgency, therefore an appeal to human volition to believe in Christ before it is too late. In some periods of history and at some times the word “repent” is used to emphasise the fact that you must change your mind about Christ to have eternal salvation. In other periods fear is used, fear related to judgment. In other generations it is simply the emphasis of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation, the only way of blessing and prosperity in time, the only way of happiness in time and in eternity.

The object of the verb is the accusative singular from qeoj, “fear God.” The generic use of the definite article accompanies it, therefore the personal pronoun is definitely not translated. The generic use of the definite article always refers to the manifest person of the Godhead. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is said to be the only manifest person in John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. This fear of God, then, is based on the proximity of the second advent and the finality of the judgment that occurs — the baptism of fire. It should be noted that God the Father has committed all judgment into the hands of God the Son, as per John 5:22,23,27. The unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation, therefore, have a choice: either believe in Christ for eternal salvation or be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent at the baptism of fire. The same choice exists, of course, in every generation under different conditions: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth in him.” The difference is that there is no time limit, it is only an individual time limit. When this angel is communicating at high noon in every time zone the time is short. The entire period that we are discussing is only three and a half years in length and it is shortened down, and every day there is a gospel message to everyone in that time zone, every language, every people. Regardless of any barrier that might exist in communication it is overcome acoustically, linguistically, and in every other way. This is the most lucid presentation that will ever occur. The issue is always the same in the gospel: “What think ye of Christ?” But, of course, the emphasis that goes with this is the fact that the time is very short.

We have a slightly different emphasis for one reason. We are born at a certain point. We come to God-consciousness at a certain point. At that point we are either positive or negative, the function of our volition, and we either want to know more about God or not. Then we move on to the point of gospel hearing and at that point we are either positive or negative. We may say no the first time we hear the gospel, we may say no every time. Or we may say yes, we may believe in Christ the first time we hear the gospel, but the point is that this is an individual matter because we all have a different time limit. None of us ever know when we are going be taken out of this world, therefore there is always the urgency when the gospel is presented to accept it now, not to delay. This angelic creature presents that urgency. Now is the time of acceptance, now is the day of salvation. For the unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation there is an urgency. That is why at high noon every day over all of the distractions of life comes the angelic creature with the announcement of the gospel. And, of course, in every generation there is an urgency to accept Christ now, not to postpone it.

Verse 7, “And he [the first pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God ...”

What is this angelic college of heralds? It is a special group of elect angels who in eternity past made the right positive grace decisions for our Lord and are now in their eternal state and serving Him in the extension of the angelic conflict into human history.

First of all we note that the ruler of the college of heralds is no other than the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not known if the Lord Jesus Christ had to take the form of an angel to provide salvation for elect angels or not. That is something that we will learn in eternity. But we do know that there are four appearances of Christ in human history and one of those appearances is an angelic form under the title of the angel of the Lord. This is called a theophany. A theophany is an appearance of Christ prior to the first advent. In other words, prior to the hypostatic union. He came also in human form, the wrestler who whipped Jacob. One of those theophanies, then, the one that we are interested in, is the fact that Jesus Christ is the angel of the Lord, and under this title He is in command of the angelic college of heralds. His second appearance is the incarnation, the first time He appears in the hypostatic union, the God-Man, which is His permanent appearance for all eternity. His third appearance is called Christophany. A Christophany is a post-resurrection appearance of Christ on earth. There are nineteen such appearances. Finally, the second advent, the return of Christ to the earth in His hypostatic union to supersede Satan as the ruler of this world will be studied in Revelation chapters 19 & 20.

Jesus Christ, then, as the angel of the Lord commands the angelic college of heralds. In this theophany our Lord Jesus Christ controlled history and carried out the plan of the Father in Old Testament times. The angel of the Lord is often identified as God in such passages as Genesis 15:7-13; 22:11-18; 31:11-13; 48:15,16 and many many passages. But we only want to note that He is in command of the angelic college of heralds.

There are in the angelic college of heralds three ranks of elect angels who are so involved. Not all of the elect angels are in the college of heralds, only the special ones, only those who were outstanding in the prehistoric angelic conflict. And they are divided by rank under the Lord. The highest rank under the theophany of Christ is the seraph rank angels in this angelic college, and they have six wings, the highest badge of rank and elect angel can wear. Next we have the cherub rank angels who have four wings, again an insignia of rank. The seraph rank did not exist until after the fall of Satan. The highest-ranked angel was Lucifer the son of the morning and he was a cherub, he had four wings. All angels do not have wings, in fact very few angels have wings. The cherub was the highest rank when Satan fell. A new rank called seraph was created as a reward for those who had outstanding records among the elect angels, those who advanced to whatever their spiritual maturity happened to be. The third category of angels would be the wingless category, and they are distinguished from other wingless angels in that they are in the angelic college of heralds.

We learn that seraphs have six wings from Isaiah 6:2. When the angelic creatures entered into their eternal state and Satan made his courtroom appeal and human history was started to resolve the angelic conflict everything was crystallised as far as the elect angels were concerned. So when Isaiah wrote about the seraphs he said in Isaiah 6:2 that a seraph stood above him having six wings. Two covered his face. That is the virtue and integrity of the seraph. Secondly, he said that with two he covered his feet. That is respect for divine authority and the system. And with two he flew. That is the modus operandi of good decisions, control of the life, and a personal sense of destiny in prehistoric times. The highest rank of all of these seraphs is the king of arms. He had a special ministry to Isaiah in the Old Testament times. So we are now looking a seraphs which is the highest ranking of angelic creatures. There are no seraphs among the fallen angels, we are talking about elect angels. Number two in the seraph rank are the officers of arms. There are at least three of them which are found, for example, in the book of Revelation, Revelation 14:15; 18:1; 20:1-3. Finally in seraph rank is the full rank of herald where we have four seraph angels, Revelation 4:6-8, the four living creatures who are mistakenly called “beasts”. Each of these, too, had six wings.

The second rank in the angelic college of heralds [those who have done the unusual in their advance to maturity] are cherubs. The cherub rank is lower than the seraph rank. There are only four wings in the rank insignia of the cherub. The highest-ranking cherub in eternity past was Satan. He is called the anointed cherub in Ezekiel 28:14. He was court-martialled, according to Ezekiel 28:15-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15.

This brings us to the word pur sui vant for the cherub rank are in the pur sui vant rank. Pur sui vant is an old French word. In the history of the arms of the college of heralds in England the pur sui vant were used as messengers for kings and princes, both in war and in peace. As a badge of office they wore the coat of arms of their royal lord. In England the college of heralds was also known as the college of arms, and pur sui vant originally connoted an attendant to the king. But it became a technical word for functionary rank below a herald, having rank and similar duties but below the rank of a herald. There were four pur sui vant officers in the college of heralds. In our analogy the pur sui vant officers in the angelic college of heralds we simply call cherubs.

Among the elect angels the following are considered cherubs or pur sui vant officers: the cherubs who guard the gates of Eden in Genesis 3:24; the four cherubs, one at each wheel of the chariot of fire, 2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10; Ezekiel chapters 1 & 10; the pur sui vant officer who commanded the wind cells, Revelation 7:1,2; the seven thunders who are pur sui vant officers who have the gift of teaching, Revelation 10:3,4; the evangelist pur sui vant officer in charge of crisis evangelism, Revelation 14:6; the pur sui vant officer who announces the fall of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation, Revelation 14:8,9; the pur sui vant officer who carries the sickle and administers judgment in the last half of the Tribulation, Revelation 14:17. Finally, the wingless rank in the college of heralds who would be the pur sui vant messengers in contrast to their officers.

This all has an application to us. We are not going to be equal in heaven. We are not equal on earth; we will never be equal in heaven. In fact, God devises inequality as a grace system. The greater the freedom the greater the inequality and the interesting thing is that not only do we have inequality on this earth because of freedom — also because this is the devil’s world, but that is another story — but once the devil is out of the picture and we move into eternity we are going to see inequality again. Everyone who is a believer will have a resurrection body but we have noted that there are tremendous differences beyond that resurrection body.

In verse 7 all pur sui vant officers have loud voices. Even pur sui vant messengers have voices that can be heard all over the world. We have seen that the word “fear” in this verse means awe and respect, and therefore taking cognisance of what God has to say: His principles, His plan. It should be noted that God the Father has committed all judgment to God the Son, according to John chapter five and the unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation have a choice to make: either to believe in Christ for eternal salvation or be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ at the baptism of fire. And we are going to see another parallel, a parallel between divine discipline of the believer and divine judgment of the unbeliever.

Divine discipline is technically, then, for the believer; divine judgment is technically for the unbeliever. The unbeliever makes bad decisions and therefore the laws of God catch up with him and he actually makes his own discipline. When a believer makes bad decisions he punishes himself with his bad decisions with the consequences of them. The same thing is true of the unbeliever who makes bad decisions and he gets the same kind of punishment. Then, divine discipline actually begins for the believer with the fist category, warning discipline, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Then it goes to intensive discipline if the believer remains in the cosmic system and doesn’t rebound. Finally it goes to dying discipline and God removes the believer with the sin unto death. The same thing is true and we will see it in Revelation chapter sixteen. For the unbeliever in crisis evangelism there is warning judgment. It may be a personal judgment. It may be some family disaster. It can be both personal and sometimes national, but there is warning judgment and if the unbeliever ignores that there is another step in crisis evangelism: operation high noon. We have already seen warning judgements in Revelation — the seals and the trumpets, the warning judgements to the unbeliever under crisis evangelism. Then the third category is dying judgment and that will occur at the second advent, the baptism of fire when all unbelievers are going to be removed from the earth and cast into the lake of fire.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai followed by the aorist active imperative of the verb didomi, “and give.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and in this case the entirety is when the individual believes in Christ. So the constative aorist takes up one second any time when through crisis evangelism an unbeliever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is called “giving glory” to God. That is because Christ dying on the cross was a strategic victory and that is the strategic victory of the believer. So in one second that anyone believes, that is the aorist tense here. The active voice: the unbeliever in the last half of the Tribulation produces the action of the verb in crisis evangelism. He produces the action of believing in Christ, called here giving glory to God. The imperative mood is the imperative of entreaty, it is an appeal to human volition to accept Christ as saviour. Here is a case where the imperative does not convey the finality of a command but has the force or urgency of a request. And with this we have the accusative singular of doca, correctly translated “glory” and is an idiom referring to believing in Christ, “Fear God and give glory to him,” the dative singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, “to him.” Why? “Because the hour of His judgment has come, “because,” the causal use of the conjunction o(ti followed by o(ra, and this is the message that will be preached in crisis evangelism.

The time is short to believe in Christ. We are now down toward the end, we have crisis evangelism, they have already had the first stages of it in the first half of the Tribulation. The warning judgment was the seven seals and the seven trumpet judgements. Now we are getting ready to go into the intensive judgements which will be the seven vials or bowls, and then there will be dying judgements in which all unbelievers will be cast into fire. It is called the baptism of fire and it occurs at the point of the second advent. That is the hour being mentioned here. We have the descriptive genitive from the word krisij, “judgment,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “has come.” E)rxomai is a culminative aorist, it views the baptism of fire in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. That is, eternal judgment to those who do not accept Christ by the time of the second advent. At that particular moment it is all over. That is the same as death would be in our dispensation right now in the Church Age. As long as you are alive you can have salvation but the moment you die it is all over. Death is the last chance. But with these people, those who are still alive at the second advent, that is their last chance. The active voice: the hour or the baptism of fire produces the action. This is a declarative indicative for the immanency of the final stage of judgment, dying judgment. “And he [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him [believe in Christ]; because the hour of his judgment [the baptism of fire] has come.”

The eschatology of the devil’s desperation, then, for the last half of the Tribulation terminates with the second advent and this judgment. The baptism of fire begins eternity for all unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. They will be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be cast into the lake of fire where they will scream in agony until they are brought to their final judgment at the great white throne.

This particular message has some very definite application. This message and warning of the pur sui vant officer from the college of heralds fulfils the principle of crisis evangelism, and that is grace before judgment. As long as you are alive you can be saved. There is no such thing as the impossibility of being saved, it just takes more sometimes to bring a person around to reality when they have said no to the gospel. When we get over to Revelation chapter sixteen we will see that all unbelievers in this period of the Tribulation are thoroughly cognisant of the gospel. They know the message of Christ dying for their sins, they know how to be saved, they have to have some reality and the reality comes from divine judgment. There is warning judgment — the seals and the trumpets; there is intensive judgment, the seven bowl judgements; and if they ignore that then there is nothing left but dying judgment, the baptism of fire. Every believer receives warning of judgment before he is disciplined, and so it is with the unbeliever. Nations, groups, and individuals are warned by the function of God’s grace policy before judgment is administered, either by divine discipline to the believer or historical disaster to groups of people. God never condemns anyone without giving them more than adequate opportunity to reverse that.

Continuing in verse 7 we have one more phrase. The next word is the connective conjunction kai followed by the aorist active imperative of the verb proskunew which means to worship, worship in the sense of veneration and homage. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, i.e. the last half of the Tribulation is involved. The unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation are enjoined to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore produce the action. This is the imperative of entreaty. In evangelism you don’t order anyone to believe in Christ and when the imperative mood is used in the Greek New Testament it is always the imperative of entreaty where human volition is involved. In other words, a direct command is not given here. This is not the finality of a command but it has the force of urgency, a request, an appeal, and therefore it is in keeping with the high noon evangelism we have been studying. With this is the dative singular indirect object from the articular aorist active participle of the verb poiew, and it is translated, “him who has made or created.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun for our Lord Jesus Christ who is not only the saviour of the world but He is the creator of the universe, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16,17; Hebrews 1:10.

Next we have the constative aorist of this participle, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety; that is, Jesus Christ did not create the world in seven days. Jesus Christ created the universe in an instant. Then we have the elapse of maybe millions of years, maybe thousands, we do not know and will not until we get to heaven, but a tremendous amount of prehistoric time in the which the angelic conflict went full force. So we have the prehistoric angelic conflict. Then one day when Satan fell and the conflict finally reached its peak Satan had made his headquarters on planet earth. When the Lord condemned him after the trial He shut down planet earth and packed it in ice. Then when Satan appealed his case and said, “How can a loving God treat His creatures this way?” To resolve the Satanic appeal history began with the creation of man. But the earth had to be restored and it took six days to restore it for man’s occupancy.

Next in our verse we have what He created. We actually have four accusative direct objects of the participle and they present categories of our Lord’s creative activity. Remember the second person of the Trinity is the actual creator of the universe. He did not create it five or six thousand years ago, the probable duration of human history, but He created it millions of years ago possibly. We have the accusative singular of o)uranoj, “heaven,” which really means the atmosphere here. Then we have the accusative singular of a second word, gh, referring to land mass. Next is the salt water area of the earth, the accusative singular of qalassa. The fourth accusative is the noun phgh, translated “fountains,” fresh water on the land masses, and with the descriptive genitive of u(dor here, “fountains of water.”

Translation of verse 7: “And he [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him [believe in Christ]; because the hour of his judgment has come: and worship [venerate, render homage] him [the Lord Jesus Christ] who created the atmosphere [heaven], and the land mass [the earth], and the sea, and the fountains of waters [fresh water on the land mass].”

Verse 8, the second angel announces a judgment that we are not going to study until we get to chapters 17 & 18. A great portion of the book of Revelation is designed to condemn religion. Religion is one of the worst things that has ever happened to man and the reason that religion is so bad is because religion contains both concepts of degeneracy. Religion has all of the factors of degeneracy. Religion is the invention of Satan; it is his attempt to counterfeit Christianity. Religion falls into two categories as far as its modus operandi is concerned, and these are the two categories of degeneracy. First of all, religion has a strong morality (some religions, not all) which is linked with arrogance to form self-righteousness. You will often have religious groups killing people, having no regard for life or property because of their arrogant self-righteousness. Then, on the other hand, you will find the phallic cult in which have phallic degeneracy, and this is usually related to idolatry and demonism. And this is where you have all of the sexual distortions, human sacrifice, and all the rest. These are antithetical but both are religious. Religion is actually the principle of degeneracy.

We start out in verse eight with the second angel. The second angel is called “another angel.” The word “another” is a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind. In other words, we have another cherub-ranked angel, a pur sui vant officer. This was also called deuteroj, the “second one,” an adjective numeral used as a substantive. The adjective is used here because we have a)ggeloj, “Then another angel.” The second one is said to have followed: the aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew. This is a sequence so we have the word “followed.” Again we have the constative aorist and again the second pur sui vant officer produces the action, and again this is declarative for eschatological reality. “and he kept saying,” the present active participle of legw is present linear aktionsart and should be translated, “Then another angel, the second one, followed and kept saying.”

Then we have a nominative subject from the proper noun Babulon, “Babylon.” The word “city” in the King James version is not found in the original, so we are not talking about the city. This is not a reference to the city of Babylon, this is a reference to ecumenical religion of the Tribulation which runs under the title of Babylon since Babylon has been a centre and was once the capital of ecumenical religion. We have already seen from Revelation 13:4ff that Satan’s ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is under the leadership of the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The second pur sui vant officer announces the end of the time of the devil’s desperation and it is going to end with destroying his strongest point which is religion: the religion of the revived Roman empire. Babylon is also called by the appositional nominative megalh, “the great,” “Babylon the Great.”

Then we have the strange saying where we have the words “has fallen” repeated for some reason. The aorist active indicative of piptw is the word for “fallen.” It is given twice. We have the culminative aorist viewing the event in its entirety but regarding from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of Satan’s greatest influence on the human race which always has been religion. Ecumenical religion produces the action of the verb and the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this. The same verb, the same aorist active indicative is repeated a second time to indicate that the message is repeated at high noon in every time zone of the earth, so that people can understand that regardless of their brand of religion, religion has no future. So that is the message for that particular day.

The indictment is also given with it. We have the nominative feminine singular of the definite article used as a personal pronoun and should be translated “she,” i.e. ecumenical religion in the last half of the Tribulation. “She” is the principle that Satan in the last half of the Tribulation will combine into one religion the entire world of Romanism, the World Council of Churches, international Protestantism, Neo-Judaism, a number of cults and religions which will flourish in the Tribulation. All of these cults and religions will be combined into one great ecumenical system through residence and function in the cosmic system. While at the present time these religions are often fighting each other and culturally they are antagonistic, eventually they are going to get together. They are all going to be on the same side so that all of the phallic cults and all of the self-righteous crusader organisations with all of their activists are going to be one big religious family. The two categories of demonisation will occur in this ecumenical religious system. There will be demon influence which we have studied as demon telepathy in which demon influence, the thinking of both believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system is involved. Here we are really talking about the unbeliever in the Tribulation. That means that there are going to be certain people who are self-righteous in the cosmic system and in their self-righteousness arrogance they are going to be under demon telepathy. There are also going to be those who are on the phallic side of the fence and they also are going to be in this religious system and will be under demon possession. So you have demon influence and demon possession both manifest.

“she,” ecumenical religion, “has caused.” The word “because” in the King James version is not found here in the Greek. What has she caused? We have the perfect active indicative of the verb potizw which means to cause to drink, “she has caused all the nations to drink.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which combine of the wraths the concept of existing results, completed action, with the fact that this goes on as a modus operandi. The existing status quo is described in a very realistic manner. So the dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action. This is ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. Therefore operation high noon not only announces the fall of ecumenical religion but at the same time exposes its modus operandi. The active voice: ecumenical religion under the title of Babylon the Great produces the action of the verb. This is a causative active voice. The indicative mood: this is actually going to happen. God is going to permit religion to continue until the end of the Tribulation and then it will be destroyed.

Then we have our prepositional phrase “from the wine,” e)k plus the ablative of o)inoj. Wine is not used here in a literal sense. The cup here is quite different from any other, it is the descriptive genitive from qumoj, “wrath.” This is a cup of divine wrath, it is not any form of liquid or fermentation. This is the wine of divine judgment on ecumenical religion. It finishes up with a descriptive genitive of porneia, which is not literal fornication. Here we have it in its figurative sense meaning cosmic involvement or unfaithfulness to the plan of God. So under the principle of spiritual fornication we have apostasy, reversionism, cosmic involvement through the function of religion which is the devil’s ace trump. Evangelisation for Satanic religion is like being seduced into fornication by a beautiful woman. Religious lust is in view here, however. Cosmic evangelism results in making the world drunk on religion and that is why our Lord tells us that the last half of the Tribulation is the worst time in all of human history. This is because it is religion’s greatest hour. Remember that religion has two ways of converting people. One is through fornication and the other is through self-righteousness. So it appeals to everyone: some want to fornicate; some want to be self-righteous. Religion is the period of total degeneracy.

Cosmic evangelism, then, results in making the world drunk on religion. Religion is Satanic in contrast to Christianity, and the apostasy of ecumenical religion is spiritual adultery, the fulfilment of religious lust. Religious lust, whichever form it takes, always stimulates arrogance. Inevitably, therefore, there is a connecting link. All forms of lust come, of course, from the old sin nature, but they are always linked to man’s arrogance, not his ego. Ego is merely the self-righteousness of the soul but all lust is related to arrogance. All sins that relate to lust are related to arrogance.

Then we come to the third angel where we get a warning to the people of that time against the ecumenical religious system, and this is accomplished in verses 9-11.

In verses 9 and 10 we have the warning of the third angel and we have a conditional sentence. Verse 9 is the protasis of that conditional sentence and verse 10 is the apodosis.

We begin verse 9 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” Then we have the nominative singular subject from two words, a)lloj and a)ggeloj, “Then another angel,” the third one, and this is the pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds. Then we have the aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew which means to follow. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, “followed them,” referring to the first two pur sui vant officers. They come in sequence, in other words.

Now we have the protasis of the first class condition. It is introduced by the conjunctive particle e)i, and it is a conditional particle correctly translated “if,” introducing the protasis of a first class condition. The protasis acts as a premise in the use of the Greek debater’s technique. The protasis of a first class condition assumes that the premise is true, it is reality, therefore many people living during the last half of the Tribulation will become converts to ecumenical religion. That is what the first class condition says. The first class condition, therefore, is called supposition from the viewpoint of reality, therefore logically the apodosis will be a reality also. The reality of the apodosis will be judgment. Those who become involved in religion at any time in history have great disaster but the greatest disaster of all is to be religious in the Tribulation.

If there is anything by which a person handicaps himself in life it is to become religious. By becoming religious is meant to follow the cosmic system of Satan who has set up a religious system. The divine judgment on Satan’s religious system occurs periodically to individuals involved as well as to the entire system.

The next word is the indefinite pronoun tij [without the accent] in the nominative case. Without the accent it is called an indefinite pronoun, and an indefinite pronoun refers to a definite category of mankind living on planet earth, those who become religious. If you ever want to blind your own thinking and lose touch with reality, if you want to get mixed up in a hurry, if you are just dying to be confused, then the thing to do is to “get religion.” This is not referring to Christianity because Christianity is not a religion. The greatest blinder of the minds of the human race is religion. The indefinite pronoun here is telling us that we are dealing with religious people. The evangelism of ecumenical religion is based on the fact that there must be a most unusual miraculous approach in the Tribulation to give these people even a chance. Volition, of course, is always the issue in the angelic conflict and every person must take the responsibility for his good or bad decisions. In this case we have bad decisions from a position of weakness. First, the decision to enter the cosmic system and to live there; secondly, the result of residence in the cosmic system: both demonisation and conversion to ecumenical religion; thirdly, the worship of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, which is what comes up next.

“If anyone worships,” the present active indicative of the verb proskunew. The futuristic present: it hasn’t occurred yet but it will. The active voice: converts to Satan’s ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation will produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the future eschatological reality of this situation. And whom do they worship? They worship a person. There is a great deal of difference between admiration of people which is normal, and worship of people which is abnormal. While admiration is perfectly normal the worship which is described here is definitely abnormal, and the point is that religion makes people abnormal. Religious people are not normal people. When a person becomes tainted with religion in cosmic one he is preoccupied with self, and once he is he even distorts truth and doctrine. He takes it out of its context and says, “I know doctrine, you are wrong.” To be discerning is normal; to be critical is abnormal.

Notice what this passage is telling us. “If anyone worships the beast dictator,” he is a man, the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation. He is also the leader of Satan’s ecumenical religious system. But it is the worship of a person and there is a great deal of difference between loving a person and worshipping a person, between admiring a person and worshipping a person. Worshipping a person is preoccupation with yourself; loving a person is concentration on the object of love. Anyone who worships someone else also worships himself, and his arrogance shows under this principle. Under what condition is he worshipping? He says, “I am worshipping the beast; I am worthy to worship the beast; I am an important person.” So any time that man worships man it is a two-way street for arrogance. The worshipper is arrogant, he is living in the cosmic system; the object of worship is arrogant. It is a locked-in arrogant situation and that starts abnormality and is the explanation as to how the phallic cult developed in the ancient world. There is always some aspect of the phallic cult because it is an abnormal situation. The key is arrogance because arrogance always divorces us from reality.

Virtue forms the basis for concentration on the object, and people who have virtue have sensitivity because of their virtue. And they are normal. But people who are abnormal, religious, worship man and, therefore, in that sense they attach great importance to self, they are hypersensitive.

“If any man worships the beast dictator and his image,” the accusative singular direct object of four Greek words: kai is the connective conjunction, and then the accusative singular of a)utoj, “his,” and e)ikon which is translated “image.” This image is a facsimile of the future Roman dictator whom we have studied in the previous chapter. It is called by the Bible the abomination of desolation. The overt sign of allegiance to Satan’s religious system is idolatry, the worship of the idol. The image is not only worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem but throughout the world by converts to the ecumenical religious system. This worship is classified as the devil’s communion table in 1 Corinthians 10:20, 21.

Then we have added to this, “and receives his mark.” The word for receive is the present active indicative of the verb lambanw. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is regarded as already occurring. The active voice: the unbeliever, in this case in the last half of the Tribulation, who rejects the gospel produces the action of the verb by becoming religious. The alternatives are very simple: either you are a born-again believer or you become religious. The indicative mood is a potential indicative of impulse: you don’t have to go this way. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from xaragma, “mark.” There is no definite article with it so we translate it with the definite article in it because that is the way the Greek idiom goes. This xaragma is an ID card to indicate that the holder is a member of the ecumenical religious system, therefore a system of identifying converts. This ID card or mark is given to everyone who becomes a member of the system and it is apparently related to some futuristic system in the computer field and is not something you carry. Those who have this ID card are those who have rejected the gospel and who have accepted the ecumenical religious system, and the fact that they have this card means that they are in the computer.

Next we have two prepositional phrases: in the first, e)pi plus the genitive, and in the second, e)pi plus the accusative. E)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact whereas e)pi plus the accusative emphasises direction. The first one, then, says “on his forehead.” In other words, there is some kind of a system where they put in his forehead the ID card. In the second case we have, “or on his hand.” It depends upon the individual and apparently there is some kind of classification here in which the forehead has a greater connotation than the hand. In the future those who are in the clergy will apparently have the brand upon the forehead. That means special privileges. Those who have it on the hand are just the run-of-the-mill crowd who do not get preferential treatment.

Translation: “Then another angel, the third one, followed him and kept saying, If anyone worships the beast dictator and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead, or on his hand… ”

That is only half the sentence, it is the protasis of a first class condition meaning there are a lot of people who are going to do it.

In verse 10 we have the apodosis. The wine of the ancient world was extremely strong. They didn’t go, for example, by vintage years, good years and bad years. In the ancient world they harvested and it went from the bare feet of those who tramped down the grapes practically into the wine skins over night. So when they poured wine out of a goat skin it wasn’t taken straight so they always mixed their water with wine. The secret was to have the right kind of water and the right amount to be mixed with the wine. In that way it was palatable. If it was drunk concentrated it was horrible.

The wine of the wrath of God means we are getting ready for concentrated judgment, and concentrated judgment means the object is the worst thing in life. And the worst thing in life is religion, it is concentrated arrogance which can be in moral form or immoral form but whatever the form may be the greatest judgements are always against arrogance. Therefore for all of us for our own sake, to the extent that we are arrogant to that extent we are sinning the worst possible sin. The base for all sin and the sin that brings down the greatest punishment from God, and the greatest system of sowing and reaping the divine law of repercussion whereby we make the decision and we are the products of our own decision is arrogance. The worst of all sins is the sin you think — arrogance. It is a sin you think in the cosmic system in cosmic one, and all religion is related to preoccupation with self. Religion caters to you; religion makes you feel important. The truth is always related to reality and you see yourself as you really are.

So verse 10 dramatises the doctrinal principle that all people are the products of their own decisions. In this case unbelievers who adhere to the ecumenical religious system of Satan, worship the beast dictator, receive their ID card, are the products of their own decisions. They made the decision. One thing about arrogance: it always makes bad decisions and refuses to take the responsibility for them. How do you divorce yourself from reality? What is reality? How do you divorce yourself from it? By making bad decisions and not taking the responsibility for them. Once you become irresponsible in arrogance you divorce yourself from reality. it is impossible to see reality. Arrogance takes responsibility for good decisions, when people say, “Well done”, and ignores bad decisions where one has failed. By ignoring bad decisions you get away from the rebound technique entirely. So the phraseology of this verse indicates that these unbelievers of the Tribulation who possess this mark or ID card have first of all participated in the devil’s communion table. Therefore they will drink from the cup of concentrated divine judgment.

The period from the departure of the Church, through the Tribulation to the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ is probably one of the biggest transitional periods in all of human history. In addition to that it is the most disastrous period of human history, a period of concentrated negative volition, a period of great divine judgment, and also a period which demonstrates more than any other period the fact that man is the product of his own decisions. We manufacture our own misery with our own volition and our bad decisions.

Man is on this earth because he is the extension of the angelic conflict. Man is basically on the earth, therefore, to make a choice between glorifying God or glorifying Satan. Every person sooner or later does one or the other. Often is starts out as a combination, that is due to the reality of sin. And sin is not something that stops at salvation, sin merely takes a great many more forms after salvation and, of course the necessity for the rebound technique and the recovery of fellowship with God, getting back into the divine dynasphere. So much for the believer. But the unbeliever doesn’t have that recovery factor, and because he doesn’t he develops in his soul a tremendous antagonism toward the truth.

All of us are here for a purpose and while the material found in relationship to the Tribulation and much of the material we are studying, therefore, in the book of Revelation is certainly discouraging because it demonstrates that man is not getting better, man is only going to get worse. Man by man’s efforts cannot improve man’s circumstances. That eliminates all crusader activity. You can’t straighten out anyone; you can’t even straighten out yourself. Only doctrine, only truth, can come into the soul and do it. And people will resist the truth but you do not have to resist the truth and you can have a life of great happiness and great blessing on this earth, that is the whole grace structure.

But that life of great blessing and great happiness can never be divorced from why we are here, and we are here because of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Therefore there is a sense in which the believer, through his daily perception of doctrine, maintains a God-consciousness (erroneously called “practising the presence of God”) of the invisible; the eternal, infinite and invisible God. That awareness is very important because it keeps us from the discouragements of life, it keeps us from following the trends of our weaknesses, whatever they may be. It keeps us from getting down which is very easy in times of economic disaster, historical disaster and in time of change. The human race cannot absorb rapid change without almost a complete and total nervous breakdown of the human race. The changes that have occurred in the twentieth century are so rapid, so great, and so unusual, that it almost more than man can handle. Our flexibility is not up to it. Until we understand our role we as believers are not going to change history by getting into any crusade activity. We aren’t even going to change history by winning souls to Christ. We are not going to change history by the things that we do and the things that are commanded by way of Christian service. Witnessing for Christ and other things of this type are very important but the only way that we are going to change history is to learn to sit down and watch history and at the same time grow in grace, for it is the pivot of mature believers that makes the difference. The only bright spots in the Tribulation are the same as the bright spots at this stage of the Church Age, this twentieth century which is changing so rapidly and so rapidly is coming to a close. Therefore we have a great deal we can pick up and learn from the Tribulation. We can learn a great deal about foreign policy, domestic policy, the importance of establishing the truth and how the unbeliever can be blessed through it. We can learn how the believer can be blessed and glorify God all at the same time.

At this particular point we are getting ready for the greatest judgment that God will ever administer to mankind in the historical sense. It is called the seven last plagues in chapter fifteen; it is called the seven bowl judgements in chapter sixteen. In the meantime we are getting ready for it. We are beginning to see the function of certain angelic creatures, pur sui vant officers, members of the angelic college of heralds holding the cherub rank. Each one has a message and each message has an overall principle: grace before judgment. God never judges the human race or allows the human race to almost destroy itself without first of all giving warning. We say “almost destroying itself” because God will never permit the human race to destroy itself. In fact, the human race having the ability for individual and often collective and mass self-destruction cannot destroy or blot out the entire category of mankind. That is impossible and it will never happen. Neither nuclear weapons or any other sophisticated activity of destruction will ever destroy the entire human race. The idea that disaster wipes out the population of the human race is one of the ludicrous ideas that frighten all kinds of people today. Man does not have that capability. Man is the product of his own decisions and when you get enough collective decisions so that you develop some form of degeneracy or some other form of historical disaster then inevitably the tide must keep going, and eventually it will come back and there will be still people on the earth. When disaster comes along it is not the end of anything. As a matter of fact, the end of the Tribulation is going to be the beginning of one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth. But the interesting thing is that if you put man in perfect environment it doesn’t change a thing. It doesn’t change his personality, his old sin nature, his attitude. Man in perfect environment is just as snotty, just as evil as man in bad environment. The only difference is that in bad environment he is a little more fearful and a little more restrained.

We have already begun to note that verse 10 dramatises the doctrinal principle that all people are the products of their own decisions, and in this case the unbelievers who adhere to the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation, Satan’s system, and worship the beast dictator, receive this ID card related to some super computer system, are the products of their own bad decisions. The phraseology of this verse indicates that these unbelievers of the Tribulation who possess this ID card or mark have first of all participated in the devil’s communion table.

We have motivational evil as well as functional evil in this ecumenical religious system of the future. Motivational evil is always arrogant preoccupation with self. Man loses his perspective when he is preoccupied with himself. He also becomes distracted from the truth and eventually indifferent to the truth. That, of course, is residence in cosmic one. Then there is functional evil, the manifestations of evil in cosmic one and the anti-doctrine attitudes in cosmic two. In the Christian Eucharist of the royal family, the Church Age believer, we have both motivational and functional virtue. Satan’s system has motivational and functional evil. The bread in the communion service is motivational virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ functioning at gate five of the prototype divine dynasphere. His personal love for God the Father motivated the humanity of Christ to go to the cross and bear our sins. The cup is functional virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ in His modus operandi at gate six of the prototype divine dynasphere. In being judged for the sins of the world our Lord demonstrated in personal love for all mankind. Therefore we anticipate a doctrinal principle: every member of the human race is the product of his own decisions, good or bad. These unbelievers of the Tribulation drink from the cup of the demons through the function of their own free will. Their own self-determination is the basis for their condemnation.

The application of this principle to the believer should be obvious. He is provided with doctrinal information and whether he accepts it or not, absorbs it or not, benefits from it or not, is strictly a matter of his own volition. From that comes either his spiritual failure or his spiritual success. In other words, whether he is a winner or a loser is determined by the function of his own volition toward doctrinal teaching.

In the next phrase we have the baptism of fire. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also.” We have the nominative singular from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used in the Koine Greek as a third person personal pronoun. A)utoj is correctly translated “he,” so kai plus a)utoj is translated “he also.” The nominative singular subject of the intensive pronoun refers to unbelievers who are converted to Satan’s religious system. That means all unbelievers who live in the cosmic system in the last half of the Tribulation. With this we have the future middle indicative from the verb pinw, and it means to drink, “he also shall drink.” The predictive future anticipates an event which is expected to occur at a future time, the time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. This is a direct middle voice in which the agent acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. That is very important because it takes us back to the principle in this passage: we are the products of our own decisions. People, of course, do not deliberately want to suffer but every time we get away from Bible doctrine and our consistency in learning the Word we are preparing for ourselves a large potion of suffering. Here it is called the wine or the anger of God. This is exactly what happens to the human race in a short seven years during the Tribulation when it makes an accumulation of bad decisions. Never in the human race has greater evangelism occurred than in the Tribulation. You don’t have to go from door to door to evangelise in the Tribulation, you don’t have to grab somebody and ask them if they are saved, because angels are doing the evangelising, people are doing it, great evangelists are doing it, and some of the greatest messages in the history of the world will be given. There will be greater exposure to the truth in a seven year period than the world has ever had before. Everyone will be evangelised time and time and time again. But you can only go so far with evangelism. You can’t reach in and turn off the negative and turn on the positive. You can’t force people to accept Christ. There will be greater resistance to the gospel and greater resistance to truth in general in the Tribulation than in any other period of history, so there is a special drink for those who make these decisions, saying no, “he also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God.” Drinking from the cup of the devil’s communion table results in drinking from the sup of divine judgment. To worship under the Satanic religious systems of the Tribulation, all combined into one ecumenical organisation, is to guarantee great judgment. Those unbelievers who adhere to ecumenical religion in the Tribulation are the products of their own decisions. By their own free will they have drunk from Satan’s cup, his communion table, therefore they will drink from the cup of divine judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of how it will all end, the baptism of fire.

We have “he also shall drink,” and then the prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative singular from the noun o)inoj. We have qumoj which means anger or wrath and it is a descriptive genitive. And with it we have the appositional genitive from qeoj, “the wine of the anger of God.” We are talking about an anthropopathism. God doesn’t get angry and God doesn’t sin. These are simply words indicating a divine policy in terms of human vocabulary. An anthropopathism assigns to God some human attitude, something we can all understand like anger or hatred or love or a change of mind, in order the explain a divine policy in terms of human frame of reference. These attitudes do not really belong to Him. God does not have wrath but what better way to explain the intensity of divine judgment than “from the wine of the wrath of God”?

Next we have the articular perfect passive participle from kerannumi which means to mix, and with the objective genitive of the adjective a)kratoj which means unmixed, it is translated “which has been mixed unmixed.” This is what we call in the English language an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words designed for an epigrammatic effect. This oxymoron is an expression of John’s wit. The fact that he used this oxymoron probably puzzled the people who first read it. How can you have the wine of the wrath of God which has been “mixed unmixed”? That is the problem. Well, it is an analogy to the fact that the judgment of the baptism of fire is concentrated like a drink prepared without a mixture to make it palatable. This is wrath unmixed; it is not palatable. The judgment that comes at the end of the Tribulation at the baptism of fire is very unpalatable. There is no way that anyone is going to like it who is involved.

The morphology of kerannumi may help us. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The perfect tense is completed action. The unbeliever involved has made bad decisions from a position of weakness. That is regarded as completed action, he has said no continually for seven years to the gospel. So at this judgment he must take the responsibility for his decision to reject Jesus Christ as saviour. Hence, a dramatic perfect tense emphasising the result of free will function of volition in the last half of the Tribulation. The passive voice: the judgment of the baptism of fire receives the action of the verb, undiluted wrath of God, fire that burns forever, and those in it are conscious of that fire and they have all of the necessary nerve centres to constantly suffer in the most horrible way. The telic participle denotes a future purpose. No matter how long you refuse to take the responsibility for your own decisions there comes a payoff moment. The payoff moment in the passage we are studying is the baptism of fire. The telic participle denotes the future purpose, the policy of God to judge all unbelievers of the Tribulation. All unbelievers who are alive will be cast alive into the lake of fire with special emphasis on those who have become involved in Satan’s ecumenical religious system. The end of all religion is eternal suffering. Religion is one of the worst evils to afflict the human race for it reflects the unbelievers continued residence and function in the cosmic system.

This is said to be “in the cup of his anger,” e)n plus the locative singular from pothrion, “in the cup.” It is literally, “in the cup of his anger.” We have a different word for anger this time: the descriptive genitive of o)rgh. We had qumoj and now we have possess but describes divine policy in terms of the human frame of reference. The basic difference between qumoj and o)rgh is that qumoj is the mental attitude (generally) and o)rgh is the expression of that attitude in action, in violence.

“He also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated in the cup of his anger.”

Religion is one of man’s greatest expressions of arrogance for it is the assumption that he can do something to gain the approbation of God or, on the other hand, he doesn’t need the approbation of God. There are many categories of religion. Christianity refutes religion, as per Ephesians 2:8,9, at the point of salvation. Religion is arrogant blasphemy which ignores the saving work of Christ on the cross and substitutes one’s own works for that of our Lord. Religion, of course, is blindness — “If our gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them who are lost, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

What is this wrath of God that comes down upon people? “He shall also drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated in the cup of his anger.” We are going to see next who is going to be tormented in fire.

In Matthew 3:11 we have a reference to the baptism of fire, “As for me [says John the Baptist], I baptise you with water [because you have changed your mind] for repentance [a reversal of opinion], but he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to unlace his sandals; he himself will baptise you with the Holy Spirit [the Church Age] and with fire [the baptism of fire at the second advent].”

For those who believe in Christ there is union with Christ [in the Church Age], the baptism of the Spirit; for those who reject Christ during the Tribulation and they are still alive will have the baptism of fire.

Verse 12, “And his grain shovel [winnowing fork] is in his hand, he will clean his threshing floor [the world]; and he will gather his wheat [believers: only they can enter the Millennium] into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff [unbelievers alive at the second advent] with unquenchable fire.”

The baptism of fire is the judgment of those unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. They are divided into two categories: Jewish unbelievers and Gentile unbelievers. As chaff, sometimes called tares, these unbelievers are removed from the world so that only believers form the cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium.

The time of the baptism of fire is given in 2 Thessalonians 1:7,8 — “And to give relief to you who are afflicted along with us, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven [second advent] with his mighty angels, in blazing fire dealing out judgment to those who do not know God, even to those who do not obey [believe] the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”

There are three basic parables on the baptism of fire. One is found in Matthew 13:24-43, the parable of the wheat and the tares. The wheat: believers going into the Millennium; the tares: the living unbelievers cast out. There is the parable of the good and the bad fish in Matthew 13:47-50. There is the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The wise virgins are those who are believers: they enter the Millennium; the foolish virgins are the unbelievers who are cast out into fire: the baptism of fire. The punishment area for the baptism of fire is called Sheol or Hades and it is known as “torments”.

Matthew 24:36, an explanation of our passage in Revelation 14:10. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son [His humanity], but the Father alone.

Verse 37, “For the coming of the Son of Man [second advent] will be like the days of Noah.”

The days of Noah was a time of great degeneracy but that isn’t what is described in the passage which follows where there is no sin described.

Verse 38, “For in those days which preceded the flood,” they were living normal, social lives, “they were eating and drinking,” they were having great social life and that social life was a distraction to crisis evangelism. They were enjoying themselves so much that they didn’t bother to think about the future, all they could think about was their way of life, “they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” They were just simply having a good time and therefore they were not interested in the future; they were not interested in the principle: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole the world and lose his own soul?” There is nothing wrong with having a good time except when the good times are a distraction to evangelism or the momentum of the spiritual life.

Verse 39, “and they did not understand until the flood came,” they had been the recipients of crisis evangelism but they never understood until the flood came and they then discovered that they were not prepared, “and took them all away [the judgment removed the unbelievers from the earth], so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” Why didn’t they understand? Because their social life, their marriage, their preoccupation with their pleasure and their legitimate fun, kept them away from Noah’s great evangelistic messages. They didn’t understand, they were ignorant.

Verse 40, “At that time [of the baptism of fire] there will be two men in the field; one will be taken [the unbeliever taken out of the world, the opposite of the Rapture], and one will be left [the believer going into the Millennium].”

Verse 41, “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.”

Verse 42, Hence the prophetical mandate to the people of the Tribulation: “Therefore be alert, [regarding historical trends] because you do not know on what day our Lord will return.” This is a part of crisis evangelism.

We have noted the baptism of fire which is mentioned in verse 10 of Revelation chapter fourteen and we notice its emphasis in the last part of the verse. The eternal results of bad decisions are found at the point of the conjunction kai, “and.” And with this the future passive indicative of the noun basanizw which means to be tormented, “and he will be tormented.” Bad decisions are defined in this context as negative volition toward the gospel during the crisis evangelism, operation high noon, during the last half of the Tribulation. Those who constantly hear the gospel and repeatedly say no create a series of systems called negative volition. People who constantly reject truth accumulate so much scar tissue of the soul that they find themselves incapable of reversing their decision, and this is what happens here. The vacuum created by negative volition has also brought into the soul a tremendous amount of false doctrine which is called “strong delusion” in 2 Thessalonians chapter two. In other passages it is simply called “hardness of heart.”

Here we have the phrase “and he will be tormented.” This is the eternal result of the bad decision rejecting Christ as saviour. The predictive future anticipates an eschatological event, the baptism of fire after the second advent. The passive voice: the unbeliever who survives to the end of the Tribulation will receive the action of the verb. Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of two words: pur [fire] and qeion [burning], “burning fire.” It is actually fire and sulphur, “in fire and burning sulphur.” The fire and the burning sulphur is temporary until the end of the Millennium when the same person who has repeatedly rejected Christ as saviour during the Tribulation will be judged at the great white throne and transferred to the eternal lake of fire. The baptism of fire does not deal with that eternal state called the lake of fire but with a temporary type of situation.

The extension of the angelic conflict is mentioned in the next phrase: an improper preposition e)nwpion which means in the face of, or face to face with. Sometimes it means simply “before.” With it we have the word a)ggeloj, and a(gioj the adjective, “and before his holy angels,” a reference to the elect angels who are watching human history for the ultimate solution and resolution of the angelic conflict. Human history is the extension of the angelic conflict and the function of man’s free will in human history will demonstrate the fairness of the justice of God in sentencing all the fallen angels to the lake of fire; a sentence rendered prior to human history but carried out after the termination of history. According to Matthew 13:41,42 elect angels are agents in the execution of the sentence, this judgment, the baptism of fire. But in a broader scope in the doctrine of the angelic conflict angels are observing mankind during human history. In the great spiritual warfare of the present time we are not spectators at all; we are the gladiators, we are on the field, we are the ones participating, and the stands are filled with elect angels. Elect angels do have the opportunity of observing us.

Angels observed our Lord Jesus Christ during the hypostatic union, His incarnation and first advent, according to 1 Timothy 3:16. Elect angels observe and rejoice over anyone who access Christ as saviour, Luke 15:7,10. Angels observe the modus operandi of believers in time and there are a large number of passages that tell us that, 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21. All of those are Pauline epistles. Also 1 Peter 1:12. We are under observation by angelic creatures: that is, the winners, not the losers.

The winner in the angelic conflict is mentioned next. We have the same prepositional phrase: “and in the presence of the Lamb,” the improper preposition e)nwpion plus a)rnion, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb is always identified as our Lord Jesus Christ, as per John 1:29. When John the Baptist saw the coming of the Church Age in the future, looked back into the past and saw some differences developing and said concerning Jesus Christ, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. There are two phrases used in the New Testament in order to depict the person and the work of Christ on the cross. One is the word “lamb” because it was used as a sacrifice and it taught the doctrine of soteriology and related it to Christology. The other is the word “blood” which refers to the saving work of Christ on the cross. All judgment is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the winner of the angelic conflict. The title of “the Lamb” indicates our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross where He was judged for our sins, and while the event described eschatologically refers to our Lord’s tactical victory it is always based upon the fact of His strategic victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as the winner under the title “the Lamb,” and therefore He has the right of judgment at the baptism of fire.

Israel as a client nation to God no longer functions in that capacity during the Church Age. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to them in AD 70 and that means we live in the times of the Gentiles. This becomes important when we understand that never again would there be a Jewish client nation to God until the second advent. That means that throughout the Church Age there will be many Jewish nations but none of them have any client nation status, and never will. Only when our Lord restores Israel at the second advent will there be such a thing. Since AD 70, and to the end of the Church Age, the times of the Gentiles have been given to us as told by our Lord in Luke 21:24. That means that only we as Gentile nations can function as client nations to God. Because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent and the calling out of a royal family this dispensation is the intensification of the angelic conflict. People often think that the Tribulation is the worst period in history. Well it is from the standpoint of the multiplicity of disasters but from the standpoint of the intensification of spiritual conflict we live in that dispensation. Therefore angels, elect as well as fallen, are observing us. Once the body of Christ is completed then comes the resurrection, the Rapture of the Church, and we are removed from the earth. During the Tribulation there will be no client nation to God. There will only be individual evangelists such as the 144,000 Jews, Moses and Elijah, and the pur sui vant officer of operation high noon. Then comes the second advent with the tactical victory of the Lamb of God, operation footstool. It is first given to us prophetically in Psalm 110:1. This verse is so important that it is quoted six times in the New testament. Each context is very important as far as the angelic conflict is concerned for that is exactly what happens. Our Lord resolves the angelic conflict and the last phrase of our verse 10 reminds us of that: “and in the presence of the Lamb.” The quotation of Psalm 110:1 is found in Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35. It is quoted twice in the epistle to the Hebrews, 1:13; 10:13.

The Lord Jesus Christ ascends after His resurrection and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Then comes the calling out of His royal family which is associated with His third royal warrant. Then at the completion of the royal family is the Rapture of the Church, followed by the Tribulation and the second advent. At the second advent there are three phases to operation footstool. That is where His enemies are made the footstool of His feet.

The first phase is the triumphal procession. The tactical victory of the second advent is related to victory over two categories of creatures: unbelievers who survive the Tribulation and the fallen angels. The unbelievers who survive the Tribulation are removed from the earth to make way for the Millennial reign of Christ. Several passages of scripture use the analogy to the Roman triumphal procession in which both prisoners and booty were displayed first. Then came the victorious Roman general in his golden chariot and a slave standing at his side repeating the Latin phrase: sic transit gloria munde. Another slave would stand on the other side and hold a crown over his head. Sic transit gloria munde was to remind him that the glory of this world passes away while the other slave held the glory of this world in the form of the crown. Then there would be other people walking in the triumphal procession. They were prisoners. Often they would go by and would say in great sarcasm to the cheering crowd: “We who are about to die salute you.” At the end of the procession they would be executed.

In the triumphal procession the central figure, however, was the winner riding in the golden chariot. After the winner came the officers and the decorated heroes of the campaign, and they were followed by the victorious army. In the analogy the prisoners to be executed are the fallen angels and their leader, Satan. The victorious proconsul is our Lord Jesus Christ in the analogy, and the heroes and the officers who followed are comparable to the Church Age heroes, those who advanced to maturity, the decorated Church Age believers, decorated at the judgment seat of Christ. Next come the believers of the Church Age who are losers. They spent their life on earth in the cosmic system, they have a resurrection body, but no rewards, no decorations, no coat of arms. They are not mentioned on the honours list and there is no order of knighthood after their name in the Lamb’s book of life. They are present by the grace of God and glad to be there but they have nothing to show for their life on this earth. That means that every second, every minute that we are on this earth has meaning as far as God is concerned, as far as His plan is concerned. The greatest happiness and the greatest blessing we can have in time or in eternity is related to this principle: the execution of the plan of God, the advance to maturity.

The second phase is the termination of the triumphal procession. At the end of the triumphal procession the royal family in resurrection body cast the fallen angels, the demons, into prison — Colossians 2:14,15 cf. Zechariah 13:2. The description of the termination of the triumphal procession is described in the resurrection context of 1 Corinthians 15:23-25, “But each [believer in his resurrection body] in his own battalion: Christ the first fruits [Alpha company] … “

When it says “each one in his own battalion” we have a battalion review. There are two battalions to pass in review in history: first, the battalion of believers and last, the battalion of unbelievers. In each one of these battalions are companies. In the first battalion are four companies: Alpha company, the first to pass the reviewing stand: resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; Bravo company: the Rapture of the Church; Charlie company: the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent; Delta company at the end of the Millennium: all other believers will receive resurrection bodies. At the end of the Millennium the second battalion passes in review and they wind up in the lake of fire.

Verse 24, “… then the end [of the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ], when he delivers up the kingdom of God, even the Father [Christ at the second advent takes the rulership of the world away from Satan and gives it back to God the Father who in turn gives Him the rulership of the world], when he [our Lord] has abolished all rule [the rulership of Satan over this world] and authority and power [the removal of Satan’s cosmic system].”

Verse 25, “For he must reign [the Millennial reign] until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” So we note that operation footstool does not terminate completely until after the Millennium and Gog revolution.

But there is a third phase to that triumphal procession: the incarceration of Satan. Satan is going to serve a prison sentence of 1000 years during the entire time of the Millennial reign of Christ. The last act of the angelic conflict occurs when he is released from prison, comes back to the earth and starts a revolution.

Remember that winners in the system, believers who are victorious during the Church Age, return with Christ and will actually be in that triumphal procession: 1 Thessalonians 3:13 — “… at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of his saints.” While this phrase includes all believers of the Church Age, only winners share in the glory of it all, as per Colossians 3:4 — “On the occasion when Christ, our life, shall become manifest [second advent], you also [winners who are decorated] shall become manifest with him in glory [the uniform of glory].” The winner is on the honours list so that during the Tribulation he is presented in the court of heaven — Revelation 2:28.

Translation of verse 10: “He also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated, yet undiluted, in the cup of his anger; and he will be tormented in fire and burning sulphur before his holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Verse11, the eternal condemnation of negative volition is the closing concept in this paragraph. We have the torment of their sentence. This is the first thousand years of their eternal punishment.

The sequential use of the conjunction kai continues the story of these unbelievers after the second advent and the beginning of the Millennium, “Then.” Then we have a nominative singular subject from kapnoj, “smoke,” “Then the smoke.”

Lang’s Commentary, vol. 12, p287, “Smoke is a phenomenon attendant upon imperfect combustion. If they burned with free devotion in sacrificial fire they would blaze refulgently without smoke. The more the flame is restrained by resistance the thicker and blacker is the smoke which pours forth.”

Why smoke then? Because these people who are unbelievers in the Tribulation have been evangelised by 144,000 thousand of the greatest evangelists who ever lived. Moses and Elijah were brought back from the dead to evangelise them. And then they had this magnificent angel from the college of heralds, the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank under operation high noon, and at the zenith of the sun in every time zone every day for three and a half years he gave them the great message of the gospel. And they resisted it, and they resisted it. So what this commentary is saying is that the more they resisted the flame the smokier the flame becomes. They resisted in time; they resist in the fire. That is how tough scar tissue of the soul is. Scar tissue of the soul doesn’t burn, it just smokes. It is resisting, as it were, the flame. So those who learn to resist the gospel are going to spend eternity in fire making smoke. They are still resisting.

Next in the verse we have a descriptive genitive from basanismoj and it means torment with a)utoj, “then the smoke of their torment.” Finally we get a verb, the present active indicative of a)nabainw, which means to ascend, to go up. The smoke goes up, and it is the only thing that ever goes up from this fire. Translation: “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising”. The fact that the smoke keeps rising emphasises the doctrine of eternal and conscious punishment of unbelievers. Man is the product of his own decisions both in time and in eternity for mankind is dealing with a just and righteous God. The present tense is the perfective present for what has come to be in the past, the baptism of fire and then of course the lake of fire, but is emphasised as an eternal reality, hence an extension of present linear aktionsart into eternity. The active voice: the unbelievers produce the action of the verb, and here is a specific group of unbelievers who lived during the last half of the Tribulation and become converts to ecumenical religion. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of eternal judgment of all unbelievers in human history.

In eternity the pain for the unbeliever is intense and never stops, and there is no loss of consciousness and there is no escape. It is amazing how many escapes we have from pain in time; but that is time, not eternity, “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising forever and ever.” This description of eternal judgment of all unbelievers in human history emphasises the importance, then, of 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Opportunity to make good decisions or bad are confined to time. Once eternity occurs decision-making is over, so that unbelievers, those who reject the gospel, are the products of their own bad decisions. In eternity it is too late. When a person dies still saying no to the gospel that is the end of the line. There are no decisions made in eternity and there is no reversal of the status. Those who say yes and believe in Christ have eternal life in a resurrection body and no one can ever change that. All decisions are limited to time and in eternity everyone will take the responsibility for his own decisions whether he wants to or not. No decision in life, therefore, is more important than a decision dealing with an absolute. The absolute: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Salvation is an absolute. You can be positive or negative. You can believe in Christ and have eternal life; you can reject Christ and have eternal condemnation. The fact of death is an absolute of life; the fact that after death no more decisions can be made is very important. It is fascinating that you are responsible for every decision you make in this life. It can be a good decision; it can be a bad decision. No greater decisions can be made than those that are in the absolute category. There are many relative decisions in life: Where should I go to school? Where should I be educated? Whom should I marry? With whom should I associate in social life or business life? All of these things deal with relative factors but when you are dealing with eternity then you are dealing with an absolute and you can’t afford to make a mistake. Repeat: You can’t afford to make a mistake.

God is so gracious that when it comes to the absolute of salvation you only make the decision once. When it says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”, you only do it once. You only have to believe one time, it doesn’t say to keep believing, it doesn’t say reaffirmation of faith, it doesn’t say anything about having to make it again. Only once. This is the greatest decision we ever make and it is dealing with an absolute — eternal salvation. You only have to believer once and forever and ever you have eternal life. So here is God’s grace. When it comes to the most important decision one can make in this life you only make it once, and after that no matter what you do it doesn’t change a thing: you can’t lose that salvation. The fact of death also means the fact of eternal judgment for those who reject Christ as saviour. Death is an absolute, Hebrews 9:27ff. Decisions dealing with absolutes are much more important than decisions dealing with relatives of life. The saving work of Christ on the cross is an absolute; salvation through faith in Christ is an absolute; rejection of Christ as saviour resulting in eternal judgment after death is also an absolute.

Notice, too, in the rest of this verse that there is no rest in the lake of fire. We have a conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes, it is translated “furthermore.” Then the present active indicative of e)xw plus the negative o)uk, “furthermore they do not have.” The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Next is the accusative singular of a)napausij, “rest.” That, of course, is very important. No change, “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising forever and ever: furthermore there is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast dictator.” Bad decisions, lots of bad decisions, made in time. These bad decisions mean eternal judgment. This idiom emphasises the fact that in eternity there is no loss of consciousness, no rest or cessation of the pain.

And for whom is this disaster? For a certain category who worship the beast. Bad decisions related to absolutes have temporal and eternal repercussions, pain and disaster. The combination of unbeliever reversionism, cosmic involvement, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, produces locked-in negative volition and arrogant stubbornness which rejects the daily high noon evangelism from the angelic college of heralds. Crisis evangelism is the most intense and powerful form of gospel preaching and it has the fewest converts in the last half of the Tribulation. The combination of historical and natural disaster does not change the minds of those unbelievers involved in Satan’s ecumenical system. Neither the warning judgements of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, nor the intensive judgements of the seven last plagues, nor the powerful evangelism of the 144,000, the television ministry of Moses and Elijah, nor the fantastic high noon evangelism of the cherub rank pur sui vant officers from the angelic college of heralds changes locked-in negative volition.

Translation of verse 11: “Then the smoke of their torment [the eternal consciousness of the unbeliever in the lake of fire forever] rises forever and ever: furthermore there is no rest day or night, for those who worship the beast dictator and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

In verses twelve and thirteen we see what happens to believers. How are they going to survive in all of these problems? When the Tribulation ends with the second advent of Christ and Christ returns with His Church in resurrection bodies there are going to be a tremendous number of believers who have survived all of the disasters. There is, of course, a great application to this principle. No matter how great the disasters of the world there is no form of disaster that can destroy the entire population of the world. The very promise which was given to Noah as a part of the Noahic covenant guarantees that there will be many people on planet earth until the very end of history. In the Tribulation there will be people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and personally receive Him as saviour. Out of that group there will be a tremendous number of survivors and the reason for their survival is given in verses 12 and 13. They are winners. Not all believers are winners. All believers are winners at one point only and that is strategic victory at the moment they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It only takes one decision for salvation but to enter into the state of these people who are going to be judged at the end of the Tribulation it takes thousands of decisions of locked-in negative volition. It is a demonstration of the fact of the power of man’s decision.

The real issue in verses 12 & 13 and in many verses throughout the New Testament is what happens after salvation. What does the believer do after salvation? It only took one positive decision for salvation but after that it takes many many daily positive decisions. So historically in the Tribulation there are going to be people who are believers who make daily positive decisions for the gospel, for doctrine, for the laws of divine establishment. And there are going to be millions of unbelievers who are going to say no to the gospel every day at least once, and often more than once. Some of these unbelievers will be alive at the second advent having said no to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ many times. Never underrate the power of human volition. God invented human volition to resolve the angelic conflict and the tactical winner is the believer who continues to make good decisions from a position of strength. He has control of his life; he has a personal sense of destiny.

In our passage we are about to study confidence in God. Confidence in God comes through perception of Bible doctrine. Take for example, the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was warned by Isaiah, one of the few who had confidence in God: “Do not go down to Egypt for help.” Egypt had a tremendous army. The great threat was the empire of Assyria which was about to attack the Jews who were trying to get help, and the people wanted to depend on other nations. Isaiah walked into the court because he was a member of the aristocracy and also the cousin of king Hezekiah, and he said to the king: “Woe to those who g down to Egypt for help.” The Jews had just sent a delegation to Egypt because the army of Israel was in terrible shape. Assyria was about to attack and they hit the panic button. Then Isaiah went on to say, “Don’t depend on horses and chariots. Don’t depend upon the infantry of Egypt.” He gave an illustration: “If you depend upon the spears of Egypt it is like falling down upon that spear-point and putting it through your hand.” Then, of course, his marvellous messages in Isaiah 36 and 37: “It is time O Israel, client nation, to have confidence in God.”

That is a principle. But how do you fulfil the principle? Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and more doctrine. You can never have enough doctrine. They ignored it and the Assyrians came, and as they came they destroyed the Jewish army. But before they came they met the Egyptian army and wiped them out. What saved Israel? How did they survive it all? Through a pivot of mature believers. And how did God honour that pivot? The Assyrians had used a strategic envelopment, whipped the Egyptian army, and in the siege of Jerusalem had clobbered the Jews. Then, one day there were still a few good men fighting in the Jewish army and they held up 200,000 concentrated Assyrian troops when the Lord Jesus Christ wiped out all of those troops. Why? There were those who had confidence in God and were watching the event. They weren’t running around trying to straighten anything out. When you have confidence in God at gate five as a motivating virtue then at gate six you have a functional virtue: courage, courage toward man and circumstances. The most difficult courage is to sit in the stand and watch history go to Hell, stay loose, and not get involved except the right way: change the world and turn it upside down by your advance to spiritual maturity.

Verse 12 — we start out with an adverb of place called o(de and it is translated “Here,” but the meaning is not “here” at all, it is idiomatic and means “Under these circumstances” or “In this case.” So immediately we are talking about historical disaster. The idiom means, “Look, we are on the verge of great historical disaster but in the meantime we are in simple historical disaster. Under these circumstances someone has to come to the rescue. How does it all happen?”

Next we have the nominative singular subject u(pomonh which can be translated “patience” and is on certain occasions. It does means patience; it also means endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance, courage. So we translate it: “Under these circumstances courage.” And then what kind of courage is going to turn the tide of history: the possessive genitive plural from a(gioj, courage of one category called a(gioj. It is translated “saints” and it does mean set apart, but it has even a stronger meaning than simply saint. It means set apart, and set apart ones are those believers who are positive toward the plan of God and functioning in the divine system as it exists in the Tribulation. “Fortitude of the saints,” when we talk about courage we are not talking about impulsive action, we are talking about thought, we are talking about the ability to think under pressure. “Fortitude of the saints” indicates the fact that people, believers as a category of people, are learning doctrine daily, are growing in grace, have arrived at gate five and gate six and are fulfilling the first mandate of the Christian life: virtue first.

Next we have the present active indicative of e)imi, “there is.” We have already noted the fortitude of the saints and o(de is going to be translated with e)imi, “This calls for the fortitude [courage] of the saints.” Everything we have been studying with regard to the Tribulation and how these judgements will be administered against the unbelievers of the world during the Tribulation, that awful time of historical disaster, calls for tremendous courage or fortitude on the part of the saints. In every dispensation there is the principle of motivational virtue and in this case the motivational virtue is confidence in God. Then there is functional virtue, the counterpart of confidence in God, and that is courage toward man and circumstances. Confidence in God comes from perception of doctrine; perception of doctrine comes from the function of humility.

Now we have a translation, remembering that e)imi is a customary present from what may be reasonably expected to occur when the believer has momentum from his own positive volition. Remember that you must motivate yourself. The active voice: the Tribulational believers who follow the colours of daily perception of doctrine produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is for the future reality of the courage or fortitude of believers living in that terrible time of historical disaster.

What is the believer’s responsibility in the time of great historical disaster? Sit in the stands and watch the tremendous historical events. Don’t get involved with the things that are happening. Every day we can see things that raise our ire and we want to change everything. Watch, but do not participate. The only participation is positive volition toward doctrine for the only way that we can deliver our country in its time of need and approaching historical disaster is the daily perception of doctrine, our spiritual growth, and the development of a large enough pivot to offset the situation. Fortitude means firmness of mind in meeting danger or adversity. Therefore it is a synonym for courage. Courage is the ability to think under pressure.

Literally this would be translated, “This is a case for the fortitude of the saints,” but the idiom should be translated, “This calls for the fortitude [the functional virtue of courage] of the saints [positive believers living inside the system as it exists in the Tribulation].”

The literal translation does not follow the nature of the case, it simply does not relate to the previous dissertation on Satan’s ecumenical religious system, therefore the importance of translating this phrase in the true meaning of its idiom.

Note the implications of the idiom: Ecumenical religion of the time of the devil’s desperation demands the application of doctrine in two areas. First, with regard to false doctrine of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation: the believe is challenged to use the three stages of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the essence of God rationale as well as the plan of God rationale. When this occurs there will be a true dynamic. Secondly, with regard to cosmic evangelists, friends and loved ones who seek to proselyte the believer for the cosmic system, virtue must be applied. Virtue-love: if we have personal love for God as a motivating virtue we will have impersonal love for those who are cosmic evangelists. If we have confidence in God as a motivating virtue we will have the functional virtue of fortitude toward man and circumstances. That will give us the ability to resist. The application belongs to us, the interpretation belongs to the Tribulational believer. So this means that we must have motivational virtue before we have functional virtue, and this calls for the fortitude or courage of the saints.

Then the tactical victory is mentioned with the articular present active participle from the verb terew which means to observe, to keep, to fulfil. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is “the saints.” The present tense is the progressive present for action in a state of persistence, namely the persistence of positive believers, believers who have the right priorities, believers who put doctrine first and continue their positive volition no matter how terrible the trends of history become. While there is no divine dynasphere in the Tribulation there is still the divine system in every dispensation. The system that belongs to the royal family of God is expressed in terms of its power, the dynasphere, but the system as the plan of God in every dispensation follows the same principle: virtue first is the priority. Gnwsij doctrine must be converted into e)pignwsij for virtue to exist in the life. The active voice: the Tribulational believer who is positive toward doctrine produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

With this is the accusative plural from the direct object e)ntolh, meaning mandate. Those mandates mean recognition of divine authority. Divine authority is delegated in two ways: in the Word of God and in the communication from the pastor-teacher. The mandates are said to be in the ablative of source singular, “from God.” The ablative of source implies that the original plan of God for the Tribulational believer contributes the virtue function of courage under pressure from Satan’s ecumenical religion. This also fulfils the concept of the divine system. Even without the divine dynasphere the system always has the same priorities: in God ‘s plan, mandates first; in God’s system, virtue first; in God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine first.

God’s plan for the believer, therefore, has eight characteristics regardless of the dispensation. Mechanically we have the divine dynasphere but in every dispensation there are eight characteristics.

First of all, God’s plan, and you as a believer are in God’s plan for this dispensation, has a purpose. The purpose is to glorify Christ through spiritual momentum and advance to spiritual maturity. The purpose is always there. God sustains us for a purpose. Whether we are winners or losers God is going to sustain us but it is the winner who fulfils the purpose.

Secondly, there is an objective: to become a winner, to advance to spiritual maturity. The winner rejects Satan’s ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation. The winner is positive toward Bible doctrine. Thirdly, there is a policy in God’s plan. Grace is always the policy in the administration of His plan whether Church Age believers or Tribulational believers.

Fourth, there is a system: virtue. Hence, the second priority is virtue first.

Fifth, there is a point of reference: the justice of God, one half of divine holiness or integrity.

Sixth, we recognise authority: the Word of God is the authority, hence the priority of doctrine first in one’s scale of values.

Seventh, a result: the believer makes good decisions from a position of strength, maintains control of his life, and has a personal sense of destiny.

Eighth, we have an enemy: the cosmic system of Satan, the source of Satan’s ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

So we have the principle: “those who observe [or keep, or fulfil] the mandates from God.” This is the winner, this is the one who succeeds. And how does he become a winner? We have the connective conjunction kai, “and.” This conjunction separates the system from the means of fulfilling the system. Next we have the accusative singular from pistij. Pistij means three things: faith, the concept of faithfulness, what is believed and/or the whole realm of doctrine. It should be translated here: “and doctrine.” Then we have a very strange phrase, the possessive genitive of the name of the humanity of Christ, I)hsouj, “Jesus,” “and the doctrine of Jesus.” The doctrine belongs to Christ and to His humanity because in the prototype divine dynasphere our Lord learned this doctrine. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ but Bible doctrine is also what the humanity of Christ learned and how it sustained Him for the strategic victory of the cross.

Translation: “This calls for the fortitude [courage] of the saints who observe [or fulfil] the mandates from God, and the doctrine of Jesus.”

General Patton: “There is a time to take counsel of your fears and there is a time never to listen to your fears. It is always important to know what your are doing. The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That is the time to listen to every fear you can imagine. When you have collected all of the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead with the battle. Every plan you make in war is going to be a live or die decision: you will either live or die as a result of your decision. Since we are not afraid to do either there is no reason to take counsel of your fear. The chance of being killed in combat is not as great as being killed on our highways. If you want to take counsel of your fears, stop driving a car. And don’t crawl in bed at night, more people die in bed than anywhere else. The person who cannot face death has truly never faced life because every day of life is a day closer to death. To take counsel of your fears about death is to destroy the day that you are living.”

In the Tribulation there are going to be a lot of martyrs. We have already studied these martyrs from the standpoint of their imprecatory prayers; now we are going to study them from the standpoint of the doctrine of death itself.

Verse 13, the victorious death of Tribulational believers. This is an addendum, a mandate from heaven. We have seen the judgements which come to the unbelievers in the Tribulation, we have seen the evangelism and the principles of evangelism related to judgment. Just as there is discipline for the believer when he fails, first of all warning discipline, then intensive discipline and eventually dying discipline, so with the unbeliever there is a system of evangelism that is related to judgment. There is warning judgment, then there is intensive judgment and eventually dying judgment or the baptism of fire at the second advent of Christ.

We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, “I heard.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: John the apostle, the human author of Revelation, produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is for the historical reality of an interruption, to make an insertion about the fact that when matures believers die it is a glorious victory. The victorious death of certain believers living in the Tribulation is our subject.

Next we have the objective genitive singular from the noun fwnh, “voice.” The voice is said to come from heaven, the preposition e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj: “the voice from heaven.” Then the present active indicative of legw, “saying.” The pictorial present pictures in the mind the study which is an interruption of the general study, the judgment of the unbeliever. The active voice: inasmuch as God the Holy Spirit is the divine author of scripture it is concluded that the voice is the voice of God the Holy Spirit. The Bible is said to be the Word of God the Father, Hebrews 4:12; the Bible is said to be the mind or thinking of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16; the Bible is said to be the voice of the Spirit, Hebrews 3:7. This is a reference to that voice of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings or any other human factor, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very words of the original bearing the authority of divine authorship.

The mechanics of inspiration are stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, “all scripture is God-breathed [qeopneustoj].” There is therefore the inhale in which God the Holy Spirit communicates to the human author God’s complete and coherent message, both for that generation and all subsequent generations. The writer, like John, has other messages for his generation which are not reduced to writing. Only that which is pertinent for all generations is actually reduced and recorded in the Word of God. Hence, the input, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. There are many passages on this phase of inspiration: 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 24:42,43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. So in the inhale God the Holy Spirit provides the information for the human author — generally an apostle but not always.

Then there is the exhale. The human writer, like John, writes down in his own language this divine message to mankind. This doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration means that no passage of scripture originates from man’s thinking, man’s rationalisation, man’s deductions or conclusions. The apostle is not giving his own conclusions, he is exhaling in writing which is the formation of the canon of scripture God’s complete and connected thought toward man, but he is doing so with his own literary style, his own vocabulary.

In 2 Peter 1:20-21 we have a mistranslation in the King James version. It should read: “Knowing this first, that all prophecy of scripture [all eschatological doctrine] does not originate with one’s own explanation [or deduction], for prophecy was never produced by the design [the purpose, the will] of man, but men [human writers] communicated from God, being carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

This is what we have here: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said...” The participle is circumstantial, used for a relative clause, “which said.” Next we have the aorist active imperative from grafw, “write”: the mandate. It is a culminative aorist, it views the interruption by God the Holy Spirit in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the insertion of an additional point of doctrine: the beatitude of dying grace. This beatitude of dying grace is an insertion. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb giving a command for this insertion. The imperative mood is an imperative of command, a mandate from God the Holy Spirit. This information must be given. It is not only necessary for the Tribulational believers who will so die, it is necessary for believers in every generation before that time.

Next we have the beatitude of supergrace death. We begin with the nominative plural subject of makarioj. It is in the plural and it denotes transcendent happiness in life. We translate it “blessed.” In the plural we have a stylistic form of the beatitude. It means literally, “happinesses.” Then we have the predicate nominative plural from nekroj, the “dying” ones, those who are going to be casualties during the Tribulation, there are many martyrs in the Tribulation. It is a reference here to the mature believers of the last half of the Tribulation who experience martyrdom and at the same time they die under the principle of dying grace. Then the articular present active participle a)poqnhskw, “who die.” The aoristic present tense, punctiliar action in present time: they are just going to suddenly die after being tortured, abused, and being the subjects of violence. The active voice: specifically here, mature believers produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. Apparently immature believers, believers who are living in the cosmic system, are just simply going to give up.

John is going to show that there are certain people whom are not included here. This is a specific category of believer. In Colossians 2:6,7 we have the phrase, “according as you have received to yourself Christ Jesus the Lord, so keep walking in him, having been rooted and constantly built up in him, being stabilised by means of doctrine in the manner you have been taught, overflowing with thanksgiving.” This is the category of believer who is going to die in this particular passage: the ones who have learned doctrine and take a stand for the Lord; those who have grown spiritually. Doctrine vindicates the essence of God.

Romans 3:3,4, “What then? If some did not believe, shall their unbelief cancel the faithfulness of God? Definitely not. Furthermore, let God continue truthful, though every man a liar, even as it stands written, ‘That you might become vindicated by means of your doctrine, and that you might become victorious when you are maligned.’ ” This is the category of believer involved in this beatitude.

So we have, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” and “in the Lord” is simply the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of kurioj, and it means “in the Lord’s time” here. These are Tribulational saints, therefore. They are not in union with Christ because they do not live in this dispensation, the Church Age. “In the Lord” in this dispensation means positional truth, the baptism of the Spirit, union with Christ. Positional truth, however, is the monopoly of the Church Age and this context is the Tribulation. The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Spirit; all of us are “in Christ,” in union with Him. This prepositional phrase is different, it is referring to the fact that they die in the sense of the Lord’s perfect timing. There is a time to live and there is a time to die.

So far this is what we have by way of corrected translation: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said, Write, Blessed are the dead [mature believers who are martyred in the last half of the Tribulation] who die in the Lord [in the Lord’s timing].”

For the mature believer that is always true. When he advances to maturity in this dispensation, in the divine dynasphere, the mature believer always dies in the perfect timing of the Lord. The reason is because the mature believer first of all makes good decisions from a position of strength. Secondly, he has control of his own life. Thirdly, he has a personal sense of destiny. Therefore under the Lord’s magnificent blessing His timing is perfect. The issue in death is not when you die but it is whether the timing is right or wrong. There is nothing more important than dying under God’s perfect wisdom and God’s perfect timing, and that is true for mature believers as illustrated by Hebrews 11:13, “According to doctrine [doctrine resident in the soul] all these died under the principle of dying grace, not having received the promises, but having seen the same [the promises of the future] from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them [the second and third stages of the faith-rest drill] also having acknowledged that they were strangers and transients passing through the earth.” In other words, referring to those who are mature believers. This is the concept of dying grace.

The Bible has a great deal to say about physical death. Death is associated with ending revolution in Numbers 16:25ff; death is a matter of the sovereignty of God based on His omniscience, His knowledge of all the facts, Psalm 68:19,20. In Song of Solomon 8:6 we have a very interesting phrase: “True love is stronger than death.” Furthermore, God can and does prolong life so that death is postponed, as per Psalm 102:19,20, 2-34; 118:18; Proverbs 14:27. Jeremiah 9:20-25, women have to be taught to face the death of their loved ones. The sin unto death does not bring glory to God, Isaiah 38:18. Death cannot be faced when the norms-standard function of the right lobe of the conscience is destroyed, according to Lamentation 1:19,20. Dying grace is a promotion for the believer, Philippians 1:21, and God provides in dying grace, Amos 5:8, for the mature believer. God delivers the believer from death, Psalm 33:19.

In our phrase, “Blessed are they who die in the Lord,” we are dealing with the concept of dying grace, the death of the mature believer. Dying grace is for mature believers: Psalm 33:18,19, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on them who are occupied with him [who respect Him], on those who have confidence in his grace [motivational virtue of the mature believer: confidence toward God], to deliver their soul from death [or, in time of death], and to keep them alive in time of disaster.” Dying grace takes the fear out of death: Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the deep darkness of death, I will not fear harm, for you are with me.” In other words, the believer who is occupied with the Lord recognises the principle that death is just another phase and a mere step into eternity. Therefore, Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones [the mature believers].” So dying grace is the last paragraph in supergrace blessing, and dying grace is one of the greatest blessings in life. For the believer who has had the experience of all categories of divine blessing this is the greatest of all. Dying grace, therefore, is the bridge between supergrace blessing in time and surpassing grace blessing in eternity. In dying grace the believer walks over a bridge: he walks out of time and he walks into eternity. He leaves behind supergrace blessings and in eternity he will go to surpassing grace blessing.

Therefore the importance of momentum, the importance of advancing to maturity, the importance of advancing to the high ground. Attitude toward Bible doctrine is the determining factor. The time for the formation of positive or negative attitudes toward doctrine is called the time of being sustained by logistical grace. As soon as we accept Jesus Christ as our saviour, at that moment we are moving into logistical grace, we have received the imputation of God’s righteousness. The justice of God is the origin of the imputation and down that grace pipeline is the faithfulness of God in providing everything necessary to keep us alive. All of us have, therefore, X amount of time on this earth assigned to us by God. When that time is finished the soul of the believer leaves the body: absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. The believer in heaven occupies an interim body and whether he is a winner or a loser after his physical death he has great happiness, great blessing in the presence of the Lord. He is recognised by his friends and in this interim body, face to face with the Lord, he recognises friends and loved ones. It is a wonderful time of blessing. This interim body continues until the Rapture of the Church, and when the resurrection of the Church occurs then the believer who has been with the Lord all these years receives his resurrection body. So the interim life in heaven for those of our loved ones and friends and all believers who have departed since the Church Age began are in a state of great happiness, whether they failed or succeeded in this life. In the concept of this principle we have the fact that those who are mature can anticipate some fantastic eternal blessings which we have studied.

The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “Members of the royal family, I evaluate myself as not having seized and held the high ground of maturity; but one thing on which I concentrate: I forget those things which are behind and press toward what lies ahead of me. I therefore keep advancing to the objective [gate eight] for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station from the God in Christ Jesus.”

Once you settle the matter of dying, once you have no fear of death, once you understand all of these principles and apply them in the dying grace rationale, then you have capacity for life, capacity for blessing. You are able to handle life and you are able to enjoy life: death is already resolved. Death is an absolute; death is a certainty, in fact if the Rapture doesn’t occur within a reasonable time everyone of the present day will be dead and will have had the experience of dying grace (provided you have advanced to maturity), and will know what it means to enjoy an interim body and an interim life in the presence of the Lord. The exception to dying grace is the disciplinary exception: the principle of dying the sin unto death. Once you have settled this doctrine, once you understand the dying grace rationale, you have been able to overcome through the application of doctrine the greatest fear that people have in this life: the fear of death. Once that is behind you then you are prepared to face any set of circumstances in life. You are prepared to fulfil the principle that it is time to get up in the stands, sit in the stands, watch historical disaster go by, and by positive volition toward doctrine turn around the whole situation. If you go out and start doing things — go on crusades, try to straighten out this world and solve the country’s problems, join this and that organisation and hustle around — then you are missing the boat: you are distracted, you are in a state of crusader arrogance and negative volition. Positive volition demands that we sit, learn doctrine and enlarge that pivot, for that pivot is the only thing that is going to save the nation. That means that any time you get involved in trying to straighten something out, trying to crusade, trying to right the wrongs, trying to bring good out of evil, you are missing the boat entirely.

Once we solve the problem if death then we go to the problem of life. And if you sit down and watch history and grow in grace, move from gate four to gate eight and avoid all of the distractions of crusading activity (all you are doing is whitewashing the devil’s world) then there will be a change in the nation. The deliverance of the nation depends entirely upon the believers attitude toward Bible doctrine.

Then there is a principle that applies to you. It is found in Job 5:19-27. When you learn the principle of positive volition on a daily basis, then as you sit in the stands this is what God provides for you logistically:

“In six troubles he will deliver you,” the hiphil imperfect of the verb natsal and it means a rescue or a deliverance. It emphasises the wall of fire principle related to logistical grace. As long as you have momentum in the spiritual life you also have that wall of fire. That has been true of every dispensation but is especially true in this dispensation where the wall of fire is defined as the divine dynasphere, “furthermore in seven evil will not touch you,” the qal imperfect of naga means to touch, but it also means something else: it means to meddle. Evil will not interfere with you; evil will not meddle with you; evil will not be able to distract you from the mission that God has assigned to you as a believer.

Verse 20, Logistical grace, the wall of fire is parlayed into various categories of deliverance. We start out with the qal perfect from the verb padah, it means to preserve, to redeem, “In famine [the first category of disaster: economic depression] he will preserve you from death, and in war from the power of the sword,” the safest place for the mature believer, the believer who has momentum, is on a battlefield. So every believer who is a professional soldier needs a relationship with the integrity of God, “from the power of the sword.”

Then we get down to two more categories of great disaster in history. One of them is found in the niphel imperfect from the Hebrew verb chabah. Chabah means to be hidden.

Verse 21, “You will be hidden [protected] from the scourge of the tongue,” social disaster: to be maligned, to be judged, to be the subject of gossip, to be the object of all categories of vindictiveness and implacability and personal revenge. But then comes the big one: “Neither will you be afraid of destruction,” the word for destruction is shob, and it refers to violent death. It would be very pertinent, therefore, to Tribulational believers, “when it comes.”

Verse 22, “You will laugh,” the laugh of humour, not the laugh of hysteria: the relaxed, humorous approach developed from perception, application, flexibility of maximum doctrine resident in the soul, “at violent death and economic depression; and from the wild animals of the earth you will have nothing to fear.” Wild animals in the time of writing were a source of violent death in peace time as well as in war. So the Bible has to be interpreted in the time in which it was written: wild animals represent violent death. The mature believer is preserved from all the instruments of death until the Lord is ready to take him home. Therefore he has a relaxed mental attitude, the sense of humour with regard to death.

Verse 23, “For your contract will be with the stones of the field,” the stones of the field were used as weapons at the time of writing. In other words, there is no bullet with your name written on it until the Lord is ready to take you home, “and the wild animals [a source of destruction] will be at peace with you.” In other words, no instrument of death can remove the mature believer from this life until God permits it and only the integrity of God can transfer the believer from time to eternity. Therefore neither historical, natural, any environment that is dangerous, or any other category of disaster can kill the believer.

Verse 24, “Therefore you will know that your tent [the human body] is in a state of prosperity,” no matter what circumstances may exist there is prosperity for the mature believer. Notice the word “know,” knowledge of doctrine, “for you will visit your home [heaven] and you will not forfeit your reward,” the future. The mature believer will receive in eternity tremendous eternal blessing.

Verse 25, “And you will know [knowledge of doctrine] that your seed shall be numerous,” this is an idiom for prosperity, usually related to loved ones left behind but the principle of historical impact is there as well. The word “seed” can refer to loved ones by natural generation, by regeneration, friends, anything, and blessing by association is one of the things that you leave behind. When the mature believer dies he leaves behind a heritage, a will that cannot be broken. His loved ones, his friends can be unbelievers or believers and they are going to be blessed by association with him — “and your descendants will be like the grass of the earth,” blessing by association for loved ones is the issue.

Verse 26, “You will come to the grave in full vigour,” in all matters of life and death timing is important, and in the dying of any believer God’s timing is perfect because God is perfect. This is a very important doctrine to us but far more important to the believers of the Tribulation. And the illustration of timing is taken from agriculture, “like a shock of corn in its season,” there is a right time and a wrong time to pick corn, only the expert can determine. God is the expert; He knows best. And notice that this verse does not promise us a long life, it promises us a full life.

Verse 27, The mandate for all believers of all generations: “Hear it and know it [or apply it] for yourself.”

Now we go into an interim idiom. It is a very unusual idiom made up of a preposition and an adverb, and the interim idiom is designed for an insertion by God the Holy Spirit at this point after the phrase, “who die in the Lord.” We have the preposition a)po plus the adverb a)rti. It would be translated “from now on” literally, but this is an idiom and there is a special blessing for those mature believers in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation, who handled their martyrdom rather than becoming converts to Satan’s ecumenical religion. Inasmuch as makarioj is in the plural it refers to the principle of dying grace at the point of their martyrdom plus the fantastic eternal rewards and decorations which they will have forever and ever. The plural indicates the status of these believers after death. A))p plus a)rti is an interim idiom, it does not modify the beatitude directly but it refers definitely to life after death for those mature believers of the last half of the Tribulation who are martyred. The point is that they are much happier in eternity than they ever would be had they compromised their stand for the Lord and become members of the ecumenical religious system of Satan.

There is a principle that comes out of this for all of us: There is no happiness, there is no blessing to be found in religion.

How do we translate this idiom? It is translated “from now on.” And with this we have a third word nai. It is called the affirmative particle and it means “yes.” So our translation in the middle of verse 13 begins, “yes, from now on.” Remember that in the original manuscripts there were no punctuation marks found in the Greek, and this means that the punctuation marks in the Greek New Testament have been added by translators and our English version is simply an interpretation. Most interpreters assume that the idiom of time, a)p a)rti, modifies the beatitude, which it does not. Instead it goes with the affirmative particle. So actually we begin a new sentence in the middle of this verse.

With this we have a nominative singular subject from the noun pneuma referring to God the Holy Spirit. With that we have the present active indicative of the verb legw which means to speak or to communicate, “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on,” or “the Spirit says, yes.” The static present of the verb legw presents a dogmatic statement of doctrine. God the Holy Spirit produces the action in the active voice, and the declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine in the assertion. The insertion by God the Holy Spirit is in the form of a purpose clause and it begins with the conjunction i(na. It is translated “that” or “in order that,” and here it introduces a semi-final purpose clause which denotes the direction of the action of the verb toward a given result which is anticipated, “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on in order that.”

Then we have the future passive indicative of a)napauw, and it means to receive rest, to receive refreshment, “in order that they may rest.” The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates dying grace, entrance into the eternal state through having an interim state and an interim body. The passive voice: the martyred believers of the Tribulation receive rest in the interim state. Remember that the interim state is the time between their physical death and the time of the receiving of the resurrection body. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of blessing in the interim state.

With this we have the have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of kopoj, “labour,” very difficult labour. It means to make decisions against the grain. With this is the possessive genitive of a)utoj, translated “from their labours.” Translation: “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on in order that they may rest from their labours.” The labours has to do with coping with the adversities of great historical disaster at the end of the Tribulation when mature believers are a special target.

The eternal reward for the victorious dead is now mentioned. We have the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, “for,” and then the nominative plural subject of e)rgon, the plural meaning deeds and accomplishments in conjunction with the priorities of God’s plan. E)rgon does not refer to deeds like witnessing, it refers to modus operandi like momentum in the daily perception of doctrine. It means virtue first, doctrine first, Christ first, the system first [as it exists at that time]. We translate it: “for their accomplishments.” Then the present active indicative of a)kolouqew, “will follow.” The futuristic present, the eschatological event: following their death they are going to have fantastic blessing. The active voice: the accomplishments of the mature believer in functioning under God’s plan and God’s system produces the action. The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine: God never overlooks the following of His priorities, the execution of His plan, and the advance to maturity, establishing doctrine first in the life. Then we have the preposition of accompaniment, meta plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “with them”, and it can be idiomatically translated “will accompany them.” By application this refers to us as well as to them.

Translation of verse 13: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said, Write, Blessed are the dead [mature believers martyred in the last half of the Tribulation] who die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, from now on, in order that they may rest from their labours [coping with the adversities through doctrine]; for their accomplishments will accompany them [into the eternal state].”

You have heard the phrase: “You can’t take it with you.” It is not true, you can take it with you. If you follow the priorities of God’s plan and God’s system you can not only take it with you but you will have it forever.

Verse 14, Jesus Christ is the key to history. Whether a person makes wrong decisions or right decisions it doesn’t change the fact that no decisions will ever change the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and that Jesus Christ is the key to human history.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” It follows in sequence. Next, the aorist active indicative of o(raw which is used to introduce every vision in the book of Revelation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the vision in its entirety. The active voice: John, the human writer, produces the action: he sees the vision. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The communicator of doctrine therefore must always be in touch with reality is the meaning of this format. These visions are a reality from the divine viewpoint. Anyone who communicates doctrine, anyone who learns doctrine, anyone who applies doctrine, must always be in touch with reality and it is doctrine that puts us in touch with reality, not our experiences. In other words, the reality that counts is reality from the divine viewpoint, and that means doctrine must be in the soul. Experience is not always reality from God’s viewpoint.

There is a constant battle during our life on this earth that when there is a conflict between what the Bible says and some experience that someone has, like allegedly being healed, the object of a “miracle.” The problem with experiences is that you never have all the facts; the problem with doctrine is that you must have all the facts. Doctrine will give you the facts. When there is a conflict between Bible doctrine and our experience, doctrine is right.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” and with it a demonstrative particle i)dou which means “behold” but behold seems to have lost its punch. “Achtung” in the German gives a better idea. Next we have the nominative of appellation, nefelh, and it refers to a cloud. And it is a leukoj cloud, a “white cloud.” In other words, it isn’t a stormy cloud. “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud.” So the first thing we see is the setting. Clouds are associated with both the first and second advents of Christ. In the first advent there was the cloud from which God the Father spoke about God the Son. The same cloud was used on the mount of transfiguration, Matthew 17:5. The second advent: “Behold, he is coming with clouds, Revelation 1:7. The clouds are associated with the strategic and tactical victories of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we have the Lord sitting in His “chair,” the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, “sitting.” The definite article is used for both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun “he who.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action. This time the principle does not deal with reality as such but with victory. The posture of our Lord Jesus Christ sitting indicates the strategic victory of the first advent. The participle is circumstantial. “And he [our Lord Jesus Christ] was sitting on the cloud.” We insert the verb e)imi because of the ellipsis here, “was.” Then the comparative particle o(moioj, “was like,” and then the title for our Lord in His first advent when He first became true humanity, “the Son of Man.”

Translation so far: “Then I looked, and behold, a while cloud and he who was sitting on the cloud was like the Son of Man.”

Since clouds are often associated with angels it probably represents the entire angelic college of heralds. This is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ was the winner in the prehistoric angelic conflict and again He is the winner in the historic angelic conflict. As eternal and infinite God our Lord Jesus Christ won: He was the winner in the prehistoric angelic conflict. As the God-Man Jesus Christ is the strategic winner by His first advent; He will be the tactical winner by His second advent. Jesus Christ, therefore, had to be a man to go to the cross and be judged for our sins, and this phrase indicates that Jesus Christ controls history: He sits on the clouds. So we now meet the winner, the victor, of human history.

No matter what happens in history it is all going to turn out well. Things do not often go well in many generations but it is going to turn out well. The present active indicative of e)xw means to have, to have and to hold. The static present is for a condition which will perpetually exist. The golden crown or the wreath represents our Lord’s strategic victory. He is the winner of the angelic conflict and the golden crown represents the royal title, the royal warrant, He received. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. No matter how bad things get just remember how it is all going to turn out. The circumstantial participle is often translated with the conjunction and the finite verb form and that is the way we translate it here: “and he has.” Then stefanoj for the crown. This is the crown you win, not a crown you inherit.

Because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent he is now entitled to judge the world. Once He wears that crown he has a prerogative that goes with that crown. Part of the fact that Jesus Christ controls history is the fact that He has the authority at any time to judge any segment of the population of this world. This was taught in John 5:22,23,27. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has delegated all judgment to the Son in order that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father ...” The Jews as unbelievers recognised only God the Father as the God of Israel. They did not understand the true meaning of Deuteronomy 6:4 and they could not do so apart from appreciation of the victory of the first advent. Our Lord Jesus Christ is then judge of human history and as the judge of human history He is going to set up a system. The fact that He is sitting on His “chair” [the cloud] and watching history means that He controls history. Not only does He control history but He is the winner of history, therefore we are identified with Him.

The passage coming up is a most fascinating passage from the standpoint of office procedure, from the standpoint of procedure in any organisation. We are going to see all of the VIPs in heaven, they are going to do different things. The voice of the Father will come out of the temple. He is going to send one of the highest-ranking angles in the college of heralds. Then there are other angels in the college of heralds and another high-ranking angel is going to come from the altar where the Tribulational martyrs have been with their imprecatory prayers. There are another couple of high-ranking angels who are going to be given the administrative responsibility. They are going to have a sickle. One of them is going to come out of the temple and is going to be on standby reserve until a certain point. And we are now going to see how the court of heaven functions, and it functions under the system of protocol.

And this now brings us in anticipation of a great principle: The best things in life come from humility as the base of virtue, self discipline, being organised in your life, reducing your own life to a routine. To the extent that you reduce your life to a routine you destroy the confusion and you make two things very good for yourself. First of all your spiritual life which is the basis of your happiness and, secondly, your social life which is the human expression of your happiness. Your spiritual life expresses your happiness toward the Lord; your social life expresses your happiness in the direction of mankind. But the real secret is to have a routine. You have to make good decisions; you have to have self-discipline. But that whole system will only function under protocol. There has to be protocol; there has to be civilisation.

The average fundamentalist Christian sneers at protocol, he is a law unto himself. In fact the average fundamentalist is absolutely stupid when it comes to protocol. Protocol is the system that God has set up for believers. Historical disaster means no protocol, no authority, no orientation. Protocol is the use of manners, the recognition of authority, the recognition that we must operate within a system, and that everyone can express and utilise their freedom if we all operate within that system. The greatest periods of civilisation we have ever known historically have always been protocol periods. England in the last century was a protocol period. Protocol is absolutely necessary for the survival of civilisation.

We are now living in a time of great degeneracy, a time of immoral degeneracy and, what is even worse, moral degeneracy, both categories. We are surviving because it is all disorganised evil, but then you get organised evil in a dictatorship that you have when the Christians get persecuted. But even when you have organised evil as we studied in chapter thirteen and when protocol goes our Lord still sits in His cloud with His crown on His head. Degeneracy destroys protocol; organised evil guarantees that protocol will not exist at all. Therefore our Lord from His throne sets up a system of protocol whereby the human race continues to exist, and always will until the end of time. The human race as such will never be wiped out, although from time to time certain portions of the human race will be wiped out. When there is no civilisation and people live on planet earth God provides a system of protocol which in effect protects the positive believer unless it is his time to be taken home to be with the Lord.

So we have the Lord sitting on the cloud with His crown and He also has one other thing. We have the connective conjunction kai and the accusative singular direct object from the noun drepanoj, “and a sickle.” Furthermore it is said to be o)couj, a “sharp” sickle, and it is in His hand. The sickle is the symbol of judgment.

Now, what does the Lord provide in the worst period of human history for disaster? In the last half of the Tribulation before the second advent we have the crown which He wears. He provides a protocol whereby people will survive no matter how much they try to destroy themselves. The world will never be destroyed by nuclear weapons, by war, by disease, by earthquakes or tidal waves. etc. Certain parts of the world will have population loss from all of these things but the crown indicates that Jesus Christ controls history and in the worst periods of history He sets up a protocol system related to positive volition toward doctrine: the wall of fire whereby people survive. Believers and unbelievers, both will survive before the second advent. Part of His protocol system is the sickle, the symbol of divine judgment. Judgment, disaster, is used to protect the human race from destroying itself. God destroys those segments who have this self-destructive tendency. Divine judgment is an operation that cuts out the cancerous part of mankind so that the rest can function in a wonderful way.

In recent times there have been many signs of some the difficult situations which will occur in the Tribulation. We are not in the Tribulation and we may not even be near the Tribulation. Between us and the Tribulation is the Rapture or resurrection of the Church which will remove all believers in a moment of time from this world. The Rapture could occur today but it could also occur a thousand years from today, we do not know the day or the hour. But we do know that there are certain historical trends which we have been studying eschatologically and which also have historical implications. And certainly by sitting in the stands and watching history developing before us we learn many interesting things. In our passage these trends have reached their peak. They have come to the point where there is total degeneracy and where people are at the mercy of terrorism on every hand.

In verse fourteen we have just concluded a passage dealing with our Lord Jesus Christ controlling history and we terminated with the issue of protocol. By way of introduction to verse 15 we stop and take a look at the function of protocol. Civilisation cannot exist, not only without the principle, but also without its function. We note that heaven operates under a marvellous system of protocol: the chain of command for the seven last plagues of the Tribulation.

In eight points we have the structurised interpretation for the rest of the chapter

1. Since God the Father has delegated all judgment to God the Son He sends from the temple in heaven a messenger, the officer of arms, to our Lord Jesus Christ with permission for the seven last plagues, verse 15. This is the beginning of a system of protocol. The officer of arms is one of the highest ranking angelic creatures in the angelic college of heralds. He is second only to the king of arms. So we are dealing now with protocol. Remember that protocol is structured by authority and the authority originates from truth. You cannot have civilisation without protocol.

2. As the judge our Lord Jesus gives the orders, then, to administer the seven last plagues — verse 16, where our Lord swings the sickle and the earth is reaped. Inevitably, as the judge, our Lord executes the orders related to the seven last plagues.

3. However, the manner in which the seven last plagues are executed on the earth is a protocol function, a co-ordination in the chain of command in the highest-ranking angelic creature. These are aristocracy of elect angels.

4. The pur sui vant officer in charge of the judgment squad in this passage and in the next two chapters comes out of the temple and he moves to a position of standby reserve waiting for orders, verse 17.

5. In the meantime the king of arms, the highest ranking elect angel in heaven outside of Michael and Gabriel, comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with a confirmatory order of execution. He brings with him all of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs, verse 18. This confirmatory order relates the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs to the divine order sent by God the Father from the temple. He has delegated all administration of judgment to the Son.

6. We now have staff co-ordination. One of the living creatures [one of the four angelic heralds] issues the bowl judgements to the judgment squad. The judgment squad is made up of seven pur sui vant messengers whom we will study in chapter 15:7.

7. After this the pur sui vant officer who is on standby takes command of the judgment squad and goes into action, verse 19.

8. This results in the seven pur sui vant messengers of the judgment squad going into action. The action of the first: Revelation 16:2; the action of the second: Revelation 16:3; the action of the third: Revelation 16:4; the action of the fourth: Revelation 16:8, and so on. So that inevitably it is the squad that goes into action and fulfil the whole concept.

Our passage actually begins in verse 15, and from verse 15 to the end of this passage we are going to deal with the pur sui vant function of this squad. They are the judgment squad, their action will be studied in detail and the whole thing is structured on a principle of protocol. All protocol is based upon authority. There is always a system of authority and we have noted the principle: you cannot have freedom without authority. Authority and freedom must coexist. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.

We are getting ready to study verses 15-19 which looks fairly simple but is a very complex passage because it keeps saying another angel does this and another angel does that. So we are going to study protocol in heaven and learn the doctrine that finite and temporal power can never compete with divine power, and it all starts with the concept of protocol in heaven. It all began with our Lord’s great victory at the cross where He was judged for our sins and as a result of this He is going to terminate Satan’s rulership of the world at the second advent. Then the final part of this passage: the saviour of mankind is also the judge of human history, and because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent He is entitled to judge the world during the course of human history. That includes the Church Age, the Tribulation, the Millennium, and the terminating point of history which is the Gog revolution. All of this was possible because He was judged at the cross. The One who was judged at the cross for our sins now becomes the judge of human history.

Protocol in heaven is the interpretation of the rest of this chapter. Protocol is defined as a rigid long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank, and strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure. Protocol, therefore, recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority and consequently protocol requires virtue for its existence. Protocol is related to basic virtue in life; basic virtue demands the recognition of authority. We have studied gate three of the divine dynasphere: basic virtue. Basic virtue is always directed toward authority. Protocol is related to motivational virtue through the principle of the believer’s worship of God. We have noted several of the motivational virtues. For example, we have noted under motivational virtue directed toward God, personal love for God; and it has a counterpart: impersonal love toward all mankind, functional virtue. We have also noted confidence in God. This leads to courage toward circumstances as the functional virtue. Worship toward God is a motivational virtue and that worship of God produces a true morality toward all. True morality is virtue, not self-righteousness. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, His policy, His system for believers on earth, emphasises the conclusion that protocol also exists in heaven. God has established a system of protocol in heaven for creature power cannot compete with divine power. That is true on earth and it is true also in heaven. Arrogance is the worst of all sins because arrogance seeks to compete with divine power. The basis for our study of protocol in heaven, Revelation 14:15-19, is the fact that authority exists in the highest sphere of angelic power, the elect angelic college of heralds.

We should notice that the system of authority in heaven is based on five categories: Category #1, God the Father as the author of the divine plan for the human race; category #2, God the Son is the winner in that plan for the human race; category #3, God the Holy Spirit who is both the revealer and the power of the divine plan; category #4, certain elect angels of the highest aristocracy, the elect college of heralds are involved in the administration of the plan; category #5, certain members of the human race have received the grace of God in the form of a spiritual gift and authority and responsibility. That would be the apostle John in our context.

The chain of command for the seven last plagues

1. Since God the Father has delegated all judgements to God the Son, as per John 5:22,23,27, we find Him in the heavenly temple sending orders regarding judgment — the last judgements of the Tribulation. He sends these orders to God the Son by angelic messenger. The angelic messenger who carries this order must be of the highest rank in the college of heralds [he is the second highest], he is the officer of arms.

2. In the order of protocol God the Son as the judge executes the mandates of God the Father in verse 16.

3. Between verses 15 & 16 we have a whole system of protocol which is given in verses 17-19, they actually occur between verses 15-16. This system of protocol results in the greatest judgment the world has ever known: the seven last plagues of the Tribulation, also known as the bowl judgements of Revelation chapter sixteen.

4. At this point a judgment squad of seven pur sui vant messengers is formed: the lowest rank in the college of heralds, the college of heralds being the highest aristocracy. They are wingless angels but they were great in the prehistoric angelic conflict and they now hold a very high rank of aristocracy. The judgment squad of pur sui vant messengers is formed for the actual administration of the seven last plagues. The pur sui vant officer in command of that execution squad is simply called in verse 17, “another angel.” These angels are all different, they are involved in a system of protocol.

5. In the meantime verse 18 brings in another angel. This is the king of arms who comes from an entirely different source. He is the highest-ranking elect angel. The angels are all in eternity. Their eternity began before man was created with the great judgment of fallen angels when they were sentenced to the lake of fire. The sentence has not been carried out because Satan appealed: “How can a loving God cast His creatures into the lake of fire?” And God is demonstrating that during human history. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and that is why we are here: we are resolving the greater conflict of greater creatures. The “another angel” of verse 18 is the Paul or the Moses of angelic creatures, he is the king of arms, the highest-ranking angelic creature. The only other angels who could be as high-ranking would be Gabriel and Michael, but they are in the angelic order of battle, another form of aristocracy. The king of arms in our passage comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with a confirmatory order of execution. This confirmatory order relates the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs to the divine orders sent through the chain of command. That is the function of the king of arms.

6. Next comes staff co-ordination. One of the living creatures of Revelation 15:7 issues a bowl to each member of the execution squad. The bowl is called a “vial” in the King James version but in the Greek it is the word fialh, a bowl. It is a super grenade but instead of pulling out the pin the angel on command will pour it, and when he does one of seven horrible judgements will hit the earth. When the grenade is pulled on number six bowl we are going to have world war, called “the war of the great God Almighty”, and we are going to study one campaign which is mentioned specifically: the Armageddon campaign.

7. Then the pur sui vant officer who went on standby goes into red alert in verse 17 and assumes command in the execution squad in verse 19.

8. The execution or judgment squad made up of seven pur sui vant messengers goes into action, each one in sequence on command of the pur sui vant officer, and will pull the pin on his grenade. He will pour his bowl containing one of the seven last plagues, chapter 16.

That is a co-ordinated action in heaven resulting in judgment on the earth. Right now these co-ordinated actions are going on in heaven, right this minute. Right now this same protocol system is being used. There are no mistakes in history. Defining the phrase “another angel” in this context is the key to understanding protocol in heaven. Each angel is different in rank and functions in the context from a different rank. Fundamentalist Christians don’t like rank, they all want to be equal or a little better than the next person.

Verse 15, this is the officer of arms, the second-ranking elect angel in heaven. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” We have a nominative singular subject made up of two words: a)lloj, an adjective, and with it we have the noun a)ggeloj, “another [of the same kind] angel.” This is one of the highest of the elect angels. This angel in that prehistoric conflict was one of the greatest of all spiritual giants. He is a messenger from God the Father to God the Son and his high rank is involved in this very important message. He is said to come out: the aorist active indicative of the verb e)xerxomai. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the deliverance of the Father’s message to the Son. And the messenger is very important. Just like Wellington at the battle of Waterloo: all the members of his staff were aristocracy. Everyone who is on the staff of God the Father is an aristocrat. The officer of arms comes out of the temple. The active voice: the officer of arms produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality. The source of the order that is going to completely change the earth in the last half of the Tribulation: the preposition e)k plus the ablative of naoj, “from the temple.” This is the heavenly temple.

Only the highest ranking angels in the college of heralds are involved in this operation. That is important. Here is judgment coming to the earth; here are people who are going to blame the judgment on everyone else. We are going to see that this judgment is administered by the execution squad; we are going to see men blaspheming; we are going to se them blaming God, they never think to blame themselves. But all judgment that comes historically and eschatologically to planet earth and to the population of planet earth always is the result of man’s bad decisions. We are all the products of our own decisions.

Then we have the ministry of the officer of arms given in the present active participle of the verb krazw which means to shout as if there is a great battle and he has to be heard. This is a verbal order, “and he shouted.” The aoristic present tense expresses punctiliar action in present time. That is, the time of John’s vision in AD 96, not the time of fulfilment. The active voice: the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds produces the action. The participle is circumstantial which is translated with the conjunction and the finite verb. This is a legitimate translation of the circumstantial participle, “and he shouted with a loud voice,” e)n plus megaj plus fwnh. The loud voice simply indicates the conditions of the earth. Things are so bad, there is so much disaster. Man is bent upon self-destruction and to preserve man from self-destruction God now judges the human race. If man is left alone he would destroy himself but divine judgment protects him from destroying himself. Destruction solves the problem of destruction.

There are two categories of destruction in disaster. There is first of all human self-destruction and then there is the function of God’s justice. The human self-destruction would have wiped out the human race but God always enters into the scene with a protective judgment which always punishes those who have it coming and protects the rest of the human race. This principle of doctrine is the basis for the conclusion that there never will be the destruction of the entire human race.

Next we have “to him who is sitting on the cloud,” and “sitting” is the present active participle of the verb kaqhmai. The pictorial present presents to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurring. Our Lord is constantly sitting there under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The definite article is a dative of indirect object plus the fact that the definite article is used for the personal and relative pronouns in this translation. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union is now in control of history. Jesus Christ controls history. He is sitting on a cloud, and note again that the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds functions as a royal messenger from God the Father to God the Son. God the Father is in the third heaven; God the Son is, as it were, hovering over the first heaven in the atmosphere. An angel is not giving the command, he is conveying the command. God the Father as the author of the divine plan for the human race gives the command, while God the Son as the saviour and judge of mankind executes the orders. This is a reminder of John 6:38 which says: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.” Our Lord spoke this from His humanity in the hypostatic union.

Now we have a very fine point of Greek grammar here. In the previous verse, verse 14, we have the phrase that He was sitting on the cloud. That was e)pi plus the accusative which means direction, it means “toward the cloud.” But in verse 15 we have the same phrase but e)pi plus the genitive, and it means contact, so now He is sitting on the cloud. The direction from which He controlled the earth in the previous verse, e)pi plus the accusative; the fact that Jesus Christ controls history continually in every generation of history, e)pi plus the genitive. While both phrases are translated the same, “on the cloud,” they have different meanings. A case in point: the interpretation of the Bible requires a working knowledge of the original languages. Therefore anyone going into the ministry without the original languages is handicapped and limited as to his ability to interpret the Word of God. This cuts down on his ministry and makes him dependant on others — and sometimes dependant on the wrong people.

Next we have the conveyed command: the aorist active imperative from the verb pempw which means to send. The aorist tense is constative, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It will regard in its entirety the next three chapters. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. Why? John 5:22, 23, 27. This is the imperative mood of entreaty which does not convey the finality of a command but has the force or urgency of a request. And the accusative direct object from the noun drepanoj refers to the judgment which is about to take place. Dreponoj is the sickle, the symbol of divine judgment on the human race in the last half of the Tribulation. Notice that Christ sends the sickle but the angel from the college of heralds conveys the order from God the Father, “send your sickle,” the possessive genitive of su because in this passage there are several sickles. Su is the pronoun and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history. He has control of all divine judgment, therefore, in human history. Then the continuation of the command: “and reap,” the aorist active imperative from the verb qerizw human race during the last half of the Tribulation during the time when things are going to be worse than they ever have in history, and it is viewed in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. What is the result? There is a principle: Jesus Christ controls history. There is no judgment on the human race without a thorough system of protocol occurring in heaven. That thorough system of protocol in heaven is related to the decision, in this case negative decision, on earth. We ask for it! God’s judgements are always just, in fact they are more than just, they protect the human race from self-destruction. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action through the administration of divine judgment. They are called the seven last plagues in Revelation 15:8; they are called the seven bowl judgements in Revelation chapter 16. The imperative mood of entreaty, once again, conveys not the finality of a command but the urgency of a request.

We now look at the explanation for all of this. Why was the command given from God the Father to God the Son? Because God the Son has control of all judgment in history. The causal conjunction o(ti comes up next, “because.” Then the nominative singular from the noun o(ra which means “hour,” “because the hour.” Jesus Christ sitting on the cloud represents the protocol principle of history that Jesus Christ controls history. There is something to keep Jesus Christ from controlling history and that is the function of human volition and the cosmic system of Satan. These oppose that principle and therefore we are the products of our own decisions; and when we make too many bad decisions from a position of weakness the next thing that happens is we lose control of our own personal lives, collectively the nation loses control, we have no personal sense of destiny, the nation has no sense of destiny, and we revert then to the degeneracy factors: the moral degeneracy factor which is arrogance and the immoral degeneracy factor. As long as we have disorganised evil Christianity can coexist with it. Christianity converts a few people out of disorganised evil; disorganised evil converts a few people out of Christianity for the cosmic system. Under freedom they coexist and it is not until organised evil comes into the picture that Christianity is systematically persecuted and martyred. Organised evil functions generally as a dictatorship, but there is the intervention from heaven and the protocol system in heaven leads to divine judgment: the divine judgment of Adolf Hitler, the divine judgment of Joe Stalin, the divine judgment of dictators — the intervention of divine judgment to protect the human race. Self-righteousness is not protocol, it is arrogance and pseudo-morality.

When it says “because the hour” it is a reference to time of judgment. A saturation of degeneracy on the one hand and self-righteousness on the other hand has resulted in the need of judgment to preserve the human race from its own self-destruction. One of two things can happen when believers become arrogant and self-righteous, pseudo morality, and when disorganised evil gains power. Out of this chaos there can come a dictator, and that means organised evil, or there can come protocol judgment from God which will deliver. So we have the aorist active indicative from the verb e)rxomai and that means to come, “the hour has come.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The principle: God’s timing is perfect, and the hour has come for the administration of divine judgment to preserve the human race and keep it from destroying itself historically. The creation of man was designed to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict and therefore God must preserve the human race to the end of history, and there are two ways of doing it. One is through evangelisation which leads to believers on the earth and the principle of the pivot; the other is the protocol judgment. Therefore divine judgment ends up the various categories of evil which develop through residence and function in Satan’s cosmic system. The active voice: the right time produces the action of the verb. The right time is God’s timing. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine judgment in human history, and we must remember that no matter how bad things get historically that this is a part of God’s marvellous plan to protect us. When times get bad you must remember the protocol interpretation of history.

We have one more phrase: “to reap,” which is the aorist active infinitive of the verb qerizw. Not only is God’s timing in everything perfect, including divine judgment, but there are certain Tribulational martyrs who have been offering their imprecatory prayers in Revelation 6:9-11, and they are waiting for God’s timing in the matter. They know that God has His perfect timing and at the right time He will judge through the system of protocol in heaven. One of the most difficult things for the believer to do, of course, is to wait on God’s timing. When we fail to wait for God’s perfect timing we as believers postpone His blessing. The aorist tense here is a culminative aorist, it views divine judgment of the human race during the last half of the Tribulation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the administration of divine judgment to preserve the human race. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through the administration of divine judgment but He administers through a protocol system related to the angelic college of heralds. The infinitive of intended result: when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate divine objective, hence a blending of both purpose and result. Divine judgment is the counter-fire that keeps from destroying the entire human race. Man left to his own devices would destroy himself but that will never happen because of the protocol interpretation of history.

The historical necessity for judgment is given in the closing phrase, “because the harvest has become overripe.” We have a second causal conjunction, o(ti. The second causal conjunction provides a second explanation for the imperative of entreaty and relates it to the doctrine of historical trends. When the human race through cosmic involvement is in danger of total self-destruction then God intervenes with a judgment to destroy segments of the human race where the infection, the disease, is. That means the organised evil first of all and then other forms of degeneracy.

The “harvest,” qerismoj, which means a harvest of judgment, hence a harvesting of arrogance: religion, degeneracy, self-righteousness, and the sexual, criminal, psychotic arrogance which we have studied. And where does this take place? — the genitive of place from the noun gh which is used for planet earth, “the harvest of the earth has become overripe,” says the aorist passive indicative of xerainw. The constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety indicates the saturation of evil has reached the destructive point for the human race, the entire obliteration of the human race. Therefore a counter-fire must be started. The passive voice: planet earth receives the action of the verb, a saturation of evil, religious, degeneracy of all forms, arrogance in every form. The principle is that we are the products of our own decisions. A maximum number of bad decisions jeopardises the perpetuation of the human race. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical and eschatological reality of the evil saturation of the human race which apart from divine intervention and judgment would be destroyed. The destruction of the human race, however, will never occur in human history because of man’s failure. Not only will man continue to live on the earth but God’s plan and blessing for the believer continues in the worst of historical disaster. The circumstances of life can get very bad but that does not change the principle of divine blessing for the advancing believer. No circumstance of life can deter the plan of God for your life unless you decide that it should. Your volition, not evil circumstances and historical disaster, determine your blessing or your misery while living on this earth. History, therefore, cannot overcome you unless you decide to let history do so. History will only overcome you if you decide to live in the cosmic system. The worst of historical circumstances are still a time of great blessing for the mature believer and if you decide to live in the divine dynasphere, God’s system, then God’s plan for your life spells out blessing. Historical disaster, therefore, does not hinder divine blessing for the believer who has momentum in the plan of God, but historical disaster is a means of punishment of both believer and unbeliever residing in Satan’s cosmic system.

Translation: “Then another angel [the officer of arms] came out of the temple, and shouted with a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, Send in your sickle and reap: because the hour has come to reap; because the harvest has become overripe.”

In blessing or in judgment God’s timing is absolutely perfect. God’s judgements are blessing both to the believer and to the human race in general because divine judgment protects the human race from self-destruction and perpetuates the human race to the end of history. Nothing, therefore, can destroy the human race until the end of history. But our own bad decisions can destroy us. The justice of God has always been man’s point of reference since the fall of mankind in the garden, and this point of reference guarantees the continuing existence of the human race until the termination of human history at the end of the Millennium.

In verse 16 we have the judgment from the Son of God. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “Then.” With this the nominative singular subject from the articular present active participle, the verb kaqhmai. Jesus Christ still controls history, “Then he who was sitting on the cloud.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The present tense is a pictorial present, it gives to the mind the eschatological picture in the process of occurrence. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union produces the action of the verb, Jesus Christ controls history.

The posture of sitting connotes our Lord’s strategic victory in the first advent which was attained at the cross where He was judged for our sins. God the Father did His last personal judging, as it were, at the cross when our sins were imputed to Christ and the integrity of the Father, namely one half of divine integrity, the justice of God the Father, imputed our sins to Christ and they were judged. After the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, He was given His third royal warrant, “King of kings and Lord of lords,” and with that royal warrant He now controls history. That includes the administration of judgment from heaven which is necessary to keep man from destroying himself. Left to our own devices there would be no person left on the earth, we would destroy ourselves by our own bad decisions. The judgment from the Son of God is administered through protocol in heaven. The protocol involves one of the two great aristocracies, the elect angelic college of heralds. The judgment of the Son of God is administered through the function of these aristocrats from the prehistoric angelic conflict.

The fact that our Lord was sitting on the cloud means that Jesus Christ controls history. In the first advent, the hypostatic union, and the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ provided the basis for eventually taking the rulership of the world, the last 1000 years of human history, and He will take it from Satan. Jesus Christ controls history now; he will control history in a direct and visible way in the future. Today His control is invisible, it is accomplished through the protocol of heaven which we have been studying. Revelation 1:7, remember He is coming with clouds. Now he is sitting on a cloud; then He will come with clouds.

Continuing in verse 16 we have the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw which is going to be translated as a transitive verb here, meaning the movement of throwing or propelling, and in this case to swing a sickle. The swinging of the sickle eliminates a certain portion of the population of the world. In order to protect the world from self-destruction, to protect mankind from destroying himself by his stupidity, we have the sickle judgements. While the Lord Jesus Christ is said to swing the sickle here we are going to see in the verses to follow that it is accomplished through a protocol system related to the angelic order of battle and the elect heralds.

This is followed by the accusative singular from drepanon, the sickle as a sign or symbol of judgment. The active voice: Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

It is said to be swung “over the earth,” e)pi plus the accusative from gh. In other words, Jesus Christ administers judgment to perpetuate the human race. This is accomplished through the protocol of the angelic college of heralds and the function of the judgment squad. “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth...”

Then we have the earth as the subject: the nominative singular of gh, “and the earth was reaped.” This is a reference to planet earth during the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The aorist passive indicative from the verb qerizw indicates the judgements of the seven last plagues or the bowl judgements of Revelation chapter sixteen, “and the earth was reaped.” The culminative aorist tense views our Lord’s judgment of planet earth in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the perpetuation of the human race for the rest of history.

Were it not for these periodic judgements there would be no human race. The human race would not have survived were it not for the great universal flood of Noah’s day when eight believers survived to start a new civilisation. These judgements in Revelation chapter sixteen are the worst judgements in human history and we will note that while they are very intense there is one very pertinent fact: at the end of these judgements there will be the second advent. The second advent will end the last world war in history and the middle east campaign related to that world war is the Armageddon campaign.

When the second advent occurs the largest portion of the population of the world will have survived the most intense disasters in history, the seven last plagues. There will be believers who will survive; there will be unbelievers who will survive. There will be believers in two categories: believers who have kept their momentum through perception of doctrine and who are winners; believers involved in the cosmic system who are losers. Primarily the believers who survive and go into the Millennium are going to be winners. Most of the losers will die the sin unto death during this period of terrible disaster. The believers who go into the Millennium are going to be the cadre for the repopulation of the earth for the last 1000 years of human history. The unbelievers in the baptism of fire who are removed are, of course, those unbelievers who survive this terrible holocaust of the last half of the Tribulation. They are cast into the fire; they are the tares. The wheat goes into the Millennium, “as in the days of Noah so shall be the days of the coming of the Son of Man,” says Matthew 24, “one is taken [the unbeliever], the other left [the believer going into the Millennium].”

But the point to be noted right now is that they survive these things. No matter how bad things become and no matter how great disasters overtake certain portions of the earth’s population the population of the world will never be destroyed by any of these things, nuclear weapons included. There is no force operating on earth or in heaven which can destroy the human race until God’s plan is completed. God’s plan for human history is not terminated until the end of the Millennium. The great change that is going to come, the worst disaster period in all of human history is this period called the time of the devil’s desperation, will be followed by the greatest period of prosperity the world has ever known. Following the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium our Lord will destroy the entire world as we know it today and the universe through a nuclear reaction and then there will be the new heavens and the new Jerusalem. So God’s plan for mankind on planet earth continues and there will always be plenty of people to accept or reject our Lord Jesus Christ as saviour. The total annihilation of the human race is absolutely impossible.

The passive voice: planet earth receives the action of the verb as a part of the Father’s and the Son’s execution of the plan through divine judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of future historical fact, a part of the eschatology of the time of the devil’s desperation.

Translation: “Then he who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth; and the earth was reaped.”

Principle: Divine judgment, no matter how severe, prevents the human race from total self-destruction. Man left to his own devices would eventually destroy himself on the earth. If God did not interfere in human history there would be no human history, therefore every act of divine judgment is the gracious function of our Lord Jesus Christ to actually preserve the human race and the fact that divine judgment means that the human race will never be totally destroyed throughout the course of human history. Divine judgment is a part of God’s gracious protection and perpetuation of the human race from self-destruction through its own bad decisions. Man’s lust for power alone could destroy man from the face of the earth under the principle that the demand for power exceeds the need for power. People are always demanding power but it isn’t necessary for them to have power; people are demanding authority and it isn’t necessary for them to have authority, and when too many people demand authority you have democracy which is degeneracy and the worst form of government — not even a form of government actually. Since people are the products of their own decisions there are no tragedies in history, merely disasters manufactured by bad decisions from a position of weakness. To keep these bad decisions from totally destroying mankind on the earth God has provided a system of divine judgment. These judgements are the backfire, the counter-fire, to stop the forest fire. Therefore even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions which are self-destructive it is Jesus Christ who controls history, it is Jesus Christ who preserves mankind from the evil consequences of his own bad decisions.

We have the mechanics of our Lord’s reaping in verses 17-20 and this will record protocol in heaven. For the mechanics on earth, Revelation chapter 16; for the mechanics in heaven, the rest of this chapter and a very short chapter fifteen.

Verse 15 must be read with verse 16 because between them we have the whole protocol system of heaven. The second highest-ranking aristocrat in all of heaven, the officer of arms, leaves the presence of God the Father in the temple and moves to the cloud where our Lord sits as a result of His third royal warrant and from where He controls history. Our Lord administers all judgment. A message goes from God the Father, the author of the plan for the human race, to God the Son. It is an important message because the second highest-ranking angel in all of the elect system brings it. Why not the highest? Because he is over at the altar of imprecatory prayers. He is the angel with the golden shovel. In verse 16 we have the reaping of the earth. The actual reaping of the earth takes place in chapter sixteen, the bowl judgements.

Between verses 16 & 17 the following things take place. In verse 17 the pur sui vant officer who commands the execution squad comes out of the temple. He will move to standby waiting to be given his command of the judgment squad, but not until verse 19. In the meantime in verse 18 the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds, the king of arms, comes to the altar of imprecatory prayers to co-ordinate the judgements with the prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. They have been making very powerful intercession and their powerful intercessions are imprecatory prayers which are going to be answered, so their is a co-ordination factor in the protocol. Protocol in heaven always takes cognisance of human prayers. In verse 19 the pur sui vant officer assumes command of the execution squad. In Revelation 15:6 the execution squad is formed in the temple in heaven. In Revelation 15:7 the angelic herald issues a bowl to each member of the squad. In Revelation 16:2,3,4,8,10,12,17 each member of the execution squad pulls the pin of his grenade, he pours out his judgment bowl on the earth. This fulfils the action between Revelation 14:15 and 14:16.

Historically periods of prosperity are always based upon the practice of protocol for the practice of protocol is the general function of the laws of divine establishment: category #1 — Bible doctrine. Wherever there is protocol the barbarians are pushed back and civilisation becomes a reality. This part of our century is the day of the barbarians, the concept of protocol has been pushed into the background. Periodically, as a result of divine judgment protocol reasserts itself and people become civilised again.

We are studying protocol in heaven but we are reminded that this protocol is only practised by one group in heaven, the elect angels. Many of the fallen angels, as we noted in Revelation chapter twelve, are still in heaven and they will not be thrown out of heaven until the middle of the Tribulation which begins the time of the devil’s desperation. Because this is true we have a protocol organisation in heaven and we have non-protocol. One of the manifestations of non-protocol is what Satan is doing every day. He appears in the court of heaven and selects a few believers, sometimes many believers, and brings accusation against them. These accusations are generally true but that is because they are the result of the function of the demon intelligence organisation. They are usually related to sins and the failures of believers involved in the cosmic system, and since believers are involved in the cosmic system it is very easy to report on them and keep track of them. Then, of course, when the true accusation is made our Lord Jesus Christ who represents us in heaven as our defence attorney points out that these failures on our part are under the blood of Christ, they were judged on the cross; and God the Father pronounces the same statement day in and day out, year in and year out, century in and century out: “Case dismissed”. This is going on all the time so that this function of Satan becomes a matter of gossip, maligning and judging, and it gives us some clue as to what lack of protocol means in a church as well as in any organisation. It is gossip, maligning, judging, the various categories of the sins of the tongue.

So we can see the failure or success of any organisation can be due to lack of protocol. Protocol is necessary in the function of a team, a business, or any organisation of any kind, including the local church. Protocol for those who have passed into their eternal state is also a function forever and ever. Protocol is here to stay because the angelic creatures who were involved in the prehistoric angelic conflict, the elect angels, are practising protocol. To practice protocol is to practice virtue; to practice protocol and virtue is to function under the principles of recognition of authority. In eternity there is even more established authority than there ever was in time. Furthermore it is a permanent authority, an eternal authority, as we studied in the doctrine of the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, the various crowns, the gazebo in the garden, and other things that we have studied in Revelation which deal with rewards for winners in time during the course of the angelic conflict. We already have a picture of what it will be like when we are in heaven in our resurrection bodies by the fact that there is, even in the angelic realm in the order of elect angels, a definite system of protocol. This system of protocol means differences in rank and there is an eternal respect for this rank.

Again, we define protocol as a rigid long-established code which prescribes complete deference to superior rank or authority, strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure.

Protocol recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority, and consequently protocol demands virtue. You cannot have protocol without virtue therefore virtue always precedes protocol, and it is inevitable that if you have virtue you will function under protocol. Let’s take, for example, the plan of God for the Church Age believer. Gate three is basic virtue. Basic virtue is, of course, humility — enforced and genuine. It is always directed toward authority. There is protocol, therefore, in the plan of God when authority is recognised. For example, a believer who has humility is flexible, and you have to be flexible to recognise varying systems of protocol in different countries and different locales and different places. One thing about true humility: it brings with it flexibility so that you do not make an issue of yourself and become offensive in some sphere of activity outside of your own.

Take prayer, for example. No prayer that you utter is ever going to be heard without recognition of protocol and, before protocol, humility. If you do not have enforced and genuine humility your prayers will never be heard, “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” Iniquity in that passage in the Psalms deals primarily with arrogance in its various categories. To offer a prayer in arrogance is not only the principle of sin but it is the principle of lack of protocol. To pray to the Father and to make some request or even some intercession for someone else, to ask God for something, and to do so in a state of arrogance is blasphemy because your prayer does not recognise protocol. Even in the approach to prayer all prayers are offered to God the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even our Lord Jesus Christ as our great High Priest making intercession for us offers His prayers to God the Father. And when God the Holy Spirit offers prayers “with groanings which cannot be uttered” they are offered to God the Father. Protocol in prayer means effectiveness in prayer.

Protocol, therefore, recognises and obeys authority; protocol, therefore, requires virtue. Protocol is related, therefore, to basic virtue in life: enforced and genuine humility. Protocol is also related to motivational virtue. Motivational virtue is gate five of the divine dynasphere. It is always directed toward God and it is always a function of the royal priesthood, just as humility as a basic virtue is the function of the human personality, so motivational virtue is the function of your royal priesthood, always directed toward God. Gate six is functional virtue, always the function of your royal ambassadorship directed toward man and circumstances. So every category of virtue has a direction, every category of virtue has an involvement. Humility is your personality. The function of motivational virtue toward God, your royal priesthood. The operational or functional virtue toward man and circumstances is your royal ambassadorship. Therefore they all demand protocol. Protocol is the structure of civilisation, the modus operandi by which all of us function in the plan of God without interfering in the momentum of someone else who is a believer. Protocol is related to motivational virtue and to functional virtue. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, God’s policy, and God’s system for believers on earth emphasises the conclusion that protocol also exists in heaven. God has established a system of protocol in heaven for creature power cannot compete with divine power either in heaven or on earth. Therefore, beginning in verse 17 we are going to see the modus operandi of this protocol just as we have seen the modus operandi of protocol in history. All protocol recognises not only authority but it recognises any category of nobility.

We are dealing with a system or order and rank, a system of protocol in heaven. When Satan fell he was the highest-ranking angelic creature. He was a cherub. He is called “the anointed cherub” as Lucifer the son of the morning. As a cherub he had four wings, his badge of rank. So there was a system of rank prior to the fall of Satan, and the highest-ranking angel was Satan or Lucifer the son of the morning, as he was called. Once Satan fell he took with him a third of all angelic creatures. The over a period of perhaps a million years, perhaps thousands — we do not know the length of time since it was prehistoric — there was the angelic conflict. Many of the cherubs who were lower in rank than Lucifer apparently chose for the Lord so that eventually over a period of time we have elect angels and we have fallen angels. Fallen angels are divided in to many categories but we are looking now at the elect angels. The prehistoric angelic conflict came to a close and all angelic creatures by that time had either decided for the Lord so that they are simply called the elect angels, or the non-elect angels or fallen angels who followed Satan. The elect angels then went into their eternal state, just as one day with the Rapture of the Church we will receive a resurrection body which begins our eternal state. So the elect angels have an eternal form to their body which would be comparable to a resurrection body; they are in the eternal state. Going into the eternal state they had an evaluation comparable to our judgment seat of Christ at the Rapture. In that evaluation there were winners and losers according to that evaluation. There were the top winners, and a new order was created called the seraph order. This order never existed before and it was a very small group of angels with six wings. They are divided into two systems of aristocracy: the college of heralds and the order of battle. For example, Michael and Gabriel, undoubtedly seraphs, are the highest-ranking angelic creatures forever and ever. In the college of heralds we have the king of arms, at least two officers of arms, four with the rank of full herald.

In the trial of the fallen angels Satan immediately acted as the defence attorney for all of them. His whole defence in the court of heaven was based on the question: How can a loving God cast His creatures into the lake of fire? The sentence was pronounced: lake of fire for all fallen angels. Because of that defence of Satan God then created an inferior creature called man. Man was placed on one planet and is used to resolve Satan’s appeal. Human history demonstrates the fact that God does not lose His integrity and that love is not really the issue. The issue is the volition of creatures. The fallen angelic creatures were negative, they refused whatever salvation God offered. Now the same volition as angels is carried into human history and man makes his own decisions and is the product of his own decisions while angels, as it were, are in the stands watching human history.

Now we leave prophetical history and we go to heaven to see the protocol in heaven. In this protocol in heaven we find first of all the king of arms. He is the highest-ranking angelic creature and he is in the seraph rank. Then there are at least two officers of arms under him, and then those with the full rank of herald, four. There are probably seven seraphs in the angelic college of heralds and there are at least two seraphs in the order of battle, Michael and Gabriel.

The king of arms we have studied in Revelation 5:2 where he is called the “powerful angel.” Again in Revelation 10:1 he is called the “powerful angel.” He is also called the angel with the golden shovel in Revelation 8:3-5. He is the angel who processes all of the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational saints.

Then below him is the officer of arms, which we have noted in verse 15 as “another angel”. Then the full rank of herald, mistakenly translated by the word “beast” in the King James version — Revelation 4:6-8. The Greek word means “living creatures” and they are angelic heralds. One of these is found in Revelation 15:7.

Then we have a category in the angelic college of heralds comparable to Satan’s rank, the cherub rank. One is very prominent in this passage, the pur sui vant officer. He is going to command the execution squad of seven found in Revelation chapter fifteen.

Then there are the wingless heralds called the pur sui vant messengers.

Protocol without virtue is ritual without reality. For the eternal state of these elect angels all protocol has eternal virtue, and these categories of angelic aristocracy emphasise the importance of protocol in God’s plan for the believer on earth and in heaven. Protocol, therefore, must inevitably be associated with great blessing. For us as believers living in the Church Age protocol is related to the priorities of the plan of God. Remember: In God’s plan: mandates first; in God’s system: virtue first; in God’s purpose: Christ first; in God’s objective: momentum first; in God’s authority: doctrine first.

God’s plan for the believer in time has protocol in the three functions of virtue, as we have noted. Worship is a motivating virtue resulting in the functional virtue of what we have classified as virtue-morality. Hence the principle: no virtue; no protocol. God’s plan functions on protocol in three categories of virtue.

In our passage we are now back on the subject of imprecatory prayers which we noted first in Revelation chapter six. They were legitimate imprecatory prayers from the Tribulational martyrs. The imprecatory prayers of the Tribulation martyrs was foreshadowed by imprecatory prayers found in the Psalms. Most of them had to do with the time of David. These are actually the only two recordings of this particular concept and they do set some precedent where integrity is involved.

Note, for example, some of the phrases in Psalm 13. David started out in verse 1, “How long?” In verse 2, “How long will my enemy triumph over me?” In verse 3, “Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God.” Inverse 4, “My enemy will say I have overcome him, my foes will rejoice when I fall.” That is part of the content of an imprecatory prayer. It is a prayer, however, which is related to the success of David’s enemies.

Imprecatory prayers have a double content. First of all a prayer for deliverance and, secondly, a prayer for the justice of God to be exercised in unfair treatment.

In Psalm 54, “Deliver me, O God, by your person, vindicate me by your power.

Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.

Strangers are attacking me [unjust treatment], and men of violence seek my life; men who have no regard for God.

Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my soul.

Let the evil return to those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.” That is the heart and soul of an imprecatory prayer.

Imprecatory prayers take cognisance of divine integrity and divine justice and imprecatory prayers must be offered from a position of virtue, being in fellowship with God.

Psalm 143, while the entire Psalm is an imprecatory prayer the last two verses, verses 11 and 12, certainly illustrate the principle.

“For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life [imprecatory prayers often have to do with deliverance, though not always]. In your righteousness [integrity] bring my life out of trouble. In your grace silence my enemies, and destroy all who afflict my soul; for I am your servant.”

The imprecatory prayer has to be prayed from a position of integrity, a position of momentum, and a position of maturity. Most people who pray imprecatory prayers get an immediate answer in operation boomerang. Whatever they prayed for the destruction of their enemies they prayed from the viewpoint of revenge. God has made it very clear: “Revenge belongs to me, saith the Lord, I will repay.” So whenever you pray a prayer of revenge you always get an immediate answer, operation boomerang. Whatever you ask for your enemies generally comes to you, except your life is not taken, at least not at that moment. You may be under the sin unto death but it will take a little time. So always remember that the imprecatory prayer is a weapon which can only be successfully used in the hands of a person with maximum virtue, a person with spiritual maturity.

Psalm 35

Verse 4, “Let those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin [those who devise evil against me] be turned back and humiliated.” Notice that he has the concept of virtue. He has been unjustly treated and therefore he prays for the thing to bounce back on them. But he doesn’t pray for their death here.

Verse 8, “May ruin overtake them by surprise; may the net which they hid to trap me entangle them.” David recognises a principle here: people are the products of their own decisions. Therefore his imprecatory prayer follows that line in verse 8. “May they fall into the pit [their ruin].”

Verse 15, “But when I stumbled they gathered in glee; attackers gathered together when I was unaware,” the same idea as vultures attacking some animal that has broken its leg and is now helpless, “they slandered me without ceasing.”

Verse 26, here is the gist of an imprecatory prayer: “May all who gloat [gloaters have it coming] over my distress be put to shame and humiliated; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace,” a very wise prayer, by the way, because you will note that the worst thing that can happen to a person who suffers from arrogance is humiliation. So the prayer reflects the tremendous spiritual wisdom of David.

Psalm 69, an imprecatory prayer dealing with those who hate you without a cause.

Verse 4, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful.”

Verse 22, “May their tables set before them become a snare; and when they are in prosperity, may it become a trap,” a prayer for misery in prosperity.

Verse 23, “May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see [blindness], and may they suffer from terrible nervousness.”

Verse 24, “Pour out your wrath on them, let your fierce anger overtake them.”

Verse 25, “May their bivouac be desolate; may none dwell in their tents.”

Psalm 109 is the ultimate in imprecatory prayers.

Verse 1, “O God whom I praise, do not be silent!”

Verse 2, “For they have opened their wicked and deceitful mouths against me [slander]; they have maligned me with lying tongues.”

Verse 3, “With words of hatred they surround me, they attack me without a cause.

Verse 4, “In return for my friendship they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer.”

Verse 5, “They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”

Verse 6, “Appoint an evil man to oppose them; and let an accuser [satan in the Hebrew] stand at his right hand.”

Verse 7, “When he is tried, let him be found guilty; and let even his prayers become sin.”

Verse 8, “Let his days be few; let another take his office.”

Verse 9, “May his children become orphans, and his wife be a widow.”

Verse 10, “May his children be wandering beggars; and seek alms far from their ruined homes.”

Verse 11, “Let creditors seize all that he owns; may strangers plunder the production of his labour.”

Verse 12, “May no one extend kindness to him, or take pity on his orphaned children.”

Verse 13 — “May his posterity be cut off; let their names be blotted out of the next generation.”

Verse 16, “For he never thought to show kindness, but persecuted [hounded to death] the poor, the needy, the broken-hearted; he put to death the despondent of the right lobe.”

Verse 20, “May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my soul.”

There is no commentary in the Bible that says these prayers are wrong. They could be, depending on the one who prays. The believer who prays from the cosmic system and offers such a prayer from arrogance is into operation boomerang and he will be hurt by it.

We do have numerous passages in the book of Revelation on the subject of imprecatory prayers from the Tribulational saints. The angel we are studying is about to process all of them and make them a part of the historical disaster that comes to the world at the end of the Tribulation — the seven last plagues. The fifth angel, or the pur sui vant officer, is about to assume command of the execution squad. He is on standby until he assumes command.

The king of arms now comes into the picture in verse 18. He is the highest-ranking angel among the elect angels, the apostle Paul or the Moses of the elect angels. In the chain of a command there is no higher-ranking angel except our Lord Jesus Christ under the title, “the angel of the Lord.” The imprecatory prayers now come into the picture. The imprecatory prayers of Revelation 6:9-11 is what starts the ball rolling in verse 18.

“And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been murdered because of the Word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained: furthermore they shouted and said, O sovereign Lord [Christ in hypostatic union], holy [the integrity of Christ as eternal God] and true [ the integrity of the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union], How long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the population of the earth? Also a white robe [interim body] was given to each one of them [Tribulational martyrs]; and they were told that they should refresh themselves a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants, even their brethren, were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed.”

Now the king of arms must co-ordinate this.

Verse 18, First of all we have the interim use of the conjunction kai which should be translated “In the meantime.” With this we meet the king of arms under the title of the adjective a)lloj and the noun a)ggeloj, “another angel.” This is the king of arms, and it will be noted again that he comes from the same headquarters system under the verb e)xerxomai. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The king of arms produces that action. This is a declarative for eschatological reality.

Then we have the relative clause introduced the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, “who has.” The definite article is used as the relative pronoun. The perfective present refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. Here is an angel who is now completely and totally superior to Satan in every way, and he won his state of aristocracy. He is a member of the new knighthood and he has the rank of king of arms of the angelic college of heralds.

What he has is given is in the accusative singular direct object e)cousia, “authority,” which is said to be e)pi plus the genitive of pur, “over fire.” This is a reference to the fire in the altar of incense where there are thousands of imprecatory prayers which have been uttered.

In Revelation 8:3-5 we see what is meant by having authority over the fire: “In the meantime another angel [the king of arms] came and took his place before the altar [the golden altar of incense where intercessory prayer is made], and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him, that he might offer with the prayers of all the saints [Tribulational believers] on the golden altar which was before the throne. Then the smoke of the incense, along with the prayers of the saints [imprecatory prayers first mentioned in 6:9-11], went up before God from the hand of the angel [the king of arms]. Then the angel took the incense shovel, and filled it with fire from the altar [that is where we get the phrase, “he had the authority over the fire”], and he hurled it to the earth: and there followed peals of thunder, loud noises, flashes of lightning, also an earthquake [a warning of coming judgment].”

Notice in verse 18 that the angel, the king of arms, does not come from the temple, he comes from the golden altar of incense, e)k plus the ablative of qusiasthrion, a reference to the altar of incense. He gives an order. He has the right to do so because he is in a co-ordinating position and he ranks highest in the chain of command. He is superior to the pur sui vant officer who commands the execution squad made up of pur sui vant messengers.

We have the connective kai, “and,” followed by the aorist active indicative from the verb fwnew, “and he called [or spoke].” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the king of arms produces the action, declarative for eschatological reality. And he shouts with a “magnificent” voice, megaj, “to him,” the pur sui vant officer who is placed on standby ready to assume command of the execution squad, “who had the sharp sickle,” the symbol of divine judgment. “Send in your sharp sickle” is a repeating of the command he has already received from our Lord. Once this is all co-ordinated he will assume command of the execution squad. Notice that this is an order from God the Father to the Son, relayed over to the king of arms as well as relayed directly to the Son. It is from the Father in the temple to the Son on the cloud, from the Son on the cloud to the king of arms at the altar of incense, while we have on standby the pur sui vant officer who will command the execution squad.

What does all this mean? It means that protocol is necessary for victory. It means that without protocol it is impossible to be a winner. Protocol always implies rank, authority, and is a reminder of the importance of basic virtue which is humility. No matter how high you go in life (this is your personal application right now) there is always going to be someone better, someone higher. If you become frustrated because someone is better, someone is greater, someone is higher, someone is superior, then you are downward trail; from thereon it is arrogance all of the way to your own self-destruction. You can only learn protocol through doctrine and the road to protocol is through the principle of virtue first. First there must be humility, enforced and genuine, then there must be motivational virtue directed toward God, and finally there must be functional virtue directed toward all mankind. This is all a principle that we learn from the protocol of heaven, for God’s plan demands of us that the protocol of heaven be our daily modus vivendi on earth. Protocol means rank, authority, superiority. You and I are not in this world to be “better than” anyone else. We are here to have that one thing that is greater than anything in life, and must be acquired. The greatest things in life are acquired, they are not inherent. Whether you are inferior to anyone else or think you are, or someone tells you you are, is not an issue. You are never going to enjoy life as long as it bothers you that someone is better, and when you get involved in the various systems of trying to straighten out life on the basis of equality, a red herring and a dead end for those who follow it. The protocol of heaven is designed to teach us the most basic system of living.

The angel is now going to give a mandate which is the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. Imprecatory prayers are a human appeal to divine justice rather than lust for revenge. All of this is based on protocol but we should note that protocol is based on respect for authority, not fear of authority. The function of protocol is based on virtue, not superiority. Protocol orientation demands confidence so that no one is disturbed by someone having greater authority or greater power than another. Protocol without virtue is like ritual without reality.

In heaven protocol is the function of aristocracy: those elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric conflict. This protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that in the prehistoric angelic conflict God’s plan for elect angels included the same principles we are studying: virtue first. Virtue overcomes the whole basis for Satan’s cosmic system. Satan’s cosmic system begins with motivational evil. Motivational evil is arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred. Functional evil are the gates of cosmic one plus the gates found in cosmic two, but motivational evil is the beginning of all of it. Here we have the principle that virtue conquers jealousy, a motivational evil. Virtue is actually the key, then, to everything. Protocol demands virtue and without protocol virtue is non-existent.

Translation of verse 18: “And in the meantime another angel [the king of arms] who has authority over fire [the fire of the altar of incense] came out from the altar: and he shouted with a magnificent voice to him [to the pur sui vant officer placed on standby waiting for command] who had a sharp sickle...”

We have a seraph giving a command to a cherub who in verse 19 will assume command of the execution squad. Every time there is a divine judgment on earth it is a system of protocol, a system of checks and balances, a system of co-ordinating prayers that are legitimate.

Note that there is order in heaven, nothing is ever done in a haphazard manner but a chain of command exists to demonstrate the deliberateness of divine judgment on certain segments of the human race in order that other segments of the human race can continue in history. Behind every divine judgment is divine wisdom, which means that historical disasters from God or personal disasters is a matter of all things working together for good. That means there are no accidents in the Christian life. It means that every disaster, both personal and collective, protects both the born-again believer and the entire human race from destroying itself through degeneracy or self-righteousness. For the believer with doctrine, therefore, disaster is really not disaster but a blessing in the form of divine judgment, fulfilling the principle, of course, that there are no accidents in the Christian life.

Then the mandate is given in the aorist active imperative of the verb pempw which means to send in. It has the connotation of attack. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It contemplates the overall attack, the form that the judgment will take at the end of the Tribulation. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer on standby waiting to command the judgment squad produces the action of the verb. The action of the verb will be Revelation chapter sixteen where each member of the squad will pull the pin of his grenade and throw it on the earth where there will be tremendous divine judgment. Remember that being on standby simply means that he is waiting for his command to be formed. His command will be formed in Revelation chapter fifteen verses six and seven. Under his command will be seven angels, pur sui vant messengers who will form the squad. In chapter fifteen these seven pur sui vant messengers who have the seven last plagues are going to be presented to us. In chapter sixteen they will fulfil this command.

This is the imperative of command followed by the accusative direct object from the noun drepanon, “sickle,” and with that o)cuj, “sharp.” The sickle is sharp. Anytime God’s judgements are given they are very sharp, “send in your sharp sickle.” The sharp sickle are the seven judgements which we will study in chapter sixteen. The sixth one is the Armageddon campaign which is one campaign in the great world war of the last half of the Tribulation.

You will note how many times divine victory comes through divine judgment. We first saw this principle at the cross. When we were given human life at the moment of physical birth that human life was imputed to the soul of each one of us. At the same time Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. That means that we were condemned under Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death,” at the point of birth. We were born physically alive and spiritually dead. That is to protect those who never reach accountability. They have to be condemned before they can be saved. The condemnation occurred at birth and therefore if they die before reaching accountability they automatically are saved.

In the meantime no personal sins were ever imputed to us for judgment. Instead, they were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. This is the function of divine justice. The justice of God the Father set aside God the Father’s love for God the Son. Love was superseded. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” is only a side of this principle, but His justice had to go into action and He took all of those personal sins in the history of the human race and at the cross they were all imputed to Christ and judged. That is what the scripture means when it says, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Our sins were imputed to Christ, not to us. They were judged on the cross, and that is why we have this non-meritorious system of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Why Christ? Because He is the only saviour, He was the one who was judged for our sins. Jesus Christ is not simply a religious leader, he is the only saviour. Our Lord Jesus Christ was judged for us on the cross. Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception, there is no merit in the subject, all of the merit is in the object. Judgment is the basis of victory. Our Lord was judged for us on the cross and therefore judgment is always the basis for victory, judgment is the means by which God actually perpetuates the human race in history.

The human race would have destroyed itself and almost did so in the time of Noah, and God came along with judgment because out of all of the millions of people who lived on the earth in the time of Noah only eight were qualified to continue under the principle of protocol and civilisation. At the second advent the same thing will happen again. Unbelievers will be cast off the earth, the baptism of fire, and believers will be the cadre to go in for the population explosion of the Millennium. But there never has been a time since the creation of man when man has not occupied the earth. Sometimes we are down to just a few people but that will only happen once and that has already occurred at the judgment of the universal flood. The Noahic covenant was given, saying that man will never be destroyed from the earth, that God will see to it that he is not, and that anything that threatens the total destruction of the human race will be eliminated by divine judgment. Divine judgment, therefore, is the point of reference from the fall of man to the Millennium. Divine judgment is the basis for divine victory. You and I have eternal life because of divine judgment. Our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, took our place on the cross.

The command is given to the pur sui vant officer: “Send in your sharp sickle,” the seven last plagues of the Tribulation, “and harvest the cluster of grapes.”

The harvesting of the cluster of grapes has to do with the divine victory. Note how many times divine victory comes through divine judgment. This is because divine judgment is the point of reference from the fall of man to the end of the Millennium. Divine judgment is the basis of our so great salvation as we have noted. That is the principle that blessing comes through judgment. Blessing often comes through adversity. Prosperity is merely the result sometimes of blessing through adversity. Divine judgment is the means for perpetuating the human race so that every generation of history has the opportunity of eternal salvation and the blessings of the plan of God.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai and the aorist active imperative of trugaw, which means to harvest. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It refers to the fact or action extending over a period of time, the last half of the Tribulation; specifically the time covered by Revelation chapter sixteen in which degeneracy in every form is judged. In chapter fifteen this judgment harvest is designated as the seven last plagues, while in chapter sixteen it is called the seven bowl judgements. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer commanding the execution squad is going to produce the action of the verb. The accusative singular direct object from the noun botruj means “cluster of grapes.” With it we have the ablative plural from a)mpeloj which means “vines.” Translation: “Send in your sharp sickle and harvest the cluster of grapes from the vine of the earth.”

The cluster of grapes is very important here because it refers to the various categories of degeneracy that have to be eliminated in order for people to survive the last year of the Tribulation. The ablative of source from the vines connotes the idea of separation accompanied by the implication that the original situation of degeneration during the last half of the Tribulation would destroy the human race even before the second advent were it not for these seven judgements. The harvesting of these clusters of grapes is amplified in chapter sixteen where the mandate is executed. There is a continuous chain of command, a system of protocol, which brings all of this into operation.

We have perfect divine timing at the end of this verse. It is mentioned as perfect divine timing. We have a reason for all of this. Harvesting the cluster of grapes means that we have a saturation of three categories of degeneracy that will destroy the population of the earth in that year, or shorter, prior to the second advent. Therefore we have to eliminate through these seven last plagues the degeneracy that would be self-destructive. Three categories are involved: organised evil, the greatest danger to mankind which does not tolerate Christianity or disorganised evil. Disorganised evil and morality will also be judged. So the whole judgment is to protect the human race so that it can be perpetuated to the second advent.

Next it says, “because its grapes are ripe,” the aorist active indicative of a)kmazw, which means they are rotten. A)kmazw has the connotation of reaching its peak, of being overripe, and therefore being rotten. The saturation of degeneracy throughout the world in the last half of the Tribulation threatens the survival of the human race. The human race cannot continue to exist with this degeneracy which has saturated every level of society. So to protect the human race from the self-destruction of degeneracy God judges the degenerate areas so that the human race can be perpetuated for the rest of history, the last part of the Tribulation and the entire part of the Millennium. Hence, the historical trend: divine judgment in the form of historical disaster protects the human race from self-destruction and degeneracy. The wine of the wrath of God is administered to protect the human race. Principle: God’s judgements are a part of God’s blessing to the human race. The active voice: the degenerate part of the human race produces the action of the verb under the analogy that the clusters of grapes have ripened to the point of degeneracy. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the various categories of degeneracy.

Translation of verse 18: “In the meantime another angel [the king of arms] who had authority over fire came out from the altar [of imprecatory prayers]: and he shouted with a magnificent voice to him [the officer who will command the execution squad] who has the sharp sickle, and he said, Send in your sharp sickle, and harvest the cluster of grapes [the saturation of human degeneracy] from the vines of the earth [wherever human degeneracy is located on earth]; because its grapes are ripe.”

Verse 19, the actual target is reached and is destroyed. We notice immediately in this verse that the pur sui vant officer now assumes command. First of all we note the success in the fact that he is going to assume command, and when he does he will be successful. They have selected exactly the right angel for the job. Notice he is not from the angelic order of battle. For this particular job he is from the angelic college of heralds. The angelic order of battle fights generally in heaven and protects certain segments of believers in earth. But when it comes to a strict military operation of judgment it is the angelic college of heralds that provides both the command and the personnel under that command. This command goes to the pur sui vant officer. He is the angel of verse 19.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” and the nominative singular subject a)ggeloj, referring to the angel in command. He has a successful command function and we learn this from the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw. We translate it “swinging the sickle.” He executes his orders; the mission is going to be successful. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. We look ahead and see that he will be successful as the commanding officer of the execution squad. In chapter fifteen we will see how the squad is formed; in chapter sixteen we will see the squad going into action. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer who has been on alert, on standby, will now assume command. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that he is successful. This means that a very special angelic creature has been selected for command. He has proved himself in the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Next we have “against the earth,” e)ij plus the accusative of gh. We have already taken up the words “his sickle” which is the accusative direct object from the noun drepanon, plus a)utoj. The swinging of the sickle against the earth is the brief as to how it all turns out. We look ahead and we see that the execution squad under the command of this angelic officer does a great job. Revelation 21:9 even tells us that later on they have other jobs.

Principle: God selects certain believers to fulfil divine missions because they are great. Greatness comes through the priorities of the plan of God. God has a plan for your life. Whether you fulfil that plan or not …

Greatness comes from such decisions as virtue first, doctrine first. God uses prepared people. That is the issue in this particular passage; that is the issue in the next three chapters. Only prepared people are used in this way by God. If you are a crisis personality it means that you have trained for it over a long period of time. It means that you have taken in doctrine constantly, it means that you have developed the three virtues of the divine dynasphere. It means that you are a prepared person. All of the preparation is invisible as far as others are concerned but the results are visible.

God has a plan for your life and that plan includes nine characteristics

1. It includes a purpose: to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in time, therefore to achieve tactical victory through spiritual momentum.

2. It has an objective: to advance to spiritual maturity in the plan of God. There is no momentum outside of His plan.

3. A policy: grace is the policy of God in the administration of His plan for the Church Age believer, known as the royal family of God.

4. A system: virtue first is one of the priorities in the plan of God.

5. A point of reference: the holiness or integrity of God is the point of reference, divine integrity is composed of two attributes: the justice of God and the righteousness of God.

The frames of reference which are not involved in this dispensation: not the sovereignty of God, as per hyper-Calvinism; not the omnipotence of God, as per the healing movement; not the love of God, as per emotional fundamentalism.

6. An authority: the Word of God is the authority. God has delegated responsibility of communication of doctrine to the gift of pastor-teacher. Other responsibilities go with other spiritual gifts. All believers have a spiritual gift.

7. A result: good decisions from a position of strength in the system. That means you have personal control of your life and eventually will have a personal sense of destiny.

8. An enemy: the cosmic system.

9. A protocol: three categories of virtue in the divine dynasphere form the principle of the protocol in the plan of God. God’s plan does have protocol just as many facets of God’s plan have protocol. For example, prayer has protocol. All prayer is addressed to the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Spirit.

The system of priorities in God’s plan

In God’s plan: mandates first; in God’s system: virtue first; in God’s purpose: Christ first; in God’s policy: grace first; in God’s objective: momentum first; in God’s authority: doctrine first.

The system works around the divine dynasphere which has been given to this dispensation only. The prototype divine dynasphere was proved by our Lord Jesus Christ. We have eight gates which are a part of the system.

Gate one: the filling of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is based on a system of protocol. God the Holy Spirit does not indwell believers in the Old Testament. He empowered a few under the doctrine of enduement, e.g. David, Elijah, Elisha, certain prophets, writers of the Old Testament. The Church Age is the only dispensation, until the future one in the Millennium, when God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, winner or loser, carnal or spiritual. And this is the only dispensation in which the entire plan of God revolves around the power of God the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is entrance into the divine dynasphere through gate one. Walking in the Spirit is functioning at the various gates. This is the power system.

Secondly, there is the basic modus operandi which is so necessary to develop objectivity in the spiritual life. Many born-again believers are psychologically very subjective. They are subjective through every type of environmental process, every type of psychological system, and subjectivity has to be set aside. Subjectivity is basically set aside, first through the basics involving the rebound technique, and then the three stages of the faith-rest drill. Objectivity is absolutely necessary in the divine system, there is no place for subjectivity. Subjectivity is always related to arrogance and involvement in the cosmic system.

The third gate is enforced and genuine humility. This is basic virtue directed toward authority. Basic virtue is always humility, and humility in several categories is orientation to life. Without humility there is no success in any aspect of life where success can be measured. That is the teachability gate.

Gate four is the momentum gate. Remember that in each one of these gates there is a system of protocol, an organised system, God is not the author of confusion. At gate four we not only see our momentum but the function of our two royal warrants. Each one of us is a priest; each one of us is an ambassador for Christ. Perception of doctrine: the function of our royal priesthood; application of doctrine: the function of our royal ambassadorship.

That leads to gate five, the place where protocol reaches its peak in manifestation. Gate five is directed toward God, it is the motivational virtue of the Christian way of life.

Gate six is directed toward man and circumstances. It is functional virtue.

Gate seven with its eight major momentum tests necessary to reach maturity.

Gate eight is spiritual maturity.

Virtue is found in gate three, five, and six. This is where protocol is always manifest. There is an organised system of protocol in every one of these gates. W are not studying at the moment in this part of the eschatology of Revelation the Christian way of life but we are studying the concept of protocol. This means that since God has a plan for your life as a believer you cannot afford as a believer to sit on the bank waiting for the river to pass you by. You have to learn doctrine today, tomorrow and the next day. Then, the day after you will put the plan of God into operation — first on a simple basis, and then in the greater complexities of the concept of protocol. Your life will be changed.

In the time in which the book of Revelation was written the Roman empire was the first Gentile client nation to God. Virgil said: “Advance in virtue”. That pretty well summarises the concept of protocol. Or, as one of the Latin writers once quipped: “Magna est veritas et brevalavit,” doctrine is powerful and ultimately will win. That is the concept in the plan of God.

This means there is a system. Without s system you have no standard; without a system you have no co-ordination; without a system you have no performance; without a system you have no effectiveness. In the divine system the ability resides in the essence of God while compliability rests with the volition of the believer. Without the divine system the believer has no standards to distinguish the plan of God from Satan’s cosmic system. The difference is between morality which is the virtue-morality of the plan of God and the arrogant morality of the cosmic system. The believer has no co-ordination for application of doctrine to circumstances of life. Becoming spiritually self-sustaining and fulfilling the system all demand understanding a protocol. As you understand the plan of God the divine system of protocol unfolds. The believer has no performance, he has no momentum, he does not fulfil the right priorities in the plan of God. The believer has no effectiveness, neither the attainment of spiritual maturity nor the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ and, furthermore, he has no legitimate Christian service. Therefore, of course, it is important to understand protocol.

That is protocol on earth very briefly as it relates to us in the Church Age but what we are here to study is protocol in heaven because that is the subject of Revelation 14:15-19. Protocol is defined as a rigid, long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank and strict adherence to due order of precedence. A precise and correct procedure results.

Protocol recognises therefore the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority, consequently protocol requires virtue for its existence. Protocol is related to basic virtue in life which is enforced and genuine humility because basic virtue is the basis for everything, not only for success in life as an individual, but for functioning in the divine plan, the divine system, which God has provided for us. Protocol is related to motivational virtue through the principles of the believer’s worship of God, and protocol is related to functional virtue through the modus operandi of the morality of virtue. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, God’s policy, God’s priorities, God’s system, emphasises the conclusion that protocol exists in heaven. That is what this passage is all about. No judgment of any major type nor judgements of the most minor and minute type ever occur without the function of the highest-ranking possible protocol in heaven: God the Father, God the Son, specifically mentioned in this passage, and the angelic college of heralds. The fact that authority exists in the highest sphere of angelic power in the angelic college of heralds is a very important part of this concept.

The coexistence of a dual nobility in a land is not unusual. In heaven we have the angelic order of battle and the angelic college of heralds. For aristocracy there is always the protocol. The protocol in heaven is very precise, very exact, and very important because it means that nothing by way of historical disaster ever occurs on earth apart from a whole system and a process of check and countercheck, balance and counterbalance. Everything that happens to you by way of personal disaster and everything that happens to us as a nation by way of disaster results from a protocol system in heaven.

Remember: Protocol is based on respect for authority, not fear of authority. Protocol always involves the volition and the mental attitude of those who do not have authority. Protocol is based, therefore, on virtue, not on superiority. Protocol orientation demands confidence so that one is not disturbed by the greatness, the superiority, the authority, or the power of someone else. In heaven protocol is the function of aristocracy: the elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict. This protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that in the prehistoric angelic conflict, before man was created, God’s plan for the elect angels included the principle of virtue first.

Verse 19 is not the function of the execution squad, it is merely some of the results: “Then the angel [ the pur sui vant officer] swung his sickle against the earth [the administration of the seven last plagues]...”

Next we have “and he harvested,” the connective use of the conjunction kA plus the aorist active indicative of the verb turgid. This refers to the function of the seven last plagues. The culminative aorist tense views the judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the terrible historical disasters that precede the second advent of Christ. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer who has been on standby, now assumes command of the execution squad. He fulfils his function. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)mpeloj. It refers to vines, the vines of the earth. The vines of the earth represent the areas of degeneracy, the areas of religion, in the last half of the Tribulation. We have seen that there are actually three areas of degeneracy in the last half of the Tribulation: organised evil, disorganised evil, and immoral degeneracy. The vines or clusters of grapes indicate the fact that man by man’s volition produces historical circumstances which are self-destructive and, therefore, to protect man from destroying himself, there is divine judgment which comes from the system of protocol.

Man always brings on historical disaster and inevitable divine discipline through the decisions of his own volition. Self-determination is always the basis for personal and historical disaster. Bad decisions from a position of weakness always result in cosmic involvement. So man would destroy himself left to his own devices. The counter-fire to stop the fire, as it were, is the divine judgment which intervenes into human history to protect man from destroying himself. In historical disaster man loses control of his life, he has no personal sense of destiny. Maximum bad decisions made by mankind on the cosmic system demand, therefore, divine judgment and historical disaster to perpetuate the human race. The human race is actually perpetuated by the wisdom of God in the perpetuation of historical disaster. The harvest of the vines is the result of man’s negative volition while the pouring out of the bowls of divine wrath in Revelation chapter sixteen is the execution, divine judgment, or God’s wrath in order to deliver and protect the human race from self-destruction and to eliminate the cancerous portions that are destroying mankind on the earth.

Again, the conclusion from all of this: man will not be able to destroy man from the earth. There is no system of nuclear weapons, nerve gas, chemical warfare, nothing whereby man will be able to destroy himself from this earth. Man by man’s efforts cannot destroy man. God overrules from the protocol in heaven through the gracious judgements of historical disaster. Man will continue to live on planet earth until history is completed at the end of the Millennium. So the swinging of the sickle, the harvesting, is the function of the pur sui vant officer in command of the execution squad.

Next we have the process of divine judgment, “and he threw them.” We have the connective conjunction kai, and the aorist active indicative from the verb ballw which means to throw. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Man is the product of his own decisions. Bad decisions of cosmic involvement are harvested, put into the winepress for divine judgment. The active voice: the harvested vines with their clusters of bad decisions are put into the winepress by the pur sui vant officer functioning through his execution squad. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the divine collection of bad decisions which are accumulated over a period and are harvested for divine judgment. There is no word for “them.” It is understood as a direct object of the context but there is no word for it in the Greek, “and he threw [them] into the winepress,” e)ij plus the accusative of lenoj. The winepress always refers to divine judgment, it represents the accumulation of bad decisions from man’s free will, man’s decisions from his position of weakness on a part of a segment of the human race. The winepress indicates a process in which divine judgment does not act until there has been an accumulation of bad decisions relating to motivational and functional evil of the cosmic system. This winepress is also called megaj, the adjective which is used with it meaning “great.” It also means powerful. Megaj has as many as thirty related meanings.

Then we have a descriptive genitive of qumoj used with the possessive genitive of qeoj, and we have an anthropopathism. The meaning of the wrath of God: divine justice is man’s frame of reference for both blessing and cursing from God. The blessing originates from the fact that divine justice imputed all man’s sins to Christ on the cross and then judged them. This blessing is where God’s plan and God’s system for mankind actually begins. Eternal salvation through faith in Christ is the beginning of everything. Rejection of Christ as personal saviour is where the cursing begins, John 3:18. The wrath of God expresses the function of divine justice with regard to historical trends. The accumulation of evil in the form of degeneracy, religion, the morality of arrogance, endangers the very existence of the human race and their right of self-determination. Therefore these saturations of evil result in divine judgment for the purpose of perpetuating the human race.

Translation: “Then the angel [the pur sui vant officer] swung his sickle against the earth [the seven last plagues], and he harvested the vines of the earth [all the areas where degeneracy, religion and pseudo-morality existed], and he threw them [the clusters of grapes or vines] into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”

There is no way to reconcile Christianity and philosophy. Philosophy always comes up short. This is demonstrated by the apostle Peter when he says that [2 Peter 1:3] “seeing his divine power [the divine dynasphere] has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness...” So the brilliant minds, the men of genius in philosophy who strive to attain virtue never arrive there. Yet we, with all of our stupidity, can get into the divine system, after we understand it, and function in it and produce what men throughout the ages have desired to produce and could never achieve, virtue. “… through the true knowledge of him [Christ] who called us to his own glory [the prototype divine dynasphere] and virtue.” We were not called to self-righteousness, we were not called to a system of philosophical speculation, rationalism and empiricism; we were not called to go out and try to use our volition and achieve virtue. Virtue is only manufactured inside of the divine dynasphere.

Continuing in 2 Peter 1:4 -9, “Through which things [both the divine dynasphere and the manufacture of virtue in it] he has given to us his precious and magnificent promises, that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature [through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, through the system: virtue first], having escaped the corruption that is in the cosmic system by lust. Now for this reason also, applying all diligence in your doctrine supply virtue [doctrine supplies virtue], and in your virtue, knowledge; and in your knowledge, protocol [self-discipline], and in your protocol, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness [gate eight of the divine dynasphere]; and in your godliness, capacity for love [the manifestation of virtue-love], and in your capacity for love the virtue of impersonal love. For if these virtues are yours increasing [momentum and residence in the system], they render you neither useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these virtues is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten purification from his former sins [having forgotten rebound, therefore outside of the divine dynasphere].”

The apostle Paul in Philippians 4:8 says, “Therefore, royal family, everything that is true [doctrinal], everything that is honourable [integrity], everything that is just [fair], everything that is pure, everything that is capacity for love, everything that is commendable, if there is any virtue [virtue must come first], and anything worthy of praise, you concentrate on these things.” Protocol becomes the structure for putting together the virtue.

We resume in Revelation with the terminating point of the seven last plagues. Chapters fifteen and sixteen will be the fill-in. But what is the end of it all? How is evil going to end up in the human race at the closing moments of the Tribulation? With all of the system of protocol in heaven, with all of the fairness, with all the justice, with the perfect function of virtue in the angelic college of heralds, with the great leadership involved, what is the end result? Notice that out of the whole system of protocol comes a system of justice on earth, and a system of justice on earth demands the death of the guilty. The guilty have resorted to violence; they must die by violence. The blood mentioned at the end of this chapter is the inevitable result of the honourable function of the protocol in heaven. There are certain members of the human race that must die for the human race to be perpetuated.

Verse 20 — we start with the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “In fact.” Next we have the nominative singular subject lhnoj, the winepress, where all of this judgment is occurring. Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb patew which means to trample, to trample down, “In fact the winepress was trampled.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the angelic officer in charge of the execution squad. One of the execution squad will do this in chapter sixteen, the sixth pur sui vant messenger. It is a reference, then, to the final phase of the Armageddon campaign. The passive voice: the winepress is the accumulation of cosmic evil from man’s bad decisions, and it receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the Armageddon campaign as the sixth bowl judgment and its inevitable result. Then we have an adverb used as an improper preposition, e)cwqen, and with it we have the object of the preposition which is polij, “outside the city.” Polij is going to refer to Jerusalem several times in the next context. This is a reference to the siege of Jerusalem. We have the slaughter, then, of the final phase of the Armageddon campaign.

The nominative subject in the singular is a(ima and this represents all of the slaughter on the battlefield of the Armageddon campaign and of the general world war which occurs at that time. A(ima is the word for blood. It can be taken as literal blood but actually it is a figurative use for people dying. They don’t all bleed to death but blood is used in that sense. Then we have e)k plus the ablative of lhnoj and it refers to the winepress, “and the blood from the winepress.” Then the aorist active indicative from e)cerxomai, translated here “flowed out.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the slaughter, the annihilation of the enemy in the last world war in history, including the Armageddon campaign, and gathers it into a single whole. The active voice: the blood of the annihilated armies produces the action of the verb. In other words, great casualties. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the great slaughter which shocks the world at the point of the second advent. Next we have an Attic Greek adverb, a)xri, used as an improper preposition with the genitive of xalinoj, a horse’s bridle. Then the final phrase, “a thousand, six hundred stades.” A stade is roughly 200 yards. 1600 stades is roughly 180 miles. Hence, within the 180-mile radius of Jerusalem there will be a tremendous slaughter which terminates the Armageddon campaign.

This last verse, which doesn’t really connect with anything, it just gives believers confidence so that they know how it is going to turn out.

Translation: “In fact, the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the winepress up to the horse’s bridle, as far as a hundred and eighty miles.”

This fulfils the prophecy, for example, of Isaiah 34:5,6, “My sword is satiated in heaven,” the protocol of heaven related to the slaughter of Armageddon, “The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.” Ezekiel 39:2-5 describes the same slaughter: “And I shall turn you around,” speaking of the king of the north in the invasion of Armageddon, “drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north [the invasion point], and bring you against the mountains of Israel. And I shall strike your bow from your left hand, and smash your arrows from your right [the neutralisation of infantry weapons]. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all of your troops, and the people who are with you [allies]; and I shall give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and the beast of the field. And you shall fall on open fields; for it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord God.”

We are talking here about slaughter in the millions. And we are also talking not about violence in terms of terrorism but are actually discussing professional killing, not murder. In other words, how do you stop a raging fire” Light a backfire. That is exactly what we have. Remember that all legitimate killing of people, all just killing of people, all killing from virtue, must be professional. The person who gets emotional in warfare is a poor soldier. He must be professional, he must concentrate on his weapon, not on who is being killed out there. There should never be one qualm of conscience if you understand virtue, if you understand protocol. Protocol plus virtue equals professionalism. There must be no emotion, no conflict.

The burial of the army of the king of the north is found in Ezekiel 39:11-12, “And it shall come to pass in that day that I shall give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block traffic. So they will bury Gog there will all of his army, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog [the armies of Gog]. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land [of their corpses].”

In verse 13 we have the story of the burial ground. It will be a memorial to the glory of God for the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of Satan and his system of evil in this world. “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be a memorial for them on the day that I glorify myself, declares the Lord God.” Joel 2:20 describes this same slaughter: “And I will remove the northern army far from you, I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, in fact its vanguard into the eastern sea [the Dead Sea], its rear guard into the western sea [the Mediterranean]. Then its stench will ascend into the air and its foul smell will come up,” and next it describes the military glory of this great army of the king of the north, “for it has done great things.” But that is past history, they are now corpses. In Revelation 19:21 we have once again a reference to this principle. In this passage in general, what do we have? Divine victory during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. It includes several factors. First, the defeat of the remnants of Satan’s three assault armies, demon armies. Secondly, the defeat of demonism by mature believers through virtue, through the development of Bible doctrine. Protocol virtue defeats demonism, the invisible army where there are no corpses involved but where the weapon is the protocol of the divine dynasphere, the production of the three categories of virtue. Thirdly, the victory of the Tribulational martyrs who accept death rather than renounce our Lord Jesus Christ as the living Word and Bible doctrine as the written Word. Fourth, the divine victory over the Antichrist army of then Armageddon campaign which includes the deliverance of Israel. Fifth, the divine victory over ecumenical religion, the subject of two chapters yet to be studied in Revelation chapters 17 & 18. Sixth, the deliverance of Israel, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants at the second advent of Christ. Seventh, there will be the removal of Satan as the ruler of this world and he is put in prison for a thousand years during the Millennial reign of Christ.