Comments on Revelation 19 Chapter 19 starts off the final subject block of Revelation, that of the Day of the Lord. Chapters 19-22 detail Jesus Christ's Second Coming and the events associated with it, such as the overthrow of the dragon and the beast, The Resurrection, the advent of the Millennium, as so on. v1-8 The fourfold Hallelujah. The four beasts and twenty four elders from the earlier chapters of Revelation and all of the people in heaven rejoice and praise God for His true and righteous judgements. Note, God's judgement upon the wicked has largely been suspended since the start of the fifth seal in 6:9. The people rejoicing here are composed of, at least in part, the martyrs from 6:10 who were asking for God to judge those who murdered them. v7-8 The Marriage supper of the Lamb, cp. Isa. 54:4-8, Hos. 2:14-23, Matt. 22:1-14, Matt. 25:1-13, 2 Cor. 11:2. Righteous Israel is symbolically presented as a virtuous bride to the Lamb. v9-10 is a curious parenthetical statement. Inserted in amongst this vision of heaven, the angel guiding John through the vision stops to comment to John. He tells John to write "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" and then he tells him what he has heard is the true word of God. Paul assumes the angel is one of these persons called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" and so he falls down before him out of reverence and/or fear. But, the angel prevents him from doing so saying they are both servants who have a testimony of Jesus who worship God. The parenthesis serves to establish the hierarchy of heaven. People who are servants of God and who have a testimony of Christ are those who are eligible for the marriage supper of the Lamb. John is one of those people, as is John's present angelic escort, only John's angelic escort is apparently post-mortal. As all of them owe their potential, or present, exaltation to the Lamb, and the Lamb defers to the Father, all are to worship the Father. There is no worshiping of angels by mortals, as the angels are former mortals themselves. We don't know if the angel is resurrected yet or not, but it doesn't matter. Regardless, the exalted angels owe their exaltation to the Father, and so all deference is to the Father. v11-19 Christ's Second Advent. This scene of conflict and overthrow is similar to that appearing in Joel 2. v11-13 Christ comes to destroy the wicked in fierce wrath, ct. Matt. 21:1-7. The text of these verses forms a synthetical parallelism: A - 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; B - and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, C - and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. A - 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; B - and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. A - 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: B - and his name is called The Word of God. The A's describe his appearance when he manifests himself again to the world, the B's discuss his name, and C indicates his present mission. v11 "And I saw heaven opened", the apocalypse, or revealing, of heavenly things to those on earth. The heavens are presently obscured to us, but in that day they will be revealed. "and behold a white horse", Christ comes as a conqueror this time, cf. 6:2, ct. Matt. 21:7. "called Faithful and True", Jesus is the only one to be completely faithful and true to the Father, never sinning against Him. "in righteousness he doth judge and make war", unlike men who judge and make war unrighteously (cf. James 4:1), the Lord does so justly. Men make war for power, the Lord makes war to cleanse the earth of the wicked. v12 "His eyes were as a flame of fire", he is exalted, cf. 1:14. "many crowns", i.e., much authority. "a name written, that no man knew, but he himself", I would assume the name here is that of the Father, cf. John 17:25. We know Jesus' name and the various name-titles he bears. v13 "a vesture dipped in blood", cf. Isa. 63:1-6. "his name is called The Word of God", Jesus is the personification of God's words and Laws, cf. John 1:1-4, 3 Ne. 15:5-9. v14-16 Jesus descends with the armies of heaven (v. 14) to punish the wicked of the earth (v. 15) and take his rightful position as King over the kings of the earth, and Lord over lords of the earth (v. 16). v14 The armies of heaven are arrayed all in white with white being a symbol of their sanctified condition, cf. 3:4, 7:14. v15 The IV/JST differs from the KJV, as follows: KJV IV --- -- And out of his mouth And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, proceedeth the word of God, that with it and with it he should smite the nations: he will smite the nations; and he shall rule them and he will rule them with a rod of iron: with the word of his mouth; and he treadeth the winepress and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath in the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. of Almighty God. The IV/JST emends the "rod of iron" to "the word of his mouth", cp. 1 Ne. 11:25. v15 "with a rod of iron", the people are held accountable for the words he has spoken himself, and through his prophets, cf. John 5:45-46, John 12:48, 2 Ne. 25:18, Moroni 10:27. "winepress", cp. 14:19-20, Isa. 63:3, Lam. 1:15, D&C 76:107, D&C 88:106, D&C 133:50. v16 The KJV separates the "vesture" and the thigh, they should be together as "And on his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, 'King of Kings, and Lord of Lords'" (NAS). The JFB states: "His name written on His vesture and on His thigh," was written partly on the vesture, partly on the thigh itself, at the part where in an equestrian figure the robe drops from the thigh. The thigh symbolizes Christ's humanity as having come, after the flesh, from the loins of David, and now appearing as the glorified "Son of man." On the other hand, His incommunicable divine name, "which no man knew," is on His head (Rev. 19:12). "KING OF KINGS", cp. 17:14. v17-18 An angel announces the great and terrible sacrificial feast of destruction. Ezek. 39:17-20 is being paraphrased here. This bloodbath/slaughter/sacrifice/feast is the destruction of the wicked, cf. Deut. 32, Isa. 34, Isa. 29:1, Isa. 30:33, Jer. 46:10, Ezek. 34:17, Zeph. 1:7-13. Going unburied after being killed in war is a classic covenant curse, Deut. 28:26, Jer. 7:33. It means your side lost so bad that there are either no survivors to bury the dead, or the survivors had to flee or face death themselves. v19-21 The beast and his armies gather to wage war against Christ (v. 19), but they are all overthrown. The beast (cf. 13:1) and his false prophet (cf. 13:11) are thrown alive into the lake of fire, and the rest os his followers are slain with God's word, with their carcasses left unburied to rot. These verses very much mix themes of physical (e.g., the fowls were filled with their flesh) and spiritual death (e.g., cast alive into a lake of fire, slain with the word) themes, which at this point in time are happening all at once. As the spirit world will be cleaned out with the second phase of the First Resurrection, those in post-mortal spiritual darkness go into their allotted suffering, cf. Isa. 24:21-22, Isa. 34:2-5, D&C 88:100-101. These mortals who are killed at the Day of the Lord don't have any waiting period in between like they do at present, they go straight into suffering and await the Second Resurrection. v21 "sword...sword", the IV/JST emends this to "word" consistent with v. 15. Copyright © 2001 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. 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