Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (47 page)

The “saints” include those martyrs who met death during the Great Tribulation of 64 to 67 A.D. We first encountered these saints in Daniel’s vision of the strategy of the beasts (Dan. 7:21, 22, 25). In Daniel, we learned that Nero, the little horn, would persecute them. In The Apocalypse, we first encountered them under the altar in the throne room of God in the fifth seal of the initial vision (Apoc. 6:9–11).

There is joy in Heaven that the cry for justice from the martyrs under the altar has finally been answered. Now thrones have been provided for them. Justice is finally being served. “Praise our God, all you His servants.… Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns” (19:5–6). God does answer prayer when we endure and remain faithful.

Immediately after the angel’s announcement, all Heaven bursts forth in rejoicing at God’s righteous judgment: “Hallelujah!… Hallelujah!… Amen. Hallelujah!… Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great” (19:1–5). “A great multitude in Heaven” praises God because “He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the land with her fornication” (19:2). Notice that Babylon’s primary sin is idolatry, also known in the Old Testament as harlotry. The Sanhedrin compromised with Rome’s emperor worship, but the Church would not.

The scene of rejoicing in Heaven is outside the constraints of earthly time. As a result, the multitude continues its praises in anticipation of the “marriage of the Lamb” (19:7). The Bride of the Lamb is “clothed with fine linen … the righteous deeds of the saints” (19:8) for the marriage. We will come to the marriage next, in the final vision of The Apocalypse. This is another illustration of John’s repeated use of anticipation. We will soon encounter in depth “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

Although the actual marriage of the Lamb is in the next vision, the marriage supper has been an underlying theme throughout The Apocalypse. This celebration began in the initial vision of the scroll with seven seals (Apoc. 4–5) and has been just below the surface ever since. It came into clear focus in the battle strategies of the Lamb and of God’s People, both of which centered on the Eucharist (Apoc. 14–15). We have noticed the similarity to the Mass as the four living creatures sang, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Here the angel tells St. John, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (19:9): the Eucharist! This is not a common phrase in the Bible, but the concept is. The Eucharist is referred to as “the Lord’s supper” (1 Cor. 11:20). In Matthew 22, Jesus used the marriage feast to illustrate the invitation to join His Kingdom. Indeed, those who are invited are “blessed.” They are part of the Kingdom and will one day witness the “Bride” in all her splendor. In our present celebration of the Eucharist, we partake in the celebration that eternally continues in Heaven.

But we must keep in mind the warning of Jesus: “A man who had no wedding garment … [will be] cast into the outer darkness” (Matt. 22:11–13). The vision of The Apocalypse reminds us that the Bride is clothed in linen, and “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (19:8). To attend the marriage feast, we must have the mark of God on our forehead, signifying loyalty, and on our hand, signifying righteous deeds.

So we have seen the three battle strategies played out. The dragon, with his emphasis on deceit and earthly power, was defeated by the eternal Truth that the Lamb speaks. Nowhere is this Truth more apparent or effective than in the Eucharist of the Lamb that was slain.

The Lamb has won the first round. In the next and last vision, we will see this strategy work for the Church again. Our faith in the Lamb should be strengthened because of this first victory. He has kept His promise, and He can be trusted to keep future promises.

St. John’s final vision transports us from here (70 A.D.) to eternity (GR9). As in Daniel’s last vision, St. John begins with the events of Daniel’s seventieth week and then extends his outlook to include the final eschaton.

As the visions of St. John have progressed, we have observed repeatedly the use of anticipation. We noticed it with the seals and trumpets, the dragon, the tabernacle and the Woman, the beast, the horse’s bridle, the marriage of the Lamb, and even Babylon. This device has tied the many visions of the book together into a cohesive whole.

The first time St. John used the technique of anticipation was in the first seal during the initial vision. A rider on a white horse appeared who, like the marriage supper of the Lamb, was a promise of a later hope. The rider on a white horse now reappears: “I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.… The name by which He is called is The Word of God.… On His robe and on His thigh He has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:11, 13, 16).

The picture St. John paints dovetails perfectly with the words of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse: “Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven, and then all the tribes of the land will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). We have already examined this passage and found that it undoubtedly refers to 70 A.D.

This rider symbolizes Christ’s victory over the Sanhedrin. Remember, this is apocalyptic literature, so we must not expect to see our Lord upon a literal white stallion at His coming into His Kingdom, nor must we believe that horses will suddenly learn to fly. The sword coming out of His mouth (19:15) is not made of tempered steel.

The sword is a symbol of the eternal Truth He embodies and speaks. That is the battle strategy of the Lamb. The Truth of the Word of God is so powerful that it conquers the physical kingdoms of this world and breaks the dragon’s power over people’s minds. This is the “stone” of Daniel that crushes the statue (Dan. 2:45). This is the “Son of man” coming to judge (Dan. 7:13; Matt. 24:30). This is the breaker of the scroll’s “seven seals” (Apoc. 5:9). This is the Child who will “rule with a rod of iron” (Apoc. 12:5). This is the treader of the “winepress of the fury of the wrath of God” (Apoc. 14:20). This is the nemesis of the dragon and its two beasts.

Here is the hope of The Apocalypse: Christ’s victory is inexorable because His weapon is Truth.

St. John makes clear that this is not a new battle. This rider on the white horse “will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (19:15). This is a recapitulation of the battle described earlier in the battle strategy of the Lamb (14:17–20).

These verses are a word picture of the moment when Christ’s prediction in Matthew 24 was fulfilled. It is a snapshot of the earthly evidence that Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled in Heaven. The Son of man “came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him [the Son of man] was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13–14).

Remember, Jesus Himself applied this prophecy of Daniel to Himself in His trial before the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:64). Jesus told the priests who were conducting His trial that they would see this occur. He promised that “this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:34–35). This is not the second advent; it is His predicted coming on the clouds to judge the Sanhedrin. St. John wants his readers to be absolutely certain that Christ kept His promise. Because Christ kept that promise, we can endure in the assurance that Christ really will return! Rest assured, a major reason St. John wrote The Apocalypse was to point out that the judgment upon the Sanhedrin stands as a proof that the eternal judgment will come (GR3).

We now encounter a highly symbolic picture that, to be honest, is rather disturbing to twenty-first-century sensibilities. An angel “called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings … and the flesh of all men’ ” (19:17–18). Like so many other details of the visions of St. John, the meaning of this gruesome imagery becomes clearer after looking to the Old Testament.

In prophesying the victory over the original Babylon, Ezekiel painted a vivid picture of a sacrificial meal in celebration of victory (39:17–24). Although there is in both instances some literal fulfillment, this is not the main point of either passage. In Ezekiel, God states that this victory feast is proof to the entire world that “I am the Lord” (39:7). When the enemies of God are defeated, then “all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed” (39:21). That is the main point. It is the same point that is made in the “Son of man” passage in Daniel. This is the implied threat that we noticed when Jesus responded to the High Priest at His trial (Matt. 26:64). By predicting and then judging the Temple, Christ proved to the entire world that God had coronated Jesus Christ as victor.

This is also precisely what Jesus claimed in the Olivet Discourse. He would use the Roman army to punish Jerusalem for its sins, and “the tribes of the land … will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). In the destruction of Jerusalem, the world would finally understand the kingship of Christ. When we understand the Old Testament milieu from which St. John draws, it is clear that this is the description of the fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse. That fulfillment within a generation stands as proof of Christ’s promised return at the final eschaton.

The victorious Christ now metes out justice on behalf of His martyrs. The false prophet, also known as the land-beast Jerusalem, is “thrown alive into the lake of fire” along with the sea-beast. The lake of fire is the place of complete and final punishment. There is no return from its depths.

The false prophet is Jerusalem’s leadership, and this is an accurate picture of what happened to biblical Judaism in 70 A.D. It was utterly destroyed. The Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity to resurrect their sacrificial system, but biblical Judaism can never be validly reinstated after Rome’s destruction. The priestly line is lost, and the Temple site is desecrated, but most important, the unique relationship that Jerusalem had enjoyed with Yahweh has been superseded by another Bride. There is a marriage supper already in progress in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Messiah came, was rejected, and founded His new people, His
ekklesia
(Matt. 16:18). New olive branches have been grafted onto the old stump (Rom. 11). Christians should take no pleasure in the destruction of Jerusalem and biblical Judaism, but neither should we deny its irrevocability. The Old Covenant religion of Jerusalem’s Temple is history. Modern Rabbinic Judaism is not the same thing. Even if the Temple were rebuilt in Jerusalem, the Old Covenant cannot be revived.

Some have suggested that Christ’s judgment of the beast (Rome) and the false prophet (the Sanhedrin) is too severe, but they fail to understand the relationships involved. Christ’s bride, the Church, has been subjected by both the beast (the sea-beast) and the false prophet (the land-beast) to persecution, torment, and injustice. Their purpose has actually been the destruction of the Bride. Would not any loving bridegroom do what Christ does here? He says, “Get your hands off my Bride!”

The defeat of the sea-beast is most certainly a reference to the revolt of Rome against Nero, and his subsequent suicide. The imagery is lifted directly from Daniel’s vision of the four beasts: “The beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire” (Dan. 7:11). The beast has symbolized Nero elsewhere in The Apocalypse as the head of the Roman Empire. In this instance, he is identified as the one who “gathered to make war against Him who sits upon the horse and against His army” (19:19). This is a reference to the Great Tribulation: that intense, government-sponsored persecution of the Christian Church from 64 to 67 A.D., initiated at Nero’s direction. Clement of Alexandria identified Nero as the very first emperor to persecute the Christian Church
(STO)
. In punishment for this persecution, Nero and his dynasty were destroyed forever. In fact, history tells us that the dynasty of Vespasian and Titus did not survive either. Any and all “beastly” actors in this drama perished forever.

But in addition to the religious leaders of Jerusalem and the Caesars of the Roman Empire, there was another group of evil men active in this drama. These men are
loipos
, “the rest [who] were slain by the sword” (19:21). In the initial vision, during the sixth trumpet, there is described a group of men of Jerusalem “who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood … nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or the immorality of their thefts” (9:20). These were the Zealots.

Josephus describes the lawless Zealots within Jerusalem: “Nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world.… They were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation, while they overthrew the city themselves … and did almost draw that fire upon the Temple.… When they saw that Temple burning from the upper city, they were neither troubled at it, nor did they shed any tears on that account” (
WJ
, V, 10:5).