Translation
1. “And I looked, and behold a Lamb stood upon the Mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousands, having the name of his Father, which had been written upon their foreheads.
2. And I heard a sound from the heaven as a sound of many waters, and as a sound of loud thunder.
And I heard a voice of harpers harping with their harps. 3. And they sing as it were a new song in the presence of the throne, and in the presence of the four living ones, and of the elders: and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred forty-four thousands, who had been redeemed from the earth. 4. These are they who had not been contaminated with women; for they are virgins. These are the attendants upon the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These had been redeemed from among men, an offering of first fruits for the Deity and for the Lamb. 5. And in their mouth had been found no guile; for they are faultless in the presence of the throne of the Deity.
6. And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having aionian news to proclaim to them who dwell upon the earth, even every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7. Saying with a loud voice, Fear the Deity, and give to him glory, for the hour of his judgment hath arrived; and do homage to him who hath made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.
8. And another angel followed, saying, Fallen, fallen hath Babylon the great city; because she hath made all nations drink of the wine of the raging of her fornication.
9. And a third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If p. 376 any one worship the Beast and his Image, and receive a sign upon his forehead, or upon his hand, 10. He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of the Deity, which hath been prepared without mixture in the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.
11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth until the æons of æons: and they have no respite day and night, who worship the Beast and his Image, and whosoever receiveth the sign of his name.
12. Here is the patience of the saints; here they who keep the commandments of the Deity and the faith of Jesus.
13. And I heard a voice from the heaven, saying to me, Write! Blessed the dead dying in the Lord from this time. Yea, saith the Spirit, in order that they may take rest from their labors; and their works he goes in aid of with them.
14. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sitting like to a son of man, having upon his head a golden stephan, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
15. And another angel came out of the Nave, vociferating with a loud voice to him sitting upon the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap, because for thee hath arrived the hour of the reaping, for the harvest of the earth hath been ripened.
16. And he that is sitting upon the cloud cast his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17. And another angel came out from the Nave which is in the heaven, he having also a sharp sickle.
18. And another angel came out from the altar, having power over the fire, and he shouted with a great outcry to him having the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and cut off the clusters of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.
19. And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and cut off the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of the Deity.
20. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out from the winepress unto the bridles of the horses, for a thousand six hundred furlongs.
Remarks on the Translation
By comparing the above with the Common Version the reader will see the difference for himself. I have found no benefit in the labors of the “recent editors” who have undertaken to mend the Greek text. They seem to think nothing of “taking away from the p. 377 words of the book of this prophecy;” and of “adding” thereto—ch. xii. 18, 19. We have examples of this editorial recklessness in the chapter before us. The first occurs in a note upon το ονομα, “the name” in verse 1. “All the recent editors for το ονομα, have τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ και τὸ ὄνομα. I recommend,” says the revising editor of the Baptist New Version, “that this reading be followed and translated: his name and the name.” But I have not followed the recommendation, because the proposed alteration is superfluous, and implies two names, the name of the Father and the name of the Lamb. But the name of the Father is also the name of the Lamb; and therefore the phrase, “the name,” is doubtless correct, and certainly all sufficient.
Again, in Verse 2, on the words, “I heard the voice of harpers,” etc., a note runs thus, “instead of φωνὴν ἤκουσα, all the recent editions have ἡ φονη ἣν ἦκουσα ως. I recommend that this reading be adopted and translated: the voice which I heard (was) as.” Now this would imply that the voice of the harpers was as “the sound of great thunder”—a noise not very creditable to their music! The recent editors err in supposing that φωνην, used four times in the second verse, refers to the same voice or sound. This is not the fact. The sound of many waters, and the sound of loud thunder, are the sounds of acclamation and war; while the voice of harpers is the song of personal redemption, and future glory, when the war is over. I have therefore disregarded the decision of “the recent editors;” and maintained the distinction between the thundering and the harping, by dividing the second verse, and translating the phonē of thunder “sound,” and the phonē of the singing harpers, “voice,” in the sense of music and song.
Again, “the recent editors” do not like the word δολος, guile, in verse 5, but substitute the word ψευδος, lie. A man that is guileless does not lie; but a man may not lie, and yet be full of deceit. The change may be more favorable to their morality; but I doubt not altogether unnecessary.
Again, “all the recent editors” cancel the words, ενωπιον του θρονου του Θεου. “I recommend,” says the reviser, “that this reading be adopted, and that the words, ‘before the throne of God,’ be omitted” from the fifth verse, so that with this editorial mutilation it would read, “and in their mouth was found no lie; for they are faultless.” But, where do they stand in this faultless condition? The recent editors have canceled the answer; I therefore restore it, and insert it in my translation; as, before, or “in the presence of the throne of the Deity,” as represented in ch, iv. 4.
In the sixth verse, I have left the word αιωνιον untranslated. I have transferred it merely. The “aionian good news” will be the p. 378 subject of exposition, when it will be seen that “everlasting” is not the word best suited to express its quality. We may find a better word when we see distinctly what the thing is; or “aionian” being understood in its true sense may be suffered to remain.
Again, in verse 15, it reads, ὅτι ἦλθε σοι ἡ ὥρα του θερισαι “because for thee hath arrived the hour of the reaping.” The “recent editors” omit the word σοι, for thee, though the order is addressed to a certain party. The hour of the reaping hath arrived. But by whom? Their recencies have struck out the answer in suppressing the words “for thee.” I have restored them; and the answer is “for thee, upon the cloud.” And here we may dismiss “all the recent editors” as more of a pest than a blessing to the original Greek text of the revealing Spirit.
1. The Lamb upon Mount Zion
“And I looked, and behold, a Lamb stood upon the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having the Name of his Father, which had been written upon their foreheads.”—Ver. 1.
All the events represented in this fourteenth chapter are in the future; for nothing having the least resemblance to them has ever been transacted upon the earth since the Deity gave the apocalypse to Jesus Christ, who sent and signified it by his angel to John in Patmos. But, though all in that which is hereafter to become history, it is not unconnected with the things treated of in previous parts of the apocalypse.
Thus, the Lamb and his 144,000 virgin-companions (Ps. xlv. 14), are represented in the first chapter by the Son of Man clothed with a garment of linen (Dan. x. 5) whose voice is as the sound of many waters, or the voice of a multitude (Dan. x. 6). They are the One sitting upon the throne, the New Throne in the opened heavens; and the four and twenty Elders in white raiment and golden stephans; and the Four Living Ones full of eyes, in the midst of the throne, and around it, exhibited in the fourth chapter. The 144,000 are exegetical of the symbolic Lamb, whose personal chieftain, or Head, is Jesus Christ, “the Captain of their salvation,” or the Deity manifested in flesh, justified by spirit.—1 Tim., iii. 16. He is the Lamb slain, and they are in him; and therefore constituents of the symbolic and mystical Lamb; an idea emblematically signified by the phrase, “with him 144,000.” In other words, JESUS AND HIS BRETHREN “glorified together” (Rom. viii. 17), are the Seven Lamps of Fire burning before the throne, or the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth into all the earth, represented by a Lamb with Seven Horns and p. 379 Seven Eyes; that is, they are the Omnipotent and Omniscient Power in substantial and glorious manifestation, styled YAHWEH AIL-SHADDAI, “He who shall be the strength of the Mighty Ones, who was, and is, and is to come,” and is superlatively holy.—Ch. iv. 5, 8; v. 6; Ps. l. 1-6.
The wool with which the Lamb is clothed is of snowy whiteness—Isai. i. 18: Apoc. i. 14. Standing in the midst of 144,000, invested with “fine linen, clean and white,” he is clothed with a pure and faultless multitude; which is his snowy fleece, washed and made white in the blood of the individual Lamb, Jesus—ch. i. 5; vii. 14. This Seven Horned and Seven Eyed Lamb-Multitude is the Mighty Angel descended from the heaven, clothed with a cloud; and holding in his hand a LITTLE OPEN SCROLL—ch. x. 1. One thing, however, is particularly to be observed here, namely, that, though this cloud-invested angel, and the Lamb with the 144,000, symbolize the same multitude, they represent this multitude in different positions and stages of its career. In this fourteenth chapter, while on Mount Zion, the multitude is “in the heaven,” having opened the door, entered therein, and set up the throne—ch. iv. 1, 2; Ps. xxiv. 7; Dan. ii. 44: but, in the tenth chapter (though without abandoning the seat of government) the almighty, cloud-invested, angel-Lamb and his companions, “come down from the heaven,” and take up a position upon the earth and sea—vers. 1, 2, 5, 8. In other words, war has been declared against the Beast of the Earth, the Beast of the Sea, the Image of the Beast, and the False Prophet; that is, against all Europe, for the utter destruction of all its institutions, civil and ecclesiastical; and the subjugation of all its peoples, nations, tongues, and rulers, to the absolute sovereignty of David’s Son and Lord—Ps. cx. 1. The Lamb and his 144,000, “who follow him whithersoever he goes,” engaged in this, “the war of that great day of the all-powerful Deity” (ch. xvi. 14), are the cloud-invested angel in the territories of the enemy which they have invaded, and in which they are progressing as pillars of fire.” In this warfare they are giving practical expression to the unwritten utterances of the Seven Thunders—unwritten in the tenth chapter; but illustrated in the fourteenth, from the eighth verse to the end.
The Lamb and 144,000 are the Nave of the Deity opened in the heaven in which is seen the Ark of his testimony—ch. xi. 19. “Yahweh Ail-Shaddai is the Nave, even the Lamb—ὁ Κυριος ὁ Θεος ὁ παντοκρατωρ, ναος αυτης εστι, και το αρνιον—ch. xxi. 22. YAHWEH-AIL, or Kurios and SHADDAI, or Theos, constitute the Lamb. In other words, the Multitudinous Unity, indicated by Jesus in his prayer, that believers into him through the apostolic word “may be p. 380 one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be ONE IN US”—Jno. xvii. 21. This unity is many individuals in One Body. This body when deified is the Nave, or Most Holy, as represented by the thrice uttered exclamation of the Four Living Ones, “Holy, holy, holy!!!” The Ark of the testimony is in this body when manifested in glory—“Christ the Head over all for the ecclesia, which is his body.”—Eph. i, 22, 23.
John saw the Lamb and his virgin companions, or Bride, standing upon Mount Zion. This is the platform, or standing-place, of their Body Politic, both as the Holy, and the Most Holy community. In the state previous to the advent of Christ, the Saints are the 144,000 in great tribulation, being subject to hunger and thirst, sun-stroke, and scorching heat—ch. vii., 4, 14, 16. In this state of things they are subjected to the “much tribulation,” through which, Paul testifies, “we must enter into the kingdom of the Deity”—Acts xiv. 22. They are an election taken out from the nations, by obedience of faith, for His name—Acts xv. 14; Rom. i. 5: by which faith in “the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and the name of Jesus Christ,” “they walk,” and “are come to Mount Zion, and unto the City of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem”—2 Cor. v. 7; Acts viii. 12; Heb. xii. 22. Though scattered and dispersed, and natives of divers remote places, when viewed collectively they are regarded as being born in Zion; and constituting the Holy City, the heavenly Jerusalem; for the time being trodden under foot by the worshipers of the beast. “Glorious things are spoken concerning Zion, the city of the Elohim”—עיר האלהים, ir hah-Elohim. Those who believe these glorious things, and are born of water, become citizens of Zion; so that when Jehovah writeth up the people, he will count that they were born there; for all his springs are in Zion, and he himself will establish her—Ps. lxxxvii; Gal. iv. 26; Apoc. xi. 2.
But the time approaches when in a literal or unfigurative sense, “our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.” This standing was represented to John in the standing of the Lamb and the 144,000 on Mount Zion, where are then “set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David”—Ps. cxxii. 2-5. These “thrones of the House of David” belong to Zion, and nowhere else. They do not belong to the Seven Mountains, or Rome; but to the Holy Hill of Zion, which the Father styles his, in Ps. ii. 6. These are the thrones in the heaven which John saw there after the door was opened—the twenty-four thrones circling about the central rainbowed throne, occupied by the Jasper and Sardine Stone, the twenty-four elders, and the four living ones—Apoc. iv. 3, 4, 6: an emblematic illustration of the promise, “to him that overcometh I will p. 381 give to sit with me on my throne. even as I overcome and sit with my Father on his throne—ch. iii. 21. These thrones of the House of David belonging to Mount Zion are the thrones John refers to in ch. xx. 4, “I saw thrones,” says he, “and they sit upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of them who had been beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus, and on account of the word of the Deity, and who did no homage to the beast, nor to his image, and received not the sign upon their foreheads and upon their hands.” These are the 144,000 on Mount Zion, who, having been raised from among the dead, and quickened, and had judgment given to them, occupy “thrones of judgment,” and thenceforth “reign with Christ a thousand years.” Among them are the twelve apostles, to whom the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh, promised a joint possession with himself of thrones of the House of David. In answer to Peter who said, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee: what therefore shall there be for us?” Jesus replied, “Ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel”—Mat. xix. 27, 28. Among these also will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets; and worthies from the east, and west, and north, and south; a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues—all these stand before the throne and the Lamb, as the glorified 144,000, clothed with white robes; and when they rest from their labors, “with palms,” instead of a two-edged sword, “in their hands”—Luke xiii. 28, 29; Apoc. vii. 9; Ps. cxlix. 6.
The symbolic Lamb and 144,000 on Mount Zion are YAHWEH TZ’VAOTH, He who shall be hosts, of whom Isaiah prophecies in ch. vi., “I saw,” saith he, “Adonai (the Spirit in plural manifestation—Lords) sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his robe-skirts filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim; each one had six wings; and one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, Yahweh Tz’vāoth; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Adonai with robe-skirts filling the temple is the Spirit as the Lamb and the 144,000. These thousands are the skirts of the investing robe of “the King, YAHWEH TZ’VAOTH; and symbolized by the six-winged Seraphim, or four living ones full of eyes, described by John in ch. iv. 6, 7, 8. That Adonai is One in plural manifestation, appears from the eighth verse. “I heard,” saith Isaiah, the voice of Adonai, saying, Whom shall I send? and who will go for US?” In other words, Whom shall I, the Spirit, or the Father, send? Who will go for us, the plurality symbolized by the Seraph-skirts of the investing robe?
p. 382 The Spirit of Christ in the prophet answers, “Here am I; send me!” And he said “Go!” In the ninth and tenth verses is the message to be delivered to Israel. The delivery is noted in Matt. xiii. 13-15, and the Messenger is there found to be Jesus. He came, and was slain. He was “delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification”—Rom. iv. 25. Unto him, then, “the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests for the Deity and his Father; to him be glory and dominion, for the æons of the æons, Amen”—Apoc. i. 5, 6. This is the ascription of Isaiah’s Seraphim, of Ezekiel’s Cherubim, and of John’s four Living Ones, and therefore of the 144,000, to the Lamb for what he has done for them. The question, “Who will go for us?” has been graciously responded to by the loving self-sacrifice of Christ for the ungodly—Rom. v. 6-8. But for this voluntary and disinterested sacrifice, there would be no redemption; and therefore no Seraphic 144,000 hereafter on Mount Zion, or anywhere else. But, the redemption price has been paid, and all the Seals will be thoroughly unloosed. As certainly as the Lamb was slain, so surely will he appear on the Mount Zion, with the 144,000; when the moon of the political firmament shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when “He who shall be hosts” (Yahweh Tz’vāoth) shall reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his Ancients gloriously—Isai. xxiv. 23.
Much that ought be said about the 144,000 has already appeared in Vol. II. ch. vii. § 5, 6, to which the reader is referred. They are the “holy nation” the root of whose square is 12. The name of the Lamb’s Father is theirs; for they are said to have it. The Father’s Name is representative of what He is—of his power, glory, substance and character. The Anointed Jesus is now the απαυγασμα, or reflected splendor, of the glory of the Father; and the καρακτηρ, or exact likeness, of his ὑποστασις, or substance—Heb. i. 3. He is, therefore, “the Image of the Invisible Deity;” and occupies the rank of “first-born,” or Chief,” of “every creature”—Col. i. 15. Because of this, he is the impersonation, or embodiment, of the Father’s Name. Isaiah speaks of him as this Name, in ch. xxx, 27: “the Name of Yahweh,” saith he, “cometh from far, His anger burning, and the burden heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire: and His breath as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity.” Moses styles it, “the glorious and fearful name, את יהוה אלהיך, aith Yahweh Elohekah—He who shall be thine Elohim, or Mighty Ones”—Deut. xxviii. 58. Such is the Name that was written upon
p. 383 Jesus, when the Father “made him both Lord and Christ.”—Acts ii. 36. In flashing, or photographing, the power, glory, character, and very substance, of the Deity upon a body taken from among the dead, the Father’s Name was written upon it; and the resurrected Jesus can now say, in every sense of the words, “I and the Father are One”—εγω και ὁ πατηρ ἕν εσμέν—Jno. x. 30. This could not have been affirmed of him while dead. But the dead body was made to live again. It was thus restored to its former life; brought back to what it was before; and so fulfilling the word, saying, “Yahweh restoreth my soul”—Ps. xxiii. 3. Being thus restored, he came into the position of those Paul styles, “the living who are left for the presence of the Lord;” that is, the remnant keeping the commandment of the Deity and the faith of Jesus,” who are living when he comes as a thief. These, he says, “shall not sleep,” or die. They are living persons such as Jesus was when restored to life; and like him, waiting for the same things to be wrought in them. The risen Jesus waited to be changed, or transformed, into what he was not on emerging from the tomb. The true believers, who hope not to die, knowing that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, are also waiting to be changed or transformed into what they are not. The position of Jesus and this remnant is identical. He had not long to wait for his change. When it did come, it was “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”—quick as a flash of lightning. This was his reviving after he rose, and by which he was made Lord and Christ.
Such was the time of his transformation into “a quickening spirit;” and the operation by which the Father’s Name was written, impressed, or flashed, upon him. It was his “NEW NAME,” and identical with the Father’s: not another name distinct from His. When this was flashed upon him, he became “The Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” It is “a name which no man knows, but he himself;” that is, it declares what cannot be affirmed of any other man; namely, that He is the Invisible Eternal Power, in incorruptible and deathless manifestation, having absolute dominion in heaven and upon the earth—The Father’s Image—1 Tim. vi. 15; Apoc. xix. 12, 16; Matt. xxviii. 18.
But the Eternal Spirit hath invited others to a participation with Jesus in the Father’s Name. “He that hath an ear,” saith he, “let him hear what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias; to him that overcometh, I will write upon him the Name of my Deity, and the Name of the city of my Deity, New Jerusalem, which descended out of the heaven from my Deity, and my New Name; which no one knows saving he that receives it”—Apoc. ii. 17; iii. 12. This has been explained in p. 384 the first volume. I quote it here to remind the reader that saints, who walk in the truth, have the promise, that this “glorious and fearful name” shall be written upon them, as it hath been already written upon their Elder Brother, the Great Captain of their salvation.
The Name that shall be written has certain novelties connected with it, that entitle it to be called “New,” The name is now doctrinally sealed in the foreheads of the Deity’s servants, who are also immersed into his name. As the result of the sealing they believe “the things of the kingdom of the Deity and of the Name of Jesus Christ.” They have now “no more conscience of sins;” but “the answer of a good conscience towards the Deity,” and the hope of a resurrection for eternal life in the kingdom. But, though they have put on the New Man, and are predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son, whatever their present spiritual conformity, they are not yet “like him” in power, glory, and substance. This is their hope, the realization of which will endow them with new qualities. Instead of being corruptible, ignominious, and weak of body, this will be changed, or transfigured, into a like form with the body of Christ’s glory. In the operation of this instantaneous transfiguration, the New Name of the Spirit is written upon them; so that that which in the state of tribulation is doctrinally written in their foreheads, is incorporated into their very substance by the divine energy that subdues everything to itself—Phil. iii. 21.
With this New Name of the Spirit, styled the Father’s Name, the 144,000 will stand on Mount Zion. It is written upon them before they appear there. This is evident from the word γεγραμμενον, having been written. When was it written? Doctrinally, when sealed in their foreheads—ch. vii. 3—in the great tribulation—verse 14; and corporeally, when “the dead, small and great,” stand in the presence of the Deity, and are judged by what has been written, according to their works. Those who are found written in the Book of Life, receive their reward in the inscription of the New Name, which makes them like what Jesus Christ now is. All others are “cast into the lake of fire” with the Beast and False Prophet—ch. xi. 18; xx. 12-15; xiv. 9, 10. Hence the standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. xiv. 10-12; 2 Cor. v. 10; Gal. vi. 7, 8) precedes the standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. The judgment of the household of Christ intervenes between the resurrection, and the ascending of Yahweh’s Hill. This is evident from Ps. xxiv; where, in answer to the question, “Who shall go up into the Mountain of Yahweh? And who shall ‘rise into’ the place of his holiness?”—it says, “The innocent of hands and the pure of heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, and hath not sworn to deceit,” This implies p. 385 previous scrutiny. All saints who rise, but whose moral qualities, on examination, are not found in accordance with the above, shall not “rise into the place of his holiness”—“yahkum bimkōm kŏdshō;” which is Mount Zion. They shall not be permitted to stand there as constituents of the 144,000, who are the pure of heart, and in whose mouth no guile “had been found,” εὑρεθη.
2. The Sound of Many Waters
“And I heard a sound from the heaven as a sound of many waters, and as a sound of loud thunder.”
“Many waters” are apocalyptically defined as signifying “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” But of these there are two classes; the one class consisting of those upon which the Great Harlot sitteth: and whose body politic is symbolized by a Scarlet-colored Beast, full of Names of Blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns—ch. xvii. 1, 15, 3: and the other class, of the “great multitude” in the heaven, “which no man could number, out of, εκ, all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in the presence of the Lamb, having been clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands”—ch. vii. 9. The sound of the many waters cannot proceed from the heaven, unless they be first in the heaven. The many waters of the heaven are the 144,000, giving utterance to their joy. Standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, they are “in the place of Yahweh’s holiness,” which is “the heaven.” John does not record, in this verse, what the many waters said. It was not necessary; for he had already made the record in ch. vii. 10-12. The white robed multitude, having exchanged the sword of judgment for the palm of victory, shouted with a loud voice, saying, “The salvation be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne of our Deity, and to the Lamb! And all the angels stood in the circle of the throne (κυκλῳ του θρονου) and of the elders, and of the four living ones, and they fell before the throne upon their face, and worshiped the Deity, saying, Amen! The blessing and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, and the might, be to our Deity for the æons of the æons, Amen!”
The sound from the heaven was the voice of the 144,000 after they had got the victory over “the Beast,” and over his “Image,” and over his “Sign,” and over the “Number” of his Name; in other words, after they had conquered all Greek, Papal, and Protestant, Antichristendom. Their victorious attitude is indicated by their being p. 386 palm-bearers—“they had palms in their hands.” “Branches of palm-trees,” saith Daubuz, “are the symbol of joy after victory, attended with antecedent sufferings. By the Mosaical law, Lev. xxiii. 40, they were used as a token of joy at the Feast of Tabernacles. And they were used upon any solemn occasion of joy, as after a victory or deliverance.” In John xii. 13, we have an illustration of the use of palm-branches on joyous occasions. The action of the multitude then, was, unconsciously to themselves, typical of the voice of the 144,000 on Mount Zion; when they shall greet the King of Israel, in their celebration of the great Feast of Tabernacles in the kingdom of the Deity, with the hosannas of victory. In their joy, “they sing the song of Moses the servant of the Deity, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvellous are thy works, YAHWEH AIL-SHADDAI; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy Name? for it only is holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest’”—ch. xv. 2-4. All nations shall come unto Jerusalem and worship before the King, Yahweh Tz’vaoth, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; for Yahweh shall then be King over all the earth; in that day, there shall be One Yahweh and his Name one—Zech. xiv. 16, 9.
“Palmam qui meruit ferat”—let him who is worthy bear the palm. This is the principle upon which the palms are put into the hands of the white-robed multitude represented by the symbolic number 144,000. Having gained the victory over themselves “by the power of God through faith,” and over the world’s corruptions, they are accounted worthy of standing with the Lamb on Zion; and of following him in all his warlike enterprises whithersoever he may will to go, in the great work of slaying the dreadful and terrible, and blasphemous, Fourth Beast, and of destroying his Body Politic, and giving it to the burning flame—Dan. vii. 11. They cooperate in this work with great zeal and rejoicing. Having fallen by thousands in the streets of Babylon, where their blood has been drunk to intoxication by her “pious,” “venerable,” and “reverend,” monster of iniquity, when “judgment is given to them,” they reward her even as she rewarded them, and double unto her twofold according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled, they fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow they retributively inflict upon her—Apoc. xviii. 6, 7. And when the work is accomplished, and done so thoroughly, that Babylon can be found no more at all, they “rejoice over her,” saying, “Praise ye Yah! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: p. 387 for he hath judged the Great Harlot, who did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Praise ye Yah!” And the four and twenty elders, and the four living ones fell down and worshiped the Deity who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Praise ye Yah!” Then, an approving voice responsive to this, issued from the throne occupied by David’s Son and Lord, saying, “Praise our Deity, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.” Nor does this exhortation fall upon ears “dull of hearing” what the Spirit says: for John saith, “I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Praise ye Yah! for the Lord God the omnipotent hath prevailed. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb hath come, and his wife hath made herself ready”—Apoc. xix. 1-7. I have here rendered the word εβασιλευσε, “prevailed,” instead of “reigned.” He reigns because ενικησε, “he has conquered;” and it is his conquest of Babylon the great multitude is celebrating. He reigns over Europe as the consequence of her destruction, in the consummation of which, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David conquers” to the complete opening of the Scroll, and the loosing of its Seven Seals—ch. v. 5.
The sound John heard from heaven, was not only as proceeding from a great multitude; but also “as a sound of loud thunder.” Thunder is the symbol of war. The “many waters” could not bear palms, and utter shouts of victory, unless previously engaged in war. Hence, their acclamations are styled “the sound of mighty thunderings;” or, as in the text, “as a sound of loud thunder.” Before they could thunder forth, “Babylon hath fallen, hath fallen!” they will have to do the work of the second angel. Their shouts and acclamations are the echoes and reverberations of the thunder by which she is overthrown. The mighty thunderings of the 144,000, are not the impotent and meaningless “thundering applause” of a political meeting—the bellowings of the ignorant and fickle multitude. They are the potent utterances of those who have proved themselves almighty in battle; and to whom are committed the Seven Thunders which proceed out of the throne; that by these effective wars, the nations may be compelled to “wait for His law” (Isai. xlii. 4) who sits upon the throne. The thunder is styled “loud,” because it consists of more than a single clap. It is a series of booming and crashing thunderstorms, which, with the sound of the roaring hurricane, prostrate all the towering dominions of the earth. This “loud thunder” overthrows Babylon, torments the worshipers of the beast with p. 388 fire and brimstone, cuts down the harvest of the earth, and lops off the clusters of its vine. When all this is accomplished, the Dragon bound, the kingdom restored to Israel, and Jerusalem made a praise in the earth, the thronal lightnings will cease to flash, and the thunder to roll. The time will have then arrived, and not till then, for the going forth from heaven of “the sound as the sound of many waters, and as a sound of loud thunder.”
3. The Harpers Harping with their Harps
“And I heard a voice of harpers harping with their harps; and they sing as it were a New Song in the presence of the throne, and in the presence of the four living ones, and of the elders; and no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.”—Ver. 16.
Mount Zion is still the scene of the vision. Instrumental and vocal music gladdens the hearts and ears of the performers. As the Spirit predicted in Ps. lxxxvii. 7, so it comes to pass; for “as well the singers as the players upon instruments are there.” “Every one of them” has his harp; for he is himself a “harp of the Deity,” and therefore an instrument of joy—Apoc. v. 8; xv. 2. The harp is an instrument used in giving thanks, in rejoicing, and in praising. To “hang the harp upon the willows,” indicates great tribulation and distress; as in the present state of Israel, whose “harp is turned to mourning, and their organ into the voice of them that weep.” So when torment and sorrow come upon Babylon, and she is found no more, “the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in her.” The absence of music shows that all joy has departed from a people; while its presence indicates the reverse.
A harper harping with his harp is a saint, who has been judged according to what is written, and rewarded according to his works, and thereby admitted into the glorious company of the redeemed. The first thing he does when he finds himself on the mount of Yahweh’s holiness, is not to celebrate battles to be fought, and victories to be won; but to show forth the praises, the worthiness, and loving kindness of him, who called him out from among the worshipers of the beast, and placed him within “the Circle of the Throne.” The Four Living Ones, and twenty four stephaned Elders, are all harpers who harp with their harps. This is positively affirmed in ch. v. 8. In symbolic style, put harps, and golden vials full of odors, into men’s hands, and say, that “the odors are the prayers of the saints;” and it is equivalent to saying that the harps and golden vials are representative of the saints themselves. The Angels within p. 389 the circle of the throne, although they prostrate themselves upon their face, and in obedience to the decree in Ps. xcvii. 7, worship David’s Son and Lord; yet are they not harpers. They join with the harpers in myriads in the ascription of “worthiness to the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing”—ch. v. 12: but they could take no part in singing the harpers’ new song which they accompanied with their harps; for they have never learned it, and were they to study it ten thousand years; could never sing it truthfully. They are the angelic audience that listens with ravished ears to the divine melody of the new oratorio. Never will such an extraordinary choir have delighted so magnificent and dignified an assembly on the earth before. The birth of David’s son was celebrated by the acclamation of a multitude of the heavenly host praising the Deity, and saying, “Glory to the Deity in the highest, over the earth peace, and good will towards men.” Glorious, however, as this announcement was, the listeners to it were only a few simple shepherds; but in the approaching musical festival on Mount Zion, the performers will be not less than 144,000, immortals; who, like the Imperial President of the Festival, were once dead, but then are living for the æons; while the listening and delighted audience, marshaled and convened by the King of glory, themselves illustrious and immortal, number “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands”—ch. v. 11. How gratified they will be in beholding the Royal Child, whose birth they celebrated over eighteen centuries before, enthroned by the Eternal Power, according to the words of Gabriel, in his father David’s seat; and instead of a vile clamor for his crucifixion; in the very place where he was condemned and put to death, songs of thanksgiving and praise, ascending in immortal strains to the Deity, from the innumerable multitude of the redeemed.
4. The New Song
“No one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.”
The personal redemption of these thousands had been completed before they appeared on Mount Zion. They had recently emerged from the dust of death; and had passed through the ordeal of judgment; and being afterwards transformed, and made like to the King of Glory by the quickening energy of his power, they were prepared truthfully to describe themselves in a song, which no one could possibly sing, who had not been the subject of the like condition.
p. 390 The song they will sing on Zion is recorded in ch. v. 9. In this place, it says, “They sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the scroll, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain; and hast redeemed us for the Deity by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us (the Four Living Ones full of eyes, and the twenty four elders) for our Deity kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” The Angels cannot sing this song. How could they address Jesus, and say to him, “thou hast redeemed us?” Neither can they sing, that they shall “reign upon the earth,” for they assuredly never will. Nor can any of the worshipers of the beast sing this song; for they do not belong to the whiterobed multitude, whose garments are whitened in the blood of the Lamb: on the contrary, they are those whose names are not written in his scroll of life from the foundation of the world; and are robed in a scarlet colored vesture, dyed red in the blood of the saints. None such can “learn that song.” They have not been taught it by the Father, who hath given them over to their strong delusions. “No man cometh unto Me,” saith Jesus, “except the Father who hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of the Deity. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”—Jno. vi. 44. These can learn the song; for the Father teaches it to all his true disciples, when he writes his new name upon them; and they sing it, when He plays upon them as his harps. “The dead know not any thing; and there is no knowledge in the grave”—Eccles. ix. 5, 10. Whence, then, can the 144,000 harps give forth the melody and sentiment of the song, but from the Eternal Spirit who “brings all things to their remembrance;” and this He does in writing the Father’s Name in their foreheads, after he has developed them corporeally from the dust. He flashes upon them the knowledge of a previous state, together with the knowledge of what shall be hereafter. Thus they are taught and made conscious of a previous existence. But for the operation of the Eternal Spirit in writing his name upon their new cerebral organization, they would have no more consciousness of the past, or of any antecedents therein, than Adam when he first opened his eyes upon the light. Unless the Spirit impress upon them the knowledge, they would be conscious only of what present sensation could impart—of this, and no more. Take, for example, a man, and call him Paul. Let him be the same Paul of whom we read in the Acts. Let him die, and become what he is (if we may say “he is,” of one who has no existence). Of what was once called Paul, there remains a few pounds of dust. And this is all that remains of the 144,000, not p. 391 at present alive upon the earth. Hence, individually or personally they are all nonentities. Dust, though once a component of intelligent beings, retains no knowledge. “Can the dust praise thee? can it declare thy truth?” There is no profit in dust for praise or truth, apart from the operation of the Eternal Spirit. It retains no trace of former personal identity. From the few pounds of dust left to Paul the Creator could form a Lion. When he had given the creature life, would it have the consciousness of the apostle? Would it be able to sing the song of redemption? If personal identity resided in the dust as dust, it might; but the supposition is absurd: Of men, it is said, “the Deity remembereth that they are but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and COMETH NOT AGAIN.” Where is the personal identity when flesh has thus passed away? All personality is dissolved. The mere natural man perceives the difficulty; and has therefore invented the clumsy theory of inherent immortality for the perpetuation of personal identity in a future state. He differs from the Spirit, and believes, that the dead know more than the living; and that they are now singing the song of redemption before the throne! But the Scripture shows clearly, that man has no immortal consciousness; and that if he do not understand the truth, he is as the beasts that perish—Ps. xlix, 12, 20. What provision, then, has been provided by the Creator for the reproduction of the nonexistent Paul and his companions in nothingness? The creation of 144,000 (not less, but numberless more) living bodies from the dust; and stamping upon their foreheads, as with a seal, what is already on record, not in the memory of disembodied souls, but in the mind of the Eternal Father. This is where the personal consciousness of the past comes from, the Father’s name written in the forehead, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God in fleshy tables of the heart”—2 Cor. iii. 3: so that whosoever is so written upon after creation from dust, is, in the creative operation, taught to sing the song of redemption by inspiration. The apostles who listened to the discourses of Jesus remembered little, and understood less; but the Eternal Spirit, who discoursed through Jesus, remedied this defect by afterwards bringing all things to their remembrance, opening their understandings and guiding them into all the truth—Luke xxiv. 45; Jno. xiv. 26, xvi. 13. In this operation, their consciousness of what Jesus really taught, was stamped or written upon the fleshy tablets of their hearts. What they had forgotten and did not understand, was not lost. It was retained in the Spirit’s, in the Father’s own mind, who afterwards photographed in their foreheads what he had said. Suppose the apostles had all died with Jesus, and, like him, while dead, came to know nothing; and suppose after being p. 392 dead, they were brought to life on the third day, where was their remembrance of all things to come from? When people fall into a trance they forget every thing, even the letters of the alphabet; and have to recover knowledge by the slow process of ordinary tuition. How total and complete, then, must be the oblivion of death; and how impossible the consciousness of the past, unless He who restores to life, also restamp or rewrite the “New Man,” or “New Creature,” formed by the word in the old body of the present state, upon the new body of the future. And this he does; not by causing the newly created being to pass through the experience of the past again; but, by an instantaneous transfer of what exists in his own mind to theirs.
Eighteen hundred years ago, the Father-Spirit said, I am the way, the truth, the resurrection, and the life. He affirms this of himself. The truth in a man by faith, is Christ in him. When the man dies, the truth and its personal developments remain with the Father, while the man, as flesh, is “a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.” But, though it cometh not again, the truth in its particular personal identity, whether called by the name Paul, or any other name, does come again. The Father being the resurrection as well as the truth, reproduces from himself the personally developed truth, named Paul in a former state. He reproduces it in a newly created body. In view of the statement affirmed by John the Baptizer, it is immaterial whether that body be made of the dust to which Paul is reduced, or of some other crude matter; for, if of stones the Deity can raise up children to Abraham (Matt. iii. 9) it can as easily reproduce Paul from one kind of material as another. Paul sleeps “in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.” In this sense, he may be said to be “with Christ” even now. He sleeps in Christ the Resurrection—in Christ the Sun of Righteousness. When this Sun shines forth with healing in his beams, Paul and the 144,000 will be the embodied emanations of these beams. They will be οι βασιλεις των απο ανατολων ἡλιον—the Kings which (are) risings from a Sun—Apoc. xvi. 12. They no longer sleep. Every individual is a rising—the reproduction of a former character in a new body; the character, and not the body, constituting the personal identity. The body is of the earth, the writing upon it, from heaven. In the finishing of this, the body is transfigured in the twinkling of an eye; and from an earthy body, it is changed into the likeness of the Quickening Spirit, by which the redemption celebrated in the song is made complete.
Here is the acquisition of knowledge in the same way as the apostles acquired the power, or faculty, of setting forth the wonderful p. 393 works of Deity in languages they knew nothing about. It will be a Pentecostian display of omnipotence—144,000 “first fruits unto the Deity and the Lamb” newly created from the dust, singing the song of their redemption from the earth. They sing the song thus “learned” before their conflict with the Beast and his Image. This is intimated by the prophetic declaration “We shall reign on the earth.” This they cannot do so long as the Beast of the earth is unsubdued. Their reign as “kings and priests” is incompatible with the existence or ascendency of the Latin Kingdom. If in the song they sing, they said, we do reign upon the earth, we should know that the scene on Mount Zion was not Pentecostian, and inaugural; but palm-bearing and victorious. As conquerors of the nations, they stand upon the crystal-sea before the throne, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb (ch. iv. 6; xv. 2). They will then have subdued their enemies. But, on Mount Zion is their induction into office with right royal solemnity, preparatory to their executing the judgments assigned to the second and third angels, the reaping of the harvest and the treading of the wine-press.
5. The Character of the 144,000 Firstfruits
“These are they who had not been contaminated with women; for they are virgins. These are the attendants upon the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These had been redeemed from among men, an offering of firstfruits for the Deity and for the Lamb. And in their mouth had been found no guile; for they are faultless in the presence of the throne of the Deity.”
With what class of women had they not been defiled or contaminated? It must be remembered that amongst these 144,000 will be many women, perhaps one half the number of the redeemed. It cannot be, therefore, in a natural sense, that they were not so defiled. The whole company of the redeemed, men and women, are “virgins;” for they constitute the Lamb’s γυνη, woman, or wife; whom Paul was solicitous, as far as he had to do with the presentation, to “present as a chaste virgin to Christ”—2 Cor. xi. 2; Eph. v. 27. In what sense, then, is this chaste virgin company undefiled with women? Who are these women?
The only answer that can be given to this question is that they are the women of the apocalypse. The worst kind of women—the Harlot daughters and Harlot Abominations of the Great Drunken Murderess, whom they style “the Mother of All Churches.” The “Holy Apostolic Catholic Church” is the Harlot in chief; “with whom the kings of the earth,” the Secular Rulers of European and American Antichristendom, “have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” p. 394 This is the Mother of the Harlot Family. Her daughters are the Churches of Europe “by law established;” such as, the Lutheran Harlot, the Anglo-Hibernian Harlot, the Caledonian Harlot, and the Helvetian Harlot; all of them, bearing “the Sign of the Beast,” indicating their utter destitution of the faith and its obedience. Besides these principal harlots, is an innumerable fry of Harlot abominations, all of them distinguished as the relations of the Roman Mother by the livery they wear. The sign of the beast is upon them all. In the aggregate, they are an unbaptized ecclesiastical community, distinguished in its subdivisions by various “names,” apocalyptically styled, “Names of Blasphemy,” of which the Scarlet-colored dominion is said to be “full.” These are styled by the sprinkled worshipers of the beast, “the Names and Denominations of Christendom;” but the apocalyptic title is the true one—“All the Abominations of the Earth,” of which the Roman Harlot is the Mother. For what is Lutheranism, but German Latinism diluted with the unscriptural speculations of an Augustinian monk? Or Calvinism, but Swiss, French, Dutch, English and Scotch Latinism, diluted with the traditions of the man who caused Servetus to be burned? These dilutions of the Latin superstition have been very useful in crippling the absolutism of the Romish Hierarchy. The world has been greatly benefited by the Protestant Rebellion; and by the multiplication and rivalries of the sects. But, though promotive of civil and religious liberty, their dogmas are God-dishonoring and gospel-nullifying blasphemies. Added to these are other “names,” which, though repudiating baby-sprinkling and practising immersion, are as much worshipers of the beast as the rest. These immersed sects recognize the sprinkled sects as denominations of christians, showing that they do not know, or do not believe, what the scriptures teach as the one faith and one hope of the calling.
Now, in prophetic style, all these sects of the Court of the Gentiles are termed “women,” whose favors lead to death. They are strange women, who flatter with their words; whose houses incline unto death, and their paths unto the dead. Their lips drop as a honeycomb, and their mouths are smoother than oil; but their end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Their feet go down to death; and their steps take hold on Sheol. The 144,000 have no fellowship with these unchaste women. Having come to the understanding and belief of “the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and the name of Jesus Christ,” they have obeyed the invitation, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Having faith to be healed, they obey the apostolic command, “repent and be p. 395 every one of you immersed for the name of Jesus Christ into remission of sins”—Acts ii. 38. By this process, they are separated from the worshipers of the beast, and washed, sanctified, and justified from all the defilement contracted in their days of ignorance and unbelief—1 Cor. vi. 9-11. Thenceforth, they are no more to be found dangling and toying with these disreputable Mistresses of the Clergy. Being espoused to Christ, they have no more spiritual association with the impure; but, as wise virgins, keep their lamps trimmed, and their lights burning, that when the Bridegroom appears, they may be admitted to “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
When seen on Mount Zion their redemption had been perfected. “These had been redeemed, ηγορασθησαν, from among men.” If the redemption had not been complete, they could not have sung the song of redemption. The price paid for their redemption was the blood of the Lamb, by which they are constituted απαρχη, “an offering of firstfruits” for the Deity and for the Lamb. Under the Law of Moses, the firstfruits were the New Fruits of the harvest of the land, offered in the form of Two Loaves, called “the Bread of the Firstfruits,” fifty days after the waving of a single sheaf of the firstfruits on the third day after the Passover. In the antitype, Jesus risen from among the dead, is “the wave-sheaf of the firstfruits; and the New Converts to the faith preached by the apostles, “The Bread of the Firstfruits.” Of this there is evidence in 1 Cor. xv. 20, where Paul says, “Christ is risen from among the dead, and become the firstfruits of them who have been sleeping:” and in James i. 18, addressing the true believers of his day, he says, “Of his own will the Father of Lights begat us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of Firstfruits of his creatures.” By this we are informed, that all who are truly begotten by the word of truth are designed to be what Jesus became in being waved before the Father after leaving the house of the dead. The word of truth, or the gospel, illuminates the understanding; so that when the enlightened are immersed into “Christ the Firstfruits,” they are planted in the likeness of his death, in hope that they shall also be planted in the likeness of his resurrection; or become “firstfruits for the Deity and the Lamb”—“the Bread of the Firstfruits,” which can only be offered in the land promised to the Fathers, as indicated in the type—Lev. xxiii. 9-21; and symbolically represented in this chapter of the apocalypse.
In the type, the Pentecostian Firstfruits were waved in the form of Two Loaves, made from the fine flour of the new grain, and baked with leaven. This represented that the firstfruits would be taken from two classes leavened with the truth—a loaf of the circumcision, p. 396 and a loaf of the uncircumcision; two loaves, but only one bread. This work began on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, on “the morrow of the Sabbath,” which he spent in the tomb. Three thousand were then leavened with the gospel of the kingdom, to which they became obedient. These were of the circumcision. After this many more thousand Jews became obedient to the faith. The invitation to God’s kingdom and glory was then extended to people of other nations, beginning at the household of Cornelius. Since then, a people for the Father’s Name has been collecting, as they sing, “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” The work is still progressing, but after such a manner as to show that there is little more can be done. The Jewish and Gentile Loaves are almost complete; and little remains, but for the High Priest after the order of Melchizedec to come, and make a Pentecostian wave-offering of them before the Father on the mountain of his holiness. When this is accomplished, a company of undefiled ones will have been developed, all of them like himself—Firstfruits, in whose mouth exists no guile, being faultless before the throne of God.
Thus qualified and thus prepared, the honor and glory are conferred upon them of being “the attendants upon the Lamb whithersoever he goes.” And here it must be remembered, that the Lamb is a symbol “having Seven Horns and Seven Eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth into all the earth”—the symbol of almighty and omniscient power, which goes in aid of the operations of the 144,000. In judgment being given to Jesus and his Brethren, “the Saints of the Most High” (Dan. xii. 22) almighty power is given to them to execute it. In ch. xiv. 13, this power is styled “the Spirit.” Whithersoever the Spirit goes in all the earth to “execute the judgments written,” they are οι ακολουθουντες, the attendants upon him, as soldiers attend upon the Commander-in-Chief. The Spirit energizing the 144,000 makes them almighty. Whither the Spirit is to go in taking the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, they go and turn not when they go: and when they go the noise of their wings is like the noise of great waters, as the Voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host—Ezek. i. 12, 20-24; Dan. vii. 27. The mission of the Spirit is not confined to Europe; but extends “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people;” to all of whom judgment is to go forth, that they may be taught to “Fear the Deity, and to give glory to him.” No power but that of the Spirit in terrible judicial manifestation can do this. “When the judgments of Yahweh are in the earth, the inhabitants of the p. 397 world will learn righteousness.” This is the only argument mankind can comprehend. The world attributes mild measures to weakness and fear; and so long as it thinks principles and precepts cannot be enforced it treats them only with contempt: for “let favor be showed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness.” Hence, the necessity of the divine arrangement which gives omnipotence to the righteous, and sends them forth to subdue all things to the will of Him who makes them invincible—Isaiah xxvi. 9, 10.
The Lamb-Power invades the territories of the Beast and his Image: for their worshipers are said to be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; hence, as the 144,000 are his attendants, they are there also—verse 9, 10. This is, if possible, still more evident from ch. xvii. 14, 12; and xix. 19; where the Beast and kings of the earth and their armies gather together to make war against the Lamb, and against his army, which is marshalled by “the called, and chosen, and faithful” 144,000, with him. The conflict, however terrible, is not doubtful. The Seven-Horned Lamb overcomes them in spite of all their improvements in artillery and the art of war; for he is the Almighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who smites the nations with the sword of his mouth, and rules them with a rod of iron. They can drive three hundred pound shot through iron armor-plates several inches thick; and discharge with great rapidity breech-loading rifles: but this outside force is not almighty. The shadow of the Spirit’s power has greater resistance than armor plates of the greatest thickness. Cannon balls and rifle shot cannot penetrate it; while he can crumble into dust without a blow defences of the hardest steel. The 144,000 firstfruits are themselves “spirit, on the principle laid down by Jesus, that that is spirit which is born of the Spirit. Being spirit, they are in the shadow of the Spirit’s power—a polished shaft in his quiver, like the great Captain of their salvation. No projectile can reach them to hurt them. A storm of rifle bullets will fall before them like paper pellets from walls of granite. The artillery of the beast’s armies being thus rendered powerless, they have no defence against the tormenting fire and brimstone of the 144,000 of the Lamb. The Beast and deceiving False Prophet become captives; and those who sustained them by the sword, are made a sacrifice of with great slaughter (ch. xiii. 10) in the great Day of Retribution, when the Seven Horned Lamb, with his invincible attendants, shall go forth into all the earth.