“Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!’ And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!’” Revelation 19:5-6.
It is difficult to describe these joyous shouts in the midst of horrific destruction, especially when we sit here in peace, yet they will be very real and very right.
I say, in peace, while at the same time I know that all of us, you and I are fighting through many different problems of our own, some small some great.
Still when we step outside and smell a newly mown lawn, or look into blue skies; walk along the seashore and smell the ocean, or go to the lake and barbeque hamburgers, somehow everything seems right in the world.
Nevertheless half a world away the Middle East is in chaos, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and places like Afghanistan and Iraq all while Iran rattles the nuclear saber.
These are places where women are degraded, mutilated, raped, murdered and considered less than cattle. Children are molested and taught hate for everything that is non-Muslim.
While here in the United States the debate rages as to whether we should let Muslim refugees enter our country in droves without proper vetting.
Most of these are young men who will not assimilate into our culture, and who have increased the crime rate (including rapes) and terrorist attacks all over Europe.
Meanwhile the feminists fight for just two things, socialism, and the right to kill babies. Dressed up as vaginas they take to the streets and advocate chaos.
Where is their money and the power of their voice when it comes to challenging the degrading practices against Muslim women?
In fact feminism sounds a lot like feminine, which would seem that they are for women’s rights.
Yet where is their cry for the rights of little girls not to be molested, sold into sexual slavery, or mutilated to become little boys. It would seem that feminism “benefits” adult women alone.
And do not forget that little boys are also indoctrinated, raped, brutalized and mutilated to become little girls, to replace women. Where is the feminist protest?
And on 4/18/11 the United Nations spent the day discussing whether or not to grant human rights status to mother earth.
This is the debased, non-functional mind, the mind that does not work mentioned in Romans 1:28; the last step in the decline of mankind.
It is time for all of us to take off the rose colored glasses and look at the world as it really is. This is a small preview of the world as it will be after the rapture, and from that point it will spiral downward. Can you imagine anything worse?
The joyous praise in heaven is similar to the elation that occurred at the end of World War II, with parties and dancing in the streets, the possibility of a world without war and a time of peace and prosperity were in the hearts of everyone.
But the praise in heaven is not about a hope, rather the knowledge that there will be peace, and prosperity, without famines and plagues. The end of the last world war and indeed the end of war altogether is about to happen.
There is more, there will be no more murders, child molestations, beatings, robberies and petty despots. No more evil judges, corrupt politicians, rampant drug abuse, car alarms, private security firms, and deadbolts on your doors. No more need to keep a gun in your home.
The world will be returned to a near Eden-like state, you will be able to explore the woods, oceans, and jungles without fear of snakes, lions, tigers, or bears.
In short everything will be far better than any Christ rejecting New-Ager, socialist, or atheist could ever dream it would be if we all just got along.
“Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” He reigns even today for Scripture says of Him.
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Proverbs 21:1.
God can and will overcome the intent of a king (or commoner) when it opposes His own will.
It is said that Joseph Stalin would spend his evenings going over death lists of those to be executed, and as he went along he would scratch someone’s name off the list; he could not have known everyone on those lists, it had to be God who moved him to do it.
Very soon we will see the “King of kings and Lord of lords” reign, He will be just, incorruptible and impartial, enthroned forever.
“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’” Revelation 19:7-9.
The wife mentioned here is known as the bride of Christ; this bride is composed of all who have been saved during the entire church period of about two thousand years.
“For I [Paul] am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27.
“For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:30-32.
The fact that a marriage between a man and a woman is a picture of Christ and His bride the church, makes this union, which is recognized everywhere on earth, all the more important to guard against it being defiled or trivialized.
Satan realizes this and in the last one hundred years he has brought all of his evil influence to bear against marriage and the church, the body of Christ, which is the bride. An unceasing battering which has increased dramatically in its savagery in the last fifty or sixty years.
The rapture of the church will occur when the very last person to accept Christ as their Savior is added to the bride.
Verse 7 says, “…the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” To understand this process, we have to go back to the ancient Jewish traditions of marriage.
It is interesting to note that, as far as I can see, and I am no expert on this, the traditions of marriage about to be examined are not spelled out in Scripture. Yet it is uncanny how closely Christ’s wedding parallels tradition.
There are four steps to this wedding, which will be shown as follows. In the first step, the father, in this case God the Father makes the arrangements for the marriage, which includes paying the bridal price.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
“…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
Step two, after a period of time the groom would fetch his bride from her home; in this case it has been about two thousand years. This cannot happen until two things are in place.
The father of the groom decides the timing of this event, the rapture of the church/bride.
“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.’” Acts 1:6-7.
The second condition was that the groom had to have a home to take his bride to.
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2-3.
Step three, was the actual wedding ceremony to which a few were invited. Prior to the wedding the bride underwent a ritual immersion as a ritual cleansing.
The ritual cleansing corresponds with the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat is not like the great white throne judgment on judgment day, be careful not to confuse these two events.
The great white throne comes at the end of time and is for all who have rejected the grace of God in Christ and died in their sins.
The judgment seat of Christ is for believers and occurs in heaven during the tribulation period, it is a time when rewards will be given out for faithfulness and loss will come to those who lived a life of sinful worldliness.
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10.
“But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:10-12.
“…the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Revelation 19:7-8.
At this stage the marriage will take place in heaven before Christ returns to earth to reign.
“Then he said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”’And he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’” Revelation 19:9.
The fourth step is the marriage feast to which more people were invited. These feasts could last up to seven days. It is evident that the marriage supper mentioned above will take place on earth.
“And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’” Revelation 19:10.
“Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head [Jesus Christ], from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God.” Colossians 2:18-19.
Let no one deceive you, God’s angels are our co-workers and the very name means messenger. God’s angels will only lead you to worship God.
Revelation 19:5-10 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-10-17, updated on 11-5-22.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.