50: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 19:1-20:3

[McNeely] Well, welcome back to class. We are ready to jump into chapter 19 of Revelation, which is a very significant chapter. Chapter 19 talks about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. When we look at that topic, it's one of our fundamentals of belief. We have a whole fundamental belief about the return of Jesus Christ literally to the earth as the Scriptures show.

It is the culminating event of history in one sense. Perhaps you could look at the second resurrection and the period of the great white throne beyond as well. But in terms of what mankind has been looking for throughout its history up to this point and to the time of Christ return, it is this moment with Christ's return.

His first coming was very significant and very important. But as we know from all the Scriptures, His Kingdom was not to be a part of that world at that time. That's what Jesus said at the time of His death when He was before Pilate. He gave parables, the parable of the talents in Luke. He gave because people thought that He was going to usher in the Kingdom at that time. And He knew that it wasn't. We know that it is yet ahead. And that's what chapter 19 begins to point to.

And so many of the Scriptures from all the prophets and from the law that point to this moment and to what then transpires afterwards, as we'll read about in chapter 20, points to the importance and the central event here. So let's get into it and look at what we are told in chapter 19, verse 1.

"After these things, I heard a loud voice" (Revelation 19:1).

So just note as you go through Revelation, there are these little statements in verse 1 here, after these things. Then John will say in earlier points, and then I saw. There's a linear progression. There's a time sequencing here, which does show us that as you begin to read Revelation, it does move forward. There's a movement to a conclusion and a movement within time that is indicated here, even though, as I've said many times, the visions and many of the visions are of eternity and of the throne of God and outside of time and space.

But as these events that are directed from heaven, the throne of God, and then will come from the eternal realm, such as the appearance of the glorified Christ here in chapter 19, it comes from the eternal realm, but it then intrudes into time and space, the earthly realm of this life. So these statements help us to kind of piece that together, stitch it together to show that when God comes into time, and especially at this event, it is highly significant.

"A loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God" (Revelation 19:1).

"For true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication" (Revelation 19:2).

Babylon has fallen. We've brought that to a conclusion. There's one significant event to occur yet that will be the binding of Satan, the power behind of Babylon. We'll come to that later. But these events are past.

"He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her" (Revelation 19:2).

"Again, they said, hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever" (Revelation 19:3).

And in the Greek, that really means to the ages of the ages. And it's a symbolic. It's not speaking of an ever-burning fire in that sense, but it's symbolic of a permanent witness. The other prophecies described that we'll come to show the earth being melted and remade. That is yet to come. But with that in mind, it's not reasonable to look at this smoke as literal, ascending literally forever and ever.

"And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne saying, Amen, hallelujah" (Revelation 19:4).

And this could be a reference to the creatures that we were introduced to back in Ezekiel that carried the throne of God. They were right there at the throne of God.

"A voice then came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great" (Revelation 19:5).

And so the resurrected saints and all who have part in this.

"And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of many thunderings saying, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns" (Revelation 19:6).

And so here's this great scene in heaven of these living creatures, 24 elders, the angelic hosts that are all a part of this. And a voice comes out. It seems to be perhaps one of the caribs at God's throne with these words. They're not a human voice that are said, but it is speaking of the Lord God omnipotent.

That particular phrase, omnipotent, comes from a Greek word pentocrator, P-A-N-T-O-K-R-A-T-O-R, pentocrator. And it speaks to the Almighty God, the all-powerful, all-ruling position that God has. So at the climax of the worst time in history, God then emerges as the Almighty whose judgments are perfect in all of this.

It goes on in verse 7.

"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" (Revelation 19:7).

"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 19:8).

So here's a well-known Scripture to us, the marriage of the Lamb. I made comments about that when we were back at chapter 15 about the marriage supper and some comments about that to help us put that into the context. Here is a specific reference to it, along with what we have back in primarily Matthew's Gospel.

But that this marriage of Christ, who is the Lamb, has come and His wife, who is speaking, this is referencing the church, has made herself ready. Now from this, we certainly gain the direct teaching that when this supper or this marriage ceremony of the Lamb occurs, the church will have been made ready. In other words, the preparation period for the church is complete.

The individual members of the church, the saints, the members, have overcome the world. They've overcome the beast. They've overcome in their life. Many have been sealed through their death through the ages for the resurrection.

Those who are alive and remain at this event, Christ's coming, they too will have, in a sense, finished their course. They will have been made ready and they are a part of the bride.

But the point is, that phase of the plan of God, the church and its preparation comes to a conclusion through the ages that what has begun, in one sense, with the beginning of the church in the book of Acts. But we could back that into the Old Testament to those that were a part of Israel, those that God was working with in that age as well. But that whole matter has come and it has come to a completion. And then it will be ready to move to the next phase.

And we know what that is as first fruits of God's Kingdom, and we'll see that in chapter 20. The next phase will be of spirit beings ruling and reigning with Christ. And it says, "to her was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:8).

So the linen is a symbol of righteousness that we develop through overcoming this world. And we develop through the life of Christ within us, through God's spirit within us. It is shown to be by Paul in Galatians 2 20 to be the very life of Christ in us. We overcome through that help and by the life of Christ within us, helping us to put out sin and to take on the true righteousness of God, not our own righteousness.

That's a very big topic. Attempted to pause on that for a period of time, but better head on. But always make sure that the righteousness that we proclaim to have and the righteous acts that we as saints wear and put on, always make sure that it's of God and His righteousness through His spirit in us and not what we generate ourself. That's self-righteousness.

So always make sure, you know, we're coming up to Unleavened Bread here as this is being given here at this point in time. We focus on the Passover, Christ's life, and death and resurrection. We put out the leaven, we eat unleavened bread, we know all the symbolism there, but we are really picturing the life of the resurrected Christ within us as we take in that unleavened bread and what it pictures. That's Christ's life within us. He is the bread of life.

And so always make sure that when we've reached a point where we've put a sin away, we've made a significant development in our life and we feel that, you know, we've overcome something.

Make sure that you know that it is by God's help and you give God the credit.

And we can't take credit for that. It's God's spirit, His power in us that has enabled us to do that so that we put on His righteousness. And make sure that then that righteousness is what will prepare us to be a part of this event here and the marriage of the Lamb to His church.

So with what I said in the back of chapter 15 about the marriage supper, the timing and certain things about that all stand. There's much more that we could go into, but I'm not going to repeat a lot of that. Let me just focus here and say this, that individually as Christians, we are looked at as guests at that wedding.

If you go back to Matthew chapter 22, for instance, where that parable is told of the wedding supper, the focus seems to be on the guests individually who received the invitation and must have the right garments on to be able to stay there in that parable. And so as individuals, we are called, chosen. We intend to remain faithful to our calling and to be at that supper and to have the right garments on. Having been invited and are a part of it, but to be recognized then by Christ.

So the other aspect of it is that marriage supper is also something that involves our collective effort as a church. So you have the individuals and then you have the church. And here in this verse, the church then collectively is the bride of Christ that has been prepared. So we are part of a spiritual body as we are baptized, put into the church. And we develop spiritually, we grow spiritually in the optimum way through the fellowship one with another. And as we have fellowship with God, but as we learn to work together, church gets messy sometimes.

Someone made a comment to me once, there's no hurt like church hurt. No hurt like church hurt. That's true. But the church is the church of God and that church is a spiritual body. And if we indeed are a part of that spiritual body, we're committed to that. And it is through that hurt sometimes, even that offense and those difficult times that we do learn to work together.

Forgive, reconcile, which we have to do. And that's part of the process of the preparation for this event that is described here. Never forget that. Never forget that.

Ultimately, our true strength will be in binding and bonding together. And keep that always in mind. You folks have experienced something in your class as every ABC class does. You come together at the beginning of the year. You don't know, for the most part, you really don't know everyone. You already have a few friends, but collectively you don't know everyone. And you begin to work together, get along together, squabble together, etc.

But then you produce something like you did the other day with your day with your charity auction. You come together and you create something really good.

And that bonds you together. And then all of a sudden, the class is over. But you've developed relationships. And just look back on your experience here to see the good and the bad, to bring you together to do what you can do. And you see how then that translates to the whole of the church as it is being prepared.

All right, let's then go on to verse 9.

"Then He said to me, write: blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).

So it's a blessing to have that calling. And we look at our salvation and place within the body of Christ as a calling. We're called to salvation. We are called to the church. We have this terminology, but we see this throughout Scripture that salvation is a calling.

God calls us to that in this age to be first fruits and to be then engaged in this marriage supper relationship, which as far as the Bible is concerned is an event, the marriage supper, that is the culminating moment of human experience and perhaps could be looked at as a transition to that spirit realm, but it's a calling.

And God has called us to be first fruits in this time and this age, and to be a part of what, as far as we know from Scripture, and is a one-off event and eternity, that is the marriage supper. And whenever it is, in whatever, in what fashion, and as a part of all the different events, God knows. And He hasn't given us all the details.

So the one loud aspect of the marriage supper is that there is a marriage supper and there's a calling to it. And our job, our role is to be prepared with the fine linen of the saints to be there. And always keep that in mind, no matter where the discussions and the ideas go about the events regarding the resurrection, the coming of Christ, and this one, it's important to just be there.

And God knows it all perfectly. And if we do our part, which is very clear in Scripture, then we will be prepared and we will be there.

It goes on.

"And He said to me, these are the true sayings of God" (Revelation 19:9).

"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).

So is it important to study prophecy? Is it important to understand prophecy? Yes, to a degree. Within the limits that God reveals and within the larger boundary where there are prophecies they will fail, Paul tells us, the greatest of these is love.

But it is a part of the testimony or the witness or the explanation, what Christ gives us. He is the greatest of the prophets. So one should not fall into a trap where they think that prophecy is not important. What's more important is some other part of the Scripture in one's sense. Prophecy is important. It just has to be handled wisely, responsibly, carefully, and not in an outrageous fashion because it is a part of the testimony of Christ.

So it moves on to verse 11.

"Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse" (Revelation 19:11).

So this takes us back to chapter 6 where we had the first rider of the apocalypse or the first seal opened and a rider on a white horse. Not that the two are the same. We covered that, that is a false Christ back in Revelation 6. But now here is the image of the true. And the false Christ by this point had been taken care of.

Christ is on a white horse.

"He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war" (Revelation 19:11).

So here finally Christ appears, His conqueror and ruler, and the white horse symbolizes victory in battle. And it's far different. When He entered into Jerusalem at the time of His pending death, He came on a colt of a donkey back in John 12. And He came as a sacrifice. Now He comes on a white horse, and He comes in a completely different role as conqueror.

He's faithful. He's true. And this takes us back to earlier comments, such as in Revelation 3, where He is called faithful and true.

But He comes, as it says in verse 12.

"His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. And He had a name written that no one knew except Himself" (Revelation 19:12).

You know, Jesus came, He's called the Lamb of God, which portrays in a sense a helpless animal bound for the sacrifice, but a cuddly, warm, fuzzy lamb.

And we look at Christ as our Savior, our high priest, our mediator, our intercessor.

We develop a relationship with Christ as Christians. Our walk is with Him. His life is within us. He has revealed the Father to us. And all of that, true and a part of that.

But on this occasion, at His coming, He's got blood in His eye. If His eyes are like a flame of fire, then you can say that Christ comes with blood in His eye. In other words, it is a time of judgment. And He's not coming on a donkey. And He's not coming as the sacrificial lamb. That has been done.

Now He is coming as Christ Pentocrator, Christ omnipotent, Christ over all.

And He has on His head many crowns. These are the diadems, as opposed to the other crown that we've discussed in Revelation, the victory crown or the Stephanos crown. These many crowns that are on His head are the diadems, a kingly crown. The other is a crown of a victor in a race such as the Olympiad or a modern Olympics. It's a laurel wreath, the Stephanos. This is a gold crown. This is a crown of kingship as He will rule over all nations here.

And He will make war. In righteousness, He judges.

Remember again the episode of James and John that wanted to call fire down on the Samaritan village and Christ said, no, no, no, no, no, not now. This is not the time or place for that.

Humanly, we might want to do that from time to time. But we're not, that just shows we're not ready to hold and handle that kind of power. And our judgment would not be righteous. I guarantee you most cases where we are pushed to that point in our life, we would, we're not exercising righteous judgment.

When Christ comes to this point and He judges and He makes war, it is a righteous war because Christ has the power to resurrect and the dead will be resurrected in their time and in that way.

And so on the name that is written, no one except Himself, what that is or will be, we'll have to wait and see. There's a lot of speculation about that.

But remember back in chapter 2 and verse 17, overcomers are promised a new name known to no one else there. And so it may be that, I don't know, you could really go off into a lot of speculation here about our new name and what this name is that no one knows that is on Christ. But I'll save that for your late night discussion and your ideas that you can come up with. I'll not try to perpetuate that since this is something that will be going out to all the church here.

But it likely will represent new understanding about ourselves and about God that will open up another world of enlightenment for us.

And it says in verse 14.

"And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses" (Revelation 19:14).

And so here are the armies in heaven, plural. Now, who will be a part of this? Well, if you go back to Matthew 26 and verse 53, it says, "Do you not think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53).

Christ said that when He stood before the high priest. They call for twelve legions of angels, more than 12,000 angels. And so the armies there, and could apply here in Revelation, to be an angelic armies.

But we also know from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 16 and 17, that we will meet Christ in the air, the dead in Christ, and those that are alive with Christ that is coming will meet Him in the air, and then return to earth with Him, forever be with Him as He comes back.

And so it could then include the resurrected saints as well, in some way, in some fashion. So leave it open to be expansive. It could be both angels and saints. It could just be angels in that sense.

But we'll leave that in the imagery of a white horse and armies following Him on white horses here, spirit horses, whatever that is telling us, we will be a part of what Christ will then bring to the earth.

Now verse 15 goes on.

"Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God" (Revelation 19:15).

And so a sharp sword seems to repeat what is back in Revelation 1 and verse 6 about a sharp sword that is with Christ at that time. And with a rod that says He will strike the earth, and He will rule with a rod of iron. Isaiah 11:4 tells us.

"With the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked" (Isaiah 11:4).

There's a lot of wording that goes in Scripture in regard to all of this. But then again, God's Word is power, sharper than a two-edged sword, we're told, in Hebrews.

So there's a number of different aspects that describe this. But Christ's rule, His presence, you know, Christ's presence alone is powerful enough to do whatever He wants. But all this other imagery of a sword and of armies add to, again, the momentous event that we are describing and is being discussed here within the entire context of Christ's Second Coming that will accomplish this upon the earth and His rule upon the earth.

And so it says in verse 16.

"And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:16).

And so all of this comes into play at this time. So what you want to do is, in your margins or in your imagery as you think of this, is go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. The saints, the dead in Christ rising, those that are alive at that His coming, rising and meeting Him in the air at this time.

Again, this is such a culminating event in history. And then 1 Corinthians 15, that you've studied, the resurrection chapter that talks about in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sounding of a trumpet, the seventh trumpet that sounds and the dead rising. But in a moment, in an instant, we are changed from mortal to immortality, Paul writes there in Corinthians.

All of this is taking place. It's a tremendous event. It's a tremendous moment in the plan of God and in the purpose of God, all laid out here very, very carefully.

And then Zechariah 14, we'll go ahead and turn back and read that. Let's begin at verse 3.

"The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west" (Zechariah 14:3–4).

You know, I've been to Jerusalem many times. And when you stand, let's say, on the Temple Mount area, and you look across the Kidron Valley to the east to the Mount of Olives, there is a kind of a natural cleft in that mountain. And it makes you remember this verse where it says that the Mount will be split in two. And almost like there's a natural point there where that could happen.

Making a very large valley, there's already a large valley there in the Kidron Valley, “half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley. From the mountain valley shall reach to Azal, and you will flee as you fled from the earthquake” (Zechariah 14:4–5).

And it goes on to describe that and move into a millennial-type description of things. But verses 3 and 4 of Zechariah 14 add another dimension of understanding here to this moment. So again, you want to pull these pieces together here and bring them together with what we know and with what we have here.

Now, I want to make a comment. It says, “He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16).

Been three years ago. I was in one of my other tours in Turkey, and we were in a museum. And you go to these museums in Turkey, in Greece, in Rome, and you got all kinds of statues from the Greco-Roman world, bits and pieces of statues because they were either half destroyed or fell in an earthquake, and the heads lopped off, and maybe one arm and half of a torso.

Here was a torso from about here, down to the knee of what was a man. And it was probably some depiction of either a king or a god.

And the tour guide that I was with brought us all together there in front of the case. And he pointed out the thigh of this statue that had the name written on the thigh, etched in there in Greek. And he quoted this verse that when John wrote this, and when the audience would have heard this in the first century, they would have conjured up similar statues where the name of the figure, the king or the god, was on the thigh.

I thought, why? It's pretty neat. You know, these things are pulled together in Revelation. We've talked about the imagery through many other parts of the Scripture here. But even on this one, that was a common feature of statues, particularly with deity in the ancient world. So on Christ's thigh will be the name King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

Again, Christ's pantocrator, Christ over all. So it's pretty cool to think about. I could bring you a picture and show it to you, but I've never done it because I might get censored for bringing in x-rated imagery to ABC. So my wife will not let me show it to you in class and put it up there because other parts of the statue were still intact.

So I'll leave the rest of that to your imagination. But that's the reality when you go to museums.

A few years ago, we were, I think we were on our way to the feast in southern France, and we'd gone through Paris. And my granddaughter was a little bit younger at that time. And we were going through the Louvre in Paris. And, you know, in a big world-class museum, you've got all kinds of paintings of nudes and this and that. And you just can't help it.

And after a couple of hours of that, she must have been 10 years old at the time, my sweet little granddaughter. Just, Daddy, Grandpa, get me out of here! You know, she just retired and looking and seeing all of this. She didn't want to see any more. And so we had to, you know, we had to move to another part of the museum at that point or shield her eyes. But she just was greatly offended.

But that's art. That's the way things are in that way. So I'm not going to bring any pictures of this into you to show this. But just know that it was a common feature, and they saw that.

Verse 17.

"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun. And he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great’” (Revelation 19:17–18).

Wow! An angel standing in the sun. You know, that's a backdrop that Hollywood can't produce, something of that. When this event occurs and you look up and the sun, that is full, blazing on a clear day, and you can focus in on it long enough looking at the sun, and you see an angel standing in the sun, and you would imagine juxtaposed in whatever positioning against it to look like they were actually in it.

But it would be quite a sight. There's no other imagery like this that is described in Scripture. And so this is a different kind of supper. This is not the marriage supper. This certainly shows the certainty of those that are fighting against Christ that will die. They will become corpses for the scavenging birds to eat.

And there's other parallels, not the same event, but you go to Ezekiel 39, and Ezekiel 39 is the description of the time of Gog and Magog, which is another event. But at least you see there that there are scavengers that are called at that time.

And so the carnage, as a result of this, is pointed out in this vast imagery that opens up at the time of this great battle of the day of God Almighty, as mentioned back in chapter 16.

Verse 19.

"And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army" (Revelation 19:19).

And so here's the final battle.

"Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20).

And their life comes to a conclusion. And the rest were killed.

"And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh" (Revelation 19:21).

And so the last personification of this empire comes to a conclusion, along with a religious system behind it, and all of the powers that they had working these signs.

Remember that power originates with Satan. And we're kind of moving sequentially, and God's showing us through this that one by one they're removed. And then as we come into chapter 20, we're going to see the disposal or the binding of the one behind all of this, because he's the real power, and that is Satan, to do this.

And the lake of fire is mentioned here that they will be burned up. But as we will see when we come into chapter 20, there may be indications there that this lake of fire, representation of it, whatever then will be done, and there's every reason to believe that the beast and the false prophet will be seen to be thrown into this lake of fire.

It seems that God is going to make an object lesson at this time for all mankind to know the fate of those who have been instruments against the work of God, the Kingdom of God.

And it may be that this lake, in a sense, will be something that will exist throughout the millennium. There's indications of that when we get into chapter 20. But the armies and these people will come to a conclusion, and they will be a part of this in this lake of fire.

Now, there's a chapter break here as we look at Revelation.

At the end of verse 21, “the rest were killed with a sword that proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh” (Revelation 19:21). And in reality, it just goes on into chapter 20. The true chapter break probably should be at the end of verse 3 in chapter 20.

So we might as well kind of finish this thought because it says then in chapter 20 and verse 1,

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1–2).

And so again, sequentially, we see every obstacle, the beast, the false prophet. Now Satan, in a sense, just moved aside by the power of the returning Christ.

And an angel now specifically assigned to come down with this key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand, and he binds Satan at this particular point in time.

Now, we're moving now into the imagery and the actual, well, not the imagery so much, but the actual fulfillment of the events of the Day of Atonement, where we read back in Leviticus 16, this goat that had the sins of Israel put upon it and is led away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness alive and let go, is not killed, is a picture of Satan. We studied that when we were going through the Holy Days. I'm going to go back and go into all of that.

But Revelation 20 then shows the fulfillment of all of that symbolism and the events on the Day of Atonement historically with those two goats. Now, this angel taking the role of the fit person designated to lead that goat away into the wilderness comes down with a key to the bottomless pit and binds Satan for 1,000 years.

Verse 3,

“And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:3).

So Revelation 20 has several references to a 1,000-year period. So we have some very specific time period listed here. And we know that that is pointing us to the millennium. We'll read about that in verse 4.

But Satan is going to be bound for 1,000 years. And his deceptive influence goes down. You know, if you just imagine the sound of an entire system, a power plant, a grid, you know, the lights and the power system on a ship or on a sub or within a plant, hmm, powers down. So will be the influence of Satan upon the world. It'll just power down. And it will no longer be there.

Think back on then all the other scriptures that point to the power of this being to deceive. Revelation 12 and 2 Corinthians 4:4 and so many others that speak to him as the liar and the father of lies, as Christ said.

We study the doctrine of Satan. We, you know, we took you through all of that. It's gone.

The prince of the power of the air no longer has that power to broadcast.

You know, go upstairs sometime. You know, Mr. Teague, David Teague, has done these paintings of the Holy Days that we have scattered throughout the building. But the one that depicts Atonement is upstairs right next to Mr. Roland's office and Mr. Myers in that little section right in the middle of the second floor. And it's probably my favorite of the ones that he's done.

When I moved into the office a number of years ago, we hadn't really formally displayed them in the fashion that we do with a little sign and everything. And that one was hanging in the office that I went into. So I kind of looked at that and it's got a depiction of a chain and a hand down at the bottom. But there's a whole group of people that are really the focus of that scene.

And if you… so you see all kinds of people. You see children, old people, all nationalities that are depicted in that. And if you look very carefully at that picture, you will see that Mr. Teague depicted it. There's light at the bottom and people's eyes are being opened. And as you move up through the people in the picture, it's still dark depicting deception and the spiritual darkness that Satan has on the world.

I think he really did a good job on that painting to show how with this binding of Satan, there will be then, as I said, that power down of the grid and that deceptive power is gone. And then people begin to open up and light comes in. Their eyes are opened.

And you look at that picture sometime and you will see, I think, a pretty good depiction of what will occur upon the survivors of the Tribulation who come through that period of trial, through the coming of Christ, and see all of these events as He comes. And then witness in whatever way the beast and the false prophet being thrown into this lake of fire, and then Satan put into a bottomless pit.

And then can begin the work of the restoration of all things. So it's a beautiful scene and it's a beautiful picture here, and one that we should keep in mind. And I think a pretty good one to end on with this particular section, because it takes us then ready to look at the rest of the events that are depicted in chapter 20 that show us then the resurrections.

So we'll do that in the next class and go through that.