 |  |
(3) Judgment and War.
The vision of the Son of Man upon a white cloud, having in His hand a sharp sickle
(Rev. 14: 14) is no reference to a peaceful and happy harvesting of the redeemed.
The grapes thus gathered were "cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God"
(Rev. 14: 19).
Finally, the Throne of Judgment after the close of the Millennium, which is for "the
rest" of the dead who were not counted worthy to be numbered with the "first
resurrection", that throne is defined as being "white" (Rev. 20: 11). There are many
references to a throne in the Revelation (thronos occurs 46 times), but no colour or
description is given to forty-five of these references. The fact that the throne of
Rev. 20: 11 is defined as "white" definitely links it with the "rest of the dead" who failed
to "overcome". (See other articles under the covering title "Millennial Studies" for
further proofs and exposition of this and kindred themes.)
Here again we pause. The testimony of the employment of "white" in the Apocalypse
ranges with and supplements a great number of other features that testify with one voice,
that the Millennium is pre-eminently the sphere in which the martyrs who suffer during
the Antichristian oppression will "live and reign with Christ a thousand years". All
theories concerning the Millennium must line up with the positive teaching of the
Apocalypse, all theories that ignore or belittle such testimony must be repudiated by all
who love and honour the Scriptures as the Word of Truth. Rev. 20: 1-10 is the only sure
starting point for studying the meaning and character of the Millennial kingdom. Many
prophecies, hitherto forced into that kingdom, may belong to the succeeding Day of God
(II Pet. 3: 12) which is scarcely touched upon in the Apocalypse.
What John said concerning the earthly ministry of the Son of God in his gospel, namely:
"There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
written everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written" (John 21: 25),
could be said of the fulfillment of O.T. prophecy. The visions of the Apocalypse are as
much selected, as were the eight signs of the gospel of John.
The prophecies of the O.T. have a focus, a gathering point, and this is sufficiently
definite to ensure that the student who observes their limits and the items that converge at
the time of the end, will have a sufficient guide and chart to the outworking of prophecy,
until faith merges into sight and the day dawns, and shadows flee away.
See article, The converging lines of Prophecy either in a future issue, or in the
Alphabetical Analysis.