End times series:
Revelation 14-15
By Liaf
Revelation chapter 14 deals with the 144,000 in heaven. Last time we heard about them on Earth was in chapter seven when they were sealed. Now they are in heaven. How did they get there? Unless one believes that the "man child" of Revelation 12 is these folks, then the transference from Earth to heaven is indeed a mystery. Let’s turn our King James Bibles to Revelation chapter 14:
Revelation 14:1-5: And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Here the 144,000 are in the heavenly mount Zion where they sing a new song. How do we know this is the heavenly mount Zion? We know this because they are in the presence of the elders and four beasts. This is where John was called to "come up hither." Notice these are the firstfruits of those redeemed from Israel during the Tribulation. They preached to multitudes that accepted the Gospel of the Kingdom. These 144,00 were raptured (in Revelation 12) while the remaining converts are here on the Earth.
I won’t comment on the part that says "they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins" We are big boys and girls now. J They put the Lord first, and were uncorrupt. No families for these folks. They had the Lord’s work to do, and this was serious business in such a short time. Sorry ladies, these 144,000 are males. That’s what God chose to work with. Since I believe the female sex is really superior, it shows God’s miraculous power to work with limited resources. J Let’s continue reading Revelation 14:
Revelation 14:6-7: And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Even after the two witnesses are resurrected and the 144,000 raptured, and in spite of terrible Tribulation, yet God allows the Gospel of the Kingdom to be preached to all those remaining in all nations. I fail to see why some believe that it is not possible to still be saved during the Tribulation. God is merciful. Needless to say, I would not recommend waiting for the Tribulation.
Revelation 14:8: And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Later on Revelation gives the details of Babylon’s fall. We believe this will be a literal rebuilt Babylon. This is easy to understand if we believe that Antichrist will come from the Old Seleucid Empire and his feet are planted in the Medo-Persian Empire region.
Revelation 14:9-12: And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into 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:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Wait till you see what is coming for those who receive the mark here on Earth. In addition, people following the beast will end up in eternal torment.
Revelation 14:13-20: And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
As was already covered in the book of Daniel, the remaining saints will have a terrible time, and many will be martyred. Then take notice that the Son of Man is ready to do some harvesting with his sickle. The end of this chapter anticipates the coming judgement of Armageddon, and the chapters to come deal with the "bowl" or "vial" judgements of God. I often wondered if a river of blood, perhaps about two hundred miles long and about 4 or 5 feet deep was possible. Are there enough people on this Earth for that to literally happen? Most people do not believe this is possible, and this passage is just a figurative way of stating that there will be great slaughter. Let’s do a little mathematics to see if this is possible. The problem is that the Bible says how deep the river of blood is and how long but not how wide. (Some may even ask me how I know this will be a river. I’ll show its counterpart scripture later that will be a cleansing river). Let’s take the liberty of saying about 40 feet wide given the depth of the blood (we’ll use four feet deep). Our goal is to figure out the volume in cubic feet of blood. We can then convert that to gallons and see if there are enough people present worldwide to make this a literal prophecy. If we are to take the liberty of a 40-foot wide river of blood, let’s also take the liberty to assume that the base is roughly parabolic. That is to say (for those of you who don’t like my mathematics) that the cross-section of this river of blood is bowl shaped. Makes sense. Four feet deep in the middle and at the shoreline it becomes very shallow like any stream. For those of you who know your basic calculus, the area under a parabola is one-third the width and height of a point on the parabola assuming this thing is level and the base is at the origin. Thus, the area on top is 2/3 base times height. That gives us a cross-sectional area of 40x 4x 2/3 = 107 square feet (to the nearest foot). Now if we know that the river is 1600 furlongs, and a furlong is 606.75 feet long, this river of blood is 606.75 x1600= 970800 feet long (that’s almost 200 miles!). The cubic feet of this river is the cross-sectional area times the length or 107x 970800 = 103875600 cubic feet. To most of you that means nothing, I know. However, cubic foot of a liquid can easily be converted to gallons. A cubic foot of liquid is very close to 7 ½ gallons. Thus,
103,875,600 x 7.5 = 779,067,000 gallons. How much blood does a human body hold? Isn’t it about a gallon? Therefore, the number of people needed to produce this river is about the same as the number of gallons it holds. Do we have about 779,000,000 people on this Earth now? Yes. We have closer to 6,000,000,000. And even after some are slaughtered in the Tribulation, there will still be enough, I’m sure.
There are those who think this is a fruitless exercise, and that I am making many assumptions. This is true. But I do want to point out that there are enough people on this Earth to literally make a very large pool or river of blood in the manner in which it is described. (I did not take into account the topography of the Earth for this to happen, the possibility that the blood is mixed with water, and so forth but you get the idea.) I was very surprised to see this for myself, but mathematics says it all.
There is another river that will flow from the Temple in the Millennium to cleanse the land. We find it in Ezekiel 47:1-12.
Let’s turn our attention to Revelation chapter 15:
Revelation 15:1-8: And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
This chapter is a short one, and basically it says two things: there are seven last "vial" or "bowl" judgements of God (the most severe), and that the martyred saints who were victorious over the beast and his mark were before the throne singing Psalm 90 (as I interpret it). This Psalm tells of God’s refuge and his judgement. When we read through our Bibles and come across that psalm, we usually do not associate that with end-times or the ultimate purpose of God. However, in light of what Revelation teaches, we can read that psalm with new appreciation as to its meaning. You may or may not agree with me on this.
The next message will deal specifically with these seven last judgements.