Revelation 19 Explained

📖  UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE

Who Is Jesus?

How to Read the Bible

How to pray

Start with God

Who is the Holy Spirit?

🌍  THE END TIMES

End Times Timeline

The Great Tribulation

The Antichrist

The Mark of the Beast (666)

Armageddon

The Second Coming of Jesus

Revelation Explained

✝️  THE RAPTURE

What Is the Rapture?

Who Will Be Taken?

When Will the Rapture Happen?

Can You Miss the Rapture?

What Happens After the Rapture?

📖  The Church = the Bride

The Church as the Bride of Christ

In the Bible, the Church is presented as the Bride of Christ. This image draws on the marriage customs of biblical times and helps explain why the Rapture is presented as the moment when Christ comes to take His Bride to Himself.

The Marriage Picture in the Bible

In the marriage customs of ancient Israel, the father of the bridegroom had an important role in the marriage arrangement. After the engagement, the bridegroom would leave to prepare a place for his future bride.

He would later return at the appointed time to take her to himself. The bride therefore had to remain ready and wait for the bridegroom’s arrival. This imagery helps us understand the words of Jesus:

“I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” — John 14:3

Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the Church is His Bride. It is therefore significant that He says He will return to receive His Bride to Himself.

The Role of the Father

Jesus also spoke about the exact timing of His coming:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” — Matthew 24:36

Within the marriage imagery, this corresponds to the traditional role of the father in determining when the son would go to receive his bride. The Son knew that He would return, but the exact timing was in the Father’s hands.

However, an important distinction should be made: the Bible does not explicitly state that Christian marriage reproduces every detail of an ancient Jewish wedding ceremony. Rather, these similarities help us understand the biblical imagery surrounding Christ and His Church.

Why This Concerns the Church

This picture also explains why it is important not to simply use the expression “all believers” when speaking about the Rapture.

The Church is the Bride of Christ. Jesus will come to take His Bride so that she may be with Him. People who turn to Jesus Christ during the Tribulation can still be saved, but they will not become part of the Church that has already been raptured.

The Rapture can therefore be understood as the moment when the Bridegroom comes to receive His Bride. The Church Age then comes to an end, while God continues His prophetic plan concerning Israel and the nations.

This also gives special meaning to Revelation 19:7:

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”

The picture is therefore consistent: Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is His Bride, the Rapture is the gathering of the Bride to her Bridegroom, and the marriage of the Lamb follows.

📖  Revelation 19:7-9

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

In this passage, John describes the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, celebrating the union of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, with His Church, His bride. Clothed in fine linen, clean and white, the Church is presented as ready to meet her Lord, while great rejoicing fills heaven.

This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. According to the prophetic chronology presented on this website, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will take place after the Rapture of the Church, in heaven, and before the glorious return of Jesus Christ to the earth. It immediately precedes Christ’s return described in Revelation 19:11.

This passage reveals the joyful culmination of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. After being saved by His grace, believers will take part in this heavenly celebration before returning with Christ at His glorious return, when He establishes His Millennial Kingdom on the earth.

📖  Revelation 19:11-16

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

In this passage, John describes the glorious return of Jesus Christ, who comes from heaven as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Unlike His first coming, when He came as the Savior, He now returns as Judge and King to execute God’s righteous judgment.

This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled at the end of the Great Tribulation, when Jesus Christ visibly returns to the earth with the armies of heaven. He will defeat the Antichrist and the False Prophet, destroy the armies gathered against Jerusalem, and bring the rebellion of the nations to an end.

This passage marks one of the greatest moments in biblical prophecy. The glorious return of Jesus Christ will end the reign of the Antichrist, inaugurate the Millennial Kingdom, and demonstrate to all nations that Jesus Christ alone is the rightful sovereign over all the earth.

📖  Revelation 19:11-21

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

In this passage, John describes the glorious return of Jesus Christ at the head of the armies of heaven. He comes as the King of kings and Lord of lords to judge the nations, defeat His enemies, and bring the reign of the Antichrist to an end.

This event will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation, after the armies of the world have gathered at Armageddon. Jesus Christ will destroy the rebellious armies, the Antichrist and the False Prophet will be cast alive into the lake of fire, and Satan will then be bound for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3). This victory will usher in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ on the earth.

This passage proclaims the final triumph of Jesus Christ over every evil power. The One who came the first time as the Savior will return as the Judge and the King, fulfilling the prophecies of both the Old and New Testaments and establishing His righteous reign over all the earth.

📖  Revelation 19:20

« And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. »

In this verse, John describes the judgment of the Antichrist and the False Prophet at the glorious return of Jesus Christ. Following their defeat, they are seized and judged for deceiving the nations and leading people to worship the Beast and receive the mark of the Beast (666).

The False Prophet had performed great signs and miracles to deceive the inhabitants of the earth and turn them away from God. His work of deception comes to a permanent end when Jesus Christ intervenes in power.

This verse is significant because the Antichrist and the False Prophet are the first beings to be cast into the lake of fire, the place of eternal judgment. Their punishment is immediate and final, demonstrating that no one can escape the perfect justice of God.