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REVELATION 19:11-21

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 52, No. 17.

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REVELATION 19:11-21.

In this scripture we have an account of the conflict between those powers represented by the beast, the kings of the earth, and the false prophet, on the one hand; and on the other, One seated upon a white horse, called King of kings and Lord of lords, who can be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
This scene evidently transpires at the second coming of Christ. The armies of Heaven, which follow him, are the angels of God. No objection to this view is found in the statement that they are clothed in fine linen white and clean. Verse 14. The white linen of the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is, to be sure, called the righteousness of the saints; but the application of this term to these heavenly armies does not prove them to be redeemed saints, and locate this scene at the end of the thousand years, when these saints are to take part in the execution of the judgment of the wicked. For in Rev. 15: 6, the angels who have charge of the pouring out of the seven last plagues are clothed in pure and white linen. These are not saints; but the linen in this case, as doubtless in Rev. 19: 14, denotes that no shade or suspicion of blame rests upon the justice of God in the infliction of the terrible judgments which come upon the wicked.
The reference to treading the winepress at this time, verse 15, does not locate the scene at the end of the thousand years; for Isaiah uses the same expression, and says that it is when the “day of vengeance,” and the “year of the redeemed” comes. Isa. 63: 3, 4. This comes at the second coming of Christ. Then he treads the winepress of Isa. 63: 3, and Rev. 19: 15.
Furthermore, in Rev. 20: 10, in a description of a scene which transpires at the end of the thousand years, we read that the devil is cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet were cast, as it would read if the ellipsis were correctly supplied. When were they cast there? At the second coming of Christ, a thousand years before, as recorded in Rev. 19: 20.
In reference to these expressions, battle, lake of fire, treading of the winepress, etc., we must, to avoid confusion, bear in mind that there is a battle, a lake of fire, and a treading of the winepress at the beginning of the thousand years, the same as at the close, the apparent difference being that the latter scenes are of more stupendous magnitude and power.