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14
The Lamb and the 144,000
1 And wow, I saw a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand,*Is this group different than the one in chapter 7? having His name and†Only 2% of the Greek manuscripts do not have “His name and” (as in KJV and NKJV), so they had two names written, the Father's and the Son's—much better than having the name of the Beast! His Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from the sky, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was like harpists playing on their harps.‡Evidently John is finding it difficult to describe exactly what he heard, doubtless different from the normal sounds of this earth. 3 And they sing a new song before the Throne, and before the four living beings and the elders; and no one was able to learn the song except the 144 thousand, who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are the ones not defiled with women, for they are virgins;§All the pronouns are masculine, so these are male virgins. these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He may go. These were redeemed by Jesus*Two of the three main lines of independent transmission (including the best one) read “by Jesus”. from among men, firstfruits for God and for the Lamb;†Why “firstfruits”? Before the advent of refrigeration, food could be preserved by drying, smoking, salting, etc., but by the time of the next harvest, nothing would compare with a firstfruit, which would be something special. Those men were special! 5 no lie was found in their mouth, for they are blameless.‡These are remarkable men! KJV and NKJV add “before the throne of God”, following the TR which is here based on only two very late manuscripts.
Three angels
6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to be proclaimed to those who reside on the earth—to every ethnic nation and tribe and language and people— 7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory,§Of all the people who have ever lived on this earth, what percentage of them ever heard that Jesus died for them? Romans 1:18-21 gives the essence of God's requirement: the evidence of creation demands a Creator, and He expects people to acknowledge Him and try to please Him. because the hour of His judging has come, and do obeisance to Him who made heaven and earth, the ocean and springs of water.”*As fresh, pure water becomes more and more scarce, the springs of water will become increasingly important.
8 And another, a second, angel followed, saying: “It fell, it fell, Babylon the great!—she made all the nations drink of the wine of the rage of her fornication.”†Why “rage”? Her fornication was violent and compulsive, also insatiable.
9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the Beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,‡To actually serve as a warning, this would have to be contemporary with 13:16. 10 really, he will drink of the wine of the fury of God, mixed at full strength in the cup of His wrath. In fact, he will be tormented with fire and sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb.” 11 So the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, those who worship the Beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.§Believe me, you do not want to submit to the Beast in any way! Don't let anyone put anything on your right hand or on your forehead. Better to be executed. I do not doubt that the Beast is already alive on the earth, with age and preparation sufficient to take center stage at any moment.
12 Here is the endurance of the saints, here those who keep the commands of God and the faith of Jesus.*I would say that the two “here”s are cataphoric, referring forward to the content of verse 13. 13 I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on’ (“Yes” says the Spirit), ‘so that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow along with them.’ ”
The earth is harvested
14 And wow, I saw a white cloud, and someone like a son of man was sitting on the cloud, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple crying out with a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, “Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is dry.” 16 So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was harvested.
17 Then another angel came out of the temple (the one in heaven), he too having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar (having authority over the fire), and he called out with a loud cry to the one having the sharp sickle saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the grape clusters of the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle at the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the winepress of God's terrible fury. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horses' bridles, for a thousand six hundred stadia.†That is roughly 180 miles! If some four billion people will be killed during the seven-year period [mostly the second half of it] (as I calculate, a low estimate) and we allow an average of one gallon of blood per person, that is four billion gallons of blood—which would make quite a river! If the “winepress of God's terrible fury” described here represents sort of a summary of the blood shed during the Great Tribulation period, then the picture is not far fetched. Of course a winepress has a single outlet and the liquid is conveyed to the receptacle by a conduit of appropriate size. In this case the conduit is 180 miles long and the flow is about four feet (1.33 yards) deep—four billion gallons equals about 20 million cubic yards; 180 miles equals about 320 thousand linear yards; so we have about 62.5 cubic yards of blood per linear yard of conduit—so the conduit is about 45 yards wide. My purpose in conducting this exercise is simply to show that the description of the “winepress of God's terrible fury” is not at all ridiculous—it is a graphic but factual picture of the coming bloodbath.

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*14:1 Is this group different than the one in chapter 7?

†14:1 Only 2% of the Greek manuscripts do not have “His name and” (as in KJV and NKJV), so they had two names written, the Father's and the Son's—much better than having the name of the Beast!

‡14:2 Evidently John is finding it difficult to describe exactly what he heard, doubtless different from the normal sounds of this earth.

§14:4 All the pronouns are masculine, so these are male virgins.

*14:4 Two of the three main lines of independent transmission (including the best one) read “by Jesus”.

†14:4 Why “firstfruits”? Before the advent of refrigeration, food could be preserved by drying, smoking, salting, etc., but by the time of the next harvest, nothing would compare with a firstfruit, which would be something special. Those men were special!

‡14:5 These are remarkable men! KJV and NKJV add “before the throne of God”, following the TR which is here based on only two very late manuscripts.

§14:7 Of all the people who have ever lived on this earth, what percentage of them ever heard that Jesus died for them? Romans 1:18-21 gives the essence of God's requirement: the evidence of creation demands a Creator, and He expects people to acknowledge Him and try to please Him.

*14:7 As fresh, pure water becomes more and more scarce, the springs of water will become increasingly important.

†14:8 Why “rage”? Her fornication was violent and compulsive, also insatiable.

‡14:9 To actually serve as a warning, this would have to be contemporary with 13:16.

§14:11 Believe me, you do not want to submit to the Beast in any way! Don't let anyone put anything on your right hand or on your forehead. Better to be executed. I do not doubt that the Beast is already alive on the earth, with age and preparation sufficient to take center stage at any moment.

*14:12 I would say that the two “here”s are cataphoric, referring forward to the content of verse 13.

†14:20 That is roughly 180 miles! If some four billion people will be killed during the seven-year period [mostly the second half of it] (as I calculate, a low estimate) and we allow an average of one gallon of blood per person, that is four billion gallons of blood—which would make quite a river! If the “winepress of God's terrible fury” described here represents sort of a summary of the blood shed during the Great Tribulation period, then the picture is not far fetched. Of course a winepress has a single outlet and the liquid is conveyed to the receptacle by a conduit of appropriate size. In this case the conduit is 180 miles long and the flow is about four feet (1.33 yards) deep—four billion gallons equals about 20 million cubic yards; 180 miles equals about 320 thousand linear yards; so we have about 62.5 cubic yards of blood per linear yard of conduit—so the conduit is about 45 yards wide. My purpose in conducting this exercise is simply to show that the description of the “winepress of God's terrible fury” is not at all ridiculous—it is a graphic but factual picture of the coming bloodbath.

© 2016 Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD