God the Righteous Judge

KEY VERSE: “Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments.” —Revelation 19:1,2

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Revelation 19:11-16

WHEN the Apostle John had witnessed the destruction of mystical Babylon, recorded in Revelation chapter eighteen, he heard a “great voice of much people in heaven” (Rev. 19:1) singing the praises of God, ascribing to him their own salvation and that of his church; and adoring his glorious perfections, as displayed in these events and in all his wonderful works, and his sovereign and everlasting dominion. For his truth and justice had been revealed in the judgments which had been executed on that corrupt and evil symbolic city that had persecuted the church and the servants of God. Then in Revelation 19:6, John “heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

This mighty acclamation was in praise of the Lord because by his omnipotence he had taken the throne, and would reign through his Son over all the earth. It was not as if God was not always in full control, but that the time had come for him to exert his mighty power in beginning to bring about the end of Satan’s rule in the earth, the first act of which was to destroy Babylon.

Then the same loud voice of the great multitude continued to praise the Almighty God for another of his great and mighty works “for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 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.” (Rev. 19:7,8) The completion of the church will be the final act of preparation before the climactic time of trouble preceding the establishment of the kingdom. The heavenly hosts recognized the development of the church as one of God’s greatest creative works. He has taken members of the condemned and fallen race and through the power of the Holy Spirit elevated them to the divine nature. The marriage, we believe, represents the uniting of Christ and his church to the office of mediator in order that they together might be the deliverer of the people.

As the vision of John continued he saw the glorified Jesus sitting upon a white horse—and upon his head were many crowns. With him also upon white horses and clothed in fine linen, white and clean, was the church. Horses in the symbology of Revelation are generally considered to represent doctrines and in this instance would represent justice and holiness. Their mission is described as, “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.”—Rev. 19:15

It is interesting to note that this final act of destruction directed toward Satan’s rule on earth is described as the “wrath of Almighty God.” It is the privilege of Christ and his church to be used as the “arm of Jehovah” to accomplish this final work of preparation before the establishment of the kingdom. See also Psalm 149:5-9; Psalm 2:8,9.

Then as John’s vision continued, he “saw an angel [who we believe was Christ and his church] come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Rev. 20:1-3) Satan is the great deceiver. Jesus said of him, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44) It has been by deception and beguilement that he has kept the world under his power since Adam’s fall.

In the kingdom there is no place for deception, and therefore, the restraining or binding of Satan will mark the beginning of Christ’s kingdom here on earth. Because God is a righteous Judge, he has so arranged that during the kingdom the world will have a real opportunity to learn righteousness and to be obedient without the deceptions and beguilements of Satan. For the first time a righteous judgment will be possible, for then the world will have had an experience with both good and evil.

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