Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 

THE APPLICATION OF REVELATION 17 TO THE EVENTS BEFORE, AND AFTER, THE MILLENNIUM: "HE MUST CONTINUE A LITTLE WHILE" (Rev. 17:10, R.V.); "HE MUST BE LOOSED FOR A LITTLE TIME" (Rev. 20:3, R.V.). 

The prophecies of Revelation are so written-particularly those of chapters 12 to 20-that they point to events to transpire both before and after the millennium. We have shown this rather exhaustively in "The Certainty .of the Third Angel's Message Revealed by Important Principles of Prophetic Interpretation: also Armageddon-Before and After the Millennium". We will not attempt in this book to repeat what we wrote upon so extensively in that book. Here we must be content to present only those things which bear definitely upon our analysis of Rev. 17. The reader is requested to bear with us as we first deal with the principle of interpretation which must be understood in order to grasp the significance and connection between the 7th head of the beast which is numbered 8, and the events to occur at the end of the millennium. 

The similarity of the language employed in Rev. 17:10 and Rev. 20:3 is sufficient to cause the careful student of Holy Writ to examine the reason for such similarity. Rev. 17:10 says of the 7th head: "He must continue a little while" (R.V.); Rev. 20:3 says: "He must be loosed for a Little Time" (R.V.). One refers to the 7th head (stamped with the number 8 to symbolize its being resurrected) before the millennium, the other refers to Satan after the millennium. We have clearly shown in the larger book mentioned above (in which we have dealt with the principles governing the understanding of the prophecies of Daniel, the Revelation, and all other last-day prophecies) that one of the underlying principles is that before the millennium there is a spiritual, or symbolic, application concerning the actors and factors in their relation to the centre (the Lord Jesus in His church) of the imagery depicting the great conflict between the forces of good and evil; after the millennium, a literal application is made in relation to the literal centre–the Lord Jesus in the literal New Jerusalem. For instance, to select one example out of a great number, Rev. 14:20 reads: "And the wine press was trodden without the city". Before the 1000 years, that verse depicts the awful carnage of the slaughter of all the wicked who have gathered around the church to destroy the people of God; after the 1000 

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years it depicts the greater destruction of all the wicked of all ages when they have gathered around the holy city endeavouring to take it and to destroy the saints within (Rev. 20:7-9). 

If the simple truth conveyed by these two texts were believed, every problem connected with the understanding of last-day prophecies concerning the final conflict would automatically be settled. Because wrong interpretations have been made with reference to "Armageddon"–superficial, manmade interpretations–the resultant confusion has spread a veil over the study of the Scriptures so that what is plain and simple is rendered accordingly confused and disconnected. The simple statement made by the servant of the Lord that "Christ is the centre of all true doctrine" ("Counsels to Teachers," p. 453), if believed, would throw a flood of light upon every last-day prophecy, for every last-day prophecy depicts the last conflict as raging around Jerusalem, where Jesus reigns. Before the 1000 years those prophecies depict a symbolic gathering of the nations to attack the people of God; after the 1000 years the same prophecies describe a literal gathering against the New Jerusalem, where Jesus reigns. To correctly understand all the prophecies depicting the spiritual conflict, Jerusalem must be interpreted as the centre of the battle between good and evil. 

In the Old Testament, Jerusalem was the literal centre of national Israel, and many of Israel's national enemies came against Jerusalem. As the things of ancient Israel are definitely declared in the New Testament to be typical of the experiences of the church-spiritual Israel–(1 Cor. 10:11, margin; 1 Pet. 2:9-11; etc.), we thus see envisioned the experiences of the people of God in New Testament times, and particularly in the last days. In Rev. 11:2 the church is pictured as "the holy city" which was trodden down by "the Gentiles" during the 1260 years of Papal supremacy. Because the church is thus represented, all the rest of Scripture is automatically interpreted accordingly. Thus Babylon, the king of the north, dwelling on the Euphrates "in the north country" (see Ezek. 26:7; Jer. 25:9; 46:6, 10; etc.), which was to the literal north of the literal city of Jerusalem, in the New Testament is symbolically represented as being north of the symbolic city of Jerusalem. When the Babylonian forces mentioned in the book of Revelation–the dragon, beast, and false prophet; the Babylonian woman, the beast, and the kings-are said to gather against God and His people, that gathering must be understood as a symbolic gathering before the 1000 years, and a literal gathering against Christ and His people after the 1000 years. 

The very fact that the church is symbolically portrayed as "the holy city" in Rev. 11:2, and there attacked by her enemies, and 

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yet the New Jerusalem, "the holy city", described in Rev. 21, is understood in a literal sense, chows that before the 1000 years Jerusalem has a symbolic significance and a literal meaning after the 1000 years. And as everything is determined in the application of the prophecies in relation to Jerusalem it automatically shows that there is a symbolic meaning before and a literal fulfillment after the 1000 years. Enemies of God's Old Testament people who literally gathered around and attacked ancient Israel's literal city of Jerusalem, are brought into the spiritual imagery of the Revelation as types of the enemies who gather around to attack the spiritual city of Israel. The Revelator carries this representation through until the end of the 1000 years: then, all the literal enemies of ancient Israel and all the enemies of the church will literally gather around the literal city in which reigns the visible Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Destroyer of the evil which makes "war" on Him and His people. 

Prophecies depicting the final conflict over the Law of God–such as Dan. 11:40-45; Joel 3; Zech. 14; Ezek. 38; 39; Rev. 14:12; 16:12-16-employ the same phraseology as if Israel still dwells in "the Holy Land". The language is the same, but the application is different: it does not refer to national, but spiritual Israel; the land is not the literal but the symbolic land of Israel; the enemies do not literally gather against the literal city of Jerusalem, but they are represented as if they did-for Jerusalem is a type of the church and is thus applied in Rev. 11:2; 14:20; etc. These same prophecies apply before, and after, the millennium. They may be summarized as follows: Before the millennium, Satan attacks Christ in His church, the spiritual or symbolic Jerusalem; after the millennium, Satan attacks Christ and His church within the literal Jerusalem: before the millennium, the "war" is a spiritual uniting, a symbolic gathering to attack the church in "the land of Israel"; after the millennium, it will be a literal gathering and a literal attack upon the literal holy city. 

The "war", or "battle", which the Revelator describes from its commencement in heaven (Rev. 12:7-9) until its close (Rev. 20:8), is "the war”. between Christ and Satan depicted in "The Conflict of the Ag es" series of the Spirit of Prophecy. The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy teach that the "battle" (Rev. 20:8) after the millennium is the same "battle" or "war'" (Rev 12:17, 16:14; 17:14; 19:11-21), as before the millennium. 

The final conflict will be waged "without the city" (Rev. 14:20). "The fugitives whom the Eternal calls shall be inside Jerusalem" (Moffatt's Trans., Joel 2:32). This prophecy declares that "deliverance" will come to "the remnant" "in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem". Joel 3 is the continuation of the same prophecy: the

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gathering of the nations around Jerusalem and the "deliverance" of Israel "inside Jerusalem" can refer only to the victory of God's Commandment-keeping "remnant" against whom Satan, through the woman and the resurrected persecuting beast and the kings, is to make "war" in the last days (Rev. 12:17). This is precisely what is taught in the prophecy concerning the king of the north who will encamp around Jerusalem (Dan. 11:45) with the intentions of destroying it, when he comes to his end by the intervention of the Lord on behalf of His people. 

 

Before, and After, the Millennium 

Observe the similarity of what occurs among the ranks of the wicked before and after the millennium: before the 1000 years when the wicked, realizing that they are lost and that they have been deceived by their religious leaders, turn upon them with fury (see GC. 655, 656); after the millennium the same scene is repeated, only of course on a much more magnified scale. Of that time we read: "Their rage is kindled against Satan and those who have been his agents in deception, and with the fury of demons they turn upon them" (GC. 672). This is, of course, but one of a number of instances where events before the 1000 years are repeated on a larger scale after the 1000 years, but all of them may be discerned from the Scriptures when the general principle is employed, namely, what occurs before the 1000 years is presented spiritually or symbolically, and after the 1000 years it is to be understood in a literal sense. 

By this principle we know that the 7th head, which is numbered 8 because it refers to its resurrection from the dead, is to have a spiritual or symbolic resurrection before the 1000 years, but a literal resurrection after the 1000 years. This organization will have a spiritual, or symbolic, resurrection to power to engage in a spiritual or symbolic gathering to attack Israel in "the holy city"; but, at the end of the 1000 years, there will be a literal resurrection to life and power, a literal gathering of all the nations of the lost around the New Jerusalem to engage in a literal conflict against Christ and His church. 

The Bible teaching that the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of earth, will be united in their warfare against the people of God, is clearly enunciated in the Spirit of Prophecy-see 5T. 449-452; GC. 592; 604, 605, 607, 615, 635. It will be observed that apostate Protestants "unite with the world and with the papal power against commandment-keepers" (5T. 449). "Under one head-the papal power-the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses" (7T. 182). Thus this vast confederation all come under the one head–the 7th–that lasts until it is destroyed when God intervenes on behalf of His people in the events of the 6th and 7th plagues. 

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This great confederation of evil is depicted in such prophecies as Ezek. 38; 39; Joel 3; etc. A careful study of those prophecies reveals that passages of Scripture are quoted from them by the Revelator when describing the events to occur before, and after, the millennium. In Ezek. 38; 39 there is graphically described a prodigious army, a combination of forces from all quarters led by Gog against the Israel of God. John definitely quotes from Ezekiel's prophecy concerning Gog in Rev. 16:16; 19:17, 18; 20:8. An analysis of these three quotations from Ezekiel's prophecy concerning Gog reveals that the Revelator quotes it with reference to the gathering of the enemies of God's people both before, and after, the millennium. The burial place for Israel's enemies is pictured as being in a valley east of the Mediterranean Sea (Ezek. 39:11). This is stated by commentators who have given considerable study to the topographical, geographical, and historical features of Ezekiel's description, to be a reference to Megiddo. The reference to Megiddo in Rev. 16:16 is partly taken from the scene of the destruction of Gog's armies on "the mountains of Israel"-see Ezek. 39:4. The enemies of God's people are said to be destroyed upon the mountains of Israel–see also Isa. 14:25-27, and see our comments in another chapter. The slaughter of Israel's enemies on "the mountains of Israel" is the basis of the first part of the word "Armageddon", for "Har" in the Hebrew, to which we are specifically directed in Rev. 16:16, means "a mountain". "Megiddo" means "slaughter" or "destruction". Thus Armageddon, or Har-Magedon, means "the mountain of slaughter", hence the appropriateness of the use of the name in the description of the overthrow of the enemies of Christ and His true Israel. Because the burial of Gog's army is pictured in Ezekiel's vision as being at Megiddo (already mentioned in judges 4 and 5 as the place of the defeat of Israel's enemies) Jesus, in Rev. 16:16, connects up the two features of "Mountain" and "Megiddo" as one word–Armageddon. Actually Megiddo is said in the Bible to be in a valley, and not on a mountain. In judges 5:19-21 Megiddo is said to be in the valley where flowed the river Kishon–"the waters of Megiddo ... the river Kishon". In 2 Chron. 35:22 we read of "the valley of Megiddo". And again in Zech. 12:11 we read of "the valley of Megiddon". We never read of "Mount Megiddo", yet that is the meaning of Rev. 16:16. Thus it is obvious that reference is not made to a literal place, but to a symbolic place (with which is associated "Megiddo" meaning "slaughter" or "destruction"), for the Word of God does not contradict itself-yet by applying Rev. 16:16 to a literal place the Word of God is thus forced to contradict itself. 

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The burial place of Gog's army at Megiddo (which was on the ancient road east of the Mediterranean Sea) Ezek. 39:11 refers to as "the valley of passengers [var. travellers] on the east of the sea ... and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it, The valley of Hamon-gog, or the multitude of Gog" (margin). Because Gog and his army are destroyed "upon the mountains of Israel" and gathered and buried at "a place ... on the east of the sea" (which describes Megiddo in the valley along which flowed the river Kishon), Rev. 16:16 combines the "mountain" with "Megiddo" in the valley. Because Gog's burial ground "in the valley of Megiddo" is described in Ezek. 39:11 as "a place", Rev. 16:16 refers to "a place called in the Hebrew tongue. Armageddon". (For fuller application of Ezekiel's prophecy see my other publications.) 

Rev. 19:17, 18 is a quotation from Ezek. 39:4, 17-20, and by the Revelator's application of these verses of Ezekiel's vision concerning Gog's mighty confederation of forces from all quarters to attack Israel, we know that that prophecy of Ezekiel has reference to the attack upon God's remnant people, for Rev. 19:17, 18 quotes from this prophecy when describing the fate of the combined armies of the beast and the false prophet in conjunction with the kings-see also Rev. 19:19, 20 and observe the context, vs. 1116. Thus the prophecy of Ezek. 38; 39 depicts the combination of forces in the last days who will combine to attack the remnant church. Thus Ezek. 38; 39 is a portrayal of the 7th head of the beast of Rev. 17. 

Rev. 20:8 is also a reference to the prophecy of Ezek. 38; 39. Rev. 20:8 applies Ezek. 38; 39 to the enemies of Christ and His church. Therefore this must be regarded as the Holy Spirit's emphatic teaching concerning Gog's great confederated army against Israel: any other application is therefore from him whose work is to oppose the work of Christ. As the Holy Spirit has thus applied the prophecy of Gog's great combination of Israel's enemies coming from the "four quarters" (note the use of the word "quarters" in Ezek. 38:6 and Rev. 20:8) to the wicked attacking the saints who are with Christ in the Holy Jerusalem after the millennium, we know that that prophecy when quoted in Rev. 19:11-21 also refers to the attack of all the wicked-the 7th head of the persecuting beast-against the remnant church who are "with" Jesus in the symbolic Jerusalem on mount Sion (compare Rev. 17:14; Rev. 14:1; and Rev. 11:2; 14:20). Before the 1000 years that gathering is a symbolic gathering against God's people in "the holy city"; after the 1000 years it will be a literal gathering against the literal holy city. 

The thought of a huge confederation of all Israel's enemies is the outstanding feature in both Ezek. 38; 39 and the Revelation. 

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A study of Ezek. 38; 39 will reveal a vivid presentation of the last-day combination of all Israel's enemies against the remnant church. The combination of armies in Ezek. 38; 39 is against the Holy One of Israel in the midst of His people (see Ezek. 39:7; 43:7). The last-day confederacy is also said to be the attack against Jesus Christ Who is in the midst of His people (see Rev. 17:14, 19:19), 

In an earlier chapter we have shown that in the Revelation, which is a book full of the use of numbers, a book written by Palmoni "the Wonderful Numberer" (Dan. 8:13, margin), the numbers employed as the symbol number for the resurrection. All the sevens of the Apocalypse-the words "seven" or "seventh" are found at least 59 times; besides a variety of other ways the number 7 is employed-point to the ending of sin and the commencement of the eternal world that will rise from the death of this old world of sin. The number 8, though only employed once in the Revelation (Rev. 17:11) concerning events to occur before the millennium, is nevertheless a number that runs as a watermark throughout the Apocalypse, ever pointing to the Lord Jesus Who now imparts the power of His resurrection to His saints today, and Who will physically resurrect them when all the sevens of the Revelation have expired. 

The Book of Life is mentioned 8 times in the New Testament: Phil 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; 22:19. This book, after the judgment, will contain the names of those who will inherit the new world; names which the Lord in His foreknowledge wrote in it from the very foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; 17:8)–those whose names were written in the Book of Life as candidates for Heaven but who did not endure until the end and thus live up to their profession by the power of an indwelling Christ, will be blotted out, leaving those names foreseen by the Lord. The new world comes after this earth has run for 7,000 years. 6,000 years roll by before the millennium–GC. 659 673. 1,000 years Satan is bound to the desolate earth–Rev. 20; GC. 659. So that when the new world commences it will be at the beginning of the 8,000th year of the globe. 

Then may be seen a larger significance in the 7th head being stamped 8 to denote that it was the 6th head which had been wounded to death and would be resurrected to become the 7th head of the persecuting beast. Then the 7th head of the persecuting beast representing the combined world forces of Papal and apostate Protestant powers which receives a death-stroke at the second advent, becomes an 8th head, for all the wicked will be resurrected, and once more combine-this time on a much more magnified scale, for all the wicked will be there who have lived since the dawn of sin. 

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Viewed in the light of events to occur at the end of the 1,000 years the prophecy concerning "the beast that was, and is not, and is to come"; "tile beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is o f the seven", is seen in a larger sense-that larger sense which may be observed in the application of the prophecies depicting the final conflict. As in the period since receiving the death-stroke in 1798, the 6th head has existed without political power with which to persecute the church, so Satan during the 1,000 years will be alive but with the wicked all dead there will be no nations through whom he can work to persecute the people of God (they of course will then be in Heaven). However, there is a powerful analogy between the Papacy receiving its death-stroke in 1798, and from then until just before the second advent being unable to wage war on the saints, and Satan receiving his death-stroke at the second advent because, through the death of the nations who have previously done his bidding, he is obliged to desist from his warfare against the church. The Papacy has lived on since 1798, but has been powerless to harm the people of God. So Satan will live on during the millennium but be powerless to wage further warfare against the people of God-until the resurrection of the nations who have previously done his bidding, and the saints return to this earth in the New Jerusalem. Then will be fulfilled in a double sense: "the beast that that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit" (Rev. 17:8). 

Then will be fulfilled in a larger sense: "And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven" (R.V.): "So must the beast that was, but is not. He counts as an eighth king, although he is one of the seven" (Rev. 17:11, The Twentieth Century N.T.). The 7th head is made up of a combination of all the persecuting powers of the last days, and is stamped 8 because it refers to the resurrection of the powers of persecution against the people of God. That combination of persecutors is symbolized as a vast gathering of the world forces against Israel on the mountains of Israel; on mount Zion and "in Jerusalem". After the millennium, when the wicked have all been resurrected, all the enemies who are depicted as the seven heads of the persecuting beast, are then resurrected to unite in their common aim, which they had shared down through the corridors of history though divided by time or distance, namely, hatred for God and His people. As they came into existence down through the stream of time they were each, in his turn, the enemy of God and His Anointed (see Ps. 2). And the 7th head represents the greatest combination of these enemies, for the 7th head will be comprised of "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" led by "the beast and the false prophet", and that greatest of all combination 

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of Israel's enemies–the 7th head–is depicted by the colossal hordes of Gog's army pictured in Ezek. 38; 39. 

As before the millennium the combination of all the persecutors of the remnant church is referred to as the armies of "Gog and Magog", so after the millennium the far greater combination of all the enemies of Israel represented by the whole of the 7 heads is also mentioned as the armies of "Gog and Magog" (Rev. 20:8). Thus the 7th head which is made up of the combination of all last-day persecutors of God's people, finds its larger application after the millennium in the vast combination of all the 7 heads. As before the 1000 years there will be a combination of all forces against the remnant church, so after the 1000 years there will be a greater combination against the whole of the saved. Then, in their rebellion against the King of Israel, and in their hatred of God's people, they gather together as one vast combination to make assault upon the New Jerusalem, then settled down upon and covering all the literal land of Israel. As the armies of Gog are said to combine in their attack upon the spiritual or symbolic Jerusalem before the 1000 years, so it is said to be the armies of Gog that combine in their attack upon the literal city of the New Jerusalem after the 1,000 years. As the 7th head of the persecuting beast (in the conflict in the last days between Babylon and Jerusalem) is a combination of all persecutors, so all the enemies of God and of His people throughout all ages may be fittingly depicted by the 7th head which has been resurrected and also by all the 7 heads which have also been resurrected: "He counts as an eighth king, although he is of the seven." The 7th head (to which the prophecy concerning the armies of Gog is applied by the Revelator) bears the number 8 because it is to have a political resurrection before the 1,000 years, but it has its larger application in the armies of "Gog and Magog" after the 1,000 years because of the physical, literal resurrection of so many multiplied millions of the unsaved of all the ages, who will then make up the vast army of Gog. 

Concerning the 7th, or resurrected, head in the last days, we read: "He must continue a little while" (Rev. 17:10, R.V.). We also read the same concerning the restoration of Satan's power at the end of the 1,000 years, when the wicked of all ages are resurrected: "He must be loosed for a little time" (Rev. 20: 3, R.V.). Of the beast under the 7th head we also read: "And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition ... and goeth into perdition" (Rev. 17:8, 11). In fulfilment, the 7th head comprising the vast combination of Gog's great army goes into perdition at the time of the second advent-is destroyed at Armageddon. After the 1,000 years, the resurrected 7th head combined with all the persecuting heads of all the ages all go into perdition, never to rise again. 

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As the 7th head before the 1,000 years is to "come up out of the abyss" so Satan at the end of the 1,000 years is also to come up out of "the abyss" into which he had been cast (Rev. 20:1-3). As the 7th head before 1,000 years "must continue a little while", so Satan at the end of the 1,000 years "must be loosed for a little time". As the 7th head before the 1,000 years is resurrected to power only to "go into perdition", so Satan and all his followers at the end of the 1,000 years are to be resurrected to life and power only to "go into perdition" (2 Pet. 3:7; etc.). As the beast and the false prophet (who combine before the 1,000 years to make up the 7th head) are "both cast alive into a lake of fire" (Rev. 19:20) at the second advent, so Satan and all his evil hosts at the end of the 1,000 years will be "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were cast" (Rev. 20:10, 15). In other words, the "perdition" said to come to the 7th head at the time of the second advent is applied also to all the wicked after the 1,000 years. Concerning the Roman beast we read: "I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame" (Dan. 7:11). Concerning the spiritual Roman power–the Papacy–we also read that it is termed "The Son of Perdition" (2 Thess. 2:3). The "perdition" refers to the overthrow of the Roman beast at the second advent, but also refers in the ultimate larger sense to the destruction awaiting that power after the millennium. Before the 1,000 years there is symbolic resurrection and a symbolic lake of fire into which the symbolic beast and false prophet are cast; at the end of the 1,000 years there is a literal resurrection and a literal lake of fire into which all the wicked of all the ages are cast. We have already shown that the winepress trodden "without the city" (Rev. 14:20) refers to the destruction of the wicked before the 1,000 years, pictured as taking place symbolically around the church, "the holy city". After the 1,000 years the wicked literally are destroyed "without the city", the literal New Jerusalem. 

In these things (and we have considerably enlarged upon this principle in "The Certainty of the Third Angel's Message" and shown how it applies to everything brought into the Revelator's description of events before and after the millennium) a definite connection is maintained in the Revelation between the scenes described as taking place before the 1,000 years and those which transpire after the 1,000 years. The one great difference is that the Jerusalem attacked before the millennium is symbolically intended, while the Jerusalem after the 1,000 years refers to the literal New Jerusalem. The gathering before the 1,000 years is a symbolic gathering-a uniting of purpose-against Israel; while 

234 after the 1,000 years it will be a literal gathering against the literal New Jerusalem. 

The resurrection of the 7th head before the 1,000 years is a spiritual or symbolic, resurrection, while that after the millennium will be a literal resurrection. The burning of the beast and the false prophet in "a lake of fire" before the 1,000 years symbolically depicts their destruction at the time of the second advent, while the burning of the wicked after the 1,000 years will be a literal burning. The burning of the whore mentioned in Rev. 17:16 symbolizes the destruction of that Babylonian whore before the 1,000 years; those who are depicted by that symbol are literally destroyed after the millennium in the lake of fire. 

The book of Revelation is largely made up of quotations from books of the Old Testament, and the first 8 of these are used in such a way as to make an Epanados, to which we have made reference elsewhere. As we have shown, the first of these quotations is taken from the book of Isaiah (compare Isa. 55:4 and Rev. 1:5 and observe the word "witness") and the last is also from the book of Isaiah (compare Isa. 49:2 and Rev. 1:16 and observe the reference to the "mouth" and "sharp sword"). In other words, the 8th book quoted is the same as the 1st book quoted, namely, Isaiah. In other words, the 8th commences another series–an octave–and brings us back to Isaiah from whence came the first quotation. The 1st text from Isaiah says the Messiah would be a "Commander" of the people. The 8th quotation in Rev. 1 in bringing us back to Isaiah shows how the Messiah would prove himself to be the "Commander"–by the destruction of the wicked by the sword of His mouth (compare Isa. 49:2 with Rev. 1:16 and Rev. 19:15, 21). Christ destroys the wicked by the sword of His mouth at His second coming (Rev. 19:15, 21). But after the 1,000 years the larger destruction of all the wicked will prove in a larger sense the Leadership and Kingship of the Messiah. As in music, etc., the octave brings us back to begin again, only on an octave higher, so the resurrection brings the wicked back to where they were before-only those who have persecuted Israel in their respective days, will then be all together to engage in the same "war" against the saints. Then, the people of the 7th head of persecution will actually be resurrected, also all the people comprising all the heads of the persecuting beast: then "the eighth" wil be of the seven". Then instead of making "war" on the saints successively, they will all unite at the one time in their attempt to destroy the people of God. 

Working upon the principle which we have seen operate in the Revelator's description of the final conflict, and observing the enlarging principle–the application of the same thing in a larger sense–we know that the same principle operates with regard to 

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the victories of Israel recorded in the Old Testament: they combine to present the perfect picture of the final victory of spiritual Israel, just as ail the defeats of Israel's enemies recorded in the Old Testament combine to present the complete picture of the final defeat of the enemies of God's people. In the last, worldwide overthrow of those fighting against God all the scenes of the past recorded in the Old Testament are gathered into one picture. The overthrow of all the powers represented by the 7 heads prefigured the overthrow of the vast world-wide combination of foes who are pictured as the 7th head, and who will come under the general term "Gog". After the 1,000 years all the enemies who anciently suffered, and all of God's people who enjoyed victory through the Lord's intervention on their behalf, will actually be gathered into the one picture to re-enact for the last time all the defeats and all the triumphs of the past. 

Terrible as the slaughter of the wicked will be in the first phase of Armageddon before the millennium, it will be vastly more terrible after the millennium, for it will involve all the resurrected wicked from the days of Cain until the second advent. All the persecutors of the people of God will be there with hatred still in their hearts for God and His saints. Haughty Pharaoh will be there seeking to "pursue" spiritual Israel to death; the Edomites with their "perpetual" hatred of Israel will be there; the kings of Canaan who were destroyed at Megiddo will be there to again take part in a devil-controlled conflict; the proud Assyrians and the Babylonians from the region of the Euphrates will once more march towards the land of Israel; the Scythian kings (who anciently went by the name of Gog–see Pocket Commentary on Rev. 20), the unsaved Armenians (house of Togarmah), Gomer and all his bands, the Persians, Ethiopians, Libyans, the unregenerate of Sheba, Dedan, and "the merchants of Tarshish with the young lions thereof" (who were greedy for booty from Israel's anticipated defeat (Ezek. 38) and who in Rev. 18 are pictured as most loudly lamenting the downfall of Babylon with whom they traded) will be there; "the beast" and "the false prophet" and all who have made up the 7th head of the persecuting beast in the last days will be there. But Immanuel–"God is with us"–will be there–personally, visibly–to deliver His people and to destroy their enemies as when He destroyed the Assyrian hosts threatening to destroy His people in Jerusalem in the long ago, That Assyrian invasion was likened to the flooding of the waters of the Euphrates over the mountains of Israel. The r of the word Euphrates is that of rushing. Then, in the imagery employed by Isaiah (Isa. 8:7, 8), the hosts of Assyria rushed upon the people of God, to meet with death at the hands of Him Who never slumbers nor sleeps, 

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but Who ever watches over His people. At the end of the millennium Satan proposes not only to "reach even to the neck" (Jerusalem was then likened to a man nearly drowning in a raging flood) with his flooding multitudes, but to drown the inhabitants of Jerusalem with the swirling waters of his fury. But the waters `of the Euphrates–Babylon's river–are dried up forever, and the great army of Gog is destroyed on "the mountains of Israel". The 8th head of the persecuting beast, after having ascended from "the bottomless pit", "the abyss"–from the place of death–will then, full and finally, "go into perdition" Rev. 17:8, 11) 

But the people of God who have stood with Him in the great controversy between Christ and Satan; those who have determined to follow "the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" and who have found refuge in His loving care, will live on endlessly in that kingdom that will endure throughout all eternity because established upon love. "Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.... World without end" (Isa. 45:17). "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end Amen." (Ephes. 3:21.)