"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Conclusion of Endurance for the Holy Ones

Conclusion of Endurance for the Holy Ones

Those who have the mark of the wild beast will also be destroyed completely, as if by fire.  As the prophecy later reveals, their dead bodies will be left unburied for animals and birds  to eat.  (Revelation 19:17, 18)  So, clearly, they  are not being literally tortured forever!  How are they "tormented with fire and sulfur"?  In that the proclamation of truth exposes them and warm them of God's coming judgment.  Therefore they vilify God's people and, where possible, slyly persuade the political wild beast to persecute and even kill Jehovah's Witnesses. As a climax, these opposers will be destroyed as with fire and brimstone.  Then "the smoke of their torment ascends  forever and ever" in that God's judgment of them will serve as a  touchstone if ever again Jehovah's rightful sovereignty is challenged.  That issue will have been settled for all eternity.

Who deliver the tormenting message today?  Remember, the symbolic locusts have authority to torment the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (Revelation 9:5)  Evidently, these ones under angelic direction are the tormentors.  Such is the persistence of the symbolic locusts that "day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever  receives the mark of its name."  And finally, after their destruction, the monumental  evidence of that vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty, "the smoke of their torment," will ascend forever and ever.  May the John class endure until that vindication is complete! As the angel concludes:  "Here is where it means endurance for the holy ones, those who observe the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." -Revelation 14:12. 

Yes,  "endurance for the holy ones" means their worshiping Jehovah in exclusive devotion to Jesus Christ.  Their message is not popular.  It leads to opposition, persecution, even martyrdom.  But they are strengthened by what John next reports: 'Write: Happy are the dead who die in union with the Lord from this time onward.  Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their labors, for the  things they did go right with them.' " -Revelation 14:13.

This promise harmonizes well with Paul's prophecy concerning Jesus' presence:  "Those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first.  Aferward we the who are surviving [those of the anointed ones who survive the Lord's day] will, together  with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air."  (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)  After Satan's ouster from heaven, those who were dead in union with Christ rose first.  (Compare Revelation 6:9-11)  Afterward, those of the anointed ones who die during the Lord's day are promised a special privilege.  Their resurrection to spirit life in heaven is instantaneous, "in the twinkling of an eye."  (1 Corinthians 15:52)  How marvelous this is!  And their works of righteousness continue right on in the heavenly realm.

Next time: "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Harvest of the Earth

From the Book of Revelation