God's Kingdom Is Born! - "Be Glad, You Heavens"

"Be Glad, You Heavens"

John reports a glorious heavenly reaction to this stupendous fall of Satan:  "And I heard a loud voice in heaven say:  'Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of  our God and the authority of  his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!  And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death.  On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! ' "-Revelation 12:10-12a

Whose loud voice is it that John hears? The Bible does not say.  But a similar cry reported at Revelation 11:17 came from the resurrected 24 elders in their heavenly positions, where they can not represent the 144,000 holy ones.  (Revelation11:18) And since  the persecuted  anointed servants of God still on earth are here spoken of as "our brothers," this statement could well come from the same source.  No doubt these faithful ones can join their voice, since their resurrection  would follow soon after Satan and his demon hordes had been thrown out of heaven. 

The finishing of the sacred secret of God calls for Jesus to take authority in Jehovah's Kingdom.  the way is thus opened for God to carry out his great purpose to deliver faithful mankind.  Jesus brings salvation not only to his God-fearing disciples now on earth but also to the countless millions of dead ones who are in God's memory.  (Luke 21:27, 28)  Satan's being called "the accuser of our brothers" shows that, even though his accusations against Job were proved false, he kept right on challenging the integrity of God's earthly servants.  Evidently, he repeated on many occasions the charge for his soul.  How dismally Satan has failed! -Job 1:9-11; 2:4, 5.

Anointed Christians, who are counted righteous "because of the blood of the Lamb," are continuing to bear witness to God and to Jesus Christ despite persecutions.  For more than a hundred years, this John class has been pointing  to the great issues involved with the ending of the Gentile Times in 1914.   (Luke 21:24,  King James Version)  And the great crowd are now serving loyally by their side.  None of these are "fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,"  as real-life experiences of Jehovah's Witnesses have demonstrated over and over again during this 20th century.  By word of mouth and by proper Christian conduct, they have conquered Satan, consistently proving him to be a liar.  (Matthew  10:28; Proverbs 27:11; Revelation 7:9)  On being resurrected to heaven, how happy  anointed Christians must be, since Satan is no longer up there to accuse their brothers!  It is the time, indeed, for all the angelic host to respond joyously to the call: "Be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them!"

Next time: God's Kingdom Is Born! -A Rival Woe!

From the Book of Revelation