Chapter Thirty - "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!'

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 sulphur? In that the proclamation of truth exposes them and warns 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 locust 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 God's commandments and the faith of Jesus." -Revelation 14:12.

Yes, "endurance for the holy ones" means their worshiping Jehovah in exclusive devotion through 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 their labors, for the things they did 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. Afterward we the living who are surviving [those of the anointed ones who survive in 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: Chapter Thirty - "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" -Harvest of the Earth

From the book of Revelation