The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

opening of its seals; the sounding of its trumpets; the pouring forth of its vials. Under the
sixth vial the startling utterance is heard, 'Behold I come as a thief; blessed is he that
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.' After the
fall of Babylon heaven is opened and 'the King of kings and Lord of lords,' whose name is
'Faithful and True,' the 'Word of God,' comes forth, followed by the army of His white
robed saints."--H. G. Guinness.
"Hark the song of exultation breaking forth from heaven! . . . And immediately [following
the marriage of the Lamb] a triumphal procession is seen moving forth from the direction
whence comes the song: 'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that
sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge and make
war.' This majestic Rider we met at the very opening of Apocalyptic history (Rev. 6:2), but
then He [in the person of His Church] was going forth in peaceful conquest: 'And I saw,
and behold a white horse, and He that sat upon him had a bow'--'Thou didst ride upon
Thine horses, upon Thy chariots of salvation: Thy bow was made quite bare' (Hab. 3:9),
'and a crown was given unto Him.' This is the 'stephanos,' the crown which in Scripture is
so repeatedly set before the Christian as the prize for his spiritual overcoming, and which
is fitly worn by Him who in the days of His flesh could say, 'I have overcome the world.'
'And He went forth conquering and in order to conquer'--not only to effect the present
victories of redemption, but to win the ultimate sovereignty of the world.
"This final conquest has now arrived; for as the white-horse Rider comes forth from
heaven, we behold, 'and on His head were many crowns.' Not the stephanos now, but the
diadema is the symbol of His supremacy. The kingdom of the world has become the
Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ; and all the crowns of all the kings have passed over
upon His brow. The long succession of world-wide monarchies which we beheld in
Daniel's vision has intervened; the stone cut out of the mountain without hands now
smites the image upon its feet, and itself fills the whole world. How striking the picture of
the final transfer of earth's sovereignty to Immanuel! To Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, the first in this line of universal monarchs, God said: 'Thou O king, art a king of
kings.' (Dan. 2:37.) Now that this bloody line terminates in the overthrow of mystical
Babylon--whose sovereign, the pope, has long arrogated both temporal and ecclesiastical
supremacy--Messiah takes up both the successions, and also takes the long abused title
attaching thereto: 'And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords.'"--A. J. Gordon.
It is well for the faithful student to keep in mind here that while this vision describes the
Lord Jesus' heavenly army, which is composed of the glorified saints, there is an earthly
army that will engage in this final conflict. This is called Jehovah's great army and is not
composed of saints of God. When we come to that part of the vision that relates to the
opponents in this great and final battle between truth and error, we will consider who
these are.--Joel 2:11.