Revelation: - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

VI
THE NEW JERUSALEM
In the last part of Revelation, beginning with 19:11, John’s picture of the
future is almost wholly devoted to the brighter side, the triumph of Christ and
of His elect.
The vision of the triumphant warrior (19:11-16) is, as is obvious, a vision
of Christ at the head of the heavenly host. The picture depends on Psalm 2 and
Isaiah 63:1-3, among other passages. Likewise on the Old Testament Book of
Wisdom (omitted in the Protestant versions of the Bible), which reads in
18:14-16: “When peaceful stillness encompassed everything and the night in
its swift course was half spent, your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal
throne bound ed, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp
sword of your inexorable decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with
death; he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.”
There follows (vv. 17-18) a vision of an angel standing at the summit of
heaven calling upon birds (ancient symbols of ill omen) to eat the enemies of
God borrowed from Ezekiel 39:17-20). Still the picture is of confident
triumph. This is completed by vv . 19-21 where once more the defeat and
eternal punishment of all Christ’s enemies, the beasts and all their host, is
described.
The Millennium
(Revelation 20)
All this is the introduction and summary of a more de tailed description
that is now to follow. First, says John, Satan is bound for a thousand years. And
after this thousand-year period he must be loosed for a little while (20:1-3).
What is this thousand-year period? It is the life of the Church on earth.
Before, we have seen that John has spoken of the Church’s life on earth as three
and a half years, forty-two months, etc. In those cases, however, he was
speaking of the life of the Church under the aspect of a trial, as it is to be
continually beset by Satan and his hosts. Here is the other side of the picture.
With the Lord a thousand years is but a day (2 Peter 3:8). If, in one sense of
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