Though its effects on earth were delayed (as with the seventh seal; 8:2–5), there was an immediate response in heaven when the seventh angel sounded his trumpet. Expressing exhilaration at what was about to take place, there came loud voices in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” That dramatic proclamation is obviously connected to the effects of the seventh trumpet. There is unrestrained joy that the power of Satan is to be forever broken, and Jesus Christ is to reign supreme as King of kings and Lord of lords. With the defeat of the usurper, the question of sovereignty over the world will be forever settled. What Jesus refused to take on Satan’s terms (cf. Luke 4:5–8) He will take on His own terms. Heaven rejoices that the long rebellion of the world against God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is about to end. The setting up of Christ’s long-awaited kingdom is the apex of redemptive history.
The use of the singular term kingdom of the world instead of the plural “kingdoms” introduces an important truth. All of the world’s diverse national, political, social, cultural, linguistic, and religious groups are in reality one kingdom under one king. That king is known in Scripture by many names and titles, including the accuser (Rev. 12:10), the adversary (1 Pet. 5:8), Beelzebul (Matt. 12:24), Belial (2 Cor. 6:15), the dragon (Rev. 12:3, 7, 9), the “evil one” (John 17:15), the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2), the roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8), the ruler of the demons (Mark 3:22), the ruler of this world (John 12:31), the serpent of old (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), the tempter (1 Thess. 3:5), and, most commonly, the devil (Matt. 4:1) and Satan (1 Tim. 5:15). Though God scattered this kingdom at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9), Satan still rules over the pieces of the once united kingdom. While God ordains human governments for the well-being of man (Rom. 13:1), those same governments refuse to submit to Him or acknowledge His sovereignty (cf. Acts 4:26). They are essentially part of Satan’s kingdom.
Jesus affirmed that Satan, though a usurper and not the rightful king, is the present ruler of the world. In response to those who blasphemously accused Him of being in league with Satan, Jesus asked rhetorically, “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?” (Matt. 12:26). Three times in John’s gospel Jesus called Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). As he did at Babel, Satan will rule in the future over a united fallen mankind in one visible kingdom under Antichrist’s (the Beast of 13:1–4) leadership.
Satan will not relinquish his kingdom without a struggle. In a desperate and doomed effort to maintain control of the world, God will allow him to overrun it with hordes of demons during the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments (9:1–19). But his efforts will not keep the true King from returning and establishing His earthly kingdom (cf. 19:11–21; 20:1–3, 10). Jesus Christ will return to sit on the throne of His father David (2 Sam. 7:12–16) and take over the whole world from the satanically controlled people who now possess it. This is really the theme of Revelation—the triumph of God over Satan as evil is purged from the world and Christ becomes its holy ruler.
The tense of the verb translated has become is what Greek grammarians refer to as a proleptic aorist. It describes a future event that is so certain that it can be spoken of as if it has already taken place. The perspective of the verb tense looks to a point after the action of the seventh trumpet will have run its course. Though this event is future from the point of chronological progress reached in the series, it is so certain that the verb form used views it as an already accomplished fact (cf. Luke 19:9). The timeless heaven rejoices as if the long-anticipated day when Christ will establish His kingdom had already arrived, although some time on earth must elapse before that actually happens. The phrase the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ emphasizes two realities. Kurios (Lord) usually refers to Jesus throughout the New Testament, while in Revelation it more often refers to God the Father, thus emphasizing their equality of nature. This phrase also describes the kingdom in its broadest sense, looking forward to divine rule over the creation and the new creation. No differentiation is made between the earthly millennial kingdom and the eternal kingdom, as, for example, Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:24–28. At the end of the thousand years, the millennial kingdom will merge with the eternal kingdom, in which Christ will reign forever and ever. Once the reign of Christ begins, it will change form, but never end or be interrupted.
The glorious truth that the Lord Jesus Christ will one day rule the earth permeates the Scriptures. In chapter 15 of Revelation John
saw something [in heaven] like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For all the nations will come and worship before You,
For Your righteous acts have been revealed.” (vv. 2–4)
That they sang the “song of Moses” (cf. Ex. 15:1–18) indicates that as far back as the Pentateuch Scripture anticipated the moment when the Lord Jesus Christ would become King of the world.
Psalm 2, a messianic passage whose imagery and language permeates this section of Revelation (cf. v. 18; 12:5; 14:1; 16:14; 17:18; 19:15, 19), also predicts the coming earthly reign of Christ:
But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.
I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, “You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.” (vv. 6–9)
The prophets also looked forward to that time when the Messiah would establish His earthly reign. Of that glorious day Isaiah wrote,
Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isa. 2:2–3)
Daniel wrote concerning that same day,
“You [King Nebuchadnezzar] continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Dan. 2:34–35)
“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.” (Dan. 2:44–45)
The vaunted empires of world history (the statue) will be shattered by the Messiah’s kingdom (the stone cut out without hands); they will crumble to dust and blow away, but His kingdom will last forever. In another vision, recorded in Daniel chapter 7, Daniel
“kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.” (vv. 13–14)
“ ‘But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’ … The Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” (vv. 18, 22)
Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him. (v. 27)
Looking forward to Messiah’s kingdom Micah wrote,
And it will come about in the last days
That the mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains.
It will be raised above the hills,
And the peoples will stream to it.
Many nations will come and say,
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For from Zion will go forth the law,
Even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they train for war. (Mic. 4:1–3)
Summing up a lengthy discussion of the Day of the Lord and the coming of Christ’s earthly kingdom Zechariah wrote, “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zech. 14:9).
When the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary he told her that He would someday be the great King over the earth: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:31–33).
The monumental moment in redemptive history anticipated in the Old Testament prophecies, in the announcement of Christ’s birth, in the preview of Christ’s second coming glory at the Transfiguration, in Christ’s teaching and miracles, in the covenant promises to Israel, in the promise to believers that they will reign with Christ, in the promise to the twelve disciples that they would judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the promise of Jesus that He would return in glory will be imminent. And that will cause all heaven to praise God for the wonder of His sovereign plan that Christ should reign.[1]
15 We would expect the seventh trumpet blast to be followed by the third Woe (cf. 9:1, 13), but instead we hear voices of a great heavenly host declaring the final triumph of the kingdom of God and the establishment of his eternal reign. The voices are not those of a glorified church. The expression “Our Lord, and … his Christ” would not be appropriate for the church because their Lord is the Christ. The voices should not be limited to any particular class of angelic beings (such as the four living creatures of chaps. 4 and 5) but represent the hosts of heaven with the same sort of indefiniteness that we find in 12:10 and 19:16.
The burden of the angelic declaration is that the dominion and rule of this world have been transferred to God and his Christ, who shall reign forever and ever. This great eschatological event that establishes once and for all the universal sovereignty of God is a recurring theme in OT prophecy. Daniel predicted the day when the kingdom of God would utterly destroy the kingdoms of this world (Dan 2:31–45, esp. v. 44). The day is coming, said Zechariah, when God will be “king over the whole earth” (Zech 14:9). As the drama of the consummation moves toward the final scene, the hosts of heaven proclaim it fait accompli. During his earthly ministry Jesus had resisted the tempting offer of Satan to hand over the kingdoms of this world in exchange for worship (Matt 4:8–9). Now this sovereignty passes to him as a rightful possession in view of the successful completion of his messianic ministry. “Our Lord and … his Christ” reflects Ps 2:2, which was interpreted messianically by the early church (Acts 4:26–28). Although the Son will ultimately be subjected to the Father (1 Cor 15:28), he will nevertheless share the eternal rule of God. The singular (“he will reign”) emphasizes the unity of this joint sovereignty.[2]
11:15 / The first hymn, sung by presumably angelic (cf. 4:8; 12:10; 19:1) loud voices, looks back to the penultimate moment of salvation’s history and acclaims the essential truth of Christ’s death and exaltation: the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Even though human existence has been corrupted by the world’s rebellious rulers, the sovereignty of God the creator can be reasserted because of Christ. Through the devotion of his faithful disciples, the kingdom of the world is challenged by a counter-kingdom of priests, made by Christ (5:10), to end the rule of those pretenders to God’s throne. It is John’s expectation that a life and faith that is an alternative to the world order will yield trials and tribulation. Evil is a defeated foe even though it continues to kick and struggle in the grasp of a victorious God. The first (i.e., present) stage of this new age of God’s salvation is dynamic and full of conflict simply because the realities of God’s salvation are breaking into the life of faithful disciples, while at the same time a defeated evil order is passing away against its wishes.
The radical theocentrism of John’s Revelation is not heard more clearly than here. The antecedent of he will reign for ever and ever is God rather than either Christ or both God and Christ. The effective result of the messianic mission of the faithful Jesus is to bring to an end the world’s rebellion against God and to provide God with the agent worthy enough to open the sealed scroll that declares and institutes God’s sovereignty over the evil powers forever. Apocalypticism is keenly interested in the formation of theological perceptions about God, about the social order, and about human suffering. By focusing the eschatological restoration of God’s people on the two essential moments of the Christ event—by what has been already realized (death and exaltation) and by what has not yet been realized (parousia)—John can express the relationship between present reality and what the future will bring in order to provide his readership with a way of seeing their own suffering and their surrounding community. This, then, is the essence of his pastoral program: to provide his audience with a “hermeneutic” that interprets the very real difficulties of living as Christian disciples within a non-Christian society. Recognition of Christ’s exaltation and of God’s triumph over the Evil One will evoke a response of either encouragement (if faithful) or repentance (if unfaithful). Human suffering, whether the yield of interpersonal or social conflict, is always the work of an “already defeated but not yet destroyed” foe.[3]
15. And the seventh angel blew the trumpet. And there were loud voices in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever.”
Earlier John wrote about the seventh angel sounding his trumpet to indicate that the end of time is near (10:7). And now he describes the angel blowing the trumpet and its setting. The backdrop is heaven, where loud voices are singing praises to God and his Christ. We are not told who were singing. What we can say is that the voices belong to all those who dwell in heaven.
These voices declare that the kingdom of the world now belongs to “our Lord and his Christ.” This means that Satan, who tempted Jesus by offering him the kingdoms of the world, no longer possesses them (Matt. 4:8–9; Luke 4:5–6). Relying on the Old Testament, John reveals that the kingdom belongs to God and his Christ (Ps. 2:2, 8–9; 22:28; Dan. 7:14; Obad. 21). There is one kingdom, not two. There is one God, not two. Notice how in the Apocalypse John ascribes divinity to Jesus when he mentions him together with God. Here are two examples, with italics added:
• “They will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years” (20:6).
• “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him” (22:3).
In the Apocalypse, John teaches that both God and Christ are called King, for they are worthy of praise and adoration. For instance, the trinitarian greeting depicts Jesus Christ as “ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5). The song of Moses and of the Lamb is addressed to God as “the King of the ages” (15:3). Christ made his people to be a kingdom and priests (1:6; 5:10), yet the kingdom belongs to both Christ and God (11:15; 12:10). The rule of Christ and God is the same, because God rules his kingdom through his Son.
Christ has been king in his kingdom all along (Ps. 110:1); he uttered his enthronement speech prior to his ascension, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). When the last enemy is destroyed, namely death, then comes the end, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24–28). This does not mean that then he will cease to rule; he will reign forever and ever.
The text looks at the victory Christ has achieved and simply states, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ.” From John’s perspective, the utter defeat of Satan and his cohorts has taken place. They were usurpers of world power; now Christ is the victor and will reign eternally. “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14; see also 2:44; 7:27; Ps. 10:16).[4]
Ver. 15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.—Ave, Imperator:—This text is generally quoted in a missionary connection, and associated with the conversion of the heathen. But it is of much wider scope than that. There are plenty of Christians that want converting, plenty of Churches that want Christianising. The progress of all life in our planet has been a progress from the animal upward to the intellectual, the moral, the spiritual; from mere brute force to the dominion of thought and reason. Ages back mere bigness of mass seemed to count for everything. The so-called “antediluvian” monsters were rampant. As life developed mere bigness became of less and less account, and brain became of more account. Those who can influence mind are the true monarchs of creation. This is the realm in which Christ’s supreme triumphs are to take place. Christ will fascinate and possess the mind of the world, and the mind will rule all the rest. “Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.” The masculine but humane morality of Jesus Christ must more and more commend itself to the thinking and influential portion of society. Ideas and institutions which have been long prevalent go down before a superior idea. So shall it be with many world-ideas in presence of the truth of Christ. Many institutions have lived and done their work. They have served their day and generation, but now they have waxed old, and are ready to decay and vanish away in the presence of a nobler ideal. Still, we are not to disparage the old because the new has come. The present forms of animal life are far superior in development and attainment to those whose remains are found in the tertiary rocks. But the forms of to-day could not have existed without the forms that went before. Those very things which Christ’s law and spirit will supplant have been important factors in human progress. When the Apocalyptic dream of the New Jerusalem, the Christian state, the city of God, finally and triumphantly established upon earth, shall find complete fulfilment, it will be characterised by a fuller embodiment of the law of Christ in every sphere of human relationship and conduct. For instance, the kingdom of Art shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It has become so to a great extent. All the noblest paintings, all the grandest buildings in the world during the Christian era, have been the product of the Christian imagination. Certainly the sublimest music owns this inspiration. We need not fear the complete annexation of this kingdom, because the genius of the true Christianity is hopeful and happy. The kingdom of Literature would, in like manner, come under the dominance of Christian ideas. It is hard to say at present whether this tremendous engine for good or evil works most good or evil. What a blessed thing it will be when the domain of literature becomes the domain of Christ; when nothing will be written or read the tendency of which is not to the true elevation and edification of the human mind; when editors shall all be men of conscience, and the venal pen shall be as much an archaeological curiosity as the stone hatchet; when we shall be able to take up any book and feel that it will be safe for our children to read; when we can open even the latest novel from Paris with the confidence that none of our finer sensibilities will be shocked, and that an atmosphere will not be introduced into the home whose poisonous vapours we should shudder to think that our young people will breathe. The kingdom of Commerce, too, shall one day fall under the rule of Christ. That will be indeed a blessed day when men can trust one another, and when all shall be worthy of that trust; when another man’s property shall be as sacred in our eyes as our own; when public funds shall be administered with the same scrupulous integrity with which our own are dispensed. The realm of Amusements, too, shall come under the same rule. The prophecy will find its fulfilment not in the expression of any particular forms of recreation, but in the Christianising of them all. And will it not be a grand day when the kingdom of Politics shall be sanctified by the Spirit of Christ? When debates shall be purged from the pettiness of personality and the rancour of recrimination; when offices shall be filled with the sole aim that the commonwealth shall receive the services of its most capable citizens; and when the statesman’s ruling principle shall be not to catch votes, but to redress wrongs and establish righteousness. And then may we not hope that even the Church itself in that happy day shall come under the dominion of the law of Christ? No longer to be the collection of ecclesiastical antiquities, the museum of theological curiosities, the arena of strife and debate that it is to-day, but the abode of ideal men and women, the home of all the sweet and pure Christian virtues. Then Christians shall no longer “bite and devour one another”; “giving the enemy occasion to blaspheme.” Their energies shall be converted into light, and not into heat, and men will be willing to rejoice in that light. But how shall those great results, of which we have spoken in other spheres, be achieved unless the Church be first true to herself? It is through her that these beneficent impulses upon society must come. We must begin by being ideal Christians if the world is to become an ideal world. (J. Halsey.)
The glory awaiting the Church on earth:—
I. The probable condition of the world in the accomplishment of this prediction. It will be characterised by—1. The universal dissemination of Christian knowledge. 2. The general prevalence of religious life. 3. The increase and glory of the Christian Church. 4. The diffusion of happiness throughout the world. Christianity is the parent of morality, industry, patriotism, public spirit.
II. The probable means by which this great event will be produced. 1. The preaching of the gospel. 2. The active zeal of Christians. 3. The operations of Divine providence. 4. The effusion of the Holy Spirit.
III. The duties which arise in anticipating this great consummation. 1. To seek the possession of personal religion. 2. To render all assistance to accelerate the advent of this glorious period. 3. To unite in prayer for the accomplishment of this prediction. (Homilist.)
The kingdom of God:—We can imagine, I suppose, that when the Revelation of St. John the Divine was taken to the different Christian Churches, in the upper chambers where they were accustomed to meet together, or in the secret places where they gathered for fear of persecution, after they had read these glowing pages, they must have parted with new feelings of hope in their hearts. They would expect that a time would come speedily when the persecutions would be memories of the past, and the kingdom would be set up, of which they had been reading in such vivid colours. Yet the day passed by, and the Roman power remained, and the Temple, sacred to Diana at Ephesus, was as stable as ever. It happened then as it has happened to many a one since. So it must have been with many of those of the ancient Church, when, all eager and expectant, they found the vision was sealed for the time; they must go their way and tarry until the time should come when the promise would be fulfilled. We can scarcely be surprised at finding that they looked for a very literal fulfilment in the shape of a kingdom which should, by the exercise of power, bear down all opposition. They were told of a great king who went forth “conquering and to conquer.” The tradition of the old Jewish Church was of a people going forth as the Lord’s messengers to crush down all the Lord’s enemies. Again, the majority of Christian people, when they found that the promise could not be realised in that way, looked for something totally different. The promise seemed impossible of literal fulfilment. The kingdom of God became totally distinct from the kingdom of the world. It was something which could only be reached when this world was over. When persecution broke out, when the people were dragged to prison, men felt that the kingdom of God was not of this world, but of that which is to come. And so, little by little, people had that expectation for the realisation of this promise. Does the Christian Church of to-day have the same expectation? Is there any possibility of the realisation of this promise? I would suggest that the realisation is to come through our changed ideas about the kingdom of God; that the kingdom of God does not mean power victorious, but that it means love victorious; that the kingdom of God means what St. Paul does when he writes, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” What I want to leave in your minds is the conviction that the crown of thorns is the crown of glory; that the Cross is the throne on which Christ is exalted. What do these two things mean—the crown of thorns and the cross of shame? They mean the extremest manifestation of infinite love. Christ has said that love is greater than hate; love is greater than infamy. And that is the only principle on which “the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” The Christian Church is slowly abandoning the idea of conquering by mere power. The Christian Church is slowly losing the idea of the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ in the persons of those who pass away beyond this world, and become the subjects of a kingdom which has nothing to do with this world. His kingdom shall come on this earth by the individual members copying the example of Jesus Christ, and believing in the revelation of that love which overcame sin; so that the people who live upon this earth shall be willing subjects of Divine love, and living in perfect love to their fellow-men. (Bp. Courtney.)
Missionary prospects:—It is related of Hannibal that, when he had led his men to one of the higher ridges of the Alps, they began to murmur, and requested that they should be reconducted to their native country. Standing on an eminence and waving his hand, the intrepid Carthaginian General directed their attention to the plains of Piedmont below. “Behold,” said he, “these fruitful vineyards and luxuriant fields. A few more struggles, and they are all your own.” These were inspiring words, and they had the desired effect. May we not apply them to the subject of missions, and say, Behold, from the mount of promise, the nations of the earth at the feet of the Church’s exalted Head! A few more struggles on the part of His followers, and voices shall be heard, not in heaven only, but from the innumerable and widely scattered tongues of earth, giving utterance to the joyous announcement, “The kingdoms of this world are become,” &c.
The kingdom of heaven and its progress:—You might as well stand on the banks of the Mississippi and be afraid it was going to run up stream as to suppose that the current of Christendom can run more than one way. What would you think of a man who should stand moonstruck over an eddy, and because that didn’t go right forward, declare that the whole flood had got out of its course? So in the stream of time. The things that appear in our day all have bearing on the coming triumph of the gospel and the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. (H. W. Beecher.)
Jesus will conquer the world:—Yonder in the cathedral at Vienna the Emperor Frederick is represented, standing with arm uplifted, and at the tip of his extended fingers are the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, which, being interpreted, means, “Austria est imperare obi universo”—“Austria will conquer the world.” Another and a grander figure meets the gaze of every Christian of to-day, no matter where his standpoint, and the inscription thereon is in letters of fire: “Jesus est imperare obi universo”—“Jesus will conquer the world.” (C. W. Boot.)[5]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (pp. 310–314). Moody Press.
[2] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (pp. 225–226). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[3] Wall, R. W. (2011). Revelation (pp. 152–153). Baker Books.
[4] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Vol. 20, pp. 342–343). Baker Book House.
[5] Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Revelation (pp. 428–430). James Nisbet & Co.
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