And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.
The Seventh Trumpet, Rev 11:15-19. Chap. Rev 12:7-12
15. great voices ] Cf. Rev 16:17.
The kingdoms of this world &c.] Read, The kingdom of the world is become our Lord’s and His Christ’s. The phrase “ His Christ” is founded on the O. T. phrase “the Lord’s Anointed;” cf. St Luk 2:26.
he shall reign ] Who? Our Lord or His Christ? St John probably would have regarded the question as meaningless, though comparing Rev 11:1 (see note on “therein”) it is not likely that he used the sing, consciously to imply that Christ and His Father are One. It would be more to the point to compare “Christ the Lord” in St Luk 2:11 with “the Lord’s Christ” already quoted.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the seventh angel sounded – See the notes on Rev 8:2, Rev 8:6-7. This is the last of the trumpets, implying, of course, that under this the series of visions was to end, and that this was to introduce the state of things under which the affairs of the world were to be wound up. The place which this occupies in the order of time, is when the events pertaining to the colossal Roman power – the fourth kingdom of Daniel Dan. 27 – should have been completed, and when the reign of the saints Dan 7:9-14, Dan 7:27-28 should have been introduced. This, both in Daniel and in John, is to occur when the mighty power of the papacy shall have been overthrown at the termination of the twelve hundred and sixty years of its duration. See the notes on Dan 7:25. In both Daniel and John the termination of that persecuting power is the commencement of the reign of the saints; the downfall of the papacy, the introduction of the kingdom of God, and its establishment on the earth.
And there were great voices in heaven – As of exultation and praise. The grand consummation had come, the period so long anticipated and desired when God should reign on the earth had arrived, and this lays the foundation for joy and thanksgiving in heaven.
The kingdoms of this world – The modern editions of the New Testament (see Tittmann and Hahn) read this in the singular number – The kingdom of this world has become, etc. According to this reading, the meaning would be, either that the sole reign over this world had become that of the Lord Jesus; or, more probably, that the dominion over the earth had been regarded as one in the sense that Satan had reigned over it, but had now become the kingdom of God; that is, that the kingdoms of this world are many considered in themselves; but in reference to the sway of Satan, there is only one kingdom ruled over by the god of this world (Prof. Stuart). The sense is not materially different whichever reading is adopted; though the authority is in favor of the latter (Wetstein). According to the common reading, the sense is, that all the kingdoms of the earth, being many in themselves, had been now brought under the one scepter of Christ; according to the other, the whole world was regarded as in fact one kingdom – that of Satan – and the scepter had now passed from his hands into those of the Saviour.
The kingdoms of our Lord – Or, the kingdom of our Lord, according to the reading adopted in the previous part of the verse. The word Lord here evidently has reference to God as such – represented as the original source of authority, and as giving the kingdom to his Son. See the notes on Dan 7:13-14; compare Psa 2:8. The word Lord – Kurios – implies the notion of possessor, owner, sovereign, supreme ruler – and is thus properly given to God. See Mat 1:22; Mat 5:33; Mar 5:19; Luk 1:6, Luk 1:28; Act 7:33; Heb 8:2, Heb 8:10; Jam 4:15, al. saepe.
And of his Christ – Of his anointed; of him who is set apart as the Messiah, and consecrated to this high office. See the notes on Mat 1:1. He is called his Christ, because he is set apart by him, or appointed by him to perform the work appropriate to that office on earth. Such language as what occurs here is often employed, in which God and Christ are spoken of as, in some respects, distinct – as sustaining different offices, and performing different works. The essential meaning here is, that the kingdom of this world had now become the kingdom of God under Christ; that is, that that kingdom is administered by the Son of God.
And he shall reign forever and ever – A kingdom is commenced which shall never terminate. It is not said that this would be on the earth; but the essential idea is, that the scepter of the world had now, after so long a time, come into his hands never more to pass away. The fuller characteristics of this reign are stated in a subsequent part of this book Rev. 2022. What is here stated is in accordance with all the predictions in the Bible. A time is to come when, in the proper sense of the term, God is to reign on the earth; when his kingdom is to be universal; when his laws shall be everywhere recognized as binding; when all idolatry shall come to an end; and when the understandings and the hearts of people everywhere shall bow to his authority. Compare Psa 2:8; Isa 9:7; Isa 11:9; Isa 45:22; 60; Dan 2:35, Dan 2:44-45; Dan 7:13-14, Dan 7:27-28; Zec 14:9; Mal 1:11; Luk 1:33. On this whole subject, see the very ample illustrations and proofs in the notes on Dan 2:44-45; Dan 7:13-14, Dan 7:27-28; compare the notes on Rev. 2022.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 11:15
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 Christs 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 Christs 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 mans 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 statesmans 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 Lords messengers to crush down all the Lords 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 Churchs 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, etc.
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 didnt 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 gander 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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. There were great voices in heaven] All the heavenly host-angels and redeemed human spirits, joined together to magnify God; that he had utterly discomfited his enemies and rendered his friends glorious. This will be truly the case when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ, But when shall this be? Some say, that is meant by these words has already taken place in the destruction of the Jewish state, and sending the Gospel throughout the Gentile world. Others say that it refers to the millennium, and to the consummation of all things.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the seventh angel sounded; the last of those angels mentioned Rev 8:2.
And there were great voices in heaven, saying; St. John in his vision heard great acclamations and shoutings for the victory which Christ and his gospel had got over the beast.
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever; so that a great part of the world, casting off the papacy, that new Gentilism, together with all their abominable idolatries and superstitions, embraced the truth of the gospel. Here ariseth a great question, whether the seven vials, of which we shall find the 16th chapter treating, {Rev 16:1-21} do belong all to the seventh trumpet, or some of them belong to the sixth trumpet, of which mention hath been before made. Great divines are on both sides as to this question. Mr. Pool, in his Latin Synopsis, hath collected together their reasons, of which I shall give a short account, leaving my reader for a fuller satisfaction to the Latin Synopsis.
Those who think that the seven vials do all relate to the seventh trumpet, and contemporize with it, in defence of their opinion say:
1. That the seven seals, and the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, are all mentioned in the same form of speech; and therefore the seven vials are not to be divided, some to one trumpet, some to another.
2. Because the seventh trumpet and the seven vials are one and the same thing, nothing being revealed under the seven vials which doth not belong to the seventh trumpet; they agree in their titles of woes, in the nature of the revelations, in their objects, both the one and the other declaring the ruin of antichrist; both of them are mentioned as the last plagues to come upon the world before the last day.
3. All the vials are of the same nature, declaring but the judgments by which God, setting up the kingdom of Christ, would ruin antichrist; they only differ in the degrees of the plagues, each one rising higher than the other.
4. The seventh trumpet cannot declare the ruin of antichrist, unless the seven vials be poured out under it, for they show the means by which he must be destroyed.
5. The seventh trumpet soundeth immediately upon the slaying of the witnesses, and contemporizeth with the whole course of their renewed liberty, and therefore the period signified by it must be before the fall of antichrist, declared by the sixth vial.
6. The seventh trumpet soundeth immediately after the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty days; before the end of which none of the vials were poured out.
Those who think that divers of the vials were poured out, or shall be poured out, before the sounding of this seventh trumpet, say, that the beasts kingdom beginning to fall under the sixth trumpet, several of the vials, declaring the degrees of his falling, must belong to that. It appeareth by all we have in this chapter Rev 11:7-15, that antichrists kingdom was in a great measure weakened under the sixth trumpet, particularly from Rev 11:11-13. To which those who think that all the vials related to the seventh trumpet say, that they grant that there were some preparations to the final ruin of antichrist, during the period of the sixth trumpet, but the seven vials signify the further progress and perfection of his ruin, which falls under the period signified by the seventh trumpet. This being premised, I proceed with the text.
It is doubted here whether those words, are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, be to be understood as being actually so, or now beginning to be so. Those who make the sense that they now actually were so, must understand the time to be the day of judgment, or some time next to it, and consequently must think that five at least of the seven vials, mentioned Rev 16:1-21, belonged to the sixth trumpet. Those who make the sense, are beginning to become the kingdoms of the Lord, or shall shortly be so, may make all the seven vials to belong to the seventh trumpet. By becoming the kingdoms of the Lord Christ, he means in outward profession; so as antichrist shall reign no more, but they shall be ruled by the officers of the Lord Christ, until they be taken up to reign with him in glory.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. soundedwith his trumpet.Evidently “the LASTtrumpet.” Six is close to seven, but does notreach it. The world judgments are complete in six, but by thefulfilment of seven the world kingdoms become Christ’s. Six isthe number of the world given over to judgment. It is half of twelve,the Church’s number, as three and a half is half of seven, the divinenumber for completeness. BENGELthinks the angel here to have been Gabriel, which name iscompounded of El, GOD,and Geber, MIGHTY MAN(Re 10:1). Gabriel thereforeappropriately announced to Mary the advent of the mighty God-man:compare the account of the man-child’s birth which follows (Re12:1-6), to which this forms the transition though the seventhtrumpet in time is subsequent, being the consummation of thehistorical episode, the twelfth and thirteen chapters. The seventhtrumpet, like the seventh seal and seventh vial, being theconsummation, is accompanied differently from the preceding six: notthe consequences which follow on earth, but those INHEAVEN, are set before us, the great voices andthanksgiving of the twenty-four elders in heaven, as the half-hour’ssilence in heaven at the seventh seal, and the voice out ofthe temple in heaven, “It is done,” at theseventh vial. This is parallel to Da2:44, “The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom,which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left toother people, but it shall break to pieces all these kingdoms,and it shall stand for ever.” It is the setting up of Heaven’ssovereignty over the earth visibly, which, when invisibly exercised,was rejected by the earthly rulers heretofore. The distinction ofworldly and spiritual shall then cease. There will be no beast inopposition to the woman. Poetry, art, science, and social life willbe at once worldly and Christian.
kingdomsA, B, C, andVulgate read the singular, “The kingdom(sovereignty) of (over) the world is our Lord’s and HisChrist’s.” There is no good authority for English Versionreading. The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdomof (over) the world exercised by Christ. Theearth-kingdoms are many: His shall be one. The appellation”Christ,” the Anointed, is here, where His kingdomis mentioned appropriately for the first time used in Revelation. Forit is equivalent to KING.Though priests and prophets also were anointed, yet this termis peculiarly applied to Him as King, insomuch that “the Lord’sanointed” is His title as KING,in places where He is distinguished from the priests. The glorifiedSon of man shall rule mankind by His transfigured Church in heaven,and by His people Israel on earth: Israel shall be the priestlymediator of blessings to the whole world, realizing them first.
henot emphatic in theGreek.
shall reign for ever andeverGreek, “unto the ages of the ages.” Herebegins the millennial reign, the consummation of “the mystery ofGod” (Re 10:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the seventh angel sounded,…. The last of the seven angels, who had trumpets given them to sound, Re 8:2. The days of the voice of this angel, as in Re 10:7, cannot refer to the times of Constantine; for though there was then a strange turn of affairs in favour of the kingdom of Christ, when there was a great spread of the Gospel, and large conversions in many places, and many churches were raised and formed in several countries, and the whole empire became Christian; yet this, as we have seen, came to pass under the sixth seal, before any of the trumpets were sounded, and much less this seventh and last; nor do they belong to the times of the Reformation in Germany. Brightman fixes the sounding of this trumpet to the year 1558, when the kings of Sweden and Denmark set up the Gospel in their kingdoms, and reformed them from Popery; and when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne of England, and rooted out great part of the Romish superstition: but it is certain that this angel has not yet sounded his trumpet, and therefore cannot refer to anything past, but to what is to come; we are yet under the sixth trumpet; the outward court is not yet given to the Gentiles; the witnesses are not slain, and much less risen and ascended; the earthquake, the fall of the tenth part of the city, and the slaughter of seven thousand names of men, with what will follow thereon, are things yet to come; the Turkish woe is not over, and antichrist still reigns, and the kingdoms of this world are far from appearing to be the kingdoms of Christ. Some think, and indeed the generality of interpreters, that this respects the voice of the archangel, and trump of God, the last trump, which will sound at the resurrection of the dead, and the day of judgment; but none of these appear in the account of things under this trumpet; but rather the whole has a view to the spiritual reign of Christ, when both the eastern and western antichrist will be destroyed; the Gospel will be carried all over the world, and there will be large conversions both among Jews and Gentiles, and Christ will reign in a spiritual manner over all the earth. Hence it follows,
and there were great voices in heaven; these are either the voices of the angels in heaven, who rejoice at every appearance, and breaking forth of Christ’s kingdom and glory, as in Re 5:11; and indeed, if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner, at a single addition to Christ’s interest, then much more will they, when the kingdoms of this world become his; or rather these may be the voices of the multitude of the saints in the churches, the same company with those in Re 19:1; who express their joy at the judgment of the great whore, and at the marriage of the Lamb; and who, as here, are attended with the thanksgivings and hallelujahs of the four and twenty elders: and it may be, that these are also the voices of the four living creatures, the ministers of the word, since the four and twenty elders generally follow them, Re 4:9; they may be the witnesses, who were silenced, but are now raised up, and are ascended into heaven, and their mouths are opened, and their voices heard again:
saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; by “the kingdoms of this world” are meant worldly kingdoms, which are set up by worldly power, and are supported by worldly policy, and subsist upon worldly principles and maxims; the government of which proceeds upon worldly ends and views; in distinction from the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, and is not supported by any such methods; and they are the kingdoms, into which the world is divided, which, and the glory of them, Satan showed to Christ, and insolently offered to give him them, if he would worship him; but these were to come to Christ in another way, and at another time. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, the Complutensian edition, the Vulgate Latin version, and all the Oriental versions, read in the singular number, “the kingdom of this world”; the whole government of it, which is his by right of nature, and will be overturned, and overturned again and again, till he comes, whose right it is; and then all power, rule, and authority, will be put down, and his kingdom, which will tilt the face of the whole earth, will take place: all the antichristian states and kingdoms are here intended, particularly the kingdoms into which the Roman empire, sometimes called the whole world, Lu 2:1, is divided, which are ten; one of the ten, a tenth part of the city or jurisdiction of Rome, will fall at the close of the sixth trumpet, and the other nine, or the other nine parts, will fall at the sounding of the seventh; the ten kings, that have given their kingdoms to the beast, will have an aversion to the whore, hate her, and burn her flesh, will fall off from her, and into the hands of Christ; there will be a general and thorough reformation from Popery in all the kingdoms of the Roman empire: but though these are greatly intended, yet not only they, but the Mahometan nations also, as the Turkish woe will now be over, and the great river Euphrates dried up, to make way for the kings of the east, those large kingdoms and countries of China, Tartary, and Persia; and these now under the power of the Turk will embrace the Christian faith; and also all the Pagan nations are to be taken into the account, and who will now enjoy the light of the Gospel: and all, and everyone those Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan kingdoms, will “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ”; by “our Lord” may be designed God the Father, who is the Lord of the whole earth, the Lord God Almighty, and is acknowledged as such by angels and men; and by “his Christ”, his Son Jesus Christ, who is equal with him; and what belongs to the one belongs to the other; and who, as Mediator, is his anointed One; anointed to be prophet, priest, and King; anointed with the oil of gladness, the Holy Ghost; see Ps 2:2, where the same distinction is. In the Targum on Isa 4:2 mention is made of
, “the Messiah”; or “Christ of Jehovah”: and in the same Targum on Isa 53:10, it is said, “they shall look” , “upon the kingdom of their Messiah”; though it may be rather that Christ is designed by both these phrases, and the words be rendered, “our Lord, even his Christ”; since the phrase, “our Lord”, as well as Christ, is generally understood of Jesus Christ in the New Testament; and who is Lord of all, of angels, and of men, and the Christ of God. Now these kingdoms will become his, not merely by right, for so they are his already, by right of nature, and creation, and preservation; but these have shaken off his government, and have refused to have him to reign over them, and have fallen into the hands of usurpers, as Satan, the god of this world, the Romish antichrist, that reigns over the kings of the earth, and Mahomet the king of the locusts; but now these will, in fact, come into his hands, and be under his government; they will acknowledge him as their Lord and Sovereign, and fear and worship him, as King of saints: and this will be brought about, not by force of arms, as Mahomet got his dominions; nor by policy and fraud, by imposture and lying wonders, by which the pope of Rome has obtained his authority over the nations; but partly by the pouring out of the vials of God’s wrath upon the seat of the beast, and upon the river Euphrates, that is, both upon the pope and Turk, which will weaken and destroy their power and authority, and make way for Christ to set up his kingdom; and partly, and chiefly, by the preaching of the Gospel: now will an open door be set, which none can shut; many will run to and fro, and knowledge will be increased; the earth will be covered with it, as the sea with waters; multitudes of souls everywhere will be converted; a nation will be born at once; churches will be set up in every place, which are Christ’s kingdom, where he reigns, and where his subjects are, and his laws are put in execution; where his word will be now faithfully preached, his ordinances purely administered, and he, in his person, office, and grace, will be alone exalted: the consequence of which will be,
and he shall reign for ever and ever; no usurper will ever start up more, or obtain, neither Satan, nor the beast, nor the false prophet, shall ever regain their power and authority any more; neither Paganism, nor Judaism, nor antichristianism, either Papal or Mahometan, shall ever have place more: Christ will reign in this spiritual way, more or less, until he comes personally, and then he will reign with his people on earth a thousand years; and when they are ended, he will reign with them in heaven to all eternity; for though, at the end of these years, he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, yet he will not cease to reign; indeed he will not reign in the same manner, but he will reign with equal power and authority, and over, and with the same persons. The Vulgate Latin version adds, “Amen”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There followed (). “There came to pass.” There was silence in heaven upon the opening of the seventh seal (8:1), but here “great voices.” Perhaps the great voices are the of Rev 4:6; Rev 5:8.
Saying (). Construction according to sense; , masculine participle (not ), though , feminine. John understood what was said.
Is become (). “Did become,” prophetic use of the aorist participle, already a fact. See in Lu 19:9.
The kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ ( ). Repeat from the preceding. God the Father is meant here by (Lord), as (his) shows. This is the certain and glorious outcome of the age-long struggle against Satan, who wields the kingdom of the world which he offered to Christ on the mountain for one act of worship. But Jesus scorned partnership with Satan in the rule of the world, and chose war, war up to the hilt and to the end. Now the climax has come with Christ as Conqueror of the kingdom of this world for his Father. This is the crowning lesson of the Apocalypse.
He shall reign (). Future active of . God shall reign, but the rule of God and of Christ is one as the kingdom is one (1Co 15:27). Jesus is the Lord’s Anointed (Luke 2:26; Luke 9:20).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The kingdoms – are become [ ] . Read ejgeneto hJ basileia, the kingdom – is become.
Of our Lord, etc. Compare Psa 2:2 – 9.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the seventh angel sounds,” (kai ho hebdomos angelos esalpisen) “and the seventh (last of the seven) angel trumpeted,” let forth a trumpet-blast, as a minister of God, announcing further pending judgment to the earth, Rev 8:2; Rev 8:6.
2) “And there were great voices in heaven,” (kai egenonto phonai megalai en to ourano) “and there became loud voices- in heaven,” like a mighty symphony or orchestra, coming from the four and twenty elders, the four living creatures, and the redeemed before the throne, Rev 11:16; Rev 4:9-11; Rev 5:6; Rev 5:8-10.
3) “Saying, the kingdoms of this world are become,” (legontes egeneto he basileia tou kosmou) “saying the kingdom of the world became,” or has come to be, to exist as – – the administrative property or domain, Mat 6:10; Mat 6:13.
4) “The kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ,” (tou kuriou hemon kai tou christou autou) “The kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” The term “kingdom”, singular, as one government, is used at this point, indicating that the reign of Christ has come or is approaching over all the earth, 1Co 15:23-28.
5) “And he shall reign for ever and ever.” (kai basileusei eis tous aionas ton aionon) “and he shall reign (with honor) unto the ages of the ages,” Luk 1:30-33. With our Lord in this glorious pending millennial reign shall be His church, with the twelve apostles sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel – and members of His church reigning with Him; Rev 5:9-10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Strauss Comments
SECTION 34
Text Rev. 11:15-19
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said,
The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, who sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God 17 saying,
We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast; because thou hast taken thy great power, and didst reign. 18 And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth.
19 And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven; and there was seen in his temple the ark, of his covenant; and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail.
Initial Questions Rev. 11:15-19
1.
Who announced that the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord Rev. 11:15?
2.
At what other previous point does John mention the 24 elders?
3.
How did the nations react to Gods intervention Rev. 11:18? Why?
4.
Was the Temple of God mentioned in Rev. 11:19 located in Jerusalem?
The Seventh Trumpet-blast, or The Third Woe
Chapter Rev. 11:15-19
Rev. 11:15
In contrast to the silence in heaven which followed the opening of the seventh seal, great voices are speaking as the seventh trumpet is sounded. What were the voices saying? The kingdom of the world became (egeneto 2nd aor. ind. became in a single act now!) the kingdom (this noun not in text but implied by grammatical structure) of our Lord, and of His Christ; and he shall reign unto the ages of the ages. Here we note the title Lord applied to God the Father. This term is applied without reservation to Jesus Christ. This is a direct assertion of His deity. (See appendix at end of column on The Titles for Christ in The Revelation.
Rev. 11:16
We are once more in the throne room of heaven. The twenty-four Elders which were about the throne worshipped God. The victory had won and God is being praised.
Rev. 11:17
The twenty-four Elders are praising Godbecause you have taken (eilphos perfect tense ind. action involved in the taking of the power is complete effect still exists) great power to yourself, and did reign (ebasileusas 1st aor. ind. the reign was immediate now!).
Rev. 11:18
How does the world respond to Gods reign? The nations were wrathful (rgisthsan 1st aor. passive indicative) and your wrath came (elthen 2nd aor. ind. came in a single act!) and the time of the dead to be judged (krithnoi 1st aor. inf. passive) and to give the reward to your slaves the prophets, and to the saints, and to the ones fearing your name, to the small and great, and to destroy the ones destroying the earth. This verse makes it very apparent that God is going to judge the dead too. Everyone will stand before the judgment throne and give an account of every word and deed. Be not deceived; God is mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Gal. 6:7, 1901 R.V.) Social status, level of education, I.Q., wealth, etc., will all be to no avail in that hour of judgment.
Rev. 11:19
The sanctuary (naos does not mean Temple in the sense of the entire physical structure) of God was opened in heaven, and was seen in his sanctuary the ark of his covenant, and lightenings and voices, thunders, an earthquake and a great hail occurred. (See Rev. 8:5 for same symbolism after the opening of the seventh seal.)
The Kingdom of God has come after the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15 ff). The materials contained in the seven trumpets section appear to cover the same ground as the seven seals only evil and Gods judgment are more intense.
Note: The imagery of the Jewish place of worship is often used in The Revelation. For a description of the Herodian Temple, which stood during the life and ministry of our Lord, and was destroyed by the Roman in 70 A.D. see Josephus, Jewish Wars, 11:5. 17, Loeb Classics, Harvard University Press; and The Mishnah, translated by Herbert Danby, Oxford University Press, Fifth Civision: Kodashim (Things Holy) section on Middoth, pp. 589598.
Review Questions Chapter 11
1.
Read Zec. 2:1 ff and compare with Rev. 11:1.
2.
What were Gods two faithful witnesses doing Rev. 11:3?
3.
What does the first class conditional of Rev. 11:5 mean?
4.
Discuss how Moses and Elijah could be called prototypes of the two witnesses Rev. 11:6.
5.
Does Rev. 11:7 imply that it often appears as though evil will prevail over Gods righteousness? Discuss the problem of evil and the ultimate victory of Christ as revealed in The Revelation.
6.
Were the two witnesses significantly successful (Rev. 11:8-10?) in their preaching of Gods Word?
7.
How did the non-Christian world respond to the death of Gods witnesses Rev. 11:11?
8.
Does Rev. 11:13 specifically state that many non-Christians were converted in view of the phrase gave glory to the God of heaven?
9.
What is the meaning of the phrase the kingdom (note that this is singular, not plural as in King James Version) of world became the kingdom of our Lord, and his Christ Rev. 11:15?
10.
How does the sinful world respond to Gods reign Rev. 11:18?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
THE SEVENTH TRUMPETTHE LAST WOE TRUMPET.
(15) And the seventh angel . . .Better, And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in the heaven (persons) saying, The kingdom of the world is become (the possession) of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign to the ages of ages. The literal translation is, The kingdom of the world is become our Lords, and of His Christ. As far as the expression our Lords is concerned, there is no need that any word, such as kingdom or possession, should be supplied, but the additional phrase of His Christ creates an awkwardness, and the word possession, or inheritance, may not inappropriately be used from the Psalm which foretells this final establishment of the kingdom of the anointed Messiah, the Christ of God. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Psa. 2:8). It is the kingdomnot, as in the English version, the kingdomsof the world which has become Christs possession. The contest is not for the kingdoms, the separate nationalities: the varying political systems might exist, as far as mere organisation is concerned, under the rule of Christ; the contest is for the kingdom of the world. Satan was willing to surrender the kingdoms of the world to our Lord on condition of a homage which would have left him still in possession of the kingdom of the world. But now the close of the contest is the overthrow of the kingdom of evil, the establishment of the kingdom of good: that is, of God; and He shall reign for ever and ever. Dean Alford pointed out that our familiarity with the Hallelujah Chorus tempted us to put an emphasis on the word He which is not sanctioned by the Greek; it is the reign of the Lord which is the prominent thought. The reign is unto the ages of ages. Surely this means always. We are not told whose voices sing this chorus; it is just the tumultuous sound of heavenly voices, growing into natural and irresistible chorus as the trumpet heralds the approach of the glorious end.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Great voices in heaven Alford suggests that these voices were from the four living beings as distinguished from the twenty-four elders.” But that destroys the mysterious beauty of the apostle’s thought, which is, that the voices rolled and reverberated spontaneously through the heavens with no apparent utterer. They were as if the celestial spaces spake them.
Kingdoms The preferable reading seems to be kingdom, in the singular, of course including the italic repetition of the word inserted by the translators. The world’s kingdom, no longer the devil’s kingdom, has become God’s and his Christ’s kingdom.
Throughout this lofty prelude, the consummation of the entire events of the seventh trumpet is announced as already completed. The utterers take their mental stand-point at the end of the whole history, and contemplate its future completion as already past. This is the prophetic future-preterite; the past tense for the future.
The sounding of the trumpet is of course the signal for the panorama of symbols to move on. The announcement of the heavenly voices utters in one sentence the glorious result of the whole movement, and is the signal for the profound worship and thanksgiving of the elders which follow.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the seventh angel sounded, and there followed great voices in Heaven, and they said, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever”.’
Thus is declared the final hour. This is the seventh and last trumpet (compare 1Co 15:52). The church is raptured, the king is crowned and will now immediately exert His authority and judge the world. ‘The kingdom of the world’ is now His. The kings of the earth, and the rulers, took counsel against the Lord and against His Christ (anointed one)’ (Psa 2:2). But God could only laugh at their puny efforts (Psa 2:4) and now He will ‘speak to them in His wrath and vex them with His sore displeasure’ (Psa 2:5), having set His king on His holy hill of Zion (Rev 2:6). The Lord now ‘sits as king for ever, He has prepared his throne for judgment’ (Psa 8:7).
It would not have been possible in John’s earlier description of the rapture to include the sound of the trumpet, for there we had what those in Jerusalem heard and saw and there is no suggestion that the last trumpet would be heard by man. Man hears the voice from Heaven, but the trumpet sounds in Heaven declaring the final fulfilment of the purposes of God. John therefore now immediately introduces it to connect it with what has gone before.
The resurrection has been seen from earth’s point of view, now it is declared from Heaven’s point of view. The third woe is declared, the trumpet sounds, the dead are raised and the church is raptured, an example of which we have seen, and then, in that hour, the third woe actually comes, the judgment, which is carried out on those who dwell on earth. Then they will weep and gnash their teeth for they can no longer hide from His face.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Seventh Trumpet Sounds In the seventh trumpet God declares that the kingdoms on earth have become subject to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. He judges mankind with “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Rev 11:19).
The Seventh Trumpet Interpreted – Irvin Baxter suggests the seventh and final trumpet is referred to by Paul in 1Co 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Baxter suggests the Rapture of the Church will take place at the time of this last trumpet. [86] The Rapture officially ends the Church Age, and ushers in the Millennial Reign of Christ upon earth. This would explain the opening statement of this passage, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev 11:15)
[86] Irvin Baxter, Jr., Understanding the End Time: Lesson 12 The Seven Trumpets (Richmond, Indiana: Endtime, Inc., 1986) [on-line]; accessed 1 October 2008; available from http://www.endtime.com/Audio.aspx; Internet.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The sounding of the seventh trumpet:
v. 15. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.
v. 16. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshiped God,
v. 17. saying, we give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned.
v. 18. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
v. 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the Ark of His testament; and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. Now comes the beginning of the destruction which would take away all power from the destroyer. The announcement is made in a solemn manner: And the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there occurred loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the earth has become that of our Lord and His Christ, and He will be King forever and ever. It is an exultant song of praise in honor of God and Christ, sung by all the angels and saints in heaven. When the end comes, Christ will not only reign in the midst of His enemies, but, being exalted above all heavens, He will deliver all kingdoms and rules and authorities and powers to God, even the Father, and He, being one with the Father, will rule with Him forever and ever, throughout all eternity.
This hymn is taken up and enlarged upon by the circle about the throne: And the twenty-four elders that were before God, that sat upon their seats, fell upon their faces and worshiped God, saying, We praise Thee, Lord God the Almighty, who is and who was, because Thou hast received Thy great power and hast reigned, and the heathen were enraged, and Thine anger was come and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give a reward to Thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints and to those that fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy the destroyers of the earth. Here the Church, represented by the twenty-four elders, praises and worships Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the exalted Son of Man. They praise the revelation of the wonderful power of Jehovah, which formerly was considered weakness and foolishness by the world. The form of the servant, in which Christ chose to appear while performing His work in the world is now no longer in evidence. He not only possesses almighty power, but uses this power in ruling heaven and earth. The heathen, including all the antichristian powers, were filled with rage, but it avails them nothing. For now, after so long a time of patience and mercy, the Lord’s wrath is poured out upon the earth. All the dead had to appear before the Lord for judgment, and the righteous anger of the Lord struck the destroyers of the earth, in whatever guise they were found, while those that had been faithful to the end, the prophets, the saints, those that feared His name, received a wonderful reward of mercy, everlasting life with all its bliss. Thus this vision of the end of time serves for the comfort of all Christians, especially in view of the fact that the last woe is yet to be described.
And another source of comfort for all believers is this: And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and there was seen the Ark of His covenant in the temple, and there occurred lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail. That is the revelation of the Kingdom of Glory as it will appear to us on the last day. The Ark of the Jewish people was taken to Babylon and never returned to its accustomed place in the second and third Temple, but the covenant of the New Testament is an eternal covenant, namely, the promise that we are His people, His children by faith in Christ Jesus, and shall live and reign with Him forever and ever, in the temple of heaven. God is faithful; He can and will keep that which we have committed to Him against that day. Meanwhile His enlightening and powerfully sounding voice goes forth in the earth in spite of Mohammed and Anti-Christ, to deliver those that are His from all floods of tribulation, but to visit His enemies with His judgments, as earthquakes and hail-storms devastate the land.
Summary
The seer records a vision full of comfort to the believers, showing that the Word of God was proclaimed by at least a few faithful witnesses in the midst of antichristian heresy, and that their witness, even after their death, did not remain without fruit; he records a scene from the end of time to show that the Lord will finally deliver those that are His from every evil work and translate them into His heavenly kingdom.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rev 11:15-18. The seventh angel sounded, &c. At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the third woe commences; which is rather implied than expressed, as it will be described more fully hereafter. The third woe brought on the inhabitants of the earth, is the ruin and downfal ofthe antichristian kingdom; and then, and not till then, according to the heavenly chorus, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Lord, &c. St. John is rapt and hurried away, as it were, to a view of the happy millennium, without considering the steps preceding and concluding to it. At the same time the four and twenty elders, or the ministers of the church, Rev 11:16-18 are represented as praising and glorifying God, for manifesting his power and kingdom more than he had done before: they give likewise an intimation of some succeeding events; as, the anger of the nations, Gog and Magog, ch. Rev 20:8 and the wrath of God, displayed in their destruction, ch. Rev 20:9 and the rewarding of all the good, as well as punishing of the wicked, Rev 11:12, &c. Here we have only a summary account of the circumstances and occurrences of the seventh trumpet; but the particulars will be dilated and enlarged upon hereafter. Thus are we arrived at the consummation of all things, through a series of prophesies, extending from the apostle’s days to the end of the world. It is this series which has been our clue, to conduct us in our interpretation of these prophesies; and though some of them are dark and obscure, considered in themselves, yet they receive light from others, preceding and following. Altogether they are, as it were, a chain of prophesies, whereof one link depends on and supports another. If any parts remain yet obscure and unsatisfactory, they may perhaps be cleared up by what the apostle himself has added by way of explanation. See the Appendix for other views of this subject
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 11:15 . ., . . . To whom these voices belonged, is neither to be asked nor to be answered. Ewald wants to ascribe them to the four beasts; [2961] De Wette, to the angels; Beng., to various dwellers in heaven, angels and men. Hengstenb. tries to show that the innumerable hosts, Rev 7:9 sq., are to be understood. This is incorrect, because the hosts which John there sees proleptically in heaven do not as yet correspond in Rev 11:15 , with the progressive course of the visions, but are not actually in heaven until Rev 15:2 sqq. [2962] Also in Rev 11:15-19 Hengstenb. mistakes the proleptical reference correctly understood by C. a Lap., Beng., Ew., De Wette, etc., by regarding all the contents of the seventh trumpet (the third woe) exhausted already with Rev 11:19 . Still more preposterously, Ebrard limits the seventh trumpet to Rev 11:15-18 . [2963]
, where John is not as yet, [2964] but whither the look of the seer is directed. [2965]
. Cf. Rev 4:8 , Rev 5:13 . . The regal dominion over the world. [2966] Instead of the obj. gen., in Rev 17:18 , follows. Cf. also Rev 1:6 , Rev 12:10 . The immediately following presupposes not only the active idea of , but also this reading. Incorrectly, Luther, according to the var. supported by Ew. ii., : the kingdoms of this world.
The proleptical [2967] in the songs of the heavenly voices lies in this, that immediately after the sound of the trumpet, and yet before any thing else has actually occurred of what is afterwards celebrated with similar songs of praise, [2968] they say, ., . . . [2969] In reality the dominion over the world does not become God’s and that of his Anointed until the wrathful judgment described, viz., until ch. 18, yea, in another respect until Rev 20:10 , has actually dislodged from its assumed dominion all ungodly and antichristian power, which, by its rebellion [2970] against the only King and Lord, had usurped, to an extent, a part of his . The inner justification of the prolepsis which Hengstenb. acknowledges only at Rev 11:15-18 in the relation to Rev 11:19 , where he finds the final judgment lies in the fact that the seventh trumpet has already actually sounded; that one, therefore, from which the real fulfilment of the mystery of God will infallibly proceed. [2971] But even if only a special series of further visions leads to that final consummation, yet the prospective celebration of that glorious result, especially in the mouth of the dwellers in heaven, has, after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, its full justification and beautiful significance; the allusion, however, in connection with this, to redemption, as the proper root of the fact here celebrated, [2972] is entirely out of place.
. Not only the expression, [2973] but also the idea, points back to Psa 2:2 , for the Lord’s Anointed is the Son of God because of the , which is taken in general, indeed, from the nations, [2974] yet only for their destruction.
The with . does not give here a statement strange in itself concerning the co-regency of the saints, [2975] but corresponds, as also Rev 12:10 , Rev 19:1 , Rev 5:6 , to the joy of those who now behold their Lord and God, whom they themselves serve, in his victorious dominion over the judged world.
. . . For, after his overthrow of all powers opposed to God, no new enemy could arise. The subj. to is ; [2976] but his Christ is manifestly understood as partner of this . [2977]
[2961] Rev 4:8 .
[2962] Cf. Rev 19:1 sqq.
[2963] See on Rev 11:19 .
[2964] Cf. Rev 10:1 .
[2965] De Wette.
[2966] Beng., De Wette, Hengstenb., etc.
[2967] Also Klief.
[2968] Cf. Rev 19:1 sqq.
[2969] Cf. Rev 11:17 sq.:
.
[2970] Beng.
[2971] Beng., De Wette, etc.
[2972] Hengstenb.
[2973] Cf. Rev 12:10 ; Act 4:26 .
[2974] Cf. Rev 11:18 .
[2975] Hengstenb.
[2976] According to Rev 11:17 : .
[2977] Beng., De Wette.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rev 11:15-19 . At the blast of the seventh trumpet, which [2960] will bring the glorious end, songs of praise resound in heaven which proclaim the fulfilment as having already occurred (Rev 11:15-18 ). At the opening of the heavenly temple of God, the ark of the covenant therein is visible, and lightnings, and other signs, indicating the judgments belonging to the actual fulfilment of the mystery of God, occur.
[2960] Cf. Rev 10:7 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
PART SECOND
THE END OF THE WORLD
[Rev 11:15 to Rev 22:5]
SECTION FIFTH
Developed Antichriatianity. The seven-headed Dragon and his Image [Erscheinungsbild]: the seven-headed Beast
Rev 11:15-18
A.THE HEAVEN-PICTURE ABOVE THE ANTICHRISTIANITY ON EARTH; OR THE PRECURSORY TRIUMPH OVER THE DRAGON, AND HIS FALL FROM HEAVEN TO THE EARTH
Rev 11:15Rev 12:12
a. Pre-celebration of the Victory
Rev 11:15-19
15And the seventh angel sounded [trumpeted]; and there were great voices in [ins. the] heaven, saying, The kingdoms [kingdom]25 of this [the] world are [is] become the kingdoms of [om. the kingdoms of] our Lord [Lords], and of [om. of] his Christ 16[Christs]; and he shall reign forever and ever [into the ages of the ages]. And the26 four and twenty [twenty-four] elders, which [who]2 sat [sit]27 before God on 17[upon] their seats [thrones], fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty [or All-ruler28], which [who] art, and [ins. who] wast, and art to come [om., and art to come]29; because thou hast taken to thee [om. to thee] thy great power, and hast reigned. 18And the nations30 were angry [wroth], and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should [om., that they should-ins. to] be judged, and that thou shouldest [om. that thou shouldest-ins. to] give [ins. the] reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to [om. to] the saints, and them that [those who] fear thy name, [ins. the] small and [ins. the great]31; and shouldest [om. shouldest-ins. to] destroy them which [those who] destroy the earth. 19And the temple of God [ins. which was in the heaven]32 was opened in heaven [om. in heaven], and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament [covenant]: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings [thunders], and an earthquake, and [ins. a] great hail.
Footnotes:
[25]Rev 11:15. The plural of the Rec. is based upon a misapprehension of the passage. [Modern Critical Editors read with . A. B*. C. P. Vulg., etc. The Rec. is supported by only 1, 7.E. R. C.]
[26]Rev 11:16. [Lach. omits the in both instances, the former with *. A., the latter with A. B*., etc.; Alf. brackets both; both are given by Treg. and Tisch., the former with c. B*. C. P., the latter with . C. P.E. R. C.]
[27]Rev 11:16. [Gb., Treg., Tisch. (8th Ed.) give with *et c.. B*. C., etc.; Lach., Tisch. (1859), Alf., with A. P.E. R. C.]
[28]Rev 11:17, [See Add. Comm. on Rev 1:8, p. 93.E. R. C.]
[29]Rev 11:17. The third item is here om. by the best Codd. [Modern Crit. Eds. om. with . A. B*. C. P., Am., Fuld., Harl., etc.E. R. C.]
[30]Rev 11:18. [See Add. Comm. on Rev 11:2.E. R. C.]
[31]Rev 11:18. On an erroneous accusative in Cod. A., and in some others, see Dsterdieck. [Lach., Alf., and Treg., with *. A. C., read ; Tisch., with cc. B*. P., gives , . . ..E. R. C.]
[32]Rev 11:19. The reading . Alf. om. with . B.; Treg. and Tisch. give it with A. C. P., etc. Crit. Eds. generally give without the add. of as in *.E. R. C.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 2512
THE REIGN OF CHRIST ON EARTH
Rev 11:15-17. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
WE read of our blessed Lord weeping over Jerusalem, in the contemplation of the guilt they had contracted by their misimprovement of his mercies, and the heavy judgments which were about to be inflicted on them. And, in truth, wherever we turn our eyes, whether towards the heathen or the Christian world, we see but too just occasion to weep over their unhappy state. It is almost impossible to behold the universal reign of sin and Satan, and not to participate the feelings of David, when he said, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law [Note: Psa 119:136.]. But it will not be always thus. There is a time coming, and, we hope, now near at hand, when the whole world shall be converted to the faith of Christ, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. Of this period the Apostle speaks in my text. Respecting the sounding of the seven angels I forbear to speak, because of the obscurity in which the subject is involved. But of the universal establishment of the Redeemers empire, and of the joy expressed amongst the heavenly hosts at the prospect of it, I may speak with certainty; because it is a subject so fully opened in the sacred writings, that we can entertain no doubt respecting it.
Let me then call your attention to,
I.
The approaching reign of Christ on earth
The kingdoms of this world have hitherto been almost entirely under the dominion of the prince of darkness
[Satan is called the god of this world, because he has reduced the world to a state of entire subjection to himself. That wicked fiend beguiled our first parents in Paradise, and brought under his own tyrannic sway the whole of the human race. The effect produced by him on his vassals may be seen in the first-born child of man; who was a murderer, and slew his own brother solely from an envious hatred of his superior piety. Some few, a little remnant, God has in every age delivered from his dominion; but, from the fall of Adam to the present hour, he has kept in bondage the great mass of mankind, and is therefore justly called the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in all the children of disobedience. Not that he has power to make men act contrary to their will. They are possessed of a corrupt nature; and he knows how to take advantage of their evil propensities, and to ensnare them with temptations suited to their corrupt appetites. His wiles and devices are inconceivably subtle: the spirits also that are confederate with him are innumerable: and men are but too willing to comply with his solicitations: so that he takes them in his snares, and leads them captive at his will. He does not indeed impel every one to the same crimes. Some he instigates to fulfil the desires of the flesh; others to tread more nearly in his own steps, by gratifying the desires of the mind in the indulgence of pride, envy, malice, and other hateful passions; which are no less odious in the sight of God, than those lusts which assimilate us rather to the beasts. But, whatever diversity there may be in the outward conduct of mankind, all agree in this, they cast off the yoke of God, and walk after the imagination of their own evil hearts
Such is the state of all the kingdoms of this world, as well of those which enjoy the light of revelation as those that are yet immersed in Pagan darkness.]
But they will in due season become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ
[The prophets have fully declared this: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which shall not, like the kingdoms of this world, be destroyed, but shall be universal in its extent, and everlasting in its duration [Note: Dan 2:44.]. To the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall this be committed; and all people, nations, and languages shall serve him [Note: Dan 7:13-14.]; all kings shall fall down before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. Not that he will interfere with the exercise of kingly power amongst the different potentates of the earth: for his kingdom is not of this world: the seat of his empire is the heart: and there will he establish his throne; not by the sword of man, but by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Of what kind his dominion will be, we may form some judgment from what took place on the day of Pentecost. His word on that day was quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and thousands instantly fell before it. So, when the time shall have come for the full establishment of his kingdom, all opposition, whether of men or devils, shall fall, as Dagon before the ark, and all nations shall be subdued to the obedience of faith. Then where sin and Satan have hitherto maintained an undisputed sway, the grace of God shall reign, and iniquity from thence-forth shall hide its face ]
No sooner was this glorious event announced, than all the hosts of heaven were moved to welcome it. Their thanksgivings will lead me to set before you,
II.
The joy expressed in heaven at the prospect of it
Verily, the reign of Christ is a ground of joy, and may well be made so by all on earth, and by all in heaven. Consider the effect of it,
1.
As it respects the honour of God
[God is banished, if I may so say, from the very world which he has made; and the whole of the human race are up in arms against him. His authority is altogether despised. Let any one attempt to impress on men the obedience which they owe to God, how will he be regarded? What will he meet with from every quarter but ridicule and contempt? I speak not of the liberty which by courtesy is allowed to ministers in the discharge of their public duty, but of expostulations or entreaties in social life: and who is there that knows not how such a liberty would be resented? Nor would it give offence only amongst the profligate and abandoned, but amongst the more moral and decent part of the community: nothing more need be done than to exalt Gods law as the rule of our conduct, and his authority as paramount to every other consideration, and it will soon be seen how entirely all subjection to him is cast off, and man is become a god unto himself. The same effect will be produced if we speak of the love and mercy of our God. Let us. declare to those around us what God has done for the redemption of a ruined world; let us invite them to believe in Christ, to apply to him for the gift of his Holy Spirit, to live in the continual exercise of prayer and praise; shall we be a whit more acceptable to carnal men, than when calling them to submit to the commands of God? No: the language of their hearts is, There is no God to controul us [Note: Psa 14:1.]; or, if there be, we will not submit to him: We know not the Lord, neither will we obey his voice [Note: Exo 5:2. Job 21:14-15.]. And as for his Son, whom you represent as sent to gather in the fruits of his inheritance, let us cast him out, and live in the undisturbed enjoyment of our own heartss lusts.
Now who that considers this must not blush, and be confounded for the indignities which are cast upon his God? How can we reflect upon it a moment, and not wonder, that the whole earth is not swallowed up again with an universal deluge, or burnt up with fire as Sodom and Gomorrha?
But it is delightful to know, that a period is coming, when God will take to him his great power and reign, from one end of the earth even to the other. In this contemplation our minds find some relief. Our God shall not always be thus dishonoured: his authority shall one day be universally acknowledged, and his will be universally obeyed. The mysteries of his love also shall be duly appreciated, and all the wonders of his grace be extolled on earth even as they are in heaven. Well might the four and twenty elders, the representatives of the whole body of the redeemed, fall down and worship God in the prospect of this time, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.]
2.
As it respects the happiness of man
[Were we to look only to the temporal happiness of man, we shall find it greatly enhanced by the diffusion of true religion in the world. For partly through the calamities to which we are unavoidably exposed, and partly through the evils which men, through the influence of their evil passions, inflict upon each other, this world is, more or less, to every man, a vale of tears. But religion induces such habits of mind as to dispose us to an universal exercise of love; whilst it affords such consolations as turn afflictions themselves into occasions of joy. In reference to individuals, it may be said, that instead of the thorn grows up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier grows up the myrtle-tree [Note: Isai. 56:13.]; and, in reference to communities, that the wolf is made to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid; nor will there be any to hurt or to destroy in all Gods holy mountain [Note: Isa 11:6-9.].
Great as the change is in this respect, it is far more glorious in a spiritual view. Where is the man who knows any thing of solid peace? He does not exist upon the face of the whole earth, except among the little remnant of Gods peculiar people. Many possess what they call peace, that is, a mere thoughtlessness and indifference about the eternal world: but who derives joy from the contemplation of death and judgment? Who is looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of Christ, as the period for the completion and consummation of his bliss? Or who finds a real delight in God as his reconciled God and Father? This is the portion of those only who have believed in Christ. They do possess it: they walk with God as dear children: they maintain sweet fellowship with the Father and the Son: they live as on the borders of eternity, and enjoy already a foretaste of their heavenly inheritance. Of this indeed none can judge, but those who experience it in their souls: there is a stone given to them with a new name upon it which they alone can read [Note: Rev 2:17.]: but though the stranger intermeddleth not with their joy, it is real, unspeakable, and glorified.
For the full effect of the reign of Christ we must wait till we come into the eternal world. We must be added to the heavenly hosts before we can at all conceive of their bliss: but when exalted to a participation of their lot, we shall feel precisely as they do; and fall on our faces before the throne of God, to adore him with all the blended emotions of humility and love. Where Christ is not known, the very superstitions of men impose on them such a yoke as makes life itself a burthen: but, wherever he reigns, the wilderness blossoms as the rose, and earth becomes a nursery for heaven.]
Let me now, in conclusion, address myself,
1.
To those in whose hearts the kingdom of Christ has been established
[Mark, I pray you, the conduct of those in heaven. In the prospect of this glorious period, they, not on their own account, but on account of those who should hereafter participate their bliss, rose from their thrones whereon they were seated, and all with one accord fell upon their faces before God, the very instant that the glad tidings were proclaimed, and burst forth into the devoutest praises and thanksgivings to him on account of the blessings which were about to flow down on man, and the honour which would thereby accrue to God. And will not you prostrate yourselves before him; you who are so deeply interested in this event, and who have through the sovereign grace of God been already made partakers of the benefit? I charge you, brethren, to cultivate this very spirit. This is what I wish to see in all the religious world: this is the true and proper effect of redeeming love upon the soul: and I call upon you all to make this improvement of it, and to grow downward in humility, whilst you bring forth fruit upward to the praise and glory of your God.]
2.
To those who have never yet bowed to the sceptre of his grace
[Do you not know that this revolution which is to take place in the world at large, must take place in the heart of every individual; and that, till it is experienced by you, you are subjects and vassals of the prince of darkness? Know of a surety, that, if ever you would be acknowledged by Christ as his redeemed people, you must be turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Yes indeed; you must submit to Christ; you must bow to the sceptre of his grace, or be broken in pieces as a potters vessel. Remember what he has said respecting those who reject his light and easy yoke; Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me. My dear brethren, cast away the weapons of your rebellion ere it be too late; and yield a willing obedience to your Saviour now, that you may reign with him in glory for ever and ever.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(15) And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. (16) And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, (17) Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. (18) And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. (19) And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
We are now arrived under this seventh trumpet, at that great period all along intended, when all the antichristian powers shall be totally subdued, and the reign of Christ shall take place in the earth. The expectation of this great day of God, is in itself enough, properly considered, to bear up the minds of the faithful through all the events yet to be experienced by the Church, under the sixth trumpet, which most evidently is not yet finished. The outward court is not yet given to the Gentiles. The two witnesses have not yet finished their testimony. And, from the low estate of the Gospel in the present hour, in relation to vital godliness; very clear it is, that they are still prophesying in sackcloth. Hence, their death hath not taken place. And hence also, their public exposure in the street of the great city, remains to be fulfilled. And from the joy and mirth, all the enemies of vital godliness shall take, in the death of these witnesses, and their gifts they shall send one to another, it is most sure, some great change will take place, before that the sixth trumpet shall have consumed all the purport of his sounding; and the seventh Angel shall usher in his trumpet with joy, to the people of God.
Indeed, the overthrow of those antichristian powers, both East and West, which are at present in a flourishing state; and especially the late revival of the western heresy, which for several years past seemed to have been palsied to a great degree; these are no small symptoms, that the slaughter of the witnesses, which evidently must precede the overthrow both of the Mahometan and Papal powers, may be near at hand. The Lord will prepare his people for all events! But it must be a dream indeed, and of the weakest kind, and formed on a baseless fabric, for any man to suppose, that the seventh trumpet is coming on, before that the second woe is past.
I shall only detain the Reader in this Chapter just to remark, that the whole contents of it, from beginning to end, is to give a brief statement of what may be looked for, under the sixth (which is the second woe,) trumpet; and that the seventh merely introduceth the time, but doth not enlarge on the blessed events, which will take place under that happy era. These are brought forward in the after parts of this blessed book of God. So vastly important to the Mind and pleasure of our adorable Lord Jesus was the object, that his Church should be taught, from age to age, what would arise in the subsequent days, from his return to glory until his coming again to judgment; that he was graciously pleased to shadow forth the outlines of the subject, under a double series of prophecy. Hence the ministry of seals and trumpets, which we have gone through to the close of this Chapter, have taught the Church the wonderful subject, from the first commencement of the history from Christ’s Ascension; until his Descension. And in the next Chapter, the Lord begins the subject again, in another series of prophecy, under the Ministry of Vials; until the Lord sums up all, in his everlasting kingdom of glory. May the Lord bless to his people, the several Chapters we have gone over, and open to us the several yet remaining to be read; that both may minister to his glory, and our furtherance in grace, by Jesus Christ!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Ver. 15. Great voices in heaven ] i.e. Great joy and triumph in the Church militant.
Are become the kingdoms ] They have renounced Popery, given up their names to the gospel, and received the Reformation.
For ever and ever ] Not for a thousand years only, as the millenaries hold.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 19 .] The seventh trumpet . And the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were great voices in heaven (notice, a) that the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh vial, are all differently accompanied from any of the preceding series in each case. b) At each seventh member of the series we hear what is done, not on earth, but in heaven, the half-hour’s silence, the song of thanksgiving, the voice from the temple and the throne, saying, “It is done.” c) At each seventh member likewise we have it related in the form of a solemn conclusion, 1) , ch. Rev 8:5 , 2) , ch. Rev 11:19 , 3) , . . ., ch. Rev 16:18 ff. d) At each seventh member we have plain indication in the imagery or by direct expression, that the end is come, or close at hand: 1) by the imagery of the sixth seal, and the two episodes, preceding the seventh seal: 2) by the declaration here, : 3) by the sounding from the temple and the throne on the pouring out of the seventh vial. e) All this forms strong ground for inference, that the three series of visions are not continuous, but resumptive: not indeed going over the same ground with one another, either of time or of occurrence, but each evolving something which was not in the former, and putting the course of God’s Providence in a different light. It is true, that the seals involve the trumpets, the trumpets the vials: but it is not in mere temporal succession: the involution and inclusion are far deeper: the world-wide vision of the seals containing the cry for vengeance, out of which is evolved the series of the trumpets: and this again containing the episodical visions of the little book and the witnesses, out of which are evolved the visions of ecclesiastical faithfulness and apostasy which follow), saying (whose these voices were, is not specified: but we may fairly assume them to have been those of the armies of heaven and the four living-beings, as distinguished from the twenty-four elders which follow.
For the masc. part., see ref.), The Kingdom of the world (i. e. over this world: abstract. In the received text, reading , it is the kingdoms , concrete, of the world ) is become (aor., but alluding to the result of the whole series of events past, and not to be expressed in English except by a perfect) our Lord’s and of His Christ (no supply, such as “ the Kingdom ,” is required: nor is this the case even in the rec. text. The gen. in both cases is one merely of possession), and He (no emphasis on He , as we are almost sure to lay on it, perhaps from the accent unavoidable in the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel) shall reign to the ages of the ages (this announcement necessarily belongs to the time close on the millennial reign: and this is no more than we might expect from the declaration of the strong angel in ch. Rev 10:7 ). And the twenty-four elders (representing the church in glory) which before God sat upon their thrones (or, omitting the , sitting upon their thrones before God), fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thanks to Thee, O Lord God the Almighty (this ascription of thanks is the return for the answer to the prayers of the saints furnished by the judgments of the trumpets), who art and wast (for construction, see reff.), because Thou hast taken Thy great might and hast reigned (on the aor., see above). And the nations were angry (see ref. Ps.), and Thine anger came, and the time of the dead to be judged (another indication that the end is at hand when these words are spoken), and ( the time ) to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets (see reff. and especially Mat 10:41 , to which reference seems to be made), and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great (the three terms together include the whole church), and to destroy the destroyers of (so is the pres. part. best rendered) the earth (all this looks onward to judgments and acts of God yet to come when the words are spoken. The thanksgiving is not that God hath done all this, but that the hour is come for it all to take place. Before it does, another important series of visions has to be unfolded).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rev 11:15 . The rout of Satan (Rev 12:10 and Rev 20:4-10 ) means the absolute messianic ( . only in these sections = “messiah” in the eschatological sense) authority of God, as the destruction or submission of paganism ( cf. Rev 11:13 ) means the true coming of the eschatological ( cf. Rev 19:1-6 , after Rome’s downfall). The apocalyptic motto is not so much “The Lord reigns,” as “The Lord is to reign”. Meanwhile he overrules, and every preliminary judgment shoots the pious mind forward to anticipate the final triumph. Linguistically might mean here as in Hab 3:13 God’s chosen people, but the usage of the Apocalypse puts this out of the question. There is no need to delete the words here as a gloss (so, e.g. , Baljon, von Soden, Rauch) or the similar phrase in En. 48:10 (with Dalman).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 11:15-16
15Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were 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.” 16And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
Rev 11:15 “The kingdom of the world” The KJV and NKJV have “the kingdoms of this world.” The plural is not present in any of the ancient Greek manuscripts.
“has become” This is an aorist middle (deponent) indicative. This is a description of the end of the reign of fallen human governments and the beginning of the reign of our God (cf. Rev 12:10). The new age of the Spirit has fully come. This confirms the recapitulation theory that the Second Coming occurs at the end of each of the three cycles of judgment: the seals (cf. Rev 6:12-17), the trumpets (cf. Rev 11:15-18), and the bowls (cf. Revelation 19). Revelation is not in a chronological, sequential order, but a dramatic presentation in seven cycles, each viewing the same period, but the seals, trumpets, and bowls in successive and intensifying degrees of judgment (1/4, 1/3, full).
“our Lord and of His Christ” Notice how closely the Father and Son are linked (cf. Psalms 2). Notice, also, that the emphasis of 1Co 15:24-28 and Eph 5:5 has now been fulfilled. Some see an allusion to Zec 14:9 which is possible because John’s favorite sources of apocalyptic images in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.
“and He will reign forever and ever” This refers to the eternal reign of our God (cf. Exo 15:18; Psa 10:16; Psa 29:10; Isa 9:6-7; Dan 2:44; Dan 4:34; Dan 7:14; Dan 7:27; Zec 14:9; Luk 1:33; 1Th 4:17; 2Pe 1:11), not a millennial reign (cf. Revelation 20) of Christ. This is really a fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer in Mat 6:10 that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The kingdom of God is a major theme in the Gospels and in the Revelation. There is a fluidity and tension between its current reality (post-millennial and amillennial) and its future consummation (historical premillennial and dispensational premillennial). This same fluidity is also between its earthly aspect (millennial) and its eternal aspect. Some commentators, schools, and denominations dwell on one aspect of the fluidity, but ignore or twist the others to fit their presuppositions and theological systems. It is so hard for western people to appreciate the fluidity, figurativeness, and tension of eastern literature, especially its apocalyptic genre. Our God and His Christ have reigned, are reigning and will reign; the details are insignificant! There may be an earthly messianic reign for some period (cf. 1Co 15:23-28); national Israel may have some part (cf. Romans 11). However, the figures and symbols of Revelation address the Church universal, not Israel (cf. Dan 2:34-35; Dan 2:44). I personally leave open the possibility of Israel having a part in end-time events because of God’s OT promises to Abraham’s descendants (cf. Isa 9:6-7; Zec 12:10) based on God’s character (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
Rev 11:16 “the twenty-four elders” See Special Topic at Rev 4:4.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
seventh angel. This seventh trumpet embraces the seven vials, or last seven plagues, which make up the third woe, and reaches on to Rev 18:24, if not Rev 20:15.
were. Literally came to be.
kingdoms. The texts read “kingdom”, i.e. sovereignty.
world. App-129.
are = is.
Christ. App-98.
He . . . ever. See Exo 15:18. Psa 146:10.
for . . . ever. See Rev 1:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15-19.] The seventh trumpet. And the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were great voices in heaven (notice, a) that the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh vial, are all differently accompanied from any of the preceding series in each case. b) At each seventh member of the series we hear what is done, not on earth, but in heaven,-the half-hours silence, the song of thanksgiving, the voice from the temple and the throne, saying, It is done. c) At each seventh member likewise we have it related in the form of a solemn conclusion, 1) , ch. Rev 8:5,-2) , ch. Rev 11:19,-3) , …, ch. Rev 16:18 ff. d) At each seventh member we have plain indication in the imagery or by direct expression, that the end is come, or close at hand: 1) by the imagery of the sixth seal, and the two episodes, preceding the seventh seal: 2) by the declaration here, : 3) by the sounding from the temple and the throne on the pouring out of the seventh vial. e) All this forms strong ground for inference, that the three series of visions are not continuous, but resumptive: not indeed going over the same ground with one another, either of time or of occurrence, but each evolving something which was not in the former, and putting the course of Gods Providence in a different light. It is true, that the seals involve the trumpets, the trumpets the vials: but it is not in mere temporal succession: the involution and inclusion are far deeper: the world-wide vision of the seals containing the cry for vengeance, out of which is evolved the series of the trumpets: and this again containing the episodical visions of the little book and the witnesses, out of which are evolved the visions of ecclesiastical faithfulness and apostasy which follow), saying (whose these voices were, is not specified: but we may fairly assume them to have been those of the armies of heaven and the four living-beings, as distinguished from the twenty-four elders which follow.
For the masc. part., see ref.), The Kingdom of the world (i. e. over this world: abstract. In the received text, reading , it is the kingdoms, concrete, of the world) is become (aor., but alluding to the result of the whole series of events past, and not to be expressed in English except by a perfect) our Lords and of His Christ (no supply, such as the Kingdom, is required: nor is this the case even in the rec. text. The gen. in both cases is one merely of possession), and He (no emphasis on He, as we are almost sure to lay on it, perhaps from the accent unavoidable in the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel) shall reign to the ages of the ages (this announcement necessarily belongs to the time close on the millennial reign: and this is no more than we might expect from the declaration of the strong angel in ch. Rev 10:7). And the twenty-four elders (representing the church in glory) which before God sat upon their thrones (or, omitting the , sitting upon their thrones before God), fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thanks to Thee, O Lord God the Almighty (this ascription of thanks is the return for the answer to the prayers of the saints furnished by the judgments of the trumpets), who art and wast (for construction, see reff.), because Thou hast taken Thy great might and hast reigned (on the aor., see above). And the nations were angry (see ref. Ps.), and Thine anger came, and the time of the dead to be judged (another indication that the end is at hand when these words are spoken), and (the time) to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets (see reff. and especially Mat 10:41, to which reference seems to be made), and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great (the three terms together include the whole church), and to destroy the destroyers of (so is the pres. part. best rendered) the earth (all this looks onward to judgments and acts of God yet to come when the words are spoken. The thanksgiving is not that God hath done all this, but that the hour is come for it all to take place. Before it does, another important series of visions has to be unfolded).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rev 11:15. [114] , the seventh) The principal trumpet is that of the seventh angel. This closely approached the very times of the apostles: but it was about to have a long continuance. The near approach of the events, which were about to follow in it, were often viewed by the apostles separately, and held forth by them to the view of the faithful: but in consequence of the length of the interval, scoffers denied the end itself, in which the course of the events was about to issue; while the faithful did not fully comprehend the long continuance of the interval. Each class furnished the apostles with a reason for explaining the mystery more fully: 2Pe 3:2; 2 Thessalonians 2.
[114] , the third woe) This is predicted finally, ch. Rev 12:12 : then ch. 13 and 14 it actually follows.-V. g.
Whether Gabriel is the angel here meant, we propose in the German Exegesis as a subject of consideration for the reader. And the very name agrees; for is God, and a man, strong. Therefore that name exhibits the sum of the message to Mary, Luk 1:31; Luk 1:35; and here of the commencement of the trumpet in heaven: for, ch. Rev 12:5, there is born ; that is, , Isa 9:5. I give no definition; I make no conjecture; I only inquire. But that which follows I affirm: This trumpet is the most important of all, which both of itself has here a most joyful meaning, and renders joyful all the trumpets of the former angels, but only to the inhabitants of heaven. Wherefore they are not to be heard, who here prefer to interpret sorrowful trumpets, used by the Jews in excommunication, rather than festive trumpets. The injury arising from the abuse of Jewish antiquities, in the explanation of the New Testament, and especially of the Apocalypse, is greater than the advantage arising from the use of the same. Truth is learned from the very clearness of the text, containing its own (self-dependent completeness); the abuse introduces errors. We see other examples on ch. Rev 13:18 (Annot. ii. 2), and on ch. Rev 14:20, Rev 17:9, note 1. It would be better not to have recourse to the books of the Jews, if no better reward for the labour could be carried off from them.- , in heaven) This is strictly parallel with that passage of Dan 2:44, IN the days of those kings (not, after they shall be destroyed), the God OF HEAVEN shall set up a kingdom. He is called the God of heaven, as showing His majesty in heaven. Comp. altogether Rev 11:13, note. Afterwards the action descends to the earth. See shortly afterwards concerning the kingdom of the world.-) See App. Ed. ii. So ch. Rev 4:1. Many read, .[115] See also ch. Rev 5:12, and the remarks which we have made above on ch. Rev 9:13-14, and Wolfs remarks on Rev 14:7, Rev 19:1. Dionysius of Alexandria thus expressed his opinion respecting the writer of the Apocalypse, not 200 years afterwards: , , . But, says Lightfoot, he forms this judgment concerning dialect and phraseology, who was acquainted with neither, and he censures as a fault that which chiefly commends this book. For John (being taught of God), everywhere in his Apocalypse assumed the style of the Old Testament: while this man, who was ignorant of the Hebrew language, reckoned as a SOLECISM the whole of that, which was THE DIALECT OF GOD, and believed that that which he could not understand was barbarous.-Op. Posth. f. 145. But yet the readings of the Apocalypse (which present the appearance of a solecism), as Dionysius demonstrates, are ancient, are repeated, and have an analogy to one another: but those which follow the ordinary syntax have been introduced by copyists, many ages after Dionysius.- , the kingdom of the world is become) This reading of an early age is much more glorious than that of the hasty copyist, ,[116] … Blemishes of such a character, and of such importance, as I have noticed, ch. Rev 1:18, Rev 3:12, Rev 5:14, Rev 6:11, Rev 11:2; Rev 11:17, Rev 14:1, Rev 15:3, Rev 17:8; Rev 17:16, Rev 20:4, Rev 21:24, Rev 22:19, etc., remain in those editions, which are eagerly reprinted the revision which applies a remedy to them (I do not complain on my own account) lies neglected. See Pref. viii. Admon. 20. We return to the passage. The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom of the world. Thus Obadiah, Oba 1:21, and the Psalms repeatedly. Vitringa indeed correctly says, The fulfilment of this oracle is in vain sought in the time of Constantine: Anacr. Ap. p. 512; but at the same time he thinks that this prophecy will be fulfilled after the destruction of the beast. In both points D. Lange assents to him. Here a true analysis of the text is especially necessary: moreover we have presented such a one above, in the Introduction to the Apoc. Number 6. Many separate the natural sequence of ch. 11 and those which follow; but it vindicates itself. See Erkl. Offenb. p. 71 and following, 552, 564, etc. The third woe, which is set forth in ch. Rev 12:12, and is described particularly in ch. 13, is long ago in course, of accomplishment: and from things present it is distinguished, what things are past under the trumpet of the seventh angel, and what are still future.- [117]) See App. Crit. Ed. ii. is here used as a proper name (as Grotius and Le Buy admit), with which that which immediately follows, , best agrees: for the expression is, the Lords Christ, , not the Christ of OUR Lord. And thus in the Apocalypse the inhabitants of heaven say, God, Lord, our God, the Lord our God; but never, our Lord. Athanasius, in his Synopsis on this passage, and Rupertus, in his Comm. p. 308, were of the same opinion, if they did not retain the same reading.- , and of His Christ, or Anointed) This is the first appellation of Christ in this prophetic Treatise, after the Introduction of the book, namely, in the mention of the Kingdom under the trumpet of the seventh angel. For Christ is called a King antonomastically,[118] as Hiller observes, Syntagm. p. 356. Comp. Brents Homily xlii. on Acts, and Explan. of Catech. p. 114 and following, and p. 23. Elisha the prophet was anointed, 1Ki 19:16; priests were anointed, Exo 28:41; but with especial propriety, Kings. Whence the title of Anointed, put absolutely, denotes nothing but a king. The usual expression is, the Lords anointed, not the anointed king: but [in the case of the priest] the only expression used is, the priest that is anointed, by way of epithet: Lev 4:5. Nay, the Anointed is even expressly distinguished from the priest, 1Sa 2:35; Psa 132:16-17. In the whole Evangelic history, the name, Christ, is never set forth under the title of priest; it very frequently is under the name of king. And moreover, as often as the Messiah is mentioned in the Scripture, there is a reference to his Kingdom. The priestly office and the prophetical also are both contained in the kingly (which by a metaphor is the meaning of Shepherd also: ch. Rev 12:5). See Heb 2:17, note. Among the Gentiles also, one man has often borne the kingly office in addition to the priestly, sometimes under the title of priest, sometimes under that of king.
[115] AB Vulg. read . Rec. Text, , with C.-E.
[116] , ABCh Vulg. , Rec. Text, without good authority.-E.
[117] So AC Vulg.: but h, Dei. AC Vulg. and the best authorities read , in opposition to Bengel.-E.
[118] See Appendix on Antonomasia.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rev 11:15-16
SECTION SEVEN
SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET
Rev 11:15-18
1. THE FACTS STATED
Rev 11:15-16
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said,–We should not overlook the fact that these words describe what John saw and heard in heaven; they belong to the vision, but they announce some momentous event. Since there were only seven trumpets to sound, and this one was the last, it must indicate the ending of something. In Rev 10:7 we are told that when the seventh angel “is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God.” This can have no other meaning than that the seventh trumpet sounds the end of time. It is the last trump to sound when the dead shall be raised. (1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16.) The preceding verse says the third “Woe cometh quickly.” That means that when the events that were to come under the second woe had past, it would be only a short time till the end would come.
The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ:–The King James Version says “kingdoms”; but the Revised uses the singular “kingdom.” Commentators agree that the Revised is correct. Unless this verse is properly understood there will be little prospect of rightly understanding much that is to follow in this book. Three questions deserve careful consideration: (1) What is meant by the kingdom becoming God’s? (2) When will it become his? (3) Why is it referred to as the kingdom of both God and Christ? A kingdom in its fullness includes a king, territory, subjects, rule, and law. Sometimes, like other words, by a figure of speech (whole for part) it is used when only one feature is indicated. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, first definition, gives royal power, kingship, dominion, rule as its meaning. Act 1:6 is given as an example. The Jews had the law of Moses, they were in the territory, they were the subjects; they wanted Jesus to restore the reign or rule, yet they said restore the kingdom. Evidently that is the meaning of the word in the verse we are considering. The sovereign dominion, royal power, will finally come back to the Father. Luk 16:23 and Joh 19:42 are plain examples of using the whole for a part. “Lazarus” stands for the spirit of Lazarus and “Jesus” means the body of Jesus.
Regarding the second question we should note: God was king over Israel before they demanded a man for a king (1Sa 8:4-9.) This kingdom (rule) was taken from the Jews because they killed Christ. (Mat 21:38-43.) Christ established a kingdom which began after his return to the Father, and Christians were citizens of it. (Joh 18:36; Col 1:13 Rev 1:5-9.) The kingdom–royal dominion or rule–was to be taken away from the Jews and given to another nation –Christians. This reign since Pentecost has resided in Christ. After the judgment it will be returned to the Father. (1Co 15:24-26.) At the present time Christ has the legal right over all (1Pe 3:22), but in the final state he himself will be subject to God. (1Co 15:27-28.) During the present age Satan has usurped a wicked rule over the world, but this is not legally his and, therefore, has no bearing on the argument that Christ is now a reigning king.
Finally, it may be asked how it can be also called the kingdom “of his Christ,” if the dominion will then be turned back to God? We may as well ask how the kingdom now can he called the “kingdom of God,” if the dominion belongs to Christ? That it is called both now is evident from many passages. (Mat 6:33; Mat 21:43; Joh 3:3; Mat 20:21; John 18 36.) In like manner the final kingdom (heaven) is called the “kingdom of Christ and God.” (Eph 5:5) Rev 22:1 speaks of “the throne of God and of the Lamb.” It is perfectly clear that in the broad general sense whatever is God’s is also Christ’s, but that does not conflict with the fact that Christ is now reigning and will turn that reign back to God at the judgment. That seems the evident meaning of the text in hand.
But if by ally chance the passage should be applied to Christ’s rule before the final judgment, still there is nothing in the words to show that absolute righteousness will prevail. The reason for knowing that such a state will prevail in heaven is the fact that we are told that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” (1Co 15:20.) The things that lead to sin will not be there, and all dying in sin will not be there. (Rev 21:8.) Such is not the case while we are on earth. Hence, the only application possible, if the text refers to Christ’s reign on earth, is that it would mean a time when all could or would have a chance to serve him if they desired. This happens to be true now; but, for reasons already given, is not the application of the text. The distinction between all serving Christ and all having the privilege to do so will be fully developed when we discuss the millennium mentioned in chapter 20. Earthly kingdoms will not all be converted and become God’s kingdom a thousand years before the final judgment; for the all-sufficient reason that after the thousand years are finished there will still be “nations” engaged in the great final battle just preceding the final judgment. (Rev 20:7-11.) This is another reason why “kingdom” in Rev 11:15 refers to heaven instead of to a period of absolute and universal righteousness on earth preceding the judgment.
and he shall reign for ever and ever.–The expression “our Lord” refers to God, for the additional expression “his Christ” will admit of no other application. The pronoun “he”–singular number–must refer to God or Christ, not to both. For the reasons already given, and the fact that the reign is to be turned back to God at the judgment, it is evident that it refers to God.
saying,–Regarding the twenty-four elders see notes on Rev 4:4. These words picture what John saw in heaven; they are in the vision and only indicate that when the redemption of man has been accomplished the angelic creatures will ascribe all praise to God.
Commentary on Rev 11:15-16 by Foy E. Wallace
The seventh trumpet-Rev 11:15
1. The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven. The interlude was over. The seventh trumpet sounded the finish–the end of the tribulation period. It was the completion of the mystery of God which was according to the good tidings of the prophets, fulfilled in the fall of Judaism, the triumph of Christianity, the success of gospel, the victory of the church, and the expansion of the kingdom of Christ. The great voices in heaven were the combined voices of the vision united as one to proclaim the announcement of the seventh trumpet.
Before this it had been an angel or a voice but now it was all of the voices together in one great voice to announce the end of all events of the vision. The work, which had begun with the prophets (1Pe 1:10-12) and completed by the apostles, had triumphed over the powers of men, and the kingdoms of this world had become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The dominion of earthly rule in the kingdoms of men could no longer overpower Christianity– through their citizens they had become the kingdoms of our Lord (God), and of his Christ. This declaration depicted the conversion of the empires citizens–the worldwide expansion of Christianity. It was the fulfillment of the words of Christ in Mat 24:31 to send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, after the destruction of Jerusalem to gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other. With the fall of Jerusalem came the shaking down of all Jewish opposition to gospel.
Christianity was liberated from the fetters of Judaism and entered upon a worldwide career of leavening the civilizations of world by bringing them under the influence of Christ. Thus the kingdoms or dominions of men became the kingdoms of our Lord (God) and of his Christ. In Eph 5:5 the apostle designated it the kingdom of God and Christ, and declared in Col 1:13-14 that it was then present. But in the apocalypse, the trumpets, thunders and earthquakes were envisioned as shaking down opposition of all human dominion to give way to the kingdom which cannot be shaken. (Heb 12:18-28) From the apostles vantage point could be viewed the sites of Babylonia, Persia, Grecia and Rome, all of which were shaken, upon the ruins of which was to be firmly planted and forever established the kingdom that remains.
2. And he shall reign forever and ever.
The seventh trumpet sounded the full sway of kingdom of Christ over all opposing forces–Jewish and Roman. From henceforth his elect were to be gathered from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other (Mat 24:31) and the earth made full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14) It was the joining of prophecy and apocalypse in the delineation of the sway of the kingdom of Christ, fulfilled in the universal sweep of the gospel. And he shall reign forever and ever. In the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ God shall reign forever–his dominion over all earthly kingdoms was established in the events resulting in triumph of the cause of his Christ. This reign refers to the everlasting dominion of God, which no human authority, governments or powers can ever dethrone.
The song of triumph-Rev 11:16-19.
Rev 11:16 reverts to the worship of the twenty-four elders of chapter 4, in the beginning of vision. They were the enthroned representatives of the Old Testament and the New Testament–of Israel and the church. The visions began and end with them, in the symbols of the complete church of God, which was here seen rejoicing in victory.
Commentary on Rev 11:15-16 by E.M. Zerr
Rev 11:15. Kingdoms of the world are not asked to becomepart of the kingdom of Christ. That would be virtually another union of church and state. What happened was a change in the attitude of the earthly kingdoms. Before the Reformation the kings on those thrones could not reign as Christ would have wished them to and as they personally would have been inclined. They had to take their instructions from Rome and rule their subjects as that head dictated. After the delusion was lifted by the insight into the scriptures that was afforded them through the work of the reformers, they learned that they could permit their subjects to regulate their own religious life as they believed Christ wished them to. It is in that sense that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. Such a revolution was a woe to the “man of sin” in Rome for it meant the end of his arrogant rule. It is the third woe already predicted and now announced by the sounding of the seventh angel. He shall reign for ever and ever. Christ never ceased to be a king from the time He ascended to his Father’s right hand (1Pe 3:22), and will continue to be king until the time of His second coming (1Co 15:24-25). But He was not recognized as king by these earthly rulers while they were under the control of Rome.
Rev 11:16. These are the four and twenty elders of Rev 4:4. They rejoiced to see the triumph of Him who was and is the saving virtue of both of the organized systems of religion given into the world by the Lord.
Commentary on Rev 11:15-16 by Burton Coffman
Rev 11:15
And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever.
This does not signal the approaching end of the world; that event has already occurred. Only then, or after then, shall it be true that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. As we were told in Rev 10:7, “In the days of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished (not shall be finished) the mystery of God. When the seventh angel sounds, it is already finished. On the cross, Jesus bowed his head and said, “It is finished,” and this seventh trumpet is the echo of the glorious achievement there. What is finished? It is finished with evil, with Satan, with wicked men, with sin, and with death. “This announcement tells us that the battle of the ages is ended.”[84] “Evil has finally and forever been put down; and good is finally and forever triumphant.”[85] Caird was wrong in seeing here, “a jubilant fanfare proclaiming the enthronement of the King of Kings.”[86] That event occurred at the ascension of Christ (Mat 28:18-20).
And there followed great voices in heaven … These are the voices of the redeemed of all ages, and including all of the heavenly host. Lenski’s beautiful summary of this is:
Whose great voices are here referred to? They certainly are the voices of all the saints and all the angels in heaven after the day of judgment has brought the world and time to an end. This entire vision is wonderful in majesty and in beauty and is beyond all human and earthly conceptions. Our stammering comment must not dim any of the glory. The great chorus declares the fact in two beautiful poetical lines: The kingship of the world became our Lord’s and his Christ’s; And he shall reign for the eons of the eons.[87]
The kingdom of the world is become … Lenski translated the verb here “became” because it refers to an event already past in the vision. It happened in Rev 11:1-13.
Those are undoubtedly right who perceive that these three series (seals, trumpets and bowls) are not consecutive, are not twenty-one successive chapters of world history, or of church history, but that each group of seven takes us over the same ground and shows us three groups of parallel scenes.[88]
The kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ … The use of the singular “kingdom” should be noted. It is not the “kingdoms” but the “kingdom” of the world that now belongs to the Lord. The time here is evidently that foretold in 1Co 15:24, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father; but this took nothing from Christ, who is still on the throne with the Father. Thus, the great heavenly chorus is not here celebrating the beginning of the reign of Christ, but in a sense, the end of it! The glorious and eternal extension of it in the everlasting state fuses it into God’s eternal kingdom.
And he shall reign for ever and ever … The “He” here is the Father and the Son; they are one, and that unity appears here.
Such observations as these, however, must not obscure the truth that this eternal reign of Christ is now going on in that glorious kingdom of Christ which began on Pentecost. “The reign of God began with the Incarnation (and related events) … It is the reign of God through his anointed, the Messiah.”[89] McDowell also viewed the subsequent vision of the birth of Christ (Revelation 12) as a proof of this.
[84] Frank L. Cox, op. cit., p. 76.
[85] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 77.
[86] G. B. Caird, op. cit., p. 141.
[87] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 353.
[88] Ibid.
[89] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 122.
Rev 11:16
And the four and twenty elders who sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God,
These represent the church. They were those made “a kingdom” (Rev 1:6). They therefore fitly take up the burden of praise to him who has now established his universal and everlasting kingdom.[90]
Who sit before God on their thrones … These thrones suggest the truth that the redeemed have already been reigning with Christ throughout the whole dispensation.
ENDNOTE:
[90] A. Plummer. op. cit., p. 294.
Commentary on Rev 11:15-16 by Manly Luscombe
15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever! With the sounding of the seventh trumpet, we move into the time of judgment. Time has ended (Rev 10:6). The world has reached the end of things, as we know them. God is taking over. All worldly kingdoms will end. There is now the one kingdom, the kingdom of God. Only the church (the kingdom of God) will remain forever and ever. It is clear in Heb 1:3 that Christ is on the throne, reigning over the kingdom of God. When the end comes, the kingdom will be delivered to the Father.
16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,The 24 elders have seen and endured so much. Now, it is time to rejoice. They worshipped God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
angel (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
world kosmos = world-system. Joh 7:7
(See Scofield “Rev 13:8”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The Kingdom of our Lord
The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever.Rev 11:15.
The vision of the author of the Book of Revelation presents a sublime drama of the unfolding of the Divine idea in the world and its conflict with the secular spirit. It sets forth the play of spiritual forces and their victorious issue. What the Seer beheld was Christ triumphant in the whole sphere of human thought and feeling. By the kingdom of the world he did not mean merely the realms over which kings reigned. He meant the ruling ideas of the worldits dominant forces, social, intellectual, political. All these were, and are to be, brought under the dominion of Christian principles. All departments of life are to be consecrated and sanctified by the spirit of Jesus. The text suggests the vision of a world-empire, once dominated by an usurping power, which has now at length passed into the hands of its true Owner and Imperator.
It is the kingdomnot, as in the Authorized Version, the kingdomsof the world, which has become Christs possession. The contest is not for the kingdoms, the separate nationalities; the varying political systems might exist, as far as mere organization is concerned, under the rule of Christ; the contest is for the kingdom of the world. Satan was willing to surrender the kingdoms of the world to our Lord on condition of a homage which would have left him still in possession of the kingdom of the world. But now the close of the contest is the overthrow of the kingdom of evil, the establishment of the kingdom of good; that is, of God.1 [Note: W. B. Carpenter, The Revelation, 151.]
This is the future triumph-song of the Christian Church. We cannot rightly sing it yet; we can only join in its prelude. As sung by the inhabitants of heaven it is the fulfilment of a wondrous and long-continued prophecy; as heard by us it is the inspiration of all true Christian service. It is, even now, by anticipation, the song of the blessed over the earth, as it will be hereafter, by the complete realization, the song of the earth over itself. No false note quavers through its music. To the redeemed in glory it is the completion of a great joy; to the redeemed in heaven it is the embodiment of a living hope.1 [Note: W. Watson.]
I
The Kingdom
1. The text is the announcement of the time of the arrival of the restored Kingdom to which men had looked forward since the loss of Eden. Its burden is this: Gods purposes have now become finished. The work of the Redeemer has been successful. This world, devil-conquered, has now become Christ-restored. The sceptre has been wrested from the hands of that spiritual tyrant who has cursed it with so much sin and misery. And now the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; henceforth a reverse history of it is to beginholiness instead of sin, happiness instead of misery, life instead of death; and no further reversion is to be feared, for He shall reign for ever and ever.
The text is a vision, but it is not visionary. It is a vision only in the sense that it unfolds to us things yet future. The Christian prophet here dips into the future farther than human eye can see, and sees the vision of the world, and all the wonder that shall be. And it is the certainty of that shall be that redeems it from unreality. It is a vision of the worldof this world; and it is a vision of something that will certainly be seen in it. Gods truth is pledged to this; and it is as certain as anything that has been in the history of the past. Hence the historic form of the languagethe kingdom of this worldnot merely shall be, but isis become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. It is so put because there can be no contingency, no doubtfulness about it. It has been Gods plan to bring about this issue from the beginningfrom the first inception of His purposes of grace respecting the redemption of this world. And, as time has rolled on, all has been slowly tending to its final accomplishment. All prophecy has sung of it; and it is only part of a series that has ever been fulfilling.
The conception of the Kingdom of God on which Jesus based His gospel was determined for Him by contemporary Judaism; but in its essence it is fundamental to all religion. Amidst the imperfections of the present, men have ever looked forward to some glorious consummation, and have lived and worked in the faith of it. To the prophets of Israel it was the new age of righteousnessto the Greek thinkers, the world of pure intelligible formsto Augustine and Dante, the holy theocratic stateto the practical thought of our own time, the renovated social order. Each successive age will frame to itself its own vision of the great fulfilment; but all the different ideals can find their place in that message of the Kingdom which was proclaimed by Jesus. He expressed it, for He could not do otherwise, in the language of His own time; but the aspiration which He cherished will ever find its response in the hearts of men. Thy Kingdom comethy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Jesus foretold the coming of that Kingdom, and transformed the dream of it into a living hope. In His own Person He was the Messiah of the Kingdom. The title to which He laid claim was inherited by Him from a bygone world of Jewish thought; but He filled it with a new and lasting significance by identifying it with Himself. He has taught us to see in Him the Anointed Onethe chosen Leader of mankind, by whom God will bring in His Kingdom.1 [Note: E. F. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah, 256.]
2. The event concerning which the seventh angel of the Apocalypse sounded, and which occasioned great voices of jubilation in heaven, is not an event which is happening in the region of heaven; it is an event which is to happen on this earth. This wonderful transference is to take place in this very world in which we are now living. Nor is the word world in either reading that word which, in the original, is sometimes confined to the Roman Empire, or to the habitable world; it is that world which embraces the whole of this earth, or the whole of the visible cosmos. It is this that is said to pass at this time into a great Theocracy, or, more definitely still, into a Christocracy. That rule under which the world has heretofore been is to pass away and it is to become, what it was not before, the Kingdom of the Christ of God.
This earth, which was the scene of the usurpers conquest, the scene of the Redeemers conflict with him, the scene of the Redeemers travail, toil, agony, shame, and death, the scene of all His Churchs conflicts and sufferings, is yet to be the theatre of His triumphs. He is not to win in some ghostly region far away, and leave this world to the devil or to ashes. But here, in this tangible world, is He yet to triumph, and over the field of His sufferings is He yet to wield His sceptre. The prayer that has been going up from the Church for two millenniums shall yet receive its glorious answer: Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Christianity shall not, cannot, be worsted. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.
We pray day by day, Thy kingdom come. Have we ever stayed to think what will be when God at last grants that prayer? We often speak of the ways in which we may promote Gods Kingdom: by seeking His glory and obeying His will in our daily lives, or by aiding those machineries which are at work in the world for its improvement or evangelization. Have we ever thought what it will be when Gods Kingdom is come? What will be left then of this life, of this world, which is now so much to all of us, which is now all in all to many? In other words, How much of our present lives is entirely holy and heavenly? how much can survive the wreck of earth, and be transferred into a world in which God is all? At present we are familiarized by long use with many things which are not according to Gods will; and few men live out their threescore years and ten without finding their sensibilities somewhat blunted, and their estimate of the sinfulness of sin robbed of something of its severity. How shall we ever learn to echo that doxology of the elders, We thank thee, O Lord God Almighty, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and because thy kingdom is come? What a change, what a wonderful change, is implied in the announcement, Thy kingdom is come! If we are ever to learn that song, what manner of persons ought we to be now in all holy conversation and godliness! Yes, that is the lesson for us. Let Gods Kingdom come to us, to us personally; let it come now, that kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; that kingdom of God which is within; in the secret heart that loves God, in the devoted life which does God service!1 [Note: C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, 280.]
3. No doubt the battle is not yet over. And we are sometimes afraid of the issue. The reason is that our view of the battlefield is too narrow. Even in modern warfare the commanding brain sits far away from the conflict, surrounded with maps and messengers, to direct and order the shifting changes of conflict, where general victory is consistent with defeat in detail, and the general advance with a partial retirement. The seat of Gods government is in heaven. He has no vicar upon earth who can act as a substitute. His reign over all is consistent with partial defeats and partial retirements; a victory is won here, an apparent defeat is suffered there.
The progress of improvement, intellectual and moral, individual and national, is like the flowing tide. A wave advances beyond the rest, and it falls back again: you would suppose that the sea was retreating; but the next wave pushes farther still, and still the succeeding one goes beyond that; so that by a gradual, and for some time imperceptible, but sure and irresistible progress, the mighty element bears down every obstruction, and, in due time, occupies its destined station. Even before the inadvertent spectator is aware, the soil and slime, and all unsightly and rugged objects, disappear, and the whole space is occupied by the beautiful and majestic main. Such, no doubt, will be the uncontrollable progress of amelioration, under the Divine government, till that auspicious era shall arrive which is marked in resplendent characters in the decrees of heaven, and to which the golden index of prophecy continually points, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, and the reign of truth, freedom, virtue, and happiness shall be universal and everlasting
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase een now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.1 [Note: A. H. Clough.]
II
The King
1. The true Theocracy is reached when the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of the Lord. The advance of that Kingdom of God is by the increasing recognition of the truth, the truth of God and the truth of humanity as in Christ, sin and evil passing away as the mind of Christ possesses the spirit of man.
We identify Christ with the Church. But the Kingdom and the Church are not opposing, but complementary, terms in their New Testament meaning. We have to restore to the Church the empire assigned to it by Christ, the empire that knows no frontier. The Church must not be simply an agency of the Kingdom, but must be completely identified with it. And let the Church stand for the Kingdom, let the Church stand for what Christ stands for, let the Church be identified with Christs purpose and passion, want what He wants, yearn for what He yearns, the conquest of the world, of all the kingdoms of the world, let the Church consume with this passion, let the supremacies be supreme, and there will be an end of sectarian strife, denominational rivalries, and ecclesiastical competition, and the one Holy Catholic Church will stand for the complete realization of the Kingdom of God upon earth.
A good many are asking such revolutionary questions even now [Is the Church of any use; were it not well that it perished that Christianity might the better thrive?], and it is foolish for Churchmen simply to be shocked and to characterize them as profane. The Church is only a means to an end; it is good only so far as it is Christian. There is no merit or profit in mere ecclesiasticism. Whatever reveals the true Christ is of value and will live. Whatever hides Christ, be it pope, priest or presbyter, sacraments or ecclesiastical misrule, is pernicious, and must pass away; but we may hope that there will always be enough of Christs spirit in the society which bears His name to keep it from becoming utterly savourless and to bring about such reforms as may be necessary to make it serve the end for which it was instituted. Should this hope be disappointed, then the visible Church, as we know it, must and will pass away, leaving the spirit of Christ free room to make a new experiment, under happier auspices, at self-realization. To be enthusiastic about the Church in its present condition is impossible; to hope for its future is not impossible, but if it were, there is no cause for despair. Christ will ever remain the same yesterday, to-day and for ever, and the kingdom of God will remain a kingdom that cannot be moved.1 [Note: A. B. Bruce, The Kingdom of God.]
2. We profess to believe, as Christians, in the reality of the Divine Kingdom. Faith makes us members of it, and brings us into it. We share in its strength and freedom because we own Christ as Lord and Saviour. Our place is therefore the index to our duty. We cannot be subjects of so vast a realm without at the same time retaining the consciousness of our responsibility to Him who has placed us where we are, and to those who are not where we are. This world of sin can never be changed into a world of holiness except through the changed histories of those who call themselves by Christs name. The only limit, therefore, we can place on the range of the gospel of Christ is that which is offered by the final satisfaction of the human race. Christ declared Himself not the Saviour of a people or the Deliverer of any particular land, but the Son of Man, born for humanity, living and dying for them.
Christ as King must oust every usurper. The gospel comes into collisionit puts itself purposely in collisionwith all opposing forces, lays down the most stringent regulations for human life and human peace. It lays down the most inspiring hopes for the human heart, and its very incredibilities are the things that are winning the credence of human minds everywhere. It is the standing miracle of history, and there is nothing that more conclusively proves its Divineness than what we call its success, although the word success is not a word to be used in this connexion. No, we have not to think of success. Christ did not send forth successful men; He only sent forth witnesses. We have nothing whatever to do with the success of the gospel of Jesus Christ; we are merely to proclaim; we have merely to witness to the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have nothing to do with the establishment of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ; all we have to do with is the proclamation of it.
Max Mller, speaking as a scientific student of the worlds religions, said in 1876, in Westminster Abbey: Every Christian is, or ought to be, a missionary. Do we realize this? Do we believe it? Or is it not so, that we look upon the making Christ and His gospel known to all nations as something quite outside the ordinary course of the service of Goda thing that some men may take up because they are interested in it, but which is by no means obligatory upon all Christians just because they are Christians?1 [Note: R. H. MKim, The Gospel in the Christian Year, 327.]
We have so far only been playing at the work of winning the world for Christ. We have relied on a campaign of flying columns for the conquest of the world. The call which now rings in the ears of the Churches is a call summoning to a concerted world-wide campaign. The day of playing at this work is past. The day of self-sacrifice is come. What Christianity is summoned to prove is this: to establish its claim to wield the destinies of the world. Is it a living and a conquering energyor a decadent and a spent force? In Abyssinia a degenerate Christian Church is yielding day by day converts to Islam. Is that to be the fate of Christianity as a whole? As one surveys the ancient races entrenched in their hoary faiths, and the vast territories still unoccupied and untouched by Christianity; as one sees the forces of ignorance and superstition and lust massed, presenting a solid front against the progress of the gospel; and as one looks at the Christian Churches and sees how few they are who feel the call to go forth and conquer the world, and how few are willing to make any sacrifice for the glory of their Lordthen there comes the hesitating doubt: can this task ever be accomplished? And the question rings in the ear, uncertain of its answer, Can the world be won for Christ? But the question throws us back on God. With Him the answer lies. Can the Church find now, as the Church ever found of old in the day of trial, such new treasures of power and energy, and vitalizing force, such new revelations of the riches and the glory of God, that it will arise and go forth and conquer, not in its own strength, but in the irresistible might of God? Therein lies the hope of conquering the world for Jesus Christ. The summons that rings through Christendom is a summons calling the Christian host, if it would conquer, to fall back on God. To the world the task may seem impossible, and its performance a vain dream, but what are Christians in the world for but to achieve the impossible by the help of God!1 [Note: Norman Maclean, Can the World be Won for Christ? 16.]
3. No language can go beyond the terms in which the Lord sets forth His absolute power. All authority, He says, is given unto me in heaven and on earth. To feel the force of such a sentence, we must remember that He who spoke had been crucified not many days before amidst the mockery of His enemies and the despair of His followers. But now He lays open the eternal issues of that death. Not earth only but heaven is subject to His dominion. All created being has been brought under His swayangels, and men, and nature. In Him whatever before was most widely separated has found a final unity. The power is given Him. It represents the love of the Father no less than the victory of the Son. It is the pledge of the triumph of the Fathers will; and His will is the salvation of men.
If Christians only knew the meaning of the words: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing, then there would be in the Church a mighty, irresistible power which would sweep over every frontier, and possess every land in the name of Jesus Christ. They would realize that all the power of God was working through them, that all the forces of the universe were working for them, that the stars in their courses were fighting on their side, and that against the Church of God, glowing with His omnipotent Spirit, nothing could stand. It was in the power of the ever-present Lord, in the might of the Holy Spirit, that in the early days Christianity won its triumphs. There is no other way, and no other power, through which Christianity will win triumphs to-day. The conquering power will manifest itself when Christians again realize their personal obligation to Jesus Christ. A Christendom in which the followers of Christ are dead to the stirring of personal obligation, in which the mass of Christians view with indifferent eyes the enterprise of missions, in which only a small fraction of the Christian host take any thought of what the glory of Christ demandssuch a Christendom will never win the world for Christ. The work to which the Church is urgently called is to make the faith of Christ again live in the hearts and souls of men. Then will the power come which will win the world for Jesus Christ. Then will that spiritual power which once swept Westward, anon sweep Eastward, until every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.1 [Note: Norman Maclean, Can the World be Won for Christ? 144.]
III
The Kings Reign
1. It is well that the Church should realize, in a way she is far from doing now, that the ascended Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords; that He has established His Kingdom on the earth; that He claims dominion over the whole human race, which He has redeemed by His blood; that the increasing purpose which through the ages runs, the one far-off divine event towards which all things are moving, and to which the complicated influences of historical development are slowly leading the human race, is the establishment of the Kingdom of the King of Love and Truth in the hearts of men all over the world. Many a time Christianity has been tempted, and has yielded to the temptation, to lean on an arm of flesh, to grasp carnal weapons, instead of relying on spiritual weapons alone. The result has always been disastrous. Every such weapon has been found a boomerang. It is only by tenderness and love, by meekness and patience and sacrifice and martyrdom that its victories have been won, and these are its guarantee of the future. It is an inexhaustible source from which to obtain supplies. The indwelling spirit of its Master is the constant generative force to reproduce the conquering power; and it is bound to survive and triumph through its inherent power of an endless, an indissoluble, life.
If striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near you and around, you would fain look for a day when some Judge of all the Earth shall wholly do right, and the little hills rejoice on every side; if, parting with the companions that have given you all the best joy you had on Earth, you desire ever to meet their eyes again and clasp their hands,where eyes shall no more be dim, nor hands fail;if, preparing yourselves to lie down beneath the grass in silence and loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no more gladnessyou would care for the promise to you of a time when you should see Gods light again, and know the things you have longed to know, and walk in the peace of everlasting Lovethen, the Hope of these things to you is religion, the Substance of them in your life is Faith. And in the power of them, it is promised to us, that the kingdom of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.1 [Note: Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens, 60 (Works, xxxiii. 174).]
2. In Tennysons pathetic poem, In the Childrens Hospital, a sceptic murmurs: The good Lord Jesus has had His day, and the believing nurse makes the comment: Had? has it come? It has only dawnd. It will come by and by. Only dawnd? Why is Christianity, after all these centuries, only beginning to be manifested? It is at least partly because of the apathy, the divisions, the evil lives of us who profess and call ourselves Christians; because we have wrangled about the secondary and the comparatively unimportant and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; because we have so left to those beyond the Church the duty of proclaiming and enforcing principles which our Lord and His Apostles put in the forefront of their teaching. We have narrowed the Kingdom of Christ, we have claimed too little for Him, we have forgotten that He has to do with the secular as well as with the spiritual, that He must be King of the nation as well as Head of the Church. But now, in the growing prominence of social questions, which so many fear as an evidence of the waning of religion, have we not an incentive to show that the social must be pervaded by the religious, that our duties to one another are no small part of the Kingdom of Christ? For all sorts and conditions of men, for masters and servants, for rulers and ruled, for employers and employed, is there not ever accumulating proof that only as they bear themselves towards each other in the spirit of the New Testament can there be true harmony and mutual respect; that only, in short, as the kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, will men in reality bear one anothers burdens; that only as the Everlasting Gospel of the Everlasting Love prevails will all strife and contention, whether personal or political or ecclesiastical or national, come to an end; that only as men enter into the fellowship of that Son of Man who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many, will the glorious vision of old be fulfilled: I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
A few months ago the country was held in the icy grip of winter. The reign of frost was supreme; vegetation, river, lake, and even parts of the sea were slaves of this tyrant. The suns rays seemed as helpless as a childs breath to soften the tyrants heart or loosen his hand. A child, had he heard some prophet speak of the summer, the glory of whose reign is just commencing, might have doubted, so strong was the cold and so completely conquered was nature, that the prophets vision would ever be realized. Leave out experience, and none would have believed. When this text was written, so impossible did the prediction seem, it appeared absurd. The reign of the kingdom of darkness seemed complete. The world was one great catacomb where religion, morality, education, liberty and love lay buried. To say that the kingdoms of evil would change and become the kingdom of Christ was to talk of the impossible. To all human calculation, as well might some dreamy Esquimau prophesy that the helpless suns rays will at last change the Arctic regions to the warmth and luxury of the Tropics. It was the helpless kingdom of the dying Christ and Paul pitted against earthly kingdoms, whose power and permanence were typified by the eternal Roman Empire. But the icy heart of winter has softened, and its hand has loosened, and summer has come with its faithful retinue of warm sun and showers, of bud and blossom and of leaf and birda time of life and beauty and song. So has a change come to the world of man. Through all the centuries, Christ has been coming with His retinue of high thoughts, of true emotions, of pure purposes and unselfish deeds, of great trust and imperishable hope, and has laid the foundations of His kingdom of love and righteousness and liberty. The kingdom of this world is becoming the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.1 [Note: C. A. Vincent.]
Every one is familiar with the custom which prevails of the whole audience rising and standing when the Hallelujah Chorus of Handels Messiah is sung. It originated in the spontaneous act of King George II. under the spell of the music when first he heard it. The kings tribute was no mere compliment to the composer; it was a solemn acknowledgment of Him of whom it sang. It was the reproduction in another way of what Handel himself felt when he composed its strains. How did he explain the writing of his masterpiece? I did think I did see all heaven before me and the great God Himself. That is his own account of it. It was an inspiration. It was the majesty of the theme that evoked the music. It voices the climax of heavenly song, in the Book of the Revelation, the victory of the Lamb over the last great effort of His foes. When it broke on Johns ear, he heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying, Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. What has called out this shout of triumph? The powers of evil had joined issue with the forces of God, and Babylon is fallen, and the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. That was Johns vision of what was coming. That was what made heaven ring with Hallelujahs. That is the Christian conviction; that is Faiths Certainty, the Christians assured hope as to the Future.2 [Note: R. J. Drummond, Faiths Certainties, 401.]
3. Christ is still among us, speaking to those who listen through the manifold discoveries of the age, guiding even our fierce and selfish conflicts so as to minister to His purpose. And we ourselves consciously or unconsciously are serving Him. He uses us if we do not bring ourselves to Him a willing sacrifice. We cannot doubt this; and we cannot fail to see what a different world it would be, if, still remaining faithful to our personal convictions, abandoning nothing of the truth which has been made known to us, yielding no fragment of the position which has been committed to our keeping, we could all agree in holding as a living fact the reality of Christs universal Presence; in looking to Him in the execution of our designs, as using them for some larger end; in making Him the witness of our actions, as tributary to a counsel beyond our thoughts. Nothing less than this is the scope of His words: I am with you all the days, unto the end of the world. Iperfect God and perfect Man, able to help and to sympathize to the uttermostI am with you. The promise has never been revoked. It has been forgotten; it has been practically denied; but it stands written still to reveal the heaven which lies about us, the powers which are ready for our hands.
We let living facts stiffen into doctrinal abstractions, until Truth itself begins to wear a cold and fictitious aspect; it is not in fact true for us until we have made it our own through needing it, and loving it. It is not through a merely intellectual recognition that the human spirit can give its Amen to the Yea of God. We see how firm a hold the Church of the Early and Middle Ages kept upon this great truth, the actual presence of Christ with His people; how this belief revealed and as it were transfigured itself in legends which superstition itself cannot rob of their undying significance. When St. Francis stoops down to kiss the lepers wound, and sees that his place has been taken by the Saviour; when St. Martin hears these words in his vision, Behold, Martin, who hath clothed me with his cloak, we see that the Church to these men is not the mere tomb of Christ, but His warm and living body sending a pulsation through every member.1 [Note: Dora Greenwell, The Patience of Hope (ed. 1894), 66.]
The religious temper of his mind shows itself in the meditations he recorded from time to time while at Tbingen, which abound in expressions of longing for closer communion with Christ. On the last evening of the year 1838 he thus unbosomed himself:
I am quite full of the blessed nearness of the Saviour which I have felt in these last days of Christmas week, and especially as I have listened to preaching. I have learned again that the most precious of all experiences is the experience of His presence. There are happy hours spent in the friendships of the world where we say one to the other I am thine, thou art mine. But those who feel the secret presence of Christ know that these pass into the shadow before the experiences we have in His communion, when we rise, as on the wings of eagles, through prayer and faith to Him the highest of all beings, the beginning and the end and the moving centre of all things. Here, one has answer to his questionings; here, peace which passeth knowledge. Our faith and hope, how can they fail to be sources of blessing, since they look towards Christ, who is not a hard master, but the Redeemer, the Wonderful, the Prince of Peace!2 [Note: D. S. Schaff, The Life of Philip Schaff, 24.]
Jesus, Fountain of my days,
Well-spring of my hearts delight,
Brightness of my morning rays,
Solace of my hours of night!
When I see Thee, I arise
To the hope of cloudless skies.
Oh, how weary were the years
Ere Thy form to me was known!
Oh, how gloomy were the fears
When I seemed to be alone!
I despaired the storm to brave
Till Thy footprints touched the wave.
But Thy presence on the deep
Calmed the pulses of the sea,
And the waters sank to sleep
In the rest of seeing Thee,
And my once rebellious will
Heard the mandate, Peace, be still!
Now Thy will and mine are one,
Heart in heart, and hand in hand;
All the clouds have touched the sun,
All the ships have reached the land;
For Thy love has said to me,
No more night! and no more sea!1 [Note: G. Matheson, Sacred Songs, 115.]
The Kingdom of our Lord
Literature
Arnold (T.), Sermons, iv. 310.
Davies (J. Ll.), Social Questions, 147.
Drummond (R. J.), Faiths Certainties, 381.
Fox (W. J.), Collected Works, i. 290.
Halsey (J.), The Spirit of Truth, 20.
MKim (R. H.), The Gospel in the Christian Year, 320.
Macleod (D.), Christ and Society, 107.
Marjoribanks (T.), The Fulness of the Godhead, 84.
Ridgeway (C. J.), The King and His Kingdom, 29.
Westcott (B. F.), The Revelation of the Risen Lord, 154.
Christian World Pulpit, xxviii. 371 (R. Glover); xxxiii. 264 (J. Halsey); lvi. 389 (W. Watson); lxx. 56 (P. MAdam Muir); lxxvi. 182 (T. E. Ruth).
Church Times, Dec. 13, 1912 (W. C. E. Newbolt).
Commonwealth, xix. (1914) 62 (N. E. E. Swann).
Treasury (New York), xviii. 502 (C. A. Vincent).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
the seventh: Rev 8:2-6, Rev 8:12, Rev 9:1, Rev 9:13, Rev 10:7
and there: Rev 12:10, Rev 16:17, Rev 19:6, Isa 27:13, Isa 44:23, Luk 15:6, Luk 15:10
The kingdoms: Rev 12:10, Rev 15:4, Rev 17:14, Rev 20:4, Psa 22:27, Psa 22:28, Psa 72:11, Psa 86:9, Psa 89:15-17, Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3, Isa 49:6, Isa 49:7, Isa 49:22, Isa 49:23, Isa 55:5, Isa 60:3-14, Jer 16:19, Dan 2:44, Dan 2:45, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:18, Dan 7:22, Dan 7:27, Hos 2:23, Amo 9:11, Amo 9:12, Mic 4:1, Mic 4:2, Zep 3:9, Zep 3:10, Zec 2:11, Zec 8:20-23, Zec 14:9, Mal 1:11
and he: Exo 15:18, Psa 110:4, Psa 146:10, Isa 9:7, Eze 37:25, Dan 2:44, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:18, Dan 7:27, Mic 4:7, Mat 6:13, Luk 1:33, Heb 1:8
Reciprocal: Gen 22:17 – thy seed Gen 49:8 – thy hand Gen 49:10 – the gathering Num 24:7 – his kingdom Num 24:17 – Sheth 2Sa 5:17 – But when 2Sa 7:16 – General 2Sa 22:44 – head 2Sa 22:51 – seed 1Ki 1:40 – rejoiced 1Ki 8:43 – General 1Ch 14:8 – all the Philistines 1Ch 16:30 – before him 1Ch 17:12 – I will 1Ch 29:11 – thine is the 2Ch 6:33 – that all people Psa 18:43 – a people Psa 47:5 – sound Psa 47:7 – King Psa 65:2 – unto thee Psa 67:4 – govern Psa 68:33 – his voice Psa 71:21 – increase Psa 72:5 – as long Psa 72:8 – He shall Psa 82:8 – thou Psa 89:25 – I will Psa 93:1 – Lord Psa 96:10 – the Lord Psa 102:13 – the set Psa 102:15 – General Psa 113:3 – General Psa 126:2 – Then was Psa 132:18 – but upon Psa 138:4 – All the kings Psa 145:11 – the glory Psa 145:13 – kingdom Pro 29:2 – the righteous Son 2:11 – General Isa 12:5 – this is known Isa 24:23 – when Isa 25:3 – General Isa 26:15 – thou art Isa 27:6 – General Isa 29:23 – sanctify Isa 37:16 – thou art Isa 40:2 – warfare Isa 49:12 – these shall Isa 52:7 – Thy God Isa 52:10 – made Isa 54:5 – The God Isa 59:19 – shall they Isa 60:15 – thou Isa 62:7 – till he make Isa 65:18 – General Isa 66:18 – that I Jer 10:7 – O King Eze 17:23 – under Eze 37:22 – and one Eze 47:5 – waters to swim in Dan 2:34 – a stone Dan 2:35 – and filled Dan 4:3 – his kingdom Dan 4:34 – whose Dan 6:26 – and his kingdom Dan 8:14 – then Dan 12:7 – that it Oba 1:21 – and the Mic 5:4 – shall he be great Hab 2:14 – the earth Zep 2:11 – and men Hag 2:22 – overthrow Zec 9:10 – his dominion Zec 14:6 – not Zec 14:7 – at Zec 14:16 – that every Mal 4:3 – tread down Mat 2:6 – a Governor Mat 4:8 – and showeth Mat 6:10 – Thy kingdom Mat 13:32 – the least Mat 16:18 – shall not Mat 28:18 – All Mar 4:31 – is less than Luk 11:2 – Thy kingdom Luk 13:19 – and it Joh 3:30 – must increase Act 4:26 – against his Rom 11:12 – their Rom 11:25 – until Gal 3:8 – In Phi 2:9 – God Col 1:18 – in all Heb 2:5 – the world Heb 12:27 – signifieth Rev 1:5 – and the prince Rev 6:2 – and he went Rev 7:9 – no man Rev 11:17 – thou hast Rev 11:19 – and there were Rev 14:2 – a voice Rev 14:11 – for Rev 14:13 – a voice Rev 19:1 – I heard Rev 19:4 – the four Rev 20:5 – This Rev 22:5 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GODS JUST CLAIM
The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:15 (R.V.)
This is a just claim which God makes. He asks no more than His rights when He demands that His sovereignty should be universal. It is a just claim for many reasons.
I. Because the world is Gods worldAll souls are Mine. In Him we live and move and have our being. It is not strange then that He should ask the allegiance of all.
II. Because the glory of God is the end of all created things, and specially of man.For Thy glory they are, and were created.
III. Because Gods honour is involved in the claim.God, the King of kings, is pictured by the prophet as pleading with His chosen people in their forgetfulness of Him: If I be a King, where is Mine honour?
IV. Because God loves this world of men, not some only, but each and all of them.
Bishop C. J. Ridgeway.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Rev 11:15. Kingdoms of the world are not asked to become part of the kingdom of Christ. That would be virtually another union of church and state. What happened was a change in the attitude of the earthly kingdoms. Before the Reformation the kings on those thrones could not reign as Christ would have wished them to and as they personally would have been inclined. They had to take their instructions from Rome and rule their subjects as that head dictated. After the delusion was lifted by the insight into the scriptures that was afforded them through the work of the reformers, they learned that they could permit their subjects to regulate their own religious life as they believed Christ wished them to. It is in that sense that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. Such a revolution was a woe to the “man of sin” in Rome for it meant the end of his arrogant rule. It is the third woe already predicted and now announced by the sounding of the seventh angel. He shall reign for ever and ever. Christ never ceased to be a king from the time He ascended to his Father’s right hand (1Pe 3:22), and will continue to be king until the time of His second coming (1Co 15:24-25). But He was not recognized as king by these earthly rulers while they were under the control of Rome.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 15.
The seventh trumpet–Rev 11:15.
1. The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven. The interlude was over. The seventh trumpet sounded the finish–the end of the tribulation period. It was the completion of the “mystery of God” which was “according to the good tidings” of the prophets, fulfilled in the fall of Judaism, the triumph of Christianity, the success of gospel, the victory of the church, and the expansion of the kingdom of Christ. The “great voices in heaven” were the combined voices of the vision united as one to proclaim the announcement of the seventh trumpet.
Before this it had been an angel or a voice but now it was all of the voices together in one great voice to announce the end of all events of the vision. The work, which had begun with the prophets (1 Peter 1:1-25:10-12 ) and completed by the apostles, had triumphed over the powers of men, and the kingdoms of this world had become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The dominion of earthly rule in the kingdoms of men could no longer overpower Christianity– through their citizens they had become the kingdoms of our Lord (God), and of his Christ. This declaration depicted the conversion of the empire’s citizens–the worldwide expansion of Christianity. It was the fulfillment of the words of Christ in Mat 24:31 to send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, after the destruction of Jerusalem to gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other. With the fall of Jerusalem came the shaking down of all Jewish opposition to gospel.
Christianity was liberated from the fetters of Judaism and entered upon a worldwide career of leavening the civilizations of world by bringing them under the influence of Christ. Thus the kingdoms or dominions of men became the kingdoms of our Lord (God) and of his Christ. In Eph 5:5 the apostle designated it the kingdom of God and Christ, and declared in Col 1:13-14 that it was then present. But in the apocalypse, the trumpets, thunders and earthquakes were envisioned as shaking down opposition of all human dominion to give way to the “kingdom which cannot be shaken.” (Heb 12:18-28) From the apostle’s vantage point could be viewed the sites of Babylonia, Persia, Grecia and Rome, all of which were shaken, upon the ruins of which was to be firmly planted and forever established the kingdom that remains.
2. “And he shall reign forever and ever.”
The seventh trumpet sounded the full sway of kingdom of Christ over all opposing forces–Jewish and Roman. From henceforth his elect were to be gathered “from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other” (Mat 24:31) and the earth made full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14) It was the joining of prophecy and apocalypse in the delineation of the sway of the kingdom of Christ, fulfilled in the universal sweep of the gospel. And he shall reign forever and ever. In the “kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” God shall reign forever–his dominion over all earthly kingdoms was established in the events resulting in triumph of the cause of his Christ. This reign refers to the everlasting dominion of God, which no human authority, governments or powers can ever dethrone.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 11:15. It is difficult to say to whom the great voices spoken of in this verse belong. They can hardly come from angels, or from the four living creatures, or indeed from any created thing. They seem rather a poetic method of giving expression to the fact that those counsels of the Almighty which had been long since taken, but which had been hitherto concealed from every eye but that of faith, were about to go into open execution.The words uttered by the voices are, The kingdom of the world is become the possession of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. The word kingdom used here is to be understood in the sense of dominion over, and not in that of all the kingdoms of the world united into one. This dominion is celebrated as given to the Father in the Son and to the Son in the Father; and it shall be theirs for ever and ever, all its enemies being completely overthrown.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As noted in verse 12, this will take place at the end of time. The vision has reached the end once to reassure Christians being persecuted. We will view the same span of time from a different perspective in the coming chapters. No matter how hopeless things may seem in that narration, we can rest easy because we have seen the end. The voices here may well be those of the redeemed who have now been taken up into heaven. (Verses 11-12)
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Rev 11:15-18. And the seventh angel sounded, &c. With the sounding of this angel, the third wo commences, which is rather implied than expressed, as it will be described more fully hereafter. The third wo brought on the inhabitants of the earth, is the ruin and downfall of the antichristian kingdom: and then, and not till then, according to the heavenly chorus, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever St. John is rapt and hurried away as it were to a view of the happy millennium, without considering the steps preceding and conducting to it. At the same time, the four and twenty elders Or the ministers of the church, (Rev 11:16-18,)
are represented as praising and glorifying God, for manifesting his power and kingdom more than he had done before. They give likewise an intimation of some succeeding events, as the anger of the nations, Gog and Magog, (Rev 20:8,) and the wrath of God, displayed in their destruction, (Rev 20:9,) and the rewarding of all the good, small and great, as well as the punishing of the wicked. Here we have only a summary account of the circumstances and occurrences of the seventh trumpet, but the particulars will be dilated and enlarged upon hereafter. And thus are we arrived at the consummation of all things, through a series of prophecies, extending from the apostles days to the end of the world. It is this series which has been our clew to conduct us in our interpretation of these prophecies: and though some of them may be dark and obscure, considered in themselves, yet they receive light and illustration from others preceding and following. All together, they are, as it were, a chain of prophecies, whereof one link depends on and supports another. If any parts remain yet obscure and unsatisfactory, they may perhaps be cleared up by what the apostle himself hath added by way of explanation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11:15 {27} And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, {28} The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
(27) Of whose sounding the trumpet Christ expressly foretold in Rev 10:7 and this is the second part of this chapter, containing a general history of the Christian Church, from the time of Boniface to the consummation of the victory declared by voice from heaven. In this history there are three branches: a preparation by the sound of the angels trumpet: a narration by the voice of heavenly angels and elders and a confirmation by sign.
(28) The narration has two parts: an acclamation of the heavenly creatures in this verse, and both an adoration by all the elders in Rev 11:16 and also a thanksgiving in Rev 11:17-18 . The sense of the acclamation is, “Now the Lord has entered his kingdom and has restored his church in which most mightily recovered from the profanation of the Gentiles, he may glorify himself.” Namely that, which the Lord ordained when he first ordained his Church, that the faith of the saints does now behold as accomplished.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
G. The seventh trumpet judgment 11:15-19
John’s revelation continued to unfold future events as God revealed these to him in his vision. The scene John saw next was in heaven. The seventh trumpet judgment did not begin immediately (cf. Rev 8:1-5), but John received information preparatory to it (Rev 11:15 to Rev 15:8).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
When the seventh angel sounded, loud voices in heaven announced that the long-expected reign of Jesus Christ over the world would begin soon (Rev 20:1-10; cf. Psa 2:2; Isa 9:6-7; Eze 21:26-27; Dan 2:35; Dan 2:44; Dan 4:3; Dan 6:26; Dan 7:14; Dan 7:26-27; Zec 14:9). "Has become" (Gr. egeneto) is proleptic. [Note: Düsterdieck, pp. 328-29; Robertson, 6:384.] This will happen after the seventh trumpet has run its course. [Note: Charles, 1:294; Kiddle, p. 207.] The loud voices probably belong to the whole host of heaven. "Lord" refers to God the Father.
"Jesus will return and assume the throne of His father David in this future crisis, at which time He will replace the satanically energized sovereignty of world rulers that has prevailed for so long. The whole theme of Revelation is the purging of evil from the world so that it can become the domain of the King of kings (cf. Rev 19:16). Only a physical kingdom on earth will satisfy this." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 106.]
"He" includes both the Father and His Christ. The earthly reign of Christ will continue in the new heaven and earth when Jesus will turn over control to the Father and "God will be all in all" (Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:5; cf. Dan 2:44; Dan 7:14; Dan 7:27; 1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:27-28).