28-Chapter 4. The Judgment Upon Antichrist

Chapter 4. The Judgment Upon Antichrist The brilliant summit of human history is at the same time its turning point of collapse (Daniel 2:34-35). The Lord Himself executes the judgment.

[1] The Great Tribulation The terrors of the judgment convulse the whole earth (Revelation 3:10), especially the land of Judea (Matthew 24:16; Luke 21:21). The “great tribulation” (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29; Revelation 7:14)—the “trouble of Jacob” (Jeremiah 30:7)—breaks in upon mankind (Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-19; Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21). Mighty are the catastrophes: the breaking of the seven Seals and the blowing of the seven Trumpets (Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-19); the rolling of the seven Thunders (Revelation 10:4), and the outpouring of the seven Bowls of wrath (Revelation 16:1-21); the apocalyptic Riders and the coming World War (Revelation 6:9; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21; Revelation 20:1-15; Revelation 21:1-27); the destruction of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2), and the destruction of Great Babylon (Revelation 17:16); the military Expedition of the Orient and the “Tumult in the valley of Decision” (Revelation 16:12-16; Joel 3:14). Of course many details are not disclosed, such as the figurativeness or literality of many prophecies of the End times; whether the seventy year-weeks of Daniel 9:24-27, are fulfilled or not yet fulfilled; the relationship of the Lord’s Olivet discourse (Matthew 24:1-51) to the other New Testament prophecies of the End times; the interweaving of prophecies relating to the near and the distant futures into one uniform total picture with features sharply interpenetrating; the God-opposing Seven-hilled city of Babylon and its destruction by the even more God-opposing Antichrist (Revelation 17:16); the area of rule of the Beast and the secret of his number 666 (Revelation 13:18); the Jewish State in Palestine and the devastating invasion of the nations (Revelation 11:7; Zechariah 14:1-21); the decisive battle of Har-Magedon (Revelation 16:16), and the judgment of the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:12)— these are all prophetic hieroglyphs which no man has so far deciphered with unassailable certainty. But at last comes the final blow: the appearing of the Lord in glory and the destruction of the antichristian hosts at Har-Magedon (Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 16:16).

Through all this, in an unexpected manner, will be fulfilled the word of Napoleon, the great world-conqueror: “World history will not be decided in the Occident (the west) but in the Orient (the east).” “Har-Magedon” means “mountain (Heb. har) of Megiddo,” the chief town of the plain of Jezreel, at the foot of Carmel, the most important battlefield in Jewish history.

[2] The Appearing of the Lord The heavens are opened. The sign of the Son of man appears (Matthew 24:30). The Lord comes as a rider on a white horse, accompanied by the armies of heaven. Out of His mouth goes forth a sharp two-edged sword, and He Himself treads the winepress of the wrath of God the Almighty (Revelation 19:11-16). With a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15; Psalms 2:9); with blood dipped garments (Revelation 19:13); as one who treads the winepress (Isaiah 63:1-6; Revelation 19:15); as one who threshes the harvest floor (Micah 4:12-13; Matthew 3:12); as one who reaps with the sickle of Divine judgment (Joel 3:13; Revelation 14:17-18)— thus will the despised Jesus of Nazareth again appear!

Then will all the families of the earth wail (Matthew 24:30). Then has come the Day of the Lord (Joel 1:15; Joel 3:14; Amos 5:20), “the day of His fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:13), the “great and terrible” day (Malachi 4:5), “a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness”(Joel 2:2; Zechariah 14:6).

Then will they creep into the clefts and ravines (Revelation 6:15). Then will they hide in the caverns of the rocks and the holes of the earth (Isaiah 2:19). Then will they call to the mountains, Fall on us! and to the hills, Cover us! (Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16; Revelation 9:6). But there will be no escape. For the Lord comes as a flash of lightning (Matthew 24:27), His chariots as a tempest (Isaiah 66:15), His eyes as flames of fire (Revelation 19:12), His voice as the voice of a lion (Joel 3:16; Isaiah 30:30), and the slain of the Lord will be many (Isaiah 66:15-16; Psalms 110:6). In flaming fire (2 Thessalonians 1:8; Isaiah 66:15-16), as a fiery oven (Malachi 4:1; Matthew 13:41-42), as an inescapable snare (Luke 21:35), so will the sudden destruction “seize all” (1 Thessalonians 5:3), as the flood in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:38-39), as the fiery judgment overtook Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:28-32). On the mount of Olives, whence He formerly ascended (Acts 1:9; Acts 1:12), will the Lord again first appear (Zechariah 14:4). Every eye will see Him (Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:30); every contradiction will be silenced (Matthew 22:12; Job 9:3); every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the honour of God the Father (Php 2:11).

[3] The Destruction of the Satanic Trinity

Upon the shattering of the military power of Antichristianism there follows immediately the breaking up of its threefold demonic high command (comp. Revelation 16:13). The Lord will slay the Lawless One with the breath of His mouth and destroy him through the outshining of His arrival (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Isaiah 11:4; Psalms 110:6). He, the Beast, and the False Prophet will be seized and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20); The dragon, the old Serpent, will be bound and be flung into the Abyss for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3). Thereby the Satanic trinity is broken asunder. The first Person is rendered harmless for a thousand years; the second and third Persons are judged finally and for ever.

Thus the Lamb triumphs over the Dragon, the Son of man over the Beast, the Bride over the Harlot, the Divine Trinity over the Satanic trinity of lies. But now there arises over Har-Magedon’s field of devastation the health-bringing Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2). After the smashing up of the antichristian union of the peoples there comes on the scene the fellowship of the peoples of the Millennium. After the collapse of all man’s faulty efforts it shall be now shown what GOD can do. And now the way is free for the kingdom of God. The binding of the Devil is an event in the spirit realm pre-requisite for the earthly kingdom of glory. It must now still be decided which of the survivors can be permitted to enter this kingdom. This is effected through [4] The Judgment of the Nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat The Son of man will sit on the throne of His glory and judge all nations of the earth. They will all be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-32). The latter will go into eternal destruction, the former into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34; Matthew 25:46). This is the great judgment of peoples at the beginning of the Millennium (Matthew 25:31-46; Daniel 7:9-14; Revelation 20:4). It is important to distinguish it from the final judgment before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11-15).

1. The Place. It does not take place after the destruction of the old earth (Revelation 20:11), But upon the soil of the old earth, namely, in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:12; Matthew 25:31).

2. The Time. It will not be held after the end of the earthly kingdom of glory but at its beginning (Revelation 20:11, comp. 7-10; Matthew 25:31).

3. The Persons. It is not the “dead” who are judged, that is, those raised in the second resurrection (Revelation 20:12-13), but those then living and surviving from the catastrophic judgments without death and resurrection (Matthew 25:32).

4. The Decision. The question is not destruction or simply the eternal, heavenly kingdom (comp. 2 Timothy 4:18); but destruction or first of all the earthly kingdom of glory (Matthew 25:34; Matthew 25:46). This judgment at the beginning of the Millennial kingdom is (as it would appear, and according to the law of prophetic perspective) certainly viewed with the final judgment as one picture; so that prior judgment and final judgment, partial judgment and complete judgment coalesce in one single, mighty, mutually interpenetrating complete picture. In a similar manner the first and second comings of Christ were viewed by the Old Testament prophets as one picture (e.g. Isaiah 61:1-3, comp. Luke 4:18-19); and in the prophecies of Jesus Himself the two resurrections before and after the Millennial kingdom, which by Paul and John are separated as to time (1 Corinthians 15:23-24; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:12), were combined in a single sublime prophecy which does not further stress these gradations of time (John 5:28-29; comp. Daniel 12:2-3).

[5] The Establishment of the Kingdom of Glory

All this together is the “outshining of His presence,” the epiphany of His parousia (2 Thessalonians 2:8). It is the triumph of the Crucified One (Matthew 26:64), the revelation of His glory (1 Peter 4:13), and the appearing of His kingdom (Luke 19:11). His angels will accompany Him (Matthew 23:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7), His redeemed will be with Him (2 Thessalonians 3:13; Jude 1:14), and He Himself will be admired in all His saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10). All the world will serve Him (Isaiah 60:1-3); He will reign without opposition (Revelation 12:10), for He is the “King of all kings and the Lord of all lords” (Revelation 19:16; Revelation 1:5). But the kingdom which He brings is the kingdom of God. It is not an earthly but a heavenly creation (Luke 19:12; Daniel 7:13-14); it does not come through “progress” but by smashing to pieces [Daniel 2:34; Daniel 2:44-45]; it is not the result of human striving but is a gift of God.

1. Viewed from without it is the insignificant stone which shatters Nebuchadnezzar’s imposing colossus (comp. Matthew 21:44), but afterwards it increases to a great mountain and fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35; Daniel 2:44-45).

2. Viewed from within it is the kingdom of the Son of man which prepares an end for the bloodthirsty Beasts of Daniel’s world empire and, for the first time, exalts to the throne of international history true humanity in the sense of Holy Scripture, that is, humanity in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27; Daniel 7:13, comp. 2:7; Matthew 26:64).

3. Viewed from above it is the kingdom of heaven, which comes down from heaven, and therefore brings into this earthly world heavenly nature and heavenly happiness (comp. Daniel 4:23).

4. But in everything it is the kingdom of God, which was: i. planned from the very beginning (Matthew 25:34); ii. striven for the ages through (Matthew 6:10); iii. founded by Christ (John 18:36-37); iv. preached by His followers (Acts 20:25; Acts 28:31); v. expected by mankind (Romans 8:19), and now vi. set up on the old earth (Revelation 11:15; Revelation 19:6), so as, after the final catastrophe of the hitherto existing world (Revelation 20:7-15), vii. to run on into the new eternal creation (Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21). With all this it is to be observed that in numerous places Biblical prophecy views together in one picture the visible kingdom of God on the old earth (that is, the Millennium) and the ages of the eternal kingdom of glory on the new earth and in the new heaven (that is, the eternal condition). All on-sided stereotyping of the picture is therefore to be avoided, even as is any over-emphasis upon the Millennium. The visible kingdom of glory on the old earth is not the proper and chief goal of prophetic expectation. It is the last stage toward the perfecting, like the immediate vestibule in a royal palace. And as in a palace the vestibule is built into and belongs to the palace itself, but is not of equal status with the throne room of the king, even so the Millennium belongs to the kingdom of glory, indeed is itself that kingdom of glory in the true sense of the term, yet the chief brightness of that glory and the full unreserved triumph lie beyond the thousand years in the kingdom of Christ and God (Revelation 22:1; Ephesians 5:5), after the final catastrophe of the old earth, after world renewing and world transfiguration (Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21). See our explanations on pp. 25, 152f., 156f., and above all in The Dawn of World Redemption, Part III, ch. 8.

Section II—The Visible Kingdom of Christ