Revelation 19:1 - 10

1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”

6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

9 Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The first several verses show in the vision the happiness felt by the heavenly beings of the victory over “Babylon,” (Roman-Catholic church-state) caused by God's word being released to the people of the empire.

Alleluia means “praise ye the Lord,” and it is said in view of the great works of the Lord, Christ is given credit for salvation because He as the Savior is the only who has the power to save and because of that we need to give all honor to Him and confess that He is the one that possesses all power.

The great voice from heaven is still acknowledging that God's judgements are correct, they were spoken in general, but now are making them specific, they refer to the overthrow of the church-state which was the result of the work of the Reformation.

The promise (Revelation 6:11) made to the persecuted saints whose souls were spilled under the altar by their sacrifice of their lives is referred to by Him avenging His servants.

“Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” figuratively means the downfall of the church-state union is broken forever, it also means the leaders and supporters will be destined to go into the Lake of Fire where the fire is eternal in nature.

The four living creatures rejoiced because the Christ's blood redeemed them from sin, the elders also rejoiced because they represented the organized systems of salvation which produced the four living creatures.

The voice in the first four verses appears to come from the faithful who respect the Lord, in verse five the voice comes from the throne to acknowledge the praise just offered to God, and encourages all servants to praise God.

There were so many people of the empire who had suffered under the oppression of Rome though-out the Dark Angels that the voice of praise was loud and the symbolic form of waters is used to represent the human voices in action.

Omnipotent means “almighty, God can do anything that is right. This victory over the beast of Rome was so great that it God's power to their mind and caused them to praise God that He reigneth.

“Marriage of the Lamb has come. Many times in the scripture the word marriage is used when they mean the individuals are engaged., Paul says in (Romans 7:4) we are married to Christ, but the situation is like an engagement. (Genesis 19:14) Lot's daughters were engaged to the men, (Matthew 1:18 – 19)in the first verse, Mary is espoused to Joseph, next verse Joseph is husband, Christians are engaged to Christ until the judgment day, Paul (2 Corinthians 11:2) “espoused to one husband, present as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

In verse 7 the church is prepared for the marriage to Christ, on the judgment day.

Verse 8 figuratively describes the clothing to be worn by the bride, meaning she is righteous and has prepared to be a proper bride for the Savior.

There are no human guests but the bride at the wedding, so in reality if humans desire to be part of the wedding then they have to become part of the church (bride) by becoming Christians.

The reformation had gone by, this part of this chapter has taken us to the Judgment day , Christ's marriage to his bride (the church.)

John is so in awe he begins to worship the angel, the angel stops him because the angel is equal to man, not on a higher level to be worshipped. This should remind us of Hebrews 1:14, Angels are sent to be helpers to Christians, Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

(Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.) Through all of the prophetic writings of the Bible, the main theme is that Jesus is the Savior of mankind.