Rev. 19:1-20:10 is a graphic description of the mighty triumph won by God over all his enemies. Up to this point John has been dealing with the here and now: God is Sovereign and is not mocked; the wicked and evil forces can do no more than God allows; believers will suffer for their faith; there will be many martyrs; but in the end evil will be completely overthrown. But from this point on, John's focus is firmly on the end-time.

In Rev. 19:1-10 the overthrow of godless society that we looked at yesterday is greeted by heaven shouting: "Praise the Lord! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. His judgments are true and just … Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear … Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb."

After hearing this John is given a vision of Jesus, though not as he would have remembered him as his disciple! "Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire and on his head were many crowns … He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. On his robe … was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords" (Rev. 19:11-16).

Jesus rides out to certain victory as commander of the armies of heaven to face the combined forces of evil: "the beast and the kings of the world and their armies [all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshipped his statue]". (Interestingly they are led by the beast, not by Satan himself. Does this indicate cowardice? Was he trying to delay the inevitable?) Both the beast and his false miracle-working prophet "were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur" (Rev. 19:17-21). The entire army was killed by Christ's Sharp sword.

Then an angel from heaven seized Satan and bound him in chains for 1,000 years so he could not deceive the nations during that time, after which he would be released "for a little while." Satan would at that point gather a mighty army which would be consumed by fire from heaven and he himself would be thrown into the lake of fire.

Within this section (Rev. 20:1-10) there is reference to believers reigning with Christ for 1,000 years (known as the millennium) and a series of other events extremely difficult to understand and interpret. In my own opinion, much, if not all, is symbolic and not to be taken literally. There has been great controversy and disagreement as to how these ten verses should be interpreted. We know they relate to the very end times and are therefore less relevant to us here and now. Yet they form the heart of belief systems relating to the second coming that have caused bitterness and divisions and little that has been positive and helpful. An overview would be: God wins and those who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit will be in heaven no matter what the devil might throw at them!