Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #20 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are going to be looking at Revelation 9:7:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

As we have been going through this chapter, verse by verse, we have consistently maintained that the locusts are pictures of the true believers and that is so, not only because of the information we are finding here, because of the way God paints the picture of Judgment Day throughout the entire Bible. 

Judgment Day on the world is not the same as judgment day on the churches.  There are very close similarities, because God speaks of the “cup of wrath” being given first to the churches and then given to the world.  But there is a difference as far as who is carrying out the judgment. 

When God brought judgment on the churches and congregations, what was one of His main vehicles for bringing that judgment to pass?  It was the loosing of Satan.  We read in Revelation 20:7 that after the “thousand years,” he was loosed and that agrees with the end of the church age in 1988; then we read in Revelation 11 that the “beast” ascended out of the bottomless pit and immediately the “two witnesses” were slain because God had abandoned the churches; the “two witnesses” were a figure of speech to represent the testimony of the Word of God within the congregations.  It ended and it was as though the Word of God, the Bible, died within the churches, because it lost the power to save the hearers, due to the fact that the Holy Spirit has to give that power, but God’s Spirit had abandoned the congregations.

So God used Satan and his emissaries to bring that judgment.  God used the false gospels and false prophets and their signs and wonders and the tongues movement and all false doctrines to set the corporate church above the Word of God, to where the churches became the “pillar and ground of the truth” in the minds of those within the churches.  In actuality, it has always been the Word of God, God Himself, that is the “pillar and ground of the truth,” but many churches set themselves over the Word of God, and so forth.  This all worked together to worsen the situation and to bring greater destruction and desolation to the churches under the wrath of God.

Now, once we got to the day of transition, May 21, 2011, the end of the Great Tribulation and the beginning of the final judgment on the world on all the inhabitants of the earth, we do not find language in the Bible that speaks of using Satan as an instrument or vehicle in the same way that God used him to bring destruction on the churches.  We also do not find that God uses false prophets in that way either.

Actually, what we do find, at the very beginning of Judgment Day, is that is says in Revelation 19:19-21:

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

So the Lord Jesus (who is seen in Revelation 19) is riding the white horse and the armies in heaven also follow Him upon white horses.  They won the battle.  They were victorious in the Day of Judgment.  The “beast” is a name that applies to Satan, which God gave him exclusively to apply to his rule during the Great Tribulation period, and the false prophet also applies to Satan and to the churches that took upon themselves the “image of the beast.”  Satan and the false prophet were cast into the lake of fire on Judgment Day, which began on May 21, 2011, and it is the time in which Satan was deposed; God is judging him and his kingdom of Babylon; that would include the churches, as well as all the unsaved people of the earth. 

God is not bringing judgment using Satan or using the false prophets or using the unsaved people of the earth.  They are not instruments of His judgment as they were when judgment was upon the churches during the Great Tribulation.  Rather, they are the objects of His judgment and they are targets of the wrath of God and that is the big transition (the switch) from judging the churches.  First, the churches were the target and the object of the wrath of God and now the judgment is upon those that were joyfully rejoicing in bringing that judgment upon the congregations; that is, the kingdom of Satan or the unsaved people of the world, which would now include those in the churches. 

So we find Christ on a white horse and the armies of the elect on white horses with Him.  We find this is the language of the Bible – Christ comes with “ten thousands of his saints;” and it does not say in the Bible that Christ comes in judgment with “ten thousands of false prophets.” 

We read that the unsaved are being tormented, as it says in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Remember, the locusts are bringing torment and, here, the one that is under the wrath of God “shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”  Again, the “holy angels” should read “holy messengers” because it is Christ and His saints or Christ and His elect.  Again, let me point this out: it does not say that they are tormented in the presence of the apostate or of the false prophets or of those bringing other kinds of gospels, but they are tormented in the presence of the “holy messengers” and the presence of the Lamb, or the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the overwhelming and consistent teaching of the Bible concerning Judgment Day.

We find in Zechariah 14:5:

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Again, it is God and His people.  Remember what was said in 1 Corinthians 6:2:

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?...

Just a quick reminder: these “saints” are true believers.  Everyone who becomes saved is made holy by the atoning work of Christ; their sins are washed away, making them saints in God’s sight.

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

God used Satan and hoards of false prophets to bring about utter destruction of the congregations when judgment began at the house of God.  That is not methodology for judging the world.  The saints bring the judgment.  It is a reversal of fortunes.  It was Satan and his army – Gog and Magog – that came against those that once were the people of God, those that were the outward representatives of God’s kingdom to the people of the world.  Satan came with the unsaved in masses to bring that destruction upon them and God’s people were like sheep that were being scattered and driven out of the congregations; and, of course, God finally called His people out and He took care of them upon the mountains of Israel, as He fed His sheep personally through the same manner He always had: by moving in others “to will and to do of His good pleasure” in revealing truth to them and they, in turn, took these truths to the great multitude.  It is just as Christ fed the multitudes that sat down in companies of fifties.  He would break the bread and then give it to His disciples to disperse to those companies.  Likewise, Christ continues to feed His people upon the mountains of Israel, outside of the churches and congregations.

The enemy armies of Satan that had been victorious and had no problem running over the churches and congregations, because God was the one that raised them up to come in the destructive manner they did; yet, when Judgment Day came, God turned His attention to those that had dared lift their hand against God’s annointed, even though God’s annointed had become apostate and had fallen away; they were still (in their profession of Christianity and their association with the Bible) God’s annointed, just as Saul, who was a wicked king, had originally been annointed to be king of Israel and David dared not raise his hand against him.  But at the end of Saul’s life some did rise up against Saul and kill him, and they came to David, thinking that David would be pleased that they had slain Saul.  David was not pleased at all; how dare they lift their hand against the annointed of the Lord; and those individuals were put to death. 

Likewise, so it is with Satan and all those that came against the churches; God Himself is putting them to death.  The Lord Jesus and His saints are doing the judging and God is working out that judgment through the completion of the salvation of all His elect.  In that sense, He is using the elect as an instrument and a means of judging the unsaved – everyone that was not found in the Book of Life and was not predestinated to salvation and did not have that atonement accomplished on their behalf from the foundation of the world.  All of these now are the objects of God’s fury and wrath and He and His saints are bringing the judgment.  The false prophets are the objects of judgment and they are no longer the vehicle of judgment.

This overwhelming teaching of the Bible is what directs and leads us, as we read in Revelation 9 of Judgment Day, that the day the sun is darkened; it is the day the bottomless pit is opened.  It helps to guide us in understanding the locusts, because God uses extremely difficult language concerning the locusts.  It would be easy for someone to read this kind of language and determine that they are “false prophets.”  They would also, as a result, determine that the king over them was Satan, when they read in Revelation 9:11:

And they had a king over them,< em>which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abbadon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

“Oh,” they say, “it is Satan.  The locusts are the false prophets.  The angel of the bottomless pit who name is ‘Abbadon’ and that means destruction and in the Greek it is ‘Apollyon’ and that means to destroy, so this is obviously Satan.”

And, to make matters worse, if anyone is familiar at all with the book “Pilgrim’s Progress,” by John Bunyan, which was a fictional account done hundreds of years ago (which became very popular and has spread all over the world and gotten “into the minds” of people) that “Abbadon” and “Apollyon” are names of Satan.  So this thinking is hard for people to change – once we get something in our minds and once we have an understanding that a particular passage is saying one thing, and then it is very hard to accept another idea.  And it is a completely different meaning than that fictional work of Bunyan – “Abbadon” and “Apollyon” are not Satan and the locusts are not false prophets.  Rather, “Abbadon” and “Apollyon” are names for the Lord Jesus Christ.  (We will not get into that now because it would be skipping too far ahead.)  But it is Christ that is the Messenger of the bottomless pit.  As we read all the comings and goings from that pit, it has Christ is in view.  He has the key that opens and He is the one that shuts up or looses and He is the one that was in the depths of the pit, it could be said, as He suffered for the sins of His people and arose from the pit.  He is the Messenger of that pit.  He is the Messenger of God.

Likewise, the locusts of Revelation 9, as it describes Judgment Day, cannot be “false prophets,” but they are representative of the true believers.   However, it must be admitted that there is language here that seems to indicate that the locusts are false prophets.  For instance, when we read back in Revelation 9:3:

And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

We saw in Luke 10 how “scorpions and serpents” identify with the enemies of God.  We will find, as we continue on in this verse, that it speaks of the locusts having teeth as the teeth of lions and breastplates as breastplates of iron, and it is similar language that would normally lead us in the direction that who is being described are false prophets.

But we have to keep in mind, as we have learned from the reference to “scorpions,” that God’s people are coming with the true Gospel and, therefore, they are not false prophets.  But that true teaching of the Word of God declares that there is no salvation and in this, there is an “agreement” with teaching every false gospel (not actual agreement) in the sense that every false gospel in the world has no ability to save.  There never has been and there never will be. 

But now the true Gospel of the Bible is like a “scorpion” because the true teaching of the Word of God which they are now declaring has the characteristic that there is no more salvation because it is the Day of Judgment.

We will continue in our next study to look at this.  By the way, I almost forgot, I would just like to make a correction.  In our last study I said that “golden crowns” always point to true believers and that there was no place in the Bible where the unsaved wore “golden crowns.”  Well, a listener pointed out to me a verse in 2 Samuel 12:30; and in that verse the King of Ammon had the crown taken from him and given to David and it was said the weight of it was a talent of gold, so that would indicate he had a “golden crown;” and the King of Ammon was not saved at all.  So I was incorrect in making the statement that nowhere in the Bible does it say that anyone but true believers wear “golden crowns.”  There is another reference to the same incident in the Book of Chronicles about the King of Ammon that had a crown of gold.

But it does not change the truth that the true believers are said to have “golden crowns,” as we read in Revelation 4:4, or that the locusts are representative of true believers.  But I do want to make that correction, if you were following along in the last study and made any kind of note to that effect.  We will close our study now and next time we will continue in Revelation 9, verses 7 and 8.