Revelation 19:19–20

Remember that the beast is the head of the revived Roman empire, as Revelation 13 and Revelation 17 have shown. The kings of the earth will include the rulers of the ten kingdoms, banded together under the beast's leadership — and other sovereigns too, if there are any. So we can see at once what a huge host the beast and his vassal kings will bring together, a host that looks unbeatable.

The Beast is named first, as the centre and soul of the movement. The word Beast covers all the material strength and resources of the mighty revived empire. Then we are told of "the kings of the earth" — the very kings who wailed over the destruction of Babylon. The political and social authorities of Christendom join the Beast in this senseless war.

Someone may suppose that human hands bring this almost worldwide gathering of powers together. But no Caesar or Napoleon could produce such a vast combination, and for such a purpose as we have here. Satan is behind the movement. Revelation 16:13-14, 16 lifts the veil and exposes its true character. Three unclean spirits, satanic in source and character and given miraculous power, "go out to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle (war) of that great day of God Almighty." It also names the gathering place: Armageddon.

Human thoughts, prompted by Satan, ruled the aims of this vast army. But God, working behind the scenes, had His own thoughts. So Scripture describes the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies as gathered together to make war against the King of kings and Lord of lords, and against His "called, and chosen, and faithful" followers. What daring audacity! And what a display of the corrupt depths of man's heart — matched only by what was seen in the crucifixion of Christ!

It would be more correct to translate it "war" in every place, while a different Greek word means the actual clash of "battle."

Can history show anything like this? The nations of Europe, and of a wider area too, educated and christianised, are so deluded by Satan that they dare to take the field against "The King of kings and Lord of lords!" What madness! What folly! Who owns the earth is the real question of that day, and the coming battle settles it for ever. They aim their hatred at the Rider on the white horse, the Lamb and King. The first title speaks of sacrifice, the second of rule. Whether as the Lamb slain or as the King to reign, Christendom hates Him.

These armies that are seen following Him out of heaven, clothed in fine linen, are not angels. This very chapter says that the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And here is the remarkable thing. When Revelation 15 describes angels as "clothed in pure and white linen," it uses a different word. It is the heavenly saints who are thus spoken of in Revelation 19 as the armies of heaven.

Scripture does not say that these armies with the Lord of glory carry any weapons. But their white clothing reminds the world of the witness they gave to the truth of God, so the world has no excuse when judgment falls. Only their great Leader has a weapon, a figurative sharp sword going out of His mouth.

There is no campaign here. There is no long, doubtful struggle, with victory leaning first to one side and then to the other. Isaiah says this, when he describes how the Lord's coming destroys another enemy: "Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire."

The False Prophet is the Antichrist, the embodiment of religious apostasy. His partner, the Beast, is the leading Gentile ruler, and Satan gave him almost unlimited political power. Scripture uses the title "the False Prophet" of the Antichrist three times, describing his seductive teaching in Judea and across the professing Christian world. That he was with the Beast indicates the two were acting together. The Beast supplied the strength, the False Prophet the counsel.

At the end this second beast appears not as a beast but as a false prophet. All his worldly power will be gone. He will no longer be a beast that seizes and devours; that side of him will be wiped out. People will see him as the false prophet, and they will recognise him as the second beast already spoken of, because his character matches it perfectly.

The Beast is cast alive into the lake of fire — a man, of course, yet called "the Beast", the usual name for the empire... The False Prophet deceived those who received the mark of the Beast and those who worship his image, and he did it by the miraculous signs he worked. His great aim was to win world-wide worship for the Beast. The Beast held more worldly power than he did, but less cunning and less malicious satanic influence.

Notice that there is no conflict with almighty power. Christ "takes" these two godless instruments of Satan and judges them at once, casting them alive into hell. Two men in the Old Testament, as people often note, passed alive into heaven. These two arch-enemies of God and His Christ are cast alive into the lake of fire.

No trial is necessary. Where they stand and what they have done are enough to justify judging them on the spot, in righteousness. They are cast at once, alive, into the place prepared for the devil and his angels.

The Beast and the false prophet are the personal enemies of Christ. So on the day of battle the Lord meets them in person, and casts both alive into the lake. They never die the death common to man, so there is no resurrection for them. Death does not separate soul from body; they go into the lake alive. All who are in the graves shall come out... But the lake of fire never opens its gates except to receive the judged.

The Lord judges their followers too, but not with so terrible a doom. They wait to be judged another day — they must stand and appear before God... But as for the two, God required, in a sense, nothing more. They were the worst leaders of the world's lawlessness, so judgment takes its course at once and for ever. I know of no judgment in Scripture so terrible: these men are thrown into hell untried, and before Satan himself!

They do not walk there, and no one drives them on to their fearful doom. They are thrown into it alive, the way you throw away something worthless. A thousand years afterwards Satan joins them in the same awful place... The lake, not of water, but of fire, is the eternal place of punishment for the devil and for lost men and fallen angels. It is a place, and not a condition. And is it not significant that the phrase... should be mentioned here for the first time?

If the lake of fire means extinction, how do two men stay in it a thousand years without being destroyed? And why are we then told that they face still more torment, for eternity?... For if a man could live there a thousand years, why not many thousand more?