On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 19: The Harvests of God

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 19: The Harvests of God

In our last two presentations in this commentary, Of Beasts and Tyrants and The Papal Beast, we hope to have demonstrated the correlations with Revelation chapter 13 and Daniel chapters 2 and 7, and especially chapter 7, and how the entire prophecy in Revelation chapter 13 encompasses and summarizes the 2,520 years, or seven times, of the punishment of the children of Israel for their sins, in their captivity. The first half of that period is found in relation to the first beast of the chapter, in the forty and two months of verse 5. Forty-two months is a period of roughly 1,260 days, which is three-and-a-half prophetic times, or 1,260 years. The latter half of that period is not dated in the Revelation, but in relation to the little horn of Daniel chapter 7, which we have identified as the emperor Justinian and his establishment of the office of the papacy, we see in verse 25 that “the saints of the most High … shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” In that we see the second period of three-and-a-half prophetic times, or 1,260 additional years, which is very close to the period during which the popes of Rome had exercised temporal authority over the Byzantine empire, and within a short time, over all of the kings of Europe.

The number of the beast is the number of a man, and we find that number in the value of the Roman numerals represented in the title Vicarius Filii Dei, a blasphemous boast which has always been claimed as an office by those same popes. However we must also comprehend that while the pope is not the antichrist, many popes have indeed been antichrists, and as we are informed here in the Revelation, it is the Dragon, or Satan, which has historically given his power to the beast empires. So the Dragon was the ultimate source of political power behind all of the emperors and popes of history. As John had recorded in verses 2 and 4 of Revelation chapter 13, speaking of the first beast, “… the dragon had given to it his power and his throne and great authority…” and “… they worshipped the dragon, because he had given authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast…” Then in verses 11 and 12, speaking of the second beast: “… it had two horns like a lamb and spoke as a dragon. And all the authority of the first beast it practices in his presence.” But while these two beasts of Revelation chapter 13 had power for only a limited duration of time, later in the Revelation, in chapters 16 and 20, it is revealed that the Dragon himself is still an instrumental factor in the ongoing trials of the woman.

To find the identity of the Dragon, as we had discussed in our commentary on Revelation chapter 12, we must find the identity of those whom had persecuted Christ and His apostles. These are the collective Satan, and in his first epistle John identifies them collectively as the antichrist. From 1 John chapter 2: “18 Little children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that the Antichrist comes, even now many Antichrists have been born, from which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They came out from us but they were not from of us. For if they were from of us, they would have abided with us, but so that they would be made manifest that they are all not from of us.” From other Scriptures, such as Romans chapter 9, and from the words of Christ Himself in John chapters 8 and 10, as well as from the histories of Flavius Josephus and Strabo of Cappadocia, we determined that the Dragon and the antichrist must be represented by the Edomite Jews, from whom have descended the so-called Jews of today. They are also related to the same nations which had persecuted the children of Adam and Israel in the Old Testament, the Kenites, Nephilim and Canaanites of Scripture, so the enmity of Genesis chapter 3 is perpetuated in them.

But examining ancient history, we see that branches of those same devils are also found in the other races and nations of the world which had also descended from those ancient Kenites, Nephilim, Rephaim, Canaanites, or any other name that they have used throughout history. Today and from medieval times, both Jews and Muslims, who have mostly been Arabs, Turks and Mongols, have persecuted Christians, and especially those Christians who have endeavored to keep the Word of God and the commandments of Christ, and therefore having played the historic role assigned to the Dragon over the past two thousand years, it is absolutely manifest that collectively, they are the Dragon they are Satan. In our modern society, Jews are still persecuting White Christians today, and are endeavoring to criminalize all who seek to keep the Word of God. At the same time, muslims are seeking to dominate all the nations of Europe through mass immigration, and billionaire Jewish businessmen and the politicians whom they buy, or who are themselves Jews, are entirely responsible for that policy. Just as the Jews of Constantinople had opened the gates of the city to the muslim hordes, so Jews today have opened the gates of all Christendom to the same floods. There should be no doubt that these are the Dragon, as we read in Revelation chapter 12: “17 And the dragon was angered by the woman and went to make war with those remaining of her offspring who keep the commandments of Yahweh and have the testimony of Yahshua.” As Christ had said on several occasions, but concisely in Matthew chapter 7: “20 Indeed from their fruits you shall know them.”

Now White Christians, for the most part, no longer live under kings and popes as tyrants, although they continue to be oppressed by the Dragon even if they are not cognizant of that oppression. This era which we may call the Age of Liberty is actually the “time of Jacob’s trouble”, and we shall discuss that here and in the chapters to come. Even after the beast empires of the world had passed the beasts still survive, as Daniel wrote in chapter 7 of his prophecy, speaking of the fourth beast of his vision: “11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. 12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.” Therefore even from that passage we should be able to discern that the passing of the beast empires would not mark the end of their existence completely, and there are remnants of Rome and Greece and the papacy today. Then while there are still some kings in Europe, they are merely figureheads for parliamentary self-rule. However self-rule is also an illusion, since in actual practice the people certainly are not ruling themselves.

So as we proceed with Revelation chapter 14, we will have an interlude, just as we had in chapter 7, and another reference to a hundred and forty-four thousand select individuals. The language of this chapter clearly connects them to the hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of Israel which had been sealed in the tribulation, and therefore it may be evident that in Revelation chapter 7, these hundred and forty-four thousand were to live on the earth, but now in Revelation chapter 14, it seems that they are no longer on earth.

However John does not indicate that this is a separate vision. Rather, it too seems to be a continuation of the same visions which he began to see at the beginning of chapter 4. The vision in this chapter describes what is to come, but in very general terms. It describes the harvests of God, beginning with the first fruits, and then the parched fruits or tares, and finally, there is the harvest of the ripe grapes, or wheat. Hopefully we shall see how this chapter relates to the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew chapter 13. But in that sense, the chapter serves as a preview and summary of the events which shall later be described in the chapters which shall follow this one. By this preview, we may understand the general purpose of what is to come.

XIV 1 And I looked, and behold! The Lamb stood upon Mount Sion [C has only “upon a mountain”], and with Him a hundred forty-four thousand having His Name and the Name of His Father written upon their foreheads.

The King James Version wants the words “His Name and” towards the end of the verse, so it reads only “… and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.” There is no apparent explanation for this, as the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, either 27th or 28th editions, have no mention of the missing words in any Greek manuscripts. The words are found in printed editions of the Majority Text. The phrase may have simply been wanting in the manuscripts of Erasmus or Stephanus, who both correlated Greek editions of the New Testament based on a limited number of manuscripts which were not so ancient.

These must be the same hundred forty-four thousand who were described in Revelation chapter 7 as “the servants of our God” and who for that reason had been sealed with “the seal of Yahweh who lives.” They have not been mentioned again until now, and here they are described as already being present with Christ. They bear the Name of Yahweh and the Name of the Lamb upon their foreheads, like the high priest of the temple of Yahweh had once done. For that we read in the description of the garments of the high priest from Exodus chapter 28: “36 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 37 And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. 38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.”

So the ancient Levitical high priests had worn a mitre or κίδαρις, which was a headband or a sort of turban bearing a golden plate mounted on their forehead, upon which was inscribed the Name of Yahweh. That this practice was always continued, we may also read in Josephus’ Antiquities of the Judaeans, in Book 11, describing the first approach to Jerusalem made by Alexander the king of Macedon: “331 for Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first greeted the high priest.” Josephus had explained elsewhere that on account of the rulers in Judaea he himself was forbidden from repeating the name.

Here John describes a more complete vision of the hundred and forty-four thousand:

2 And I heard a sound from out of heaven like a sound of [P47 has “a sound as from”] many waters and like a sound of great thunder, and the sound which I heard like [P47 has “and a sound I heard like a sound of”; the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “and a sound I heard of”] lyre-players playing on their lyres. 3 And they sang [A, C and the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “like” here; the text follows P47, א and the traditional Majority Text manuscripts] a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders [C wants “and the elders”], and no one was able to learn the song except the hundred forty-four thousand, those having been purchased from the earth.

The hundred and forty-four thousand of Revelation chapter 7 had ostensibly been sealed from the judgments which were to come upon the Roman empire and the subsequent trials which men would suffer on account of its sins, perhaps all the way through the visions of Revelation chapter 7. But after the sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand there is no more mention of them until this point. Rather, the balance of chapter 7 describes an innumerable multitude apart from the hundred and forty-four thousand, who had suffered in that great tribulation, and in that manner had “washed their robes and have whitened them in the blood of the Lamb”, as we read in verse 14 of the chapter. Now we learn even more about them:

4 These are [A wants “these are”] they who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He should go [A and C have “wherever He goes”]. These have been purchased from among men [C wants “from among men], a first-fruit for Yahweh and for the Lamb, 5 and in their mouths [literally mouth] a lie is not found: [P47, א and the traditional Majority Text manuscripts insert “for”; the text follows A and C] they are blameless.

In verse 4, the 3rd century papyrus P47 and the Codex Sinaiticus (א) have a phrase, ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, rather than the very similar word ἀπαρχή. The phrase ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς literally means from the beginning, where the text would be read to say in part: “These have been purchased from the beginning by Yahweh and by the Lamb”. The word ἀπαρχή, according to Liddell & Scott, was primarily used even in the ancient pagan literature to refer to a “1. beginning of a sacrifice, primal offering … 2. firstlings for sacrifice or offering, first-fruits… ” The want of a definite article with ἀπαρχή, and the fact that here the noun is singular, nearly persuades me that ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς is indeed the correct reading, yet the overall Biblical context, as well as the context of this chapter, are more favorable to ἀπαρχή, or firstfruits. This is evident in this very chapter from verse 14 where there are visions of two later harvests. Yet if we chose to read ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, or “These have been purchased from the beginning by Yahweh and by the Lamb”, that would further corroborate our interpretation here, that these are the same hundred and forty-four thousand who were sealed at the beginning of these tribulations which have been described up to this point. However I do not think that any further proof of that assertion is even necessary.

It is clearly manifest that these hundred and forty-four thousand were indeed those men who had been sealed by Yahweh, kept by Him from the troubles and pollutions of this world and from the wrath that was to come upon the Roman empire, which was the context of chapters 6 through 9, and perhaps this phenomenon would persist throughout all of the trials described in the opening of the seven seals. We have yet to see the end of the seventh seal, which contained seven trumpets, and the contents of the last trumpet, which are seven vials, are still to be revealed. But before they are, the vision this chapter describes the harvests of God, and these hundred and forty-four thousand are the first fruits of that harvest, for which reason the are described first here.

Some commentators have claimed that these hundred and forty-four thousand will be the government of the coming Kingdom of God, however that concept is not found in the text, so it is mere conjecture. Others have claimed that these are the Kingdom of God, however it is clear in the text that these are only the first-fruits of those whom He has purchased – the first-fruits of the children Israel, and, as it is evident in chapter 7 at verse 9, they are followed by an innumerable multitude who were clothed in the white garments that they had washed in the blood of the Lamb. They are also described again in a different manner in the latter portion of this chapter. The promise to Abraham was that his descendants would be an innumerable multitude, as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the seashore, a number much greater than a mere hundred and forty-four thousand (Genesis 22:17, 32:12 et al.)

The hundred and forty-four thousand can only be the firstfruits of the tribes of Israel. In the Book of Job, at 19:25, Job is described as having proclaimed “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”. It is evident in that book that Job was an Israelite who had lived in the period of the Judges. In the 74th Psalm there is a plea to Yahweh to “2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.” Here these hundred and forty-four thousand are described as having been purchased from the earth, but they are not all who have been purchased. All of the children of Israel were purchased by Yahweh God with the blood of Christ. Yahweh is described as the Redeemer of the children of Israel quite often in the prophecies of Isaiah, and also in Psalms 25:22, 49:15, 78:35 and at Jeremiah 50:34 and elsewhere. It is explained in Isaiah chapter 50 that the children of Israel, the “peculiar treasure” of God and His possession since the days of the Exodus, had sold themselves into sin, where it says “for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away”. The term “your mother” is a reference to the nation as a whole, which was and which still is portrayed as the wife of Yahweh in Scripture, even in the New Testament. That is the woman of Revelation chapters 12 and 17.

The meaning of redemption in the New Testament is that Yahweh God, in Yahshua Christ, would purchase His people back from their transgression, for which He had long ago put them away. Therefore in Luke chapter 1, Zacharias is recorded as having said: “68 Blessed is Yahweh the God of Israel, that He has visited and brought about redemption for His people.” This is the fulfillment of the law of the Kinsman Redeemer, found in Leviticus chapter 25 and mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. There we read in part: “47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: 48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him.” As we saw in Isaiah, the children of Israel sold themselves into sin, and then there is a promise shortly thereafter, in chapter 52 where it says: “3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Redemption in the blood of Christ is the fulfillment of that promise to the children of Israel, and it is theirs alone.

Therefore in Galatians chapter 4 Paul stated that the purpose of Yahshua Christ was “5… that he would redeem those subject to law, that we would recover the position of sons”, we meaning the children of Israel, from whom the Galatians had also descended. The Galatians were a portion of the Scythians (Sakae, Kimmerians) who were descended from the Israelites of the Assyrian deportations. Here in the Revelation, although the Greek word used is purchased and not redeemed, that same purpose of the New Covenant is stated once more. In this same manner, Paul told the Corinthians, who were descendants of Dorian Greeks, the Dorians having also emigrated to Europe from ancient Israel, that “ye are bought with a price”, at 1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23. Paul told the Corinthians that they were the descendants of the Israelites of the Exodus in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and that is too certainly evident in ancient history.

6 And I saw another [P47, א and the MT want “another”, where we would add an indefinite article; the text follows A and C] messenger flying in mid-air, having an eternal good message [or gospel] to announce [P47 and א have “to be announced”] before [ἐπί, before, for or to; the MT wants the preposition, where the text follows P47, א, A and C] those sitting [A has “dwelling”; the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “sitting and dwelling”] upon the earth and before [the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “before”] every nation and tribe and tongue and people, 7 saying [א wants “saying”] with a great voice: “You must fear Yahweh and you must give honor to Him [P47 has “you must honor Him with honor”], because the hour of His judgment has come, and you must worship He who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and springs of water!”

The word for mid-air is μεσουράνημα, which is literally mid-heaven, and which was used to describe the zenith, or point in the sky directly above the head of the observer.

Once again, in the context of the New Testament which is promised only to the children of Israel, “every nation and tribe and tongue and people” are only every nation, tribe, tongue and people of the promises of God, the children of Israel who were promised to become many nations on several occasions in the Book of Genesis and the promises to the patriarchs.

While the Revelation through chapter 13 was mostly prophetic of the events of the seven times of the punishments of Israel in captivity, Revelation chapters 15 through 17 are a warning for our present time, this Age of Liberty, which is an era of imagined self-government. However in this period Christendom also suffers from the loosing of Satan from the pit, a crisis which developed from the time of the French Revolution. It is explained in the so-called Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a document which is not a mere forgery, that once the monarchies of the world were out of the way, that gold would be king, and the antichrist and mostly Jewish bankers had already controlled most of the gold. Today it is absolutely apparent in the daily conduct of modern society that gold is king.

This phenomenon governs our present world, and it shall be discussed at length in our commentary for Revelation chapters 15 through 20. The Reformation, the diminishing of the papacy, and the decentralization of power in Europe fostered the environment for all of the social revolutions of the nineteenth century and the surrounding decades, from the first French Revolution to the Bolshevik Revolution. But even in America, the social revolutions of more recent decades were orchestrated and led by the same people, the antichrist Jews, who have been at the root of every single one of them, and while they sometimes boast of their wicked deeds publicly, they generally strive to conceal their nefarious role in history through the electronic and print media which they have also come to control.

But first, here in Revelation chapter 14 these visions begin to declare the purpose for this time of Jacob's trouble, that last prophesied period of world history before the Kingdom of Yahweh is finally established on earth. Ever since the missionaries of the post-Reformation period, which witnessed a return to the Word of God by a significant number of His people, the eternal gospel gone out into the entire world, or Society, chastising the children of God to repent and to return to Him, Yahweh the God of the Bible, in the name of Yahshua, or Jesus, Christ. The time of great trouble which this passage introduces is mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 30, especially in verse 7 which says “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” This same time is also mentioned in a prophecy of the patriarch Isaac, where after he had blessed Jacob and made him ruler over of all of his brethren, then he later blessed Esau where we read in Genesis chapter 27: “39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; 40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” Now that the kings and popes of Europe no longer have temporal authority, Esau has gotten the dominion over Jacob, yet Yahweh God has promised to save Jacob and to completely destroy Esau in the end.

Once again, this same time of trouble is prophesied in Daniel chapter 12: “1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” This is the day of judgement, it has already been ongoing for many decades, and true Israel shall be delivered. As we have already stated, in the 19th and 20th centuries there were several world leaders such as Adolf Hitler, the rest of the National Socialist leaders, or the Romanovs, who may fit this description of Michael, and their having taken a stand against the beast and against the international merchants of world Jewry did indeed cause such a time of trouble. But they all failed, because they cannot be God, and because vengeance is His. For that same reason, Paul of Tarsus had written in Romans chapter 12 asking his readers, in part, that “18 if possible from yourselves, being at peace with all men; 19 not taking vengeance yourselves, beloved, rather you must give place to wrath; for it is written, “vengeance is Mine! I will requite, says Yahweh.” So while Yahweh God has informed men of His Will, He also foresees here in the Revelation, as well as in the books of the prophets, all the circumstances and consequences of events where men have neglected His Will, and He evens warns them of that.

But now we see that for this predicament there is also a remedy:

8 And another, second messenger followed saying: “Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen! She who has made all the nations drink from the wine of the passion of her fornication!”

Here the 3rd century papyrus P47 and the Codex Sinaiticus (א) want the word for messenger, where a definite article would be inserted before the word second. The text follows the Codices Alexandrinus (A), Ephraemi Syri (C), and the Majority Text, although there are slight variations among them. The Codices Sinaiticus (א), Ephraemi Syri (C) and the traditional manuscripts of the Majority Text want the second occurrence of the Greek word translated as “has fallen”.

The 3rd century papyrus P47 and the Majority Text want the indefinite pronoun rendered as “She who” here in this verse. The Codex Sinaiticus (א) wants several lines of Greek text following the Greek word for followed near the beginning of verse 8. The manuscript resumes with the words immediately following the Greek word for followed in verse 9, so we can understand how the error occurred and the omission was made. The copyist wrote the word ἠκολούθησεν for what we now know as verse 8, and when his eyes returned to his source he picked up immediately after ἠκολούθησεν where it appears in verse 9. Where the missing lines were written into the bottom margin of the page by a later hand, the indefinite pronoun is also wanting. Out text here follows the Codices Alexandrinus (A) and Ephraemi Syri (C).

The Greek word θυμός both here and in verse 10 is not wrath, as it is in the King James Version, but passion. The wrath of judgment belongs to Yahweh, not to Babylon. The word has a broad meaning, according to Liddell & Scott, but it is primarily defined as “in physical sense, breath, life…” in a secondary sense as “spirit, strength”, thirdly as heart or soul, and then as “desire or inclination, especially desire for meat and drink, appetite”. Among later definitions for the word are heart as being the seat of desire, and then mind, temper, will… spirit, courage, and finally, in appropriate contexts, the seat of anger, and therefore anger or wrath… fits of anger or passions. For that reason it is passion here, in the sense of an unseemly desire or inclination.

One message of the Gospel of Christ that the original Protestants did well to profess is that men must serve God and not mammon. But in today’s churches that is now often distorted. Many of the Protestant denominations, in their newfangled gospel of personal enrichment, encourage people to pursue mammon and consider it godly to do so. Here it is announced that Babylon has fallen, but this is a preview of the prophecies which follow. Hopefully, as we discuss Revelation chapters 17 through 19 it shall be evident that what the Revelation calls Babylon is a multifaceted, world system centered upon international trade and the political, social and religious systems which facilitate that trade.

While Babylon has not yet fallen, here it is announced that Babylon is indeed fallen, as the Scriptures often announce things prophetically, as having already happened even though it is long before the actual events transpire. In this sense Paul spoke of Yahweh God in Romans chapter 4 and said that He “17… calls things not existing as existing”, because they shall indeed exist. He being God can make such a guarantee. It is fully evident in our recent history, and especially that of the past century, that the global commercial system, particularly the international banks of London and New York, have “made all the nations drink from the wine of the passion of her fornication” by making war with all of those nations which did not voluntarily join their system of central banks. All of those nations which have resisted the Jewish-controlled central banking system have either been made to succumb over time, or have been outright destroyed, such as Tsarist Russia and National Socialist Germany. Unto this day, even the Arab nations and all the so-called “third world” nations are being forced into this Jewish banking system.

9 And another, third messenger followed them [A has “him”] saying with a great voice: “If one worships the beast [A has “altar”, an error of θυσιαστήριον for θηρίον] and its image and receives an engraved mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, 10 then he shall drink from the wine of the wrath of Yahweh which is poured unmixed into [A has “from”] the cup of His anger, and he shall be tormented in fire and sulfur [θεῖον, or brimstone] before the holy [A wants “holy”] messengers and before the Lamb.

The Greeks typically drank their wine mixed with water. The word for poured here is from the Greek verb κεράννυμι, which is literally to mix or mingle. Liddell & Scott explain that the typical use of the word was to describe the mixing of wine with water, but the Greeks had also often mixed herbs and other things into their wine before drinking. The drinking of unmixed wine was considered barbaric, and believed to cause madness, an example of which is found in Herodotus, The Histories, Book 6 (6.84). There the historian attributed the madness of the Spartan king Cleomenes to the drinking of unmixed wine as a habit which he had acquired from the Scythians.

As we have discussed in relation to chapter 13, the “mark of the beast” is not necessarily a physical mark. The children of Israel were commanded to keep the laws of Yahweh their God on their foreheads and upon their right hands, metaphorically speaking, so that in that manner, the laws of God would guide both their thoughts and their actions. The men described in Revelation chapter 13, those who were trapped under the power of the papacy, which describes nearly all of the children of Israel throughout the medieval period, had no practical choice but to worship the beast, to submit themselves and obey the papacy at that time, in order that they may survive in their communities. However now the power of the papacy has eclipsed, and the nations of Europe have for the most part entered into a period of self-rule, the monarchical powers being diminished, the ancient feudal system being broken, and the parliamentary democracies having been established. So men are no longer forced to worship and obey the Roman Catholic pope or his priests. However while the pope no longer has temporal power over the world, the men who are described as worshipping the beast here have done so of their own volition, and that phenomenon, whether they are Catholic or not since the pope himself no longer represents the beast, also persists to this day. So we read of them in the next verse:

11 And the smoke of their torment ascends for eternal ages, and they who worship the beast and its image and one who receives the engraved mark of its name shall not have rest day and night. 12 Thus is the patience of the saints, [the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “Thus is”] they keeping the commandments of Yahweh and the faith of Yahshua!”

The Greek verb for receive here is λαμβάνω, and Liddell & Scott explain that “The original sense of the word is twofold, one (more active) to take; the other (more passive) to receive…” where the verb is used in the active voice. In the passive voice it can only be used to describe what is being received. So here in the active voice, the verb implies that these men voluntarily take, or receive, this mark.

As the Scripture says in Jeremiah chapter 31, the children of Israel now choose their governors from among themselves. The people are no longer compelled to worship the beast, but rather they have every opportunity to seek the Kingdom of Heaven, to seek to live by the Word of God. But the new god of the nineteenth century is gold, represented by capitalism, and one must worship the system and obey its demands in order to reap its benefits. That situation has caused many men to abandon the laws of God in spite of the admonitions of Christ. For those who choose the beast system over Yahweh God, they shall be punished and the smoke of their torment is everlasting. However that does not necessarily mean that they themselves are going to smoke in eternal torment. The smoke may only serve as a symbol representing the eternal remembrance of their torment, their lack of rest may be attributed to their great feelings of guilt.

Revelation chapters 17 through 19 fully elucidate the fact that the beast represents the world mercantile system, which is for the most part controlled by Jews. Likewise, bankers, merchants and criminals, such as the Borgias and the de Medicis, rose to the power of the papacy, and many of them were also Jews. Therefore those worshipping the beast can only be those who have forgotten God and who have forsaken His commandments in order that they may worship and pursue the rewards of the mercantile system, the rewards of mammon, in the political, social and religious systems which facilitate the conduct of the beast system.

And even more so, worship of the beast may have a greater literal meaning. Here it must be mentioned, that the demise of the papacy as an empirical authority over Europe took place in concert with the French Revolution. The French Revolution saw the Jew gain an equal citizenship with the Christian in the polity of France, and with Napoleon that circumstance had been exported to the rest of Western and Central Europe. This was called the Jewish Emancipation (i.e. Wikipedia). This was the final release of Satan from the pit, a process which had actually started three centuries sooner. With this period, a strange new religion, at least to most Christians, began to gain a foothold in Europe, and to eventually subsume Christianity itself. While Secular Humanism is not really new at all, it is now the most significant religion of Christendom.

Secular Humanism is a rejection of the supernatural or any spiritual authority, and therefore it seems to be a revival of the ancient religion of the Sadducees. This is the religion of the Jews expressed in the Talmud, that they are their own god and their own Messiah. Secular Humanism professes that man can be moral of himself, and bring himself to achieve his own desires or aspirations. The Sadducees, not the Pharisees, were the high priests under whose rule Christ had been crucified (Acts 5:17). They did not believe that God had any interest in the affairs or the sins of men. Secular Humanism arose from the deism and anti-clericalism of the Enlightenment, the various so-called secular movements of the 19th century, and the acceptance of science as a discipline which may explain existence, as if such a concept could possibly have any merit. Secular Humanism is therefore the rejection of God and the ideal guiding philosophy for the international merchant – and it glorifies man, who without God is little but a beast, and promotes man into the position of being his own god. It truly is the worship of the beast.

The word secular is from the Latin saecularis, meaning of an age, and therefore it means worldly. The very English word world is derived from two ancient Germanic words meaning “age of man” (The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, p. 1625, Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 1997). But the Christian is told to reject the world because the whole world lies under the power of Satan (1 John 5:19). Therefore Secular Humanism is an antichrist religion, a religion for Satan, and it is also the worship of the beast. As the apostle John had professed in chapter 5 of his first epistle, intended for certain of the children of Israel, “19 We know that we are from of Yahweh and the whole Society lies in the power of the Evil One.” For that reason, Christians are warned to reject the world, or Society. So we read in James chapter 4: “4 Adulterers! Do you not know that the love of Society is hatred for Yahweh? He therefore who would desire to be a friend of Society establishes himself as an enemy of Yahweh! ” Similarly, Paul admonished his readers, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2: “12 Now we do not receive the spirit of the Society, but that spirit from Yahweh, in which case we should know the things granted to us by Yahweh…” and again in chapter 11: “32 But being judged, by the Prince we are disciplined, in order that we would not be condemned with the Society.”

Our view of Secular Humanism as we have expressed it here is not novel. The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of the word “humanism” by an English clergyman in 1812 to indicate those who believe in the “mere humanity” (as opposed to the divine nature) of Christ (The Oxford English Dictionary. VII [2nd ed.]. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. pp. 474–475). But since then, the focus of the definition of the term has shifted away from God to man himself. Citing an author named George Pierce, who wrote a book studying the art of translation: “After the French Revolution, the idea that human virtue could be created by human reason alone independently from traditional religious institutions, attributed by opponents of the Revolution to Enlightenment philosophies such as Rousseau, was violently attacked by influential religious and political conservatives, such as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, as a deification or idolatry of humanity.” Those words did not belong to Pierce himself, as he was in turn citing an anonymous author in an article from a periodical on the French Enlightenment (Pierce, Introducing Translational Studies, Scientific e-Resources, 2018, p. 41).

The anarchist Proudhon, who is best known for declaring that “property is theft” and who was a leading figure in revolutionary France, had used the word humanism to describe a “culte, déification de l’humanité” (“cult, deification of humanity”) and Ernest Renan in L’avenir in de la science: pensées de 1848 (The Future of Knowledge: Thoughts on 1848), wrote: “It is my deep conviction that pure humanism will be the religion of the future, that is, the cult of all that pertains to man — all of life, sanctified and raised to the level of a moral value.” (Atheism: A Philosophical Examination, p. 119.) So the rise of a religion which deifies man occurred in the wake of the diminishing of the tyrannical institutions of Europe, which are the papacy and the monarchies, and also had coincided with the emancipation of the Jews in Europe. This is indeed the age of Satan and the time of Jacob’s trouble.

13 And I heard a voice from out of heaven, saying [the Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “to me”]: “Write: ‘Blessed are those dead among the number of the Prince who are dying from now on! Yeah’, says the Spirit, that [P47 has “because”] ‘they shall [the MT has “may”; the text follows P47, א, A and C] have rest from their labors, for [the MT has “but”; the text follows P47, א, A and C] their works follow with them!’”

The phrase translated as “among the number of the Prince” is merely ἐν κυρίῳ, or literally “in the Lord”, or Prince as we prefer it in reference to Christ [i.e. Daniel chapter 9]. Speaking of a person, we ould rather translate ἐν as among the number of, as Liddell & Scott explain that the word ἐν may mean: “in the number of, amongst” and was frequently used in that manner in certain of the poets. Here the Codex Ephraemi Syri (C) has Christ rather than Lord or Prince.

The 3rd century papyrus P47 and the Codex Sinaiticus (א) want the word rendered as “Yeah”, where the words which follow would be translated as “The Spirit says that…”

The use of the phrase “from now on”, for which the King James Version has “from henceforth” indicates that there is still a lot of history left at this point in the prophecies of the Revelation relating to this last age. The phrase also supports the statement which we had made in relation to verses 6 and 7 of this chapter, that the visions here are a summary preview which illustrate the purpose of God in the events which are foretold in the prophecies for the last period in the history of this present age. This chapter describes the reason for the subsequent events, which collectively represent the harvests of God. If one dies a Christian in this time, one will indeed be rewarded for one's faith – and rewarded whether one is conscious of it or not, since Christianity is much more than a simple confession. It is a way of life by which many men live regardless of their confession – since the laws of God are written on their hearts and they follow them naturally so long as they do not worship the beast. Many of the children of God behave as perfectly good Christians, but having turn away from Judaized churchianity, many of them do not even profess to be Christians.

14 And I looked, and behold, a white cloud! And he sitting upon the cloud like a son of man, having upon his head a gold crown and in his hand a sharp scythe. 15 And another messenger came out from the [א has “His”] temple [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “heaven”] crying out with a great voice to him sitting upon the cloud: “Swing [πέμπω, literally send] your scythe and reap, because the hour to reap has come [P47 has “because the harvest has expired”; א “because the hour of the harvest has come”; the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia “because the hour for you to reap has come”; the text follows A, C and the traditional MT manuscripts], because parched is the harvest of the earth!” 16 And he sitting upon the cloud cast his scythe upon the earth and harvested the earth.

The King James Version has the clause at the end of verse 15 to read “for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Doing this, it fails to distinguish the fact that two different harvests are being described here in this chapter, and the error makes this one the same as the second harvest which follows at verses 17-20. At the biblehub.com website, which compiles readings from many different denominational translations, the word ξηραίνω is translated as ripe in every other popular translation of Scripture, and the only exceptions are obscure versions, those of John Nelson Darby, Julia Smith and Adolphus Worrell which all correctly have dried or dried up.

The word describing the harvest in verse 15 here, which the King James Version and most others have as ripe, is a Passive form of the verb ξηραίνω which literally means to be parched. Liddell & Scott define ξηραίνω as parch, dry up… make costive…”, which is constipated, and then in the passive voice, as it is used here, “to be or become dry, parched… to be withered…” Fruit that is parched would not be considered ripe, but rather the term describes fruit which is dry and withered.

The verb is the same word, ξηραίνω, which the King James Version translated correctly in Matthew chapter 21, where Christ had cursed a particular fig tree and, as the apostle had described it in verse 19, “presently the fig tree withered away.” Therefore we would assert that the harvest of the withered fruit, the harvest of that very tree which is represented by the fig tree which Christ had cursed, must also be the harvest which is being described here: the harvest of the tares. So furthermore, the word grapes, which is used of the harvest of the last angel at the end of this chapter, does not even appear in the description of the harvest of this angel of verses 14 through 16.

But where the later harvest is described in verses 17 through 21 of this chapter, the Greek word in verse 18 which the King James Version had translated as ripe, and which we also have as ripe there, is ἀκμάζω, which does indeed mean ripe when it is used to describe growing fruit. Liddell & Scott define the word primarily to mean “to be in full bloom, at the prime… flourish, abound in a thing… to be strong enough to do… of things… at its height, of corn, to be ripe…” and corn meaning grain in the British English language, in reference to grapes here it must also be ripe. This word stands in sharp contrast to ξηραίνω, and the terms are certainly not descriptive of the same harvest, or the same grapes.

Once this is understood, that there is a harvest of the parched or dried here which is being purposely distinguished from the harvest of the ripe grapes which follows, it becomes evident that this chapter is quite agreeable to other Biblical prophecies concerning the state of the wicked or disobedient of men.

From the 129th Psalm: “4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. 6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.”

Then in Isaiah chapter 37 we read of the enemies of ancient Israel, whose gods the children of Israel had adopted: “ 27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.” In Isaiah chapter 40, speaking of the inhabitants of the earth who stand in opposition to the children of Israel: “24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.” Then in Isaiah chapter 42, in relation to the wrath of God and His judgement upon the nations, which we may add as a cross-reference to this passage here: “13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. 14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.”

So in a similar manner, Christ also spoke in the Gospel, of the harvest of mankind at the end of the age. There we read in Matthew chapter 13: “37 And responding He said: “He sowing the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 now the field is the world, and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. But the tares are the sons of the Evil One, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the False Accuser, and the harvest is the consummation of the age, and the reapers are messengers. 40 Therefore just as the tares are gathered and burn in fire, thusly it shall be at the consummation of the age. 41 The Son of Man shall send His messengers, and they shall gather from His kingdom all offenses and those creating lawlessness 42 and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth! 43 Then the righteous shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He having an ear must hear!”

So we have here a harvest of the tares which is distinct from the harvest of the wheat, and in that same manner in this chapter we have a harvest of the parched distinguished from a harvest of the ripe. The parched surely seem to represent the people whom He described allegorically as tares. The ripe grapes of the harvest which follows surely seem to represent the people whom He described allegorically as wheat. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the wheat represent the children of God, the true seed of the woman who are the descendants of Adam. The tares represent the seed of the serpent, the children of the devil and his angels, who were planted by the enemy and who had descended from the serpent, or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, through the Kenites, the Nephilim, the tribes of Canaan and through Esau.

In Isaiah chapter 63, there is a vision of a post-harvest wine press where Yahweh God Himself stamps the grapes, and prophetically, speaking, it is conducted in Edom, which represents the World Jewry of today, even if they no longer live in Edom: “1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. 7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. 8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.”

In a description of the return of a victorious and conquering Christ found in Revelation chapter 19, we read: “13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”

Now for the conclusion of Revelation chapter 14 and the harvest of the ripe:

17 And another messenger came out from the temple which is in heaven [P47 has “from his temple in heaven”], he also having a sharp scythe. 18 And another messenger came out [P47 and A want “came out”; the text follows א, C and the MT] from the altar, he [P47, א and the MT want the article rendered as “he”; the text follows A and C] having authority over the fire, and uttered with a great voice [P47, C and the MT have “cry”; the text follows א and A] to him having the sharp scythe, saying: “Swing [πέμπω, literally send] your sharp scythe and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, because ripe are her grapes [σταφυλή, in the plural, literally bunches of grapes]!”

In contrast to the verb ξηραίνω which appears above and which means parched, here the word for ripe is ἀκμάζω, which does indeed mean ripe when it is used of growing fruit. So as we have explained, the ripe grapes represent the harvest of the wheat. Notice that they are gathered, where the parched fruit of verses 14 to 16 were not gathered. As it also does in the harvest of the parched described above, the swinging of the scythe represents the wrath of Yahweh which is manifested in the wars and tumults of this age, which have been far greater than those of previous ages. Christians are promised that they will not suffer greatly in these wars and other disasters, so long as they do not worship the beast. However in spite of that promise, trials are a necessity, and so are the Harvests of God. The second angel’s “having authority over the fire” seems to indicate that he has authority over the trials which men must suffer. He apostle Peter in his first epistle described the fiery trials of this world, and Christ described the travails of sinners in the fires of Gehenna. As we read in Revelation chapter 13: “10 If one is for captivity, into captivity he goes. If one is to be slain by the sword, he is to be slain by the sword. Thus is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

19 And the messenger cast his scythe to [P47 and א have “upon”] the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine-vat of the wrath of Yahweh. 20 And the wine-vat was trampled outside of the city and blood came out from the wine-vat, as high as [ἄχρι, literally until or as far as] the bridles of horses for a thousand six hundred [א has “a thousand two hundred”] stades.

According to Liddell & Scott and Joseph Thayer, a στάδιον is 606.75 English feet, and therefore the distance here is nearly 184 of our miles. So the amount of blood from the stomping of the ripe grapes, which represent the people of God, is described as being perhaps five feet deep for a radius of 184 miles, and I would not bother to attempt to calculate the number of gallons. But this certainly does seem to describe the innumerable multitude which washes its robes in the blood of the Lamb. Once again, from Revelation chapter 19: “15 And a sharp sword comes out from of His mouth, in order that with it He may smite the Nations, and He shall shepherd them with an iron staff, and He shall trample the vat of the wine of the wrath of the anger of Yahweh Almighty, 16 and He has upon His garment and upon His thigh a name written: ‘King of Kings and Sovereign of Sovereigns’.”

The harvest of the firstfruits, which are the hundred and forty-four thousand, the harvest of the withered, or the tares, and the harvest of the ripe grapes, or the wheat. These are the harvests of God. But according to all of these parables, the children of Yahweh are always distinguished by kind. In the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew chapter 25, the sheep of the sheep nations all enter into the Kingdom of God. The goats are all consigned to the “fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. Contrary to popular opinion, the goats are all condemned not for their personal behavior, but for how they treated the sheep. The sheep are all preserved not for their personal behavior, but only because they are sheep.

In the beginning, there was a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and there was a Tree of Life. Yahweh God created only one race of man, and Christ described His people, in John chapter 5, as branches on the True Vine, the vine of life, the same tree to which Adam was expected to cling. Yet Christ had said elsewhere, in Matthew chapter 15, that “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” So in his one short epistle the apostle Jude had described the angels that sinned as spots in Christian feasts of charity, and as “trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots…” So they are unto this day, but the harvests of God will indeed soon be completed. Yahweh God will only harvest what He had planted, and all the weeds shall be consigned to the fire. In the end, in Revelation chapter 22, there is only one tree, the Tree of Life with types of fruit representing the twelve tribes of Israel.