(3) The Message of Doom for the Beast and his Followers, Ch. 14:9-11
The third angel proclaims the doom of divine wrath upon the worshippers of the Beast and his image, i. e. upon those who glorify the blasphemous world-power, or share in the deceit of the world-religion; and the terms of the message are full of terror and foreboding. Thus in a concise and triple message is foreshadowed the universal proclamation of the gospel, the overthrow of the world's social and communal life adverse to God, and the final destruction of those forces in national and religious thought that withstand the full and final triumph of the Christ.
3. The Blessedness of the Holy Dead, Ch. 14:12-13
The author at this point expresses his sympathy with the church, setting forth the need of patience in the conflict (v. 12); and then he records a voice heard from heaven (v. 13), declaring that the dead who die in the Lord are blessed “henceforth”, i. e. after death, for they have both rest and reward,[487] and possibly including, also, the additional thought that they have thereby escaped from the great tribulation even though by martyrdom. Thus once more the redeemed are placed in opposition to the unredeemed, the saved are set over against the lost, as those who have secured the better part.
4. The Harvest of the Elect, Ch. 14:14-16
One like unto the Son of Man (or a son of man), i. e. one sharing our humanity—a designation of the Messiah after the time of Daniel[488]—is seen sitting upon [pg 180] a white cloud, the traditional covering of the divine majesty and a symbol of the divine presence, having on his head a golden crown, the token of glory and of victory, and in his hand a sharp sickle, the instrument for reaping. And on the announcement of another angel[489] from out the temple that the hour was come, he cast his sickle upon the earth and gathered all the faithful into his kingdom as a harvest that was ripe, a symbol of the ingathering of all the redeemed preceding the punishment of the wicked (cf. Mat. 25:31-46). The action set forth in this part of the vision is preparatory to and anticipates the judgment, yet the process of judgment is not described. The vision is occupied rather with pointing out how the path of history inevitably leads to the judgment bar. The incident serves to introduce the seventh and last of the mystic figures of this wonderful vision of conflict, the Son of Man on the Cloud, who represents Christ as the theanthropic Redeemer and Judge, a quite different aspect of his character from the Man-Child where he is set forth subject to the conditions of his mysterious incarnation, and therefore requiring an entirely different symbol.