Church History - Session 10 (Modern Times) — Edgar F. Parkyns

The Church in the Modern Era: Missions and Revival

We'll start off the night by having a brief look at the story of the church in the last 180 years. I'm sorry to be so brief, but most of you know a bit about this period and some of us have lived through quite a lot of it.

So there's no need to go into a lot of detail about it, of course there are certain exceptions. For the true Church of Christ, the 19th and 20th centuries have been pre-eminently the time of missions abroad and revivals at home.

The names of Carey, Livingstone, Adenauer and Judson of Verna, who was an American I believe, Moffat of Africa, Williams and Payton of the South Seas, Mary Sletter of Calabar, Crawford and Burton of Congo, and hundreds of others are recorded on earth and in heaven.

Those who carried the Redeemer's name to the dark places of the earth. This has been pre-eminently a time of missionary expansion. Africa is being swept with a gospel move in the power of the Holy Ghost.

So are Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines. The nations are awake to the gospel. Your own CBN and other agencies are proclaiming the good news now via satellite and reaching power behind the Iron Curtain.

The Bible is being translated and circulated as never before. We may say that we are in an age of missionary expansion and outreach unprecedented in the history of the Church. There never has been such a time as we are living in.

We are so close to it that we don't realize its tremendous extent. The wheat harvest by the Son of Man. And at home, in spite of coldness and unbelief, there have been great revivals. 1859 was an outstanding year in New York and in Ireland.

In New York great prayer meetings began which has affected this country. In Ireland there was a sweep of revival which brought new life to that country. In England other ministries arose. Haslam became a really powerful Church of England evangelist.

Another man whose name keeps on slipping me, powerful man of God. At this time there was a general move, a general awakening from 1859 onwards. Great preachers have arisen. Pinney, Spurgeon in Britain, Moody in both countries, Torrey, Billy Fundy, Franklin Guinness in Scotland, Billy Graham in this country and around the world.

What a day we have been living in. There never has been such generations as these in which the gospel has spread on such a scale. And we are in the days of Pentecostal restoration. In the early days of this century the Pentecostal movement developed from an obscure past.

Pentecostal Stirring and the Recovery of Spiritual Gifts

There have been Pentecostal stirrings all down through the years. I don't think God ever left himself without witness in the area of the spiritual gifts. You can dig back into Church history and you'll find that in nearly every age there have been little groups of people despised and persecuted who have not only believed the Bible but in their prayer life have been open to the moving of the Holy Ghost.

There have been outbursts of prophecy down through the centuries, often remarkable. During the Covenantal era in Scotland there were a number of outstanding prophets. Around the era of the Edict of Nantes in France the prophetic move among the children was phenomenal.

God has never left himself without witness. In England at the beginning of the 19th century we had the Irvingites, known as the Catholic Apostolic Church. And Edward Irving who was the inspiration of the movement, although not its official leader, was a deep Bible student.

And he saw that the days of Pentecost could be repeated. The Church got together and sought to rebuild itself on all that had gone before. That is on Apostolic Christianity, plus Roman Catholic Christianity, plus Protestant Christianity and tried to get the best out of everything and set up a rather amazing liturgy.

They had prophets as well as a liturgical service. Beautiful buildings and healing services. Strong hope of the coming of the Lord as well as much looking back into history. They were extraordinary people.

They produced twelve apostles who were to go to all the nations all over the world and proclaim the near coming of our Lord Jesus. How odd that error and truth should be so closely linked. Indeed the history of the return to the Pentecostal experience of the Bible is fraught with this kind of thing.

You get a mighty move of God and a man is raised up with a tremendous ministry and before long the invasion of divine power has turned his mind to self-exaltation. When he finds great crowds following him, then he begins to become more interested in his own advancement than in the cause of Christ.

This has happened over and over again. We remember the Azusa Street revival in 1905. Some from Britain came over here. Notably Bardee of Durham area. Just trying to think where you are. Yes, I'm at that.

Sunderland. Bardee of Sunderland. A Church of England vicar came over to the stage to Azusa Street and was filled with the Holy Ghost. Came back and opened up meetings in Britain and before long there was a Pentecostal revival breaking out in Britain.

Closely associated with the Welsh revival which eventually rejected the younger movement. John G. Lake, you may have read about, had an outstanding healing ministry in South Africa. They say that the power of God was so mightily with him that some of the hospitals during the Colour of Lake were almost empty for his ministry.

And there is a story that on one occasion one of the doctors placed some of those dangerous germs on John G. Lake's hand and watched them under a microscope as they died. For the sheer power of healing in that man.

It's strange to say when he and his party, or rather his party, moved northward into the malarial areas of Africa they were beaten. The stronghold of Satan in the tropical areas was too strong for them.

Healing Ministries and the Four-Square Gospel

Charles Price. His books are still well worth reading. I hope you read Charles Price. One of those men who had a real insight into the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ. A. B. Simpson was his predecessor, also with a tremendous insight into the centrality of Christ.

Amy MacPherson, another extraordinary character with a tremendous crowd consciousness and acting ability and a real anointing in the preaching of the gospel. A pioneer of the four-square gospel on the west coast of this country.

And although she was greatly criticized, yet she left a movement which stands strong to this day with a fine reputation. We can't sort out all that was good and all that was not good in these things, but we do see the lasting fruit of a mighty work of God there.

And I personally found her books most fascinating. Amy MacPherson. At the same time George Jeffries was preaching a similar message in the British Isles. The four-square gospel. I remember hearing one of the early records that came out of him preaching the four-square gospel.

It sounded very nasal because the recording was so shocking. But he was certainly a mighty preacher of the gospel and led thousands to Christ in our country. His ministry was one of the early signed ministries in Pentecost.

The Ascenders of God. Little groups breaking away from the Welsh revival and following the things of the spirit sprung up all over our country. And I guess they were doing something similar over here and eventually became federated in that federation known as Ascenders of God.

They sprang up and were organized. Miracle ministries arose. Faith and expectation were quickened. The nearness of the coming of the Lord was emphasized. One of the great marks of the Pentecostal revival.

Thus, in the four-square gospel, George Jeffries used to emphasize holding the Bible up in one hand. The four-square gospel. Christ, Jesus Christ, the Savior. Jesus Christ, the Healer. Jesus Christ, the Baptizer.

Jesus Christ, the Coming King. Then comes this, the four-square gospel. He was a very solid preacher of those great truths. Miracle ministries arose. Some real and some imitation. There were those who really moved from the power of God and others who copied them.

There was a great deal of exploitation. But thank God, a good deal of reality too. The two are not always easy to separate, to discern between. In our day, the charismatic movement is sweeping the Christian world.

And once again, people are wondering what's going on. Is it of God or is it of the devil? And I believe once again, just as in the earlier moves, great spiritual forces are at work. The Lord calling out in the last days his people from the great religious systems.

Giving them a swift entry and understanding into the things of grace. And at the same time, Satan and men seeking to crawl back into the old net of the old system. Those who had been liberated. And you'll have a job to say which is true and which is false.

As Jesus says, let both grow together until the harvest. Hundreds of thousands are coming to know the Father and the Son in life and pardon and fellowship. It is springtime and harvest all in one. It's good to get a worldwide view of what's going on in our day.

The Gospel’s Expansion and the Near Return of Christ

The word says that evil men and producers shall wax worse and worse. Well it's happening, isn't it? But that doesn't mean to say that the gospel is dying out. No, here there is a tremendous increase on the positive side.

More of turning to God in this hour and day. More of reading the Bible. More of discovering the moving of the Holy Ghost than ever before since the days of Paul. And there does seem to be an indication that there may be a bitter struggle ahead somewhere.

I find no guarantee that the Lord will come and take us out of it. And I don't know how much we'll be affected. I don't know how long it will last. Maybe there will be one brief horror of atomic war. Maybe there will be a long drawn out business.

I don't know. But what if trouble lies ahead? Jesus said, when ye see these things begin to come to pass, lift up your heads, look up. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. There may be some sharp things to face yet.

But, look up. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Now if you can, draw a line under that so that we move on from the church history side to the prophetic side. Following the line of interpretation held by all the Reformers and by many great Bible expositors of the last century, we saw last week that Babylon the Great was that false church system based on Rome, no doubt having her daughters who share her characteristics elsewhere.

During the era of the angels of chapter 14, the worldwide spread of the gospel is in view. The verse reference should be 14 .6, chapter 14 .6. That needs a little alteration there please. I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth to every nation, kindred, and tongue, and people.

So you will have noticed that you have been following Revelation through, how closely the history of the church has been foreshown, and how in these closing scenes the present revival of gospel preaching is being indicated.

And preliminary stages of the downfall of Babylon the Great per se. There follows another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel comes along with a strong warning about those who would still be involved in that system. We note an indication in verse 13 that the Christian recovery of this era stands and grows, even after the death of the great leaders.

Blessed are they that die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Not like the earlier pioneers of the faith whose work was all marred and spoiled by those who followed behind.

And these are followed by continuing works in this later period in church history. Great leaders such as Wesley, Timmy, Moody, their work still carries on. We saw that the end time harvest is a worldwide harvest of souls.

It is to be followed by that dreaded harvest of wrath and bloodshed, verses 19 and 20, which appear to belong to the time of the second coming of Christ. See Revelation 19, 15, where the wine fest is once again mentioned.

So probably the two passages are related. He treaded the wine fest of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. The same period is now re-examined, just as we saw previously, now a tendency to go back over the same ground and show it from another angle.

We saw that under the trumpets. So now with the vials, going back over the same period, leading up to the same terminus. The vials of God's judgment have been waiting over the nations. Chapter 15, I saw another sign in heaven.

Great and marvelous seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And there was the scene of victory in heaven. Those who had obtained victory over the beast and his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, that period can now be looked back upon with a measure of triumph.

The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. In an earlier chapter we saw the ark revealed. Now we see the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven opened. Further releasings of divine revelation in these end times.

The great central truths of the new covenant are being known. God is sending forth a teaching ministry in the church. Not just in this generation but all the way in the period we're studying. The seven angels came with the seven plagues and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and his power.

God intervening in history. There came a voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first one went out and poured his vial upon the earth and there fell upon, there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, upon them which worshipped his image.

That is, upon religious Christendom there fell a noisome sore. Symbolic again, yes. Yes, we're dealing with a book of symbols as we saw in chapter 1 verse 1 and 2. Many commentators of the last century, including Bishop Biggister and Eliot and some others, thought that the first pile bringing a noisome sore on those who had the mark of the beast referred to the outbreak of atheism and infidelity which immediately preceded the French Revolution and caused men to revolt against the church, the aristocracy and monarchical governments.

The old order was passing away. The writings of Voltaire and Tom Paine were penetrating Europe and America and the authority of the church was rapidly declining and instead of the priests, particularly in France, being revered for their supposed holiness, they were reviled for their ungodly lives.

Men were impatient and tired and bitter. There was revolution in the air and that new spirit which broke out at the French Revolution has, as you know, continued increasing until now. I don't know what proportion of the world, the best part of half the world as we know it, is under communistic control and power.

And all this began from the era of Voltaire and Tom Paine when they began to teach them to despise the church. They began to show its flaws and indeed its faults were terrible and they began to revolt therefore against God, against the governments and against the church.

And so I suggest that commentators of the last century were probably on right lines as they saw the foundation feature of modern history, the spirit of revolt against orthodoxy as the plague which smote those who were serving the beast and his image.

As this new pattern of thought has been behind every revolution in Europe and has found more recent expression in worldwide communism and unrest and threatens to disrupt and overthrow all historic institutions including the professing church, we might recognise this as the basic characteristic of the age of reason.

The new noise and soar of unbelief in the church, in the ministry, in the Bible and in God from the faith revolution to the present day. It has marked out this period distinctly from all that has gone before.

The second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. This period of history has been the era of naval warfare. Never anything like it before.

From the days of the American revolution and the great Napoleonic wars all down through the century, war after war, fought at sea. The clumsy ironclads coming into view in the middle of the century. The heavily gunned battleships.

In our day, not just the iron scene but the day of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. Hasn't this been one of the great disasters which has overtaken man in his eager search for knowledge and for peace.

He searches for peace, he motorizes navies. All he gets is increasing destruction. The third vial seeming to correspond with the third trumpet which brought judgment on the rivers indicates war on the mainland of Europe, especially on the border rivers, the Rhine and the Danube.

Now I haven't been able to get hold of a decent history book of Europe for the last 150 years but I do know that there was war after war along that area, Austria and Germany and some of us have lived through two wars in which those areas have been devastated.

And the fourth vial brings the scorching heat of the sun to torment men whose reaction is to blaspheme God. Those of you who are acquainted with the incendiary rage of the last war will know how the picture fits only too well.

How hideous is modern war in London. Fire raining from heaven in awful quantity. And men magnificently fighting but were they thanking God for victory? Only if officially, just a little way beneath the surface they were cursing God and saying, if there's a God, why this de-war?

There was cursing and swearing throughout country, prayer meetings in churches but bitter reaction in the hearts of men as the very heat of the sun seemed to be unleashed in modern warfare. For fifth vials, such as the seat of the beast, Italy, which claimed to be the country of peace and the city of peace would not be exempt.

And as you know, not only has Italy been swept by war since the 1870 overthrow of the papacy and in 1870 he lost all his dominions. He himself was shut up as a prisoner in the Vatican. Italy has been the scene of unrest.

The last war and the previous war swept through it. Atheism and communism is stronger in Italy than in most countries in Europe. Did you know that? The very country of the Pope. That's where atheism and communism are so strong that they may have overthrown the whole system.

The sixth vial corresponds to the sixth trumpet and shows the drying up of Turkish power for the river Euphrates which had dominated the Middle East since the 15th century and kept Europe and East Asia apart.

The sixth trumpet seemed to show that power breaking in over Europe threatening the whole Christian order with destruction. It was stopped at the battle of... That was the earlier one. It was somewhere around here.

I'm not quite sure that's what it was called. But that great wave of invasion was stopped there and broken. But now the river Euphrates is drying up. The Turkish power coming back, retreating out of Europe, becoming weaker and weaker all through the last century.

This has happened at the beginning of the century. Turkey was a strong menacing power. By the end of the century it could only just be held up. In the 1914 -18 war Turkey withdrew from Palestine and the way to the Middle East, the Arab nations, was open.

The oil pipeline made its way through from the Persian Gulf to Haifa and the kings of the East began to affect modern history. Up to that time Turkey had been the mania. But when Turkey lost tremendous power then the way of the kings of the East was prepared and they are now, as you know, dominating our condition and they may even affect the mileage that your car can go before very long.

The way of the kings of the East. There may of course be a reference to something beyond them, China possibly, but I do not know. We're so close to them I'm not good at predicting all this. Now then comes a pause and he introduces us to the three unclean spirits like frogs.

Frogs. Peculiarity is their talking. There's no creature in creation that talks like the frogs talk. They don't do it in England, but it was most interesting when I first got to Africa to hear the choir.

Talking in tremendous bursts of congregational utterance during the night. The Africans told me that the first bullfrog who spoke would ask, I can't do it now because my voice isn't what it used to be.

I can't do it. Who will be king? And another frog would say, I will. Another one would say, I will. And two or three more would say, I will, I will. And the whole crowd would say, I will, I will, I will.

And the little tiny frogs all over the place, all shouting in their stumps. Unclean spirits like frogs. The talking agencies of the age of news media and propaganda. Talking, talking, talking, filling the air with sound.

So that as you, even when you walk down an African town these days, you can hear the radio voices shouting out in highly refined English or something else, some message or other. Talking, talking, talking.

What are they saying? Peace, peace, peace. Coming from the mouth of the dragon, the atheistic power of communism, satanic. The mouth of the beast, the nationalistic power, the United Nations kind of voice.

And the false prophets out of the mouth of religious Christendom, talking, filling the world with miracles of modern technology. Saying peace, peace, at conference tables, over the radio, over the TV, worldwide.

But what are they doing all the time? While they're talking peace, they are being powerful evil spirits. They are preparing the nation for the great day of the battle of God Almighty. Isn't that right?

The more they talk, the more armaments they pile up. Russia and America talking, talking, peace. And each nation piling up arms in secret against the other. The other little countries also joining in.

Everyone affected by this talk about peace, so that China produces her own nuclear bomb to keep peace in her part of the world. They're preparing for the great day of the battle of the Lord God Almighty.

The Warning to Keep Watch for Christ’s Return

This tremendous era of propaganda. Such as the world has never known. Three unclean spirits like frogs. And in the middle of all this, isn't it delightful, a little second coming message. A warning to the church.

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that washeth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Turn to this. A little church message taken out of Revelation 3. Brought right here in the midst of chapter 16.

Showing that the church is here, ready to listen to the reiterated message of the Lord. As he warns her. And warns each one of us. That we might keep our garments, lest we walk naked and our shame is seen.

Is there ever a day when such warning has been more strongly needed than this day? Don't we all find that there's so much luxury, comfort, entertainment. On every hand that we find ourselves only too quickly getting cold.

We come to a meeting and we're carried away for a moment by the touch of the Holy Ghost. And very quickly the distractions of this modern age of pleasure pull our minds away. And we fail to keep our garments.

Jesus warns us, right in the midst of this propaganda era. And thank God in the midst of all the propaganda, there's another voice going out about the second coming of Christ, isn't there? Even though we don't all agree about the way we put our doctrine together.

Nevertheless, there's one thing we do agree about. Jesus is coming back again. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that washeth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

And he gathers them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. That's going back to the nations of verse 14, the kings of the earth and the whole world. Satan gathers them and yet actually God is behind the scenes.

Just as in the book of Job you find that Satan is the active agent who attacks Job. Yet nothing that he does is done without the permission of the Lord God Almighty. So in this day, however evil the day may be, whatever terrible things may appear, however much Satan appears to be let loose, ultimately God has the control.

And he is in charge. It is the great day of God Almighty. As the situation intensifies, let us remember that however serious things may appear, God is in charge. Terrible things may happen. Many may die.

Much suffering here and there. But the way beyond the scenes, God stands within the shadows, keeping watch upon his own. And he will intervene at the right moment with the man that this world rejected.

The seventh vial, poured out his vial into the air. Uh-oh. Aerial warfare. We've seen it in measure. We shall probably see it on a more terrifying scale than the world has ever known yet. The seventh vial poured out his vial, the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air.

And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, It is done. God in charge. God seeing how things are happening. Watching over it. The great cities divided. Babylon comes into remembrance to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

She has been delivering the wine of fornication to the nations of the earth. Now God is stepping in in judgment. Every island fed away. The mountains were not found. Probably referring to the great powerful nations.

Great hail from heaven. Every stone the weight of a talent. Men blaspheming God because of the plague of hail. For the plague thereof was exceeding great. But evidently the second coming has not yet appeared.

Because here on earth, blaspheming God because of the hail. See that. The same hideous thing that has marked the air raids of the past war is going to be intensified. And men will say, where is your God?

If there is a God, why does he allow this? Men blaspheming God. At this juncture, the revelator ceases that group of visions and pauses for a chapter of explanations. Chapter 17. We have already looked at this chapter.

Babylon the Great and the Fall of the False Church

As he is shown the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. And we have seen that amazing picture of the woman sitting upon the scarlet-colored beast. The woman, as we have seen, the antithesis of the true church.

Which is also a woman and a city. This is a woman and a city. But the name here is Babylon the Great, the mother of pirates and the vominations of the earth. Drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

He describes the beast, and we have seen it was the old Roman beast. Revived under its eighth head. We have seen the sequence of the old Roman governance. And then this eighth head, which will go into perdition.

We saw the ten kingdoms, which in that same hour of his power, give their mind to the beast. We see that there is war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

They that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. We saw the symbolism of the waters. They were not literal. They were people, multitudes, nations and tongues. The ten horns, the ten kingdoms, hate the whore and turn against her.

Make her desolate, naked, eat her flesh, burn her with fire. Ever since the reformation, there has been going on, and there will be further developments yet. God has put it in their hearts to fulfill his will, to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

For woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. In John's time, only one city reigning over the kings of the earth. That was Rome. Chapter 18 is devoted to the downfall of that ancient and wicked religious system.

The languages, the language of Isaiah and Jeremiah are used again. The language first applied to literal Babylon, now applied to spiritual Babylon. Babylon, the great, is fallen, is fallen, is become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her praise. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

The call to come out is going out, isn't it? And there are thousands who have heard that call, coming to the light of the gospel and are coming out, and thousands more will yet come out before the end.

And a terrible day of judgment for that system. The merchants suffer by the merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, tine wood, vessels of ivory, vessels of most precious wood, of brass, iron and marble, almost literal, isn't it?

Cinnamon and odours, ointments and frankincense, wine and oil, flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. There's the weeping of her merchants as they cry from far off.

Maybe there's something our people of this country endure there. Weeping at her downfall. I wonder if Pomny was in a sweep through Italy and destroying the whole church. Verse 19. A song of praise and triumph.

The Marriage Supper and the Coming King

Alleluia, salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments. He hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the poor and twenty elders and the poor living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne saying, Amen, Alleluia.

And once again a voice over the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants. And he that feared him, both small and great, a voice of a multitude, the voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thunder, and saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. At last, here it is, the approaching of the dawn. The marriage of the Lamb is come.

His wife hath made herself ready. A people prepared for the coming of the Lord. A people not only cleansed in the blood, but walking in holiness. His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.

For the fine linen is the righteousnesses, plural, of the saints. Right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And John at this point fell to worship the angel. And twice over John sought to do this.

He said to me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. A rebuke to everything within them which has honoured men, where they should not be honoured.

And give unto men and worldly systems that worship which belongs to Christ alone. Even this mighty angel forbids John to worship him. He says, Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Twice over is this warning given to John, that when he worships the Lord Jesus, there is no rebuke. You see how by the very absence of rebuke there, the deity of Jesus is underlined. The second coming in view, verse 11.

I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat on him was faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make law. His eyes as a flame of fire, on his head many crowns. He had a name written that no man knew but he himself.

He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood. That comes from Isaiah, chapter 63. His name is called the Word of God. The armies which were in heaven followed him on white horses. The ten thousands of his holy ones, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Out of his mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword. With it he shall smite the nations, he shall rule them with a rod of iron. There is a government of this earth ahead for him. He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

So we've caught up now with the last angel of chapter 14. He hath on his vesture and on his power a name written, the divine name King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just quickly turning to 1 Timothy. See how these delightfully concealed references to the deity of our Lord Jesus are found.