Revelation 14 is in an intermission section of the book between the Sounding of the Sixth Trumpet in chapter 9, and the Seven Vials judgments in chapter 16. The 144,000 are mentioned again, and it's the first time it was brought to my attention that this may not be the same 144,000 mentioned in chapter 7. In chapter 7 the 144,000 were exclusively Jewish, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. This 144,000 is a special group of extra dedicated followers of Christ. I couldn't make anything of it, and didn't find any other thoughts on the subject that added much to understanding it. But, the first scene in chapter 14 is in heaven. In verse 2 John says, "And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps." Maybe this is where the idea of people playing harps all day in heaven came from.
John sees three angels fly across heaven with messages for humanity. The first one has the everlasting gospel and calls on mankind to worship God. This isn't a message of doom, because the word gospel means "good news." The second angel's message is, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Who is Babylon? Uhhh..."that great city." I've heard two schools of thoughts on this. One is the idea that the ancient city of Babylon is literally rebuilt, and then obliterated. Well, I suppose. I've heard that there was a project to rebuild Babylon as a tourist attraction. It seemed like an interesting idea. The reason some feel that Babylon must be rebuilt is that Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Babylon, and really, most people don't feel that can be said to have ever happened. I think the river it was built around moved, and eventually the city fell into abandonment. Therefore, Babylon must be rebuilt and become the center of world commerce again, so it can be destroyed! This I'm not convinced of, but never say never. It has a dramatic flair.
The other thought is that this is the "spiritual" Babylon. One must realize that at the time John wrote about the "fall of Babylon," Babylon the city had already ceased to exist. This Babylon was a false world religion, built around the worship of Satan, instead of the worship of God. John has said things like this before, calling Jerusalem "Sodom," and "Egypt" in chapter 11, meaning generally evil. Ancient Babylon, in addition to being a government, was the seat of idolatrous religion. All of the empires seem to be more about false religions than governments. The "false world religion" Babylon is the idea that seems to me to make the most sense.
Then the third angel brings a message of doom for those who worshipped the Beast, and his Image, and received his Mark. "If any man worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." v. 9-10. I thought this was an eloquent way of venting. Besides that, they will be tormented with fire and brimstone forever. I've heard of "fire and brimstone" preaching, but it isn't mentioned very much in the Bible. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone.
Then John sees a white cloud, and one sitting on the cloud like unto the Son of man, wearing a golden crown and holding a sharp sickle. An angel appears and tells the one of the cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. Another angel appears who also has a sickle, and then another angel after that, who tells the angel with the sickle, "Thrust in thy sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." I felt this was very eloquent also. The angel gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Verse 20, "And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."
This is not a winepress, is it? What is it? A battle? I think I may have said that I have heard in the past that the Battle of Armageddon would result in a bloodbath that reached up to the level of horses bridles, but I hadn't found that in Revelation. Well, if I haven't found it, I found out where they got that idea. But for this to be the Battle of Armageddon, you would have to tie several verses together from very different parts of Revelation and connect the dots. How far does this go on? A thousand and six hundred furlongs would be about 184 miles. The Jordan Valley would be the only one that would qualify. Chapter 9 mentioned the Euphrates River and an army of 200 million. Then chapter 16 mentions the drying up of the Euphrates to open the way for the kings of the east. These different parts of Revelation aren't connected up logically at all, as far as the order they're presented, or what relationship they have with each other. But apparently others have just gone ahead and tied it all together into THE battle.
That's all I know about chapter 14, and I'm glad to be done with it.
PS How many gallons of water would it take to fill a valley 184 miles long, 1 mile wide to a depth of 5 feet? If a swimming pool 15'x5' five feet deep hold 28132.5 gallons, it would take, I think, about 19.4 billion gallons. If a human has about 8 pints of blood, that would be 16 cups, or about one gallon. Therefore it should take 19,400,000,000 people to have enough blood to fill the valley to five feet. But the world population in 2012 was 7.046 billion. I'll check my numbers.
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