Once again, this is a long passage. To refresh your memory, please click Revelation 19:11-21 to reread the passage.
After the destruction of Babylon, John was given a vision of the King of kings astride a brilliant white horse, his robes stained in blood, leading an army also riding white horses. From the king’s mouth came a sharp and swift broadsword which made short work of all opposers. The dangerous creature and false prophet were both captured and thrust into a lake of roiling sulfur and flames where they were annihilated, never to return. All the rest of the opposers perished and were consumed by the earth’s carrion-feeders.
It leaves one breathless with the breadth and finality of destruction. Is it symbolic or literal? Has it happened or is this an event yet to come?
Historicist
The king astride the white horse with his sharp sword is either the victorious church with the Word of God, or it is Christ’s continuing judgment of those who oppose God and the Gospel. Either way, the horse is symbolic.
The Victorious Church
In the first interpretation, the horse is Christ’s means of moving forward with the Gospel. Commentators point to a passage in Isaiah as reference.
Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
marching in his great might?”“It is I, announcing vindication,
mighty to save.”“Why are your robes red
and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?”“I have trodden the winepress alone,
Isaiah 63:1-3 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their juice spattered on my garments,
and I stained all my robes.
Christ’s clothing is stained read from having trod in the winepress of God’s wrath. Now, the armies of heaven accompany the King of kings as he marches in victory through the church, demolishing all strongholds against the good news of salvation. Among those who will be destroyed is the apostate church.
Preterist
Some scholars with this view see all references to Christ’s second coming as having been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, making John’s vision an even long since having happened. Even preterist expositors who allow for a still-future fulfillment of Christ’s return see this oracle as referring to Jerusalem’s fiery end.
Not Christ’s Second Coming
Leading up to this scene are the chapters of warfare waged by the dragon against the woman in the wilderness, the two prophets of God, and all those refusing to take on the beast’s etching. That side of the war looks grim and hopeless, as the holy ones of God are slaughtered, and ever-increasing woes are flung from heaven to earth. All appears lost, a bleak dystopia bereft of hope.
But now the King of kings and Lord of lords appears, and his victory is swift and sure. This is the other side of the war, when the seemingly all-powerful foe is vanquished by the actually all-powerful Lord, where lies and deception are undone forever by inexorable truth.
However, this cannot be a depiction of Christ’s Second Coming because
- rather than an opening of the Book of Life, when all the dead will be assessed, the beast and its false prophet, representing the Roman Empire and the Empire’s religion, are the only ones judged in this event.
- rather than descending with the clouds, just as Jesus had ascended, this Christ-figure is astride a white horse. There is no prophecy that mentions this as an aspect of the Lord’s return.
- the sword proceeding from the King of king’s mouth is called the word of God, a symbolic representation of truth. Therefore, the battle waged is spiritual, concerning truth’s triumph over the lies of the beast and false prophet. In essence, this is the victory of the Gospel and the spread of Christianity, representing the postmillennial view that all the nations of earth will be converted before Christ’s return.
A Tale of Two Feasts
Revelation 19 contains sharply contrasted banquets. The first is of a wedding celebration, the guests are seated to a sumptuous meal as the Lamb of God receives his long-awaited Bride, the church. The second meal is a grisly barbecue of slain enemies, with vultures and hyenas wolfing down their dismembered bodies, cut clean through by the Sword of the Lord.
These two visions are given to John side-by-side as a vivid portrayal of both sides of the spiritual war being fought in the battlefield of truth and souls during John’s day. On one side of the conflict is the old covenant found in the Law given to Moses at Sinai. On the other is the new covenant cut in Christ’s blood. As John had written in his Gospel,
The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:17 (NRSVUE)
And, as the writer of Hebrews would also relate,
Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.
… In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.
Hebrews 8:6, 13 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
Though Jerusalem’s end is in view, along with the temple and its practices, and all pertaining to the old covenant, commentators point out that Christ is still moving forward through the church, and the sword of the Gospel is still demolishing the world’s deception, bringing to salvation each new generation of believers.
More details
Folio 29v of the Bamberg Apocalypse, Public Domain
Futurist
This is definitely a depiction of Christ’s Second Coming to establish his Millennial Kingdom on earth before God’s final judgment of all the living and the dead, supporting the premillennial view that Jesus will reign on earth for a literal thousand years before human history is drawn to a close. The white horse rider’s identity is firmly established by his titles, for he is called
- Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11).
- by a name known only to himself (Revelation 19:12).
- The Word of God (Revelation 19:13)
- King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14, 19:16
The shining army on white horses may be just the church, or may also include the faithful from before Christ, and those who came to faith during the Great Tribulation. Or, this might be the great angel army Jesus spoke of.
Sword of the Lord
Some interpreters understand this to be symbolic, citing Isaiah’s oracle and the Psalms:
but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.You shall break them with a rod of iron
Isaiah 11:4, Psalm 2:9 (NRSV, italics added)
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
while acknowledging there may be a physical aspect to the breath of killing the wicked. This is the mighty power of God’s judgment at work.
Others see a broader interpretation of a sword usually found in the context of war, executing an “unyielding” law that leaves no option but to conform to God’s righteous rule. There will be initial resistance, but it will be dealt with swiftly and soundly. Submit or die.
Spiritual
There is agreement with the identity of the rider as Jesus, the mystery of whose name is known only to himself because he is a mystery—the only being in all the universe who is both fully God and fully human.
His accompanying army is surely comprised of the overcomers described earlier in John’s apocalypse, the ones following the Lamb wherever he may lead (Revelation 14:4). His sword is not the good news of salvation, but rather the symbol of destruction, to the one rejecting Jesus, the one who does not receive the words of Jesus and instead receives God’s judgment (John 12:48).
John’s portrayal of the King of kings smiting nations with his terrible swift sword, ruling the nations with his iron rod, and treading the winepress of God’s passionate wrath combines the oracles of Isaiah and the Psalms. Jesus alone treads the winepress, for he alone is judge.
That the beast and its false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire, signals the demolition of every deception and lie that before clouded people’s minds. Judgment will now come for those who continue to oppose Jesus, now clear-eyed.
The four perspectives taken from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg
