"Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless."
Revelation 14:1-5
This chapter completes the section begun at chapter 12, dealing with the manifestation of anti-Christ on earth. And from the horrific pictures of the 12th and 13th chapters - pictures which we illustrated from the experiences of the Church in China in our time - our eyes are lifted up to the vision of heaven and glory, to the Lamb on Mount Zion. This is a very necessary corrective to what has gone before, and it needs to be emphasised that although the organised Church as such is prophesied as being broken and extinguished (the death of the two witnesses), there will of course be true believers on the earth at the end-time. Of course the light will persist in the darkness, and individuals will stand firm, in spite of the most fierce and unspeakable persecutions, and will triumph - and prevail - in their faith. But the extinction of the Church as an organised, evangelistic agency is an indication of the extent to which God is prepared to give evil its head, in order finally to destroy it. The vision of the redeemed here assures John that evil does not have the last word. Not only so, John is given the vision at this particular point to offset all the grim horror of what he has already seen. The words of the hymn 'For all the saints' provide a near-perfect commentary in this connection:
'And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again and hearts are strong.
Hallelujah!'
How wise God's Word is, and how well balanced, in the contrasts it gives! Even the darkest prophecies are made to flash with light.