The Conquerors
THE CONQUERORS
REVELATION 14:1-5
John is given a vision of the triumphant church.
Though Mount Zion is repeatedly used as a symbol for God’s throne among humanity, it is never so used for something future, separated from this earth; see especially Hebrews 12:22, which speaks of a present reality. It seems to be the symbolic expression here of Ephesians 2:6. We return to the “male child” and see what his being caught up to the throne of God really meant.
The conquering Christian lives on two planes simultaneously. One we saw in 13:7, but all the time the beast seemed to be triumphing he was in fact being conquered. The mention of the Father’s name (14:1) is a reminder that it is possible to develop a worship of the purely earthly Jesus of Nazareth, which is as one-sided as the ignoring of his earthly life.
The literal rendering of 14:4, “These are they who did not defile themselves with women, for they are virgins” has led to a false exaltation of celibacy. Such an understanding assumes that the whole company is male, which is never otherwise suggested, and it commits the basic fault in interpreting a symbolic biblical passage literally. It also assumes that marriage causes some form of defilement. Over half the instances of the word groups of adultery and fornication in the Old Testament are applied to the worship of other gods, or to a conception of Jehovah which he refused to recognize, and that is surely the meaning here. In these days of overvaluing sex, every Christian should consider passages like Matthew 19:10-12; 1 Corinthians 7:7-8,25-26,32-35 prayerfully, but let us not forget that under other circumstances Paul commanded marriage (1 Timothy 5:14). Above all there is never any suggestion that celibacy increases a person’s standing as a Christian; most of the apostles were married (1 Corinthians 9:5).
It should be specially noted that the evidence that they “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (14:4) is that they do not lie (14:5). Lies are caused by two things, fear and pride, which cause personal desires to take the chief place. Both disappear in the presence of Christ; see also 21:8,27; 22:15.
This close contact with their Lord also enables them to understand him and the purposes of God better and more clearly. It is this that is implied by the “new song” (14:3) that others could not learn. Salvation does not depend on understanding God and what he has done in this way; scholarship will not teach it and spiritual exaltation will not give it. It comes from fellowship and obedience, and the two cannot really be separated.