"15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever" (11:15).

As stated above, when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, there are two choruses making special announcements regarding what will be the outcome of the judgments that develop out of the seventh trumpet. When this seventh trumpet is sounded, John sees the temple of God in heaven opened (11:19). When it is opened, there comes out of it a terrible storm indicative of God's wrath and indignation against the world. After this great storm, with thunders and lightnings, passes before John's gaze, the temple is closed. Then there is flashed before his startled vision, on the prophetic screen, the data that is found in 12:1-15:4, the material that gives the stage setting and the things that will be in existence during the second half of the Tribulation. When they pass before his vision, the temple of God in heaven is opened the second time. Then come forth out of this temple the seven angels who bear in their arms the seven bowls of the wrath of God (Rev. 15:5-8). These angels stand at attention, ready to obey any commands. The order goes forth to them: "Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth" (16:1).

After this necessary digression from our main theme, let us return to Revelation 11:15 and the announcement that is being made regarding the kingdom of the world and its becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. The Authorized Version of the Scriptures has the word, kingdom, in the plural number; "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." The Standard Edition (rev. 1901) follows the Greek text accurately and states, "The kingdom of the world is become . . ." At the time of which John is here speaking, there will be but one kingdom. All the kingdoms of the world will be united under one ruthless sovereign dictator, the Antichrist. It is of the utmost importance that we recognize this fact.

"23 Thus he [the interpreting angel] said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24 And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings. 25 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time" (Dan. 7:23-25).

The four beasts of Daniel, chapter 7, are symbolic of four kings that arise out of the earth (Dan. 7:17). These beasts symbolize not only the kings, the sovereigns of these kingdoms, but the kingdoms themselves. Figuratively speaking, when the spotlight is turned on in this prophecy of Daniel, chapter 7, we see the king; but when the floodlight is turned on, we view the realm over which he reigns. According to 7:23 the fourth beast will devour the whole earth, tread it down, and break it in pieces. The expression, "the whole earth," means exactly what it says--the entire world, all nations. Next, according to 7:24, that mighty empire will collapse, falling into ten separate divisions, over each of which a dictator will arise and usurp the authority. After this takes place, there will arise a little horn, the Antichrist, who will worm his way into favor with the ten dictators and gradually gain power until he becomes master of the situation. By the middle of the Tribulation he will be supreme--after having put down three of the dictators, he will become the absolute sovereign.

The seven kings that remain become simply "rubber stamps," or "yes men." This same situation we see in Revelation 13:7; "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation." The reader should note the fact that "there was given to him [the Antichrist] authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation." From these and other passages of scripture we know positively that the world will be headed up under one great sovereign in the end time. Hence, there will be the Kingdom of the world in the end time, of which John spoke, and which will, at the end of the Tribulation, become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

That the kingdom does not become the kingdom of Christ until the end of the Tribulation is evident from many passages of scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New. In view of this fact we know that John, in making this prophecy, is looking forward to the end of the Tribulation.
 

After the first choir had made its grand and glorious announcement that the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, "the four and twenty elders, who sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, 17 saying,

"We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast; because thou hast taken thy great power, and didst reign. 18 And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be Judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth" (Rev. 11:16-18).

The second choir begins by thanking the Lord God, the Almighty, who inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15), because of several things which He does. They acknowledge His absolute authority. God's throne is exalted above all, and His authority is over the entire universe. (On this point, see Psalm 103:19-22.) All power belongs to God (Ps. 62:11). No one can question the rights, the prerogatives, and the sovereignty of the Almighty. Knowing these great basic and fundamental facts, the twenty-four elders, celestial beings, return thanks to God for the stability of the universe in which they live, and for the absolute sovereignty of their Lord.
 

These elders praise God because He takes His great power and reigns. This statement, of course, harmonizes with the thought of verse 15, which says that the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. But, as we have already seen, the kingdom of the world does not become the kingdom of Christ until the end of the Tribulation. Hence, the taking of His power as indicated in verse 18 is a reference to His taking over the kingdom at the end of the Tribulation. This fact must be clearly grasped if we are to understand the rest of this passage.
 

These celestial beings are grateful to God that the nations become wrathful, and God then is justified in taking over His authority over all human affairs. They are not gloating over the fact that the nations become wrathful, but their being wrathful gives God occasion to take the world situation in hand, and to establish a righteous and a just order from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
 

According to verse 18, when the nations become wrathful, then that fact stirs up the wrath of God to its very depth. He therefore acts according to the principles of righteousness, justice, and holiness.
 

In verse 18 the statement is made that, at this time, when God takes over the kingdom of the world--which is at the end of the Tribulation--the time arrives for God to reward His "servants the prophets," and "the saints," and "them that fear thy name." When is the time that God rewards his servants the prophets, and the saints, and those who fear His name? There can be but one answer, in the light of the facts of this context and the drift of thought, namely, at the end of the Tribulation, when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

Unfortunately, some good Bible teachers, not realizing or failing to note the drift of thought and the connection, have supposed that the dead are raised and the saints are rewarded in the middle of the Tribulation. They come to this conclusion because of the fact that, when we are studying chapter 11, we are investigating things in connection with the middle of the Tribulation. But when a person realizes that 11:15-19 constitutes an announcement that the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, and that these other things are in connection with that development, then he can see that the dead are raised and the Saints are rewarded at the end of the Tribulation.

That the dead, both the saints of the Old Testament and those of the New, will be judged and rewarded at the end of the Tribulation, is evident from a study of Psalm 50:1-5:

1 The Mighty One, God, Jehovah, hath spoken, And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth. 3 Our God cometh, and doth not keep silence: A fire devoureth before him, And it is very tempestuous round about him. 4 He calleth to the heavens above, And to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5 Gather my saints together unto me, Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

In verses 1 and 2 of this psalm we see Christ after He has come to the earth and has built up Zion, which becomes the beauty spot of the world. In 50:3 we see Christ coming, as He will, at the end of the Tribulation (cf. II Thess. 1:3-10). In Psalm 50:4 we see Christ giving a call to the heavens above and to the earth for His messengers--the angelic host--to gather His people together, "Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice," in order that they might be judged. This certainly is not the judgment of the great white throne, which occurs at the end of the Millennium, but it is the Judgment seat of Christ, before which all of God's saints will appear and where they will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. In view of this fact, then, we know that the thing's mentioned in Revelation 11:18 will occur at the end of the Tribulation, when Christ comes to take over the kingdom of the world into His own strong, powerful hands.
 

When Christ comes at the end of the Tribulation, He will destroy those who are destroying the earth. This statement is to be taken literally, at its face value. Not until after the discovery of the atomic and hydrogen bombs and such other powerful weapons of war as we now have, did we see the full force of what is meant by the statement that Christ will "destroy them that destroy the earth." The scientists have learned how to avail themselves of the mighty power of the atom. The scientists know that, by the development of still more powerful means of destruction, a chain reaction could well set up that could destroy the earth. Man is discovering the secret of power and of the real nature of the material of which the earth is made. If the Lord should allow them to continue their research and discoveries, they would destroy the earth physically. But God will not allow them to do that. He will intervene and will destroy them and stop their diabolic work.
 

"19 And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven; and there was seen in his "temple the ark of his covenant; and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail" (Rev. 11:19). That there is a temple of God in heaven is seen in such passages as Psalm 11:4. This is called, in theological language, "the very presence of God." This place is seen in Hebrews, chapter 9, and is spoken of as the true sanctuary of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

At this point in John's vision--at the middle of the Tribulation--the Apostle sees the temple of God in heaven opened. In it he sees the ark of the covenant, a spiritual reality. A little replica of it was built by Moses and placed in the Tabernacle, a miniature model of the heavenly temple. Thus the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, were models of the reality that exists in the heavens from all eternity.

In the latter part of verse 19 there appears a terrific storm: "... and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail." As we have already seen in Revelation 4:5, there proceeded out of the throne "lightnings and voices and thunders." In 8:5 there followed the actions of the angel, "thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake." The third place where this storm is seen is the verse which we have under consideration, namely, 11:19. The final verse where this terrific storm appears is 16:18: "... and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty." A glance at each of these passages reveals the fact that this storm is gathering force, momentum, and destructive power as one passes through the Tribulation, from beginning to end.

John saw and heard these manifestations at the time in this drama, as he has designated. This graphic manner of presenting the situation shows clearly that indignation and wrath are intended, because a storm naturally is a symbol of destructive force and power, which strike with an appalling accuracy and destructiveness. When we learn these facts and note other indications, we see that though the Tribulation starts out in a very destructive and terrific manner, the storm of God's wrath gathers momentum and power and leaves death and destruction in its wake.

No one who knows the forces that will be set in operation during the Tribulation and the sorrows and the distress that the judgments will entail would want to enter that period of God's judgments. There is but one thing for the intelligent, honest truth seeker to do today, and that is to flee to the Lord Jesus from the wrath that is to come. When the Lord Jesus Christ descends from heaven to the air before the Tribulation, He will raise the dead in Christ and catch up all the living saints, those who are born again, and who are ready for His coming. The rest will be left behind to enter into and to endure the terrific judgments of the Tribulation. Oh, my sinner friend, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ from the wrath to come!