(5) The complete destruction of the persecuting power of the Roman beast and his subordinate false prophet-- 19:19-21. The fact that these visions anticipated events before, during and after the destruction of Jerusalem, should be observed and retained in the mind, as the considerations advance from one stage and scene to another. The scene of verses nineteen to twenty-one reverted to the spiritual battle between the heavenly armies of the Rider, and the armies of the Roman beast--the heathen persecutor. It was after the destruction of Jerusalem; and after the evil forces of heathenism were diverted from the scene of Jerusalem and Judaism to converge on the church. But the vision saw the triumph of Christianity. It was declared in verse twenty that the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet . . . with which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. This beast was the original first sea-beast of chapter 13--personified in the emperor, the source of authority for all the persecutions. The false prophet was identical with the second land-beast, of Judea and Palestine, described in chapter 13, as the subordinate of the imperia1 beast who seduced the inhabitants of Judea to worship the emperor. As previously postulated, the mark of the beast was submission to the decree for emperor worship and acceptance of the image of the emperor as deity and the worship of the Roman image in acts of idolatry for the emperor. After accomplishing the destruction of Jerusalem and the obliteration of the Jewish state, the vision represents the beast as having lost the battle against the church. The invincible spiritual forces of Christianity prevailed against all powers of heathenism, and both the beast and his satellite false prophet were taken; that is, captured and consigned to the bottomless pit of banishment, symbolized by the lake of fire burning with brimstone. The object of this vision was to symbolize the war of righteousness led by Christ Himself, the Head of the church, against the wickedness of heathenism. It described the progress of the persecution of the church, after the fall of Jerusalem, through the period of tribulation of chapter 2:10; and of the hour of trial in chapter 3:10; in the deadly conflict with the heathenism of the Roman world. The entire second psalm is a magnificent prophecy of the defeat of all the cohorts of heathenism by the King whom God had set “ upon the holy hill of Zion,” and is worthy of insertion here in its entirety: “ Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’ s vessel. Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” This psalm was quoted more than once in the New Testament as having fulfillment in the universal expansion of the kingdom of Christ. The messianic psalm finds its climax in these visions of Revelation where the “ heathen raged” and “ the kings of the earth set themselves . . . against his Anointed.” The rulers did “ take counsel together,” and determined to “ break their bands asunder,” and thus to scatter the forces of the Anointed; but “ the Lord shall have them in derision” and “ shall break them with a rod of iron” which was done in the descriptions and fulfillment of these visions. In this imagery the Psalmist foresaw the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, and the defeat of all heathen opposition by the gospel’ s rod of iron--the invincible Word of Truth.