In verse fourteen the armies that followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were the overcomers of the tribulation--redeemed from the period of persecution. In verse fifteen it was declared that the Rider would smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. The process of this smiting was indicated in God’ s commission to Jeremiah, chapter 1:10: “ See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” In the Revelation text the phrases, smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron, were symbolic of the impact of the gospel on the heathen world. This inherent power and force of Christianity was prophesied in the second psalm, chapter 2:1-3: “ 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.”