Two major earthquakes have shaken my theological world. Elements that caused both appear in Revelation’s sixth vision (Rev. 17–21).1
One quake happened in my mid-twenties. It involved the doctrine of salvation. Bible teachers had taught me to believe Christ died for all men without exception. God loves everyone and wants them to go to heaven when they die. He offers salvation to us. By an act of free will, we can accept or reject this offer.
Imagine my shock when the concept of a sovereign God challenged all those ideas. Through much study and prayer, I rejected much of what I had learned earlier. God has predestined a chosen people to salvation through Jesus Christ. He chose us, we did not choose him (John 15:16; 1 John 4:19).
The other tremor occurred about 20 years later. This time the subject was prophecy. I was a new pastor. A sister in our congregation asked a simple question: “What do you think of James Stuart Russell’s book The Parousia?” The convulsion was underway.
This book challenged my previous assumptions. It claimed God had already fulfilled prophecies I thought were in the future. It showed, for example, that Jesus said his coming would occur in his generation (cf. Matt. 16:27-28; 24:3, 13–14, 34; et al.). My previous prophetic ideas tottered and fell.
My theological ground is more settled now. God, not man, is sovereign in salvation and inmillennialism shows the Bible’s framework for prophecy. These views provide a solid foundation for understanding God’s word.
This post shows how these two doctrines overlap and interact. It uses a passage from The Vision of the Great Whore (Rev. 17:14–18). There, predestination and prophecy work together.
The Predestined Prince
This vision shows how the Lamb overcomes his enemies. The focus is on the Whore (apostate Israel) and how the Lamb (Christ) makes her desolate. But John also sees how Christ defeats the Dragon (Satan), the Sea Beast (Rome), and the Land Beast (Rome’s allies). These victories are certain “for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings” (Rev. 17:14).
Psalm 2 shows how this relates to predestination.2 David prophesied how rebels would rise to oppose to the Messiah (Psa. 2:1–3). God had already decreed (i.e., predestined) what he would do in response. He would set his King on Mount Zion (Psa. 2:4–7). The Lamb would reign as King because God predestined it.
God also predestined the effects of the Lamb’s reign. He would say to the King, “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession” (Psa. 2:8 NKJV). Revelation shows the fulfillment of this promise. John says, “all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest” (Rev. 15:4).
God’s predestined purpose for Christ’s kingdom extends beyond the Whore’s judgment. It reaches past the “last days” (Heb. 1:2) of the Mosaic Age. Christ must “reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25–26).
God has exalted Christ “with his right hand to be a Prince” (Acts 5:31). The Lamb is “the prince of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5) because God, in his sovereignty, decreed it. Christ is the predestined Prince.
The Predestined People
God’s people reign with the Lamb. They attained this privilege because “they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Rev. 17:14). They do not reign through an act of their free will.
This vision has already shown us this truth. Those “whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” would serve the Beast (Rev. 17:8, emphasis added; cp. Rev. 13:8). Only the elect remnant in Israel served Christ (cp. Rom. 11:5). God did not write their names in the book of life when they followed Christ. They followed Christ because God wrote their names in the book of life before he created the world. This cause-effect relationship is important.
This view agrees with other Scriptures where election (God’s choice) extends to the Gentiles. For example, Paul says:
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Rom 8:28–30; emphasis added)
God “hath chosen us (Jew and Gentile) in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph 1:4). Those with the Lamb in Revelation are there because God decreed their salvation.
The Lamb’s people are faithful. The Scriptures know nothing of a kingdom of God comprised of active rebels. Those around the Lamb have sworn allegiance to their King. Their faithfulness is not legalism, but a joyful obedience to God’s commands (cp. John 13:16–17). These people “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth” (Rev. 14:4).
God predestined their faithfulness. Paul says, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Predestination precedes obedience.
The prophets foretold this predestined faithfulness. Isaiah, for example, said the nations would flow into the Lord’s house in the last days of the Mosaic Age. They would then “walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa. 2:1–5).
The kingdom of prophecy comprises a predestined, faithful people. God works in them “to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). He has ordained their faithfulness (John 15:16). This ensures the result he desires. Those with the Lamb are the products of predestination and prophecy.
The Predestined Power
The vision of all nations worshipping Christ in this age seems far-fetched to some people. It shouldn’t. The God who predestined Christ’s crucifixion (Acts 4:27–28) has also determined its effects. No power can prevent the nations coming to Christ in God’s appointed time.
We can go one step further. God uses the rebellious nations as instruments to achieve this goal. An angel tells John God will use the Beast (Rome) and his allied nations to judge the Whore (apostate Israel). They will “make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (Rev. 17:16). The historical record shows they did so in the “great tribulation” of AD 66–70 (Matt. 24:21, 34; Rev. 7:14).
These political and military powers did not destroy the Temple because they wanted to do God’s will. They did not know this act would establish Christ’s kingdom. A world where the nations serve King Jesus was contrary to their desires. They would have repulsed such a vision.
But this anti-Christian empire was a vital part of God’s plan. He had decreed Israel’s judgment and the instruments by which it would come. The angel says, “God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Rev. 17:17; emphasis added).
The Romans did not feel constrained; they acted of their own volition. This does not negate that God predestined their actions.
Scripture provides a consistent testimony about this matter. We have space for only one other example.
Habakkuk wrote his prophecy around 640–615 BC. He said God would use Babylon to punish Judah. This happened in 586 BC when the first Temple fell. The prophet says, “Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction” (Hab. 1:12; emphasis added). Babylon did what God predestined.
The political and military power of the nations is under God’s providence. It guides them in the Messianic Age as it did during the Mosaic Age. God has given authority to Christ to achieve their conversion. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:18–20, NKJV; emphasis added).
The church will succeed in this mission. We will “make disciples of all the nations” because God has predestined it (e.g., Dan. 2:35; Psa. 72:8, 11, 17, 19; Isa. 2:2; 11:9).3 He will overrule the nations who oppose his plan.
Conclusion
This passage (Rev. 17:14–18) shows how predestination and prophecy work together. God has decreed that all nations serve Christ (Rev. 15:4). This continues the theme in earlier prophecies of the Messianic kingdom.
To secure goal, God predestined Jesus to be “Lord of lords, and King of kings” (Rev. 17:14). His retinue comprises predestined persons: those who “are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Rev. 17:14). God predestined that enemies become joyful subjects in Christ’s reign (Psa. 110:1–3). The pagan Empires conform to God’s predestined purposes. “God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will . . . until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Rev. 17:17). Predestination ensures the fulfillment of prophecy.
How is your theological foundation regarding predestination and prophecy? Do you believe “we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11)? Do you believe God predestined that the nations worship Christ in this age?
Let us accept by faith that prophecy is God’s advance notice of his predestined purpose.
Footnotes
- For our outline of Revelation, see Mapping God’s Highway In Revelation.
- Other examples abound.
- This passage list comes from William Symington, Messiah the Prince or, the Mediatorial Dominion of Jesus Christ (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1881), 184.
