Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
The Marriage of the Lamb
Revelation 19:7-9 NASB
7 Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he *said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
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The first thing to point out here is that this is not the marriage supper. It is the actual marriage. It literally says the Marriage of the Lamb has come. Not that the marriage supper has come. In any marriage the ceremony always comes first. That is usually followed by a marriage supper which is a celebration of the newly married couple.
The next thing is that it uses the specific words "has come". This is not a past tense or a future tense. This is present tense. The marriage is not coming some time down the road. It did not already happen. It is happening now.
After that in verse 9 it tells us that those who are invited to the supper are blessed. That means the marriage supper has not begun yet. It is yet to come. They are not already guests, they are only invited.
So please do not get the two events confused. Here in Revelation 19, is only the Marriage ceremony. It is not the Marriage supper.
Only a few verses later, we have another event. The Lord is prepared for the Second Coming.
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Revelation 19:11-14 NASB
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
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It paints a serious image of Jesus sitting on a white horse in a robe dipped in blood, but that is not what I want you to focus on. In this case it is the army who will follow Jesus back on white horses I want to focus on.
1) The army is wearing the same thing the bride is wearing. Fine linen.
2) The army is in heaven.
3) The army will ride white horses.
The fact that the Bible made a point of clarifying that the "fine linen" is the righteous acts of the saints, it is completely logical to recognize that in the same book, in the same chapter, when it uses the same exact term again only a few verses later, it still holds the same understanding. The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. This is the first reason to recognize that this army is in fact the Bride.
The next is that they are riding white horses. It would make perfect sense that if the Groom is riding a white horse, that His bride would ride the same. Then you put that together with the fact that there is never a single reference in scripture to any angels riding a horse. Only humans ride horses. It makes it clear that the armies who follow Him back on white horses is in fact the Bride.
The simple facts that the Bride is wearing fine linen, that fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, and that they ride white horses tells us that the Bride is made up of the Saints.
The problem this causes for Post-Tribbers is simple. If the Bride is the saints, and they are in heaven for the marriage of the Lamb, then they are the army that follows Jesus back in the second coming. It means that they are not on earth to be raptured during the second coming. They are following Him back from Heaven on white horses. This literally makes it so the rapture must be prior to the second coming and it is literally impossible for the rapture to be at the second coming. In other words, the Post-Tribulation Rapture is literally impossible to be true.
With their entire belief structure on the line, Post-Tribbers are forced to either say the Bride is not made up of Saints, the Bride is not the army that follows Jesus back on white horses, or admit their beliefs are wrong. It is rare a Post-Tribber will admit they are wrong.
Trying to say the Bride is not the Saints, Post-Tribbers have given me two other possibilities. Neither of them logical, but I will address them both anyway.
The Bride consists of Angels
1) There is no scripture that has angels wearing "fine linen". They wear white linen, clean linen, and a couple other items, but never once are they said to wear "fine" linen.
2) There is no scripture that portrays angels as having a personal close relationship with Jesus that they would be wedded to Him. There is plenty of example of the saints having that kind of relationship with Him, but never angels.
3) Angels never ride horses.
Simply put, there is nothing in scripture that ever connects the angels to being the Bride. Nothing! There is every reason to believe the Bride is the saints. To try and make the bride out to be the angels and not the Saints, is nothing more than a desperate act to make someone other than the saints the bride in order to save their beliefs.
The Bride is the New Jerusalem
On one hand, at least there is some scriptural support for this belief. On the other hand, it is absolutely ridiculous to think this. There are two schools of thought on the New Jerusalem. One is that it is a real city. The other that it is the Church. If it is the church, then we are back to the Bride being the Saints and Post-Trib is false. So they are forced to accept it is a city. For Jesus to push the Saints away and marry an inanimate city would be a very materialistic thing to do, and Jesus always preached against that.
Let's look at the verse that makes them believe the New Jerusalem is the Bride.
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Revelation 21:9-10 NASB
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
-----
So, the angels wants to show John the bride. Then the next scripture is about the New Jerusalem descending. So in their argument, the city must be the bride. So let's take a logical look at this if you will.
Imagine I pick you up in a plane and tell you, "Come on, let me introduce you to my wife." We take off in the plane and a while later we see the city of Detroit come into view. Would you assume the city is my wife? No. Then we turn and head north a little and we see the small suburb city of Auburn Hills come into view. Would you think I married Auburn Hills? No. You might assume my wife lives in the city, but you would not think the city was my wife. Then my house comes into view. Do you think the house is my wife? Once again, no. You would assume the house is my home and my wife is in the house.
If you would have enough sense to know I would not marry a city or a house, but that those are just places where my wife and I live, why would you think the New Jerusalem is the Bride and not a place where the bride lives?
It is an absolutely ludicrous idea to think Jesus would tell the Saints how much He loves them, and even die for them, and portray them and Him as having a relationship, then push them away and marry an inanimate city. Anyone who will accept that the New Jerusalem is the bride over that scripture, will accept any lie given to them in order to hold onto their beliefs.
There is absolutely no scripture to support the bride being the angels. There is absolutely no common sense in making the bride the New Jerusalem. These are both clearly acts of desperation to hold onto their beliefs, rather than admit they are wrong and change. Which is clear evidence to the idea that they simply dont care about the truth. All they care about is making their own beliefs right, even if they have to throw all common sense out the window and twist scripture to do it.
Sadly this is only one place where they will do such a thing. They do it again with the Dead coming to life in Revelation 20:4.
Return to the Real Rapture Truth
Go to The Dead who come to life
7 Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he *said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
-----
The first thing to point out here is that this is not the marriage supper. It is the actual marriage. It literally says the Marriage of the Lamb has come. Not that the marriage supper has come. In any marriage the ceremony always comes first. That is usually followed by a marriage supper which is a celebration of the newly married couple.
The next thing is that it uses the specific words "has come". This is not a past tense or a future tense. This is present tense. The marriage is not coming some time down the road. It did not already happen. It is happening now.
After that in verse 9 it tells us that those who are invited to the supper are blessed. That means the marriage supper has not begun yet. It is yet to come. They are not already guests, they are only invited.
So please do not get the two events confused. Here in Revelation 19, is only the Marriage ceremony. It is not the Marriage supper.
Only a few verses later, we have another event. The Lord is prepared for the Second Coming.
-----
Revelation 19:11-14 NASB
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
-----
It paints a serious image of Jesus sitting on a white horse in a robe dipped in blood, but that is not what I want you to focus on. In this case it is the army who will follow Jesus back on white horses I want to focus on.
1) The army is wearing the same thing the bride is wearing. Fine linen.
2) The army is in heaven.
3) The army will ride white horses.
The fact that the Bible made a point of clarifying that the "fine linen" is the righteous acts of the saints, it is completely logical to recognize that in the same book, in the same chapter, when it uses the same exact term again only a few verses later, it still holds the same understanding. The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. This is the first reason to recognize that this army is in fact the Bride.
The next is that they are riding white horses. It would make perfect sense that if the Groom is riding a white horse, that His bride would ride the same. Then you put that together with the fact that there is never a single reference in scripture to any angels riding a horse. Only humans ride horses. It makes it clear that the armies who follow Him back on white horses is in fact the Bride.
The simple facts that the Bride is wearing fine linen, that fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, and that they ride white horses tells us that the Bride is made up of the Saints.
The problem this causes for Post-Tribbers is simple. If the Bride is the saints, and they are in heaven for the marriage of the Lamb, then they are the army that follows Jesus back in the second coming. It means that they are not on earth to be raptured during the second coming. They are following Him back from Heaven on white horses. This literally makes it so the rapture must be prior to the second coming and it is literally impossible for the rapture to be at the second coming. In other words, the Post-Tribulation Rapture is literally impossible to be true.
With their entire belief structure on the line, Post-Tribbers are forced to either say the Bride is not made up of Saints, the Bride is not the army that follows Jesus back on white horses, or admit their beliefs are wrong. It is rare a Post-Tribber will admit they are wrong.
Trying to say the Bride is not the Saints, Post-Tribbers have given me two other possibilities. Neither of them logical, but I will address them both anyway.
The Bride consists of Angels
1) There is no scripture that has angels wearing "fine linen". They wear white linen, clean linen, and a couple other items, but never once are they said to wear "fine" linen.
2) There is no scripture that portrays angels as having a personal close relationship with Jesus that they would be wedded to Him. There is plenty of example of the saints having that kind of relationship with Him, but never angels.
3) Angels never ride horses.
Simply put, there is nothing in scripture that ever connects the angels to being the Bride. Nothing! There is every reason to believe the Bride is the saints. To try and make the bride out to be the angels and not the Saints, is nothing more than a desperate act to make someone other than the saints the bride in order to save their beliefs.
The Bride is the New Jerusalem
On one hand, at least there is some scriptural support for this belief. On the other hand, it is absolutely ridiculous to think this. There are two schools of thought on the New Jerusalem. One is that it is a real city. The other that it is the Church. If it is the church, then we are back to the Bride being the Saints and Post-Trib is false. So they are forced to accept it is a city. For Jesus to push the Saints away and marry an inanimate city would be a very materialistic thing to do, and Jesus always preached against that.
Let's look at the verse that makes them believe the New Jerusalem is the Bride.
-----
Revelation 21:9-10 NASB
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
-----
So, the angels wants to show John the bride. Then the next scripture is about the New Jerusalem descending. So in their argument, the city must be the bride. So let's take a logical look at this if you will.
Imagine I pick you up in a plane and tell you, "Come on, let me introduce you to my wife." We take off in the plane and a while later we see the city of Detroit come into view. Would you assume the city is my wife? No. Then we turn and head north a little and we see the small suburb city of Auburn Hills come into view. Would you think I married Auburn Hills? No. You might assume my wife lives in the city, but you would not think the city was my wife. Then my house comes into view. Do you think the house is my wife? Once again, no. You would assume the house is my home and my wife is in the house.
If you would have enough sense to know I would not marry a city or a house, but that those are just places where my wife and I live, why would you think the New Jerusalem is the Bride and not a place where the bride lives?
It is an absolutely ludicrous idea to think Jesus would tell the Saints how much He loves them, and even die for them, and portray them and Him as having a relationship, then push them away and marry an inanimate city. Anyone who will accept that the New Jerusalem is the bride over that scripture, will accept any lie given to them in order to hold onto their beliefs.
There is absolutely no scripture to support the bride being the angels. There is absolutely no common sense in making the bride the New Jerusalem. These are both clearly acts of desperation to hold onto their beliefs, rather than admit they are wrong and change. Which is clear evidence to the idea that they simply dont care about the truth. All they care about is making their own beliefs right, even if they have to throw all common sense out the window and twist scripture to do it.
Sadly this is only one place where they will do such a thing. They do it again with the Dead coming to life in Revelation 20:4.
Return to the Real Rapture Truth
Go to The Dead who come to life
