9, 10. (a) When did Christ strap on his sword, and how did he immediately put it to use? (b) How will Christ yet use his sword?

⁹ Read Psalm 45:3. Jehovah instructs his King to ‘strap his sword on his side,’ thus authorizing Jesus to wage war against all who oppose God’s sovereignty and to execute His judgments on them. (Ps. 110:2) Because Christ is an invincible Warrior-King, he is addressed as “O mighty one.” He strapped on his sword in 1914 and was victorious over Satan and his demons, whom he hurled out of heaven to the vicinity of the earth.​—Rev. 12:7-9.

¹⁰ That was only the beginning of the King’s victorious ride. He must yet “complete his conquest.” (Rev. 6:2) Jehovah’s judgments are still to be executed on all elements of Satan’s system on earth, and Satan and his demons must be neutralized. First to go will be Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. It is Jehovah’s purpose to use the political rulers to destroy this wicked “prostitute.” (Rev. 17:16, 17) Next, the Warrior-King will proceed against Satan’s political system, bringing it to nothing. Christ, who is also called “the angel of the abyss,” will then complete his conquest by abyssing Satan and his demons. (Rev. 9:1, 11; 20:1-3) Let us see how Psalm 45 prophesied these exciting events.

17. (a) What does the white horse that Christ rides represent? (b) What do the sword and the bow stand for?

¹⁷ Read Psalm 45:5. The King is mounted on a white horse, representing warfare that is clean and righteous in Jehovah’s eyes. (Rev. 6:2; 19:11) In addition to a sword, he is equipped with a bow. We read: “I saw, and look! a white horse, and the one seated on it had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went out conquering and to complete his conquest.” Both the sword and the bow represent the means that Christ will use to execute judgment on his enemies.

18. How will Christ’s “arrows” prove to be “sharp”?

¹⁸ In poetic language, the psalmist prophesies that the King’s ‘arrows are sharp, piercing the hearts of his enemies’ and ‘making peoples fall before him.’ The carnage will be earth wide. Jeremiah’s prophecy foretells: “Those slain by Jehovah in that day will be from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth.” (Jer. 25:33) A parallel prophecy states: “I saw also an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice and said to all the birds that fly in midheaven: ‘Come here, be gathered together to the great evening meal of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of military commanders and the flesh of strong men and the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, and the flesh of all, of freemen as well as of slaves and of small ones and great.’”​—Rev. 19:17, 18.

19. How will Christ “go on to victory” and complete his conquest?

¹⁹ After destroying Satan’s wicked system of things on earth, Christ ‘in his splendor’ will “go on to victory.” (Ps. 45:4) He will complete his conquest by abyssing Satan and his demons for the full length of the Thousand Year Reign. (Rev. 20:2, 3) With the Devil and his angels then in a state of deathlike inactivity, earth’s inhabitants will be free of satanic influence and will be able to live in total subjection to their victorious and glorious King. Before they see the earth gradually transformed into a global paradise, however, they will have another reason to rejoice with their King and his heavenly associates. That joyful event will be examined in the following article.