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Crushing the Serpent’s HeadRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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And they advanced over the breadth of the earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city.”—Revelation 20:7-9a.
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Crushing the Serpent’s HeadRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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24. (a) What is “the beloved city,” and how can it be encircled? (b) What is represented by “the camp of the holy ones”?
24 “The beloved city” must be the city that is spoken of by the glorified Jesus Christ to his followers at Revelation 3:12 and that he calls “the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God.” Since this is a heavenly organization, how could those earthly forces ‘encircle’ it? In that they encircle “the camp of the holy ones.” A camp is outside a city; therefore, “the camp of the holy ones” must represent those on earth outside the heavenly location of New Jerusalem who loyally support Jehovah’s governmental arrangement. When the rebels under Satan attack those faithful ones, the Lord Jesus regards it as an assault on him. (Matthew 25:40, 45) “Those nations” will try to wipe out all that the heavenly New Jerusalem has accomplished in making earth a paradise. So in attacking “the camp of the holy ones,” they are also attacking “the beloved city.”
The Lake of Fire and Sulfur
25. How does John describe the outcome of the rebels’ attack on “the camp of the holy ones,” and what will this mean for Satan?
25 Will this final effort by Satan succeed? Certainly not—no more than the attack that Gog of Magog is due to make on spiritual Israel in our day will succeed! (Ezekiel 38:18-23) John vividly describes the outcome: “But fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.
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