Revelation 19:11-16 “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. (12) His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. (13) He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (14) And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. (15) Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (16) And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of Lords.”
In the previous section we discussed the two armies that will oppose the second coming of the Lord Jesus, i.e. Satan’s army of angels and the anti-Christ’s army of men. And so in this section we want to discuss the armies that will accompany the Lord Jesus when He returns to the earth. We know that the Lord Jesus will return with more than one army on that day, for the above quoted passage of scripture speaks about the armies (plural) in heaven following the Lord Jesus on white horses. And so Jesus will also have two armies on that day. The first will be the army of saints. We know that to be the case, because once the marriage supper of Lamb has ended, this passage refers to the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, following the Lord Jesus on white horses as He descends to the earth. The second army will be the army of the Lord’s Holy angels, for scripture teaches us that our Lord will return to the earth with His mighty angels (2 Thessalonians 1:7). The passage quoted above declares that the Lord’s armies will be riding on white horses, which again clearly shows us that the battle of Armageddon will not be a modern conflict involving, planes and tanks, etc, because the opposing armies will face each other on horseback. Obviously the army of the saints will face off against the army of the anti-Christ in the physical location of Armageddon. We have estimated that the army of the anti-Christ will number 300 million men. And so bearing in mind that all of the Lord’s saints will be present on that occasion (1 Thessalonians 3:13), the question is asked what will be the number of the saints’ army? The short answer to that question is that we don’t know. Nevertheless in order for us to understand certain aspects of the Lord’s millennial kingdom, it is necessary for us to estimate what that number will be. In order for us to do that, we can look at scripture to give us some idea as to what that number might be, bearing in mind that our Lord Jesus said that few (not many) find the narrow gate to life (Matthew 7:14). There are two accounts in scripture where God reveals to us the number of His saints; and so if we were to take those two passages and apply those numbers as a percentage of the comparable population at the time, we can then use that percentage as a basis to estimate what the total number of saints will be. The first account is when Israel rebelled against God, and God told Elijah that He had reserved 7000 men to Himself who had not bowed their knee to Baal (Romans 11:4). At that time, the total population of Israel was approximately 3 million people. Therefore as a percentage, the saints made up 0.23% of the total population. The second account is when God told Jonah that the city of Nineveh had a population of 120 thousand people (Jonah 4:11); we know that God had reserved the people of Nineveh for Himself, because Jesus said that they would be included with the saints that would judge the world in the last day (Luke 11:32). At that time, the total population of the earth was approximately 75 million people[1]. Therefore as a percentage, the saints made up 0.16% of the total population. Therefore the average of the two percentages (0.23% and 0.16%) equals 0.20%. It is estimated that by the year 2100 AD, the total number of people born into the earth from the time of Adam will be approximately 126 billion[2]. Therefore if we were to apply the average percentage of 0.20% to the total number of people born into the earth (126 billion), that would equate to a total number of saints of approximately 250 million. Clearly this number is pure guesswork and must be viewed in that light. Nevertheless as we will see in later sections of this series, having some idea of the number of saints helps us to more clearly understand certain aspects of the Lord’s millennial kingdom. And so we see that the Lord Jesus, accompanied by His army of 250 million saints, will face off against the anti-Christ and his army of 300 million men. As already mentioned, two such immense armies facing each other, is almost beyond our imagination. So what about the Lord’s army of angels? Obviously we have no idea as to how many angels will accompany the Lord Jesus on His return. Nevertheless as we have already mentioned, the fact that one third of God’s created angels form part of Satan’s kingdom, means that two thirds of the angels form part of God’s kingdom. And so it is not unreasonable to expect that at least one third of God’s angels will accompany the Lord Jesus on that day, thus ensuring that an equal number of God’s angels will face off against Satan and his angels on that day. These two armies, numbering in the billions, will face off against each other in the realm just above Armageddon.
Michael E.B. Maher
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