Revelation 11:15

And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever.

This does not signal the approaching end of the world; that event has already occurred. Only then, or after then, shall it be true that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ. As we were told in Revelation 10:7, "In the days of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished (not shall be finished) the mystery of God. When the seventh angel sounds, it is already finished. On the cross, Jesus bowed his head and said, "It is finished," and this seventh trumpet is the echo of the glorious achievement there. What is finished? It is finished with evil, with Satan, with wicked men, with sin, and with death. "This announcement tells us that the battle of the ages is ended."[84] "Evil has finally and forever been put down; and good is finally and forever triumphant."[85] Caird was wrong in seeing here, "a jubilant fanfare proclaiming the enthronement of the King of Kings."[86] That event occurred at the ascension of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).

And there followed great voices in heaven ... These are the voices of the redeemed of all ages, and including all of the heavenly host. Lenski's beautiful summary of this is:

Whose great voices are here referred to? They certainly are the voices of all the saints and all the angels in heaven after the day of judgment has brought the world and time to an end. This entire vision is wonderful in majesty and in beauty and is beyond all human and earthly conceptions. Our stammering comment must not dim any of the glory. The great chorus declares the fact in two beautiful poetical lines: The kingship of the world became our Lord's and his Christ's; And he shall reign for the eons of the eons.[87]

The kingdom of the world is become ... Lenski translated the verb here "became" because it refers to an event already past in the vision. It happened in Revelation 11:1-13.

Those are undoubtedly right who perceive that these three series (seals, trumpets and bowls) are not consecutive, are not twenty-one successive chapters of world history, or of church history, but that each group of seven takes us over the same ground and shows us three groups of parallel scenes.[88]

The kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ ... The use of the singular "kingdom" should be noted. It is not the "kingdoms" but the "kingdom" of the world that now belongs to the Lord. The time here is evidently that foretold in 1 Corinthians 15:24, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father; but this took nothing from Christ, who is still on the throne with the Father. Thus, the great heavenly chorus is not here celebrating the beginning of the reign of Christ, but in a sense, the end of it! The glorious and eternal extension of it in the everlasting state fuses it into God's eternal kingdom.

And he shall reign for ever and ever ... The "He" here is the Father and the Son; they are one, and that unity appears here.

Such observations as these, however, must not obscure the truth that this eternal reign of Christ is now going on in that glorious kingdom of Christ which began on Pentecost. "The reign of God began with the Incarnation (and related events) ... It is the reign of God through his anointed, the Messiah."[89] McDowell also viewed the subsequent vision of the birth of Christ (Revelation 12) as a proof of this.

[84] Frank L. Cox, op. cit., p. 76.

[85] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 77.

[86] G. B. Caird, op. cit., p. 141.

[87] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 353.

[88] Ibid.

[89] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 122.