The Scofield Bible Commentary, by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, [1917], at sacred-texts.com
Salvation
(See Scofield) - (Rom 1:16).
beasts
Living creatures.
(See Scofield) - (Eze 1:5).
wife
The "Lamb's wife" here is the "bride", (Rev 21:9), the Church, identified with the "heavenly Jerusalem", (Heb 12:22); (Heb 12:23), and to be distinguished from Israel, the adulterous and repudiated "wife" of Jehovah, yet to be restored; (Isa 54:1-10); (Hos 2:1-17); who is identified with the earth (Hos 2:23). A forgiven and restored wife could not be called either a virgin (Co2 11:2); (Co2 11:3) or a bride.
righteousness
The garment is Scripture is a symbol of righteousness. In the bad ethical sense, it symbolizes self-righteousness (for example, (Isa 64:6); (Phi 3:6-8) the best that a moral and religious man under law could do). In the good ethical sense, the garment symbolizes "the righteousness of God. . .upon all them that believe."
(See Scofield) - (Rom 3:21).
saw heaven opened
The vision is of the departure from heaven of Christ and the saints and angels preparatory to the catastrophe in which Gentile world-power, headed up in the Beast, is smitten by the "stone cut out without hands". (Dan 2:34); (Dan 2:35).
white horse
Contrast (Rev 6:2); (Psa 45:4).
Contrast (Mat 21:2-5).
Day of the Lord
(Day of Jehovah). (Isa 2:10-22); (Isa 4:1-6); (Isa 11:10-13); (Isa 13:9-16); (Isa 24:21-23); (Isa 26:20-21); (Isa 63:1-6); (Isa 66:15-24); (Rev 19:11-21).
Come
Armageddon (the ancient hill and valley of Megiddo, west of Jordan in the plain of Jezreel) is the appointed place for the beginning of the great battle in which the Lord, at His coming in glory, will deliver the Jewish remnant besieged by the Gentile world-powers under the Beast and False Prophet. (Rev 16:13-16); (Zac 12:1-9).
Apparently, the besieging hosts, whose approach to Jerusalem is described in (Isa 10:28-32) alarmed by the signs which precede the Lord's coming (Mat 24:29); (Mat 24:30) have fallen back to Megiddo, after the events of (Zac 14:2) where their destruction begins; a destruction consummated in Moab and the plains of Idumea. (Isa 63:1-6). This battle is the first event in "the day of Jehovah" (Isa 2:12) and is the fulfilment of the smiting-stone prophecy of (Dan 2:35).
make war
The day of Jehovah (called, also, "that day," and "the great day") is that lengthened period of time beginning with the return of the Lord in glory, and ending with the purgation of the heavens and the earth by fire preparatory to the new heavens and the new earth. (Isa 65:17-19); (Isa 66:22); (Pe2 3:13); (Rev 21:1).
The order of events appears to be:
(1) The return of the Lord in glory. (Mat 24:29); (Mat 24:30).
(2) the destruction of the Beast and his host, "the kings of the earth and their armies," and the false prophet, which is the "great and terrible" aspect of the day. (Rev 19:11-21).
(3) the judgment of the nations. (Zac 14:1-9); (Mat 25:31-46).
(4) the thousand years, that is, the kingdom-age. (Rev 20:4-6).
(5) the Satanic revolt and its end. (Rev 20:7-10).
(6) the second resurrection and final judgment (Rev 20:11-15) and
(7) the "day of God," earth purged by fire. (Pe2 3:10-13).
The day of the Lord is preceded by seven signs:
(1) The sending of Elijah. (Mal 4:5); (Rev 11:3-6).
(2) cosmical disturbances. (Joe 2:1-12); (Mat 24:29); (Act 2:19); (Act 2:20); (Rev 6:12-17).
(3) the insensibility of the professing church. (Th1 5:1-3).
(4) the apostasy of the professing church, then become "Laodicea". (Th2 2:3).
(5) the rapture of the true church. (Th1 4:17).
(6) the manifestation of the "man of sin," the Beast. (Th2 2:1-8).
(7) the apocalyptic judgments. (Revelation 11-18).
make war
Armageddon (battle of).
See note, (Rev 16:14); (Rev 19:17).
(See Scofield) - (Rev 19:17).
Beast
The Beast, Summary:
This "Beast" is the "little horn" of (Dan 7:24-26), and "desolator" of (Dan 9:27), the "abomination of desolation" of (Mat 24:15), the "man of sin" of (Th2 2:4-8), earth's last and most awful tyrant, Satan's fell instrument of wrath and hatred against God and the Jewish saints. He is, perhaps, identical with the rider on the white horse of (Rev 6:2), who begins by the peaceful conquest of three of the ten kingdoms into which the former Roman empire will then be divided, but who soon establishes the ecclesiastical and governmental tyranny described in Daniel 7, 9, 11; Revelation 13. To him, Satan gives the power which he offered to Christ. (Mat 4:8); (Mat 4:9); (Rev 13:4).
See "The great tribulation," (Psa 2:5).
(See Scofield) - (Rev 7:14).