In happy contrast, in the ninth vision, John sees the Lamb on Mount Zion, and with him are 144,000 who have the names of the Lamb and of the Father on their foreheads. “They are singing as if a new song before the throne,” having been “bought from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”

This beast “was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss.” Its ten horns battle with the Lamb, but because he is “Lord of lords and King of kings,” he conquers them.

Praise Jah because Jehovah has begun to reign as king! Rejoice and be overjoyed because “the marriage of the Lamb has arrived and his wife has prepared herself”!​—17:2, 5, 8, 14; 18:2, 10; 19:1, 3, 4, 6, 7.

24. (a) How decisive is the warfare waged by the Lamb? (b) What occurs during the thousand years, and what follows at their end?

²⁴ The Lamb makes war in righteousness (19:11–20:10). In the 13th vision, the “King of kings and Lord of lords” leads heavenly armies in righteous warfare. Kings and strong men become carrion for the birds of heaven, and the wild beast and the false prophet are hurled alive into the fiery lake that burns with sulfur. (19:16)