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Revelation 14 Explained! (As best I can)
The Book of Revelation is notorious for being the most difficult book to understand due to the extensive use of symbolism in the events and things it describes. This makes it one fo teh most contested books of the Bible, some believing it to be a coded letter written and relevant only to the Christians John of Patmos is writing to. Others believe it to explain and describe in detail, what will happen during the end times. Despite this, it was the first book I read once I became a Christian and is one of my favorites. Revelation 14 describes John of Patmos' vision of the 144,000 sealed and what's called the "soul harvest" of the earth before Christ's Second Coming. I'll do a run through of my interpretation this chapter based on what I read from my NIV (New International Version) of the Bible. For the benefit of simplicity, I'm going to look at it as describing the end times.
John has a vision where he sees Jesus "the Lamb" and 144,000 people. There's different interpretations of just who the 144,000 people are. Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the 144,000 whereas others might believe that the 144,000 is the number of Jews who become Christians during the end times. Looking at the other verses in this section, I think the 144,000 are Christians ( purchased from among men- v4, redeemed from the earth v4), who have not had premarital or extramarital sex (did not defile themselves with women for they kept themselves pure-v4), obey God's guidance in their lives (follow the Lamb wherever he goes), and don't lie (No lie was found in their mouths- v5). Looking at the next part in verse 1, " who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" is symbolic imagery I think. When God talks about writing his law upon our hearts, I think he means that he wants us to agree with and know why his laws are in place, why he commands what he does. This verse seems little different to me. I think it's symbolism for a particular wisdom or uprightness before God (hence, God and Jesus' names written on their forehead. Verse 2 talks about sounds like harps, coming from heaven and only the 144,000 can learn it. The relationship with God is described in many ways, one of which is a pipe line. If a connector piece is loose or the pipe's disconnected, whatever runs through the pipe can't get through. In the same sense, if we don't have an undamaged connection to God, we can't hear Him speak. Now just translate this to song, the 144,000 are people who hear God's song, they're connection with God is intact.
Moving on to the next section, beginning with verse 6, this gives warnings to those on earth and talks about Babylon. John sees an angel flying overhead and says that the angel "had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on earth" (v6). I'm not sure what this means since I don't think and angel will literally fly through the sky in sight of the people on earth but the angel gives a warning that is quite literal. "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water" (v7). The angel seems to basically be saying that time is running out on the choice to follow God or not and to those who follow him, prepare yourselves and examine your conduct that it stands scrutiny.
A second angel follows the first, saying " Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries" (v8). For an explanation of Babylon the Great, look at chapter 17 and 18. I think Babylon the Great represents materialism and the love of self and material things in general. Babylon was an ancient city that the Jews were held captive in between the time of Zechariah and Malachi. So I think Babylon is a reference to that captivity and representative of people being 'held captive' by things other tham God.So the lament the merchants make in chapter 18 could be representative of people lamenting the loss of value their material things because of their trust in those things to make them happy.
A third angel follows the second, giving a warning to not worship a being refered to in this book as " the beast". He is explained in the previous chapter (13). This beast will force everyone to bear something that identifies them as his follower, alleges us to him in some way. Whatever that is, I don't know, maybe a tattoo or microchip but who knows. The angels says that whoever worships this beast or the image he sets up for worship " will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath". Basically, God's going to be royally mad and he won't hold back his anger on those who worship the beast and not Him. I don't know if they will literally be tortured in sulfur but it won't be pretty and it's going to last a loooong time with no relief " ...forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast..." (v11). The next verse makes a statement of advice, " This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus". Not having other gods besides God will come in direct conflict with worshipping the beast. Those that don't worship him will be excluded and ostracized, chpater 13 verse17 says that not having this mark will make it very hard to go about daily tasks. I don't know if this verse is to be taken literally but whoever doesn't take the mark will have a hard time of it and so the angel advises patience to those who don't take the mark.
Finally, after all this doom anf gloom, comes the good part, " Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on" (v13). I think " in the Lord" means the followers of Jesus at this time so this part is saying that Christians who die after the marking of the 144,000 will enjoy eternal life. Reading on, it says, " they willl rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them". This is saying that the actions or works of those who die after this point will show that their hearts are right before God, that their motives are pure.
Now comes a wierd part, the earth harvest. Verse 14 describes the appearance of Jesus in this part, " one like a son of man" (v14). The crown represents his statuse as King of heaven and the sickle represents the experience of becoming Christian, all the ways people finally begin to believe and follow Jesus. An angel comes out of the temple then and tells Jesus to reap the earth of it's harvest, " for the harvest of teh earth is ripe" (v15). The harvest is the souls of those who live on earth so this harvest is representative of the time when everyone believes what they believe as much as they're going to believe it, if that makes sense, heh. Basically, noone's going to be able to change their minds on whether or not to follow Christ after this point. God's given people plenty of chances and the time to change minds is up. I'm not sure what to make of the winepress trampeling but I think maybe it's a judgement of people's 'fruit', how theiractions show the motives of their hearts. Look up Galatians for more on the fruits of the spirit. God judges our actions, taking out all his anger at our failures on them and the blood reaching to " the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia (about 180 miles) represents our fallen nature, we've screwed up quite a bit. It could also be a judgement of worldly things, like materialism and self-interest, and the 'bad fruit", bad actions, that come from following that.
Like I said though, the book of Revelation is very volatile because of all the symbolism in it. I haven't gone very indepth with this either and am going off of how others interpret it and my own speculations. I don't pretend to be an expert on this book or on Christianity in general.This just scratches the surface of cross referencing these verses and researching John of Patmos and the time he lived in. Feel free to use it for ideas though and it definately has potential for disussion topics.