Is this a literal 200,000,000-man army or a description
of an innumerable host? One opinion is this is not a literal
army consisting of two hundred million. The main idea in the
passage is a vast and overwhelming army. A second opinion,
this army is made up of demons. According to this opinion
the weapons of this army are fire, smoke, and brimstone (v.
17) which are weapons of hell and may further indicate that
the army is made up of the inhabitants of hell, “demons.”
When John recorded this incident that will occur in the
future in what other way could he describe weapons of mass
destruction.
Verses 17-19 describe the army and its tactics or method of
warfare. These are not ordinary horsemen or horses. Since
this refers to a human army, it is probably best taken as
symbolical of modern mechanical warfare. John has never seen
tanks or armored vehicles, so he was given a vision of
horsemen, as in his day, yet the vision went beyond his day
and portrayed modern warfare. The fire, smoke, and brimstone
could refer to any number of devices of modern warfare.
Again, in verse 18 it is mentioned that one-third of
humanity will be killed.
