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The Little Book closes

26 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Sixteenth in a series

The Day and Hour, known only by the Father (Mat 24:36), arrive now for the witnesses.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15:22)

VERSE 11
And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them.

Could the three and a half days epitomize the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation that has now ended? The witnesses are in view of people, tribes, nations, (vs 9) who feel great fear at the spectacle of dead men resurrected though not yet taken up to the heavens.

VERSE 12
And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Is this the promised Resurrection of the dead, after which the living shall also be changed in the twinkling of an eye? (1 Cor 15:52) Or, is it only the raising of two men who are real people, who are not symbolic of all Christians? We will find out in the by-and-by.

VERSE 13
And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The remarkable message of this verse is that some, a remnant, feared God and gave him glory when the two witnesses were resurrected. And this occurred “the same hour”, suggesting a co-temporal event.

Could it be that this passage describes an awakening of hearts by the Holy Spirit, an irresistible grace, yet assisted by the two witnesses? Might this verse mark the salvation of the remnant, also defined as the ‘144,000’? The Jews about whom Paul prophesies in Romans 11:25? Are they the ones who were providentially blinded until the fulness of the gentiles be come in?

If so, are they in Jerusalem geographically or symbolically? Will this remnant also now rise to meet the Lord in the air? (1 Thess 4:17)

In this line of thought, the resurrection occurs ‘mid-tribulation’, that is, after the Great Tribulation that fell on the saints of God and before the much Greater Tribulation that will fall on those who despise the Lord. Simultaneously, at the midpoint, the second woe is ended.

VERSE 14
The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

The earthquake and death toll described in Revelation 11:13 are not massive (as also noted in Post 7). They are minor events when compared to the time when Jerusalem, “the great city” of Revelation 16, will be split into three parts in the seventh bowl judgment. (Rev 16:19).

So, it is doubtful that they define “the second woe.” What then, does?

The third woe comprises the seven bowl judgments, so it would seem that the second woe relates to the end of any prospect for salvation.

It is not so woeful that an earthquake has toppled a tenth of the city or that seven thousand have perished; it is dreadful and a shock that there is now no more hope of salvation. The door to the ark has been shut.

The Little Book showed us a panorama of God's mercy to his covenant peoples— the ‘grafted in’ Christians and the root, the Jews, as they have reached across the generations and centuries, drawing each other to Christ, from the sanctuary of his temple to the streets of their call to go to all the world, and to the Jew first.

The sounding of the seventh trumpet in verse 15 marks the time of ressurection:

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev 11:15)

Paul speaks about a last trumpet in his letter to the Corinthians.

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor 15:51-52)

The many mysteries of the Revelation are beyond our ability to fully discern. It is wonderful that we have an outline and knowledge of our destiny in Christ.

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Overcome

22 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Fifteenth in a series

The scene turns dark as India ink poured into a well. We bend to look, perplexed, but see no edge nor level.

These next verses of the Little Book remind us that the darkest hour is before the dawn, and we think of the many encouragements in the Revelation to be overcomers or conquerors, and to be patient to the end:

To Ephesus: To him that overcometh, to him will I give… (Rev 2:7)
To Smyrna: He that overcometh shall not be hurt of … (Rev 2:11)
To Pergamum: To him that overcometh, to him will I give of… (Rev 2:17)
To Thyatira: And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give… (Rev 2:26)
To Sardis: He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in … (Rev 3:5)
To Philadelphia: He that overcometh, I will make him a … (Rev 3:12)
To Laodicea: He that overcometh, I will give to him to… (Rev 3:21)

Here is the patience and faith of the saints. (Rev 13:10)
Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Rev 14:12)

And think of all the encouragements in Scripture to wait on the Lord, to endure, to keep the faith! A few references: Psalm 37:34, Matthew 24:13, Hebrews 10:38. Even we may be more than conquerors! (Rom 8:37) Let us run with endurance the race that is before us (Heb 12:1) and mount up with wings like eagles (Isa 40:31) as events close in.

Zion is a wilderness (Isa 64:10)

VERSE 7
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.

God determines when the end will come, and by then, Christians will have completed the work of preaching the gospel. Next comes their death in the Lord (Rom 14:8); the beast who gained his power from the dragon (Rev 13:4) has worn out the saints of the most High. (Dan 7:25)

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. (Isa 57:1)

VERSE 8
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Where is Zion? Where is the city of our God? The people of the Lord are not comforted but they are despised. Should they rejoice in their sufferings— do they complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of the church? (Col 1:24) — Understand, this has nothing to do with the cross of Christ but of ministry that is an agony, for if we endure hardship, we will also reign with him. (2 Tim 2:12)

When will the great city be ‘a praise in the earth’? (Isa 62:7) How long will it be before death is swallowed in victory? (1 Cor 15:54) Do we not have the mantle of Elijah, and can we not proclaim with Elisha, “Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?” (2 Ki 2:14) Why must we die in captivity, in Egypt, and why in Sodom, the place of final judgment?

Wherefore should the nations say, Where is now their God? (Ps 115:2)
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. (Jer 23:14)

VERSE 9
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

The unsaved relish the demise of the saved, and wait three and a half days, keeping them in view to ascertain their souls should no longer hover nearby, and to verify they are dead. Rabbis taught that it took the soul three days to transition to the afterlife, so, does this scene reflect that belief?

Now we see that the ‘peoples, tongues, kindreds and nations’ were not only the saints but also their tormentors. Jerusalem is not only the city of God where we are born and live in Christ, but it is also the place of terrifying contrast—of blind zeal and slavery to sin, where our Lord was crucified.

This confusion of opposites must be resolved. We cannot continue in strife and darkness.

It is time for You to act, O LORD, For they have regarded Your law as void. (Ps 119:126)
And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. (Isa 8:17)

The goats and sheep must be separated, the wheat and chaff divided.

VERSE 10
And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

The people who are blind and rebellious show their delight by sending one another gifts to celebrate because their consciences were tormented by the Gospel. Obviously, one can be without spiritual vision, evil in thought and deed, yet nevertheless have some semblance of a conscience that is urgent to quiet.

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Witnessing Power

15 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Fourteenth in a series

We now return to the verse by verse study of the Little Book.

We read in Revelation 11:3 (post 12) that the Lord would give power to his two witnesses and they would prophesy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. We explained that, figuratively, these are Christians who 1) belong to God and 2) obey his Word. However, this concept is not presented as doctrine or in a dogmatic way.

VERSE 4
They are the two olive trees, and candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

They have the oil of anointing of the Holy Spirit which continuously keeps aflame their powerful light and witness about Jesus Christ.

VERSE 5a
If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies:

Their message is a devouring and consuming flame, as is their God’s. (Heb 12:29)

For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12)

VERSE 5b
and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed;

The manner or method of killing our enemies must be only by kindly heaping coals of fire on their heads through sharing the Word, that is, the bread of God. Killing with kindness is always right.

Though Christians are often denigrated for speaking truth and there is a need to season our words with salt (Col 4:6), yet even when our words are judgmental (John 7:24), they are kindness to those who have not understood nor believed the Bible.

…Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words. …
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come,
That great and notable day: And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know;
him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slain: …
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? (Acts 2:14, 20-23, 36-37)

(Included in this passage are an end-time prophecy and one fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.)

Judgments that ‘prick hearts’

VERSE 6
These have the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy and power over the waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.

Since it is God who controls the timing of the catastrophes, even that the waters turn to blood (Rev 8:8), we could view God’s witnesses, those who are his, as assisting to instigate the natural disasters which are also judgments, by their prayers— as often as they will, which would never be more or less often than God's will. At this juncture, these judgments are to open the eyes and ears of the rebellious as well as to enforce punishment.

The prayers of the saints were poured out before the first of the seven trumpet blasts that announce each cataclysm (Rev 8:3-5). In Revelation 6 we heard the saints in heaven cry out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10) The intensity of these cries of God’s people in heaven and on earth will crescendo as the world is overcome by evil, yet they will be salted with tears for the lost (Eze 33:11).

The Lord is judging the earth on behalf of his own, bringing an end to the persecution of his people even as some suffer from the final blows, which are not so terrifying to them as to the ones who have no hope of heaven.

Will some escape the terrors of the last days? (Rev 3:10) If we do not, we can nevertheless advance from strength to strength in the midst of them as God has promised (Ps 84:7), by remaining in his Word and power.

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The Little Book closes

Overcome

Zion is a wilderness (Isa 64:10)

Witnessing Power

Judgments that ‘prick hearts’

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