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Lowell Brueckner

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Revelation 12

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Chapter 12


1.  And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

2.  She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.

3. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.

4. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

5.  She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,

6.  and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

7.  Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,

8.  but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

9.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

11. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

12. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

13. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

14. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.

15. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.

16. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

17. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.


Revelation 11

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Chapter 11



 1.  Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,

2.  but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.



Two witnesses
The rebuilt temple (a compromise)



I neglected to point out an important difference in translation in chapter 5, verse 9, when we covered it. The four living creatures and the 24 elders prostrated before the Lamb and sang a new song. In the song, the King James Version states, “(Thou) hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”  That would give great weight to the argument that the 24 elders are the church in heaven. However, the better translation and the one followed by almost all versions, including the Greek/English Interlineal New Testament, does not use the pronoun we and us, but they and them. That might indicate that the church is not yet in heaven in chapter 5.



During the Time of the Gentiles, that is the Church Era, there will be redemption among every nation, that is, every governmental area; every tongue, that is, every language group; every tribe, that is, a clan with a common ancestor, and people, that is, an ethnic group or race. As explained in chapter ten, the Jewish period that Daniel outlined stopped at the crucifixion and the time for the redemption of the Gentile people began.



Still the great majority of saints in the early church were Jewish, before the conversion of Paul. It is clear then, that there was, for all practical purposes, an overlapping of these times. It is logical that the Gentile period might overlap the Jewish time schedule in the last seven years.


Children of the Day

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 Children of the Day (Prelude to chapter 11)

 

Day breaks in Aniak, Alaska
Because this is a book of prophecies of the end times, students of eschatology search from beginning to end, looking for the rapture of the church. They want to know where and when it occurs among all the events in the book. I used to hear frequently that John represented the church, when he heard a voice like a trumpet that said, “Come up here…” (v.4:1). I don’t hear that claim very much now and I don’t know the reason why. However, the majority of people, who hold the view that Revelation prophesies of future events and of a literal Millennium, still feel that the rapture takes place after the messages to the churches in chapters 2 and 3 and before the scene that takes place in chapters 4 and 5. That is called the pre-tribulation rapture view…. simply that Christ will come for His church before Daniel’s 70th Week. 

Others believe that the rapture takes place, when Christ returns as described in Revelation 19 at the end of the tribulation; that is the post-tribulation rapture viewpoint. Verse 7 of that chapter announces the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, after which Christ is presented, sitting on a white horse. They teach that, almost simultaneously, the church will rise to meet the Lord in the air and then will follow Him to earth. They will enter with Him into the Millennium and reign with Him upon the earth.

One things is for sure: Because of the spiritual nature of the writer, John, and because of the style of his book, the rapture is not easy to find here. The apostle Paul laid it out so clearly for us in his epistles (that I asked you to contemplate at the end of the last chapter), but that is not John’s way. With the help of Paul’s descriptions of the rapture, we must try to find the place, where it occurs in Revelation. A friend of mine, who taught expertly on this subject, used to say: “There is no other place like this place, anywhere near this place, so this must be the place!” There is humor in that remark, but it describes quite well the puzzle that we will try to solve.