Revelation 12
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Important messages
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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Important messages
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.
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| 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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Important messages
Children of the Day (Prelude to chapter 11)
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| 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.
Revelation 10
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Important messages
Chapter
10
1. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from
heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like
the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
2. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And
he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
3. and called out with a loud voice, like a lion
roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.
4. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I
was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the
seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
5. And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea
and on the land raised his right hand to heaven
6. and swore by him who lives forever and ever,
who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea
and what is in it, that there would be no more delay.
7. but that in the days of the trumpet call to
be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as
he announced to his servants the prophets.
8. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven
spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the
angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9. So I went to the angel and told him to give
me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your
stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”
10.
And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was
sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
11.
And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and
languages and kings.”
A
mighty Angel with divine characteristics
Since chapter 6, we have been involved with events that will
take place at the opening of seals or the sounding of trumpets. In this chapter
and following through 11 and 12, we will follow a chronology. This chapter
begins with a description of a mighty angel, unlike any other in the book of
Revelation. In fact, throughout the entire Bible, we do not find any angel
similar to this one, with the exception of certain characteristics of the one
called, specifically, the Angel of the Lord. We believe that the Angel of the
Lord is a Christophany, or God, the Son, revealing Himself in the Old
Testament.
Not all the commentators are in agreement, so there is room for
other opinions, but because of the details surrounding Him, it seems to me that
the majestic Angel in this chapter is Christ. Therefore, from this point, I
will capitalize the “A”. It is
somewhat puzzling that He should come in this form so late in the New Testament,
when, from the beginning of the book of Revelation, He comes in His glorified
form and is easily identified. However later, we also hear of the Lion of the
tribe of Judah and the Lamb that was slain, therefore perhaps it is not so
strange that He should manifest Himself as a mighty Angel, as well.
Revelation 9
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Important messages
Chapter
9
1. And
the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth,
and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2.
He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the
smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke
from the shaft.
3.
Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like
the power of scorpions of the earth.
4.
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any
tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5.
They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and
their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
6.
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long
to die, but death will flee from them.
7.
In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads
were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
8.
their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;
9.
they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings
was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
10.
They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for
five months is in their tails.
11.
They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew
is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
The
“woe” trumpets
The
prominence of sinister spiritual activity
becomes very evident in this last set of three trumpets. These are demonic manifestations, as great hordes of evil are released upon the earth in the last days. They are like– obviously a
depiction of things which have not been seen by human beings.
The fifth trumpet (v.1-12): After the third
trumpet, a star fell from heaven and we noticed that it was given a proper
name… Wormwood. We noted that stars sometimes symbolize spiritual
personalities, who have been given authority. The blast of the fifth trumpet
summons a fallen star and the verb tense indicates that it had already fallen,
before John saw it, and was already upon the earth. This one obviously has
personality, as he is given a key to the bottomless pit and he opens it (v.1).
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