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
Labels:
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
Labels:
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.
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