The Revelation – Chapter 10 & 11

CHAPTER 10 AND 11

INTERLUDE

Era of the Little Scroll Opened

There is a break for an explanation.   John is told to measure the true sanctuary  (the people of God – I Cor 3:16, 6:19; II Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21).  He is told not to measure the outer court (the Apostate Church – the outer court or the Court of the Gentiles was an addition made by the Rabbis in the second Temple) for it will be given over to the nations. There will be great persecution for 42 months.  The witnesses will prophesy against those in the outer court.

This chapter begins with a mighty Angel coming down from Heaven.   There are seven details about this Angel to note:

1 wrapped in a cloud                                    God’s protection since the Exodus

[Ex 14:24; II Chron 5:14; Mat 17:5] 

2 rainbow over his head                               God’s covenant with Noah

[Gen 9:13-16; Ezek 1:28]

3 face like the sun                                        indication of the glory of God

[Ex 34:30; Num 6:25; Mat 13:43, 17:2]

4 legs like pillars of fire                                the walk of God is Holy

[Ex 13:22]

5 little scroll in hands                                               the Bible

[Duet 29:21; Dan 12:4; Jer 36:2]

6 standing with one foot on sand         claiming the world for the Gospel

the other on sea                                                     [Dan 12:5; Ezek 47:6]

7 calling out like a lion                                 God’s word being preached

[Amos 3:8]

The Angel, who was standing with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, that there should be no more delay [Rev 10:6].  At the sounding of the last trumpet the mystery of God will be revealed.

John is instructed to take the opened little scroll from the hands of the angel standing over the sea and land and eat it.  This scroll is both sweet and bitter.  It is a picture of the Reformation.  The Word of God brought much comfort, faith and sweetness to their lives but with it also the bitterness of persecution.

There should be a time no longer

The phrase that there should be a time no longer [Rev 10:6] is prophetic language indicating an era of no more than 360 years (a time equals 360 days or 360 years).  This last ”time” is all the apostate church will be given to persecute God’s people.  The persecution will not last more than one time (or 360 years).  The “times of the Gentiles” [Luke 21:24] are ending.  What comes next cannot by definition be Gentile.  However it also cannot be wholly Jewish as the scriptures always speaks of two witnesses.

This then will be the fulfillment of the mystery of God [Eph 1:9-10; 3:4-6] that the body of Christ is both Jew and Gentile; they are fellow heirs, of the same promise.

This chart begins with various dates heralding the decline of Babylon’s ability to persecute God’s people ending with possible dates for the end of the Angel’s Oath or the last time given.

360 years

1510AD     ———————————————    1870AD

Luther teaches Just live by faith First immigration of Jews to Palestine (see Zionists)

1517AD     ———————————————    1877AD

Luther’s 95 thesis                   A converted Jew, Samuel Schereschewsky, translated

the Bible into Mandarin Chinese

1529AD     ———————————————    1889AD

Diet  (court) of Spires                                                 “The Ralliement”  *

1555AD     ——————————————–      1915AD

Religious freedom of Augsburg                           Beginnings of WWI

1563AD     ———————————————    1923AD

End of the Council of Trent             Palestine Mandate ratified by League of Nations

1572AD      ——————————————-      1932AD

St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre                               Hitler elected Chancellor

1648AD     ——————————————–      2008AD

End of The Thirty Years’ War             Reoccurring Date – Possible Seventieth Jubilee

Pope Leo XIII

* General George Boulanger won a striking victory in Paris.  However, he did not march on Elyse’e Palace to make himself dictator.  Later he died while in exile.  The Boulanger fiasco was a blow to the Monarchist and their ally, the Church of Rome.  Pope Leo XIII, discouraged by the failures of the monarchist, turned to a policy of reconciliation “The Ralliement”.  This was motivated by the popes desire to secure French aid for the solution of the Roman question regarding relations with the Italian government.

The Little Scroll John is told to eat the scroll.  Although it would be sweet as honey, it would also be bitter to the stomach.   Those who read The Word truly tasted nothing sweeter than salvation by grace.  However the truth brought them bitter persecutions even unto death.

During this era, all considered scripture inspired and inerrant.  The Church of Rome claimed to be the only one with the authority given from God to interpret The Word.   With the Reformation Wycliffe and others began translating The Word into the common languages of the peoples.  It was not long before the individual laypersons realized the accessibility of God and their own ability to discern, through the Holy Spirit. This enabled the layperson to distance himself or herself from the control of the Church of Rome.

On Oct 31, 1517 Luther nailed his theses, to the door of the church at Wittenberg, in which he denied that the Pope had the right to forgive sin.  His writing of The Babylonian Captivity of the Church identified the papacy as the anti-christ and the Church of Rome as the whore of Babylon.   However, the Church of Rome did not give up easily and continued their wide spread persecution and created a Counter Reformation against the reformers.

Seven Thunders The Council of Trent 1545-1563.

Council of Trent

The Seven Thunders try to drown out the Angel.  John is instructed not to write what the Thunders say because what they say is a lie.  This is the Counter Reformation.  At the Council of Trent there were seven direct counter responses to The Reformation.

1 In Session IV April 8, 1546 … Apostolic church tradition is equal to Scripture.

2 In Session V June 17,1546 …Decreed that the Nature of Man and the consequences of original sin are removed at baptism.

3 In Session VI Jan 13, 1547 … Declared that only after his co-operation with the gratuitous divine assistance, is man inwardly justified by sanctifying grace. That makes him capable of gaining merit by good works, as opposed to the Reformers “Justification by Faith.”

4 In Session VII March 3, 1547 … Declared that there are seven sacraments and that they confer grace not by faith in the divine promises, but in virtue of their administration. Also in Session XXV Dec 3-4, 1562 the decrees concerned the sacramental character of matrimony; purgatory; indulgences; and the veneration of saints, images, and relics.

5 Session XIII Oct. 11,1551 … Defined the doctrine of transubstantiation as the bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist.   In Session XXI July 16, 1562 approval was given to a decree that defined Christ entirely present in either the bread or the wine. This is in opposition to the Protestant doctrine of the necessity of communion of both bread and wine.

6 Session XIV Nov. 25, 1551 …  Defended verbal confession, and the absolution and sacrament of penance, and also defined the sacramentalism of extreme unction.

7 Session XXII Sept.17, 1562 … The Mass was declared to be true and proper sacrifice of thanksgiving and propitiation, which is to be offered both for the dead and in honor of the saints.

Measure the Temple [Revelation 11] John is given a staff much like Ezekiel [Ezek 40], however, no measurements were given.   This sanctuary represents the True Church [Eph 2:19; Acts 7:47].  The altar  [Rom 12:1] represents the sacrifices many gave at that time even unto death.  The outer court was not to be measured, for the apostate church is now like the Gentile of the Old Testament, left out of the worship.  They shall trample down the outer court for 42 months.  Over the same time, 1260 days, the two witnesses will prophesy.

Two Witnesses Two is the minimum number needed under The Law [Torah] to establish testimony for a capital crime.  [Num 35:30; Duet 17:6-7, 19,15]

Some teach that this passage speaks literally of two people (Moses and Elijah) who will witness against a political anti-christ.   However, it is specified that they are “two olive trees” and “two lampstands”.   This adds up to four witnesses not two.

Olive Trees

The Witnesses are described as “two olive trees” and “two lamp-stands”.  The figurative language in this passage indicates two distinct kinds of witnesses. [Zech 4:1-14, Rev 1:20]  In scripture the olive tree always speaks of Israel. [Jer 11:16; Rom 11:17] In the first chapter of The Revelation, we are told that the lamp-stands are churches.

Menorahs

Israel’s great commission was to keep The Law. [Is 42:6; 49:6]  In keeping The Law they manufacture the oil needed to fuel the fires of truth.   However, with out a light the fuel is only oil and of no useful purpose.  Israel missed the spark that would light their lamps and bring light to the whole earth when they missed the Messiah. Instead of becoming a light to the world, they have progressively separated themselves from the world.

The church has often burned brightly [Matt 5:14-16], but only for a short time.  Over time, not wanting to be encumbered with The Law, the Church has had little oil to burn.  She easily falls into apostasy without The Law to guide her.  Others have simply left The Law behind altogether and no longer have any oil.

These then are the two separate yet uniquely interdependent witnesses of The Revelation: Israel and the Church, Jew and Gentile.  They have the oil of The Law and the light of the Messiah.  Together their light is pure and fed by the oil of the Word of God and through Christ their supply is constant and pure.

“For, first, They are called, Witnesses.  Secondly, They are put under the number of two, “My two witnesses,” Both which are to be mystically taken.

1    Because their testimony standeth not in their words only, but in their conversation; yea, in their suffering also: and that is a mystical witness-bearing.

2    They go under the number of two; not because there were indeed two such men in the world, but because two are a sufficient number to bear witness: and God’s church, in the most furious heat and rage of Antichrist, has been at least of such a number of professing saints, to proclaim against the Beast and his worship in the name of God.

To think that there have been two such men in the world, is ridiculous; for these witnesses must continue to give their testimony for God against Antichrist, a thousand, two hundred and threescore years.  Nor can they scripturally bear this title, “My two witnesses,” but with respect to their prophesying so long.  The Witnesses therefore are nothing else but a successive church, or the congregation of God, abiding for him against Antichrist by reason of a continual succession of men that is joined by the special blessing of God unto it. “

The Ruin of Antichrist by John Bunyan pg 70

The lives of Jeremiah, Elijah and Moses were typical of these witnesses.  As Jeremiah, Elijah and Moses had taught the need to worship the One True God, so the early Protestants taught the truth that would slowly destroy the power of the Papacy.  The descriptions given are to remind us of these great prophets of old.

• If anyone harmed them: fire came from their mouth and consumed their foes [Jer 5:14].
• They have the power to shut the sky [1Kings 17:1]
• They turn the water to blood [Ex 7:17]
• They may smite the earth with every plague [Num 16:41-50]

These prophets of old faithfully spoke the Word of God but were rejected by those whom they were warning.  The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah prophesying the destruction of Judah for idolatry and refusing to repent.  No real fire came from his mouth, only The Word of God.  Elijah literally shut up the sky for years.  For three years they did not have any rain and yet they still would not repent of their sins.

Moses turned water into blood, overshadowing the god of the Nile, and yet the Egyptians would not repent and let God’s people go.  Each plaque attacked one of Egypt’s gods proving them false.  God sent many plaques to punish His people for their idolatry.  Yet over and over again they would return to the pagan idols.

All of these prophets have something else in common with the witnesses; they were persecuted.  Pharaoh tried to kill Moses when he was just a baby.  Ahab and Jezebel tried to kill Elijah.  Jeremiah was left to rot away down in the cisterns.  So too the believers in the Middle Ages were persecuted and killed.  They spoke the truth, God’s Word, but the message was rejected and the Church of Rome did not repent but set about to destroy the messengers of God.

The Waldenses and the Albigenses maintained and protected the precious light of the Gospel and the oil of The Word.  Clothed in sackcloth they were repenting.  They pointed out that the water of The Church of Rome did not quench the thirst of the people just as if there was a drought in the land.  They called on others, the Hussites and the Lollards, to come out of the Church of Rome. [Rev 18:4] One must go to the word for living water.    This testimony brought about the destruction of those who did not heed it.

It would be easy to fall into the trap of looking for literal water turning to blood, etc… as with the plagues of Egypt.   We must remember that this is a book of symbols.  The first thing to note is that the witness’s power will fall on the earth.  The earth is not water so this is not going to happen to the peoples, nations, and tongue; this will be affecting the spiritual or religious community.  Then we must remember that the witnesses end up dead in the streets so obviously their power is not over the physical.   As we have seen so many times before, when all seems bleak and the enemy has won, God pulls out of the ashes the remnant that is still clutching their small but bright light to bring truth once again to the world.

The beast from the bottomless pit makes war on them.

“And when they had finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified.  For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.” Rev 11:7-10

After hundreds of years of persecution, commonly known as the Inquisition, the Fifth Lateran Council (May of 1514) challenged anyone who refused to obey the pope to say so.  No one came forward.  The witnesses were dead.  This does not mean that they were all literally dead.  They were afraid and no longer bore testimony.   No one answered the challenge of the Council for 3 1/2 years (a day for a year).  The pope and the council celebrated.  Banquets were held and further laws against heresy were established. Among these laws was the for-bidding of burial for all heretics.

“It is distinctly laid down in the Decrees of the Third Lateran Council (Decret. Greg., Lib.V. tit 7, cap. 8, as cited by Priest Bailly, tome 3. p.139) that “heretics and those who defend and receive them shall be placed under anathema, and we prohibit under anathema that any shall presume to have them, or to entertain them in their house or in their territory, or to carry on any negotiation with them. But if any die in this iniquity, nether under pretence of any privileges of ours granted to any such, nor under any other pretext whatsoever, let any offering be made for them, nor let them receive burial among Christians.” The Antichrist by Baron Porcelli  pg  46

However, on Oct 31st, 1517 exactly Three and 1/2 years later, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg castle.  The Witnesses were back, but now they are prophets.   The truth of God’s word could not be put asunder as the written word spread rapidly through the work of many such as Guttenberg and his printing press.  All Europe and later the world read that the just shall live by faith in writings by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and many others.

The city is called allegorically Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.  Sodom was a city of great sexual perversion and Egypt was the place of slavery.     Babylon is the great city of Rev 17.  She is the Harlot who is seated over peoples, multitude, nations and tongues.  Babylon is seated upon the Roman beast out of the sea, thus she represents the apostate Roman Church and her seat of power is in Rome.  Christ was crucified by Roman soldiers on Roman soil under Roman law.   Martin Luther referred to the papal court as the whole brood of the Roman Sodom.

Leo X

Great fear came upon those who saw them. The Pope, then Leo X, greatly feared the Reformers.  Because of the political intrigues of the time, in their favor, he was unable to thwart the movement in its early stages.  So, Pope Paul III started the Counter Reformation established by the Society of Jesuits in 1540 under the Generalship of Ignatius Loyola.

FYI: Congressional Record of the United States of America (House Bill 1523, Contested election case of  Eugene C, Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, Feb 15, 1913, Pages 3215-16.) contains the Extreme Oath of Induction into the Jesuit order.

“Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up hither!’  And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud.” [Rev 11:12]   The figurative language concerning the dead bodies lying in the street and the breath of life entering them represents the three and one-half years of silence on the part of believers.  Luther’s affirmation of justification by faith breathed life back into the testimony of the True Church, opening the doors for the return to Biblical faith, decreasing the power of the Roman Church.   God blesses this new fledgling Church by tipping the scales of power and leadership away from the Church of Rome.

Think for a moment, how history has been affected by this…  At the beginning of this era, the Pope of Rome was the preeminent ruler. His tribute was wealth, power, and adoration.   As his audacity and animosity toward true believers grew, God’s wrath grew until He put a stop to it.  What do we then find happening in history?   The Pope struggled to keep his control, but gradually it slipped from his hands.   Looking back over the last 500 years, we see that those countries, whose foundation is Biblical, prosper in wealth and the constant development of ideas.  Yet, observing countries whose worldview is based in idolatry and apostasy, they are constantly troubled with war, strife, economic struggle, and all kinds of maladies.

The 2nd Woe

Sueliman I

Our attention is turned back to the Eastern Roman Empire. With the coming of Sueliman I (the Magnificent) to the throne of the Ottoman Turks, the Ottomans began to push into southern Europe in 1521AD.   They marched all the way to the gates of Vienna by 1529AD.

“And at that hour there was a Great earthquake”

Charles V

The Sack of Rome, May 6^th 1527, by the Spanish and German mercenaries of Charles V was horrible even when judged by the customs of the day.  It ended Rome’s pre-eminence during the Renaissance.   Following this, there was incredible political upheaval in Florence, Genoa and Lombardy.  The Pope was forced to make peace with Charles V, crowning him Emperor of The Holy Roman Empire and King of Italy.

The Seventh Trumpet 1453 – 1754AD Rev 11:15-19

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty, who art and who was, that thou has taken thy great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.” Rev 11:15-19

Loud voices are heard saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. Time for judgment and rewarding saints has come, the Reformation. God’s temple in heaven is opened and His covenant is seen in His temple. The common people now were given the Bible in their own tongues.There are flashes of lightning, voices, thunder, earthquake and heavy hail. These are the wars and political upheaval of the Reformation, the Thirty Years War the second War of the Roses, the English Civil War etc. This foreshadowed the bowls that bring judgment on Rome and Islam, that leads to the Second Coming of Christ.

Our God Reigns! Just as the seventh trump on the seventh day at Jericho was sustained until the walls came down, this seventh trumpet will be sustained until Christ’s return.

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