[Chapter 11-2] The Salvation of The People of Israel (Revelation 11:1-19)

(Revelation 11:1-19)

 

Why would God send the two prophets to the people of Israel? God would do so to save the people of Israel in particular. The main passage tells us that God would make His two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days. This is to save the Israelites for the last time. That God would thus save the people of Israel also means that the time for the end of the world would have come.

Verse 2 says, “But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” This means that when the horrendous plagues come to the Gentiles, when the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation begins and gradually brings great confusion and plagues, when those among the Gentiles who have heard and believed in the gospel are martyred, God will raise the two prophets for the people of Israel, make them testify that Jesus is God and the Savior, and thus save the Israelites. It tells us that these are the works of God to come.

We must teach this Word to those who, deceived by Satan, claim that the leaders of their denominations are the two olive trees of the end times, or that the founder of their sect is the Elijah prophesized for the end times. Whenever the worldly churches talk about Revelation, they exploit this passage on the two olive trees the most. Of all the people deceived by heretical cults whom I have met in my life of faith so far, none has ever failed to make the outlandish claim that the leader of his/her cult is one of the two olive trees mentioned here. Every heretic that I know has made such a claim eventually.

But the two olive trees and the two lampstands of Revelation are not what these heretics claim to be. In truth, these olive trees actually refer to the two prophets whom God would raise from the Israelites to save them.

Chapter 11 tells us in detail how God would save the people of Israel. Like the Book of Romans, each chapter of the Book of Revelation has its special theme. Only by knowing this theme can we understand what this chapter is all about. Reading that the Gentiles would tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months, some people claim, without knowing this theme, that the era of the Gentiles would be over, the era of the salvation of the Israelites would instead open, and so from then on only the Israelites would be saved.

But this is far from the truth. Chapter 7 tells us that a countless multitude from the Gentiles would also come out of the Tribulation saved—that is, both the Gentiles and the Israelites would be saved throughout the Tribulation, not just the Israelites. As such, what chapter 11 tells us is that God would thus raise the two prophets to save the people of Israel in the end times, but this does not mean that the Gentiles would no longer be saved.

Some will ask in return, then, “Were not 144,000 Israelites already saved, as chapter 7 tells us that this was the number of the Israelites sealed by God?” Being sealed is not the same as being saved. There is no one who can be saved without going through Jesus Christ. Salvation comes only by believing that Jesus Christ became our Savior by coming to this earth, being baptized to assume all our sins, carrying all these sins of the world to the Cross and dying on it, and rising from the dead again.

Though we know that we are bound to sin until our death, we were nevertheless saved by believing that Jesus Christ made all our sins completely disappear and thus became our Savior. While 144,000 Israelites would be sealed, God would also raise up His two prophets, and through them preach His gospel to these Israelites. What the Word tells us, in other words, is that the two prophets would preach the gospel to the Israelites, and that 144,000 of them would thus be saved.

The Bible is never prejudiced or discriminatory. There is no one who can be saved without going through Jesus Christ. God does not say, without going through Jesus Christ, “You are saved, but you are not.”

The two prophets, who are the two olive trees mentioned in the main passage, will be killed at the place called Golgotha. Their dead bodies will be left in the open without burial, and those who neither believe nor accept Jesus will rejoice over their death and send gifts to each other. But verses 11 and 12 tell us, “Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.”

This tells us straightforwardly that we—that is, you and I who are Gentiles—will also be martyred by faith when the time comes, and that shortly after our martyrdom will come our resurrection and rapture. This subject continues to make its appearance throughout the whole Book of Revelation. There are also passages that tell us that when the plagues of the seven bowls are poured on this earth, the raptured saints would be praising God in the air.

Chapter 14 also speaks of the 144,000 saved, who praise God with a song that no one else but the firstfruits of salvation can sing. What this tells us that when the people of Israel are saved, they will be martyred everywhere, and shortly after their martyrdom will come their resurrection and rapture.

The same applies to the Gentiles. In the end times, you and I will go through many hardships of the plagues of the seven trumpets, but God will still protect us from these plagues. When the Great Tribulation of seven years reaches its height with the passing of the first three and a half years, the persecution of the saints will also reach its peak. But this extreme persecution will last only for a short time. Many saints and servants of God will shortly be martyred, and quickly after their martyrdom will come their rapture.

Why? Because Revelation repeatedly records that by the time the plagues of the seven bowls are poured on this earth, the saints would already be in heaven praising God. The Word describes this as marvelous.

Revelation 10:7 says, “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” This refers to none other than the rapture, the mystery hidden by God. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, the Apostle Paul also tells us, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.”

That the Lord will descend from Heaven, however, does not mean that He will come down to this earth immediately. He will descend from Heaven to the air, and when the first resurrection that raises the asleep and transforms the born-again alive happens, the rapture with which the saints receive the Lord in the air will follow right away. After the marriage supper of the Lamb is held in the air and this world is completed destroyed by the pouring of all the remaining seven bowls’ plagues on this earth, the Lord will descend on the renewed earth with us and make His appearance before those who would still be alive.

Interpreting the Word of Revelation and the Bible based on one’s own individual opinions is to embark on the road to destruction. It is simply wrong to just believe in mere hypotheses proposed by some theologians and advocate these claims without properly understanding the Word.

Among the theologians who are highly respected and renowned in the conservative Christian communities, some scholars such as L. Berkhof and Abraham Kuyper espoused amillennialism. Of the theories of pre-tribulation rapture, post-tribulation rapture, and amillennialism, believing in this last doctrine of amillennialism is the same as not believing in the Bible itself.

The time when people used to believe in the theory of post-tribulation rapture has now gone by, and in these days virtually everyone believes in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture. But this theory, too, is not biblically sound. Yet people still like it very much whenever they are told about the pre-tribulation rapture. Why? Because according to this theory of pre-tribulation rapture, Christians would have nothing to worry about the Great Tribulation of seven years.

As such, it becomes acceptable for the believers to live a life of faith that is neither hot nor cold, and for the churches to worry only about increasing the size of their congregations. People’s faith thus grows lax. Because they think that there is no need for them to worry about going through the Great Tribulation, their faith becomes all rosy and lax just when their faith must in fact get stronger with the nearing of the end times. People used to believe in amillennialism long ago, and then in the theory of post-tribulation rapture for a while, and they now believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture.

In 1830’s, Rev. Scofield, a professor at the Moody Bible Institute, began to write his reference Bible. Scofield was highly influenced by a world-renowned theologian named Darby.

Darby, Scofield’s spiritual mentor, who used to be a Catholic priest before, was a highly intelligent and widely knowledgeable man. He left the Catholic Church after realizing its fallacies, joined a small Christian organization, and became its leader. Though Darby constantly read and studied the Bible, he could not figure out from Revelation whether the rapture would happen before or after the Great Tribulation. So he went on a trip in search of more clear evidences on this issue.

During this trip he met a teenaged female who was a leader of pneumatology. This girl claimed to have seen through her vision that the rapture would happen before the Great Tribulation. Believing what she told him and convinced that the rapture would come before the Tribulation, Darby concluded His biblical studies with the theory of pre-tribulation rapture.

However, because the people of this time had mainly believed in the theory of post-tribulation rapture, Darby’s theory of pre-tribulation rapture was not received well.

Darby claimed that what is written in the Book of Revelation is about the salvation of the people of Israel, and that it had nothing to do with the salvation of the Gentiles. And by “You must prophesy again (10:11),” he interpreted this not as the preaching of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but of the gospel of the Kingdom that proclaims its coming arrival.

Scofield, who accepted such hypotheses of Darby intact and incorporated this theory of pre-tribulation rapture into his reference Bible, came to create his own hypothesis on the seven eras. Such claims of Scofield met the demands of his time and fit rather well to his background, causing a great stir among the religious throughout the world and becoming widely accepted.

But what does God say in the Bible? In the Scripture we see Jesus taking and opening the scroll sealed with seven seals before the throne of God, who has divided history into His seven eras with the seven seals.

The first era is the era of the white horse. This is the era of salvation, the era in which God decided to save us from the very moment that He created this universe and man, and has indeed saved us accordingly. As Revelation 6:2 tells us, “And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer,” the Lord have triumphed and will continue to triumph. Even before the creation, the gospel was already in existence and salvation had already begun.

The second era is the era of the red horse, the era of Satan. This is the Devil’s era in which he would take away peace from the mankind, making them wage war against each other, hate one another, and engage in religious conflicts.

The third era is the era of the black horse, which is a time of spiritual and physical famine, and the fourth era is the era of the pale horse, the era of martyrdom. The fifth era is the era of rapture—God has set the saints’ rapture as one of His eras. The sixth era is that of the seven bowls, entailing the destruction of this world, and the following era is that of the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth. God has thus set this world’s time into these seven eras, within the scroll sealed by the seven seals.

Scofield’s division of time into seven eras was set on his own. In contrast, the seven eras that are prophesized in Revelation 6 through the seven seals of the scroll held on God’s hand have been set by God Himself. Yet people speak of the man-made theory of pre-tribulation rapture, and the many who believed in it conclude that there is no need for them to believe in the Lord earnestly.

They have decided in their hearts, “Since we’d be raptured before the Great Tribulation, we would already in God’s presence when the Great Tribulation of seven years comes. So we got nothing to worry about!” Had the Word of God told us that we were to be raptured before the Tribulation, there would indeed be no need to prepare our faith, and attending the church once or twice a year would suffice. But this is not what God has told us.

“They will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” “They will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” Such Word of God tells us that the Gentiles, too, will be saved in the time of the Tribulation. God will raise up His two prophets to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is no one who can stand before God without going through the first three and a half years of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation set by Him, when the time of hardships comes. God also tells us that many martyrs will come out from the Tribulation at this time.

To believe in Jesus correctly, one must learn the Bible exactly and believe in what are exactly correct. If people preach and believe on their own without reading each page of the Bible carefully, they will end up as heretics. The reason why there are innumerable denominations in this world is also because of the fact that many people base their faith on their own interpretation of the Bible.

That the people of Israel would be saved tells us that God’s plan will be fulfilled according to His Word of promise. This also tells us that God will never break His Word of promise spoken to us but fulfill them all. This is why we have such a great hope.

The two prophets of Israel will be resurrected in three and a half days after their death and ascend to Heaven. This is the rapture. It provides a model for how the martyrs of the Great Tribulation would be raptured, and is shown to us as a precursor to our own rapture. The Bible tells us that after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, this earth will become the Kingdom of Christ and He will reign over it forever. So, too, will those who have trusted in Jesus Christ reign with Him.

God will wholly destroy this earth after rapturing the saints. We don’t know if the destruction will be for 100 percent, as this detail is not recorded in the Bible, but God does tell us in Revelation 11:18, “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

The rapture will most certainly happen as the Great Tribulation passes over its peak of three and a half years—not at the exact reaching of the first three and a half years, but slightly past it. The midpoint of the seven-year period is when the Tribulation reaches its height. This is when the saints from the people of Israel will be martyred, and the rapture will come shortly thereafter. When the rapture happens, we will all join the marriage supper of the Lamb in the air.

While we are participating in the marriage supper of the Lamb in the air, as Matthew 25 tells us that we will, the plagues of the seven bowls will descend on this earth. Praising God in the air and seeing all the things that are happening on this earth, we will thank God for His grace all the more.

I hope and pray that through the Word of Revelation, you would be able to discern the times when the last days come, believe in the Word properly, live your life diligently by faith, and prepare for the future. To give praise, honor, and worship to the Lord as you are taking part in the marriage supper of the Lamb with Him, you must prepare your faith.

I hope that the Word of Revelation will prove to be a great guide for you in the days to come, reminding your heart once again that you must live diligently and truthfully by your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

 

[Chapter 11-1] Who Are the Two Olive Trees and The Two Prophets? (Revelation 11:1-19)

(Revelation 11:1-19)

“Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

‘We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,

The One who is and who was and who is to come,

Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,

And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,

And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,

And those who fear Your name, small and great,

And should destroy those who destroy the earth.’

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.”

 

 

The Word of Revelation 11 is very important to us, as is all the Word of God. To destroy the world, there is a critical work that God needs to do beforehand. This is harvesting the people of Israel for the last time. God also has another work to do for both the Israelites and the Gentiles, and this is to make them participate in the first resurrection and the rapture by having them martyred.

As the Bible provides an overall account on these issues, we need to find out how God’s salvation of the remission of sin is fulfilled in the New Testament. The Scripture speaks to us on these topics because if we do not examine them closely, we would get confused about the saints, the servants of God, and the people of Israel appearing in the Book of Revelation. 

 

 

Exegesis
 

Verse 1: Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.”

This tells us that the work of saving the Israelites from sin by the grace of God is now set to begin. “Measuring” here means that God will personally intervene to save the people of Israel from their sins in the end times.

In the main passage of chapter 11, we must place our focus on the salvation of the Israelites from sin. This Word tells us that the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be spread to the people of Israel from then on, signifying the beginning of God’s work that turns the Israelites into God’s people delivered from all their sins through the grace of salvation given by Jesus Christ. God recorded Revelation 11 to also give His remission of sin to the Israelites in the end times. The “measuring” in verses 1 and 2 means setting the standard for all things. The purpose of God in measuring His Temple is to find out, having already planned to save the Israelites, whether or not their hearts are ready to receive their salvation. And if their hearts are not ready, then it is to make them ready, so that their hearts may stand upright.

 

Verse 2: “But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.”

God gave Satan power to trample on the Gentiles for three and a half years. Therefore, all the Gentiles must receive into their hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of redemption, as soon as possible within the first three and a half years of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation. The history of this world will end as the Great Tribulation passes its midpoint and enters into its second half-period. Soon, the time will come in the near future when all the Gentiles, as well as the saints who have already been saved from all their sins, will be trampled on by Satan.

The Gentiles thus must receive the remission of their sins and prepare their faith of martyrdom before the first three and a half years of the Tribulation pass by them. At this time, the people of Israel will also suffer under the fearful Tribulation during the first three and a half years. But they will also accept the fact that Jesus is their Savior at this time. In the end, the people of Israel will receive their salvation from all their sins during the first three and a half years of the Great Tribulation. We must realize that God will allow the remission of sin to the Israelites even during the period of the Great Tribulation.

 

Verse 3: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

God will especially raise two witnesses as His servants for the people of Israel. The two prophets that God will raise for the Israelites are given twice as great power as that of the old prophets, and through the words of their testimony, God will begin to work among the people of Israel so that they would accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Through the works of these two prophets, many Israelites will become the truly born-again people of God.

By having the two prophet, whom God would send in the end times to save the Israelites from their sins, perform miracles and wonders, He will make the Israelites, who would then be led by these prophets, return to Christ and believe in Him as their Savior. These two prophets will feed the Word of God to the people of Israel for 1,260 days during Great Tribulation’s first three and a half years. By giving the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the Israelites and making them believe in it, God will allow them the same salvation that had saved the Gentiles of the New Testament’s times from all theirs sins through faith.

 

Verse 4: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

The “two olive trees” here refer to the two prophets of God (Revelation 11:10). The “two lampstands,” on the other hand, refer to God’s Church that He founded among the Gentiles, and the Church that He permitted to the people of Israel. God has built His Church among both the Jews and us the Gentiles, and He will continue to do His work of saving souls from sin until the very last day.

By the “two olive trees” and the “two lampstands,” God tells us that just as He had raised up His prophets in the Old Testament’s times to save the Israelites from their sins and had worked through these prophets by speaking to them, when the end times come, He will also raise up from the people of Israel two prophets who would preach His Word, and lead the Israelites to Jesus through these prophets.

The Israelites have failed to take seriously the servants of God who are of the Gentile origin, and they do not listen to what these servants of God have to say to them. As they know everything about the sacrificial system and the prophecies of the Old Testament, the end times’ prophets of God need to be raised from their own people of Israel. The Israelites are so well-versed in the Scripture that they might as well recite the whole Torah even as they are running. This is why they never believe in what the Gentile servants of God say to them.

But God’s servants, hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you and I are now preaching, will rise from their own people. When the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit rise from their own, and from them rise the two prophets established by God who would explain and preach the Word of God to them, only then will the Israelites come to believe.

The people of Israel will know that these two witnesses are the prophets sent and raised by God Himself to save them from their sins in the end times. These prophets will exercise their mighty power, just as the servants of God in the Old Testament, whom the Israelites know well and believe in, had exercised before. The Israelites will therefore see with their own eyes the powerful wonders that two witnesses would actually perform. From this, the people of Israel will return to Jesus Christ and believe in the Lord. When they recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Savior, just as we do, they will have the same faith as ours—that is, they, too, will be saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

These two witnesses will explain the Word of God and feed it to the people of Israel for 1,260 days during the Great Tribulation of seven years. Just as you and I, who are the Gentiles of the New Testament’s times, have been saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God will also allow the Israelites to be saved in the end times by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit.

As verse 4 tells us, “these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth,” the Bible calls these two witnesses as “the two olive trees.” The two olive trees refer to the two prophets of the end times. In verse 10, it is written, “And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” Here, we must solve this Word by focusing on who the two olive trees are.

Olive trees were used in the age of the Old Testament to consecrate the furnishings of the sanctuary and the altar in the Temple of God by anointing them with their oil. This olive oil was used for other purposes as well, such as in lighting the Temple’s lamps. They had to use only the pure olive oil in the Temple. God did not allow whatever oil to be used in His Temple, but He made sure that only the olive oil would be used. Thus, we have to know that the olive tree, as well as the fig tree, represents the people of Israel.

There are many interpretations on these two olive trees and two lampstands. Some people even claim that they themselves are the olive trees. But the two olive trees refer to the anointed ones. In the Old Testament’s times, people were anointed when they were established as a prophet, a king, or a priest. When one was thus anointed, the Holy Spirit descended on him/her. As such, the olive tree refers to Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Romans 11:24). But people have many misunderstandings on this point.

Nevertheless, the two olive trees, who are the two witnesses mentioned throughout the main passage, refer to the two servants of God whom He would especially raise in the end times for the salvation of the Israelites.

This is what verse 4 is telling us. And the two lampstands here refer to God’s Church that He allowed among the Gentiles, and the Church permitted to the people of Israel. In the age of the Old Testament, the Israelites had God’s Church originally. But from the age of the New Testament, they no longer have had this Church of God. Why? Because they are yet to recognize Jesus Christ, and also do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts.

As they have accepted neither the gospel of the water and the Spirit nor Jesus Christ, God’s Church is no longer found among them. However, before the final end of the world, during the first three and half years of the Great Tribulation, God will allow His Church to the people of Israel also. This is why the Bible tells us about the two olive trees, who are the two witnesses.

The Lord will establish His Church and do His work of saving souls from sin among both the Jews and us the Gentiles. And through these churches, He will make them serve this spiritual work of saving souls from sin until the appearance of the Antichrist. This means that God will make the vessels out of the saints, the members of His Church, to have them serve the ministry of saving the souls lost in sin. We must therefore diligently carry out our remaining ministry in faith.

 

Verse 5: And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.

God gave this power to the two prophets so that they may carry out their special mission. To make the people of Israel repent and overcome Satan in the end times, God shows us that whoever tries to kill the two witnesses will themselves be harmed, and that the power of His Word will be with these two witnesses.

As such, the people of Israel, believing in the teachings of these two prophets, will return to Jesus Christ. This is why God would permit the two olive trees—that is, the two witnesses—to the Israelites, so that they may be saved from their sins during the end times.

 

Verse 6: These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.

Because the people of Israel would not repent unless the servants of God whom He would raised for them perform these acts of power, God will permit the two witnesses to work with His power. The two prophets will not only lead the Israelites to Jesus, but they will also overcome God’s enemies with power and fulfill all the works of their calling. God will give them special power so that they may preach all the Word of prophecy to the people of Israel, testify that Jesus Christ is their long-awaited Messiah, and make them believe.

 

Verse 7: When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

This Word tells us that the Antichrist will appear in this world when the first three and a half years of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation pass by. It is at this time that those who believe in Jesus Christ as their awaited Messiah would finally rise from the people of Israel. But many of them will be martyred to defend their faith from the Beast, who is the Antichrist, and his followers. The two prophets of God will also be martyred when they complete the works of their calling.

That these two witnesses would be killed by the Antichrist is according to the will of God. Why? Because God also wants to give them His reward for the martyrs. This reward is for them to participate in the first resurrection, join the Lord in the marriage supper of the Lamb, rejoice forever, and receive eternal life. To give this blessing to all the saints, God wants them to be martyred for their faith. All the saints, therefore, must neither fear nor avoid their martyrdom, but instead embrace it in affirmative faith and receive their blessed reward.

 

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

This verse tells us that the “two witnesses” are exactly from the people of Israel. The two servants that God will raise for the Israelites are not from the Gentiles, but from their own people of Israel. As such, the two witnesses are killed in the same place where Jesus was crucified. This fact tells us clearly that these two witnesses are Israelites. For the people of Israel, they are the servants of God.

To the people of Israel, who are spiritually like the people of Sodom and Egypt, God will establish His two prophets, give them power, and make them testify that Jesus is the Messiah for whom the Israelites have waited, so that the people of Israel may repent and believe in Jesus.

The Antichrist will kill the two servants of God on the place of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. Because the followers of the Antichrist have evil spirits, they will hate to death these two witnesses who believe in Jesus and testify for Him. Like the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus and pierced His side with a spear before, those with evil spirits will hate not only Jesus, but they will also hate the two witnesses of God and kill them.

 

Verse 9: Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.

Among the people of Israel also, there are those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Seeing the death of the flesh of the two servants (two olive trees), these people will get overwhelmed by their sense of triumph, and to enhance this sense of victory, they will not even give their victims a proper burial. But their victory will be shattered to pieces when God brings the “two witnesses” to life again, and they will therefore come to fear God.

They may congratulate themselves for the death of the two servants of God, but this will not last long, for they will soon realize that the Antichrist is no match for Jesus Christ—disappointment and emptiness will thus overwhelm them.

These people dislike God’s Word of prophecy preached by the two prophets. By standing against these two servants whom God would raise, they will eventually be cut off from the last harvest of salvation and end up turning into Satan’s followers.

 

Verse 10: And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

As they would preach God’s Word of prophecy, the two witnesses raised for the salvation of the Israelites would be a great pain in the neck for the followers of Satan. As such, they will all rejoice with the death of these two witnesses and send gifts to each other to congratulate themselves.

We, too, are happy when those who had been bothering us disappear. The Antichrist and his followers will hate it when the two witnesses raised by God preach His Word. Every time they hear the Word of God, their spirits would be overwhelmed by agony. Because they would thus have been so tormented whenever the two witnesses spoke to them about Jesus, they would rejoice when they see them put to death by the Antichrist. This is why they would exchange gifts and congratulate each other.

 

Verse 11: Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

God, however, will make the two witnesses participate in the first resurrection. This Word is the evidence of the fact that the saints, who are martyred to defend their faith after having been saved from sin by believing in the Word of salvation given by the Lord, will participate in the first resurrection.

That the breath of life entered them in “three and a half days” tells us that the Lord will allow their resurrection in a short while, just as He Himself was resurrected from His death of the flesh. That God has allowed all the saints this faith of the first resurrection is, for the saints themselves, a great blessing of God, but for all the sinners, it will bring them great disheartenment and fear. The first resurrection of the saints is the promise of God and His reward for their faith.

 

Verse 12: And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

This Word points out the resurrection and rapture of all the saints. Having believed in the Lord’s Word of prophecy, those who have been saved from all their sins would have no choice but to be martyred to defend their faith. This verse shows us that the Lord will resurrect all these saints and rapture them. The saints and the servants of God who are martyred in their faithfulness to Him will be blessed by being lifted up to the air (rapture) because of their faith in the Lord. We cannot help but thank the Lord for giving us our resurrection and rapture as the reward for being martyred after being saved by believing in the remission of sin that He has given us.

God the Father will allow the resurrection and rapture to all those who stand against the Antichrist and are martyred by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ. We must believe in this fact. The saints’ resurrection and rapture are the blessings that flow from their salvation through their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God. Satan and his followers of the end times would find all their efforts evaporating into thin air when they see the saints, whom they had so persecuted and killed, are resurrected and raptured.

God will resurrect and rapture the martyred saints, but He will destroy those who still remain on this earth by pouring the plagues of the seven bowls. When this work is quickly completed, He will come down to this earth with the saints and invite the righteous to the marriage supper of Christ. Our Lord will have this feast last for a thousand years. When this millennium is over, He will allow Satan to rise from the bottomless pit briefly and fight against God and His saints, but He will eventually destroy Satan and His followers and judge them to be thrown into the eternal fire. The righteous, however, will enter the Lord’s Kingdom of Heaven and live with Him forever.

 

Verse 13: In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

After the martyrdom, resurrection, and rapture of the two prophets whom God would raise for the salvation of the Israelites, He will allow His angels to freely pour down the plagues of the seven bowls on this earth. Those who still remain on this earth after the saints’ rapture will receive these plagues of the seven bowls as their gifts. Only then will they be grappled by fear and give glory to God, but this would be no use for them, for it would not be an act of the true faith in God’s love.

When this world is destroyed, the righteous would have their eternal Heaven, eternal resurrection, and eternal blessings, but for the sinners, only the suffering of the eternal fire in hell would await them. This is why everyone must receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And because those who have thus been redeemed of their sins believe in the new world that God promised them, they preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone.

 

Verse 14: The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

For both the Gentiles and the Israelites, the third woe from God would await everyone except those who have participated in their resurrection and rapture by being saved and martyred.

The plague that lasts from the angel’s sounding of the sixth trumpet to the beginning of the plagues of the seven bowls with the sounding of the seventh trumpet is called the second woe. The plagues of the seven trumpets are divided into three periods—the early, the middle, and the late periods. The natural plagues and the saints’ martyrdom by the Antichrist are included in the first and second woes. The third woe, on the other hand, is the plagues that will destroy the world completely. This third woe is the bowls of the wrath of God that will be poured on the sinners still remaining on this earth.

 

Verse 15: Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

The phrase “there were loud voices in heaven” shows us that the saints and servants who have been saved from all the sins would already be in Heaven by the time the plagues of the seven bowls begin in this world. As such, God’s people will no longer be found in this world by this time. We must realize this. “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

At this time, the saints will praise the Lord in Heaven, but after all the plagues of the seven bowls are poured down, they will also descend to the renewed earth with the Lord and reign with Him for a thousand years in this world. This will then be followed by the Lord and the saints reigning forever in the New Heaven and Earth.

To deliver us from sin, our Lord has served us as a servant all this while, instead of reigning over us as the King. He has bestowed us with His grace of making those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as their salvation into God’s children. As our Lord is the eternal King for us, He would also make His people reign forever. Hallelujah! Thank the Lord!

 

Verse 16: And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,

God is worthy to receive all glory. It is only proper for those who have been saved from all the sins to fall on their faces, and worship and praise God. Our Lord, who has done all these works of saving the sinners, is worthy to receive praise and worship from all the saints and all the creations forever and ever.

 

Verse 17: saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.”

To reign with His people forever from then on, our Lord would conquer Satan and receive great power from God the Father. As such, the Lord would reign forever. He is worthy to do so. I give glory to Him, for the Lord who has made all the sins of the world disappear, who has saved all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and who has judged His enemies, is worthy to take His majestic power and reign forever. As such, all those who recognize God’s sovereignty will be clothed in the glory of praising God forever with the Lord’s almighty power and love.

 

Verse 18: “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Simultaneous to the pouring of the plagues of the seven bowls will now come the destruction of the flesh of those who remain spiritually Gentiles. This Word tells us that then would be the time for God to judge everyone as the Judge of all, rewarding His servants and prophets, the saints, and those who revere Him, and destroying those who stand against and disobey His will. The Lord will bring the judgment of His wrath on those who do not recognize His sovereignty, but He will allow the saints to be glorified with Him. This means that the Lord has become the Judge of all, good and evil.

When the Lord sits on His throne as the King of the born-again and judges everyone, all the sinners and the righteous of the world will receive their fair judgment. At this time, as the verdict of His judgment, the Lord will give Heaven and eternal life to the saints, but to the sinners He will bring their eternal destruction and the punishment of hell. The sovereignty of Jesus Christ and the blessing of His people’s reign will go on forever. The first world will end at this time, and the second world, the Kingdom of Christ, will thus begin.

 

Verse 19: Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

God will allow His saints, the righteous, His blessing of living in His Temple. All these things are fulfilled according to God’s Word of promise to mankind in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God begins with God’s Word of prophecy, and it is completed by the fulfillment of this prophecy.

All the promises of God, from the resurrection and rapture of the saints to their participation in the marriage supper of the Lamb with Jesus Christ and their blessing to reign forever as kings, are given equally to both the people of Israel and us the Gentiles. Also, He treats the salvation of the Israelites during the end times and our salvation in the same way, makes us both to be martyred at this period, allows us the same resurrection and the same rapture thereafter, and clothes us in the same glory. The Word tells us that though the Israelites and we the Gentiles are different peoples in the flesh, we are nevertheless the same people of God spiritually.

Many people claim and believe that the born-again will be raptured before the Great Tribulation of seven years properly begins. But this is not the case. Biblically speaking, people will continue to hear the true gospel and be saved throughout the first three and a half years of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation. The Antichrist will then emerge, the saints will be martyred, and after their resurrection and rapture will come Christ’s marriage supper of the Lamb, allowing the saints to reign with Him for a thousand years.

The saints must have the exact knowledge of the time of their martyrdom, resurrection and rapture. Without knowing this time, they will continue to wander in their confusion and die spiritually in it.

Those who have the exact knowledge of God’s Providence about the end times hope for their resurrection and rapture, and will diligently serve the gospel. Those who know that there is no hope on this earth must have the same hope as that of the born-again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And the saints are martyred by believing in the Word of God.

The faith that can discern the times is indispensably needed in this age. The time has almost come for the fearful plagues and tribulations to descend on the whole world and for the Antichrist to emerge. Now is the time to wake up from your sleep. We must keep it in mind that we have to go through almost all the tribulations of the Great Tribulation. And it is imperative that we believe in Christ’s return, in our resurrection and rapture, and in our participation in the marriage supper of the Lamb with Christ. For us to have the most appropriate faith for this era, we must enter the ark of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

I hope and pray that by knowing this present era, you will have the faith that is most urgently required and the most proper for this age.

 

[Chapter 10-2] Do You Know When the Rapture of the Saints Will Occur? (Revelation 10:1-11)

(Revelation 10:1-11)

 

Let us now turn our attention to the issue of when the rapture will happen. There are many passages in the Bible that are talking about the rapture. The New Testament has many passages that discuss it, and so does the Old Testament, where we can find, for instance, Elijah who ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, and Enoch who walked with God and was taken away by Him. As can be seen, the Bible speaks of the rapture in many places. Rapture means ‘to lift up.’ It refers to God’s lifting up His people to heaven by His power.

However, what is the most puzzling of the Bible is also this question of rapture. When will God lift up His people? This question on the rapture’s time is one of the most frequently asked questions within Christianity.

Let us turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 and see what God has told us through the Apostle Paul: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

In Jude 1:14, God also tells us, “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints.’” The saints, in other words, will be lifted up to the air by our God with the sounding of the archangel’s trumpet, remain in the air for a while, and then descend on earth again with our Lord. This is the biblically sound description of rapture.

The reason why we looked at the above passages beforehand is because Revelation 10 tells us when the rapture will come. As I mentioned before, the core passage of this chapter is found in verse 7, “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” This verse is the key to answer all our questions and queries about the rapture, for it tells us when the rapture will happen.

God sends a mighty angel to John in vision, and He shows what He will do through this angel by having him act as if the Lord had come to this earth. This angel, raising his hand to heaven, “swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer.” That there should be no more delay means that there is no longer any reason to delay anymore. It means “there is no time.” That there is no time, in turn, means that on the day of the sounding of the seventh angel, the mystery of God will be fulfilled as God declared to His servants the prophets.

Of the plagues of the seven trumpets, when the last trumpet sounds, the world will enter into the plagues of the seven bowls. We must realize that by then, there will no longer be any time remaining for this world. As such, the Word of God in verse 7, that on the day of “the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets,” refers to the time of rapture. Elsewhere, Paul, too, said that the rapture would happen with the voice of an archangel and the sounding of God’s trumpet. This is what Paul had in mind, and this is the starting point for all other references of the Bible to rapture as well.

“But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” This Word tells us that the rapture of the saints will happen when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, lifting them up to the air. When the servants of God spread of the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the lost souls, the Holy Spirit actually descended on the hearts of the believers who accepted the true gospel, and they actually became the children of God. It is all the same to us that the rapture, the mystery of God, will also turn into reality, lifting up the saints to the air.

After this, God will completely destroy this world by pouring on it the last plagues of the seven bowls, bring the Kingdom of God on this earth where we will reign with Christ for a thousand years, and then move us to the New Heaven and Earth where we will live forever.

After telling John about the coming rapture, God commanded him to eat the little book and prophesy again. The most important lesson that the servants of God must teach the saints living in these last days is of the event of rapture and its exact time. They should teach these lessons in biblically sound terms. They must also preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit accurately. These are what the servants of God and His saints, who are living through the end times, must do. God has thus entrusted the saints with these works, as well as revealing His mystery to them. God tells us that He will not delay, but fulfill His works without fail. When the time comes, God will fulfill everything into reality.

In chapter 11, there appear two olive trees, that is, two prophets. These two servants of God, symbolized as the two olive trees, will be killed by the Antichrist in their fight against him, but they will be raised from the dead again and be raptured in three and a half days. In other words, God shows us, on different occasions, that that the rapture will happen when the saints are martyred in this time of the Antichrist.

What we must know beforehand is that the saints will live through the Great Tribulation, remaining on this earth until the first six plagues of the seven trumpets’ plagues come to pass. And God will protect the saints from these plagues of the seven trumpets—that is, God will protect them until the sixth plague, but the Antichrist will finally kill them at the height of his tyranny as he makes his last-ditch struggle against God. The death that the saints will embrace at this time is their martyrdom. Because they will die the righteous death to defend their faith, we call this “martyrdom.” We must therefore believe that the rapture will come after this martyrdom, and also preach this faith to others.

Many people have been greatly confused about whether the rapture will happen before or after the Great Tribulation. People in the old days used to think that Christ will return after the Tribulation, and that the saints will be lifted up with this second coming of Jesus. But nowadays, most Christians believe that the rapture will come before the Great Tribulation. They think that they will have nothing to do with the plagues of the seven trumpets or of the seven bowls, and that they will be lifted up when they are going about their everyday, normal, and fine lives. But we must not be deceived by this false teaching. These people are hugely mistaken in their knowledge and understanding of the time of rapture; as the end times get nearer and nearer, their piety will slacken and their faith will disappear.

When I tell you that the rapture will come in the middle of the Great Tribulation, I am not saying this to make you become even more pious. I just want you to have clear understanding on the time of the rapture and flee from the false teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture, for in verse 7 God tells us in detail: “in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” When the plagues of the seven bowls are poured, unlike the preceding plagues of the seven trumpets, they will be poured one after another continuously. We, the saints, must realize this.

Revelation 16:1-2 tells us, “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.’ So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.” The pouring of the remaining bowls in a row then follows this first plague, as if the plagues are in an auto-pilot mode, with the seven angels emptying their bowls one after another, with no sounding of trumpets nor anything else. By pouring the seven bowls in a row, in other words, God will completely destroy this world. Why? Because everything will end with the pouring of the plagues of the seven bowls, which, together, are all included in the plague of the seventh trumpet.

When the plagues of the seven trumpets are brought, there are at least some pauses between one plague and the next, but with the plagues of the seven bowls, there is no such a pause. Because these plagues of the seven bowls are reserved for the final moment, after the plagues of the seven trumpets are brought in their order, when the last trumpet finally sounds, the world shifts onto a whole new level where everything will end.

This is why Revelation 11:15-18 record: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.’”

It is said here that when the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, loud voices were heard, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” But there is no mention of a plague. Why? Because immediately following the sounding of the seventh trumpet was not the seventh plague, but the rapture. God will resurrect and lift up the saints, both those still living on the earth and those who are already asleep, and when their rapture is over, He will pour the plagues of the seven bowls and completely destroy the world.

If we want to find out when exactly our rapture will happen, we only have to look at the Word of God found in Revelation 10:7. The mystery of God will most certainly be finished at this time, as He declared to His servants the prophets. The mystery of God here refers to the rapture—not of anyone, but of the saints.

Here, I present another passage for your clear understanding and correct faith. Again, the Bible says, “Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Doesn’t the Bible clearly say that the resurrection of the saints will occur at the last trumpet? When the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, and we also shall be changed in a moment to be raptured.

The angel that appears in chapter 10 is a mighty angel sent by God, different from the other angels who sound the first six trumpets. When we look at what this mighty angel does, he appears so much like God that we might even mistake him for God: “And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.”

We might mistake this angel for God, in other words, because this mighty angel executes all the things that Jesus Christ is to do, on His behalf. This tells us that God will do all these things through this mighty angel. It tells us that this angel, setting his foot on the sea and the land, will destroy them both, and that when the thunders come, he will complete everything that God has planned in Jesus Christ since the very beginning of the creation of the universe and mankind.

Of the plagues of the seven trumpets, we the saints will live through and experience the first six plagues, and we will continue to preach the gospel until then. God told John to take and eat the little book and to prophesy again, but this Word is also directed at you and me—that is, until the final day, we must continue in our faith and live on. As our rapture will come true when the seventh trumpet sounds, we must recognize this truth of our rapture, hold fast to it in faith, and hear the Word and preach the gospel until this day comes.

Up until the seventh trumpet sounds, the Antichrist will be active amidst this plague, the saints will be martyred with it, and they will be raptured shortly thereafter. As such, even in this time, when the faith of many believers in Jesus is shaken to its core and losing its vitality, you and I must still live by faith. We must believe, in other words, that our rapture will come exactly after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and live our lives by this faith.

We will soon see the plagues of the seven trumpets with our own eyes. We will see and count these plagues, from the very first to the sixth, with our own eyes. After this, when we the saints intuitively feel that the time for our martyrdom has come, we will in fact be martyred accordingly. This is neither a fairy tale nor a science-fiction. Nor is it something that you can believe or not at your own whims. This is what will actually happen to you and me.

Revelation 10:7, the verse that shows the rapture most clearly from the Book of Revelation, tells us that the rapture of the saints will come with the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and that the world will end with the plagues of the seven bowls. After lifting up the saints, God will bring the whole world to its demise. When all the saints are raptured, they will praise the Lord in the air. But on this earth, the plagues of the seven bowls will be poured, completely destroying the world, and when these plagues of the seven bowls end, the saints will descend on the renewed earth with the Lord. And the Millennial Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ, will then be built on this earth.

Today’s Christians mostly support the pre-tribulation rapture, and nowadays some of them have gone as far as to advocate even amillennialism—that is, that there is no such thing as the Millennial Kingdom. Is the Millennial Kingdom not a reality then? There are many who believe so in these days. Some of them, who minister in some of the biggest churches in Korea, even declare that everything in Revelation, from the mark of 666 to the rapture, is not factual but only symbolic. As our Lord once asked, “when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” it surely is very hard to find true believers in these end times.

But the Lord tells us that our rapture will indeed happen as reality. When we are raptured, we will meet the Lord in the air and praise Him, be taken care of and comforted by Him, and return to this earth again with Him. Coming down to the Millennial Kingdom, we will live new lives in our resurrected and transformed bodies, in the midst of everything that is renewed, from our changed lives to the changed blessings. We will live in such glory clothed by God. You and I must live with this faith and this hope. And when the Millennial Kingdom is over, we will enter the New Heaven and Earth, and reign with Christ forever in eternal honor and glory.

When we enter the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth, all the angels will be our servants. To whom will all spiritual beings, the whole world created by God and Jesus Christ, and everything in it belong? They will all be ours. This is why the Bible says that the ones who will inherit all things are the saints. Because you and I are the saints who were born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, to whom all things will be inherited. As such, you and I must overcome the hardships on this earth by faith, and persevere by looking at the day of our inheritance. We must also have the battling faith as the elite troops of God.

God has told us that all these things will soon be fulfilled without any delay. They will, in other words, most certainly be fulfilled shortly. Some may then wonder why God did not tell us about it in more detail. The answer to this question is that hiding the works of God is His wisdom (Proverbs 25:2, Luke 10:21).

Were God’s plan written down in detail, it would be a cause for much agitation in this world. The saints will then not be able to live until the last day. Almost all the saints will be killed by the unbelievers, and not a single saint will survive. If every detail about the end times is written in the Bible, those who are not born again by the water and the Spirit will slaughter all the born-again believers. Having hidden His purposes, God reveals them to only those who deserve, and otherwise keeps them as mysteries from the rest—this is the wisdom of God. God has revealed His plan to us and allowed us to know it, only because it is so necessary to the saints of this era.

That the born-again churches of God are now speaking of the end times in detail means that the last days are nearing us. Because the era of the Tribulation is imminent, the Word of Revelation is preached so that the saints would have the proper knowledge of the end times to persevere through and overcome this nearing Tribulation. Even the born-again, if they face the Tribulation without any knowledge, will not know what to do and be thrown into great confusion when the Tribulation actually arrives. This confusion will be even greater for those who rely only on their own individual faith.

We can imagine that many unprepared souls, in their ignorance and confusion, will start to go off on the wrong track when the end time comes. “Did God tell you something?” “Didn’t He show you a vision when you were praying?” Many will be agitated to seek visions from God, and many will claim to have seen such visions in the end times. “Didn’t God tell you something when you were praying?” If the saints remain ignorant, this will be quite a common question raised among the saints of the end times.

But God never works in such a way, for He has already commanded us, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). The saint, in other words, must hear only what the Holy Spirit says through the churches. Because the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing the Word of God, testifies only what is true and correct, when the plagues ringing the end of the world come, we the saints will not be caught by surprise from the following tribulations, but live by faith—for by then we would have already heard the Word of truth and carved it into our hearts in faith beforehand.

This is why John revealed to us what will happen in the future beforehand, and why the servants of God preach the truth within the bounds of this written Word. Prophesying is none other than knowing and preaching what will come from the written Word of God; claiming to have seen visions in dreams or prayers is not!

Never forget that our rapture will indeed come, and that we are the saints of God. Nor forget that you have now become a saint, who will be with Christ in the air when your rapture comes, who will come down onto the renewed earth again to live for a thousand years, and who will live forever in the New Heaven and Earth. If you hear people talking about pre-tribulation rapture or post-tribulation rapture, or claiming that there is no Millennial Kingdom at all, tell them the truth by referring to the passage that we have been discussing here. You should also refer them to 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, and tell them that the Lord will descend with the voice of an archangel and the sounding of the last trumpet, and lift up the saints to the air to be with Him. Only when you believe in this rapture can you defend your faith.

To be raptured, there must be martyrdom by faith and the resurrection of the body. Because the rapture will come simultaneous to the resurrection, as soon as we are resurrected, we will be raptured and lifted up to the air. The rapture and the resurrection, therefore, are the same. Taking part in the first resurrection means to live with the Lord in the Millennial Kingdom. Being raptured, too, means to live with the Lord for a thousand years on this earth.

Why, then, will we be raptured? Because God will destroy everything on this earth by pouring the plagues of the seven bowls—that is, He will rapture the saints beforehand in order to deliver His children from these plagues of termination. To separate the saints from the sinners, and to show their different destinations, He will rapture the saints. As such, we must believe in all these things—in our rapture, in our resurrection, and in our martyrdom.

To some, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is revealed in detail, while to others, it remains as a completely hidden secret. Likewise, the saints’ martyrdom, resurrection, rapture, and their reign over the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth are all God’s secrets. Only to the born-again has God revealed and shown these secrets. And by making them believe in these secrets He has enabled them to live through the end times and overcome all their hardships with their hope in the rapture and the Kingdom of Heaven.

You and I must have this kind of faith. Without this kind of faith—that is, without believing that we will be raptured, that we will live in the New Heaven and Earth, that the Lord will raise us from the dead when we are slaughtered by the Antichrist, rapture us, allow us to dwell in the air, and then return us to this earth to reign with Him for a thousand years—we will not be able to persevere through the difficult and depressing life of this last era.

The saints have a beautiful dream, and no one else but our Lord can make this dream come true. Without this hope, we will live only in sadness and suffering in this depressing world.

Paul told Timothy to keep the beautiful thing that was entrusted to him. This gospel is beautiful; so are our martyrdom, resurrection and rapture; and so is living in the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth. These are all good and beautiful things. They belong only to the saints, and they are all realizable faith and hope, not illusions or imaginations. These are our hope and faith given by the Lord. With faith in all these, we must live this era hoping for the day when the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth will be brought to us.

Those who will be raptured are none other than you and I. We must live by faith, waiting for the day when we will be raptured to stand before the Lord and reign in the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heaven and Earth.

God tells us that the One who is to come will soon come. The plagues that will come during the first half of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation are quite mild and short-lasting. Were the plagues to continue throughout the seven years of the Great Tribulation, how could anyone stand them? The early plagues are short, and as time gets nearer to the final end, there will be far more to see. When the plague of the seventh trumpet comes, it will reach a spectacular proportion.

When Satan tries to shake the saints’ faith, he will make examples out of a few church leaders by murdering them. Satan might say, “I’ll spare your life if you deny God!” Even if the world were to turn better, one would still think twice about Satan’s offer. Who in his right mind, then, would deny the Lord when he knows very well that the Lord would pour down the plagues of the seven bowls, and that he would go through all the sufferings brought by these plagues? The saints who know the end of the world neither deny the Lord nor betray their faith. Also, because in our hearts is the Holy Spirit, He will give us the courage.

Because all God’s plans will be quickly fulfilled in the end times, there will be no room for boredom. When the short-lasting plagues are over, there will be the resurrection, and after this will come the rapture, which will lift us up to the air. Imagine our bodies of the flesh transformed into spiritual bodies, praising the Lord. In the Kingdom of God, we can enjoy a whole different world, beautiful and elegant, the likes of which we have never experienced before on this earth. As spiritual bodies are free from the limitations of time and space, we would live in a wondrous and marvelous world where we can go anywhere we want.

I give my true thanks to God for giving us such great blessings. I thank God for revealing to us in detail, through His Word, the Great Tribulation, its plagues, our martyrdom, resurrection and rapture. And I pray that our hearts will always live by knowing this last era and believing in it.

 

[Chapter 10-1] Do You Know When the Time of Rapture Is? (Revelation 10:1-11)

(Revelation 10:1-11)

“I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.’ The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, ‘Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.’ So I went to the angel and said to him, ‘Give me the little book.’ And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.’ Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.’”

 

 

Exegesis
 

The highlight of this chapter is found in verse 7: “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” Rapture, in other words, will happen at this time.

 

Verse 1: I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

The mighty angel that appears in chapter 10 is God’s executor who bears witness to His works to come. The appearance of this angel is to show just how great God’s majesty and power are. It is also to show that God will destroy the seas of this world, and resurrect and rapture the saints up to heaven.

 

Verse 2-3: He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.

God does all things according to His plans. He will destroy both the land and the sea when the last day comes. Our Lord, in other words, will destroy the first sea and the first land.

This passage shows God’s indomitable will to fulfill all things as He has planned, and the completion of His works. In the Bible, the number seven carries the meaning of completion. God used this number when He completed all His works and rested. Likewise, this passage tells us that God will, in the end times, deliver many from their destruction, but destroy this world for sure, on the other hand.

 

Verse 4: Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”

God commanded John not to record what the seven thunders uttered, to hide the rapture of the saints from the unsaved. At times, God hides His works from the unbelievers, because they, as the enemies of God, hates and persecutes His saints.

In Noah’s time also, when God destroyed the world with water, He revealed the coming flood only to Noah. Even as now, God preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all over the world, and gives the Kingdom of Heaven to those who believe in it. But apart from these who have the true faith, He has not revealed to anyone else when the rapture is coming. For the righteous, God has created a new world in His Kingdom, and He desires to live in it with them.

 

Verse 5-6: The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer,

All these things can be sworn by the name of God, as the last vow in everything is taken not by one’s own name, but by the name of someone greater. As such, God is the last guarantor for both the saints of the last times and all those who have already become His saints.

Here, the mighty angel swears by the Almighty that the rapture will come for certainty. This vow tells us that God will create the New Heaven and Earth and live with His saints in this new world. It shows that God does not delay His creation of the new world, but will shortly complete it for His saints.

 

Verse 7: but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

This verse tells us that when the last seventh trumpet sounds in the final tribulations, all the saints will be raptured. What people on this earth wonder the most is when the rapture of the saints will come.

Revelation 10:7 tells us, “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” What does the phrase “the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets” mean here? It means that just as the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the true gospel, and as whoever believes in it receives atonement and the Holy Spirit into his/her heart, the rapture of the saints will likewise surely come when the seventh trumpet sounds.

After the plague of the sixth of the seven trumpets is over, the saints will be martyred as the Antichrist, having made his appearance in the world and established his dominion over it, demands everyone to receive the mark of the Beast. Shortly after, when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, both the martyred and the surviving saints who defended their faith will be resurrected and raptured simultaneously. Then the plagues of the seven bowls, the last plague on mankind, will begin. By this time, the saints would no longer be on the earth, but in heaven with the Lord after their rapture. The saints must know that their rapture will happen when the seventh angel sounds the last trumpet.

The Apostle Paul, too, tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4 that the Lord will descend from heaven with the trumpet of an archangel. Many Christians think that the Lord will come down to this earth when the rapture happens, but this is not the case. When the rapture happens, our Lord does not come down onto this earth, but to the air. He completes the rapture, in other words, by lifting the saints up to and receiving them in the air.

As such, these Christians who mistakenly think that the Lord would come down to this earth when the rapture of the true saints comes should discard their wrong understanding, and they should know the truth and believe in it properly by remembering that the rapture of the saints will come when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet.

“The mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” You must realize that the mystery of God here refers to the rapture of the saints that will come with the sounding of the plague of the seventh trumpet. Now, in short, God destroys the first world, and founds the second world. This is for God to dwell and live with those who, while on this earth, have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and also to faithfully fulfill all the promises that the Almighty has made to His people. This is the will of God, the Creator of the whole universe, which He set in Himself for the saints.

When the angel sounds the seventh trumpet, the plagues of the seven trumpets will be over, and the final plagues of the seven bowls will be ushered in. The Word tells us, “in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” The mystery of God here is that the saints will be raptured with the sounding of the seventh angel’s trumpet.

The saints are now living on this earth, but for them to live in a new, better world, they must be martyred, resurrected, and raptured. Only then will they be invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb with the Lord and reign with Him for a thousand years. After this millennium, the Antichrist, Satan, and all his followers will receive the eternal judgment of God. And from then on, the saints will be blessed to live with the Lord in His Heaven of eternal blessings. This is the mystery of God. We can only thank God for having revealed this mystery to those of us who have the true faith. God tells us that He will fulfill all these promises when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet.

 

Verse 8: Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”

God tells us that the saints and the servants of God must continue to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit until the last day comes. This gospel is about the truth of the remission of sins, martyrdom, resurrection, rapture, and the marriage supper of the Lamb. For the saints and God’s servants to preach the gospel until the end, they must first feed on the Word of God with their faith before the advent of the Great Tribulation. God demands two kinds of faith from us. The first is the faith to be born again, and the second is the faith to embrace martyrdom to defend our true faith.

 

Verse 9: So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

The saints and the servants of God must first feed on the Word of God and then spread it to many others. This verse teaches us that although the hearts of those who believe in the Word of God are sweetened, preaching this Word of faith to the lost souls is not such an easy task, accompanied by sacrifices. This is what God is showing us here.

 

Verse 10: Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.

When John ate the Word of God in faith, his heart was filled with joy. But in preaching the truth testified by the Word of God to those who do not believe in the truth, John faced many hardships.

 

Verse 11: And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

The saints must prophesy again to everyone that God’s blessings come through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They must prophesy again that the purpose of our Lord for this world in the end times is for everyone to come into God’s blessings by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What God commanded John to prophesy is to preach the Word of truth—that a new world is coming soon, brought by God, and that whoever wants to enter it must be justified by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For this work, the saints and the servants of God must preach the Word of God from the beginning all over again, so that everyone in this world will have the faith that will allow them to enter and live in the Kingdom of our Lord.