The Two Witnesses Part ll
Lesson 15
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Review
Our previous study
surveyed the tribulation that marks the end of
the world. From Daniel 8 and 11, we learned
this time-period is referred to as a time
of wrath. We will understand the
importance of this term more fully in this
lesson.
In effect, the trumpets
are designed to arrest the attention of the world
so that everyone can hear the gospel. What
is called gospel today is only a
portion of the full gospel!
Jesus clearly says that
everyone is to hear the gospel, and the end
will come. Matthew 24:14 The full
gospel story hasnt been told to the world
yet for the gospel must clearly explain
Revelations story! The full gospel
story contains an explanation of the trumpets,
the seals, the seven last plagues and the two
beasts of Revelation.
John clearly saw that the
remnant would have to give the gospel again to
the world! See Revelation 10:8-11.
The reason the gospel must go again throughout
the world is that in final form, the gospel
contains a special message from Revelation. This
timely message not only explains the purpose of
the trumpets, it gives a call to worship
God. The call to worship God contains a
very important test that affects the whole
world! The everlasting gospel will separate
those who really love God from those who really
hate the light of truth. Those who are now
living up to all the light they have will rejoice
and move forward with the greater light to the
full gospel that is soon to light up every corner
of the world!
Seven trumpets begin
Carefully read the
following verses from Revelation:
And I saw the seven
angels who stand before God, and to them were
given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a
golden censer, came and stood at the alter.
He was given much incense to offer, with the
prayer of the saints, on the golden alter before
the throne. The smoke of the incense,
together with the prayers of the saints, went
before God from the angels hand. Then the
angel took the censer, filled it with fire from
the alter, and hurled it on the earth; and there
came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of
lightening and an earthquake. Then the
seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared
to sound them. Revelation 8:2-6
A number of important
things stand out in these verses. We will study
two of them. First, observe the
chronological sequence. Notice that the
seven angels who stand before God are given seven
trumpets THEN; the angel at the golden alter (of
incense) hurls down a censer and THEN; there is
thunder, rumblings, lightening and an earthquake
and THEN; the seven angels prepare to sound their
trumpets.
Secondly, notice that the
angel at the alter places much incense on the
alter before the trumpets sound.
What do these things
mean?
As demonstrated in the
previous lesson, the purpose of the trumpets is
to awaken and arouse the world to hear the
everlasting gospel. The throwing down of
the censer and the commotion that follows on
earth simultaneously marks the beginning of the
trumpet sequence and the end of the
atonement process in heaven. This process,
like the great Day of Atonement, has an earthly
sanctuary equivalent too. In ancient times,
it was known as the daily or
continual offering. Each morning and
evening, a sacrifice was offered on the alter of
burnt offering. This sacrifice was offered
on behalf of the camp of Israel and not for any
particular individual. In other words, this
sacrifice was a corporate sacrifice. (See
Numbers 15:22-31 for a clear distinction between
corporate and individual sacrifices.)
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4th
Seal opens when censer is thrown down |
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7 First Plagues |
7 Last Plagues |
Today |
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7
Trumpets is a time of mercy for those who
haven't heard the gospel. |
Those
rejecting the gospel receive the mark of
the beast and no more mercy from God. |
In
Israels day, the morning and evening
sacrifices provided corporate atonement on a
continual or daily basis. This atonement
was necessary so that Israel could dwell in
Gods consuming presence. Without
atonement morning and evening, the camp of Israel
could not exist! In a similar manner, Jesus
has been interceding on behalf of the world since
His ascension. A guilty race has been sheltered
from the righteous justice of God through the
daily or continual merits of Jesus
intercession. Just before the seven
trumpets begin, the censer in heaven is thrown
down indicating the sudden end of corporate
intercession.
A sinful and defiled
world will reap a terrible harvest. As in
the days of Noah, earth in a corporate sense,
will reach a point of no return. When this point
is reached the wrath of Jesus will be
exercised. The fourth seal will be opened
and the predicted destruction will begin. The
first four trumpets are warning judgments sent to
the world saying, Get ready, Get ready.
Prepare to meet your Maker.
Much incense
The angel at
heavens alter was given much incense to put
on the alter before the seven trumpets sound.
This fragrance of incense along with the prayers
of the saints goes up before God. What does
this mean?
144,000 servants are now
being selected and sealed |
Remnant 1 selected |
Remnant 2 called out of
Babylon through the efforts of 144,000
and Remnant 1. |
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The Shaking |
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Today
God gathers those who will support the
warning messages of the 144,000 |
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Judgment of the living
occurs during 7 trumpets |
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Censer
thrown down
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144, 000 = Remnants 1 and 2 =
Great Harvest
In the wilderness
sanctuary, special incense was offered before the
Lord each morning and evening as the daily
sacrifice was being applied. Exodus
30:7,8,37 On the Day of Atonement, the high
priest carried a censer full of burning coals
with two handfuls of this incense into the Most
Holy Place. Jesus said, He (the high
priest) is to put the incense on the fire before
the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will
conceal the atonement cover
Above the Testimony (the
ark of the Testimony), so that he will not
die. Leviticus 16:13
That which separated the
high priest from the consuming glory of God was
only a veil of smoke!
From Revelation 8:5 we
conclude that the censer is thorn down because it
service is finished. The daily atonement
conducted by the censer is ended. Extra
incense was added to the fire on the alter to
sustain the atonement process a little than
usual. The prayers of the saints came up
before the Lord with the fragrance of the incense
because the saints are knowledgeable, ready and
prepared for the hour of trial that occurs during
the trumpets. The judgment day of God has
come. The first people to be judged during
the time-period of the trumpets will be those who
have had an opportunity to prepare for those
things! 1 Peter 4:17
The point brings up the
issue of the 144,000 that will be studied
later. For now, study the diagram on this
page to understand how the 144,000 and their
support group (called remnant 1 in
this study) are prepared to go throughout the
world during the time period of the seven
trumpets to gather in the remaining children of
God (identified as remnant 2 in this
study) which are in Babylon.
The first three trumpets
The first angel
sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire
mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the
earth. A third of the earth was burned up,
a third of the trees were burned up, and all the
green grass was burned up. The second angel
sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge
mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the
sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
a third of the living creatures in the sea died,
and a third of the ships were destroyed. The
third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great
star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on
a third of the rivers and the springs of
water. The name of the star is
Wormwood. A third of the waters turned
bitter, and many people died from the waters that
become bitter. Revelation 8:7-11
Perhaps the first three
trumpets are caused by our earths orbit
passing through an asteroid belt. The
presence of these dangerous belts in our galaxy
has been known for many years. In fact, the rings
about the planet Saturn are rings of cosmic
debris that can range in size from a golf ball to
several miles in diameter.
At the annual meeting of
the American Geophysical Union in December, 1989,
Clark Chapman of the Planetary Science Institute
in Tucson, Arizona, and David Morrison, chief of
the space science division at NASA Ames Research
Center in Mountain View, California, shocked
their audience of 4,000 scientists by suggesting
that, the risk of death from a wandering
asteroid from outer space is somewhat greater
than an individual American dying in an airplane
crash. Their calculations are based
on the fact that more than 100 major meteors have
recently impacted the surface of the moon.
In March of 1989, a half-mile wide asteroid came
within 500,000 miles of Earth. If it had
hit the earth, astronomers said, It would
have crashed with enough violence to destroy a
good-sized country.
The Impact of
Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July 1994 showed the world
those twenty-one fragments of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy smashed violently into the planet
Jupiter. It had enough destructive power equal to
thousands of nuclear bombs. If those
twenty-one fragments had hit earth, there would
be nothing left. Scientists know now this is a
serious matter to consider. The word in the
scientific circles is not where but when
will it hit the earth. The Scriptures
have said this truth for millennia and scientists
are now just figuring it out. Its
past time to wake-up and see what the Lord has in
store for earth.
Johns description
of the first trumpet is a hailstorm, not of ice,
but of fire! The fire burns up a third of
the land and the trees and all the green
grass. Because the next two trumpets are
cause by large meteors, the author believes the
first trumpet is caused by a large amount of
cosmic debris such as baseball-size meteors that
enter our atmosphere and impact the earth thus
causing a large number of fires. Men will
be powerless to stop the fires because there are
so many and they are so scattered. The
death and destruction described in this trumpet
cannot be stopped.
When the second angel
sounds his trumpet, John saw a large meteor,
perhaps a mile in diameter, hit the sea.
The effect is immediate. The resulting tidal wave
destroys a third of the ships! The toxins
released by the intense heat of the meteor and
the vaporizing of the oxygen within the water
destroys a third of the marine life. Perhaps
the blood John saw is the red tide that
overtakes deoxygenated water.
When the third angel
sounds his trumpet, a large meteor hits a
continent or landmass. Perhaps an instantaneous
series of earthquakes follows to redistribute
tectonic forces far beneath the surface of the
earth. The movement of tectonic plates collapses
thousands of water wells that provide cities with
drinking water. What drinking water is
available is contaminated by sewage, refuse and
toxic waste that has been buried. Many
people die from drinking the water.
Note that each of the
first three trumpets affects 1/3 of whatever they
fall upon. If we add together the 1/3 of
each trumpet, this could mean that these trumpets
will affect 3/3 or all the earth. This
would be consistent with the idea that the entire
world must be awakened to hear the gospel
message. We dont know just how earth
was represented to John in his vision. Maybe 1/3
of the area he was viewing was affected or
perhaps, 1/3 of the total earth was
affected. Either way, the result of the
first three trumpets is awful.
The student may be
somewhat skeptical of the first three trumpets
occurring as a result of meteorites. Such
skepticism is respected. For further study on
this subject, read the June, 1989 issue of
National Geographic Magazine. National
Geographic features an article on this
interesting subject titled,
Extinctions. The hypothesis of
this article is that mass extinctions occurred in
the distant past due to large meteors impacting
the earth. (The face of the moon clearly
reveals a history of many large meteoric
impacts.) Scientists are quite confident
that large meteors have impacted the earth in the
past and they speculate that dinosaurs became
extinct because of them. What is so ironic
is that while scientists are studying the past,
the Bible predicts mass extinctions in the future
in this very fashion!
Rick Gore, the author of
the National Geographic article wrote, Most
scientists now concur that at least one great
extraterrestrial object struck the planet around
the time the dinosaurs died out. The idea
that large objects could strike our planet and
cause mass extinctions was considered radical
until just about 20 years ago. Then a team
of researchers at the University of California
found high levels of iridium a metal rare
on earth but common in meteorites in a
thin layer of clay laid down about the time of
the dinosaurs became extinct. Their
conclusion that an asteroid hit the earth
66 million years ago, wreaking environmental
havoc shocked the scientific world.
Further analysis of the iridium layer has
supported the impact, although scientists are
widely divided over its effects. Ibed, page
665, 666.
Perhaps very large
meteors have impacted this planet in the
past. A number of craters clearly seem to
indicate such impacts. (The largest in
North America is in Manson, Iowa. Its about
18 miles wide.) What is so interesting
about the scientific pursuit of this idea is that
scientists have created computer models of what
could happen if a large meteor hit the sea or hit
the land. See if you notice any parallels
from the National Geographic and Johns
description in Revelation: A huge
plume would push the atmosphere aside
Winds
of hundreds of kilometers an hour would sweep the
planet for hours, drying trees like a giant hair
dryer. Two thousand degree rock vapor would
spread rapidly. It would condense to
white-hot grains that could have started
additional fires
Volcanoes erupt, tsunamis
crash into the continents, the sky grows dark for
months, perhaps years
(water sources) become
anoxic or toxic
creatures die.
Ibed, page 673.
The fourth trumpet
The fourth angel
sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was
struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the
stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A
third of the day was without light, and also a
third of the night. Revelation 8:12
This trumpet obviously
marks a phenomenal change in the heavens.
Just how this is done, John doesnt
say. Following the scenario in National
Geographic the darkening of the sun, moon and
stars could come as a result of the previous
three trumpets. With the sun darkened,
vegetation becomes stunted. Food crops that
were wiped out as a result of the fires of the
first trumpet, will not recover. The
prospects of life on Earth after the first four
trumpets sound will not be heartening.
As the people of earth
witness these terribly awesome things, they will
be desperate about survival. In their
suffering, they will seek the meaning of these
events. Clearly, these calamities are
acts of God.
Regardless of the
religious belief or cultural background, each
person will be alarmed and interested. As
people begin to compare the first four trumpets
with the story of Revelation, the truthfulness
and meaning of Revelations story will
blossom. Thus the minds of people in every
nation, kindred, tongue and people will be opened
to hear a prophetic explanation of what these
events are all about. In short, people
everywhere will be anxious to hear the
everlasting gospel!
Now, three curses
As if the asteroids
werent bad enough, the next three trumpets
are even more powerful. John says, As
I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in
midair call out in a loud voice: Woe! Woe! Woe!
To the inhabitants of the earth, because of the
trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other
three angels! Revelation 8:13
This eagle is one of the four living creatures
(senior angels) that John saw earlier. See
Revelation 4:7 The message of this living
creature is that the next three trumpets are
curses. That is, they directly fall upon
certain people and not the physical elements of
earth.
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