Prophecy
11
The Rise of Babylon –
Revelation 12:7 – 14:5
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[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
4-
There is a
reason God called this time period,
“a time, times, and half a
time.” God wants the final
generation to understand
that a second period of
persecution is coming upon His people
– a second period of “a
time, times, and half a time” is
coming!
Consider this: God’s perfect
number is seven – a number
denoting totality, fullness, and
completion. For exampl
- God
created the world in six days
and rested on the seventh
day. Unlike the other six
days, He made the seventh day
holy.
- God
brought seven clean animals
into Noah’s ark, but
only two of the unclean.
- God
promised to punish Israel
seven times over if they
violated His covenant.
- The
high priest sprinkled blood
before the atonement cover on
the Day of Atonement seven
times.
- The
people marched around Jericho
seven times on the seventh
day.
- God
imposed seven times on King
Nebuchadnezzar.
- Jesus
told us to forgive our
brother seven times seventy.
- There
are seven churches in
Revelation.
- The
Lamb in Revelation has seven
horns.
- There
are seven angels that stand
before God.
- John
heard seven thunders.
- There
are seven seals, seven
trumpets, and seven bowls.
- There
are seven heads on the great
red dragon and the composite
beast.
- There
are seven lampstands.
Many other
examples in the Bible show that God
uses seven to denote fullness and
completion, but these suffice to make
the point that seven is God’s
perfect number.
Time, Times,
and Half a Time is Half of the Story!
Because God
often uses the number seven to show
completion and fullness, it appears
that the phrase “a time, times
and half a time” is God’s
way of dividing seven years of
persecution into two segments. A time
(one solar year), times (two solar
years), and half a time (half a solar
year) totals 3.5 years and 3.5
years is half of seven years. There
are two periods of persecution in
Daniel and Revelation that last
“a time, times, and half a
time.” When added together, they
produce seven years of persecution.
The first 3.5 years of persecution
occurred during the Dark Ages. The
“time, times, and half a
time” mentioned in Daniel 7:25 must be
translated into 1,260 years because
of Rule Four. The second period of
3.5 years will occur during the Great
Tribulation.
Because Revelation 12 proves
that 1,260 days is equivalent to a
time, times, and half a time, the
1,260 days allotted to the Two
Witnesses in Revelation
11:3 are equivalent
to a time, times and half a time.
Daniel 12 confirms this: “The
man clothed in linen, who was above
the waters of the river, lifted his
right hand and his left hand toward
heaven, and I heard him swear by him
who lives forever, saying, ‘It
will be for a time, times and half a
time. When the power of the holy
people [the 144,000] has
been finally broken, all these things
will be completed.’ ”[60] Compare
Daniel’s prediction with
John’s prediction: “And
I will give power to my two
witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260
days [a time,
times, and half-a-time],
clothed in sackcloth. . . . Now when
they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the
Abyss will attack them, and overpower
and kill them.”[61]
The Bible
indicates there are two separate
periods of persecution for the
saints. Each period will last 3.5
years. (See Figure 11.1.) Currently,
we are living between these two time
periods. Here are three suggestions
why God permits His people to be
persecuted for a period of seven
times:
First,
persecution keeps the church (the
body of Christ) pure. Nominal
Christians cannot endure persecution.
They will either flee or dilute the
gospel through compromise. James
wrote, “Consider it
pure joy, my brothers, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because
you know that the testing of your
faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so
that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.”[62]
Second,
persecution matures our faith and
love for God and our love for those
who also suffer for His sake.
Faithless people go around in endless
circles whining, murmuring, and
complaining, but faithful people live
by faith (and do so happily!).
Faith-full people anticipate
God’s sustaining grace each day
and their love and admiration for
those who suffer as they suffer
produces a bond of fellowship and
comradery that words cannot express.
Peter wrote, “These [trials
and suffering] have come
so that your faith – of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire – may be
proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus
Christ is revealed. Though you have
not seen him, you love him; and even
though you do not see him now, you
believe in him and are filled with an
inexpressible and glorious joy, for
you are receiving the goal of your
faith, the salvation of your
souls.”[63]
Third,
persecution causes God’s
children to “hunger and
thirst” after the Word of God.
No martyr ever went to the stake
questioning the reasons for his
faith. When a person is threatened
with suffering and death because of
his determination to uphold
God’s Word, the Word of God
becomes his bread and water. John
wrote, “When he
opened the fifth seal, I saw under
the altar the souls of those who had
been slain because
of the Word of God and the testimony
they had maintained.”[64]
Summary
Corporately
speaking, God’s people are
persecuted for a period of
“seven times” before they
are taken to Heaven. The first 3.5
years (1,260 years) occurred between
538 and 1798. The second 3.5 years
(literally 1,260 days) will occur
during the Great Tribulation. We are
living during the intermission.
Jesus said to
His disciples, “Remember
the words I spoke to you: ‘No
servant is greater than his
master.’ If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you also. If they
obeyed my teaching, they will obey
yours also. They will treat you this
way because of my name, for they do
not know the One who sent me.”[65] To
prepare His disciples for the
suffering that lay ahead, Jesus gave
them the most wonderful gift known to
mankind. “Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world
gives. Do not let your hearts be
troubled and do not be afraid.”[66] God
gave us the books of Daniel and
Revelation because He wants us to
know His plans in advance. God
permitted His people to be purified
for 1,260 years and we anticipate
that He will allow His people to be
purified again.[67] However,
the woman was not and will not be
tested beyond what she can bear.[68] Make no
mistake about this, a numberless
multitude will come out of the Great
Tribulation because there are
millions and millions of
honest-hearted people on Earth!
Finally, here
is an interesting thought. You may
recall that the Bible predicts the
wicked will rejoice over the death of
the Two Witnesses for 3.5 days. This
period of time (which is half of
seven days) suggests that there may
be another 3.5 days to consider. I am
speculating, but if God grants the
wicked 3.5 days to celebrate their
shameful victory over the death of
the Two Witnesses, it seems fair that
God would also grant the redeemed 3.5
days to celebrate their victory over
the beast and his image. Personally,
I like the idea of the numberless
multitude rejoicing around God’s
throne in Heaven for 3.5 days.[69] I hope
to meet you there!
The
Sequence Continues
Revelation
12:15
And
the serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman,
that he might cause her to be carried
away of the flood.{15} About
two hundred fifty years before the
1,260 years[70] ended,
the devil observed the rise and
influence of the Protestant
Reformation in Europe. The dragon
could see that if God’s truth
was not stopped, light would triumph
over darkness. Being the devil that
he is, he attempted to destroy
advancing truth with a tsunami of
persecution.
John saw the
devil’s endeavor to destroy the
woman as a dragon spewing a great
flood of water out of his mouth.[71] This
caricature is full of irony because
people in John’s day believed
that dragons spewed fire, not water,
from their mouths. This unusual
illustration indicates that God would
not allow the devil to completely
stop the Protestant reformation. The
devil tried to sweep the woman away
in a torrent of persecution that
culminated with the French Revolution
(1789-1799), but try as he might, the
devil could not destroy the woman.
Revelation
12:16
And
the earth helped the woman, and the
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast
out of his mouth.{16} God
opened up a place on Earth for the
battered woman. The Earth swallowed
up the river that the dragon spewed
out of his mouth.
Twenty-two
years before the papacy fell, God
established a new nation in a largely
uninhabited part of the world. God
led the founding fathers of this new
nation to create a constitution that
separated the powers of church from
the powers of the state. This new
nation was built on principles of
religious liberty and the equality of
human beings (although it would take
about a century after becoming a
nation to end slavery and give equal
rights to women). Geographically
speaking, the earth helped the
Protestant Reformation by offering
the woman a place where she might
flee and worship God according to the
dictates of conscience. The poor, the
tired, the homeless, and those
persecuted for their faith found
civil and religious freedom in the
United States of America.
