The teaching continues from the parenthesis in Revelation 10. The mighty messenger is God the Son, who claims the earth with the little scroll as title deed, roaring as a lion toward Israel. There is no more delay. The mystery of God is finished at the seventh trumpet after the millennial kingdom, when all things are brought together under Christ. John eats the scroll, sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach, because more prophecy remains. The narrative returns to the mid-tribulation period.
John is given a reed like a measuring rod and told to rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there, but to leave out the outer court given to the Gentiles, who will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. This places the timeline in the last half of the tribulation, the close of the times of the Gentiles. Luke 21:24 contains a large gap: the first clause records the fall by the sword and scattering among the nations at the destruction of the temple in AD 70; the second records Gentile control of Jerusalem until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled at the end of the tribulation. After the Church is removed and the restrainer is gone, Israel is brought back in God’s fury, not by choice, and builds the tribulation temple. God is not dealing with Israel as a nation in the present dispensation; current events are not that regathering.
Two witnesses are given power to prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. They are the two olive trees and the lampstand standing before the God of the earth. Zechariah 4 supplies the dual reference: the two olive trees are the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth, identified as Jews. One is Elijah, sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord at the second coming (Malachi 4:5). The other is a modern Jew. They are the only two Jews remaining in Jerusalem after Israel flees.
If anyone desirously wills to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies; that one must be killed in this manner. The fire is not literal flame from a human mouth but the authority of their word that causes the enemy to be burned, with supernatural discernment of desirous will in the mind. They have authority to shut heaven so that no rain falls, to turn the waters to that which has the quality of blood (congealing, stinking, and rotting), and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire. At mid-tribulation the mark of the beast is introduced when the man of lawlessness sets himself in the temple as God. It is a clear, visible mark of worship of the one in the temple, unrelated to any modern technology. Those who take it will not be forgiven.
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit makes war against them, overcomes them, and kills them. This beast had died; it is the man of lawlessness after resuscitation. Humans do not go to the abyss, only spirit beings. God permits a demon from the abyss to retrieve the soul and spirit and sustain the physical body. Their bodies lie in the street of the great city, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified—Jerusalem, now characterized by perversion and the following of false gods. For three and a half days the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations see the dead bodies and do not allow them to be put into a grave. Earth-dwellers—those who have settled down believing they belong on the earth, the unbelievers—rejoice, make merry, and send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented them. The tribulation tests those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 3:10). They are the ones who have no problem with the harlot’s killing of the saints (Revelation 6:10). The three woes are directed at them (Revelation 8:13). The beast’s signs cause them to marvel (Revelation 17:8). People know it is God who is acting, yet they reject Him and want the earth.
After three and a half days the Spirit of life from God enters them. They stand on their feet, and great fear falls upon those who see them. This is the Holy Spirit, who reunites spirit and soul with the resurrected body (Philippians 3:21; Romans 8:11). A loud voice from heaven says, “Come up here.” They ascend to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies see them. Their mission is complete; they go up to meet Christ. In the same hour a great earthquake destroys a tenth of the city, kills 7,000 people, and the rest are afraid and give glory to the God of heaven—a proper opinion recognizing His authority. The second woe is past; a third remains.
The seventh angel sounds. Loud voices in heaven declare that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign into the ages of the ages. This begins with the millennial kingdom and extends into eternity, when Christ delivers the kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24–28). The feminine “all” in verse 24 refers to all kingdoms; the neuter “all” in verse 28 refers to all things. When the Son has subjected everything, He Himself is subject to the One who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Positions of submission among the persons of the Godhead cease because the plan is complete; equality is manifested. Grace continues as the attitude that gives benefit without regard to merit and is unrelated to sin. The scene stands between time and eternity, the place of the Great White Throne judgment of unbelievers—judgment for works, not wrath, which is finished.
The twenty-four elders who sit before God on their thrones fall on their faces and worship God, giving thanks to the Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because He has taken His great inherent ability and has reigned. The title Lord God Almighty refers to the Son as the One who manifests the authority of the Godhead (Revelation 1:8; Matthew 28:18). The nations were angry (past tense): the Gentiles raged at the crucifixion (Psalm 2; Acts 4:24–28) and again in the tribulation (Revelation 16:8–9). Wrath has come and is complete. The time of the dead has arrived that they should be judged, that servants the prophets and the saints should be rewarded, and that those who destroy the earth should be destroyed. Wrath ends when God destroys the enemies at the close of the millennial kingdom. The Great White Throne is pure judgment.
