(Revelation 10 & 11)
Sermon by Pastor Dale Wolcott
January 12, 2002
(Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise noted)
Evangelistic Worship Series
Responsive Scripture Reading
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. [Daniel 12:4]
In [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. [Colossians 2:3, 4]
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [Colossians 2:8]
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. [1Tim 6:20, 21]
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [John 8:32]
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [2 Cor. 4:6]
Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. [Eccl. 12:12-14]
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Does anybody remember Phineas Gage? Last month, at the end of our study of Revelation’s seven broken seals, I mentioned a cover story in Science magazine about the 19th Century New England railworker who lost his frontal lobe in a blasting accident. That story, along with other research findings in neuroscience, helps us to understand the meaning of the seal of God in our foreheads, which the Bible talks about in Revelation chapter 7.
This morning we’ll begin with another science story. Science is simply the careful study of the world of nature. It’s a marvelous, God-given tool that helps us in many ways to understand spiritual things, to understand the Bible. Our Creator has always pointed us to His Creation for help in knowing and understanding Him.
Perhaps you saw the cover of the December, 2001, issue of Reader’s Digest: "The Science of God: A Stunning New View." Based on a recent book co-authored by Vince Rause of the Los Angeles Times and neuroscientist Andrew Newberg: Why God Won’t Go Away, the featured article was titled, "Searching for the Divine." The first sentence hooked me: "There is new evidence that humans are hardwired to believe in God." Interesting!
So I read it. It’s a report on studies done in the early 1990's using computerized technology to take pictures of the brain activity of Buddhist monks and Franciscan nuns during times of meditation & prayer. The researchers found that when a monk or nun was engaged in deep meditation, or "a moment of intense spirituality," at that point in time there would be a measurable, visible decrease of blood flow in one particular portion of the brain, indicating a reduction of neural activity. The implication: Here is proof that something real actually happens when religious people say they are experiencing communion with God!
Wow! God is real! Neuroscience has proved it! Of course a serious scientist wouldn’t express it that way, but that’s the impression left by this article in a popular magazine. Frankly, I wasn’t too impressed and I tossed it aside.
Then, the next day, it struck me that this is profoundly significant. Last month, we looked at a scientific story that demonstrated that knowing and experiencing God requires the full function of one’s neurological capability. When Phineas Gage lost that brain function, he lost his capacity for spirituality, and became merely an intelligent animal. So Revelation says the final, ultimate spiritual experience, having the seal of God (Revelation 7) relates to an enhancement, a full utilization of our mental function. Now we have another scientific story telling us that when we know and experience God, the experience will be marked by a decrease of brain function. "Religious feelings rise more from experience than from thought" (p. 143, italics in original). "What feels most real is most real" (p. 145).
That last sentence is a classic statement of what we call post-modernism. Post-modernism is a way of thinking about ultimate reality, a set of assumptions that determines how people think about everything else in their life. At the turn of this new millennium, post-modern assumptions so totally dominate the intellectual landscape of our Western world that most people don’t even realize they exist. Someone said that trying to explain post-modernism to most young people today is like trying to explain "wet" to a fish. And this "scientific" article sums it up: "What feels most real is most real." Neuroscience has demonstrated it! God (if I that is what I choose to call this experience I’m having) is defined by what I feel. And the way I feel God is by getting part of my brain to turn itself off! No wonder the apostle Paul warned young Timothy about "the oppositions of science falsely so called" (1 Timothy 6:20, KJV).
It’s time to go to Revelation, chapter 11. Most people are not aware that Revelation predicted this modern-day contrast and conflict between true science - a careful, reverent study of God’s created universe - and the very human-centered attempt to understand reality that is often called science in our world today.
Let’s read this fascinating story. Don’t try to figure it out for now, but just listen. We’ll note a few things as we go along, but mainly just listen to this story:
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. Revelation 11:1, 2.
Does the Old Testament have anything in it about a 42-month or three-and-a-half-year prophecy? Yes, in Daniel, chapter 7. This is the first time it is mentioned in Revelation, but altogether, this time period is mentioned seven times in Daniel and Revelation, so it’s very important. If you’ve studied prophecy you may remember that a day stands for a year in these prophecies. Let’s go on in Revelation 11:
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, 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. Revelation 11: 3-6
Who in the Old Testament shut up heaven so it didn’t rain for 3 1/2 years? Elijah did. Who in the Old Testament turned water to blood and struck the earth with plagues? Moses did. Let’s go on:
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. Revelation 11: 7-9
When would this 3 1/2 day period occur, in relation to the 1260 days or 42 months? It would be at the end of the 1260 days, "when they finish their testimony" (see verse 7). If a day equals one year, how long would this be? It would be 3 1/2 years, at the end of the 1260 years. Going on in Revelation 11:
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. Revelation 11:10-12
What on earth do you make of this? Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture of where this fits into the whole book of Revelation, and then we’ll come back and see how this prophecy wears overalls – how Christ talks very directly to our 21st century, postmodern world.
Revelation 11 is the conclusion of the third great prophetic sequence in Revelation.
Remember, chapters 2 and 3 talk about the seven churches, which we looked at in November. The churches go down through time, and the seventh church is our present time.
Chapters 5 through 7 talk about the seven seals, which we looked at in December. Those seals go down through time, and we are living halfway through the sixth seal.
Chapters 8 through 11 show a third sequence of seven trumpets. We’ll not spend time today going through the trumpets, but note this: The story of the two witnesses is set during the sixth trumpet. (See Revelation 11:15.) The first 5 trumpets, and the first part of the sixth trumpet (chapters 8 and 9), are a depiction of military devastations down through the history of Christianity.
The seals depict the apostasy of the Christian church, a falling away from Scripture within Christianity, down into the medieval period or "Dark Ages." In the trumpets, we see the action of non-Christian forces impacting Christian civilization. If you spend some time reading Mervyn Maxwell’s God Cares: The Story of Revelation for You & Your Family, you’ll note that he and many other Bible scholars see in some of the trumpets the rise of Islam. Did you know that Islamic armies came very close to conquering Europe back in the middle ages? We don’t have time for that today, but study it on your own; it’s fascinating. God foresaw that Islam would have a significant role in end-time events.
So both the seals and the trumpets go very briefly through the first several items of their sequence of seven, then expand as they describe endtime events in items five, six, and seven. Chapter 10 and our story in chapter 11 are all part of the sixth trumpet. Note Revelation 10: 6 and 7:
…that there should be delay (literally "time," KJV) 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. Revelation 10: 7.
So, the rest of chapters 10 and 11 are endtime events. Does that mean future events? No, we have been living in the end-time since the end of the time prophecies, the last of which ended in 1844, when the judgment began according to Daniel 8. Revelation 10:8-11 and 11:1 refer to that beginning of the judgment, when John takes a little book (vs. 9) and eats it. At first it’s sweet in his mouth, but it’s bitter in his belly (vs. 10). Then he’s told to prophesy again (vs. 11), and measure the sanctuary & its worshippers (11:1). That little book, the book of Daniel, was the foundation of the Great Advent Awakening of the late 1700's and early 1800's when serious Christian believers in many different denominations concluded that the endtimes were upon them, and that Jesus was coming soon.
That may seem like a long time ago, but that period of time was actually the beginning of what we call the modern world. From the time of Noah to the early 1800's, what was the top travel speed for a human being? It was the speed of a horse. Then came the steam engine and railroad. That coincided with what historians call the "Industrial Revolution." It was at this point in time that what we often call the scientific method really came into its own. There was an explosion of knowledge regarding the natural world. People found that they could use the laws of nature to change the face of nature! This all took place mainly in Europe and North America, but it has since become a global phenomenon. Western civilization has become world civilization, and the world has changed more in the last 200-250 years than it had changed in all the nearly 6,000 years before that. We live in it; but God foretold it in Daniel 12:4 where it says that at the time of the end "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
Now, at the same time this gigantic shift has been taking place in how people live, there has been a parallel shift in how people think -- not only in how they think about nature but in how they think about God!
Do you know who Charles Darwin was? He was the father of the theory of evolution. He published an early edition of The Origin of Species in 1844. He explained the origin of life without a need for God, using the concept of "the survival of the fittest." Much of the world has bought it! According to the World Book Encyclopedia, 1999 edition: "Nearly all scientists agree that evolution is a fact."
Do you know who Karl Marx was? He was the father of Communism and of the theory of socialism.
Marx published his most famous book, The Communist Manifesto, in 1848. Marx explained how society could be governed and improved without a need for God. Much of the world bought it!
I mention these two names just as examples of the legacy of these revolutionary thinkers and others like them, which shapes our post-modern world in ways most of us don’t even realize. Our Revelation 11 story about the two witnesses is really a story about this massive change of thinking patterns.
It starts in verse 2, where it mentions the time period of 42 months. In Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 it is very clear that this is 1,260 years. It began in 538 A.D. when the Roman church began exercising civil authority in European civilization. It ended in 1798 when the bishop of Rome (pope) was taken prisoner and lost that civil authority.
Verse 3 speaks of two witnesses who spend this long period of Roman religious supremacy prophesying, "clothed with sackcloth," in mourning. So who are they? I’ll give you the short answer. They are the Holy Scriptures: the Old Testament and the New Testament. Who is the first great prophet in the Old Testament? Moses (Revelation 11: 6b). Who is the first great prophet in the New Testament? John the Baptist. And who did Jesus say John was? He was Elijah (vs. 6a), as promised by Malachi in the last verses of the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5; and Matthew 11:12-14). So Moses stands for the whole Old Testament, and Elijah (John the Baptist) stands for the whole New Testament.
During all those long centuries, the two witnesses, two olive trees, two lampstands, the Old & New Testaments of the Bible, were "clothed in sackcloth." They were hidden in monasteries, locked in ancient languages, often outlawed by supposedly Christian leaders! But they never quit prophesying. The Bible endured.
Now, verse 7 says that at the end of the 1,260 days, Satan is going to kill the two witnesses. Then how long are their dead bodies going to lie in the street? The answer is in verse 9. It’s 3 1/2 days, which equals 3 1/2 years. And what will the people do? Verse 10 says they’ll rejoice, make merry, send gifts and celebrate! Remember that the trumpets are about non-Christian forces. (You can read more about this in The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, chapter 15. )
In the late 1700's, in Paris, France, there was a group of very influential writers and thinkers known as "The philosophers." You may have heard some of their names: Jean Jacques Rousseau; Francois Voltaire. They believed they were helping the human race to get out of the religious superstition of the Dark Ages, and to think scientifically. Voltaire was especially vocal in saying that God doesn’t exist and that the Bible is outdated and irrelevant. Then in November, 1793, during the famous French Revolution, the government of France officially pronounced that there was no God [Great Controversy p. 270] and abolished Christianity. It was the first government in the history of the human race to ever do that, although by no means the last. And the history books say that when that pronouncement was made, "the entire population of the capital...danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement," [ibid.] and went out and burned heaps of Bibles & other religious literature in the streets.
This went on for over three years. In many cities in France, a beautiful woman was selected to represent the "goddess of reason" and was set before the cheering crowds as a symbol of the new religion of atheism. At the same time, the government was arresting and executing anyone who disagreed. Thousands died under the guillotine. It was known as the Reign of Terror.
Eventually the leaders themselves were sent to the guillotine, and the reign of terror ended. In June, 1797, the French Assembly passed a law making it legal to practice Christianity again. This was almost exactly 3 1/2 years after the people had started burning the Bibles.
Now look back at verses 11and 12 and see what happens to the Bible at the end of the 3 1/2 days/years: The two witnesses are resurrected, and ascend to heaven. And since that time, the Bible has had more influence and has been spread more widely than any time before.
One hundred years after Voltaire made his atheistic speeches, someone noticed that a great Bible Society warehouse stood on the spot where he’d made the speeches. Around two hundred years after the French Revolution, Mikhail Gorbachev announced glasnost in the Soviet Union, and shortly after that there was an international book fair in Moscow. A Christian publisher announced they would be giving away Bibles, and in a few hours the whole supply of 10,000 New Testaments was gone and people were thronging the exhibit hall asking for more. Just down the aisle, Madalyn Murray O’Hair was running a booth for the American Atheist Association & trying to give out a little pamphlet called "Trash the Bible." Nobody wanted it! In fact, the crowds looking for Bibles were so huge they almost trampled Mrs. O’Hair’s booth. [G. Vandeman, Comrades in Christ, (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1991), pp. 16, 17].
Indeed, the two witnesses have ascended into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies have seen them! (Vs. 12.)
There aren’t a whole lot of atheists in the world today. But the new ways of thinking which grew out of the French Revolution, based on human reason apart from the Word of God, are still all around us, in the air we breathe, in the media, in the public schools.
Although Darwin is being challenged (you may want to read Built to Last in the church library), Darwin’s basic ideas permeate every aspect of science. As for Marx: listen to this sentence from the World Book Encyclopedia describing Karl Marx’s basic beliefs: "He believed that the individual, not God, is the highest being. People have made themselves what they are by their own labor." [1999 CD-ROM edition, Article Marx, Karl.] Does that sound familiar?
Next month our topic will be "The Overcomers," taken from Revelation 12 and 13. Revelation 13 describes another Reign of Terror just before Jesus comes. The perpetrators of that final great tribulation and persecution are not going to be atheists. They’re going to be religious people, but people whose religion comes from somewhere other than the Bible. In the Reader’s Digest article about "The Science of God," Andrew Newberg talks about the meaning of his brain-wave experiments. "Religion thrives in an age of reason," he says, "because religious feelings rise more from experience than from thought" (p. 143). Most religion today is based on feelings and human reason, rather than on Scripture!
Jesus holds out His Word to the post-modern world and to you. There’s never been a time when it was more important to listen to the Two Witnesses than today. There’s never been a time when it’s more important to be sealed in your forehead. May I suggest a three-part action plan in response to what we’ve been learning?
#1 Get a daily Bible Reading Guide and use it this coming year. Systematic Bible reading is the only inoculation against post-modern thinking.
#2 Read the inspired writings of Ellen G. White. Ellen White lived in the modern world. She speaks powerfully to these issues. Pick up a copy of The Great Controversy if you don’t already have one.
#3 If you have children, get them into a Christian school. Postmodern secularism permeates the curriculum and dominates the whole public education endeavor. Kids will pick it up almost by default.
Our kids deserve a school where the teachers and textbooks will put the God of the Bible, the Jesus of Scripture in their rightful place at the center of all learning and knowledge.
As we sing, I invite you to make a decision to be baptized into this Bible-believing church. If you want to prepare for baptism, and you haven’t yet publicly declared that, come forward while we sing.