Book 4 of Musings Revelation 11 and 12

Revelation, Chapter 11 tells about our bearing witness in the last days.

Revelation, Chapter 12 tells about what is happening in us while we are bearing witness.

I have written quite a bit about Revelation, Chapters Eleven and Twelve. These two chapters are important to us because they state what will take place in our day.

Chapter Eleven, the account of the two witnesses, is speaking, I believe, of Christ and His prepared saints going forth to every nation and bearing witness of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

I don't believe the current vision of the coming of the Lord is quite accurate. There appears to be a feeling among Christians that the Day of the Lord will be a wonderful time of joy for all who profess faith in Christ.

I don't think the Scriptures support our vision of the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.

The Scriptures point toward a time of wrath and devastation that will cause everyone, saint and sinner, to tremble in terror.

Because the installing of the Kingdom of God on the earth will be such a terrifying event, God will prepare His people and the people of the world for the coming uproar.

The preparing of God's people already has begun. The Lord Jesus is drawing close to us. Whoever will open his personality to Christ will discover the Lord Jesus will enter him in a greater way than before. He will feed us with His body and blood that we might be strengthened. Then He will begin to wage war against His enemies that are in us.

His enemies are the actions of our sinful nature, the behaviors that the Apostle Paul said would prevent our inheriting the Kingdom of God.

We are being prepared for His coming by learning to live close to Him and by confessing, denouncing, and renouncing the works of the sinful nature that we have been practicing. The only people who will be raised when the Lord comes, or transformed into eternal life should they be living on the earth at that time, will be those who have, through Christ, gained victory over the sins that have been shown to them, sin they are practicing.

Perhaps many will not agree with me, maintaining that all who profess faith in Christ will be raised and caught up when He appears. I think they are on dangerous ground and need to go to the Lord about this.

As I said, we are being prepared for the Day of the Lord, that time that made even God's prophets tremble.

Something else is taking place. While we are being prepared by turning away from our sins, Christ is being formed in us. When Jesus returns, those whose Life He is will return with Him. Then He will be revealed in them and will take control of the governments of the earth. This is the manifestation of the sons of God, of which the Apostle Paul spoke. The male Son, the Ruler, is being formed in us now, if we are living in the Spirit of God.

As I said previously, God will prepare both His Church and the nations of the earth for His return.

The members of His Church will be prepared by turning away from their sins.

To prepare the world, God is going to provide a witness of unprecedented authority and power who will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to every nation.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

The term "two witnesses" represents Jesus Christ, the Greatest of all witnesses of God, and also His saints. Christ and His prepared saints will bear witness to all nations, empowered by a double portion of the Spirit of God.

The witnesses will minister as in the first century, raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out devils, and proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. In addition they will perform works of destruction. These destructive acts of Divine judgment will be necessary because of the hardness of men's hearts in the last days.

No nation will be closed to the witnesses of the last days. This will be a Divine intervention in the earth to prepare all people for the return of the Lord.

After a specified time, the authority and power will be lifted, as it is after every revival, so the work that has been performed may be sifted.

Vast multitudes will have made a profession of faith in Christ and been baptized because of the extraordinary power of the harvest rain of the Spirit.

After this time, sin will abound as never before. Antichrist will sit on the Lid of Atonement in the Temple of God (a restored temple in Jerusalem, if I am not mistaken) saying He is the true and only God. His ascribing divinity to himself will occasion the Great Tribulation.

Because of the abundance of wickedness during the rule of Antichrist, multitudes of those who had professed Christ during the harvest-rain revival will grow cold in their love for Christ.

During the time of the Great Tribulation numerous saints will be slain.

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know."

And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:13-14)

Antichrist will overcome the witness (not the witnesses themselves; Christ and His saints cannot be separated from the love of God).

Finally "peace and safety" will be heralded throughout the earth. But this peace and safety will be short-lived. The slain witnesses will be raised from the dead and stand on their feet, to the utter terror of the wicked. After a time of rejoicing the witnesses will be caught up to the Lord.

Looking at the two chapters side by side we see that Revelation, Chapter Eleven speaks of the witness that will be given in the last days to prepare all the peoples of the earth for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

These witnesses must be prepared. They themselves must be judged in advance.

Chapter Twelve tells of what is happening within these same saints. Christ, the Ruler of the nations, is being formed in them. Christ is the Morning Star, mentioned in connection with the rule of the saints over the nations. The saints rule because the Ruler has been formed in them, as described in Revelation, Chapter Twelve.

Wonderful days are here. We are approaching the conflict of the ages, the ultimate battle between good and evil. Let each one of us be careful that he does not miss the day of his visitation.

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. (Rev 11:3)

She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. (Rev 12:5)