Revelation 11

1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,

John died somewhere around AD 90 and at the time of his writing, the temple of Herod the Great had built was no longer standing.

And the Temple at Jerusalem had been destroyed in AD 70 , much earlier than he had recieved this Revelation .

Therefore that leads us to believe that the temple that is being measured will be built during the tribulation period.

2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

Forty-two months is another way to say of to measure the first 3.5 years of the tribulation.

In these first 3.5 years there will be peace between the Anti-Christ and the nations of the world.

But in the last 3.5 years there will be wars and persecution of not only believers but also the jewish people [aka God’s Chosen People]

“Given over to other nations ” may be translated as “given to the gentiles ” in your copy of the Bible.

This is a political term that finds its origin in 586 BC with the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

Since that time, the Nation Israel and the jewish people have been politically dominated by the rule of gentile nations.

This has been true since Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the 1st Temple and will continue until the second coming of Christ.

3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

1,260 days is equivalent to 3.45 years.

4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.

6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

There are four primary theories on the identity of these two witnesses:

Enoch and Elijah ?

[Gen. 5:23-24; 2 Kings 2:10-12; Heb. 9:27]

Moses and Elijah ?

[Exodus 7:17; 1 Kings 17:1]

Zerubbabel and Joshua ?

[Ezra 5:2; Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 4:1-14]

Two unknown believers set aside for the purpose. There is nothing in scripture that specifically identifies the two witnesses.

7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,

In the midst of death in verse 7 we are faced with a calming truth: That we are immortal as long as we are in the will of God.”

Here is what that means, “Ultimately God determines when we live and when we die. But while we are here on this earth, there is nothing that can touch us, unless God allows.

That is why we can be as safe on the backside of a third world country as we are in our own living rooms, because there is no place safer than right in the middle of God’s will for our lives.

8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

This is what terrorists do.

Remember Mogadishu, Somalia - 1993? U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland’s dead body was drug through the streets of Mogadishu by Somalian Militia.

The same thing happened in Baghdad years later!

This is what terrorists do and this is what the terrorists of the anti-christ will do to the two witnesses sent by God.

But something tells me it’s not over!!!

9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,

10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.

11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

Only Enoch, Elijah and Jesus were taken to Heaven in their physical bodies and believers will experience this in the future at the time of the rapture .

But in verse 13, a tenth of the city makes the news….

13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven

When seven thousand people die in an earthquake, we can trust that it will be on every news channel available.

14 The second woe [the four angels and their armies to kill 1/3 of mankind] has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

The Seventh Trumpet

15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,

17 saying,“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

This concludes the tribulation and begins the Milennial reign of Christ.