Revelation, Stephen Picklesimer [summer reading list .txt] 📗

earth” (Revelation 11:4 confirms of whom Zechariah 4:14 is speaking). This verse reveals that they have a special, direct relationship with Christ. All three “stand together.” The Two Witnesses report directly to Christ.
God always worked directly with prophets throughout the Old Testament. Christ, the God of the Old Testament (I Cor. 10:4), always spoke face-to-face—communicated directly—with those He was using. With few exceptions, you will notice a pattern throughout the major and minor prophets. Each starts with phrases like “The Word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel…” or “The words of Jeremiah…To whom the Word of the LORD came…” or “The Word of The LORD that came to Micah…,” and so forth. Christ worked directly with all these prophets. Sometimes He also appeared as Melchizedek when He spoke to the Patriarchs, and others, face-to-face.
When considering the role these men play, it should be even clearer why they work so closely with Christ. Fire comes out of their mouths to devour their adversaries. The power that they have is so great that they cannot be killed by anything or anyone for three and a half years. This alone makes them unique from all previous prophets. Also, no other prophets lay unburied for three and a half days and then were resurrected—or were perceived by the world to “torment them.” These points alone demonstrate that these are far from ordinary prophets!
The Two Witnesses will deliver a final warning to the government leaders of the world—for which they will be martyred. The world will rejoice at the sight of their corpses, which will remain exposed in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days (vs. 9-10). But all will be struck with tremendous fear when they are raised to physical life and rise in a cloud (vs. 11-12).
These men have not yet appeared. When they do, so will the Tribulation! Neither will arrive in the way popular opinion suggests. Many professing Christians believe that they will embrace these two men with excitement and rejoicing. However, in reality, the Bible shows most will almost certainly assume them to be the final beast and miracle-working False Prophet—and the beast and False Prophet may be received as the Two Witnesses! Such will be the power of the devil’s final deceit—and “popular prophetic thinking” is now setting up the “Christian” world for MASS DELUSION (II Thes. 2:10-11)!
Another Earthquake
After the Two Witnesses are resurrected, another great earthquake occurs. The timing of this earthquake is prior to the time of the seventh trumpet, the Return of Christ and the first resurrection (I Cor. 15:51; I Thes. 4:16).
Notice Revelation 11:12-13: “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them [the Two Witnesses], Come up here. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city [Jerusalem] fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
This particular earthquake precedes and announces the most pivotal event in mankind’s history—Christ’s Return!
No doubt, this earthquake is God punctuating the world’s failure to permanently destroy these servants. It also appears to be centered mainly in the area of Jerusalem, but could still be worldwide in scope.
It cannot be the same one described in Zechariah 14:4, because all nations will not yet have gathered (the sixth vial) for the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty (the time of the last plague, or seventh vial—Rev. 16:17-21).
The Seventh Trumpet or Third Woe
Remember, the seventh trumpet equals the third woe. But these are also synonymous with the SEVEN LAST PLAGUES! Chapter 11, verses 15-19, describe them, and, coupled with 15:1, prove the last statement.
Now notice verse 15: “And the SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall REIGN for ever and ever.”
Both I Corinthians 15:52 and I Thessalonians 4:16 speak of this moment. In these verses, Paul states that Christ comes at the “trump of God” and at the “last trump.” Matthew 24:31 speaks of the same event using “a great sound of a trumpet.” These are all references to the seventh trumpet.
With this event, the greatest moment in all history has arrived. At His glorious Return, Christ replaces all human powers and laws with His own. All the governments of men—including that of every great and small country on earth today—are smashed and replaced by God’s government. Fairness, justice and peace finally come to a sick and broken planet!
Of course, the seventh trumpet brings the forced establishment of Christ’s GOVERNMENT, based on God’s LAWS, over the nations. But they are not happy to see this Christ—they are “angry” (vs. 18)! They will have come to believe and trust in a counterfeit system and many will have expected to be “raptured away” to safety by a false christ, not of the Bible.
Even professing Christianity, while pretending that God governs “in the hearts of men,” has not truly wanted to be governed by Him. Neither has the world, which hates His Law (Rom. 8:7). Mankind has rejected the only way to peace, happiness, abundance and universal prosperity. In a final and terrible way, the seven last plagues get the world’s attention. They signal that Jesus Christ is KING of kings—and He is now in CHARGE!
He wants the world to know that He is about to save humanity from itself.
Still Another Earthquake
This earthquake occurs after the seventh trumpet has sounded (Rev. 11:15). This is the time of Christ’s Second Coming: “…and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.”
Verse 19 states, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” This earthquake occurs immediately after Christ’s Return and the first resurrection, and punctuates the fulfillment of these events.
Christ’s Return makes possible the fulfillment of all the wonderful prophecies of the Bible foretold to come to pass on earth. This pivotal event is the most crucial in all history! Earthquakes, before and after it, underscore its momentous importance in God’s Plan. No other event bears such distinction.
This earthquake also results from Christ’s actual presence, now ruling in glory. The earth literally quakes with gladness, along with the whole creation: “Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together. Before the LORD; for He comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity” (Psa. 98:7-8).
As with the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet is divided into seven parts. These are called the SEVEN LAST PLAGUES, and they “fill up” (Rev. 15:1)—complete—the Wrath of God!
Chapter 14, verse 10, reveals that the last plagues are “poured out...in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the LAMB.” Of course, Christ is the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36).
Before we examine these plagues, beginning in chapter 15, several inset chapters appear.
Chapter 12: The Woman—Christ’s Church

Chapters 12, 13 and 14 represent an interruption—an inset—in the overall flow of Revelation. This is because God wants the readers to be aware of what His true Church—His true people—will be doing for the nearly 2,000 years from John’s vision until the Return of Christ. God has always had His true Church—the persecuted (John 15:20; II Tim. 3:12), few (Matt. 7:14; 20:16; 22:14), “little flock” (Luke 12:32) that will rule with Christ (Rev. 2:26; 3:21)!
We have seen that Christ will be established as King of kings and Lord of lords. But the saints will be resurrected and join Him. Chapter 12 introduces more directly the Church through which Christ has been preparing these others to rule with Him.
John describes God’s Church from before Christ’s birth (vs. 4), through His life, resurrection and ascension (vs. 5). He then describes the 1,260 years of persecution this Church endured and how it had to flee to remote areas to avoid the government powers that sought to destroy it. But Christ promised that His true Church would always exist (Matt. 16:18)—and it has!
This is also an important chapter in that it shows (Rev. 12:14) that God will protect His Church—described as a woman here—from the horrible time of intense, severe trial soon to befall this world!
All of Revelation 12 describes her, and the devil’s attacks against her. Soon, an angry Satan will lash out at Christ’s Church one last time, forcing her need for protection: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into HER PLACE, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (vs. 13-14). Those of the faithful sixth era of the Church escape!
The “time, and times, and half a time” are the three and a half years of the Tribulation and Wrath of God. Verse 17 shows how the devil turns his attention to the “remnant”—the lukewarm era, previously explained.
Understand. This is not the “woman” pictured in chapter 17—she is depicted as a great whore (vs. 1)! That woman is a description of the great false church, representing the false Christianity of this world. The woman of chapter 17 actually persecutes the chapter 12 different woman that is God’s true Church. Chapter 12, verse 17, describes it as those who “keep the commandments of God.” Recognizing the difference between these two women is another vital KEY to understanding the book of Revelation!

Chapter 13: Two “Beasts”

The 13th chapter describes a symbolic “beast” and a second beast with “two horns” (vs. 11). The first beast is a description of the Roman Empire—a political kingdom. The second two-horned beast represents the headquarters of the great false church that controls the first beast.
Only