Revelation Chapter 11
Intro: Time travel is something of fascination to people. There are many movies about time travel, none better than the famous 80’s movie Back to the Future. The ability to know the future and act in the present to influence others is one of the main themes of time travel movies.
As far as the nature of God, God is bigger than time. He is outside of time, if you will. He works within, enters into time. No, God didn’t invent a time machine. But He did even better, God invented time itself. And Revelation is sort of like watching a sneak peak of the future.
Here in Revelation chapter 11, we are presented with a shift from seals and trumpets to two witnesses who might just be some sort of divine time travelers. Many think these two figures we read about today are from the distant past, dropped back into the timeline of human history.
Let's read Revelation chapter 11:1-14, talk about it, and then you can decide what you think.
Measure the temple but not outer courts: God does this with prophets in Old Testament, sort of like to say, “look and see what God is going to do.” Here it seems to indicate that God will keep, preserve, those who will call on Him for salvation, but that the nations led by the Antichrist will seemingly trample a rebuilt Jewish temple specifically or the kingdom of God in general for a period of 3 1/2 years (42 months, 1260 days). This might likely center in and around the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem seemed to fall off the map for a while in history, but has become more of a global focal point in the past few generations. After WWII, in 1948, Israel was made an official nation again for the first time in almost 2,000 years. This was a huge surprise to many, but not to students of God’s word, though, because it was predicted by Old Testament prophets thousands of years prior that one day Israel would be a nation again and the Jewish people would be regathered to the land of Israel and there would be an unending reign by a descendant of King David (Isaiah 11, Ezekiel 36-48, Jeremiah 30-33, and many others). In AD 70 when Roman General Titus crushed the city and destroyed the Temple the nation of Israel was scattered and no more, seemingly breaking that prophetic promise, until 1948. Over the last 75 years millions of Jews have returned. Israel is a major player and focal point in global affairs, really a huge role considering it’s still relatively small numeric size. So even though we think the USA is the center of the world, remember, for most of the history of the world it hasn’t been.
There appear two mysterious witnesses, clothed in sackcloth, representing mourning for unrepentant world, and being set apart for God’s call. Who are they? Some think Elijah and Moses, maybe Enoch from the Old Testament. Elijah and Enoch were raptured prior to actually dying. Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus and the disciples on the Mt. of Transfiguration. It might just be these men. I like to think they are real divine time travelers, but it’s not something we can be certain about. Whoever they are, God uses them mightily to preach His truth in the midst of dark times. In fact, the entire world is witness to their preaching, death, and resurrection. The whole world sees this, possible through, TV, YouTube, Social Media.
The Witnesses annoy people so much, many celebrate when they are finally killed by the Beast, the Antichrist, who we will talk about more in later chapters. Likely, their ministry takes place during the first half of the 7 year Tribulation (42 months or 1,260 days months being 3 1/2 years). The halfway point marks what many scholars see as shift in the Antichrist’s strategy, where he gets even worse, if possible.
Regardless of the identify of these two powerful witness, what we can be certain about is that the Bible is sort of like traveling in time. I say this because God’s reveals thing to His prophets concerning event that will happened 100’s to 1,000’s of year in their future. In the movie Back to the Future, there is an important date that the characters go back to, November 5th, 1955. In that spirit, lets go back to the 6th Century before Christ, 2,500 years ago to Babylon and read from a prophet named Daniel.
This reference to time period is significant. 3.5 years or as stated in Bible as a times, times and a half time or a year, two years and a half year. We see it in Revelation 11, (42 months, or 1260 days, this points back in the time machine to Daniel).
Daniel is show a vision of major future world empires in Chapter 7. Four beasts predicted, four empires one after another: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and ending with Rome. And that out of Rome would come 10 (not sure who those are or if this is generally describing the more modern condition of the world split into various nation-states). Out of these nations eventually there will be one really nasty one, ruler/nation, who would come for more that just political power but come directly at God and God’s people, and will have some special power or influence for a time period of 3.5 years.
Daniel chapter 9, shows Daniel is told by the Angel Gabriel about 70 sevens, or 70, 7 year periods. Through this the time of the restoring and rebuilding the city of Jerusalem is predicted, and more importantly the time of Jesus’ first coming, is prophesied. That takes up 69 of the seven year periods. Leaving one. The angel Gabriel says after the Anointed One Jesus dies, a ruler will come destroy the city and sanctuary. That could be AD 70 Titus and Jerusalem, but then it keeps going, to start talking about the END, war until the end, desolations. He, a ruler will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’ V 27, and in the middle of the seven (3 1/2 years) he will break it. And at the temple he will set himself up as an abomination that causes desolation. This does not seem to be fully realized in Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, who captured Jerusalem in 167 BC and desecrated the Temple by offering a pig on the altar to Zeus, or by Roman General Titus, in 70 AD. It seems to point to an ultimate fulfillment by an evil ruler to come, in a Temple rebuilt. This treaty between this ruler, the Beast, the Antichrist, and the major world players at that time, which after 3 1/2 will be broken and what many think will happen is the Antichrist will set himself up as God to be worshiped, we will get more into that later.
When it comes to Biblical prophesy we have the advantage of looking back on history. It’s like looking at a mountain range from a distance. You can see all the different mountains. When you are up close you just see one or two mountains. We can look back and see how the puzzle of prophesy fits into human history and how the parts remaining will likely fit into the future.
Daniel Chapter 11, there are135 specific and detailed prophecies covering 375 years, 536-167 bc. Starting in verse 36 the prophecies jump to events best described as yet to take place. All the previous events happened literally, supporting that the future events would be literal, also.
Daniel 12: Describes the end times, and a time of great distress. Daniel is told to roll up and seal a scroll, remember the scroll in Revelation. It states, from the time that daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up there will be 1290 days, 3 1/2 years. An extra 30 days for are in there for some reason in chapter 12.
We believe Daniel dies in 536 BC. So how do we know he really wrote this prior to the events happened. Because if so, that is a huge witness to the truth and reliability of the Bible. But what if authors added those parts later to make the predictions look good?
One way is based on the earliest edition we have know of Daniel. The Septuagint. This was the Old Testament, basically, translated by scholars into Greek. They did this in the 3rd-2nd century BC. So we know that Daniel as we see it today is at least that old. And this bodes well for the validity of the writings in Daniel. Even though there is a gap between 536-and the 3rd century, typically a writing in antiquity would need some time to be written, circulated, and recognized.
Additionally, some of the prophesies, including the most important about the time of the first coming of Jesus, the coming of the Anointed One, happened after the Septuagint was written, confirming without a doubt that Daniel predicted the time of Christ’s coming 100’s of years, likely some 500 years, before it happened.
Consider the fact that there are over 300 prophecies by various authors in the Old Testament that concern the first coming of Christ, all of which were literally fulfilled. The predictions surrounding the Messiah’s birth, life, betrayal, death and resurrection were not fulfilled allegorically or in a spiritual manner. Jesus literally was born in Bethlehem, performed miracles, was betrayed by a close friend for 30 pieces of silver, was pierced in His hands and feet, died with thieves, was buried in a rich man’s tomb, and was resurrected three days after His death. All these details were predicted hundreds of years before Jesus was born and were literally fulfilled.
The odds of Jesus fulfilling just 8 those 300 prophecies, is 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. (Dr. Peter Stoner). This is vastly less likely than say, a meteorite falling on your house. In fact, it’s not even close. These odds would be like asking a blind man reaching randomly to grab a penny out of the ocean, or maybe more like the universe itself.
The point I want to make is God always leaves a witness within time and history to the reality and truth. There is no time where humanity doesn’t have a sign, pointing them to God.
I know we can differ on finer points of interpretation. But I want you to know that God’s word can be trusted and the message it shares with us can’t be ignored.
The Bible can be strange to us 1,000’s of years later, but we can’t ignore it, its track record is undeniable.
Hebrew 3:15 says, “Today (while there is still opportunity) if you hear his voice do not harden your heart.”
You don’t have been next to a prophet form the Bible, or near the two witnesses we see in Revelation to hear God’s truth.
Romans 10:8-9 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Altar Call:
Believe, take Jesus at his word.
Pray for those who don’t know Christ.
Commit to be a witness of Jesus to others.