First, let’s take a look at the third plague brought about by the seventh angel’s trumpet. The third plague is the great plague, including the last seven bowls. The plan of salvation is indeed based on love as its banner, but we must not forget that God is a God of justice and has the judgment of the great white throne. We must willingly embark on the road to sanctification, and thus have acts of faith. Second, we talked about the church and the actions of Satan in the seven trumpets, we talked about the need to look at the Bible from the perspective of “what God tells us through the Bible is consistent,” and we also talked about why the book of Revelation is written in order. Since this time we are already talking about things that will happen in the future, we have two visions to briefly describe them. We have clarified that these two visions refer to the church and Satan. Third, we see that like the book of Job, there will be a battle in heaven before there will be corresponding actions on earth. We see that the power of God is absolutely greater than the power of Satan. In the battle in heaven, God does not need to take action Himself. Michael and his angels are enough to throw down Satan and his followers. We also see the role of Satan and why our brothers overcome him. Finally, we briefly described the beginning of the disasters on earth caused by Satan being thrown to the earth, the methods Satan used to attack the church, and saw God using His own methods to protect the church.
1. The third plaque brought about by the seventh angel’s trumpet
”Then the seventh angel sounded; 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 will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”(Revelation 11:15-19)
Before this, the scripture says, “The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.”(Revelation 11:14) So the seventh angel’s trumpet brings the third plague, but the third plague is the great plague, which includes the plagues of the seven bowls, which are the last seven plagues. Therefore, the verse said, “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.”(Revelation 15:1) There are many things that will happen in the future. After that, “…The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”(Revelation 11:15) Then the twenty-four elders are saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, …”(Revelation 11:17) These are all things that happen in time, so they don’t mention eternity.
Indeed, in the plan of salvation, God uses love as the banner and hopes that everyone will go on the road to sanctification, not just to be saved. Everyone will fail once ina while if not often on the road to sanctification. He thus also gives us the road to repentance, saying, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”(1 John 1:9-10) True repentance will definitely lead to actions of change, so repentance always mentions them together. Please note that God looks at the heart and not the appearance, so “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”(Proverbs 4:23)
But God is also a righteous God, with a great white throne of judgment, as the scripture says, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him (Jehovah) who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”(Revelation 20:11-12) The scripture says, “for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.”(Romans 2:13-14) Christians who will be judged at the Great White Throne will be judged by their acts of faith. Gentiles who have not heard the gospel should be judged the same as the Gentiles who have no law!
God gives everyone an opportunity, but obviously not everyone takes advantage of it. The scriptures make it very clear, ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:16-18) This opportunity is for both non-Christians and Christians. Christians like Demas will fall. Today’s non-Christians may also be tomorrow’s Christians, so we no matter what still have to fulfill the Great Commission, because we don’t know what will happen, only God knows, so the Great Commission is the responsibility of Christians, “…make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; …”(Matthew 28:19-20) Therefore, a person’s baptism is only the beginning. To embark on the road to sanctification, Christians who believe in His name must also do so. Acts of faith will be rewarded.
We have mentioned that this scripture clearly says that there is an ark of the covenant in heaven. No wonder when the tabernacle was built, the ark of the covenant on earth was to be made according to the pattern of heaven, so it was said, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, …According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.”(Exodus 25:8-9) We have shared before that besides the ark of the covenant, there are other things in heaven, so we won’t share more here. As for lightning, sounds, and thunderings, they often occur before God appears. As stated in this scripture, “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”(Exodus 19:16-17) We see the majesty of God when He is about to appear. Please note that earthquakes are not mentioned here, because the scripture is very clear, “From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.”(Isaiah 29:6) Therefore, the earthquake was used to punish sins, and heavy hail was also added at this time. Therefore, the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant in the temple came to punish sins. We can see this from this scripture, “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.””(Revelation 16:1)
2. The woman and Satan in the seventh trumpet
”A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”(Revelation 12:1-6)
We must first be sure that both the Old Testament and the New Testament speak only one God, and the principles are the same. We must look at the Bible from the consistency of the Bible. It is God who tells us through the Bible that it is consistent, not in words. We have illustrated in “2. The consistency of the Bible means that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent ” in “1096 Yu Hongjie’s Discipleship of Newcomers – Unbiblical Places (1)” regarding this. We also presented an example with obvious contradiction, and explained what God wants to tell us through this obvious contradiction, so we won’t go into detail here. Those who are interested can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/“, then click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to find this article. In short, the Old Testament describes what happened to the Israelites in the past, and it also mentions many supernatural things, but not all of them are miracles, because Satan can also do supernatural things, only God can do supernatural things which are called miracles. And this is also true in the New Testament. The book of Revelation in the New Testament basically talks about what will happen in the future based on the same one principle. The plan of salvation in the New Testament explains how God gives people an opportunity.
Indeed, the Bible is the most widely circulated book in the world, and it is a miracle, but not because it tells the history of the Israelites, but we should view it from the perspective that the Old and New Testaments are the same God. By this way, we will not be surprised about the fact why the Bible is the most widely circulated book in the world. Because the Great Commission has made it clear to make all nations become His disciples, and the scripture also says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.””(Romans 10:17-18) Without the Bible circulating so widely, how can make all nations His disciples?Today, there are satellite communications and the Internet, and preaching can be carried out anywhere that can receive satellite communications. Therefore, it can be transmitted to the ends of the world through the Internet. But be aware that Satan will also use the Internet to spread specious ideas. Words that are mixed between right and wrong are like the ancient serpent tempting Eve. Therefore, you must be discerning when reading the Internet, otherwise you will fall into the enemy’s trick and think you are doing something for God.
From the perspective of the consistency of the Bible, the previous disasters all come in order, so from God’s perspective, the entire book of Revelation should be told in order. Looking at it from another perspective, the book of Revelation is for people to understand, just as the scripture says, “Blessed are those who read the prophecies in this book and those who hear and obey what is written in it…” (Revelation 1:3) If you can’t understand it, how can you obey it? When we believe that the book of Revelation was written in order, we can see many things that we did not understand before. God will not deliberately make it difficult for us to understand. Otherwise, He would not have revealed it to us! Therefore, from a human perspective, some people say that certain parts of the book of Revelation are interpolations. You cannot say that they are interpolations because you cannot understand them, or that certain sequences are impossible because they are different from people’s subjective views! Some people even change the words of the Bible to suit their own ideas. But because people have free will and can decide their own opinions, this cannot be forced.
Some people may ask, why doesn’t the Bible simply say that the book of Revelation was written in order? Do you think that this will work? The Gospel of Luke does explicitly say, “…having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, …”(Luke 1:3) Aren’t there still many different opinions? If we truly believe, ““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9) You will not look at the Bible from a human perspective! You must look at things from a biblical perspective and “read out” what God wants to tell us through the Bible, “not read in” your own thoughts.
So the book of Revelation was written in order, and this passage is describing what happened in the seventh trumpet. The scripture says, “So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”(Revelation 12:17) Looking at what the children of this woman are, we know that this woman refers to the church, and the description of her is glorious. This is God’s view of the church. Therefore, there is still a church during the disaster, which means that the church cannot be raptured before the disaster. The rapture before the disaster that some people say is not true, but it will make people feel comfortable.
In fact, for the church’s rapture, the Bible does not explicitly mention it, but there is this concept. This is based on scriptures such as: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in (G1722) the clouds (G3507) to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
Please note that the Strong’s Concordance uses “in the clouds” and does not directly say the words “raptured”, but to meet the Lord in the air, what is it other than being raptured? Moreover, Paul made it very clear that this is according to the word of the Lord, so the Bible contains the rapture of the church.
Speaking of the woman, she was pregnant and cried out in pain during the difficulty of giving birth. Moreover, she gave birth to a boy who would rule all the nations with a rod of iron. What exactly does this mean? First we notice, “Therefore write …the things which will take place after these things.”(Revelation 1:19) The things written now are things that will happen in the future. Therefore, the male child born to the woman who will be caught up to God and to His throne will never refer to the incarnate Christ, because that thing is in the past. His incarnation did lead to the birth of the church, and we know, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”(1 Corinthians 3:11) So, what does it mean to give birth to a male child who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron in the future? To answer this question, we know that the church wants to grow, and the goal is that every member must be conformed to the image of Jesus. “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”(1 Peter 2:4-5)
In fact, the Old Testament has explained how this spiritual temple is built. The scripture says, “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’” Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel—these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth.””(Zechariah 4:6-10)
It is clearly stated here that Zerubbabel relied on the Spirit of God, so in these verses he typifies the Holy Spirit. Didn’t the incarnate Christ Jesus follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit throughout his life? Isn’t this the Holy Spirit who laid the foundation of this temple? Let’s take a look at how he completed this temple? “…he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!””(Zechariah 4:7) When the church grows to the image of Jesus, the church gives birth to the male child born of the woman. Doesn’t the difficult labor pain refer to the painful process from laying the foundation to the church growing to the stature of Jesus? Finally, the stone on the top of the temple was completed by Jesus Christ! This is what the first great vision in heaven is telling us about what will happen in the future.
Then there is the second heavenly vision, which talks about what happened in heaven. The big red dragon Satan and his followers were thrown to the earth. Therefore, he can only stay on earth now to prevent the church from growing to the stature of Jesus, to devour the child to destroy God’s plan, but God did not allow it and preserved the woman (church) for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. This means that after something happened in heaven, corresponding things happened on earth. Isn’t this the same as what’s recorded in the book of Job? In the book of Job, Satan first challenged God in heaven, and when God allowed it, he was determined to cause disasters on earth that did not exceed the scope of God’s permission. When it failed, it challenged God a second time. This time, instead of doing everything at once, it chose the best time to cause disasters on earth that did not exceed the scope allowed by God. In “1. What happened next after the sixth seal and the sealing of the Israelites” of “1095 The order of disasters in the sixth and seventh seals – Revelation (6)”, we discussed in detail what happened to Job. Yes, interested people can find this article using the same method as “1096”. By the way, if each month is calculated as thirty days, one thousand two hundred and sixty days is three and a half years, which is forty-two months, or “…a time, times, and half a time.”(Daniel 7:25) The following verses explain in detail what will happen in heaven and on earth.
3. The battle in heaven
“And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.””(Revelation 12:7-12)
If you look at the book of Job, you will know that Satan can go to heaven before the war. What happens in the battle in heaven is explained here. All it takes is Michael and his angels, and there is no need for God to do it Himself. This is what the Lord Jesus sees for what will happen in the future, “And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”(Luke 10:18) We see that the power of God is definitely greater than the power of Satan. These verses also clearly explain the role of Satan and why the brothers defeated it. Now it has no place for Satan in heaven and he has been thrown to the earth. Because of this, there is trouble for the earth and the sea. We will clearly know what these disasters are from many chapters followed in scriptures. From the fact that the devil (Satan) has only a short time, we can see that Satan and we are both created beings, and time can only move forward.
4. The beginning of the troubles on earth
“And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”(Revelation 12:13-17)
Here is a detailed explanation of the beginning of the dragon (Satan)’s actions on earth, so the two wings of the eagle brought God’s protection and enabled the church to continue preaching in a suffering environment. This will happen for three years and half, thus this is the same period as what we talked before. We are talking about the same thing, but here is a more detailed explanation of how Satan attacks the church. He uses lies and specious remarks like water in his mouth to prevent the growth of the church, but God uses his own methods to help the church and prevents Satan’s tactics from succeeding. In the next sharing, we will look at why Satan was standing on the sand of the seashore at that time.
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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