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“And the wild Sea Beast who ascends out of the Abyss1 will finish their witness and make war with them and conquer and kill them”2 [Daniel 7:21-25]
| 1 | The wild Sea Beast who ascends out of the Abyss: At some point in the prophetic context of the Great Oppression their prophesying ends. This ascension out of the Abyss is first mentioned here but expanded in chapters 13 and 17. The whole period of three and a half years cannot start until the Beast ascends out of the Abyss as the 8th World Power – a one-world government. |
| 2 | Make war with them and conquer and kill them: This is all a paraphrase of Daniel 7:21, 25. In Daniel it is the Little Horn or Small Power. Compare Revelation 6:11. The blood of the martyrs is told to rest, for others will later be killed as they had been. The Saints can expect this in the bloody Great Oppression. |
Dear Friends of the Nazarene,
We choose Revelation 11:7 as the theme verse of chapter eleven – Great Oppression and Two Witnesses. We are still in the period of Trumpet 6 and the “second woe.” The angel directs John to measure God’s Temple, the Altar and those worshipping in it. [1-4] The “courtyard” where the end-time Saints worship is not to be measured but given to the nations. The nations will trample the Holy City underfoot for three and a half years. Two witnesses are authorized to prophesy in sack-cloth for 1,260 days. The angel paraphrases Luke 21:24, Daniel 7:25 and Zechariah 4:2, 11, 14. The two prophets torment humanity with their plaguing prophecies. [5, 6] The angel alludes to 1 Kings 17:1 and Exodus 7:17, 19.
At the end of the three and a half year period the wild beast kills the two prophets. [7-10] The angel alludes to Daniel 7:21-25. The Christian dead are found on the broad way of Babylon the Great. While the nations rejoice the corpses of the Saints are left in the street. However, a miracle occurs and the Saints rise. [11-13] A voice from heaven calls them upward in the Rapture as their enemies look on.
It is during this period that Trumpet 7 sounds indicating the third and final woe is coming quickly. [14-18] The Last Trumpet is blown and the whole world becomes the realm of Jehovah and His Christ. Thanks is given to God Almighty for His wrath coming at the appointed time. The Saints are judged and rewarded while ruin is to come to those who ruined the earth.
Abba our Father bless those so privileged as to share in the Rapture.
[25 September 2002]
