 Okay. Let's just take a moment to pray and then we will get into our class today, our lecture today. Could one of us please lead and pray? Kiran, can you lead us and pray this morning, please? Yes, sir. Father God we come before you through once again and we say thank you Father God for all things. Father God keep your wisdom and knowledge Father God took the subject Father God that we can understand subject and your revelation Father God and move forward. Take care of every side. Thank you Father God Almighty Jesus name be pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining this class, this lecture today, Revelation Daniel. We are going through the book of Revelation and we are reading through what's by verse and looking at of course trying to understand what is written and there's also understanding the sequence of things that are going to happen. We went through, of course we started the revelation chapter one and we've been progressing. Last week, we went through Revelation chapter seven of where we had, we saw the, so this isn't the first part of the tribulation, like we mentioned last week. Revelation chapter six was one till end of Revelation chapter 10 is the first half of the seven year tribulation. And then Revelation chapter 11 was one till end of Revelation 19. That is the second half of the tribulation. The reason we can say that is because in Revelation chapter 11, Revelation chapter 11, 12 and 13, the time is given for us in both these three, in all of these three chapters. It clearly tells us about the three and a half years that are left. 1260 days or 42 months or time times and half a time. So it is given to us in different ways as we will see when we get to chapter 11. So basically there is that 42 months or three and a half years from chapter 11 till end of chapter 19. That's why we can say chapter six was one till end of chapter 10 is the first half of the tribulation. So what we are seeing in the first half of tribulation, which we have already read is it starts off with the seven seals. Then we read about the 144,000 Jewish, we call them Jewish evangelists, because they are specially marked by God as servants of God. They go to serve God during the tribulation. Then in chapter eight, we saw the seven trumpets, the beginning of the seven trumpets, where as each trumpet is being sounded, there are different judgments being poured out. So we went through that. And then in chapter nine, we looked at the seven trumpets continues, but the judgments, the things that happen are even more severe. We are actually seeing demonic powers that are released on the earth, causing all kinds of things to happen. So chapter nine. Peter through chapter nine, is that right? I think we went through till the end of chapter nine. Yeah, I forget now. Last week. Y'all remember. Sorry. Yeah. So we stopped at the end of chapter nine. So in chapter nine, the other fifth and sixth trumpets and the thing is, we ended in chapter nine, where we saw that even though all these judgments are being poured out on the earth, and there is so much devastation happening. There are people who do not repent. Now, on the one hand, there are people who die for the Word of the Lord and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, like we saw in Revelation chapter six and verse nine. We saw that there are people are being martyred or being killed. And then in Revelation nine, end of Revelation nine, which where we stopped last week, the, there are people who refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or who refuse to repent. They continue on in their own wicked ways. Okay. So let's pick up today from Revelation chapter 10 verse one onwards. Any questions till this point, you're following with me like over the last couple of weeks through Revelation. Any questions? Everyone's okay. All right. Revelation chapter 10, we're going to read from verse one. Revelation chapter 10 is like. We usually it's referred to as a parenthetical chapter, meaning in this chapter, John personally has an experience. The angel of God comes to John and tells John, John, eat this book. And this is typical. This kind of an experience is typical of God imparting his word to people to especially to prophesy. You would know, remember that even Ezekiel had a similar experience where he was given a scroll to eat as we ate the scroll. And then he had to prophesy. So it's an experience of spiritual experience that is typical of saying God is giving this individual this prophet his word so that he can speak it out. He can release that word. So that's kind of what John experiences in chapter 10 here. And let's read that please. So we could read all 11 verses Revelation chapter 10 versus one through 11. Good. So we read that for us. Maybe Aaron, you can read it if your mic is okay. All right. Anyone? Okay. Revelation chapter 10 versus one to 11. Okay. No problem. No problem. You can read please. I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven with a cloud and a rainbow word on his head. His face was like the sun and his feet like the pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand and he said his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and cried with a loud voice as when a lion roars when he cried out seven thunder's alter their voices. Now when the seven thunder's alter their voices, I saw, I was about to write but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, seal up the things which the seven thunder's alter and do not write them. The angel's womb I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it and the sea and the things that are in it. That there should be delay no longer but in the days of the surrounding of the seventh angel. Sounding of the seven, sounding of the seventh angel. Sounding of the seven angels when he is about to sound the mystery of God, mystery of God would be finished as he declared to his servant the prophets. The voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, go take the little book which is open in the hand of the angels who stands on the sea and on the earth. So I went to the angels and said to him, give me the little book and he said to me, take and eat it and it will make your stomach bitter but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth. Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter and he said to me, you must prophesy, prophesy again about my people's nations, tongues and kings. Thank you. Chapter 10, like we said, is a parenthetical chapter meaning it's like, okay, here's something that's happening. It's not part of the sequence of events that are being unfolded or being revealed concerning the future but it's a personal experience that John the Apostle is having but even in that there's some interesting observations there. So here's this big mighty angel that John sees and it's really huge, right, meaning John is having this vision and he's seeing this angel so big, he says one foot on the land, one foot on the sea and his voice is like the voice of a lion roaring. So John is seeing this big powerful angel. Now, whether the angel was literally of, you know, this huge size, meaning he's from the heaven to the earth or whether it's something that portrayed to him in a vision, you know, we don't exactly, could there be angels that are so big and so huge. Possibly, I don't know, but this is what John is seeing. And then he hears what he calls as the sound of seven thunders, you know, this is verse four. So it seems like from verse four, it's when he hears this voice, the sound of seven thunders, there's something intelligible that John can hear. But he's immediately instructed not to reveal what he's heard. In other words, keep it secret. Don't reveal that. And so, you know, the, the, just a minute, let me note this down. Okay. Okay. So John is reveal, you know, John hears the voice of seven thunders. And, and, you know, he's instructed, don't write this down. Don't, don't write the myths. Don't record what you've heard. Right. So we don't know now the same angel who's standing on the sea, one foot on the sea, one foot on the land with his hand raised to heaven. He's making an announcement. And this announcement is pretty interesting in verse seven. And this angel is saying that in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel. Now remember, we have gone through six trumpets. Right. And there's one more trumpet left to the seventh angel who's going to sound the trumpet. But what this angel that John is saying in Revelation chapter 10 is announcing is that when the seventh angel is going to sound, a mystery of God would be finished. Right. Now the seventh angel is sounding in the next chapter when we go to Revelation chapter 11. We find that this seventh angel is blowing the trumpet. Now, this is a little challenging to interpret. What is, what does this angel mean? What does this angel, Revelation chapter 10 angel mean when this angel is saying in verse seven that when the seventh angel sounds the trumpet. The mystery of God would be finished. That means all the things that God has spoken through his servants, the prophets is going to be completed is going to be all, you know, will all be fulfilled. How do we understand that? Now, there are two possibilities and you would find if you read in the way people interpret this that, you know, there are differences of positions on it or understanding explanations on this. So because of Revelation 10 verse seven saying that this seventh angel. When the seventh angel sounds everything will be fulfilled. Some people put that sound of the seventh angel at the very end. That is our revelations at the end of Revelation 19. That means they move all the other things that is written between chapters 11 to 19 in between before the sounding of the seventh angel. That's some some people rearrange things. The sequence of things like that and move the seventh angel to the end of Revelation 19. Because of what we read in Revelation 10 verse seven. So that's some some people interpret it by what we are going to do. And what I do is I just read on in the sequence of events. Because the seventh angel is sounding in Revelation chapter 11. That means the right next the very next chapter. The seventh angel is making its announcement or the seventh trumpet is announced. There is this huge celebration of declaration. So when the seventh angel sounds, which we will read in chapter 11. When the seventh angel sounds, there's a huge celebration in heaven declaring that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ. Now, some people, like I said, move that to the end of Revelation 19. Well, I don't feel it's necessary to do that. I just feel it's perfectly fine. Leave it in chapter 11. Leave it in that same sequence and understand that many times. God declares things in advance. Right. So just because there's this celebration happening in chapter 11 saying the kingdoms of our world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ is perfectly fine because God unknowns those things ahead of time. And so that's not a problem at all. It's just a matter of, you know, we're just talking about three and a half years when, when all of this will be fulfilled. So it's nothing compared to, you know, 2000 years or 4000 years where certain things got a spoken bell in advance. And it took, you know, huge length of time from an earthly sense for that to be fulfilled. So that's the position I personally take. And I share with you that we don't have to move the seventh trumpet to the end of Revelation 19 just because of what we read in Revelation chapter 10 verse seven. What we understand is this big angel in Revelation 10 is saying that when the seventh angel sounds things are getting really close to be for all the prophecies to be fulfilled. It's, it's, it's like the announcement that is the end of time. And literally, it's just, if you look at the timing, it's literally just three and a half years from the sounding of the seventh angel from the time Revelation 19 ends. That's all the time is. Are you all with me so far? Did you understand it? Or did I confuse you? I was just giving you two different views on Revelation 10 verse seven and the position that I personally am convinced about. Did I convince, did I confuse you or did you? Is that clear? If you want me to repeat, I can. All right. Okay. I see your comments there. All right. Thank you. So this angel is saying Revelation chapter 10, this angel, big angel standing and saying, John, and the seventh trumpet sounds. It's the time for all the prophecies that the prophets have spoken to come to pass to be fulfilled. And sure enough, like I said, three and a half years, everything is done. Of course, there is the thousand year millennium and all that that comes after it. Essentially, the Lord Jesus comes at the end of that three and a half year period and the kingdoms of our world become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ as the seventh angel announced. Then the next thing that we see in Revelation 10 is like, like I mentioned earlier, John is encouraged to eat that little book. Again, it's symbolic. It's not like he actually chews on a book, but it's representing something and in prophetic, prophetic language. It simply means that God is giving his words to John to prophesy. And John eats it. It's initially sweet. You're receiving God's word, but it's bitter in the stomach because the things he's going to prophesy really are not, you know, are things of judgment or things that are going to bring great devastation to people or not. So that's why it becomes bitter. And then the angel says, John, you have to speak about it to prophesy again. And you had a prophesy about people's nations, tongues and kings. That means you're going to announce what God wants to say about all of these. Okay. So that brings us to the end of chapter 10. Now, at the end of chapter 10, what has happened so far? The seven seals judgments have taken place. Six trumpets judgments have taken place. End of chapter 10. That is the middle of the tribulation. So as you read chapter 11, you will find it clearly tells us. Okay. This is where you are. Okay. So in chapter 11, as we get into chapter 11, we see God speaking to us about the two witnesses. So chapter 11, and we will read, I'm just giving a little overview. Chapter 11 begins by talking about the temple in Jerusalem or the city of Jerusalem and the temple. It's saying that the city is going to be trodden down by the Gentiles. It's going to be desecrated for 1,260 days, that is three and a half years or 42 months. And then it says there are going to be two witnesses. Now, it doesn't, Revelation 11 doesn't give us the names of the two witnesses. So, you know, like we've said, we will have to look into other places in scripture to see if there's anything else. The Bible says about who these two witnesses are or make up a best guess based on what we can see from other places in scripture. So we will read about these two witnesses. The other thing in Revelation 11 is it talks to us about what these two witnesses will do starting from the middle of the tribulation. And it goes all the way to the end of the tribulation, that is three and a half years. Okay, so what we will see in Revelation 11, chapter 12, and also in chapter 13 is the narrative starts in the middle of the tribulation and tells us of things that will continue through the rest of the tribulation for three and a half years. Okay, so that's I just want to say that that it starts talking about the two witnesses and says this is what the two witnesses will do for the three and a half years. This is what's going to happen. So start from the middle goes to the end, what the two witnesses will do. Chapter 12 talks about what Satan will do, the devil, the dragon from the middle of the tribulation till the end. And interestingly in chapter 12, it gives us also a reflection. That means it says this what happened in the past, this is what will happen for the three and a half years. Chapter 13 is very much similar, starts off in the middle of the tribulation and tells us what the, this refers to as the beast and the second beast that is the antichrist and the false prophet, what they will do for three and a half years. That is the second part of the tribulation. So these three chapters are talking about a three and a half year period, starting from the middle till the end. Chapter 11 speaks about the two witnesses. Chapter 12 speaks about what the dragon that is Satan does. Chapter 13 talks about what the antichrist and the false prophet do during the three and a half year period. Is it okay? So it's like it's telling us about that entire duration of time. So let's read our chapter 11 versus one through six, please. Somebody could read that for us. Chapter 11 was one through six. Dave can read it. 11, right? One through six. Yes, please. I was given a read like a measuring rod and was told, go and measure the temple of God and the altar. With its vociferous, but exclude the outer core, do not measure it because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will temple on the holy city for 42 months and I will appoint my two witnesses and Dave will prophesy. For 1260 days, clothed in sack cloth, they are the two olive trees and the two lamps and they stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouth and devours their enemy. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to set up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying. And they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. Okay, so now what we see interesting is this. Verse one begins by talking about the temple of God and the altar. So it's saying, so our focus now shifts to the temple of God on the altar. So we're talking about the temple in Jerusalem. And right now the temple in Jerusalem does not exist. And we know the temple mount in Jerusalem. The temple where Solomon's temple was there. Solomon's temple was destroyed first time around when Nebuchadnezzar came. The Babylonians came, they destroyed it. It was rebuilt. And it was rebuilt by Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah during those times, the prophets and others. After they came back from Babylon, they rebuilt the temple. King Herod, when he come into Jesus' time, King Herod expanded the temple court, renovated it, made it bigger, made it look better, etc. But then shortly after that, after Christ's crucifixion, the temple was destroyed a second time. This was by the Romans around AD 17. So even the temple that was rebuilt, the second temple was destroyed. Then subsequently the Arabs or Muslims came in and they occupied that space and they built their mosque. And the dome of the temple and they have occupied maybe not all of it, a portion of it. They initially occupied all of it, but that was recovered by the Jews during the 1967 war, the west side of it. So anyway, today what we're having is we have the temple mount in Jerusalem, but it's really occupied by the Arabs. They are using it as their place of worship. They have their mosque and so on over there. One part of it, the Jews are allowed to come in and pray. But Revelation 11 verse 1 is talking about the temple of God and the altar, which do not exist today. Which means that if you go by this literally, the third temple or the temple has to be rebuilt somewhere there. That's the place, the site, the original place, where the piece of land that David had bought from this man of the dead army and then consecrated it for the temple. So now there are some people who interpret Revelation verse 1 as spiritual or figurative. They don't believe in a literal temple. So I'm just giving you a different point of view. So there will be some people whom you may hear who say, no, no, no, this is not a physical temple. It's a spiritual temple kind of thing. But when we understand Revelation 11 verse 1 with what we have read in Daniel 7, Daniel 7, Daniel 8, in the book of Daniel, when we read that Daniel's visions, it talks about a literal temple. And what this we call, we're calling him Antichrist, Daniel doesn't call him the Antichrist, but this man of sin, this son of perdition that we call as Antichrist, who goes into that literal temple. He sets himself up as God. And then 12 again talks about a literal physical temple that is cleansed. So same thing when Jesus refers in Daniel 24, when Jesus refers to the son of perdition sitting at the temple, this abomination of desolation, he is speaking of it as a literal temple. Same thing when Paul writes in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 about this man of sin. He's talking about him, the abomination desolation in a literal sense, not a spiritual sense. So what I want to, my personal understanding and belief is that this is a literal temple. He's talking about the temple of God. He's saying go and measure it. It's not just a spiritual temple. No, there's a literal temple. And also when you look at the next words, it's talking about, he says, you know, the outer court is going to be trampled. The court outside the temple is going to be trampled by the Gentiles. So this is, you know, this is literal. That means the non-Jewish Gentiles are going to come in and they're going to be desecrating this place. So obviously it has to be a literal temple. So Revelation 11 is talking about this temple. It's talking about this place that is being desecrated. And verse 2 says, the Gentiles will trample the holy city. Holy city always refers to Jerusalem of 42 months. So here the time is given correctly. 42 months is three and a half years. That's why we are saying Revelation 111 begins from the middle of the tribulation. That means everything that has been spoken to us so far is the first half of the tribulation. Revelation 111 is talking about 22 months, which means it goes from the middle of the tribulation to the end. So that's how we break it up. So what's going to happen from the middle of the tribulation to the end? The temple is going to be desecrated by the Gentiles. And we know additional details from other scriptures that this man of sin, the Antichrist, is going to set himself up as God. He is going to demand to be worshiped. We will see this in chapter 13. And he is going to speak blasphemies against the Most High God. So all this is happening there in the middle, starting at the middle of the tribulation. And Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, Daniel said very correctly, that he will establish a covenant for one week. That is seven years. But in the middle of the week, that is three and a half years, he will break the covenant. So it all bears, it's all going in line with what Daniel has spoken. Then verse 3, we see the two witnesses that are introduced. And once again, it says, they will prophesy 1,260 days. That is approximately same, three and a half years or 42 months. So once again, there's a repeat of the time period. So these two witnesses will be prophesied. They will do wonderful things. And verse 4, Revelation 11 verse 4, it's using figurative language. Two olive trees, two lampstands. So this is borrowing language from Zechariah. So if you look at Zechariah chapter 4 verses 11 to 14, the priests of God are referred to as olive trees, lampstands. So it's using figurative language. So these two people are like that, two olive trees and two lampstands. That means they are people of God, men of God or priests of God or prophets of God. So that's what it's using figurative language to represent prophets of God or priests of God or men of God. So two olive trees, two, they are like that. And what will they do? They will do powerful signs and wonders. And they have power to shut up the heaven and they can, during the times of prophesy. And so if anybody tries to harm them during that three and a half year period, they will strike them down. So now the kinds of signs and wonders that they're doing looks very much like Elijah, the prophet. And sure enough, we know from Malachi. So if you turn me to Malachi chapter 4 and the exact words is Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5 Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. The prophet Malachi spoke about Elijah. He said Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Verse 6. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the hearts of the children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the earth with the curse Malachi 4, 5 and 6. So we see very clearly here that Malachi had prophesied that God would send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great day of the Lord. Now there are of course lots of questions and lots of discussions around this. I'll just quickly mention the kinds of discussions you might encounter when you read about the understanding Revelation 11. So first obviously is the question, who are these two witnesses? So the general, you know, you will read many people who say that well, that's one is Elijah because Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5 clearly says God will send Elijah the prophet. And then there is a whole question of who's the second one. Some may say it could be Enoch and some may say it's Moses. The reasoning behind it Enoch is was the one who like Elijah was taken up into heaven without dying. So the rational is these two men never died physically. So God will send them back so that they die physically. Some say it's Moses because on the Mount of Transfiguration it Elijah and Moses appeared in the on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. So some say well that the second prophet of God sends would be Moses. So there are these different, you know, ideas or propositions on who these two prophets would be personal opinion. My personal thought is it's most likely Elijah and Enoch are simply because both these men were didn't die physically but were taken up into heaven. So God would send them back to die physically on the on the earth. That's my thought but you know if it's Moses and Elijah perfectly fine. It's not something to worry about. Now a lot of questions that arise upon this in connection with the two prophets is how would these two prophets show up on the earth. So if it is going to be Moses and Enoch they are right now in heaven. Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. Enoch was caught up in heaven. How are they going to show up on the earth? You know, so that's a point of discussion. And my thought is well if God caught them up physically into heaven. That's no big thing for God to drop them back on the earth physically in Jerusalem. At that point in time that is in the middle of the tribulation. No big deal. I know it's quite strange that two men who lived thousands of years ago are dropped back onto the planet in the middle of the tribulation. How would they, you know, we talk about culture shock, what kind of a shock would they have, you know, and all these questions. But I just feel that if God wants to drop Elijah back on the earth, literally, why not? He can prepare them and put them back on the earth. So that's my thought. Then there is this other idea that maybe it's two people who are born, you know, somewhere around the time of these things happening, the born physically. And they come in the same anointing as Elijah and Enoch or Elijah and Moses. So that's another thinking or a thought. There's nothing wrong with that. That's possible. Of course, one reference point is that people say, you know, John the Baptist, he came in the spirit and power of Elijah. And Jesus referred to him saying, Elijah is here. This is in Matthew 17. I'll give you the exact words. Matthew 17 and verse 11 and 12. Matthew 17, 11 and 12. So Matthew 17, 11 and 12. Jesus said about John the Baptist, Elijah is here. But he also said Elijah is coming. So he was referring to John the Baptist who came in the spirit and power of Elijah and he said Elijah is here. So John the Baptist was a different human being, but he came in the spirit and power of Elijah and Jesus said Elijah is here. So some people, you know, use that as a reference to say that maybe these two witnesses that are being spoken of in Revelation 11 could be Elijah and Enoch or Elijah and Moses, maybe two people who were born during that time and who are, you know, maybe in the 20s or 30s or 40s, whatever. But who come in the anointing of Elijah and Moses or Elijah and Enoch. Is that a possibility? And I say, yeah, maybe it's possible. So whichever way this prophecy is going to be fulfilled, it's fine. You know, God is going to do it the way he sees best. What would be my inclination? How my inclination would be leaning towards God dropping, you know, Elijah physically on the earth. I know it sounds crazy, but we don't find it that big of a difficulty for God. If he took them up into heaven, he can drop them back on the earth and get them ready for the assignment on the earth for three and a half years. Right. So it's okay. But with me and I believe God could do that. So either way, so you will find different parts and positions on this and it's fine. It's not something to argue about. It's just us exploring. In what ways could this prophecy about these two witnesses be fulfilled? Okay. Any thoughts, any questions on that before we go for a break? I'm just giving you different ideas. I'm not trying to confuse you. I'm just giving you different ideas of how people understand how these two witnesses will come on the earth. All right. Any questions? Everyone's okay so far? All right. So what we'll do now is we'll just go for a break and we will come back and we'll continue with chapter 11 just talking about what else happens with these two witnesses. Okay. So let's go for a quick break and we will come back. Thank you.