4. The booklet of John

4. Booklet of John.pdf

(Revelation 10: 9) 9 So I went to the angel 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.”
.                                 (All quotations from the New King James translation)


In order to be able to properly understand the two witnesses’ prophecy, it is necessary to realize that the two prophets will preach a message which includes intense repentance.
This will be done with the help of faithful Christians worldwide.
Making an inventory of faithful Christians is therefore an important item:

(Revelation 11: 1) 1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.

But there is now no temple in Jerusalem for the worship of God YHWH.
When John writes about ‘trampling the holy city’ in the above part, he writes about the near future. We will discuss this further in this article.

Summary previous article:
The statement of time and times
The 70 (year-) weeks prophecy
Patterns in Scripture
Double fulfillment’s
The 70th year week in the last days
Introduction of the two witnesses’ prophecy

Theme: The two witnesses’ prophecy (Rev.11: 3-13)

Characteristics of the 70th year week

In the previous article we discussed patterns in Scripture that come back. We also talked about the similarities of the preaching of Jesus versus the preaching of the 2 witnesses and about the double fulfillment of the 70th year week.
In Daniel 9:24, a number of special characteristics are mentioned about the 70th week:

(Daniel 9:24) 24 Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

The above Scripture is first fulfilled with the death of the Messiah in the middle of the 70th year week, whereby the transgression was terminated of the adulterous and wicked humanity. For by faith in the Christ sins are sealed, or are no longer charged, covered.
With the ransom sacrifice or atoning sacrifice of the Christ was paid for the iniquity of mankind, making reconciliation with God possible (Rom. 3: 23-25).
This vision of Daniel has been sealed and sanctioned, it’s going to be fulfilled exactly like that. After His heavenly rapture, Jesus presented His ransom sacrifice to the heavenly Father, after which the altar of burnt offering (Lev. 4:30) in the Most Holy in heaven was – symbolically speaking – anointed with His shed blood (Heb. 12:24) (1 Peter). 1: 2).

Further characteristics of the 1st fulfillment of the 70th year week:
The law consisted of commandments (Eph. 2:15) which the Jews could not live up perfect (Rom. 3: 21-23). The law was a tutor until the Messiah would come (Gal. 3:24).
The atonement brought everlasting righteousness to believing Jews (Rom. 6: 22-23), to eternal serve as saints in a promised new heaven and on the new earth (2 Peter 3:13).

Further characteristics of the 2nd fulfillment of the 70th year week:
The atonement will bring everlasting righteousness to repentant Christians (Rom. 6: 22-23). To be allowed to live forever in a promised new heaven and on the new earth (2 Peter 3:13). Again, Jesus’ ransom sacrifice will be used to save people. After the second fulfillment, God’s kingdom of eternal justice will start immediately.

 Trampling the holy city in the last days

In the previous article we talked about the holy city, which would be trampled.
Jesus calls that trampling period ‘the times of the Gentiles’ (Luke 21:24).
Jerusalem was trampled and destroyed in 70 AD. by the Romans.
However, Daniel 9: 27b speaks of ‘even until the consummation:

(Daniel 9: 27b) 27b ‘And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.’

The ‘trampling’ of the holy city in the last days is confirmed in John’s vision:

CSB (Revelation 11: 2) 2 But exclude the courtyard outside the sanctuary. Don’t measure it, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.

The holy city will be trampled, during 42 months. But which holy city?
When God’s house of worship is in a city, a city is holy or exalted:

(Isaiah 52: 1) 1 Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city!….

There is no longer a physical temple for the worship of God YHWH in Jerusalem.
The city is – without a temple for true worship – therefore no longer holy.
Therefore, with the holy city is meant the heavenly Jerusalem:

(Hebrews 12:22) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels….
(Galatians 4:26) 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Revelation 13: 5 provides further information. In Revelation it is written about 7 world powers with a crowned king, in other words the political or military world powers. The 7th world power will for 42 months blaspheme Gods name and blaspheme His tabernacle:

(Revelation 13: 1, 5-7) 1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name….5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

According to our research, the 7th world power – the US – first goes completely bankrupt, then is helped (financially) again to present itself as the 7th world power.
So the US (and worldwide) banking crash is just about to happen:
(See as support: 7. Behold, the children of ‘the big liar’)

(Revelation 13: 3) 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed….

Only after the head has been healed, the Antichrist is presented as ‘another beast with two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon’ (Revelation 13: 11-12).

What, then, does ‘trampling’ of the holy city in the last days mean?
It means nothing more than that the heavenly holy city will also be mocked and trampled in the last days by a ruthless adversary, ‘an unbelieving destroyer’.
And that the holy prophets shall be prosecuted by the restored 7th world power.
That will be until the rapture into heaven of the two prophets follows (Revelation 11:12).
Then ‘the New Jerusalem‘ in heaven becomes ‘the new holy city’:

(Revelation 21: 2) 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

‘The times of the Gentiles’ denote the entire period that must elapse between the destruction of Jerusalem with its temple and the rapture into heaven in the New Jerusalem.
This holy city, this heavenly New Jerusalem, will eventually descend to Earth:

(Revelation 21:10) 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

The Two Witnesses Prophecy (Revelation 11: 3-14, verse by verse)

Then it is announced that during the great tribulation two witnesses of the Lord Jesus will prophesy on earth:

3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

The two prophets will prophesy and testify for 1,260 days or 3.5 years (of 360 days).

4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

Why are these two witnesses described as two olive trees and two lampstands?
This metaphor is also found in Zechariah 4: 11-14, where these olive trees denote the two anointed ones:

  • (Zechariah 4: 1, 11-12, 14) 1 Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep….11 Then I answered and said to him, “What are these two olive trees–at the right of the lampstand and at its left?” 12….”What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?”…. 14 So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.

The lampstand is continuously replenished with oil (Zechariah 4:12), the light will never extinguish.
The lampstand in God’s temple is called the Menorah, the lamp of God (1 Samuel 3: 2-4).

During the inspection of the 7 communities in Revelation, this becomes clear.
Every Christian community is lit with the Divine light if this community is faithful, as if God’s lampstand stands in every faithful community:

  • (Revelation 1:20) 20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.
  • (Revelation 2: 5) 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.

When the New Jerusalem descends on the new earth, God will illuminate the city:

  • (Revelation 21: 2, 23) 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband….23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

The divine rays of light that bring extraordinary wisdom. The light that refreshes and gives courage. According to Jesus, in God knows is no darkness at all:

  • (1 John 1: 5) 5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

As we walk in the light, we have fellowship in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins:

  • (1 John 1: 7) 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Who then are these two olive trees, these two anointed ones?
The most obvious is, these are Moses and Elijah.
Moses and Elijah are the two prophets in the transfiguration of Jesus:

  • (Luke 9: 29-30) 9 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,

Jesus spoke to both prophets and it was clear in this meeting that something great and special was about to happen that would involve both prophets.

In those days, both Moses and Elijah – like Jesus – were allowed to do powerful signs.
Moses was given the authority to perform great miracles (Exodus 9-14), such as the 10 plagues in Egypt and the passage through the Gulf of Aqaba (Ex. 14: 21-22).
Among other things, Elijah was given the authority to keep filling the widow’s pot with flour and oil (1 Kings 17:14) and to bring her son back to life (1 Kings 17: 21-22).
However, Jesus had the authority to perform greater miracles than both Moses and Elijah.

There is also a remarkable similarity of 40 days of fasting of both Jesus, Elijah and Moses, whereby God appeared to both Elijah and Moses at Mount Sinai (Horeb):

  • (Exodus 34:28) 28 So he (Moses) was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. 
  • (1 Kings 19: 8) 8 So he (Elijah) arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
  • (Luke 4: 1-2) 1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil….

Moses was, in a sense, a prefigure of Jesus.
Moses wrote the Scripture below:

 (Deuteronomy 18: 18-19) 18 I (God) will raise up for them a Prophet (Jesus) like you (Moses) from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. (See also Acts 3: 22-23)

Moses represented the law covenant, the Law of Moses. He was the mediator of the law covenant between God and the nation of Israel. Jesus was the mediator of the New Covenant between God and all Christians (Heb. 9:15) (Heb. 12: 22-24).

Elijah was also, in a sense, a prefigure of Jesus.
Elijah was a great prophet of God who was yet to appear again. Not only was the coming of John the Baptist attributed as the coming of Elijah (Matt. 17: 10-11), but also before God’s day Elijah will come and restore everything:

  • (Malachi 4: 5-6) 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Elijah struggled for true worship during a period of idolatry and wickedness during the reigns of Ahab and Jezebel in the northern 10 tribal kingdoms.
However, Jesus is the greatest prophet who has been on the earth:

  • (John 1: 14-16) 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ “16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

It is almost certainly Elijah and Moses, who portray the two witnesses.
Will they come back themselves? It is possible but cannot be expected with certainty.
Just as was the case with John the Baptist, where Elijah himself was not present.
So, just before the great day of God, a new Elijah will most likely appear, a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), along with a new Moses, a prophet in the spirit and power of Moses.

5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.

The two prophets will be protected by an irrefutable testimony during the 1,260 days so that their enemies cannot contradict and that will silence them. Their contradictions will condemn them:

  • (Jeremiah 5:14) 14 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.

The leaders of this world will want to catch the two prophets by their words, just as happened with Jesus back then:

  • (Matthew 22: 15-21) 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17 Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

They need not worry about how or what to speak, the spirit of the Heavenly Father speaks via them:

  • (Matthew 10:20) 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

Meek Christians from all parts of the world will recognize the voice of the two witnesses’ as of divinely inspired origin and sustain them until the Christ will have come:

  • (Matthew 24:14) 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

In the days of Ezekiel, the Jewish people had become apostate and wicked, just like mankind today. In those days, Ezekiel received further information as a watchman over the people:

  • (Ezekiel 3: 17-19) 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

As Christians, we also have a duty to warn apostates and the wicked.
So be thoroughly prepared, because God’s word will still have result for many:

  • (Isaiah 55:11) 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.

Their testimony will not go unnoticed, powerful signs will be shown.
No one can say afterwards, I was not warned:

  • (Romans 10: 13-15, 18) 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”….18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.”
  • (Romans 1:20) 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,….

As a prophet, Elijah had been given the authority to let it not rain:

  • (1 Kings 17: 1) 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”
  • (1 Kings 18: 1, 17-18) 1 And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”….17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.

During 3.5 years (or 42 months) it didn’t rain:

  • (Luke 4:25) 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;

This time period corresponds to the 42 month or 1260 day period that the two witnesses will prophesy (Revelation 11: 2-3).
As a prophet, Moses had been given the authority to turn water into blood:

  • (Exodus 7: 19-20) 19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’ “20 And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. (see also Hebr. 11: 27-29)   

7 When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

The scarlet colored wild beast – the central banks.
The wild beast that rises from the abyss (Rev 17: 8) – will make war against them. From the article ‘world powers 9. The woman and the scarlet colored wild beast’ shows that this red beast from the abyss means an overarching financial system, the 8th world power, the 10 uncrowned kings of central banks:

  • (Revelation 17: 11-12) 11 And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. 12 The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
  • (Daniel 7: 25-26) 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time. 26 ‘But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.

According to Daniel 7: 25-26 as well as Daniel 12: 7, the power of the holy people is being shattered. In the middle of the 70th year week, so at the end of the preaching work of the two witnesses, the two holy prophets will be overcome and slain (Rev.11: 7).

Resume:

Characteristics of the 70th year week
Trampling the holy city in the last days
The two witnesses prophecy (Revelation 11: 3-14)
Who are the two olive trees, the two anointed ones
The scarlet wild beast will kill the 2 witnesses’

In the next article we will discuss the second half year week and the time line

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