The Strong Delusion, Part 5 - Revelation Continued

THE STRONG DELUSION—PART 5

The Continuing Synopsis of the Revelation as a Historical Prophecy

6-21-2019

A Continued Unmasking of the Revelation Misunderstanding – The Third Layer of Delusion as Proposed in:  https://freedomfromdelusion.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-strong-delusion-part-1.html

The misunderstanding that the Revelation written by John is actually a blueprint of the events that will occur during the tribulation period.  Fomented by the Scofield Study Bible the understanding by the Church Fathers was changed to a literal interpretation of real events that will occur during a future seven year tribulation period.

The Revelation was originally understood as a prophetic history of the Church age, from the beginning of the teachings of Jesus to the Millennial Kingdom of God.

The Protestant Reformation, beginning with Luther, did not regain the early Church fathers knowledge of the purpose of the Revelation because it had long ago vanished.

At what point the Revelation was viewed as a literal chronology of tribulation period events is unknown to a certain point.  It occurred after Darby’s dispensational theory was employed within Scofield’s note filled study Bible, but the exact timeline of a literal Revelation, the misinterpretation of the 70 weeks, and the misunderstanding of the state of Israel as a fulfillment of all Bible prophecy is not certain.

The following snippets of Revelation commentary were extracted from the series of commentaries written by Dr. Stephen Jones.

The Little Book

The tenth chapter of Revelation. It begins properly with the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, in 1453. The lack of repentance in the church remained throughout the entire time of the first two woes until the city fell.

The revelation given to John shifts to one of the most important innovations ever to come to Europe— the printing press— which allowed the Scriptures to be produced inexpensively for the average layman. No longer were the Scriptures contained in huge, hand-written books chained to the front of a cathedral and written in a language (Latin) that was unknown to the common people. The word of God quite suddenly became “a little book which was open.”

Rev 10: 1 And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 and he had in his hand a little book which was open.

We have already seen how the Osmani Turks (or “Ottomans”) came to power after the Mongols left the region and returned to Mongolia. The Ottoman Turks learned about gunpowder from them and soon developed its military use in cannons. Their first great use of gunpowder came in the siege of Constantinople in 1453, where their cannons breached the walls of the city onMay 29, 1453. At the same time in history, the printing press came into use in Europe, turning the Bible into a LITTLE book.

The Mongol invasion of the Middle East in the 1200’ s brought this idea to the West along with the use of gunpowder. No one knows exactly how Johannes Gutenberg came upon the idea of carving letters that could be put together into words in order to stamp them upon paper. It was simply a further innovation of the Mongol technology.

The Muslims themselves had been the first to learn from the Mongols about the art of printing, but they banned its use in 1493.

This ban on printing caused the Ottoman Empire to lose its technological advantage in the world. They have never recovered from this self-inflicted wound. In Europe printing allowed scientific works to be shared among other scientists quickly, and this dramatically increased the pace of scientific thought and invention.

Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, began building the first wooden press in 1436 using metal movable type. It was completed in 1440. In 1450 he printed the Constance Mass Book. He then began working on the Bible itself. The Gutenberg Bible was being printed from 1452 to 1455 even as Constantinople was being besieged by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

The fall of Constantinople brought thousands of refugees into Europe. Many of them were Greek-speaking theologians, carrying with them Greek copies of the Scriptures. Suddenly, the Latin Vulgate had competition. Men could now translate the Bible into English directly from the Greek text instead of relying upon the Latin translation.

The Coverdale Bible (1536) was followed by the Geneva Bible (1560) and later the King James Bible (1611). Just as important as their publications was the fact that they were “authorized” by the monarchs, so that it was no longer illegal to read the Scriptures. This is what truly “opened” the little book, as prophesied by John.

The printing press, along with the publication of the Bible in the current languages of the people, paved the way for Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation which is said to have begun in 1517.

Eating the Book

There were two important events that occurred at the end of the second woe. The first was the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1452-1455. The second, in 1453, was the fall of Constantinople, which flooded Europe with Greek-speaking refugees and churchmen carrying Greek copies of the Scriptures. Both of these factors opened up the “little book” to the common people and thereby changed the course of history.

There were also two other historical events that protected the Gospel and allowed the Scriptures to continue to spread among the common people. In Rev. 10: 2 we read,

2 and he [the “strong angel”] had in his hand a little book which was open. And he placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (Oct. 31, 1517) and England’s Act of Supremacy (1534) were evidences of the angelic foot being planted upon the land— first on the European mainland and then in England.

Mary, the older sister of Edward VI was a Roman Catholic, and in 1554 she married Philip of Spain, who was also Catholic. Mary attempted to force England back under the Roman yoke, and, as usual, she promoted burning Protestants at the stake.

But Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne of England in 1558, and she secured England as a Protestant country by repealing all of the Catholic laws that Mary had enacted earlier. This was the angel’s foot being placed firmly on the land.

In 1587 Philip II of Spain began to build a huge armada of ships in order to invade England and force it back under the yoke of Rome. This Spanish Armada of 130 ships set sail for England on July 12, 1588. However, more than half of these ships were destroyed by the English and by storms in the North Sea. The strong angel had put his foot down on the sea. This changed the course of history and kept the Bible an open book that has blessed the lives of millions among the hungry people during the famine of hearing the Word.

Eating the Little Book

For the sake of continuity, we will skip past the seven thunders for now and go directly to Rev. 10: 8-11, where John says more about the little book:

8 And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land. 9 And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, Take it and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. 10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

This describes the people in the time of the Reformation who were to “eat” (read) the newly-opened Bible. It was sweet in their mouths, but gave them spiritual heartburn. When they were persecuted by the Roman Church for reading it, it was bitter in their stomachs.

The last verse of Revelation 10 tells us the purpose of God’s open book. It is to preach the word. Rev. 10: 11 says,

11 And they said to me, “You must prophecy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

John represents the overcomers who are sent to present the word of God to “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” John is the one who took the book and ate it, but he did this on behalf of all the overcomers— particularly on behalf of the generation living after the little book was opened in 1452. In this way, he represented primarily a future generation to whom the prophecy would be most applicable.

And indeed, once the book was opened, and the stage was set in the 1450’ s, Columbus opened the way to the New World in 1492. Exploration was accompanied by the beginnings of missionary activity from the Roman Church as well as the Protestant churches.

The Seven Thunders

When the little book was opened, the seven thunders revealed its message. Rev. 10: 3 says,

3 and he [the strong angel of verse 1] cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.

This is how the strong angel in Rev. 10: 1 is described. “His face was like the sun.” His immediate job was to open the little book, to open the word to many nations and to break the power of those who would forbid its reading. But ultimately, the job of this angel is to lead people into an understanding of the feast of Tabernacles, so that they may be given their new name “Israel,” and bear witness to the world that God rules.

This is the message of the seven thunders that John was unable to reveal to us while we were yet in the Age of Pentecost. It was not yet time to reveal openly the mysteries of the feast of Tabernacles. That message had to be hidden until a more appropriate time. That time is now.

The Seven Thunders Sealed

Revelation 10: 4 says,

4 And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.

Unsealing the Seven Thunders

The seven thunders were revealed (at least potentially) by the opening of the little book, a biblaridion, which is the diminutive of biblos. It is where we get the word Bible.

As revealed to me, these are the seven thunders, along with my explanation.

The Way into the Holiest. This is the decree to begin to break the power of the corrupted Church system, because the way into the Holiest was delayed as long as that system held sway (Heb. 9: 8).

The Image of the Beast. The religious, political, and economic governments of man, based on the mortal image of Adam, are coming under judgment in order to set the people free.

The Manifested Sons. This is the coming of Christ in His saints (2 Thess. 1: 10), who, like Moses, come off the mount with the new tables of the law on their hearts. Transfiguration. Like Jesus in Matthew 17: 2, the Sons of God will house His glory in immortal bodies. This is the purpose of the feast of Tabernacles.

Authority of the Sons. God specifically gave me John 14: 14, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

The Law taught to all nations. Micah 4: 1-4. The overcoming Sons of God are the administrators of the Kingdom on the earth, the teachers and final interpreters of the law by the mind of God. Deut. 33: 2, 3 says “From His right hand went a fiery law” and “all His saints are in Thy hand.” The law is the lake of fire and also represents His character (Deut. 4: 24). The fire is in the hand of God, and His saints are also in His hand. That is, they will manifest His character and actually administer the corrective judgments of God, called “the lake of fire.”

Division: Separating the Disobedient from Obedient. These are being divided even now, but yet this division will culminate in the final age at the Great White Throne in Revelation 20. New Jerusalem will fully manifest, but there are still many who must be subdued to Christ (Rev. 22: 11). Hence, a division between the true believers and the disobedient until the Creation Jubilee, when all men are set free at the end of time.

The Book Turns Bitter

Chapter 10 of Revelation prophesies of the strong angel giving to John an open book, which he was to “eat” so that he could prophesy and preach it to all nations. Rev. 10: 10, 11 says,

10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

Without the printing press, this book (biblos, or Bible) would not have been “little.” Without faithful men translating it into the common language of the people, few could “eat” its contents. When John ate the book, he did so as a representative of the church and the overcomers alike— all who would go forth as missionaries of the word. John’s very act of eating the book was an obedient act of faith whose consequences, as with Abraham before him, would affect the history of the world.

The sweetness of the word, however, was followed by bitterness in the stomach, as the Roman church opposed the word being distributed among the common people. Rome wanted a monopoly on the word, so that people only heard those portions that seemed to support its authority and teaching.

The Inquisitions

Dan. 7: 21 prophesied that the “little horn” would wage war on the saints and actually overpower them until the transfer of authority occurred at the end of the beast’s allotted time to rule. Likewise, Daniel 12: 10 spoke of a time where the saints would be refined and purified by persecution. While this war and persecution has occurred from time to time since the time of Abel, it reached a crescendo in the inquisitions, particularly in the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834).

We see Peniel’s background role in establishing the work of the Philadelphia church in feeding the word of God to all nations. As we will see later, Peniel was to be assisted by the Angel of Hastening Hope to bring the gospel of the Kingdom to all parts of the earth. According to my own personal revelation, this is the angel mentioned in Rev. 14: 6,

6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.

Opposition to the Word

During the Philadelphia era, many great missionary societies were established in the 1790's and into the 1800's.

This began the great missionary movements of the next 200 years, which spread the word of God into all parts of the world. This fulfilled the Word to the Church of Philadelphia, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Rev. 3: 8). He that had the key of David had opened a new door (Rev. 3: 7), giving Christians of all denominations the opportunity to spread the Gospel to all parts of the world.

The (Roman) church, by its coercion and persecution, tried to shape men’s hearts by the iron tools at its disposal, but all they did was to pollute the hearts of men with warped ideas about the mind of Christ. Yet even this was used by God to accomplish a higher purpose in the big picture of the overall Temple.

The Temple

The ninth chapter of Revelation covers the rise of Islam from 612-1453, along with the fall of the Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire. These are the first two “woes” of Rev. 8: 13. The third woe, which is the seventh trumpet, does not begin until Rev. 11: 15. Hence, the historical events described in the tenth chapter of Revelation tell us of more positive works that God was doing to build His Kingdom during the time of the second woe.

In order to establish His Kingdom, the citizens of that Kingdom must be prepared through an understanding of the word, that is, by opening the little book. The Kingdom must be established with divine revelation and understanding of His ways, that is, His laws. Indeed, men did begin to study the divine law.

Temple Construction

Although understanding would come progressively, the gospel— to the extent that it was understood— began to spread to “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings” (Rev. 10: 11). As knowledge of the word increased, the new Temple of God began to take shape. This, then, is the first topic of the eleventh chapter of Revelation.

The old temple was built of physical stones, which were eventually torn down; but the new Temple is of living stones which will endure forever.

The living stones in the True Temple were shaped off-site (the stones of Solomon’s temple were shaped off-site) by the iron kingdom of Rome, mostly through persecution. This continued throughout the era of the “little horn,” which was the extension of the iron kingdom.

Measuring the Temple

Revelation 11: 1, 2 says,

1 And there was given me a measuring rod like a staff [kalamos, “reed”]; and someone said, “Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 And leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.”

To measure something is to understand or comprehend something prophetically, especially in terms of time.

In Revelation 11, John gives us the key by which we are to correlate the measurement of the temple with the time of its fulfillment. The standard of measure used here is a reed. A reed was a “staff” or stick measuring 42 handbreadths. This length, in turn, was six sacred cubits, each being seven handbreadths in length.

John, who no doubt had used these tools of measurement in his day, gives us the correlation of distance and time in Rev. 11: 1, 2. A reed is equal to forty-two months. Hence, a handbreadth is equal to one month in prophecy. And because a prophetic month is, in turn, thirty days— and a day can equal a year— we can also say that a handbreadth may be either one month or thirty years.

Measuring the Two Temples

The key given to us in Rev. 11: 1, 2 is the fact that a reed of 42 handbreadths is equal to 42 months of time. That means each handbreadth is the equivalent of one month.

What, then, are the two kinds of cubits? It is plain that a sacred cubit of seven handbreadths represents seven months, while a regular cubit, being only six handbreadths, represents just six months of time. It takes seven months to complete all of the feast days from Passover to the feast of Tabernacles. Hence, a sacred cubit, which is used to measure the temple and all spiritual things, always encompasses the feast of Tabernacles. On the other hand, the regular cubit, used by the world for ordinary life, portrays ignorance of the feasts of the seventh month: Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

In this seemingly insignificant (and confusing) difference between the two cubits, then, we see that all teaching, prophecy, and spiritual growth— anything that measures spiritual things— must include or acknowledge the feasts of the seventh month. Those feasts are part of God’s standard of measure. Without them, a person is “regular” or “ordinary,” even if they have experienced the justification of Passover and the infilling of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.

In Rev. 11: 1, John was given a reed and told to “measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it.” The temple and altar cannot be separated from “those who worship in it.” The fact that the temple can be measured shows that it was a limited size. By extension, it indicates that it included only a limited number of worshipers.

By contrast, the outer court was not to be measured, “for it has been given to the nations.” This implies that “the nations” were not true worshipers, and so they could not be measured by the divine standard (sacred cubit). For this reason, they were in need of the light of the word from the two lampstands which represented the two witnesses in Rev. 11: 3, 4.

The Two Cities

We have shown that the spiritual maturity of “those who worship” (Rev. 11: 1) in the temple of God is in terms of Sabbaths, Jubilees, and feast days. In the “old standard” cubit that was used to measure the temple of Solomon, the people were measured by their willingness to keep these days in a physical way. But the great cubit that is used to measure the spiritual temple of Ezekiel and Revelation is the measurement of the heart and one’s relationship with God.

In other words, it is not about which day one keeps as a Sabbath, but on what level a person has entered into God’s rest— ceasing from one’s own works and doing only what we see our heavenly Father do.

It is not about keeping a Jubilee in a physical way, but one’s ability to forgive. It is not about keeping the rituals of a feast on a particular day, but about justification, sanctification, and glorification, as well as growing in faith, hope, and love. These are the spiritual reasons behind the three feasts, which reflect the true heart of God.

John was given a reed to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshipers. But in Rev. 11: 2 he was told NOT to measure the outer court, “for it has been given to the nations.” The reason for not measuring it is explained to us in Zech. 2: 1-5, where we see a similar scene.

1 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.” 3 And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, 4 and said to him, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. 5 For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst’.”

The scene shows an angel with a reed coming to measure the city of Jerusalem, much like Ezekiel had seen earlier, and John was to see later. This angel was met by another angel who was coming out of the city. This second angel seems to have interrupted and stopped the first angel from measuring the city.

Two Jerusalems

To measure a city is to measure its perimeter, that is, its walls. The walls of the earthly Jerusalem could be measured, of course, but we suddenly see that Jerusalem’s walls have changed into “a wall of fire.” In other words, the scene switches from the earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly city, for there are two Jerusalems in Scripture. In fact, the Hebrew name of the city is Ierushalayim, which means literally, “two Jerusalems.” We see both of them here in Zechariah’s prophecy.

The first angel was told to measure the earthly Jerusalem, but was not to measure the heavenly Jerusalem— the city with fiery walls. (The wall is the “fiery law” of Deut. 33: 2 KJV.) Walls limit the size of a city, but the heavenly Jerusalem was to include too great a multitude to be so limited.

Verse 4 (NASB) says that Jerusalem would have no physical walls “because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.” The Interlinear Bible renders this, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls,” which agrees also with the KJV. In other words, this Jerusalem is more than one city. It includes “towns” and rural areas for “cattle” as well as a great multitude of people.

God explains this further in Zech. 2: 11,

11 And many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people….

The bottom line is that the earthly city could be measured; the heavenly city could not be measured, because it was to include the whole earth, and all nations were to “become My people.” The earthly city was for a specific portion of “My people” known as Israelites; the heavenly city is where all nations become “My people.”

Rev. 11: 2 says that John was not to measure the outer court, because “it has been given to the nations.” Who gave it to them? God, of course. The reason that they remain in the outer court is because the outer court in this case represents the flesh realm. In other words, they are not yet justified by faith, but they have the potential of seeking God and finding Jesus Christ, whose blood can cleanse them of sin.

The Dividing Wall

In the earthly temple in Jerusalem, they unlawfully built a wall of partition to keep non-Jews from approaching God. Only Jewish men could pass through the door of this wall. Women and “gentiles” had to keep out.

This is the dividing wall that Paul referenced in Eph. 2: 14-18, telling us that Christ “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall… that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace… for through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

There is no evidence in Scripture that Solomon built a dividing wall in the original temple in Jerusalem. Neither did they build such a wall in Zerubbabel’s second temple.

There is no dividing wall in the New Jerusalem, for all have equal access to God. The people are distinguished, not by genealogy, but by their actual relationship with God. All may progress in that relationship from the outer court to the Holy Place and finally into the very presence of God in the Most Holy Place.

Revelation 11 only makes sense when we understand that the outer court was not to be measured, because it had been opened up to all nations. The outer court was not limited in size, as it was in the earthly Jerusalem. It was opened up in order to accommodate all nations.

Is this not the beginning of the fulfillment of Isaiah 2: 2 and 3?

2 Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The nations come in ignorance, but they leave with the knowledge of God. They come with war-like motives, but they are taught to “hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2: 4). Hence, while they may tread down the Holy City in their ignorance, God yet draws them in order to teach them the way of peace.