Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Revelation 14:9-13.

 What I am about to say, is what I see, sense, and understand.

One of the goals of the New World Order is to bring the population down to a manageable 500 million people. The county that I live in has a population of 10+ million. Pause and think about that for a few seconds. There is nothing in the minds of these greedy people that says, let’s keep this guy. Consider our President Joe Biden, who claims he has taken both doses of the C19v and a booster shot. This seems like a critical mistake for a President, seeing as medical experts tell us that devastating health aspects will strike you at about six months, and for many people, will ruin you physically in as little as 10 minutes. 

In talking about this C19 garbage with my wife, she pointed out that for those we are calling Babylon - the harlot that rides the beast, there would be a benefit in eliminating senior citizens (think about this in terms of Social security payouts) and Christians – because many Christians find the boldness to cling to an attitude of faith and challenge the government over the C19 illegal mandates and restrictions, which are bogus, and to go after their local school boards over their integration of pornographic textbooks into the school curriculum. If you think this is funny and something you can ignore, it is not, as it sexualizes our children over and above the garbage that the world is trying to feed them. 

Revelation 14:8 NASB And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality."

Having covered this extensively in my previous post, I only include it here to point out that the “whole” world seems to think that Babylon and the Harlot, are good and fun. If you could only realize that you are the target of their pleasure and they do not care for you.

James 4:4 NASB You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

(The Christian community in America is riddled with fear, and fear is something that the Bible addresses and that we are NOT supposed to live in. The religious community is frequently the ones who will fight against you when you begin to share with them about something exciting, especially about Eschatology – end times events, and I speak from experience.)

Having sat under my fair share of hellfire and brimstone preaching, I do not find it captivating, nor are people drawn to it. One of my family members chooses to believe that a good God would not punish people.

Is that the case?

Scripture seems to be clear on the punishment for those who change masters.

Revelation 14:9  NASB Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,”

If you give in, worship the beast, his image, and take his mark, you have condemned yourself to eternal punishment. Thus, verse 9 creates the context for verse 10 in which it says, the one who does this will:

Revelation 14:10 NASB “he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

The “he” is that person who gives themselves over to the beast, and unfortunately, there will be many.

Revelation 14:11  NASB “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

It sounds relatively black and white to me, but it is a three-part, intentional process. It would be inappropriate to condemn a small child to hell who was forced to be chipped. They, in many cases, do not have a clue, and to think otherwise about God and his mercy shows me that you know nothing about the character and nature of God. 

There is a day coming in which those in opposition to God will come to our “peaceful” streets with an overwhelming level of violence. And, just like we have seen in the African nations where Boko Haran members (a sect of Islam) have fired bombed churches with the attendees inside, or merely shot or beheaded those who claimed to be Christians.

Do you think that won’t happen here in America?

Then you are deceived already. The coming day falls under the category of “the day of the Lord,” the time of wrath. The time in which God pours out his wrath upon unbelievers - Israel and the nations. We, the church in general, were not meant to receive God’s wrath; this has nothing to with the tribulations of life.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 NASB (9) For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Why?

Because:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36 NASB

Romans 5:8-10 NASB “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

As Israel wandered and complained in the desert, God sent serpents (adders) to punish them [Look this up in Numbers 21.] People began to die and so cried out to Moses for mercy. At God’s instructions, Moses had an image of the serpent made and placed upon a pole. That was a type of Jesus Christ and, just as the serpents, which did not go away because of the serpent upon the pole, but became a salvation for the people when they looked upon it. Christ became sin upon that cross and took all of the wrath due to us because of the sin built into us. Sin did not go away, but its impact, the wrath, went away when we looked to the cross where sin hung and died. 

Why then are some continuing to migrate toward wrath and eternal punishment? 

Because some are suppressing the truth.

Romans 1:18 NASB For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

While others, because of their stubbornness and unrepentant hearts, are storing up wrath for themselves.

Romans 2:5 NASB But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

I am telling you of things to come, although much of this has already happened in third world nations as Islam has been allowed to rise to power. Since Agenda 21 and now Agenda 2030 are designed to bring America and the Western European countries down to third world nation status for population reduction, we can expect to see Islam filling our streets with violence.

It seems like there is nothing you can do. But that is not the case as this time is not upon us yet; it will come. I know this because this is the pattern that I see in scripture. However, we have the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This is the same power and Word that parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptian army in that same sea as they tried to cross. This is the same word that brought fire down from heaven to consume God’s enemies. The same Word of power caused the earth to open up and swallow the Philistines while blasting others with lightning. 

What’s my point?

That God is still looking for those through which he can show himself strong. 

Someday soon, God will remove His church from the earth. At that point, the game is on, and the wrath will begin to pour out of every crack. And, people will continue to be godless, killing machines, all in the name and power of their god, the beast.

So what happens after the rapture? 

Revelation 14:12-13 NASB (12) Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. (13) And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."

Who is he talking about when he says, Saints?

We love to generalize considering everybody sitting in the pews to be saints. However, Matthew 25 does not tell me that. It shows me that 50% are ill-prepared, having no extra oil, and will not make it through the gates when he comes because they are off roaming the streets in the middle of the night, looking for more oil. Revelation 14:13 says, “blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!”

It is God who does the generalizing when he defines saints as:

"O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want."

(Psalms 34:9 NASB)

We all comprehend fear as an aspect of cowering under an oppressive ruler, but God never wanted a relationship like that. Fear then conveys a respectful relationship in which we understand we have no control over anything and because of this relationship there is no want for anything.

Once the church is caught away, the number of people coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ will be uncountable. This also tells me that almost as many will be put to death because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Revelation 14:13 NASB And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."

These, because of their relationship with Jesus Christ, are deemed, saints. They die because of their testimony – this testimony may or may not be elaborate and many, in their last utterance may cry out their newfound affection for the Savior. Their actions are their deeds and these acts of simple kindness follow them into eternity for a remembrance.

Those that embrace a judgmental, unforgiving God frequently have problems with God showing mercy to people. Here, in the time of wrath, it is so much easier to perceive what happens to these people as God punishing them for their rejection. The problem with that kind of thinking is that you fail to understand that Jesus took all the wrath mandatory for the punishment of sin, upon himself.

Whom then is God's wrath being poured out upon?

The nations and Israel for rejecting him. It is never about the church. Because of the timing involved with the gathering of the body to himself, some will escape all wrath; while others, joining themselves to the body of Christ after the in-gathering, will it seems, have to prove their allegiance through death. It seems the only alternative I can see.

Matthew 25: 31-46 offers us a comparable scenario when it comes to deeds that follow them. Jesus, at the end of the thousand years, having called the dead from the nations to himself, separates them into two groups – the sheep and goats. These are not Christians for they were not caught up in the rapture nor the resurrection of the saints prior to the thousand years. The nations are generally thought to be anyone outside of a relationship with Christ, and yet, the Sheep are given their status because of their deeds, acts of kindness.

This is defined as Jesus said,

'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; (Matthew 25:35 NASB)

These simple acts of kindness gained them entrance into the eternal kingdom.

If I thought it wise to take this gamble I would be making a serious mistake. I cannot even pick a line at the market without it coming to a screeching halt for some reason. It is wiser to live in the grace given to me, clinging tightly to his robe.

Consider a piece of wisdom we see in the story of the prodigal's son. Having spent all on riotous living, this Jew, a man who would not have considered touching an unclean pig, ends up not only slopping the hogs but having to eat what they would reject. This was the young man's bottom and looking up meant going back to his father that he had insulted. As he approaches the ranch, the father who had been looking and longing for his son's return spots him a long way off and runs to him with outstretched arms. This is the Father and an example of the love he has for us. So, it will not be so much you merely catching a corner of his robe, but Him wrapping his arms around you to welcome you home.

My two witnesses. Revelation 11:3-12

 If you were to ask, I would tell you that my favorite biblical character is the prophet, Samuel. Like Elijah, this man did it all. Because of Israel's pleas for God's help Samuel prayed and the Lord sent lightning strikes, hail, and earthquakes against the Philistines. Look up the dynamics of lightning and you might get this.

Lightning is a discharge of electricity. A single stroke of lightning can heat the air around it to 30,000°C (54,000°F)! This extreme heating causes the air to expand explosively fast. The expansion creates a shock wave that turns into a booming sound wave, known as thunder.
https://tinyurl.com/47d9dvn8

Surprisingly, people have been struck by lightning and lived. But what about the shock wave from a lightning strike?

the brain—even without a direct hit to the head—could be seriously injured by primary blast waves that last just milliseconds. Scientists discovered a distinctive honeycomb pattern of broken and swollen nerve fibers in the brains of five Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who survived multiple IEDs and died later of other causes. The tiny wounds—different from brain damage caused by car crashes or collision sports—were identified in brain regions that affect decision-making, memory, and reasoning, and maybe “the signature of blast injury,”
https://tinyurl.com/4s3yn7ux

Imagine baseball-sized hailstones raining down upon you while you are running for cover, just to have the earth open up and swallow some of your troops. This is how God responded to Samuel's prayer for help. But the most dramatic aspect of Samuel's life came when he confronted King Saul for sparing the life of King Agag. Samuel hacks King Agag into pieces. So for a while, when Samuel came into town, the town leaders would ask him if he had come in peace.

As a youth I was anything but feared or respected, and the hope that coming to Jesus might change all that was a real thing for me. I will add, when I graduated from high school I was five foot seven; I am now six foot four, and yes, I have used my size to intimidate, but in truth, I did it to keep people from seeing the fear in me. (If you have been abused in any way, it will take your lifetime to try and get past it, and it is a struggle.)

For the reasons that I have pointed out, I have loved the story of God's two witnesses; and thus begins this dive into Revelation 11:3-12.

"Also I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two menorahs standing before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to do them harm, fire comes out of their mouth and consumes their enemies—yes, if anyone tries to harm them, that is how he must die. They have the authority to shut up the sky so that no rain falls during the period of their prophesying; also they have the authority to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. When they finish their witnessing, the beast coming up out of the Abyss will fight against them, overcome them and kill them; and their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city whose name, to reflect its spiritual condition, is "Sodom" and "Egypt"—the city where their Lord was executed on a stake. Some from the nations, tribes, languages, and people see their bodies for three-and-a-half days and do not permit the corpses to be placed in a tomb. The people living in the Land rejoice over them, they celebrate and send each other gifts, because these two prophets tormented them so.

Page one.

But after the three-and-a-half days a breath of life from God entered them, they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then the two heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" And they went up into heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. (Revelation 11:3-12 CJB)

• “Also I will give power to my two witnesses”

  I have said many times that we are to look for witnesses. In this case, the scripture that would explain who these witnesses are according to the Torah or Tenach (for us Gentiles, that would be the Old Testament.)

  In light of their authority – In Isaiah 8:2 NASB God says, "... I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ...” Now, He goes on, in this instance, to name, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. Does the mention of those names exclude this from speaking about God handpicking two ancient prophets that never tasted death? Of course not, and, as you may well know, Jesus, on several occasions, used portions of passages to fit the moment. An example of this comes when Jesus announced His mission on earth.

  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; (2) To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, Isaiah 61:1-2 NASB

  That Sabbath day, He left off a portion as He said nothing about the day of vengeance of our God. Why leave that part off? Because that time was yet to come when His judgment will be unleashed.

  In Malachi, we find a reference to Elijah coming.

  Malachi 4:5-6 NASB "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. (6) "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."

  What is the great and terrible day of the Lord? God's wrath, that time we so foolishly call the tribulation. Has the time of God's wrath come? Absolutely NOT, but soon.

  Witnesses?

  Thankfully, we have a heads up as to who one of the prophets is.

  If you were to ask who the other might be, I would have to lean toward the idea that man is appointed once to die, and there were only two people that the bible tells us did not die, Elijah, who has already been identified, and Enoch; and yes, Enoch is referred to as a prophet. Jude 1:14 tells us Enoch prophesied. Hebrews 11:5 tells us that he was taken up so that he might not see death. You cannot apply these parameters to Moses, as much as you might try. So by witnesses, we have established the authority of these two witnesses.

  “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.” (Deuteronomy 19:15 NASB)

Page two.

• So this begs the question, are they testifying of God's power, and who He is, or are they testifying against Israel and the nations?

  What a great question. I believe the answer is both, but don't expect to hear this answer in church. Our religious mentality perceives testifying as openly speaking about what God has done in your life, with the hope of winning over the lost to Jesus. The testimony services we had in church, were along this same line. While many were interesting the main benefit of these services was that we got to bypass some hell, fire, and brimstone preaching that night.

  With all that in mind what can we expect these two to do?

  Revelation 11:5 AMP

  • “And if anyone attempts to injure them,”

    If? how about no doubt about it. Every Islamic will be trying to kill them. At first, because they may look old and feeble, it would be personal attacks. Since that won't work, it will move on to snipers, rocket-propelled grenades, and perhaps mortars.

  • Fire pours from their mouth and consumes their enemies; if anyone should attempt to harm them, thus he is doomed to be slain.

    An interesting thing about using the Amplified is that they typically give you cross-references, and they did that here. [II Kings 1:10; Jer. 5:14.]

    II Kings 1:10 speaks of Elijah and gives testimony that he had done this before. (One of the reasons that many think Moses would be one the prophets has much to do with the miracles and signs that he performed.)

    Jeremiah 5:14 tells us that God said, “ thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire And this people wood, and it will consume them.” If anything this verse promotes the idea that God's words would be fire in their mouths and that those words would consume those that hear. Honestly, it is a bit of a stretch to use Jeremiah, but the Jews, hearing these words might say, ah yes.

  Revelation 11:6 NASB

  • These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying;

    Why might this be important? Because when they are gone the false prophet does the opposite. He turns the rain back on. Note what the scripture says it does not rain, in at least the region, for the entire time they are prophesying.

  • and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood,

    This should make bells go off in your head. This is what God had Moses do to Egypt. Strangely, the Egyptian priests also turned the remaining water into blood. They took the remaining clean water and ruined to prove their point.

  • and to strike the earth with every plague,

    While the word used does have plague as its main definition, it also means blows, wounds or injury.  

Page three.

Why is this important? Because during the entire time of God's wrath, the earth and the people alive here have been receiving blows, wounds, and injury. There is one other thing, and that is the man-made plagues that the global elite has released upon the earth. God will match you blow for blow. The fact that they can strike the entire earth indicates that there is NO limitation to the Word of God.

• as often as they desire.

  And this tells me that there are NO restrictions placed upon them. You might think that they would only go after those who have tried to harm them, but that is not the case.

We are told, in Revelation 11:3, that their time on the earth in 1260 days.

Revelation 11:7 NASB

• When they have finished their testimony,

  Jesus told us, no one takes my life, I lay it down. They knew their time is done and so did God.

• the beast that comes up out of the abyss

  In a previous post I went into detail about how that this is Satan. You don't have to answer this, but how many names does Satan have? Go back to Revelation 9:11 and study that out. We are jumping ahead but let's look at Revelation 17:8 for a moment.

  Revelation 17:8 NASB "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.

  Ask yourself, when Jesus comes back as the warring messiah, only three persons are tossed into the abyss, who are they? The antichrist, the false prophet, and, for a time, Satan. In Revelation 13:2 we see the dragon (Satan) give one of the beasts his power. What power does Satan have? None, outside of deception, but there one other thing and the biggest of all, and that would be the title deed to the earth (he stole that title from Adam.) So when he is giving this beast his power, he is offering him power over the whole earth. Have you ever asked yourself, how is it that one person can seem to gain power over the entire earth? Empowered by Satan himself, the antichrist will make war with them, and, as you can tell by the next bullet point, succeed, or so he thinks.

• will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.

  The antichrist does not allow anyone to touch them as they want to gloat over their dead bodies.

Revelation 11:8 NASB

• And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

  At this point the two witnesses are lying dead in the street. Imagine that, they think they have killed, or at minimum hurt God.

Page four.

It is possible that Psalm 79 is addressing this very moment in time.

Psalms 79:1-2 NASB A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. (2) They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.

Pay attention to this part, “their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”

When you struggle to understand how Babylon can be resurrected and play an end-times role, consider what God is calling Jerusalem. Funny how God has added, where their Lord was crucified. Even then He was their Lord, but they refused Him, now He is making a harsh point.

Revelation 11:9-10 NASB

• Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

  Prior to the advent of 24 hours news, this aspect did not make much sense, but we come to the point where you are never without news, even if it is scripted and planned lies. There are webcams everywhere, and the fact that two ancient prophets are giving people havoc, is the news. The antichrist will not permit their dead bodies to be moved.

• (10) And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

  Those who were hoping for the New World Order, will be having a party because of their deaths. Consider that God has been dishing out His judgments the whole of the time they have been standing in Jerusalem. But while standing there, they have been dishing out God's judgments as well, with NO restraint. No wonder people are celebrating.

Revelation 11:11-12 NASB

• But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet;

  Just a guess, but I suspect the first thing those watching might say, they will know that we have been laughing and will kill us.

  God resurrects them from the dead; they have now met the requirement.

• and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.

  I imagine so.

• And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.

  When God spoke in a loud voice on previous occasions, anyone that heard it said it sounded like thunder, NOT THIS TIME. And God raptured them back up into heaven.

Page five.

Revelation 11:13 NASB

• And in that hour there was a great earthquake,

  Throughout the time of judgment there are several intense earthquakes, some sound as though the continental plates could realign and connect making one land mass, again.

• and a tenth of the city fell;

  Only a tenth? Considering what much of Israel looks like, I would say it looks like rock and adobe construction. Much of Southern California was built from lath, plaster, and red clay bricks. In one of earthquakes many structures in the town of Whittier collapsed.

• seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake,

  Again I reference our Southern California earthquakes. In 1994 we had the Northridge quake which struck at 04:30. Fortunately the early hour still had many people in bed and not on the freeways which buckled and collapsed. Multi-story apartments collapsed, and colleges, eleven hospitals sustained varying levels of damage, and of course phone and electricity went down. Surprisingly, only 60 died, but over 9000 were injured.

  Can you imagine how brutal this quake will be to kill over 7000.

• and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

  “The rest”, these were the global spectators who laughed and partied only moments before. The entirety of God's judgments are meant to drive you to repentance. Apparently, God made a dent in some of them.

For several posts I have referred to chronological timelines. Obviously, not everything fits precisely within a timeline, but, like these two witnesses, they insert easily. Everything about them screams that they come at almost the same time as the construction of the temple. There would be a huge association for the Jews if that happened. The amount of time that they are here is important as well, 1260 days. That is half of the seven years, and what happens at the halfway marker of the seven years? The peace treaty is broken and the false prophet steps forward.

If the false prophet is, as I say, the current high priest that presides over the sacrifices in the new temple, and, he makes a flip, converts to Islam, performs all the signs and wonders that the two witnesses have been performing, then can you see how the ELECT of Israel, the Jewish leadership, might convert and follow along with him?

Islam sees a man like the high priest within their prophecies as well, and strangely, it all makes sense.

I strongly suggest that you turn to Jesus as your savior now, not later. It is going to be unbearably difficult.