Chapter 3

The Promised Kingdom of God in Heaven and on Earth

 

The Two Witnesses

The Bible predicts that the gospel will be preached throughout "the four corners of the earth." During the last years of the Apocalypse, many of Israel's citizens will wake up to the fact that the final judgment of God has arrived. They will begin to study the ancient teachings of the Torah, psalms and prophets. They will realize that they are about to enter a time of horrible persecution similar to the Holocaust.

Here in America some Christians will follow the urgent call to evangelize the world in the midst of strong government opposition. Emergency home front security laws will have turned America into a police state, and religious meetings will be suspected of harboring terrorists. The Truth will be suppressed.

God will not be outmaneuvered during this oppressive time. Near the beginning of the 6th Period, two interesting individuals will appear. In Revelation 11:3 John calls them "witnesses." They will live in Jerusalem, where they will condemn the newly unified world government and Superchurch. The media will capture everything they say. Television broadcasts will cover all of their speaking engagements as well as their tremendous demonstrations of supernatural power. They will appear to control the weather as they as they call on God to stop rain from falling in the Middle East and other places around the world. They will remind the world of the ancient prophet Elijah, who shut off the rain over Israel for three and a half years:

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.

These men have power to shut up the sky 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. (Revelation 11:3-6)

The unorthodox behavior of these two witnesses will become a political liability for the government and a thorn for many church leaders. They will be blamed for causing instability with their intolerantly heretical teachings, but these two will speak out unabashedly with great passion against the corruption of their time, admonishing people to ask God for forgiveness of their evil deeds.

They will start their public appearance on 4 January 2012, and their careers will end on the fast of Tammuz 17, which is 4 July 2015. John wrote that these two witnesses will be assassinated after 1,260 days of boldly proclaiming God’s judgment on the world's evil economic and political systems. The antichrist President of the European Union will overcome them by supernatural demonic ability. For three days their bodies will lie on the street in Jerusalem, watched by millions of television viewers around the clock. Then a penetrating voice from above will command, "Come up here!" To everyone's astonishment, the bodies of the slain witnesses will rise and float into the heavens in full view of the cameras.

At the same time, a huge earthquake will shake the city of Jerusalem. Days later, the news will report 7,000 dead, buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings:

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven. (Revelation 11:7-13)

News Headlines for the Apocalyptic Prophecies

  1. Revelation 12:14: God says that He will take care of the woman (Israel) for "time, times and half a time." Israel has the assurance that they will survive odds stacked a 1,000 times against them for their destruction. Because this promise is mentioned in both the near vision and the far vision, God wants us to understand and make no mistake in the certainty of survival for His covenant people.
  2. Revelation 12:6: We have here the second witness of God’s promise to Abraham to preserve his descendants. In accordance with His plans for the nation Israel, God will take care of "the woman" (Israel) for 1,260 days – to save a significant remnant out of the midst of major destruction in the Middle East.
  3. Revelation 13:5: The beast (ten-nation EU system) utters blasphemies for forty-two (42) months. The end time civilization will degenerate into the total tyranny of a godless dictatorship. Basic Christian values and ethics will be dismantled and crushed. Hatred will intensify and destroy any remnant of family relationships. This civilization will sink to the lowest point possible - just like the generation of Noah’s time, which was called continually evil.
  4. Revelation 11:2: The city of Jerusalem will be trampled under for forty-two (42) months (1,260 days) by Gentile NATO military forces.
  5. Revelation 11:3: Two witnesses will prophesy for 1,260 days. This will be a last call for repentance to a corrupt society. Their ministry will result in thousands coming to the Kingdom of God. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens will be converted to the true Messiah Yeshua - Jesus Christ. This will be one of the greatest awakenings ever recorded in Jewish history. God’s Holy Spirit will indwell the new converts who boldly proclaim the love of God against the background of the highest persecution. This movement will not be silenced or snuffed out by satanic forces.
  6. Daniel 7:25: Within the Mini-Apocalypse of three years, the saints (the true Christian church) and Jews will be intensely persecuted by the European government as represented by the beast for "time, times and half a time" (3½ years) or 1,260 days. This prophecy ends with the Antichrist’s dominion being taken away from him and given to the saints of the God of Israel who will rule over the nations forever.
  7. Daniel 9:27: The newly instituted daily sacrifices at the Temple will cease in the middle of the Apocalypse on Sunday, 4 December 2011, due to unusual events happening around Jerusalem. This verse is cross-referenced with the next paragraph. On 21 March 2012 Antichrist breaks the 7-year covenant of peace He had made with Israel in 2009.
  8. Daniel 12:7: The shattering of the holy people will come to an end after 1,260 days. For almost three and a half years Israelis will have been hunted down and murdered, but this scattering to save everyone’s life will come to an end in a "time, times and half a time." In his last attempts to forever wipe out the Jews and the saints, Satan will destroy the Temple in Jerusalem on 25 July 2015 (9 Av 5775). This date coincides with the second Jewish fast day.

    In the 7-based number system, this vision applies to the Mini-Apocalypse. The word shattering means that Israel's citizens must escape into the mountains and desert regions to join with the surviving Israeli armed forces. There will be a massive flight from an Islamic mob gone crazy. It will be a horrible battle that the Israelis will not win. On 4 September 2015, God's anger will be aroused, and He will intervene by releasing the greatest earthquake ever to rock the earth in order to save Israel. This miracle will rank with the Flood as one of the biggest miracles in all of history. (See Chapter 5.)
  9. Daniel 7:12: ("a season and a time" NRSV). Two concepts are indicated here: a "season" and a "time.” Each period is a different length. That is why Daniel made the distinction. It indicates the end of the “beast” time 1,260 days after the assassination of the EU president.
  10. Daniel 8:14: A new sanctuary will be consecrated 2,300 days after the beginning of the Mini-Apocalypse on 4 January 2012. The foundation of the Fourth Temple will be laid about 24 May 2018. Four days prior, all of Israel will have celebrated the Feast of Weeks (6 Sivan 5778) also called Pentecost. I am sure this holiday will be extended for a new national holiday for the future.
  11. Daniel 12:12: This verse refers to a time of blessing for those who will survive the Apocalypse. Officially the Apocalypse will be over on 21 December 2015, 9 Tevet 5776 – the Fast of the Tenth Month. However, the Bible says that the allocated time will be cut short because of the severity of persecution, so by the end of these 1,335 days on 18 September 2015, the Apocalypse is basically over. The survivors will then begin to gather together and return home. (Matthew 24:22; Isaiah 11:11-16)

    Previously, by Friday, 4 September 2015 (19 Elul 5775) the four death angels will have killed one third of the world’s remaining population. Passing over Israel at the same time, millions of annually migrating birds will arrive to eat the dead bodies lying around Jerusalem. These bodies will be the remains of the armies that had attacked Israel and Jerusalem. These birds will be on their migration route and will “just happen” to be there at the right time to fulfill prophecy.

    Friday, 18 September 2015 (5 Tishri 5776) is two days after the Fast of Gedaliah on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 (3 Tishri 5776). Five days later on 23 September (10 Tishri) Yom Kippur is celebrated perhaps for the first time as a feast instead of a fast. (Zechariah 8:19)
  12. Daniel 12:11: The 7-Year Table of the Apocalypse shows the start of this 1,290-day prophecy in the first month of the 6th Period (Sunday, 8 Kislev 5772 or 4 December 2011). This day starts the Mini-Apocalypse as Antichrist terminates the daily sacrifice offered at the Temple.

    About a year later this man, the President of the EU, will be assassinated. After three days He will regain life because Satan will indwell and resuscitate Antichrist’s dead body by his presence after being cast out from Heaven on 21 December 2012. To convince the world that He is the resurrected Messiah, an abomination will be placed in the Temple, which will be some kind of personal image. It will offend the Jewish people in the grossest way possible. The satanically indwelled Antichrist will demand to be worshiped as the resurrected Messiah. This event is also confirmed in the Aztec and Chinese calendars.
  13. Daniel 9:27: Daniel’s 70th Week in the 7-based system provides the 7-year parameter for the total length of the Great Apocalypse. For more discussion about this floating prophetic week of 7 years, see Chapter 5.
  14. Daniel 9:24: This verse has another application that could apply from the perspective of the 5-based system. In the 5-based system one prophetic week equals 50 years, thus a "time, times and half a time” would refer to 3,500 years. This 5-based perspective connects the end of the Jewish people’s Babylonian captivity in 518 BC with Satan’s last rebellion just before the end of the millennium at ad 3018. Now Satan finally comes to the appointed time of his permanent destruction. (Revelation 20:7-10)

    These two aligned and overlying prophetic events from one verse again demonstrate an important principle of prophetic interpretation. Like mountain peaks with hidden valleys, here we can see a near fulfillment and a far-off in the future fulfillment in God’s plan with an unseen period of time between them. The near event will take place during the Apocalypse, and the more future second occurs at the end of the millennial Teth Age.

Sequence of Mini-Apocalypse Events

Here is a summary of the Mini-Apocalypse’s traumatic, earth-shattering events as prophesied by Daniel and John:

Dates for Prophetic Events

The 8th and 9th Periods of the Apocalypse

(January 2013 to March 2014)

The 8th and 9th Periods belong together because they remind us to direct our view into Heaven during the midst of these great sorrows. While the peoples on earth are preoccupied with the Great Tribulation in the Daleth dimension of material time and space, even more important events are taking place in the Heh dimension of a purified Heaven.

Ever since Lucifer rebelled and became Satan, he and his fallen angels or demons have occupied the dimensions of the Second Heaven and still had occasional access to God’s throne in the Third Heaven. They have taunted God with humanity’s sins. The Father and the righteous angels have had to put up with the presence of these defiling spirit beings. The Bible only gives us brief descriptions of this part of the Heh side. Since the Son’s resurrection, Satan’s “days” have been numbered, and on 21 December 2012 they came to an end. God will have fully purged the presence of any and all evil from heavenlies before He does so on earth: the cleansing is completed in Heaven before the Great Tribulation on earth ends.

The Heavenly Apocalypse

Two thousand years ago John saw a vision of what will soon happen in Heaven:

And there was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in Heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and authority of His Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:7-12 NRSV)

How have you fallen from earth, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid down the nations! (Isaiah 14:12)

On 21 December 2012, the heavenly realm will rejoice at the announcement that the archangel Michael and his armies have expelled all evil and unclean spirits, demons and fallen angels from the metaphysical universe. Satan will be cast down to earth and given about three years to conclude his final rebellion. There he will meet opposition from the Two Witnesses and others.

Thousands of bold Christians will choose death rather submit to Satan's desires. As God’s witnesses to the masses, they will expose the Antichrist as being the devil. They will preach the Good News of Jesus’ soon coming and the demise of all injustice and spiritual confusion. Their lives will manifest the potent presence and goodness of God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon them with abundance. Satan will learn that he has not only lost the heavenly battles, but he is losing ground on earth as well. God's power will be visible even during in the worst time of Satan’s oppression.

It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.

Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the LORD has said,
Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28-32)

In just a few short years Israel will suffer its last hate-based holocaust, which the Bible refers to as "Jacob's Trouble" or commonly, the Apocalypse. (Jeremiah 30:7) When it is over, God will instigate a final re-gathering of any remaining children of Jacob from the four corners of the earth. He also promised to preserve a remnant of all nations, just as He did in the days of Noah's Flood in order to repopulate the earth. But unlike the Flood, not everything or everyone will be destroyed because God will be more lenient and merciful this time around. The Apocalypse will end Islamic hatred and confusion about the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. This will be a direct result of Satan’s imprisonment in a special abyss until after the millennium. All of his false religions and worldly philosophies will disappear with him.

At the end of the Apocalypse, a mighty angel (Michael?) will imprisoned Satan in a sealed pit for a thousand years. Afterwards, the abyss will be opened to release him, and Satan will not miss the beat of second to instigate one more, final rebellion against God. It is as if the thousand-year reign of Christ was only a dream. He will quickly deceive millions and lead them to their destruction in a futile war against God. Why is he so successful? Because the unsuspecting population of humans have lived their whole lives without his temptations or deceptions. They will be relying on their own strength and wisdom instead of on God’s grace and power. On his last day on earth Satan will meet his final doom when he is cast into the lake of fire. His evil influence over every living being on earth and Heaven will be permanently eliminated.

After this I looked, and there in Heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

At once I was in the spirit, and there in Heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.

Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,

“Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:1-11 NRSV)

The celebration in Heaven will be announced with loud trumpets and the voices of a massive choir of redeemed mankind. In attendance will be millions of anointed saints and angels. This great event represents the capstone of God's design for a future eternity.

In the Hebrew Alphabet Number System the number nine (9 - Teth) symbolizes new life bursting forth, like a mother giving birth to a living baby. This is not like the potentially mortal life God once breathed into Adam, but eternal life the second stage (10 - Jod) in God’s creation. This is the ultimate objective, which has been hidden in the darkness as it grows to maturity during the seventh and eighth cycles of the universe, until it finally becomes visible to all as a living, breathing entity. The placenta (Satan's dominion), which coexisted with the baby before its birth, will be destroyed. The baby (God's kingdom) will come to earth:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" (Revelation 7:9-12)

Heaven will have a totally new environment, characterized by the absence of rebellion and evil. It will be the high point of unification between God's heavenly and the earthly kingdoms. It will be a time of giving rewards to the saints. The announcement will be made with a trumpet blast and many voices will call out in unison:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.

They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"

Then I heard every creature in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

"To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"

The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-14)

Observing these events in Heaven, John wrote about a special moment that caused absolute silence. Millions of angels and human beings were assembled before a brightly lit throne that was encircled by twenty-four smaller thrones. (The number 24 means "priesthood" and is connected with worship. Psalm 72 lists twenty-four references to the Messiah.)

Festive angels and other creatures surrounded John. All activity stopped. There was silence for half an (heavenly?) hour. Tension mounted as seven angels received trumpets for the countdown. After the period of total silence, the sounding of the trumpet gave the signal to start something that the army of the universe had prepared for. All the divine and angelic planning will result in another spectacular phase of God's purpose for the Creation.

Next came an offering of incense to represent the prayers of the saints, which carried the anguish, fear, pain and terror of the persecuted saints up to God in Heaven. All the memories the saints experienced before their deaths are represented here. Infused in the incense of prayer are the cries for justice of those who suffered for their faith. This causes the angel to hurl fire onto the earth, an act that will be accompanied by terrific peals of thunder, extreme lightning and a huge earthquake:

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:1-5)

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