PHILLIP HARRIS
Review and Overview
In chapter 7 of Revelation we learned of God’s sealing 144,000 Hebrew evangelists whose mission is to bring the gospel message of Jesus Christ to all the world. Then we learn of a great multitude that no one could number who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb during the time of the great tribulation.
In chapter 8 the Lamb opened the seventh seal which brings us to the seven trumpet calls, and the seventh trumpet call initiates the final seven bowls of God’s judgment.
Chapter 9 culminated with the account of the sixth angel blowing his trumpet. However, the wicked refused to repent of their works and of their worship of demons.
In Revelation 10:1 through to Revelation 11:14, the vision given to John takes a parenthetic break interrupted by the blowing of the seventh trumpet. The events set in motion by the blowing of the seventh trumpet extend to the end of chapter fourteen.
Chapter 10, the beginning of the parenthetic break between the sixth and seventh trumpets, is largely an account of the ’little scroll’. Here we first learn of a mighty angel that comes down from heaven who stands with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land with the little scroll in his hand. A voice from heaven seals the scroll which contains the mysteries of God, but before the time of the seventh trumpet is over, the mysteries within the little scroll will be revealed.
In chapter 11 God asserts His ownership of the temple in Jerusalem through John’s survey. Then God’s Two Witnesses arrive and preach for 42 months the last message for the wicked to repent of their sins. The witnesses are rejected, killed, and lay dead on the ground for 3 1/2 days—but then they are brought to life and called up into heaven. At that time there will be a great earthquake in Jerusalem where seven thousand of the shocked wicked are killed.
Another Mighty Angel
As in Revelation 8:3 John mentions “another angel”—this time with an adjective designating it “another mighty angel”:
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring (Rev. 10:1-3a).
Because of the attributes associated with this “mighty angel” some have attempted to identify him as Jesus Christ; however this identity isn’t likely for several reason. First, John first mentioned a “mighty angel” back in Revelation 5:2. To be consistent in interpretation, this angel in chapter 10 would simply be another angel just like the first mighty angel mentioned five chapters earlier.
Second, the word “another” in Revelation 10:1 comes from the Greek ’allos’ with the Strong’s number of 243 which means; another of the same or similar type. Since an angel is not God whereas Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, this angel and Jesus are not the same type. The same is true of the word “another” in Revelation 8:3.
As to identity of this mighty angel possibly being Jesus there is the question which concerns Jesus’ promised second advent as recorded in Matthew 24:15-31 and Mark 13:24-32 versus the conditions of this angel’s appearance preceding the promised return of Jesus our Savior:
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).
This mighty angel has the honor to come down from heaven to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ the Lamb just as Christians do at this present time:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).
Then we read in verse six that this angel swears an oath by someone greater than himself in saying, “who created heaven and what is in it”, which of course is Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3), whereas Jesus, being the Son of God, would speak in the same way as the Father and simply swear by himself:
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you” (Heb. 6:13).
This mighty angel is doing what is normally done when he swears by the one who is greater than himself. We read next that the mighty angel called out to the seven thunders:
When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down” (Rev. 10:3b-4).
The “seven thunders” reveal to John what is in the little scroll, but then he is commanded to seal it up and not write it down with the promise given in Rev. 10:5-7 that the mystery within the little scroll will be revealed at the blowing of the last trumpet. This exchange suggests that these thunders are the very voice of God speaking from his throne. In fact, there are numerous passages in Scripture that speak of the thunder of God’s voice. For example, in Job 37:4 the word “lightnings” is a plural noun that comes from the Hebrew word for “them” which is a plural pronoun:
After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend (Job 37:4-5).
In Revelation 10:5–7 we see that this angel reveals that the sounding of the seventh trumpet will mark the fulfillment of “the mystery of God”:
And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets (Rev. 10:5-7).
We see here that an angel, the one who is standing on both “the sea and on the land”, raises his right hand and swears by Jesus (see John 1:1-13) that at the coming of the seventh trumpet call there will be no more delay. Some theologians (not all), think this angel may be Jesus Himself; however, the grammar doesn’t support such an interpretation. Yet this angel does have great authority when speaking to John, and we recognize this authority as we read verse 8 and onward.
The Little Scroll
Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter (Rev. 10:8-10).
John is then instructed by the voice he first heard in verse four to take and eat the little scroll. While we do not yet know what is in the scroll because the blowing of the seventh trumpet hasn’t yet happened in our time, what we do know is that John was both told and would experience the message within this scroll as sweet in his mouth yet bitter within his stomach.
While there are many mysteries God has not yet given us, John’s reaction to this knowledge assures us that we are not ready for God’s revelation until after the blowing of the seventh trumpet. While we all look forward to God’s judgment, when sin is put away and the earth will be made new, nevertheless we, as the saints of God, mourn over those who will be lost.
The angel, though, didn’t give John a chance to dwell on the bitterness in his stomach after eating the scroll of God’s mystery. Instead, John is given a priority:
And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings” (Rev. 10:11).
In other words, John is to continue recording as he was first commanded by Jesus:
Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this (Rev. 1:19).
John Measures the Temple
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months (Rev. 11:1-2).
Taking measurements with a staff (measuring reed) means to perform a survey. Surveying property along with possessing its corresponding deed establishes ownership. John is instructed not to measure the outer courtyard because that has been temporarily given over “to the nations” for a limited period of 42 months which would equal three-and-a-half years. In other words, the boundaries of God’s ownership, not the temple’s specific measurements, are what is important to know.
The instructions given to John leave us with a conundrum, a mystery. John is to only measure the temple of God, yet this includes “the altar and those who worship there” which in the old covenant would be the brazen alter located in the outer courtyard where John is not to measure. Apparently this is one of God’s mysteries sealed in the little scroll that will not be revealed for our understanding at this time.
However, the temple that John measures reminds us of the temple prophesied and measured by Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48 which is often referred to as the Millennial Temple. Ezekiel was given similar instructions including many prophetic details—even describing the water flowing from the throne of God (Ezek. 47:1-12) also mentioned in Revelation 22:1. Here is a portion of Ezekiel’s prophecy:
When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway. And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel” (Ezek. 40:3-4).
The context of the book of Revelation, especially here in chapter 10 and the next few chapters, makes it clear that John measured a temple in Jerusalem that does not yet exist—but it will because God has said it will. The context of both prophecies places this temple at the time of the end-times tribulation. Some say that when the temple is built, we are to understand that we are rapidly moving towards or into the tribulation because of Jesus’ reference to Daniel’s prophecy of the “abomination of desolation” that will occupy and pollute it:
“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be (Matt. 24:15-21).
If this understanding is correct (not all Christians interpret these passages this same way), when Jerusalem is overrun by the abomination of desolation, the believing Jews know it is time to flee from the city and nation. Some traditions suggest that they may take refuge in Petra, the city carved out of the hills located in a remote area of the modern nation of Jordan.
God’s Two Witnesses
God now reclaims his temple in Jerusalem through the preaching of his two witnesses.
And I will grant authority 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. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. (Rev. 11:3-6)
The phrase “And I will” in this passage indicates that these two witnesses are in Jerusalem at the same time—or immediately after—John’s measuring that establishes that the temple belongs to our holy God. God grants “my two witnesses” authority and supernatural power. Anyone who harms them will be killed.
If we look forward to chapters 12 and 13 of Revelation it becomes clear that God’s two witnesses are preaching during the second half of the tribulation. Although there are indications and much speculation of who these witnesses are, Scripture does not reveal their identity. However the phrase “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” does give us a clue when we compare this with Zechariah 4:1-14:
Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zech. 4:14).
Throughout Scripture there are many texts establishing the requirement that it takes at least two witnesses to bring evidence leading to the death penalty:
On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness (Deut. 17:6).
In Revelation we find the effect the message of these two witnesses has on the earth. Those who hear the message of these two witnesses will soon die because they kill the messengers instead of repenting of their sins.
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth (Rev. 11:7-10).
At the end of 1260 days the witnesses’ testimony is complete; they having achieved their purpose. At this time the beast, empowered by Satan, rises from the abyss and kills them.
The “great city” which is Jerusalem—where “their Lord was crucified”—is so overwhelmed by the wicked it is called “Sodom and Egypt” at this time. The whole world of the wicked gaze upon the witnesses’ dead bodies; in fact, they are so perversely satisfied that they rejoice and have a party. Moreover, not putting them into the ground is a way to desecrate the earth, an act God condemns:
“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance (Deut. 21:22-23).
Significantly, this text from Deuteronomy is why the Jews wanted Jesus killed and placed in the ground before nightfall when He hung lifeless on the cross.
Revelation 11 continues the prophecy of the two witnesses who have been left unburied in the streets of Jerusalem:
But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on 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, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven (Rev. 11:11-13).
At the end of three-and-a-half days God brings his two witnesses back to life and calls them up to heaven. God then keeps his promise that if anyone harms his witnesses they would be killed.
As a result of what was done to God’s witnesses, a great earthquake destroys a tenth of the city, and seven thousand people are killed. Those that remained in the city “were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven”. Giving glory to the God of heaven normally indicates true repentance and salvation. We are not told, however, if these people repented or merely responded to God in fear because they recognized He had overruled their rebellion. Nevertheless, since none of us merits salvation we can only give glory to God.
After the resurrection and ascension of the witnesses, John says:
The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. (Rev. 11:14).
The sixth trumpet call and the second woe are now complete.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
John’s survey established God’s ownership of the temple here on earth. The kingdom of this world now officially belongs to God with Jesus Christ announcing that He is in control and is putting an end to Satan’s rule. God’s victory is so certain, it is declared as a reality even as the seven bowls of God’s judgment are about to be poured upon the earth.
Satan once offered to give Jesus authority over all the kingdoms world (Luke 4:5-8). Jesus now takes that authority, but on His own terms: there is only one “kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ”. The verb “has become” is so certain it is as if it has already happened. The word “Lord” obviously refers to God the Father; the one whom Jesus informed Satan all are to worship:
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8).
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, now asserts His authority over the entire world which has been His to claim since His resurrection from the grave—something that God promised in Genesis 3:15. Revelation 11:15 puts the lie to the Seventh-day Adventist theme of Ellen White’s great controversy that God must prove to a watching world that He is a holy and just God.
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign (Rev. 11:16-17).
The elders verbalize the fact that the “Lord God Almighty” reigns.
To repeat what has been said before, these 24 elders (among a multitude of others) have not yet been resurrected, yet they have a conscious existence as they fall to their faces and worship God. There is no such thing as the Adventist so-called “soul sleep” doctrine where a saint only exists in the mind of God.
The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth (Rev. 11:18).
We learn more about the judgment of those not found in the Book of Life in Revelation 20:
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).
“The nations” are those who are under the control of Satan and refuse to repent. They are the ones who will appear before God at the Great White Judgment recorded in Rev. 20:11-15.
Simply repent, and your name will be recorded in the Book of Life. The saints are assured that nothing can separate them from the love of God. They are those who are “the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great”.
Christians, or simply the saints of God, will appear at a different judgment which is for a different purpose. This judgment is not about sin and salvation; rather it is about rewards for a believer’s works. In 2 Corinthians chapter five Paul is addressing the saints, both Gentiles and Jews, whose sins have been covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. This is what he says about the judgment they will experience:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10).
The word “judgment” here is “bēmatos” in Greek and is rendered “bema” in English. It is from this word in passages such as the one above and the one below that we get the phrase “the Bema Seat of God”.
Paul reveals the nature of the judgment for works that Christians will experience in 1 Corinthians 3 where the overall theme is about how rivalries, not food, are what defile the church, “the Body of Christ, the temple of God”. We are reminded that the center of our faith (not our own works) is simply the person and work of Jesus Christ and that our coming judgment will be on works founded upon that faith:
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:12-15).
Seventh-day Adventist doctrine perverts the meaning of this chapter by promoting its non-biblical health message. In doing so Adventism denies the eternal security we have by placing faith on something other than the completed work of our Savior. Adventism further uses this passage as a means of frightening its members with being lost unless they do the works Adventism demands. Yet the passage is clear: true believers cannot lose their salvation even if their works are burned up.
Returning to the vision given to John:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail (Rev. 11:19).
While it is again mentioned in Revelation chapter 15, this is the only place recorded in Scripture where God shows us what is inside the temple in heaven. Notice that it includes nothing but the ark of God’s covenant. What is significant is that there is no Most Holy Place separate from the rest of heaven’s holy temple. All the saints of God, through the shed blood of the Lamb, have unrestricted access to the throne and temple of God. In other words, all of heaven is God’s temple. The Adventist use of this passage to “prove” that the tables of the Ten Commandments are in the heavenly sanctuary is a fiction. Notice how Hebrews explains the believers’ relationship to the presence of God:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:19-22).
God gave Moses the “pattern” for building the tabernacle in Exodus chapters 25-31. What was built was in accordance with these instructions. It is only an unsupported assumption that the pattern given to Moses reflects a physical building in Heaven:
They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain” (Heb. 8:5).
This earthly shadow of a heavenly reality is comparable to when God created man in His own image, as recounted in Geneses 1:26-27. Even before Adam and Eve sinned, mankind was never of the same essence as God. They had bodies housing immaterial spirits, but God is spirit (Jn. 4:24). The issue of God’s temple in heaven being a pattern for the earthly tabernacle follows the same exact logic. When God showed Moses the pattern for building the tabernacle, there were similar differences of “essence”. The pattern shown to Moses provided a way for sinners to worship a transcendent God with the mediation of human priests offering representative sacrifices. The entire sanctuary system was composed of physical shadows of spiritual, eternal realities centered in God Himself.
Within the services of the tabernacle Moses had the people build, everything related to the Day of Atonement. Even the veil separating the Holy from the Most Holy Place portrayed the nature and work of Jesus our Savior whose body was torn at Calvary, thus completing His work of atonement and making it possible for us to have direct access to a holy God. His physical sacrifice offered for us physical creatures occurred at a place away from the temple on the earth He came to redeem, and it was not repeated in heaven (Heb. 6:4-6).
This entire work of Jesus’ sacrifice, burial, and resurrection which fulfilled the law and which also fulfilled God’s covenant promises to Abraham is summarized in John’s vision of Revelation 11:19. When the temple of God—heaven itself—is opened to John’s eyes, he sees only the ark of God’s covenant. This vision reminds us that God is faithful to His covenant promises. What He says, He does, and we are secure in His faithfulness.
Apparently Ellen G. White assumed that the original temple in heaven was exactly the same as the physical pattern God gave to Moses. However, in this vision John is shown the original temple in heaven long before when Ellen G. White claims Jesus moved into the Holy of Holies in heaven on Oct. 22, 1844. What she seemed to not be understand is that sin on earth is something that does not exist in heaven, yet it was something that must be dealt with before sinners could approach God and live.
Rev. 11:19 is supporting evidence that the Adventist core teaching of the investigative judgment and its sanctuary doctrine is a non-biblical, convoluted lie and heresy.
—All biblical quotes taken from the ESV
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