Posted by Elana Janson on August 13, 2007 at 09:31:40:
The sounding of the seventh trumpet and the words “great hail”.
The words “great hail” in Rev 11:19
The words “great hail” used in Rev 16:21 as shown in the previous post also appear in Rev 11:19. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings and voices, and thunderings and great hail.” This verse is the last verse of the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
It is very significant that the words “great hail” appear in Rev 16:21, that is the last verse of the casting of the seventh vial and the words “great hail” are the last words of Rev 11:19. In the understanding of Revelation I believe that the repetition of the words “great hail” in these two verses indicates in both verses the time of the final season that we cannot measure and that “great hail” is one of the very last signs.
I wish to substantiate what I have said in this post. This post is in the following sections.
1 Introduction
2 Revelation, chapter 11:1-10 Revelation reveals the time measure of “three days and a half”. The “three days and a half” in Revelation relate to the measure of “temple” that is the “body” of Christ. It is therefore about the true witnesses of the testimony of Jesus Christ and how it is revealed that they had through their faith the power to influence the course of history (Rev 11:6 “They have the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”
3 Revelation, 11:11-13 According to my understanding of the time measures of Revelation the time of the two periods of “three days and a half” came to an end at the time that the length of a “day” was revealed in the movement of the planet Mars: Rev 6:14 “And heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.” (Readers should refer back to the analysis of the opening of the sixth seal on this Forum.) Therefore when it is said in Rev 11:11 “And after three days and a half”, Revelation moves to the time after 28 August 2003 (this was the time that the planet Mars was nearest to the earth), and in the time to come that the true witnesses will arise to heaven in a cloud as did Jesus Christ. In the time after 2003 there would be a “great earthquake”. This is I believe the Sumatra – Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004.
All the above is explained as a background to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, because it is only with the knowledge of the time measure of “three days and a half” that one can ultimately understand the symbolism of the verses that constitute the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
The significance of the mention that the “second woe is past” (Rev 11:14).
4 The sounding of the seventh trumpet Rev 11:15-19
5 Revelation once again reveals that the words of Revelation can only be understood through the knowledge of its time measures and with man’s knowledge of the sciences in the twenty-first century. In the case of the casting of the seventh vial, knowledge of greater carbon emissions in the air that leads to the heating of the earth. The flooding across the world in 2007 comes as research suggests that global warming will increase rainfall in some parts of the world, including the Indian monsoon, and increase the number of hurricanes – both due to increased evaporation in a warmer world.
6 The word “hail” in Isaiah as a sign of the wrath of God”
7 The warming of the earth is also the time of wildfires.
Introduction
As was shown in the previous post large hailstones have fallen in recent months in many parts of the globe and there have been unusual floods in numerous areas. These happenings have occurred while in other areas there have been significant rises in temperature. These rises in temperature have led to drought conditions and as a result wildfires have been reported in both the USA and Europe.
We shall know the season
Before I go any further it should be remembered that I have been saying on this website since it was opened in 2000, that I believe that it was made known to me that the prophecy of Revelation can be understood through the knowledge of time measure in history. I was instructed through a Devine intervention to make known this knowledge. I believe that it was revealed to me that we are near the end time, but I know that ultimately we shall only know the final season through signs of the end. That we shall know the season is conveyed through the words of Jesus Christ in Mat 24:32 “Now learn the parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, yet know that summer is nigh: So likewise when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” It will happen quickly for soon we shall see the signs where we are living (“even at the doors”). I believe that knowledge of the time measures of Revelation have revealed that we are seeing the signs of the end.
I have also made known that I believe that Revelation reveals that the total time span of the prophecy essentially relates to the time from the coming of Jesus Christ the Messiah to the time of the Return. Through the understanding of the time measures of Revelation and the symbolism of Revelation this time span is a bit more than two thousand years.
Do the words great hail relate to 2007?
The question arises: Do the words “great hail” relate to 2007? I believe that the words “great hail” can relate to 2007. It cannot just be coincidence that the signs of global warming have greatly increased within just the last several years; in the very time that the time measures of Revelation made known to me indicate that there shall be a great earthquake, greater windstorms and storms with “great hail”. We cannot however know to what degree the earth shall have to endure “great hail” before there will be the realization that we are in the time of the end. In addition, a number of other ‘signs’ revealed in the symbolism of Revelation also have to happen in the same time.
Revelation, Chapter 11 verses 1 to 10.
One can only understand the significance of the words “great hail” as one of the final signs in Rev 11:19 after an analysis of Revelation, chapter 11. The reason for this being that Revelation, chapter 11 conveys specific information in relation to the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
Readers must realise that a division is indicated in the prophecy of Revelation in Revelation Chapter 10. In Rev 10:11 it is said: “And he said unto me, thou must prophecy again before many peoples, and nations and tongues and kings.” The reason for these words is that Revelation is going to reveal more about the time span of the opening of the seals in the following chapters.
As the opening of the seven seals in Revelation cover the total time from the coming of Jesus Christ to the time of the Return, so does Revelation, chapter 11 cover this entire time, but specifically relates to those that would carry the testimony of Jesus Christ “two witnesses” to the ends of the earth. I shall illustrate this by way of a summary of the verses of Rev 11:1-13.
Revelation reveals that those who carried the testimony of Jesus Christ, “the two witnesses”, through the some two thousand years, since his Death and Resurrection, shall in the final time ascend to heaven as Christ did. In other words this chapter reveals how the faithful are as the ‘body’ of Christ. This is particularly revealed through the words “temple” (verses 1 and 2) and “three days and a half” (verses 9 and 11).
Revelation, chapter 11, deals therefore with specific time measures. It deals with the time measure of “three days and a half” and the time of the “outer court”. This is the total measure from the time of the birth of Christ to the time of the Return and the Resurrection. One of the reasons why this chapter reveals this is to give the basic measurement of time on earth that ultimately also corresponds to the measures of the New Jerusalem. The measure of “temple” is earthly measure for we can calculate the time in years (Rev 21:17 “according to the measure of a man”).
Woe, woe, woe.
The sounding of the fifth, sixth and seventh trumpets are accompanied by the three ‘woes’. The reason for this is to reveal that two major revelations are taking place at the time of the sounding of the three final trumpets. In this way I believe Revelation confirms its time measure.
Revelation chapter 11 is part of the “second woe”. (The three ‘woes’ in Revelation relate to the realization in the end time that the nations of the globe are living the final seasons or time measures of Revelation.) The “first woe” Rev 9:12 “One woe is past, and behold there come two woes more hereafter”. The reason for these words is that only after the happenings of the opening of the first five seals and the sounding of the first five trumpets have been revealed, will it be realized that the first season of the final two seasons that we can measure has passed. It was only after the great earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on 26 December 2004, that caused the great tsunami, that it was realized that that there was a time span of 1200 days ( “one thousand and two hundred and threescore days – Rev 11:3) between the Sumatra –Andaman earthquake and 11 September 2001. This earthquake I believe was the indication that the second “woe” had passed.
The analysis of Revelation, chapter 11, follows in order to illustrate its connection to the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the words “great hail” in Rev 11:19.
Revelation chapter 11
Rev 11:1 “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.”
“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod”
We shall firstly consider the first section of Rev 11:1. The word “reed” relates to a ‘measuring line’ (see Ezekiel 40:3). With these words Revelation substantiates that Revelation is about the measurement of time in history.
It also relates to the “reed” that was placed in the hand of Jesus Christ at his passion (Mat 27:29), by way of mockery (instead of a sceptre). I believe it also relates to the disbelief and scorn of the world in 2007 that Revelation can be understood through time measure.
Revelation says that the reed is like unto a “rod”. In other words the time measures of Revelation are ultimately going to reveal that God has been in control of the nations right up to the time of the final battle that is revealed through the words “he treads the winepress”. God’s authority and control through the two millennia is manifested in verses where the word rod appears: Rev 2:27, 19:15 and 12:5.
Rev 2:27 “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers.”
Rev 12:5 “And she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”
Rev 19:15 “And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
Revelation uses the word “rod” in Rev 11:1 because through the past two thousand years Almighty God has been in control of all that has taken place within the nations and peoples of the globe in the spread of Christianity to the ends of the earth. An important aspect that one must keep in mind is that all the aspects of the ruling of the nations are now coming together. It is predicted in Revelation that the entire globe will be the “great city”, when all the nations are linked economically and through modern technology and communication. See Rev 10:11 “And he (the angel) said unto me (John), Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings.” The prophecy of Revelation encompasses all the nations of the globe.
Measure the temple of God
The measurement of “temple” is crucial in understanding Revelation. The word “temple” in Rev 11:1 refers back to the words of Jesus Christ in John 2:19 and 21 which he spoke at the second temple of Solomon in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” and “But he spoke of the temple of his body”. These words refer to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but in the understanding of Revelation 11:9 and 11:11 where the time of “three days and a half “ is mentioned, they also relate to the rise of the Christian Church. That the word “temple” has to do with the rise of the Christian Church is substantiated by the words of Rev 11:1 “and them that worship therein”. The believers within the Christian Church take the bread and the wine in Holy Communion, and are symbolically part of the body and blood of Christ. This rise of the Christian Church within the nations is calculated in “days”. (In history a “day” in Revelation is a time span of about 288 years and in 2003 this time seems to be shortened to 287 years.)
From the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year AD70, three periods of a “day” are measured. AD70 + 864 years (288x3) bring one to the time AD 934. By the year 934, most of the nations of Western Europe had converted to Christianity. It would be from these nations that Western Christianity would spread to the ends of the earth. If another period of 72 years (about a quarter of a “day”) is added to this we reach the time 1004. In total this is a time span of about 1004 years or “three days and a half” (Rev 11:9). Therefore in the first millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ Revelation measures “three days and a half”.
Because there is a repetition of the words “three days and a half” (Rev 11:11) Revelation also measures “three days and a half”, in the second millennium. The second time measure of “three days and a half” relates to the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 12:40 “ For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” These words of Jesus Christ referred to his death and resurrection, but in the understanding of Revelation in the end time, they also relate to the time of “three days” that the nations will be misled by the influence of the “beast out of the sea” and the “beast out of the earth”. The time span of the second millennium is measured in ‘three days’ and ‘144’ years.
Measure the altar
According to my understanding the time of “altar” is beyond 11 September 2001. This was explained in great detail in a recent post.
Rev 11:2 “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”
The words “the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” reveals that the earthly city of Jerusalem will be a cause for division within the nations right up to the final short season that we can measure and in the very final season that we cannot measure. In the time of the “short season” the nations are deceived and will not take notice of what is said in Revelation concerning the Holy Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. This will change as the signs of the end ultimately bring the total meaning of Revelation together.
Rev 11:3 “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”
This verse relates to history and to the end time.
History
Revelation reveals that the time that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit (“two witnesses”) carried the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ through the two millennia. They will continue up to the time of “1260 days”, that is up to February 2005, the time of the end of the “1260 days”. All through history it would be difficult to bear witness in a misled world. The meaning of “witnesses” comes from Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”.
The present time
At the present time I believe that through the Holy Spirit (power to my two witnesses) that revealed time measure in history to me, as well as the knowledge that we are near the end time, that we can understand how the signs from the throne, in the time that we cannot measure relate to the words of Revelation.
Rev 11:4 “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”
The symbols of “two olive trees” and “two candlesticks” both convey the unity of the Holy Spirit with Christians on earth (“the two witnesses”). The “olive tree” is the symbol of life and the greenness of the tree the symbol of health, life and reproduction. The “two candlesticks” are the symbol of the light that the love of Jesus Christ brings to the world. Christians filled with the Holy Spirit bring goodness and light to the world.
Rev 11:5 “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”
Christian witnesses are protected by the power of the Trinity.
Rev 11:6 “These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”
This verse conveys how the Trinity reacted in history and to the present day to those nations and persons that tried to harm the Christian Church. God brought drought upon the lands (“these have power to shut heaven”). God brought about war (“turn them to blood”). Revelation reveals here that the plagues that have been brought upon the earth in the last two thousand years, and those mentioned in Revelation, chapter 16, were brought about by injustices and deaths of Christians. Rev 18:24 “And in her (that is “great Babylon”) was found the blood of the prophets, and the saints and all that were slain upon the earth.” The “great Babylon” - that is the total earth that finally in the end time holds the Christian faith ‘captive’ (Rev 13:10). The nations are in “captivity” because they were misled by the “beast out of the sea”. In the end time the signs from God to ultimately save the remnant of the faithful, are clearly revealed through the signs of the end that can be linked to time.
To shut heaven
We have to take a closer look at these words in relation to the present time, particularly because we can measure the “one thousand, two hundred and threescore days”, which is three and a half years from 11 September 2001 to 22 February 2005. In Luke 4:25 it is said, “When the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land.” and in James 5:17 “And it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months”. During the time 11 September 2001 and 22 February 2005, many regions experienced long periods of drought. I believe we are at the present time in a period of time that the signs of the end are revealed “from the throne”. In the present time there are many changes in the ‘normal’ weather patterns of the earth, drought and famine in Africa and long periods of drought in Southern Europe. These droughts have been accompanied by fierce storms in many other regions. In this time the nations were at war in Iraq and conflict continues (“power over waters to turn them to blood”).
Rev 11:7 “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”
This verse relates to history and to the end time.
In the total understanding of Revelation “two witnesses” have three meanings. Firstly its meaning is derived from the use of the word “witness” in Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God”. Therefore “two witnesses” includes all those filled with the Holy Spirit, that over the period of the two millennia were witnesses to Jesus Christ. Secondly, in the time measures of Revelation, two persons were mentioned because of their tremendous influence on the spread of Christianity over two millennia. They were, Origen, in the first millennia and Francis of Assisi in the second millennium. Of significance was the fact that Origen was linked to the time of the rider of the white horse that is the time AD216. It was he that formulated the concept of the Trinity that incorporated the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. About one thousand years later (1224) Francis of Assisi received the Stigmata and he was a forerunner of the missionary movement of the second millennium of witnesses who wished to carry out the message of Jesus Christ as he did, to the poor, the sick and bereaved.
These words mean that when the Franciscans and all the missionaries have carried their message to the ends of the earth, there will come a time that the nations will not accept the full truth of Christianity. Revelation reveals a gradual deception over centuries.
In the time of “man” that Revelation places from 1266 to the present time there was a gradual deception of the nations by the “beast out of the sea” and the “beast out of the earth”. The nations would no longer listen to those bearing witness to the Christian faith. They would not accept the total truth of Christianity, but only that which they wished to accept (“And when they have finished their testimony”). The wars that would be fought in order to promote the ‘false’ ideology of the rule of men (“the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them”) would ultimately be accepted as the ‘truth’ (“and overcome them, and kill them”). The nations will move to accept the false ideology that the Christian faith can be equalized to all faiths of the world and that the truths of the Christian faith are not above the laws of men. Revelation reveals that this can only last a certain space of time.
Rev 11:8-9 “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.”
History
Street
The word “street” is used three times in Revelation: Rev 11:8 where it refers to the “street” of “the great city” on earth. Also in Rev 21:21 and 22:2, where the “street” is the street of the “New Jerusalem”. The symbolism of the New Jerusalem is a ‘reflection’ of the understanding of the time measures in history on earth in the past two millennia. This is revealed through the words “clear glass” (Rev 21:18). It was shown in my books how the colours of the gemstones of the New Jerusalem are placed on the time measures of three days and a half on earth in the past two millennia in order to reveal the meaning of the verses of Revelation. It is with the knowledge that when white light (symbol of the Trinity) passes through a glass prism it produces a spectrum of colours. As explained in a recent post, we have through the revelation of the gemstones of the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem that are actually also the colours of the spectrum a link between heaven and earth. Therefore as the colours of the gemstones are placed on time measure on earth, so does the “street” of the New Jerusalem reflect on a time in the measures on earth. In this way Revelation combines the “street” of the New Jerusalem with “street” of the great city on earth to symbolically show that in the past two millennia the earth was never separate from the life to come. Symbolically it is represented that what man (universal and the individual) did on earth will ultimately be reflected in the New Jerusalem.
Rev 21:18 “And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.”
Only through this understanding can we know the full meaning of “street” in Revelation.
Rev 21:21 “And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” Revelation reveals that the understanding of the word “street” is to be found in the use of the word in Rev 22:1-2 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:”
In my books it was explained that the word “street” is the midpoint of the “three days and a half” of the second millennium, which is the time of the “great city”. (It is also the midpoint of the time that Revelation measures “12 months”. That is the time 1860 to 2004.)
Midpoints of time measure
The symbolism of the New Jerusalem has also to be applied to the time span of the two millennia on earth. Therefore where Revelation 22:2 mentions “in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river”, Revelation is referring to a midpoint in a time measure of “three days and a half” in Revelation. That is the midpoint of the millennia which is the time 1500, and the time of much religious conflict in Europe.
In the religious wars in Europe and in particularly in the time 1400 to 1600, the middle of the millennium the bodies of Christians lay on the streets of the great cities.
Sodom and Egypt
The meaning of Sodom and Egypt is “figurative”. We know that Sodom was destroyed because its people were corrupt. The only citizens that were spared were Lot and his family. “Egypt” was the land out of which God led the Israelites.
Because the time of the middle of the second millennium is indicated by the words of Revelation, and Revelation deals with the Christian Church and the Christian nations in the time of the religious wars of Europe in and about 1500. In Revelation it is Europe out of which God the Father would lead Reformed Christians – both Catholic and Protestant for the new colonies. From the time about 1500, Christians left Europe for the new colonies all around the globe. This will also be revealed in the following chapters. Therefore Europe is figuratively "Egypt".
Revelation reveals that that the falling away from the Christian faith has come over centuries. The word “Egypt” signifies that in the time of the middle of the second millennium Christian would flee from Europe for their faith.
The words “street” and “outer court”
It should be mentioned here that Revelation uses words that are applicable to more than one time measure. For example the word “street” is the midpoint of the time of the second millennia and the midpoint of the time 1860 to 2004. These were times of watersheds in the history of the nations. Likewise Revelation uses the words “outer court “ in relation to the “outer court” of the “three days and a half” of the second millennium as well as the “outer court” of the entire two periods of “three days and a half” of the entire two millennia that is the time after 22 February 2005.
Rev 11:10 “And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”
Note the repetition of the words “they that dwell upon the earth” and “them that dwelt on earth” in Rev 11:10. This repetition seems to show that among those that “dwell on earth” are at the end time both “witnesses” (those filled with the Holy Spirit) who will rejoice in the heritage of the Christian faith that endured and those that are ‘tormented’ by the strength of the Christian faith.
Christmas time
The words, “rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts to one another”, seems clearly to relate to the way that the inhabitants of the earth celebrate the coming of the Christ at Christmas time. As we near the end time, “two witnesses”, also represent the power of the Holy Spirit that gives Christians the insight into understanding the signs of the end and they are filled with rejoicing at a time that the influence of Satan seems to overtake the nations.
Note that the great earthquake, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004 happened at Christmas time.