Rev P1: The Divisions of Revelation

[MrBebe]

Good day to all,

Here is another series of topics and this time, it's about the book of Revelation. Please bear with the poor English of the poster.

It is said that the book of Revelation is the hardest to understand book of the Bible. Every vision in it is portrayed in a highly symbolic way. Add to this thing the fact that there are obscure sections whose starting or ending parts are not clear. This topic will try to show the starting and ending parts of these sections. Only the obscure sections are what will be discussed in this topic. In case the reader would like to see all the sections of the book according to the understanding of the writer of this article, the page is just a click or tap away: Tables of Sections of Revelation

Let’s have the Seven Seals which includes the Seven Trumpets as our “Main Timeline Reference” or “MTR.”

The Fourth Section or Hidden Seals Section​

The Lamb and the 144,000

(Rev 14:1 NIV) Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
(Rev 14:2 NIV) And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
(Rev 14:3 NIV) And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
(Rev 14:4 NIV) These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.
(Rev 14:5 NIV) No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.​

As the author understands it, there is no connection contextually between this vision and the immediate preceding one – the vision of the beast which has two horns like a lamb and which speaks like a dragon.

Here, we will see the Lamb with the 144,000 Israelites that had already been sealed up with His name and His Father’s name on their foreheads. From what time setting this sealing was? It was on the Sixth Seal! See Revelation 7:3-4.

In verse 3, a new song was mentioned but its wordings are not written. Some people say this new song is the new song sung by the 4 Living Creatures and the 24 Elders in Revelation 5:9-10. Here is their song:

(Rev 5:9 NIV) And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
(Rev 5:10 NIV) You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”​

Let’s envisage that this song is part of the vision we are discussing. Look at the first part of verse 9 – the underlined one. It is giving us a hint that this subsection is a (re)opening of a seal by our Lord Yeshua.

(Rev 14:3 NIV) And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.​

No one could learn the song except the 144,000 and they could have learned the song from the 4 Living Creatures and the 24 Elders who are just in front of them. The last sentence in the verse could be a visionally time related information. No one would be able to sing the song before the Sixth Seal except, of course, before the First Seal. That means, no seal of the scroll would be reopened except the seals that these 144,000 inhabit which are the 6th and the 7th seals.

The “new song” being sung in this vision, implies that this vision is the 6th Seal reopened. In the vision of the 6th Seal in Chapter 7, the groups of people that are portrayed are the 144,000 and the great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language. In the 1st vision of Chapter 14 (reopened 6th Seal), the group of 144,000 is also portrayed and in their song – the saints from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

What we are going to do next is to study the other subsections of this part of the book and compare them to the Main Timeline Reference.

The Messages of the Three Angels

The First Angel

(Rev 14:6 NIV) Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth — to every nation, tribe, language and people.
(Rev 14:7 NIV) He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”​

Notice verse 7 …Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” These are symbolic hints. Let’s compare them with the “first part” of the Seven Trumpets (1st Trump up to the 4th) of the Main Timeline Reference (Revelation 8:7-12), the events that occur after the 6th Seal.

Earth: 1st Trumpet
Sea: 2nd Trumpet
Springs of water: 3rd Trumpet
Heaven: 4th Trumpet​

The comparison now has moved from the Sixth Seal to the Seventh Seal on the Main Timeline Reference (MTR). (The 7th Seal contains within itself the 7 Trumpets.)

The Second Angel

(Rev 14:8 NIV) A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”​

Who is responsible for the prostitute’s downfall?

(Rev 17:16 NIV) The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.​

Now read the verse below:

(Rev 17:12 KJV) And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.​

This verse tells that the ten kings (horns) together with the beast will have authority for one hour. This one hour could be the one hour mentioned in Rev 18:10, 17, and 19 about the judgment and destruction of Babylon the Great. The literal duration of this time is too short for those events. If one will expand this one hour using the 360-day prophetic year, 360 divided by 24, the result will be 15 days. That is still a very short time. Look at the following passage:

(Rev 17:9 NIV) “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.
(Rev 17:10 NIV) They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while.​

Aren’t these shortnesses of time a very strong indication that when the angel of Rev 14:8 announces “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great…” it is also declaring that the beast has just come out recently?

Let’s now find the location of the coming out of the beast from our MTR. We are now somewhere on the first part of the Trumpets (from the 1st to the 4th Trumpet). There is no mention of “beast” here and that is because the symbolism used here is different. The imagery (not image) of beasts in Daniel and here in Revelation is one kind of symbolism that is used to represent kingdoms or empires. The other imagery that is also used to represent kingdom or empire is “mountain.” And we will find that on the Second Trumpet:

(Rev 8:8 KJV) And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;​

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[MrBebe]

The Third Angel

Rev 14:9-13 LITV
(9) And a third angel followed them, saying in a great voice, If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or in his hand,
(10) he also shall drink of the wine of the anger of God having been mixed undiluted in the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented by fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
(11) And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And those worshiping the beast and its image have no rest night and day, even if anyone receives the mark of its name.
(12) Here is the patience of the saints; here are the ones keeping the commands of God, and the faith of Jesus.
(13) And I heard a voice out of Heaven saying to me, Write: Blessed are the dead, the ones dying in the Lord from now. Yes, says the Spirit, they shall rest from their labors, and their works follow with them.​

The warnings of the third angel in verses 9 give us a hint that the false prophet has already arrived at the world scene. Compare it with the Main Timeline Reference:

Rev 8:10-12 KJV
(10) And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
(11) And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
(12) And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.​

Doesn’t a star denote a saint or a prophet (Dan 12:3)? Isn’t our Lord Yeshua the Light or Lamp of the world? Aren’t the truths of God and His Gospels the Living Water that runs through these rivers and springs of water (see John 4:14, 7:38)? Doesn’t Rev 8:10 say there will be a saint or a prophet who will act like our Messiah and will strongly influence the world’s religious teachings? This prophet is a false one or will become one. Isn’t this the False Prophet we are referring to that has already arrived in the Message of the 3rd Angel? He will twist the teachings and truths of our Lord God and will cause religious persecutions/martyrdoms. (This is not the Great Tribulation or part of it.) Those persecutions/martyrdoms are mentioned in Rev 13:10 and 15 and those are what the souls under the altar in the 5th Seal are told to wait for (Rev 6:9-11).

Now here’s a question that must be considered. It is the reason why the 4th Trumpet is included in the last passage presented above. Where does the “final” persecution belong:

1) in the 3rd Trumpet where there’s a phrase that says “many people died” or
2) in the 4th Trumpet where the symbolic smiting and darkening of the sun, the moon, and the stars by a third occurs?​

This question, together with the fact that the receiving of the mark of the beast was mentioned in Rev 14 verses 9 and 11 is the reason why we are not going to limit the corresponding time frame of the “Message of the Third Angel” to the 3rd Trumpet only. Maybe, it will be better if we temporarily leave this topic now but we will make a reminder that look like this:

////////////////////////// REMINDERS ///////////////////////////////
1) In what Trumpet does the final persecution/martyrdom belong?
/////////////////////// END OF REMINDERS /////////////////////////

That will be easy to recognize.

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[MrBebe]

The 2nd Harvest

Rev 14:17-20 ESV
(17) Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
(18) And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”
(19) So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
(20) And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.​

This “harvest” is about the wrath of God which is figuratively likened to a great winepress. The wrath of God doesn’t stop in this vision; it ends with the seven last plagues of the very next vision:

(Rev 15:1 RV) And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God.​

This wrath of God is portrayed in the 6th Seal as looming.

Rev 6:15-17 Murdock
(15) And the kings of the earth, and the nobles, and the captains of thousands, and the rich men, and the men of valor, and every servant and free man, hid themselves in caves, and in the clefts of the mountains;
(16) and they said to the mountains and to the clefts, Fall over us, and hide us from the face of him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
(17) For the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?​

The great day of their wrath has arrived but…

Rev 7:1-3 Murdock
(1) And after these things I saw four angels, who stood on the four corners of the earth; and they held the four winds of the earth, so that the wind blew not on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on the trees.
(2) And I saw another angel, and he came up from the rising of the sun; and he had the seal of the living God; and he called out, with a loud voice, to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying:
(3) Hurt ye not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we shall have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads. ​

The four angels who were given authority to hurt the earth and the sea (wrath of God) are told what they should not do until the servants of God are sealed upon their foreheads but the passage that follows after the 6th Seal says:

Rev 8:6-7 KJV
(6) And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
(7) The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.​

Does v7 mean that the wrath of God had started at the 1st Trumpet? NO! the group of angels who were told not to hurt the earth, the sea, and the trees are the four angels of the 6th Seal and not the seven angels of the Seven Trumpets. The four angels of the 6th Seal are said to be the four angels in the 6th Trumpet:

Rev 9:13-15 KJV
(13) And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
(14) Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angelswhich are bound in the great river Euphrates.
(15) And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.​

They were held ready for the time indicated in verse 15, to execute the wrath of God? The fire, smoke, and sulfur that will kill a third of men were called “plagues.” Are these plagues the first three plagues in connection with the seven last plagues? Does this vision correspond to the vision of the 2nd Harvest? Let’s go back to that vision.

1600 stadia represent the symbolic quantity of blood of those slain at the winepress of the wrath of God. Let’s do some “experimental” computations with this number. A verse (Revelation 9:15) from the Sixth Trumpet of our Main Timeline Reference says that a third of men were to be killed. So, let’s multiply the number 1600 by 3 and we’ll get 4800. Divide 4800 by 4 (the number of the angels of Revelation 9:15) and the quotient will be 1200. Each of the four angels in the 6th Seal will have 1200 stadia. Does that make sense in view of the symbolic numbers used in the sealing of the 12000 times 12 set aside people? As for the author, it does make sense. But 1200 stadia is the maximum that each of them could have. One third is meant in the 6th Trumpet, so, each of them would only have 400 stadia.

The wrath of God that the symbolic four angels (6th Seal) were going to execute doesn’t end in the vision of the 2nd Harvest; it ends in the vision of the Seven Last Plagues which immediately follows it. That would probably mean that the remaining two thirds will also be killed in the vision of the Seven Last Plagues who are hinted to be:

Rev 9:20-21 KJV
(20) And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
(21) Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.​

These men are those who are portrayed as unrepentant. The three plagues are past but there remain seven more plagues which are the last.

The wrath of God which the four angels are to execute consists of, perhaps, ten plagues in all. (The same number of plagues poured out in Egypt at the time of Moses and Aaron.) These things would make us infer that the treading of the winepress of the wrath of God in the 2nd Harvest (Revelation 14:20) and the killing of a third of men in the 6th Trumpet (Revelation 9:15) depict the same event. We will discuss some more of these things when we arrived at the topic “The Two Myriads of Myriads Horsemen.”

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[MrBebe]

The Seven Last Plagues

Some say that these seven last plagues belong to the Seventh Trumpet. The following verse from the Sixth Bowl (itself) will prove that wrong.

(Rev 16:15 LITV) Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is the one watching and keeping his garments, that he does not walk naked, and they may see his shame.​

Our Lord Yeshua has not yet arrived at this point in time! Let’s have this verse as our marker which we will call “Marker-A.” According to Mat 24:30-31, the Lord’s coming will be just before the 7th Trumpet is to be sounded. So, all the preceding plagues including the part of the 6th Bowl prior to Marker-A are all BEFORE the 7th Trumpet.

Can the plagues and events before Marker-A be referenced from any trumpet earlier than the 7th one? Read this verse from the Sixth Trumpet about the two witnesses.

(Rev 11:6 LITV) These have the authority to shut up the heaven, that no rain may rain in the days of their prophecy. And they have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.​

Compare it to the following verses:

(Rev 16:3 LITV) And the second angel poured out his bowl onto the sea. And it became blood, as of a dead one, and every soul of life died in the sea.
(Rev 16:4 LITV) And the third angel poured out his bowl onto the rivers, and onto the springs of the waters; and it became blood.​

…to strike the earth with every plague, AS OFTEN AS THEY DESIRE. This could mean the frequency of a particular redoable plague or plagues.

From now on we will also call this Fourth Section the “Hidden Seals Section” for a faster recall of what it constitutes and represents.

The Fifth Section​

Finding the starting part of this section is not a problem but its ending part is not easy to locate. Even the people who divided every book of the Bible into chapters and verses seem to have made a mistake in locating the ending part of this section. They extended chapter 19 to include verses 11 to 21, believing that the vision of the Rider on the White Horse (v11 to v21) is part of this section that starts in chapter 17.

In the last part of this section (according to the author’s understanding), there’s a passage that when compared to another passage from the 7th Section will tell us that the vision of the Rider of the White Horse is not part or continuation of this section.

Here’s the passage from this section:

(Rev 19:6 NIV) Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
(Rev 19:7 NIV) Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.​

The passage from the 7th Section:

(Rev 21:1 NIV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
(Rev 21:2 NIV) I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.​

In the first passage, it says that the Lord is already reigning and the time of the wedding of the Lamb and His Bride has come. In the second passage, it states that at the time of the wedding, the first heaven and the first earth had already passed away and the sea is no more. So the vision of the Rider of the White Horse clearly belongs to another section because the first heaven and the first earth and the sea still exist literally and figuratively during the time setting of that vision. The Beast is still in its place, the figurative “sea,” and the physical heaven and earth are obviously existing too. (The writer believes that the sun, moon, and stars are figurative in the context of Rev 21:1-2.) Moreover, the vision of the Rider of the White Horse does not agree with this section’s theme, instead, that subsection, together with the others following it, up to “The Great White Throne” have their own theme (Wars and Judgments) and forms another section.

The Sixth Section​

Rev 19:11-21 KJV

(11) And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
(12) His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
(13) And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
(14) And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
(15) And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
(16) And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.​

This is the 1st vision of the Sixth Section. There is something very surprising in here that will be shown and explained in the topics: Linkable Sections and The Man of Revelation 13:18. It can be proven that this section is not the contextual continuation of the Fifth Section.

Next Topic:
The Locust Army (5th Trumpet)

 

[Jay Ross]

@MrBebe: - Is there a link to the original web page where this article was first published?

 

[DPMartin]

@MrBebe: - Is there a link to the original web page where this article was first published?

agreed what's next, all of the book of revelations?

 

[Richard_oti]

@MrBebe: - Is there a link to the original web page where this article was first published?

Copy a sentence and search it in quotation marks. That will turn up any exact matches. The sentence I C&P turned up three exact matches from three pages all at Johanansel: This is a one of the links

Song of the 144000 | Student of the Light

One was dated July 2012.

 

[MrBebe]

@MrBebe: - Is there a link to the original web page where this article was first published?

Yes, here it is: Revelation And Its Mysteries
The short article Song of the 144000 is just a part of Revelation and Its Mysteries which is still a work in progress.