FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
February 13, 2015
Nathaniel Fajardo
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER TWO – Part XXIII
ATHEISTICAL FRANCE’S WAR AGAINST THE TWO WITNESSES – Part IV
And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed with sackcloth. Rev. 11: 3, K.J.V.
We are counseled: “Let all who would understand the meaning of these things read the eleventh chapter of Revelation. Read every verse, and learn the things that are yet to take place in the cities. Read also the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter of the same book.” – E. G. White, Last Day Events, p. 95 (15MR 18, May 10, 1906).
France’s Place in Prophecy. The beast of chapter 13 and 17 had ten horns each. France was: one of the ten toes of the great image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream recorded in Daniel 2; one of the ten parts of the Western Roman Empire; one of the ten horns of the fourth terrible and exceedingly strong beast of Daniel 7: 7; one of the ten horns of the red dragon of Rev. 12: 3. In verse 9 this dragon is identified as “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.” “The dragon is said to be Satan; he it was that moved upon Herod to put the Savior to death. But the chief agent of Satan in making war upon Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian Era, was the Roman empire, in which paganism was the prevailing religion. Thus while the dragon, primarily, represents Satan, it is, in a secondary sense, a symbol of pagan Rome.”- Ibid, Great Controversy (1911), p. 438.
Red is the color used to describe this dragon because true church history reveals that in all his connections with the church of God, his role is that of a relentless persecutor and destroyer of the children of God on earth.
Another book I recommend to everyone seeking to understand the testing truths and end-time prophecies is the classic Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith. (Southern Publishing Association). In reckoning the “a thousand two hundred and three score days” mentioned in Rev. 11: 3, and the prophecies following, Smith says in pp. 533-535:
“The period of ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’ is variously referred to in Scriptures. It appears in three forms:
As 1260 days in this verse and Revelation 12: 6.
As 42 months in Revelation 11: 2 and 13: 5.
As 31/2 times in Daniel 7: 25 and 12: 7, and Revelation 12: 14.
“These all refer to the same period and can easily be calculated. A time is a year, as is evident in Daniel 11: 13, marginal reading. A year has twelve months, and a Biblical month contains 30 days. Thus we have the following:
1 year of 12 months at 30 days – – 360 days
3 1/2 years, or times, of 360 days – – 1260 days
42 months of 30 days – – 1260 days
“A year made of up of 12 months will readily be conceded, but that the month has 30 days perhaps need to be demonstrated. This can readily be seen by referring to the record of the flood In Genesis 7 and 8. There we learn the following:
1. The flood came on the seventeenth day of the second month (Gen. 7: 11).
2. That the water subsided on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. (Gen. 8: 4).
3. That the flood continued for 5 months—from the second to the seventh month.
“Reference to Genesis 7: 24 reveals the fact that ‘the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.’ Our calculation showed five months. This text mentions 150 days; hence we have five months equaling 150 days, or 30 days to a month. Thus we have a definite measure for calculating the prophetic periods, bearing in mind that in prophecy a day is equal to a year of ordinary time.
The Two Witnesses in Sackcloth. — “During this time of 1260 years the witnesses are in a state of sackcloth, or obscurity, and God gives them power to endure and maintain their testimony through that dark and dismal period. But who or what are these witnesses [as a matter of review for emphasis sake]?
Revelation 11: 4. “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”
“Evident allusion is here made to Zechariah 4: 11-14, where it is implied that the two olive trees are taken to represent the word of God. David testifies, ‘The entrance of Thy words giveth light;’ and, ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.’ Psalm 119: 130, 105. Written testimony is stronger than oral. Jesus declared of the Old Testament, ‘They are they which testify of Me.’ John 5: 39. Says George Croly: ‘The Two Witnesses are the Old and New Testaments. . . . The essential purpose of the Scriptures is to give witness to the mercy and verity of God. Our Lord commands, ‘Search the Scriptures, . . . . they are they which testify (bear witness) of Me.’ This was addressed to the Jews, and described the character and office of the of the Old Testament. The New Testament is similarly pronounced the giver of testimony. ‘This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.’ (Matt. 24: 14).” – George Croly, The Apocalypse of St. John, p. 164.
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.
“To hurt the word of God is to oppose, corrupt, or pervert its testimony, and turn people away from it. Against those who do this work [may none of us ever be found guilty of any of these!], fire proceedeth out of their mouth to devour them, that is, judgment of fire is pronounced in that word against such. It declares that they will have their punishment in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. (Malachi 4: 1; Rev. 20: 15; 22: 18, 19).
Revelation 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.”
“In what sense have these witnesses power to shut heaven, turn waters to blood, and bring plagues on the earth? Elijah shut heaven so that it did not rain for three years and a half, but he did it by the word of the Lord. [1 Kings 17; James 5: 17 ]. Moses by the word of the Lord turned the waters of Egypt into blood [Exo. 7: 17-25]. Just as these judgments, recorded in their testimony, have been fulfilled, so will every threatening and judgment pronounced by them against any people surely be accomplished. ‘As often as they will’ means that as often as judgments are recorded on their pages to take place, so often they will come to pass. An instance of this the world is yet to experience in the infliction of the seven last plagues.”- U. Smith, Daniel & the Revelation, p 535.
NOTE: The seven last plagues will be similar to Egypt’s 10 plagues. – “When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark (Rev. 14: 9, 10) will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel, were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God’s people [i.e., those alive at that time after the close of probation, Rev. 7: 1-8; 14: 1-5].”- Great Controversy, pp. 627-8.
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. Verse 8: 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.
“When they shall have finished their testimony,’ that is, ‘in sackcloth. The sackcloth state ended, or as elsewhere expressed the days of persecution were shortened (Matthew 24: 22), before the period expired. ‘A ‘beast’ in prophecy denotes a kingdom, or power. (See Daniel 7: 17, 23.) The question now arises, When did the sackcloth state of the [two] witnesses close? And did such a kingdom as described make war on them at the time spoken of? If we are correct in fixing A.D. 538 as the time of the commencement of the sackcloth state, forty-two months being 1260 prophetic days, or years, would bring us down to A.D. 1798.
About this time, then, did such a kingdom as described appear, and make war on them, etc? Mark! This beast, or kingdom, is out of the bottomless pit—no foundation—an atheistical power—‘spiritually Egypt.’ (See Exodus 5: 2.) Here is atheism. Did any kingdom, about 1798 manifest the same spirit?—Yes, France ; she denied the being of God in her national capacity, and made war on the ‘Monarchy of heaven.’ –George Storrs, Midnight Cry, May 4, 1843, Vol. IV, Nos. 5, 6, p. 47.”
“When reading the Bible with a humble and teachable heart, we are holding intercourse with God Himself. The thoughts expressed, the precepts specified, the doctrines revealed, are a voice from God of heaven. The Bible will bear to be studied, and the mind, if not bewitched by Satan, will be attracted and charmed. The light which beams from the Scriptures is light from the eternal throne flashed down to this earth.”- E. G. White, That I May Know Him, p. 196. (To be continued next week)