As one writer said (and I say “Amen” to this), “No one can be true to the divine revelation who does not combine the bitter and the sweet.” These are the two aspects in the Will of God. AND there are many people, in fact, most people, who are, and would be, content with the sweetness and leave the bitter alone. They don’t want to be reminded that we can fall from grace. There is much of this type of preaching, the sweetness part, that goes on, even within the Lord’s church, because people want to feel good; people want to come to feel good, and these weekly periods of admonishment and edification are to be avoided. People don’t want to hear about hell; people don’t hear about sin; people don’t to hear the bitter. They want to hear the sweet; they want to hear about the love and the mercy and the grace. But there are two aspects to the Word of God. And so, we hear from this pulpit both the sweet and the bitter—balancing those two things.

We will begin Revelation, chapter 11. By the way, if you’ve been reading this chapter and have a good handle on what it means, then, I’ll give way to you and let you teach this class tonight, because I think virtually every commentator that I read was not consistent in his understanding and interpretation of this chapter, but they were consistent in saying that this is the hardest chapter in the entire book of Revelation. It, indeed, is a difficult chapter, and it does continue to puzzle many of the scholars, many of the good students of the Bible.

You know, there are any number of approaches that have been taken by scholars on this. As a matter of fact, I had considered sharing with you three major approaches, three major schools of thought, in looking at this chapter. I actually had them as part of my notes, not as part of your outline, but as part of my notes, and I was going to share those with you, but as I was trying to “eat my little book,” as I was trying to “masticate” that, it was so confusing to me that I said, “Well, how can I share these approaches with you if I don’t understand what they are myself?” I won’t share these varying approaches with you. There are plenty of references that I could suggest to you, where you could go and read about those approaches if you desire—like the preterit and futurist and so on. We’ll leave that for another day.

What we recognize, and the approach that I want to take, is the approach that we’ve take throughout the entire study of Revelation and that is, first of all we have to recognize that we ought not to be too awfully dogmatic about some of these things. They are difficult to understand, perhaps, but moreover, there is room in the interpretation of some of these things for some varying thoughts, as long as they don’t too far afield. What we want to keep in mind in the approach that we make is that we are not going to take a literal view of these things, as we have not taken a literal view of the other things that we’ve looked at so far. These are not literal; they are, in fact, figurative; they are not necessarily tied to specific events—world events, dates, and so on.

For example, one of these approaches suggests that what John has in view here is the actual destruction of Jerusalem. Well, that does two things. First of all, one has to take a much earlier view, then, of the writing of this book. We had decided in our introduction to the book that we looking at the writing of the book being somewhere in the middle 90’s. And if one takes the approach that what John has in view here is the destruction of Jerusalem and that when he is writing the book this destruction is yet in the future, then that moves the writing of the book of Revelation to sometime before AD 70. Well, I don’t think that that is consistent with our understanding of the book.

There are other approaches, one of whom I read that I was quite interested in—as a matter of fact, he’s a member of the church, and I don’t say that to hold him up to ridicule; as I said, this may be an example of what I’m talking about when I say that there is room here for some varied ideas, but he was looking at the events in chapter 11 specifically having to do with the Roman Catholic church—the rise of the Roman church and it’s role in the apostasy of the [Lord’s one] church, going back to the 590’s, or thereabouts. For example, he suggested that the “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” [1260 days], or, the “forty-two months” [30 days x 42 months = 1260 days] (both are listed in chapter 11), represented years and that that was the period of time between the apostasy of the [Lord’s] church in 593, whenever that was, and the beginning of the Reformation in about 1795, and that the period in between is the period of the French Revolution and on and on. Well, that was pretty interesting stuff, but again, I’m not sure that’s consistent with the approach that we’re taking here.

What we will see in Revelation, chapter 11, is another vision, another view, that John has of the people of God in the latter part of the 1^st Century, the people of God in the 2^nd, the 3^rd, the 5^th, the 12^th, the 21^st Century, [meaning, in every Century], being protected, being cared for, as they live in the midst of a wicked generation. I think that is what we are going to see, then, as we move through this study. And again, these visions are not specifically tied to world events, not specifically tied to any dates; the Message is, in fact, ageless, timeless, in its approach. Let’s go ahead and look at the first fourteen verses of chapter 11:

A Reading of Revelation 11:1-14

“Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’

4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. 5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. 6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.

7 When they finish their Testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

11 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. 13 In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.”