REVELATION 11

THE TIME OF THE END

11:1. And there was given me.-The John class in the Time of the End.

A reed like unto a rod.-The Lord's Word is both a rod to lean upon, (Isa. 11:4) and a reed with which to measure. (Jer. 1:11-12). The word here rendered "rod" is rendered "staff" in Matt 10:10; Heb. 11:21.

[And the angel stood, saying], HE SAITH.-It is the "reed" or "rod" itself, the Divine Word, that does the saying. Rise. "At the exact 'time appointed,' 1799, the end of the 1260 days, the power of the Man of Sin, the great oppressor of the Church, was broken, and his dominion taken away. With one stroke of His mighty hand, God there struck off Zion's fetters, and bade the oppressed go free. And forth came, and are coming, the 'Sanctuary' class, the 'holy people,' weak, and halt, and lame, and almost naked, and blind, from the dungeon darkness and filth and misery of papal bondage. Poor souls! they had been trying to serve God faithfully in the very midst of the lurid flames of persecution, clinging to the cross of Christ when almost every other truth had been swept away, and courageously endeavoring to emancipate God's "Two Witnesses' (the Old and New Testaments), which had so long been bound, and which had prophesied only under the sackcloth of dead languages.”—C 122.

And measure the Temple of God.-"That symbolic Temple which is The Christ." (T 70.) "The mention of worshippers proves that the measuring is symbolical. Το 'measure' is to separate for sacred purposes; what is excluded from the measurement is, accordingly, more or less mingled with evil. Hence, in this place, what is measured -the true believer typified-is to be exempted from the judgments in which what is not measured (ver. 2) is involved. (Cook). "If the direction be understood figuratively, as applicable to the Christian Church, the work to be done would be to obtain an exact estimate or measurement of what the true Church was-as distinguished from all other bodies of men, and as constituted, and appointed, by the direction of God; such a measurement that its characteristics could be made known; that a church could be organized according to this, and that the accurate de

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scription could be transmitted to future times.” (Barnes.)— Ezek. 40:3; Rev. 21:15.

And the altar.-The Golden Altar, within the "Holy", the true Church, as sacrificers.-Ex. 30:1-10.

And them that worship therein.-The several volumes of Scripture Studies and the booklet Tabernacle Shadows are devoted to the "measurements" herein prophesied.

11:2. But the court which is [without] WITHIN the Temple leave out. The court here represents the same thing as is represented in the Court of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the condition of progression toward complete justification.

And measure it not.-Devote all attention to the higher privileges of the "Holy". The "Court" was merely provided as a proper approach to the "Holy". Acceptance of Christ as one's Savior, appreciation of His work at Calvary, and washing one's self in the water of the Word as represented respectively by the First Gate, Brazen Altar, and Laver of the "Court" are not the things to which we are particularly invited; but consecration to God's will, illumination by His Spirit, appropriation of His promises and sacrifice of our all, acceptable to the Father through our great High Priest, represented respectively by the Second Gate or Door, the Candlestick, Table of Shewbread and Golden Altar of the "Holy", are the things to which we were called: so that we might pass the Third Gate or Veil, actual death of the body, and finally become a part of The Christ, represented by the Ark of the Covenant, of which our Father is the Head.

For it is given ALSO unto the Gentiles.-With the deliverance of the Little Flock, the condition represented by the "Holy" ceases. This leaves the Great Company still in the "Court" and the special objects of Gentile wrath as their kingdoms fall into ruin. "Being denied the liberty accorded to the Priests, these will have merely the standing of justification, which, if they maintain, will constitute them worthy of eternal life. But that life will not be human life, because they gave that up in order to become Priests. Their failure puts them out of the Holy condition back into the Court condition." (Z.'11-22.)

"After the establishment of Messiah's Kingdom, this distinction between the Church proper, joint-heirs with Christ, and the larger company of antitypical Levites, will be perpetual, and the services of the two will be different. The former will be a Priesthood corresponding to that of Melchizedek-a Priest upon His Throne. The work of the latter will correspond more to that accomplished by the Levites; namely, teaching the people, etc., as serv

ants of the Priests, from whom they will receive their directions."-Z.'14-79.

And the Holy City.-The embryo Kingdom of God.

Shall they tread under foot.-"The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."Matt. 11:12.

Forty and two months.-1260 years from papacy's establishment as a temporal power, 539 A. D. to 1799 A. D.— B 91, 310; C 50, 64; Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5; Jas. 5:17.

11:3. And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses."The Lord refers to the Old and New Testament Scriptures, and faithfully they have borne their testimony to every nation."-D 258.

And they shall prophesy.-Teach.

A thousand, two hundred and three score days.-1260 years, from A. D. 539 to 1799.

Clothed in sackcloth.-"Kept covered in dead languages."-C 50.

11:4. These are the Two Olive Trees.-Sources of the oil, the holy Spirit.-Zech. 4:1-6; Rom. 11:17.

And the Two Candlesticks.-" "The light of the world, during all the darkness of the past.”—D652.

Standing before the [God] LORD of the earth.-Jehovah. "The earth is the Lord's."-Psa. 24:1.

11:5. And if any man will hurt them.-"And if any man desireth to hurt them. The present tense here points to the continued enmity of the world to the Church, during the entire course of the Witnesses' testimony."-Cook.

Fire proceedeth out of their mouth. "I will make My words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them."-Jer. 5:14.

And devoureth their enemies.-"History supplies the illustrations-the fire that consumed the opponents of Moses (Num. 16:28, 35), and that which came down at the word of Elijah. (2 Kings 1:10, 12)"—Cook.

And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. "Therefore have I hewed them by the Prophets; and I have slain them by the words of My mouth."-Hos. 6:5.

11:6. These have power to shut heaven.-The literal heavens and the spiritual heavens.-1 Ki. 17:1.

That it rain not.-That there be no literal showers, or spiritual showers of blessings.

In the days of their prophecy.-Literally in the three and one half years in Elijah's day in which there was no rain (James 5:17) and spiritually in the three and one half times, or 1260 years, from A. D. 539 to 1799 in which

the showers of blessing were withheld from the world.— Rev. 2:20.

And have power over waters.—Literal and symbolic.

To turn them into blood.-Literally as when Moses turned the waters of Egypt into blood (Exodus 7:21.) Symbolically during this Harvest time in which the Heavenly Harvest truths have become "bloody", repulsive, abhorrent, symbolizing death where they should be received as a blessing.-Z.'07-279.

[And] to smite the earth with all plagues.-Literal and symbolic.

As often as they will.-Literally in the plagues which Moses poured out upon the Egyptians (Exodus 7 to 11.) Symbolically in the spiritual plagues, the seven last upon Christendom.-Rev. 16.

11:7. And when they shall have finished their testl mony. In the dead languages, about the time of the end of papacy's power to persecute.

The beast that THEN ascendeth out of the [bottomless pit] ABYSS.-The government without a foundation; revolutionary France during the "Reign of Terror."

Shall make war against them.-"In 1793 a decree passed the French Assembly forbidding the Bible; and under that decree the Bibles were gathered and burned, every possi ble mark of contempt was heaped upon them."-Smith.

And shall overcome them, and kill them.-"All the institutions of the Bible were abolished; the weekly rest day was blotted out, and every tenth day substituted for mirth and profanity. Baptism and the communion were abolished. The being of God was denied, and death proclaimed an eternal sleep. The Goddess of Reason, in the person of a vile woman, was set up, and publicly worshipped."-Smith.

11:8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the streetFrance.

Of the great city-Christendom, the Old Roman Empire. -Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17:9, 18; 18:2, 10, 16, 18, 19, 21.

Which spiritually is called Sodom.-"Remember Lot's wife!' is our Lord's pointed warning. How intensely forceful it is as a caution to God's people here, in the close of the Gospel Age. When we learn that Babylon is doomed, and hear the Lord's message, 'Come out of her My people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues,' it is indeed like the voice of the messengers who hastened Lot and his family out of Sodom, saying, 'Stay not in all the plain; escape for thy life; escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed; look not behind thee.' (Gen. 19:17). Christendom is 'that great

city [Babylon] which spiritually is called Sodom.'"-D607, 608; Rev. 17:5; Isa. 1:9, 10; 3:8, 9; Jer. 23:14; Ezek. 16:48, 41.

And Egypt.-"Egypt is recognized as a symbol or type of the world of mankind, full of vain philosophies, but ignorant of the true Light."-C315; Ezek. 23:3, 4, 8, 27.

Where also [our] THE Lord was crucified.-Catholic France, through its connection with the papacy, is a part of the old Roman Empire, in another part of which our Lord was slain. In another aspect France is identified with the death of the Lord. Anything done to the least of one of the Lord's little ones is counted as done to Himself. When Saul of Tarsus persecuted the Lord's saints, the One who met him in the way said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." (Acts 9:4, 5; 22:7, 8; 26:14, 15.) A plot was laid in France to destroy all the Protestants; and on Aug. 24, 1572, sixty thousand were murdered, and the streets of Paris literally ran with blood. The Protestants were in Paris under a solemn oath of safety, to celebrate the marriage of the king of Navarre. Admiral Coligny, a Protestant of great ability and prominence, was basely murdered in his own house, and his head was sent to his holiness, the Pope, as proof that he was really dead. The "Holy Father of Fathers", the "Vicar of Christ", the "Chief Pastor and Teacher", was so pleased that "bells were rung, and guns were fired, bonfires were set ablaze; and Gregory XIII, attended by cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and a great throng of prelates, marched in procession. A Te Deum was chanted, and the Pope commissioned the painter Vasari to paint the scene of the massacre, and employed an artist to en-. grave a medal commemorative of the event. The preachers in Rome delivered eloquent orations, and a messenger carried a golden rose to Charles as a present from the Pope."-Coffin.

11:9. And they of the people.-The Protestant people. And kindreds and tongues and nations. Of other parts of Europe.

[Shall] see their dead [bodies] BODY.-"As if though silenced in death they continued witnesses still." (Cook.) Take note of the horrible effect upon France of their effort to exterminate the Scriptures. "The more deeply the French Revolution is considered, the more manifest is its preeminence above all the strange and terrible things that have come to pass on this earth. Every ancient institu tion and every time honored custom disappeared in a moment. The whole social and political system went down before the first stroke. Monarchy, nobility and