Part 2 here continues the series in prophetic subjects that I find are illogical and wrong. This is no attack on anyone who sees things differently (if they are supported biblically) but are matters that do concern me because I see error in the interpretations. In this Part 2, I am doing two Misconceptions only, and they continue from the previous three.
[MISCONCEPTION 4]. THE TWO FUTURE WITNESSES ARE MOSES AND ELIJAH.
We refer here to Revelation chapter 11, where God sends two witnesses exactly halfway through the Tribulation to perform their ministry right through the second half of three and a half years (42 months of “prophetic months” of 30 days each – 1,260 days).
Here is part of that account:
{{Revelation 11:3-6 “I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth(s) and devours their enemies, and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.”}} (NASB and throughout)
The ministry of these prophets is unique, for they are prophets of 100% judgment. Prophets of judgment will be fitting in the period they are assigned to. I do not need to recall all of the chapter 11 account but do wish to give this verse – {{Revelation 11:7 “When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.”}}
These two prophets pass through death and resurrection.
For 42 months, they were invincible, but then God withdraws their invulnerability, and they were overcome.
God did that because their ministry was complete, and He is calling them home. Mind you, they were already “home” before they came to earth. This means that only 3 people ever came directly from heaven to earth to minister for the LORD – the Lord Jesus and these two witnesses.
Now having looked at their work very briefly, we ask the question, “What are the identities of these men?” In the past, it was generally thought they would be Moses and Elijah, but in more recent times, more students of prophecy identify Enoch and Elijah. It was said to be Moses because of the expression, “The Law and the Prophets,” with Moses representing the Law, and Elijah, the Prophets – {{Matthew 7:12 “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”}}
That reason is so flawed and exegetically indefensible. You just cannot make quantum leaps like that. However, that is not the reason for rejecting Moses. This is the clear reason why we would reject Moses – {{Hebrews 9:27 “Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”}} Death is the appointment everyone has to keep because of sin (except the living who are raptured). Moses died, clearly written in the Bible. {{Deuteronomy 34:5-7 “Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor, but no man knows his burial place to this day. Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigour abated.”}}
It is appointed to men to die once, NOT TWICE. That just won’t happen, so Moses is absolutely ruled out as one of the witnesses of Revelation 11. Enoch is the only man in the history of the world who has never died, along with Elijah.
{{Genesis 5:23-24 “All the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”}} Because of sin, Enoch has an appointment to keep with death.
It is fitting that Enoch will be a prophet in the coming time, for like Elijah, he was a prophet of judgment – {{Jude 1:14-15 “About these also, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones Jude 1:15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'”}} (even though the quote comes from the apocryphal “Book of Enoch”). I love the use of “ungodly” in the above verse.
Some believe these prophets come at the beginning of the Tribulation, for the first half. There is even a thought that when Antichrist kills them, then he rises to power. That can’t be correct. The two witnesses are God’s final testimony to the world, and then the end comes. That will be enough. The two prophets will be Enoch and Elijah, not Moses and Elijah. End of the matter.
[MISCONCEPTION 5].
THE 200 MILLION FROM REVELATION 9 ARE EARTHLY SOLDIERS. To be frank, I do not know how anyone can confuse this matter, but it is confused and has been for ages because I once heard it in my teens and believed it then before I knew better. Let’s look into it.
It is commonly believed that these 200 million represent the soldiers from the east (kings of the east) in an invasion force, said to be Chinese or Asian. That is not correct, and people saying that need to look at the matter, and we will do that now. I hate for people to be misled, and there is no reason for it. We must be diligent and open the Bible and STUDY the relevant sections. I will quote the passage in full:
{{Revelation 9:13-19 “The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so that they might kill a third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.
“This is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the colour of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone, and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads and with them they do harm.”}}
This judgment plague comes from the sounding of the 6th trumpet. The judgments have been getting worse since the opening of the first seal, and if the wars all over the earth and famine and pestilences of the second, third, and fourth rider of the seal judgments were not bad enough, then we have this one here which is horrific.
Why is this great misconception of an eastern army of 200 million soldiers still being taught by people?
The first reason is a great confusion over the mention of “Euphrates.” In Revelation, the word Euphrates is used twice, here in verse 14 above and later on in {{Revelation 16:12 – “The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east.”}} The first Euphrates is a trumpet judgment, and the second is a bowl judgment. They are absolutely unrelated and have no connection to each other in time or substance. I will speak on that matter later.
There are 4 angels bound in the vicinity of the great Euphrates. They are there today, bound and waiting, and have been there for ages because of this wording, {{“who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year.”}} These are not good angels, for good angels are never bound. These are evil and powerful demonic beings, fallen angels, who are bound because they are too evil to be let loose in the world, so God has confined them in bonds.
When they are released, they will turn the world into chaos and terror more than any of these apocalyptic movies try to do. They will command 200 million demons bent on destroying mankind. Their mission, if it can be called that under the permissive hand of God, will result in the death of one-third of people on earth, that is, of one-third of those remaining, because it is possible at this stage in Revelation that maybe half the world’s population has already perished.
They are called armies of the horsemen because they are under the control of the 4 evil, strong demons as they go to war against people worldwide. In his vision, John describes them this way – {{Revelation 9:17 “This is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the colour of fire, and of hyacinth and of brimstone, and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.”}} (I have never seen a Chinaman spitting fire, smoke, and brimstone from his mouth!)
The demons had the form of horses and riders, which also fits the concept of a demonic army advancing. In the previous judgment in chapter 9, there is a somewhat similar vision of another demonic army where the description is this: {{Revelation 9:7 “The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.”}} The heads of locusts and horses are similar when you look carefully at them, and the idea of locusts goes back to Joel as they advanced in judgment upon Israel.
God used the locusts in Joel’s time; here, He uses locusts/horses, demonic and cruel.
The description of these demons in our passage noted the following:
(a). The riders had breastplates the colour of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone.
(b). The heads of the horses are like the heads of lions.
(c). Out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.
That description is apt because it is associated with the way they kill people – {{Revelation 9:18 “A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.”}}
The last verse in the description speaks of their tails. {{Revelation 9:19 “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”}} It says power is also in their tails that are like serpents but with heads, and they do harm with their tails also. These are horrible demons. No wonder God locked them away, and they will be released only for a short time. But in that short time, 200 million demons kill one-third of all mankind who still survive after all the preceding plagues. Just note, they killed all over the world and were not advancing towards Israel to battle God’s Jews. In other words, these have NOTHING to do with the kings of the east moving to Armageddon.
That is about all I want to say about these demons, so let us get back to the Euphrates. The first one we just did; the second one is where the Euphrates will dry up to allow passage for the kings of the east. {{Revelation 16:12 “The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east.”}}
This one is leading to Armageddon, for straight after that verse, we read {{Revelation 16:13-14, “I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.”}} That is when the whole world is summonsed for the great battle of their defeat.
I am sure it is most clearly seen that the 200 million are NOT Asian, or kings of the east, or soldiers but are the most vile demonic beings. I hope, too, that it can be seen the two references to the Euphrates River are absolutely disconnected. I cannot understand why people are misleading others in that matter. So many have died that there is no way an army of men of 200 million could be raised, and even if it happened, it would be logistically impossible to control and move and perform. No, by the time of Armageddon, the world’s population will be small.
Just to finish with, a careful reading of Revelation will reveal that a lot more than half the world’s population has perished; when you count chapter 16, it is even a whole lot more (in just two accounts, one-fourth perish, then one-third). By the time you come to Armageddon, the earth’s population is drastically smaller, very much weakened from all the plagues, so the armies are quite small and possibly not too well equipped.
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PRAYER THANKS
A few of you know I was to have an ear operation to correct a badly perforated eardrum that was causing all sorts of problems. It turned out to be major surgery that took the ENT specialist surgeon much longer than anticipated, as the whole middle ear was infected and scarred. It took a long time to clean all that (many washes and cutting the scar tissue), and then he cut a piece of bone away to deal with more infection behind the ear. Then he severed the eardrum, grafted a patch on the back of it (taken from the ear canal), and stitched the eardrum back into place.
He was happy with it, but it will be a time before I know the success. The graft-taking has an 80% chance of success. As for my hearing, that was almost gone; we wait and see, but the Lord is faithful. Thank you to those who knew about this and prayed. God bless you.
We had to drive 280 miles to a private hospital in Townsville because the local State-run hospital in my city would not do it – had no interest. That is just part of the collapse of our traditional values in society.
(Queensland Health is in utter crisis.)