Beginning with chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation we find the Apostle John, in spirit, being put forward in time to the final 3 1/2 years of the world’s final era–the “last end of the (God’s) indignation.”  The Lord has been at odds with mankind in general and the church in particular for some 1700 years.  His wrath has continued to build throughout those years and will culminate in the not too distant future.  John’s vision reveals that this final period will be divided into two parts.  The first 2 1/2 years of the “last end” is called the “Great Tribulation.”  This will be a time when Satan will be allowed to display his hatred for mankind by punishing his subjects with all manner of pain and terror.  The final year of the period is called the “Day of the Lord.”  This “day” (year), also called “the day of His (God’s) wrath” (Rev. 6:17), will be many times more disasterous for sinning mankind than the Great Tribulation.  During this year God will pour out His wrath on those who, having refused to obey His law, had lived in sin (1 Jn. 3:4).  Billions of these people will have been church members.  Revelation 11:12-16 describes the horror that the “great and terrible Day of the Lord” that Law-breakers will endure at the hands of the Almighty will be exceptionally horrific.  Throughout the previous centuries He had sent warning after warning in the form of wars, disease epidemics, sickness, floods, droughts, famine, financial downturns, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. as love-generated wake-up calls to sinning man, but to no avail.  In the end, only a minutely few people–God’s Very Elect saints–will have believed His Word and obeyed it (Mat. 7:13,14).  Those living in the latter days will be saved from the terror because of their strict obedience to His Law.

Prior to the beginning of the Tribulation/Lord’s Day period the Lord will have taken His true saints to an area called “her place” where He will provide for and protect them while the world around them convulses in pain and horror (Rev. 12:14).  This will be a time of global chaos, destruction and terror the likes of which the world has never experienced (Rev. 12:12:6, 14).  As Jesus warned in Matthew 24:21,22, “… then will be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever will be.  And if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved (alive).”  All of the combined problems the world has experienced since creation week will not compare to what is about to come upon sinning mankind.

Revelation 13 reveals that two powerful entities will arise during those days and will quickly subjugate the people of the world to their rule.  One of these powers is called “the Beast” which will be a union of 10 nations or groups of nations that will combine their governmental, military and financial assets to form history’s most lethal war-making force.  This government will be controlled and empowered by Satan (Rev. 13:2).  The other all-powerful entity that will arise during this time is called the “False Prophet.”  This religious leader will work with the Beast to force all people on earth into a global religious body Biblically known as “the Great Whore” (Chapters 13,17).  This religious organization will include the Institutional Church.  The Great Whore and her harlot daughters (Rev. 17:1-5) will consist of what is today known as the Catholic and Protestant church systems respectively.  See The Ingathering: The Rise of the End-time Church.  These two powerful entities–the Beast and the False Prophet–will rule the world’s masses with an iron fist.  There will be one exception to their control–God’s saints who will be protected in their place of safety which I believe to be a mountain range known as Petra (“large rock”) located near the Holy Land in the nation of Jordan.  I have been there and have seen its numerous caverns in which people could live comfortably.  Petra is a beautiful mountain fortress with only one way in and out.  From atop the highest mountain one can see into the Holy Land.  We are told in Jeremiah 3:18 that when man’s rule of the earth is over, God’s people (spiritual Israel–keepers of the Law) will WALK TO THE PROMISED LAND.   From Petra this journey would take less than a day.  At some point the Beast’s army, directed by the Serpent/Satan will try to kill God’s people.  They will fail as God causes the earth to open up and swallow the pursuing army (Rev. 12:16).  This will be reminiscent of His destruction of the Egyptian Army in the Red Sea.  When studying Revelation remember that John is in the spirit and the things he sees are symbolic representations of what will take place at the time of the end.

As if the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, the beast, the false prophet, the Great Whore and her Harlot Daughters will not be enough for the beleaguered minions of earth to endure, the Lord will send two men who will create additional suffering with their sword-like words and their deadly acts of power which no one, not even the Beast and the False Prophet can stop.  Though the Lord does not directly reveal the identities of the two men, He does, however, tell us what they will do to the people of the earth over the 3 1/2 years when the Lord expresses His indignation.  He calls His final messengers to mankind His “witnesses” (Rev/ 11:3).  What they will bear witness to is made clear by Jesus in Matthew 24:14: “And this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM will be preached in all the world as a WITNESS to all nations, and then the end will come.”  In John 18:37 Jesus proclaimed that He had come to BEAR WITNESS UNTO THE TRUTH.  In John 17:17 He declared that HIS FATHER’S WORD IS TRUTH.  GOD’S WORD IS THE TRUTH TO WHICH HIS TWO WITNESSES WILL BEAR WITNESS during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord..  The Lord calls His Truth His GOSPEL–the good news about the coming Kingdom of God.  L.J.