Revelation

Chapter 8

At this point we have seen the first six seals opened, and immediately following the sixth seal the 144,000 of the 12 tribes of Israel are marked for God and for their ministry, followed by a vast multitude of people who are taken out of the tribulation, yet at this point I don't believe the Antichrist has been made King of the World.  I believe that after the event of the sixth seal he is made known, and does come into a great influence, and is speaking great things.  The antichrist will be seen as a great man and will be chosen to be the ruler of the world, either by diplomatic vote or general consensus of the people.  It does not does not seem logical that with all the differences in cultural views and differences in currencies, just to name a couple, that he would simply come into power immediately after the war.  This time of transition may only take a couple months, it may take 6 months, or even a year, but I doubt that it would take a full year.  Stability on earth must be reached without God, this means by a governing body.  After a major war, and a major global earthquake, the people will be ready for some kind of change that will hopefully insure this does not happen again, and in the forefront is a man who seems to have all the solutions, he will in essence be a global mediator.

1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Verse one is the seventh seal, and this seal marks the time of the antichrist.  The reason I say this is because the Antichrist will rule for a time, and we know that about half of his reign will be in peace, the other half will be when all Hell breaks loose on earth.  On my page of misconceptions I mention why the ten kings are not synonymous with the ten nations of the United Kingdom, but there is another clue in that verse:

Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

The key words for this context is, 'one hour'.  This is the time of leadership of the antichrist and his global generals or kings.  The earth will likely be divided into six major segments, not necessarily resembling the nations like the U.S, Canada, England, etc, but rather ten geographical plots of land over which each of the ten kings will rule, and each segment will be divided into ten smaller groups, with generals over those segments, and so on.  However, our key here is the one hour.  This is one hour of global rule, and the seventh seal marks the space of about a half hour of silence in heaven.  Thy will be done in heaven as on earth... there sill be silence, or for our intents and purposes, 'Peace' for about a half an hour, or in other words for half of the time of the antichrist rule over the earth.

Let me mark this point in the study as a turning point.  Up to this point, things should be fairly easily understood, as prophecy is meant to be understood as an after the fact, or a very near the fact event.  Once you proceed into times not yet upon us, there can be many variables that are yet unknown.  For instance the dead bones of Israel described in Eze 36, were not the bones of dead people that came to life, but rather the nation of Israel that would be scattered into the world, the nation of Israel, not the people, would be dead but would be revived for the latter days. See Hosea 6:

Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Notice the terminology here also in verse 2, they are revived, risen, and living once again in His sight.  Israel will be the rain of the past, and the final days of the earth, (vs. 3).  We know the time is here, therefore it is for us to know now, not 400 years ago when many interpretations of prophetic events were derived, which are still taught today.  It was not for the dark ages or any other age to understand, it is for us today.  Israel, their scattered bones, are back in their land, the body has come together.  In my Front page archives from March 18, 2006 I posted Luke 21:24 ......Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. In 1967 Jerusalem was won back by the people of Israel, once again making it their possession, marking the end of the gentile age.  A day to God in heaven is as a 1,000 years, for two days, (2000 years) Israel would be smitten of God, but on the third day they will be risen up again.  Another verse most people know is the generation, this generation shall not pass... A generation in Biblical days was roughly 40-42 years.  40 years from 1967 is 2007, so are we at the end times? Yes.  Please do not misinterpret what I've said, I am not a date setter as many in the past have been.  I only used the date 2007 in conjunction with 1967 and a biblical generation to show the times are very close.  The Bible says that generation shall not pass, (I believe this refers to when the people of Israel returned to their homeland), and today that generation could be 70 years.... Then again it could be 40.  It simply means, get ready, be ready, forewarned is forearmed.

Ok, all that was said to mark the fact that up until this point in Revelation we have gotten very close to the end times.  We can see how the events are going to lead to the final days and the tribulation, but now we are about to project ourselves into the tribulation period, past the war against the saints, and to a point where the antichrist world starts to crumble.