Historic-al/-ist Precedents for the Eschatological Fulfilment of Rev 11
The present blog post is for a commentary|exposition on the interpretation and fulfillment of the Two Witnesses prophecy of Rev 11 from the Biblically valid Historical/Historicist perspective. There are many (much more than less) good/valid such expositions out there, -mainly presented by SDA evangelists/expositors such as the following:
Historicist|SDA Intepretation Video Presentations
Kenneth Cox - Give Me the Bible Series: The Two Witnesses (=Rev 11:1-6) & The Beast from Bottomless Pit (=Rev 11:7-13) {also here & here}
Kenneth Cox - Revelation of Jesus Christ Part 14 - Two Witnesses {also here|here}
Kenneth Cox - Revelation of Jesus Christ Part 14 - Two Witnesses {also here|here}
Historicist|SDA Interpretation Websites
(Cf. this 2016, 515-page, comprehensive subject-matter literature, AUSS Dissertation [Online/PDF] on (mainly) the identity of the 2 Witnesses)
Ministry Magazine (1940) - Two Witnesses in ProphecyAmazing Discoveries - Revelation 11 Commentary
As usual with prophetic presentations in this blog, the purpose here is not to “reinvent the wheel”, but rather to fix any key errors in those other presentations and/or upgrade them to provide more accurate exegesis, interpretations/understandings and applicaftions. As the very first message of this ministry to be widely published, back in June 2000, was the present day Eschatological Age fulfillment of the Two Witnesses of Rev 11. Back then, an exposition on the historical fulfillment was virtually entirely not discussed, with just the similar eschatological application, but now with different main players (i.e. the SDA Church replacing the prior Roman Catholic Church to be judged (Rev 11:1) having been changed. However, as the Historical fulfillment of this prophecy (i.e. from 538 A.D. to 1798) provided an important background and template to properly understand the eschatological fulfillment. This is now being presented in this post.
Again not every element of the Historical prophecy will be re-expounded on in detail here, -but only when they need to be bettered, so do see the above cited presentation/exposition references for such expounding, and these betterments will serve to better grasp the pivotal part of this prophecy, pointedly the “3.5 days (=3.5 years)” of Rev 11:9, which main SDA expositors themselves contend, more than less acceptably so, -i.e. for merely a Historicist Wave of fulfillment application, that it transpired roundly between ca. Nov. 24/26, 1793 and June 17, 1797 (=1260+39/41=1299/1301 days) during the French Revolution...And along with this better key understanding are the other two major time portions of: the 42 months (Rev 11:2) and the 1260 days (Rev 11:3); plus the seemingly non-substantive, but contextually sequitur/related, “hour” of Rev 11:13. It will be shown & seen that these portions, along with the entire prophetic statements from Rev 11:1-8a, have a dual application within just the Historical wave of fulfilment of the prophecy. The First Application of that Historical Wave was fulfilled in Church History and the Second Application had a most emblematic special application within the time of the French Revolution itself. So with that background, here is a Biblically and Spiritually “upgraded” understanding of the Prophecy of the Two Witnesses...and as an overviewing guide to the detailed discussions in this post, here is the Master Timeline of the Historical & Eschatological Chronological Prophetic Events in/for (and related to), this most pivotal prophecy:
Rev 11:1 - Then a reed similar to one of a measuring rod was given to me, causing to be said: “Raise up yourself, and measure the Sanctuary of God; that is both the altar and the ones who worship in it.
measuring rod - Just as the finally married (Rev 19:6-9) ‘glorious bride/wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem’ which was designed and built up by God (Rev 21:9-11; cf. Heb 11:10), was allowed to be measured by man (Rev 21:15-17), God instructs that His Sanctuary be also measure (=evaluated/judged). This is based on the Old Testament vision of Ezek 40-48 where in a ‘city-like structure’ (Ezek 40:2) God’s new plans for His Temple (Ezek 40:5-42:20), His Temple Altar (Ezek 43:13-17), the Temple Officers, Functions and Services (Ezek 43:18-46:24) and also the rest of the land of Israel when His People live (Ezek 47:13-48:35) are all stated in measured and specified dimensions and requirements. This was God’s Plan and Expectation as to what His Religion and People should measure up to following their full restoration from their Babylonian Captivity.
the Sanctuary of God - Being the Greek word “naos” (Strongs #3485) here, this therefore more narrowly focused than merely the entire “temple” edifice (Gk. hieros; -Strongs #2413), but pointedly the sanctuary portion of that complex. This corresponds to the measure Temple portion of the Ezekiel Vision (Ezek 40:5-42:20), though more narrowly.
the altar = As discussed in the eschatological post here, the “altar” symbolically represents the “priestly ministry”. This corresponds to the measured “Temple Altar” of the Ezekiel Vision. (Ezek 43:13-17)
those who worship in it - This seems straightforward as to who is to be measured/judged here. Back in the days of the OT temple ‘those who worship (directly) in the temple” were essentially only those who were part of the priesthood [as well as prominent/noble men/males]. In the New Covenant’s era of “the priesthood of all believers”, this group naturally extended to all believers. However for a extended segment of Church History, the priesthood status and capability was taken away from the “laity”, so in that sense the would be guiltless when compared with their effectively tyrannical priests. So effectively the laity was not allowed to enter in the “Sanctuary” portion of God’s Temple (contra. Heb 4:16), much like back in Old Covenant days. Therefore this section come to pointedly merely focuses on the similar “Temple Officers, Princes, and Functions and Services” as in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 43:18-46:24)
Rev 11:2 - And in regards to the court (sheepfold) which is outside of the sanctuary: Cast it out! and do not evaluate/judge it because it was given to the Gentiles and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months.
the court outside the temple - That “outer court” is also rendered as “sheepfold” (John 10:16), and indeed in OT days, this was the area in the Temple grounds where the sheep for the Temple Service were kept. If “those who worshiped”, i.e. the believers, were to be inside of the Sanctuary, then that outer court/sheepfold would be filled with non-believers, indeed the Gentiles. But as these were in the “sheepfold” location where Jesus had said he would gather them (John 10:16), then it can be understood that the Gentiles/Nations, while being around the Sanctuary, are not really genuine, -in regards to self-convinced, but rather forced believers. Jesus had said that He would gather His sheep to His sheepfold merely by calling out to them (John 10:3-5; 16, 26-29), so manifestly those in this court who God deemed should not be subjected to judgement had been forcefully corralled there.
they will trample - The imagery of ‘a Holy City being trampled under foot by Gentiles’ is based on the time when God decreed in judgement that the Apostate Jerusalem should be overrun by Gentiles. (Luke 21:24) This dual-purposely was so that the Gospel could go throughout the Gentile world, and then would come the time for God to reestablish His Holy City Institution in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:9-11). The cornerstone would be God’s Sanctuary and Temple in the midst of the city, = His Church = His Bride/Wife. So the New Jerusalem would be the expanding of this Bride/Wife Spiritual Center.
Mind you that this “trampling” by these “corralled” Gentiles here would not necessarily be a spiteful and malevolent act, but rather a “natural” act. The most pivotal element which undermined the Historical Christian Church was the always forbidden throughout the History of God’s Israel: “unequal yoking” of believers with unbelievers, even “half-baked” believers or also people who had come to “faith” merely to save their skin, (as found in the resulting “mixed multitude” who escaped the plagued Egypt (Exod 12:38; Num 11:4)), as were these hordes of pagan converts who “naturally” saw it better to go along with the ruling and militarily empowered Medieval Church, rather than be tortured and/or killed.
But this compromising by the Catholic Church was done merely to boost their numbers and expand the realm of their rule. And as this policies was inherently merely, vainly/pridefully (cf. 1 Chr 21:18ff) purely: ‘quantity over quality’ the Church actually found itself lowering its standards and diluting its truth win all kinds of paganistic compromises. All sorts of unBiblical/heretical teachings and practices were borne leading to the institutionalized, full-blown, prophesied apostasy of the Church. (Acts 20:28-30; 1 Tim 4:1ff)
for 42 months - In the prophecy of the First Beast of Rev 13, a matching time of “42 months” is set out in which this Satan-authorized (Rom 13:2b) Beast, the Catholic’s Holy/Papal Roman Empire would make arrogant and blasphemous words against God (Rev 13:5-6; =Dan 8:9-12), and also wage war against God’s Righteous/Biblical/Faithful People (Rev 13:7; =Dan 7:25; 12:7b). But here in Rev 11:2; it is rather the Church which is being overrun by the Gentiles/Nations. That is all from the subversive element that was inherently present in the pagan-compromising policies that the Church was going by in regards to those Gentiles. Like termites, they were, during those 42 months (=1260 literal years) instead slowly, but surely, eating away at the validity, respectability and worthwhileness of the Church, until, even long before 1798, people began to see the core rottenness of the Catholic Church and dissidents, Reformers and culminatingly entire nations rose up against it to take it down from its prior world-ruling/overruling (cf. Rev 17:18) position.
So while the Church was engaging for those “42 months” in seeking to ‘take the place of’ (=“Anti-“) God/Christ and Biblical Truth and putting to death all of the testifying for Truth by God’s faithful followers (cf. Rev 12:13, 11), the prophecy here shows that the flip side of this “42 month” period was a time permitted by God to ultimately bring down, from the inside, this Dragon-led AntiChrist Power.
Rev 11:3 - And I will [keep on] giving to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days, having clothed themselves in sackcloths.
[keep on] giving... - If these Two Witnesses are going to prophesy for 1260, either God will have at one time given them all that they would need to sustain that, moreover repentance-calling, prophesying for all of that time, or He will periodically give them new light at the proper time to sustain this prophetic repentance calling ministry.
Two Witnesses - The understanding of the later allusions in Rev 11:5-6 make it clear that these Two Witnesses are given the power/Spirit of mainly the prophets Moses and Elijah. Being “martyrs”, -as literally is the Greek word translated as “Witnesses”, they show that the Testimony borne by ‘the work of Moses and Elijah is being persecuted and put to death by this Apostate Church/Power.’
The “work of Moses” was essentially in setting the prophetic Theocratic, Biblical “Supreme Law & Constitutional” foundation and framework for the establishment of God’s People as a State entity, -all to serve as a shining National witness about God to the other Kingdoms/Peoples in the rest of the World. (Cf. Deut 4:5-8) Duly enough, the “seat of Moses” eventually became the throne of Kings in Israel, but still those kings were to be subject and obedient to the Law of God as recorded in the Book of the Law of Moses. (Deut 17:18-20). Indeed this Book of the Law was to serve as a “witness” against God’s Israel if they would rebel against it (Deut 31:26)...and rebelling against the expressed Will and Word of God would result in, as it had happened to Egypt, ‘all sorts plagues being poured out in judgement against the disobedient.’ (Deut 28:15-68)
So the “Witness of Moses”, was in regards to national/ruling/kingly matters. Moses was the “Law” part of God’s provided Two Witnesses.
The “work of Elijah” was essentially one of religious reform in order to try to bring God’s People back to obedience & adherence to the Will and Word of God. Elijah was, represented the Church/Ecclesiastical Witness to God’s professing (but greatly apostasied) people. Quite telling that in the time of Christ, as Israel/Judah by then, -on that side of the Babylonian Captivity judgement for having failed to observe the Law (2 Chr 36:20-21), only an “Elijah Witness” had to be sent (Matt 17:10-13; background: Matt 17:1-9) as the Law of Moses was then being staunchly observed, but legalistically so, meaning that the Righteousness Spirit of the law was being violated. (Matt 5:17-20). Indeed even in Elijah’s most signal act of ‘no rainfall on Israel’s land’, he was pointedly appealing to a judgement provision stipulated in the Law of Moses (i.e. 1 Kgs 17:1 = Deut 11:16-17) and even Kings understood (or ‘were to understand’) this pending judgement for a wayward Israel. (1 Kgs 8:35-36|2 Chr 6:26-27)
So the “Witness of Elijah” is in regards to Religious reforms, calling back to the proper, (including in regards to Righteousness), observance of God’s Law.
The “Moses Witness” represented the Law, and the “Elijah Witness” represented the Prophets, and this “Law and the Prophets” Testimony (Matt 22:40; Luke 16:16, 31) is what is represented by the Bible, in the writings of both its Old and New Testaments.
clothed themselves in sackcloths - This is the garb of mourning, for a call to repentance due to something “vital” having been allowed to die.
The Bible shows that such a “Moses and Elijah call to repentance” had been prophesied at the end of the Old Testament in Mal 4:4-6....with the warning of a curse if this reformation is not accomplished.
1260 days - Just as it was the case with the “42 months” period cited in Rev 11:3, the 1260 days mentioned here also have another occurrence in the prophecies of Revelation (in Rev 12:6), and beyond the mere chronology of also 1260 years this helps to contextualize what its present application thematically involves. Rev 12:6 draws elements from the OT episode of Elijah’s God-instructed withdrawal to the Judean wilderness where he was cared for by God, through (unclean) birds, during the (early) days of his drought judgement. (1 Kgs 17:2-7)
Meanings in the Time Periods - So this 1260 day period is clearly in relation to the work of Elijah, hence it pointedly corresponds to the Elijah Witness of the Two here...and it therefore can be seen that the 42 months would apply to the Moses Witness. As it was seen above at Rev 11:2 that the 42 months here was: ‘God’s way of subtely, avengingly, subverting the Political Authority & Military Power that the First Beast of Rev 13:1-10 was wielding against non-Beliberevers/Gentiles, and also His faithful people’, it can be stated that this period of 1260 days, here couched in calls to repentance, represent a Religious/Ecclesiastical aspect of the work that is to be done during this 1260-year period of Papal Supremacy.
So in summary, the 42 months apply to the Moses Witness’s Political/Kingly Judgement Work; while the 1260 days apply to the Elijah’s Witness’s Religious/Church Judgement Work.
Historical Fulfilment of the 1260 days - God said He would “keep on giving” to His Two Witnesses during their period of repentance ministry, and they thus would keep on prophesying (i.e. fore- and forth- speaking for God), and this is indeed what was seen in Church History with the repeated rising up of various Church Reforming leaders and groups (cf. here). From, e.g. Peter Waldo and the Waldenses (ministering [=m.] during 1173-1205 A.D) to John Wycliffe (m.1374-1384) to Jan Hus (m.1402-1415) William Tyndale (m.1521-1536) to (timely-exactly as it has been prophesied*): Martin Luther (m.1516-1546), Jean Calvin (m.1536-1564), John Knox (m.1546-1572) and (later) John Wesley (m.1738-1791) (cf. GC 61-264 -{read adapted versions of these GC chapters, starting here})[1]1; each would rise up and proclaim the reforming light that they had come to see in God’s Word (cf. Psa 119:105), and when their testimony was completed, another Reformer would rise up to take up and carry forward that torch (cf. Pro 4:18). Based on the Testimony of Scripture, these Reformers would rebuke the ruling Political and Ecclesiastical Power of their day, namely the Church-State-joint: Papal/Holy Roman Empire and Roman Catholic Church.
* I.e. As it had been, manifestly visionarily, revealed in 1415 to, -as for Stephen (Acts 7:55-56), a martyrdom-dying Jan Hus that: “there will come an eagle in a hundred years that you will not reach”. Because that term/imagery of an “eagle” has puzzled many (‘Spiritually-ignoramus/inexperienced/devoid’; -see 1SM 25.4; cf. TM 116.1) people, it has been edited to incorrectly read: “man”, but when one knows&understands Bible prophecy, and its historical unfolding, that “eagle” obviously is known to be an allusive reference to the: “mid-heaven flying”, ‘treble-woe’, “one” eagle which appears in Rev 8:13 at the end of the Fourth Trumpet [just like the martyrdom revelation to Stephen was based on a prior prophetic revelation in Dan 12:1] which indeed is the end of the Fourth Church Age Era when the Universal (=“Catholic”) Christian Church had reached its point of no return and had indeed at that time begun to persecute and murder the faithful witnesses (=“martyrs”) of God. God was here showing&promising that he would be avenging such persecutive death....
* I.e. As it had been, manifestly visionarily, revealed in 1415 to, -as for Stephen (Acts 7:55-56), a martyrdom-dying Jan Hus that: “there will come an eagle in a hundred years that you will not reach”. Because that term/imagery of an “eagle” has puzzled many (‘Spiritually-ignoramus/inexperienced/devoid’; -see 1SM 25.4; cf. TM 116.1) people, it has been edited to incorrectly read: “man”, but when one knows&understands Bible prophecy, and its historical unfolding, that “eagle” obviously is known to be an allusive reference to the: “mid-heaven flying”, ‘treble-woe’, “one” eagle which appears in Rev 8:13 at the end of the Fourth Trumpet [just like the martyrdom revelation to Stephen was based on a prior prophetic revelation in Dan 12:1] which indeed is the end of the Fourth Church Age Era when the Universal (=“Catholic”) Christian Church had reached its point of no return and had indeed at that time begun to persecute and murder the faithful witnesses (=“martyrs”) of God. God was here showing&promising that he would be avenging such persecutive death....
....And starting in 1516, Martin Luther, from the hawking/sale of indulgences, by a commissioned (Grace|Gospel-“Gift”-defrauding/extorting) merchant’ [contra. John 2:16; Matt 21:12-13|Mark 11:15-16; Acts 8:18-23; Rom 3:24; 5:15-17; Eph 2:4-8; 3:7; 4:7-8; cf. Rev 6:5-6] of/for the Church, Johann Tetzel, began to become disturbed and disillusioned with such unBiblical practices by his Catholic Church leading to his crystalizing, indulgences-berating&eviscerating, Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Indeed this Luther-Reformation Era (=Rev 3:1-6) as well as that promise of vengeance on persecutors by God to His martyrs (=Rev 6:9-11), are chief themes which comprise the Fifth Church Era, and this was jointly achieved by God’s, apostasy-punishing, purposeful establishing of Militant Islamic Forces as per the prophetically-planned Fifth Trumpet Era (Rev 9:1-12), which served to physically protect Martin Luther and thus preserve his then burgeoning “Protestant” Reformation as well as inflict key tangible damage, loss of territory/jurisdiction and life to the Militant Forces of the Catholic Church.
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| Charting of Church Reformers & Movements |
Rev 11:4 - These are the two olive trees and two lampstands, the ones standing established before the Lord of the Earth.
The background/basis of this verse is clearly the prophecy and interpretation/application of Zech 4. In that OT passage, God is working through Zerubbabel to reestablish His adjuged Israel, pointedly now His still downtrodden Sanctuary/Temple, following their return from their Babylonian Captivity Judgement. In this message given through the prophet Zechariah, God reveals the framework by which He, ‘by His Spirit and His starting and finishing hand’ (Zech 4:6-8), intends to accomplish this seemingly unachievable task.
olive trees - In Zech 4:11-14, Zechariah is insistent on finding out what the meaning of the two Olive Tree is, evidently not satisfied by the diverging answer to his prior inquiry in Zech 4:4-6ff. The answer in Zech 4:14 reveals that the Olive Trees themselves represent ‘the “sons of fresh oil”, i.e. recently anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole Earth.” Clearly the very same language, thus notion, as involved here in Rev 11:4. The two olive trees were naturally there to supply the, there one, lampstand, So their work in Zech 4 was jointly towards keeping the light of that lampstand shining.
As it can been understood from the symbol of a tree in general, they serve a various vital “providers” from building materials, to energy, to foods and even beautifying decoration. And by having a “tree” here as the provider for the lampstand’s oil supply, that easily assures a self-renewably unending supply of olive oil.
(two) lampstands - Lampstands of course are used for providing light, or more specifically here, supporting a “torch lamp” which itself provides that light. This is the same two-part set up as the (golden) lampstands in Zech 4:2, 10.
As in Rev 5:6 in regards to the establishment of the Little Lamb Kingdom, the lampstands in Zech 4:2, 10 also represent God’s disbursed 7 Spirits. The same symbolism is involved in the promised: ‘Zionistic, seven-eyed (=Rev 1:4; 5:6b), sin-pardoning (Isa 53:2), saving (corner-)stone (1 Pet 2:4-9), (Davidic -Jer 23:5, 33:15) Branch Servant (Isa 4:2; 11:1-; Zech 6:12-13)’ of God. (Zech 3:8-10)
olive trees & lampstands - So the Olive Trees are to supply the “torch lamps” with its energizing oil; and the lampstands are to hold up these shining “torch lamps” to help them provide their widest enlightening. (=Matt 5:14-16)
The background of Zech 4:14 the Olive Trees represent the Anointed Ones of God, and here in Rev 11:4, this can be seen to be speaking of God’s Two Anointed Witnesses, namely His Moses and Elijah Prophets. Plus the key appearance of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration of Christ (Matt 17:1-8ff) show that they indeed (=Mall 4:4-6) still have a pivotal and complimentary contribution to make into bringing about God’s redemptive plans to their full end.
the two....the two - Unlike the joint work of the Olive Trees in Zech 4 towards a single lampstand, here in Rev 11:4, it is clear that there are two lampstands and each have their own oil-supplying olive tree. So it can be interpretively understood that the both the Moses and Elijah Witness will be doing distinct outshining work. Whereas in OT Israel the Church (=Elijah) and State (=Moses) was joined and was to provide a joint Witness, manifest in the days of Church History, this Light is to remain separate. Yet each is to provide God’s Lighting. Clearly this is to be by each tapping into its own oil source, which of course is God’s Spirit, and as God also went on to emphasize: ‘not by might, nor power’ (Zech 4:6; i.e. forced worship) but by a Holy Influence. Indeed the fact that OT Israel many times fell into apostasy was because God then was also not forcing people to obey and worship Him. They were free to faithfully following His Laws or not, but of course not without the naturally occurring consequence.
the ones standing established before the Lord of the Earth - So despite the small, weak and meek appearances of borne by God’s Two Witnesses here, they, and the work that they are doing, in the face of all of the upheavals and oppositions both around and towards them, they are the ones which God considers as His True movement and True Representatives.
Rev 11:5 - And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, that is if anyone might desire to harm them, it is necessary that in the same manner he be put to death.
fire proceeds out of their mouth... - This statement combines the “fiery words” (Jer 5:14) of the (greatly persecuted (Jer 20:7-18)) prophet Jeremiah predicting the judgement destruction of God’s Apostate city of Jerusalem with the tangible fire that Elijah called down on the military contingents who were seeking to bring detriment to him. (2 Kgs 1:9-15)
it is necessary = Greek “dei” = “it is in God’s plan”
God Avenges His Elect - Indeed, while the Church Reformers would boldly proclaim the Truths of the Word of God to the Apostate Roman Catholic Church-State, and while they would even denounce the Papacy as the seat of the “Anti-Christ” and its Catholic Church as “Harlot Babylon”, they were not known to engage in pronouncing judgements on these Apostates. Rather they just fearlessly stated what the Biblical Truths were. Of course they were nonetheless greatly persecuted for this Truth-stating testimony, but, as was the prophetic indication here, it was “in God’s (prophetic) plan” that their persecutors would ultimately suffer defeat and death (=Rev 6:9-11)...and for the similar reasons as they were charging God’s Reformers with (=Rev 13:9-10), namely in people (e.g. the Muslim Armies (=Rev 9:1-12) and then the French Revolutionaries, rising up to variously tangibly rejecting and condemn them as ‘not being God’s Followers/People’. (=Rev 9:4)
So while the Reformers themselves did not engage in pronouncing Judgements on their persecutors, God was still working out such destructive plans. Indeed the Words of Truth that the Reformers were speaking forth against “Anti-Christ” and “Babylon” themselves also involved such decreed/planned judgements. (E.g. 2 Thess 2:8; Rev 13:9-10; 18:4-10ff; 19:19-21).
Rev 11:6 - These have the authority to shut up heaven so that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesy. They also have authority over the waters in order to turn them into blood and (also) to smite the earth with every plague as often as/if they may desire.
The evident identities from the clear allusions was discussed above at Rev 11:3. Clearly
this is the work of (1) Elijah and (2) Moses a plague - Mal 3:5
rain may not fall - Even in the earlier discussed (at Rev 11:3) Elijah Judgement of shutting up the heavens, the foundation of that judgement is in order to specifically prevent the “latter rain” from falling on Israel’s planted crops (Deut 11:13-17). Therefore they would not be able to bring about a full harvest when the time came. This same function of the Latter Rain was Spiritually understood to the work of God’s Church/Followers. (E.g. Acts 2:17-21) as it was understood that God would Bless the work of His faithful People and Spiritually assist in order to bring about a full harvest. Converse, if God’s people had not be faithful, their work would not be bless, and thus fail....with a “famine for hearing the word of God” (Amos 8:11-12) being produced through this dearth of Spiritual refreshing inspiration from God. (Acts 3:19; 2:38)
turn waters into blood - If in the midst of no rainfall, the bodies of water on the ground also become useless by having been turned into blood (=Exod 7:19-20), then this indeed greatly and perilously complicates that matter here. This is the patent judgement affectation in Revelation’s Second Series (=Rev 8:8-9; 16:3) all resulting in ‘taking away (false) peace from the Earth’ (=Rev 6:3-4).
smite Earth with every plague as often as... - Clearly much and unlimited authority is granted to God’s Two Witnesses here, with the basis provision at the end of Mal 4:4-6 manifestly finding its eschatological form in the plagues cited in Rev 16. Inherently, just by foregoing to, as discussed above in Rev 11:5, explicitly make their enemies aware of the stipulated judgements that God has planned for them, their enemies could then keep running headlong right towards that wall at the end of their unrighteous course.
Jesus did a similar thing by withholding to mention early in His opposed ministering (Luke 4:17-21ff) the decreed “vengeance of God” in Isa 61:2b but only made mention of it when this fulfillment had been sealed by the pursued and sustained course of unrighteousness by those who opposed Him. (Luke 21:20-22) See DA 240.4.
So, as done in Rev 13:9-10 & Rev 14:10-12, God here encourages His Two Witnesses by making them aware that their work and sacrifice would not be unrewarded and unavenged.
Rev 11:7 - And whenever they shall have completed their testimony, the beast which is coming up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.
whenever... - the Greek expression here is indeed the one with an iterative implication of “whenever” (Greek “hotan” #3752) rather than the single instant “when” (Greek “hote” #3753). So we are to expect this recurring oppositional warring and killing upon each distinct time that God’s Two Witnesses would have come up and made/completed a Testimony against their Apostate enemies.
shall have completed... - Naturally the Papacy/Catholic Church could not foresee neither who would rise up against them, nor how impacting and damaging would their testimony against them be...So it patently was when a Reformer had managed to fully present their kernel of Reforming Light that the Church would deem that they should react against it. But the roots of their message had already been firmly laid, and the “damage” to the authority of, and reverence to, their Apostate Church, already done.
the beast from the abyss - It would seem to be self-evident, and thus redundant, to point out that such a power which makes war against, and kills God’s faithful people is indeed one which has its origin from where ‘Satan and where demons are banished to’ (Luke 8:31-33). But without either a (God-permitted) mission on the Earth (as in the purposeful forming of Militant Islam =Rev 9:1-2 or for the Har-Mageddon gathering (Rev 17:8, 17; 2 Thess 2:9-12)) or without having anyone to deceive (Rev 20:1-3), people on the Earth would be acting only according to their own spirit, without Satanic incitement and deluding. But it would indeed take a Satanic influence to delude Christians to the point where they would become systematically blood thirsty again fellow Christians. (Rev 17:6; 18:24). So such a “beast” = “kingdom” would indeed have to be Satan’s own kingdom. (Rev 13:2, 7) carrying out Satan’s most nefarious and wanton will (Rev 12:12).
Indeed that was patently seen in regards to the testimony and work of the Reformers. They would rise up, make their biting testimony against the apostasies of their day, and then they would be persecuted and eventually martyred martyred. Most emblematically all of these element were seen in the experience of the Reformation-spearheading Waldenses. It was Inspiredly said about their template plight:
The Waldensian missionaries were invading the kingdom of Satan, and the powers of
darkness aroused to greater vigilance. Every effort to advance the truth was watched by the prince of evil, and he excited the fears of his agents. The papal leaders saw a portent of danger to their cause from the labors of these humble itinerants. If the light of truth were allowed to shine unobstructed, it would sweep away the heavy clouds of error that enveloped the people. It would direct the minds of men to God alone and would eventually destroy the supremacy of Rome.
The very existence of this people, holding the faith of the ancient church, was a
constant testimony to Rome's apostasy, and therefore excited the most bitter hatred and persecution. Their refusal to surrender the Scriptures was also an offense that Rome could not tolerate. She determined to blot them from the earth. Now began the most terrible crusades against God's people in their mountain homes. Inquisitors were put upon their track, and the scene of innocent Abel falling before the murderous Cain was often repeated. {GC 76.1-2}
overcome and kill them - Not even this achieved murderous end could gain the victory over the cause of God and His Truth, because it was exactly in this way, thus this Divine sting-operation, that, as seen with Jesus Christ (John 12:31-33), Satan and His devoted followers would be convictingly exposed (as premeditating murderers) and eternally defeated (Luke 10:18; Rev 12:10, 11; DA 490.1-4 & GC 47.1-48.2)!!..and with those ‘faithful-in the-face-of-death’ witnesses getting a “martyr’s reward” (=Rev 11:11-12)
Rev 11:8 - And their dead body will lie on the street of the Great City, whichever one causes itself to Spiritually be called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
their dead body - Well just like you aren’t self-evidently sure of a homicide without a dead body, the fact that God’s Two Witnesses, His, as discussed earlier, King/Moses/OT & Church/Elijah/NT, thus the Testimony of the Scriptures, had been put to death, would be obviously seen in the sight of their corpse. And the scene of the crime would be identified by the “city street” where they would be found.
the Great City - In the book of Revelation itself “the great city” is clearly identified in Rev 17:18 as: ‘the enriched/luxurious (Rev 17:4a) Immoral (Rev 17:2) Mother of Harlots & Earth’s Abominations (Rev 17:4b) and blasphemous character-endorsing (Rev 17:3) martyr’s blood-drunk (Rev 17:6) Woman which reigns over the kings of the Earth’ and is called/known as “Babylon” (Rev 17:18; 18:10b, 15). So the great city here should be understood as also being this same Harlotrous Woman = Apostate Church = (Historically) the Roman Catholic Church, however the prophetic statement here points out that this Great City would here, as discussed later, be “Spiritually” called/known by substantively different names, thus have an identifiably different (joint)-character.
causes itself to ... be called - the actions of/in/by that “Great City” would be self-determinate of identifying its actual character = name....
to Spiritually be called - As this here inherently involves Biblical Spirituality, then a capital “S” is used.
This “Spirituality” is dependent on the enlightment from the Spirit of God to properly see and discern the codedly-symbolized entity here.
‘Spirituality’ also patently involves a “mind over matter” state. So something may physically seems to be something on the outside, but “Spiritually” it is being something else. (Cf. Rom 7:21-25). So this city won’t “literally” be “Sodom” nor “Egypt”, nor even the non-named, but alluded to ‘Jerusalem’,
Sodom - Sodom was renown for its open sexually-abominable debauchery, but it also was equally condemned as abominable for its ‘arrogantly exuberant, poor-indifferent, wealth lifestyle’ (Ezek 16:48-50).
Historically, the Roman Catholic Church was well known for its wealth and opulence which it indifferently exacted, and through religio-psychological force, from its laity. Indeed such a scheme led poor people to think that it was more important to even sacrificially give their money to the Church, e.g. for indulgences, and thus assure their Eternal life, rather than try to preserve their Temporal life. Fittingly enough, with the Kings in France themselves being Roman Catholic, such a scheme was also implemented in their socio-economic ruling policies, which really is what was the cause of the French Revolution.
That “Sodomic” socio-economic basis eventually came to also include the sexually-abominable one as France, with its “Declaration of the Rights of Man” became the cesspool of anything-goes/libertine sexuality. However here, as with the Socio-Economic abomination above, the fault can also be laid here at the feet of the ruling Church-State of the day, the Roman Catholic Church, as it was the culmination of its misrepresentation of God and its corruption of Biblical Truth which fostered this Bible-rebelling atheist Spirit in France.
Egypt - Egypt was itself renown for its defiant opposition to recognize or obey God (Exod 5:2)
The Roman Catholic Church seemed to be God reverential and believing, but the Bible easily exposed it as really being infidels in disguise. Through it arrogant and blasphemous claims of its priesthood and Pope being equal and even greater than Jesus Christ and God, it most certainly set the template for the arrogantly defiant atheism which exploded on the open scene in France during their Revolution. If/Since the Church was claiming that it was greater than God and that “God had to abide by its will/decision’, then why couldn’t any man (a) make such claims and (b) just dispense with that unseen God altogether. And that is indeed the inceptive root of Modern Atheism...indeed a direct reaction to what the Roman Catholic Church had been modeling.
And the RCC continues to this day in such ‘effectively atheistic’ ways, having by now openly espoused the theory of Evolution. Though they claim the oxymoron “Theistic Evolution” slant, any thinking person would be able to see from such a supposed “Theological Belief” that an unseen God can also just as easily be taken out of this equation and the theory of Evolution left to stand on its own, again at the determinative mercy of whimsical man.
“Blasphemy” itself, which Babylon fully endorses (Rev 17:3), essentially is slanderous taking what God has done/does/can do and ascribing the credit and glory to man. (cf. Luke 5:21; John 10:33)...Something that God indeed abhors. (Isa 42:8; 48:5, 11)
where also their Lord was crucified - This seems to refer Jerusalem, but, and as that name is not stated, as it naturally should have been, it therefore is actually referring to another place. That place where Jesus was crucified was the area just beyond the wall at the time of the “Holy City” Jerusalem (Heb 13:12), -but which was an Apostate and Doomed City (cf. Matt 23:37-38ff; Luke 19:41-44). Executions were done outside of the city so as to not defile the “Holy City”. So those so capitally punished there were deemed to be, -as Jesus unfairly was (Isa 53), ‘accursed and full of (capital) sin(s)’. (Heb 13:11; Gal 3:13). So here too the Spiritual meaning of this location is to be involved.
Verse Summary - So, summing up all of the coded identifications here, while every characteristic is physically descriptive of what was seen in late 18th century France, underlying to all of this was the corrupting work of Babylon the Great (=Rev 17:1-6), which Historically was the Roman Catholic Church and its (consorting, thus effective) Holy Roman Empire. So while the “Great City” city here was physically seen/recognized to be France, -a then, even charter, Member State of the Holy Roman Empire, the Heavenly Intelligence here directs the reader to understand that it is still ‘overruling Babylon’ (=Rev 17:18) in the wider perspective.
So the “Great City” here is Spiritually actually/really Babylon, but as it is being most advancedly manifested in Rebelling France...which indeed is merely the sequitur state of what the effective infidel teachings of Babylon would lead to. And that is how Babylon, which by the related way, currently/Eschatologically is currently most fully (=Rev 18:2, 5) manifested in the United States of America comes to corrupt all of the kings/nations/people of the Earth (Rev 18:3, 9, 23b) likewise leading them towards increasingly being unbelieving/atheistic and immoral...and also to murderously oppose Biblical Christians (Rev 18:24).
So having taken a page from the Roman Catholic Church’s historical playbook of how to act against those two witnesses of God, France likewise effectively did the same to those Witnesses, indeed not limiting its opposition to the False Christianity of Catholicism to the Church, but also to the Bible, pointedly to the Bible’s model for Civil/Societal and Moral/Religious Living, which, as discussed above at Rev 11:6, are God’s Redemptive Two Witnesses for this Fallen World and its Inhabitants.
Focus on the Prominent Events in/of France - So Revolutionary France merely explicitly and openly did what Babylon had all along been secretly doing: and open rebellion again the Word of God...and, as planned and designed by God, as stated in Rev 11:5, what Babylon had been doing against God’s Faithful Witnesses, would here be done against them, and by a Satanically advancing mere reflection of themselves....And it is here, partway in the fulfillment of Rev 11:8, when the focus goes from the more wider umbrella entity of Babylon to focally France, that things become Spiritually, (Heavenly Intelligence-wise) “Technically” and Chronologically interesting as discussed next:
Eschatological Application of the Two Witnesses Prophecy
In the very interesting purposeful charting organization of the Book of Revelation and its prophecies, it is, first more generally seen, that God has involve an “Interlude” between the Sixth and the Seventh Events in a Prophetic Series. Pertinent to the present study, the prophecies of the Mighty Angel and the Little Scroll (Rev 10) and this prophecy of the Two Witnesses (Rev 11) constitute the Interlude during the Seven Trumpets Series located between the Sixth Trumpet (Rev 9:21) and the Seventh Trumpet (Rev 11:15-19). This Interlude is the largest and most detailed/complex of the Interludes.
Now the Organizational Charting of Revelation thematically also reveals that the Cross-Sectional Bloc of Interludes itself, labeled “A2”, is likewise divided into 7+1 Series of sequencing Events, as follows:
 |
| Revelation 10&11 Interlude Cross Section |
As it is seen there, the prophecy of Rev 10 constitute the First 5 Events of the Series, and the prophecy of the Two Witnesses of Rev 11 constitute the Sixth through Eighth Event.
Now what is further/even deeper more interesting is that it is prophetically attested and thus reflected in this organizational charting that the Sixth Event itself is split into two Sections, labeled 6a & 6b. This feature has been attested from the historical fulfilment of the Sixth Seal of Rev 6:12-17 (discussed in here) where the prophetic statements of that Sixth seal were historically fulfilled up to Rev 6:13 in the: (1) Lisbon Earthquake of Nov 1, 1755; (2) the Dark Day of May 19, 1780 (cf. here); and (3) The Leonid Star Shower of Nov 13, 1833. (=Matt 24:29; See exposition starting in the chapter “Heralds of the Morning” in GC 304.1-308.2 & 333.1-334.3; cf. 1905 JNL, GSAM 93.3-97.4). But the remaining prophetic elements of Rev 6:14-17 have yet to be fulfilled. So we presently have been prophetically living between the verses of Rev 6:13 & 14!. (See in the charting for the other instances of this key feature of “prophetic pausing”). And given the predicted decisive action of God in that Second Half of this Sixth Event (Rev 6:15-17); as also seen in its bloody OT basis in the context of Isa 34:4, it can be appreciated why God choses to pause at such a point before moving on in order to sealingly ‘wrap things up’.
It would seem that this “pausing” just before the final fulfilling of a Sixth Event, is a most deliberate action by God, and throughout history. The earliest example of this recorded in the Bible can be see in the sequence of Creation. On the Sixth Day, Friday (Gen 1:24-31), God first created Living (Land) Creatures. (Gen 1:24-25). He then created Humans (Gen 1:26-27ff). But the more detailing account of this in Gen 2 reveals that some time had passed on that Friday when Adam was all alone Gen 2:7-17, and then God reassessed things and determined that “it was not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18) and, -manifestly late in the Sixth Day before the Friday’s evening/sunset, (cloningly) created the Woman Eve (Gen 2:21-22).
My Theological View on this development had been that God had intended to only create human as He had created Angels, both individually each and also merely as males. However He had created animals as male and female genders and had given them the ability to reproduce themselves. But in that “Friday afternoon” tangible observation and assessment, seeing the unsatisfaction of Adam PP 46.1, He deemed that it was better to also create the Female Human...As, -(as manifestly Divinely anticipated/pondered), risky as this would be...and indeed soon thereafter proved to be (Gen 3:1-5ff|PP 56.2)...with the background 'Divine Energy Economy' trade-off being that: the Divine Energy that God would have instead directly expended in Himself creating (solely male) humans, would instead, (i.e. given that a male+female humans context would be, of their own matter+energy, reproducing themselves), be available, and used for, the potential, and indeed needed, redeeming and restoring of the occurred Fallen Humanity and Creation.
So it can be Theologically understood that, at His Sixth Event in a Series, God allows for a pausing in order to reassess things before putting His final completion seal on the whole Series. Similarly, prophetically, God has involved a pausing in the unfolding of prophetic series, part way just before He closes a Sixth Event, and then brings about the Series-culminating Finale in the Seventh Event. In the prophecy of the Two Witnesses, we see this occurring indeed part way in the prophetic elements in Rev 11:8. Explicitly, this is between the first part of that verse which states that “the dead bodies of the Two Witnesses would lay dead in the streets of the Great City”, -again, as seen in the discussion on this statement above, which is straightly understood to be the Great City Babylon (Rev 17:18) which each fulfilling manifestation of the Two Witnesses, in arising Reformers, had been historically denouncing and preaching to, and then the enjoined further detailing of: ‘“Sodom”, “Egypt” and an allusion to the location of Christ Passion, just outside the city gates of Jerusalem’, which is seen to find its most explicit fulfillment in what France became and did during the 15 years of its Revolution.
Recursive “Part 6b” Eschatological Wave - Now, further prophetic structural/organization features in the unravelling of this prophetic interlude is also seen from the template of the Sixth Seal of Rev 6:12-17. While the First Part of Rev 6:12-14 did have a literalistic Historical Fulfillment, as seen in the prophetic detailing of “Final Events” in the SOP, these prophetic elements manifestly are first refulfilled in the time leading up to the Second Part of that Sixth Seal Event to be fully unravel. This is seen in the section leading up to ‘The Deliverance of God’s People’ in GC 635.1ff. Like the dead but unburied Two Witnesses, God’s People are then are “in prison cells, hidden in solitary retreats, while their enemies are about to rush on them to put them to death.’ (GC 635.2).
(A) As discussed in here at Rev 6:12-13, during that preluding period of opposition and persecution are found “many stars” of former religious leader who have “fallen” and joined the Mark of the Beast camp. (5T 81.1-82.1). While that is a Spiritual fulfilment, the other two elements are stated in the SOP as being literally fulfilled:
(C) Then a sudden ‘deeper than night darkness’ occurs, thus during the day part, -thus when the sun is supposed to be shining, which befalls on the Mark of the Beast camp (GC 635.3 = Rev 16:10-11).
(B) With the moon also having been observed to be red when the (actual) night of the May 19, 1780 Dark Day came in, and with the moon being a symbol of a “Religious/Spiritual Economy”, -while the sun symbolizing the “Livelihood/Temporal Economy”, and indeed just as many people “lose their religion” when faced with financial/economic difficulty, the moon ‘becoming red like blood’ can be interpreted as the enjoining bleeding out (unto death) of the religious economy upon this plague (No. 5) of deep darkness. And that is what sequentially transpires in the Sixth Plague when Spiritualism takes over the Mark of the Beast Camp (Rev 16:12-16); -thus sealingly leading them to their losing Har-Mageddon War (Rev 17:12-14) and thus their utter end. (Rev 19:19-21).
However in the SOP sequence, the perverting of the religion of the opposing camp, leading to Satan having spiritualistically taken them over had already transpired before the sun’s affectation producing that deep darkness. So this event here is really the (B) section and that of the darkened sun is really the (C) section.
(D) Then there ensuingly is also an earthquake (GC 636.3a = Rev 16:17-18 Seventh Plague)
An also interesting feature here is that in the occurrence of the prophetic elements of Rev 6:12-13 (=Matt 24:29) there is a: (A) Earthquake, (B) Sun, (C) Moon, (D) Stars sequential order; but in the SOP’s Final Event reoccurrence of these prophetic elements there is an exactly converse: (D) Stars, (C) Moon, (B) Sun, (A) Earthquake sequence. With the first two events in red then having had Spiritual fulfillments while the last two events (the Sun and the Earthquake) are again literalistic, but this time injunctively, deliberately caused by God rather than naturally occurring, even according to astronomically predictable timing.
All of these observed prophetic features from that template in the Sixth Seal are indeed important in what transpires in the Sixth Part of Two Witnesses Prophecy Interlude as we also see an eschatological reoccurring of the elements in “6a” part which is what was stated in Rev 11:1-8a in now the preluding part of the “6b” section (=Rev 11:8b-10) as this entire Sixth Part will now unravel uninterrupted, to its applicable full (+Seventh (=Rev 11:13) and Eighth (Rev 11:14) sections) fulfillment then.
So, and in other words, while Rev 11:1-8a had had a prior historical fulfillment during Roman/Papal Catholic Church History for much of the prophesied 1260 year periods of the symbolic 42 months and 1260 days = from 538 A.D. to 1798 A.D., these prophetic elements, including their chronological time, are again refulfilled starting in the Rev 11:8b French Revolution focusing and culminating developments. And as seen in the SOP’s fulfilling of the first part of the Sixth Seal elements, likewise here, some parts are literalistically fulfilled, while the other parts have spiritual/symbolic implications.
Eschatological Application of Rev 11:1-8b - So here, this prophetic refulfillment in this French Revolution (cf. its major events timeline) will be succinctly stated, revolving around how and when the time elements of the 42 months and the 1260 days are now, and literalistically so, (i.e. “eschatologically” now, not being reckoned according to a “1 day = 1 year” conversion principle), re-apply. And this is actually in the due, converse judgement of the persecutors of God’s Two Witnesses as stated in Rev 11:5.
Rev 11:1 - Then a reed similar to one of a measuring rod was given to me, causing to be said: “Raise up yourself, and measure the Sanctuary of God; that is both the altar and the ones who worship in it.
sanctuary of God - This is representative of any Church which professed be God’s own. In this context/case it was the Roman Catholic Church in France.
altar - Again this more specifically speaks of the “temple ministry”. For the Catholic Church at the time this was its clergy, in their various, also quasi-State-ruling, hierarchal levels.
the ones who worship in it - This description widely/generally fits those who were actually volitionally devoted to the Catholic Church/Religion (i.e. as compared to, as discussed earlier, the “corralled” sheep in the courtyard/sheepfold surrounding this sanctuary proper, but with the way that the Medieval+ Catholic Church had come to shut out its general worshipers from the service, i.e. from comprehending it, by, -(and until the changes from the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) holding its masses in Latin, and also by not allowing its members to have the Bible in their common language, even those volitional and “devote” worshipers really did not know what they were worshiping. So this grouping of worshipers was effectively only applicable to the clergy/priests.
But added to this inner circle was the non-clerical favored nobility and aristocracy, as well as the monarchy, namely at this time: the King of France Louis XVI and his royal family (themselves Roman Catholics), were part of it. The ruling class was effectively “in the loop” about the decisions of the Church/Clergy. Again this was like the intrinsic “prince’s” portion that was also part of the Temple complex of OT Israel (Ezek 44:1-3; 45:7-46:18)
Indeed, as it systematically was their organizational and working policy, in 1789 the Catholic Church held a most prominent and influential, up to even effective ruling, position in the States where it was accepted. Indeed: (1) Catholicism was at the time the State Religion of France; (2) out of Three “Estate” tiers grouping the population of France in its Feudalism-based system, the Catholic Ecclesiastical Leaders and Clergy formed its “First Estate” [the nobility/aristocracy formed the Second, and the rest of the people, = “the commoners”, were grouped in the Third]; and (3) The Church had amassed greatly disproportional wealth and land ownership. I.e. It is said that:
“The clergy numbered about 100,000 [out of a total population of 20 million] and yet they owned 10% of the land. The Catholic Church maintained a rigid hierarchy as abbots and bishops were all members of the nobility and canons were all members of wealthy bourgeois families. As an institution, it was both rich and powerful. As with the nobility, it paid no taxes and merely contributed a grant to the state every five years, the amount of which was self-determined. The upper echelons of the clergy had considerable influence over government policy.”
“Raise up yourself and measure” - The opening, non-coincidentally enough, “uprising” call of Rev 11:1 is one to ‘rise up against a Temple/Church entity which claims to be standing as God’s Temple/Church on this Earth and see if it measures up’; and as discussed earlier, this call is based on Ezek 40-43 [and was the foremost part of a larger ‘Nation of God’ entity which likewise should ‘measure up’ (=Ezek 47:13-48:35)]. But as Ancient Israel had done with those Divine/Prophetic Temple-Upbuilding instruction which would have properly punctuated the Old Covenant, and, (no doubt successfully), have ushered in the Messianic Age, the Catholic Church likewise ignored and (also most blasphemously) perverted most of what Jesus Christ had instructed in regards to the proper upbuilding of His New Covenant Temple (John 2:13-22)/Church (Matt 16:16-19 =not ‘upon Peter’). Indeed by this time in the late 18th Century, this Apostatizing Catholic Church had made the Christian Church to be a: ‘dens of robbers built on the whims and words of Law-breaking men’. So its judgement was indeed due, and through the revolting of the French People, God allowed for this accounting to be done.
So it is most sequitur that an uprising and attack on the “government” and ruling powers could not be sidestepped by the Church. Yet, as the State Church Religion, it is really the Catholic Church which had set up and sustained this state of (mis-)ruling affairs (cf. GC 276.4). So though the genesis of the French Revolution was a mass uprising of the unfairly governed against the government, it effectively was, indeed had to be/fully become, also an uprising against the Church if this political revolution was ever going to be successful..and that is indeed what was Ecclesiastically pursued, and eventually accomplished.
Rev 11:2 - And in regards to the court (sheepfold) which is outside of the sanctuary: Cast it out! and do not evaluate/judge it because it was given to the Gentiles and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months.
cast it out - The underlying Greek term here ek-ballo (Strongs #1544b lit. ‘out cast/throw’)) is indeed pointedly more forceful and active (as patently used throughout the New Testament), than just the passive expression of “leave out”.
do not evaluate/judge it - So the implication here was to virtually severe this entity from the rest of this Sanctuary complex, by “casting it out” from this otherwise intrinsically adjoined association, so that it would be exempted from the upcoming judgement
given to the Gentiles - This segment to be “cast out” was the third grouping of: the ‘Gentiles sheepfold’ outside of the Sanctuary proper complex which, as in Ezek 40-46:18, the clergy/priests (=Levites) and the nobility/aristocrats (=princes).
French Revolution Fulfillment: The grouping of: the Monarchy; (First Estate): the Hierarchal Catholic Clergy and its rank-n-file Priests; and (Second Estate): the (Royal Families); Nobility and Aristocracy altogether effectively formed an informal ruling/lording cabal over the (wage-labourers & peasants) rest of the people of France (=Third Estate); and the pointed (political) genesis of/for the French Revolution occurred when the King of France had, in May 1789, gathered, (for the first time in 175 years ; -i.e. since 1614), the Estates-General of France (=a convention of representative from France’s Three Estates) in order to try to resolve the critical financial problems in his realm, (which were giving rise or fuel to various, several, joint and increasingly-simmering issues of contention at the causal root of the French Revolution).
But as the King favored a tiered voting scheme which would neutralize the weight and impact of the larger Third Estate (600 delegates) voting bloc (as the First and Second Estates (300 delegates each) would thus surely carry the vote 2-1), the Third Estates broke off from the Assembly (thus effectively ‘casting themselves out’) and, eventually calling themselves the “Commons”, formed their own “National Assembly”, (meeting, after having been locked out of the regular convention chamber, in a nearby indoor Tennis Club; -but 2 days later, when again locked out, met in a Cathedral), -(yet still inviting the other 2 Estates to join if they would), vowing together to not disband until they had settled the Constitution of Kingdom of France....And thus pivotally was (politically) started the ‘Revolution of the French People against the Monarchy’. [Mirroring the stand that the people of the American Colonies had taken against the King of England a few years earlier.]
they will trample the Holy City... - The “cast out” “Gentile” (=regular/non-adherent people) grouping were to themselves effectuate tangible/physical “trampling” actions upon the rest of that judged Sanctuary Complex and its encompassing (deemed) Holy City. It was indeed the Sanctuary’s presence and function which sanctified the City where it was located and thus effectively made it a Holy City. But, as also with Ancient Israel, if/when the Sanctuary complex fell (cf. Matt 24:1-2) and/or was no longer in its prior prominent/dominant purpose, the rest of its city could/would also not be considered “Holy”.... and/but for a determined period of time ....
for 42 months - As it was discussed earlier this verse and its historical fulfillment, and over a prophetic chronological period, which is allusive to the same time period in Rev 13:5, was a remonstrative of how that arrogant and pompous “First Beast” =Roman Catholic Church/Holy Roman Empire, who had engaged in systematically warring against God’s faithful Bible believers, at the same time as it was diluting the Truths of the Bible to theologically and in practices to compromise and accommodate with the “former” pagans in the Roman Empire realm that it was now, moreover abusively/oppressively, ruling over.
Well that proved to slowly, but surely, erode any Biblical/Moral Authority that it would want to wield, and that entrenched dissonance and hypocrisy “bubble” was radically popped by the grassroot Revolutionaries of France...The “Gentiles” in this so-overruled ‘nation’ indeed trampled the “courts” surrounding the Church that the Church had Biblically-illicitly converted into its ruling realm, hence the effective ‘(Holy) City of/from that Sanctuary’.
French Revolution Fulfillment: On June 27, 1789, King Louis VI started to recognize the validity of the “National Assembly” of the ‘Third “Commoner” Estate’ and on July 9, 1789, the former “Assembly” of the Estates-General was reconstituted, now as the National Constituent Assembly and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter. In a foundational request, it asked the King to remove the presence of Royal troops in Versailles which the King was claiming was for a precautionary measure, given how much populace support was being manifested for the stance and power of the Third Estate. The king refused to remove the troops, but “offered” instead to move the Assembly to another location, -which would then actually be between two armies and isolated from the support of the Parisian people. That offer was refused, but the ongoing presence, and felt intimidation, even threat to Parisians and the ongoing Assembly process by the King’s troops led the people in Paris to decide that they too should organize and arm themselves into Militias (soon to become Revolutionary France's National Guard). As they did not themselves ‘keep and bear’ (fire-)arms [as didn’t pre-1791 USA, for that matter], they, on the morning of July 14, 1789 stormed, without significant opposition, the Hôtel des Invalides, (a Hospice/Residence for no-longer-suitable for field service Veterans), where 29,000-32,000 muskets were held, but, expecting such an assault, 250 barrels of gunpowder had been moved to the better defended Bastille fortress....thus producing what many have called the “flashpoint of the French Revolution” in the ensuing “Storming of the Bastille” which, (of course) to this day, -and actually starting right from the year after in 1790, (though only officially so starting in 1880), is nationally commemorated and celebrated by the French as the seminal event of/for their Republic, for amid the tensions of July 1789, the Bastille was seen as a symbol of royal tyranny and its fall effected, starting from the next day, the loss of sovereignty/power/authority of the monarchy to the now also/likewise militarily-back/empowered common people of France.
Upon first learning of this storming the next morning (through the Duke of La Rochefoucauld), King Louis XVI asked: “Is it a revolt?” The duke replied: “No sire, it's not a revolt; it’s a revolution.”
As it is said: “The news of the successful insurrection at Paris spread throughout France. In accord with principles of popular sovereignty and with complete disregard for claims of royal authority, the people established parallel structures of municipalities for civic government and militias for civic protection.” However this demonstration of the reclaiming of power by popular force also came to engender, between July 17 to August 3, 1789, violent lawless mob action, riots and revolts in rural France pitting the peasants, also against wealthy landlords (=part of the aristocracy), in a period that came to be known as the “Great Fear”.
And this sustained state of national panic eventually led the Assembly to vote to abolish the privileges and feudal rights of the nobility (=Second Estate) on August 4, 1789, which also led in effect to a general unrest among the nobility of France.
for 42 months - Additionally, as it was also “Historically” explained earlier in relation to this time period for “trampling” that this was the time for the “Moses Witness”, i.e. pertaining to the Civic\Kingly\Legislative\Political aspect of God’s Two Witnesses, with the other Witness being the “Elijah Witness” who (correspondingly) focused on Ecclesiastical\Prophets\Bible\Religious aspects.
So the fulfillment of this 42-month chronological period in the events of the French Revolution has to encompass and cover key Governmental Affairs during this period. The key event of the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 can indeed be seen as the salient event for the, pointedly physical trampling by the ‘common people’, against indeed a falsely testifying formal and informal ruling entities of the monarchy and the nobility/aristocracy, which were effectively claiming to be acting under the direction, guidance and approval of God through the endorsing State Religion Catholic Church.
With that date as starting bookend, looking in the timeline of major events in France during that time, it can be most acceptably claimed here that the symbol of the official and complete overthrowing of the King, thus the 1000-continuous-year Monarchy, by the French People, through its representative, though tribunally self-instituted, (Third Estate-led) National Assembly, -(by then being the National Convention), in the: trial, conviction, sentencing and execution of King Louis XVI, is to be regarded as the fitting ending of this prophetic ‘contra-ruling powers’ time period. King Louis XVI was declared guilty of “conspiracy against public liberty” by the Convention by a unanimous vote of: 693 to 0; with 23 abstaining and 26 absent] on January 15, 1793.
Arguably the ensuing death penalty beheading execution of King Louis XVI 6 days later (January 21, 1793) could be considered as the more fitting end for the 42 month period here...however several substantive factors can validly oppose this view. First of all, most of the 33 charges against King Louis XVI [interestingly enough, desacralizingly dubbed “Citizen Louis Capet” for his trial & execution], were rather political in nature than criminal, and especially premeditatedly criminal. Those political charges were mainly allegations of having acted ‘against the Revolution’. Case in point, none of the offenses charged predated the start of the Revolution in 1789, and in fact started with King Louis’s shutting down of the Estates-General assembly on June 20, 1789 (indeed as ‘no law then prevented the King from doing so’, but which was now called “an attack on the sovereignty of the people”.
It must have been this objectively evident fact that no direct criminal, and especially murderously so, implication was really proven against the King that the vote for a death penalty sentence was far from unanimous. The (21-hour) vote’s result was rather/comparatively very close at ca. 55% (395) for and 45% (321) against (preferring life imprisonment or banishment). So the sentiment for death, spearheaded by Maximilien Robespierre (a pivotal figure in the Revolution); and despite himself personally being adamantly against the death penalty, who encapsulatingly declared that: “Louis must die so that the nation may live”, of course prevailed, though it really wasn’t substantively warranted.
So as the prophetic period was calling for a “trampling down” of the prior ruling structure, and not necessarily involving this ending in, moreover extra-legal, capital death, the conviction of King Louis XVI was fitting enough. Interestingly if King Louis had been allowed to live under a Life Sentence instead, perhaps he, the monarchy and even the prior ruling powers that be, could have made a popularly/majoritarily acclaimed successful comeback in the light of the upcoming variously appalling downturns of the Revolution. Indeed even the August 10, 1792 Insurrection (dubbed a “Second Revolution”) which had informally deposed him and initiated the abolishment the monarchy [formally proclaimed so on September 21, 1792], is said to have been effectuated by a devoted&faithful few revolutionaries.
So the fulfillment of the (eschatological = literalistic) 42 months during the French Revolution can be reckoned from the date of the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 to the Guilty Conviction of King Louis XVI on January 15, 1793 which actually is 42 months to the day (i.e. reckoning the passing of a “month” as the equivalent calender dates (i.e. the “14th”) between each successive month), as there was an extra day in 1792 from the leap year day of February 29, 1792.
So, recapping Rev 11:1-2 here, as prophesied, the people of/in the Third Estate had indeed ‘trampled down’ (to the ground) the realm of those who ruled/controlled them. Thus the Monarchy and the Second Estate of the Nobility were affected, and the pervasively-intertwined First Estate of the Clergy who dabbled in both effectively ruling right alongside the King, as well as profiteeringly enriching itself as did the aristocracy, would not be far behind in also being trampled over. The Third Estate, the “Gentile” group had here virtually fully trample the “city” realm of this claimed “holy” (cf. “Holy [...] Empire”) entity, but the judgement of the ‘sanctifying’ Church’s Temple/Sanctuary proper itself was soon to come.
Rev 11:3 - And I will [keep on] giving to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days, having clothed themselves in sackcloths.
[keep on] giving - Though repeatedly seeming to have been emptied and devoid of any impact and influence, God here reveals that the testimony in His Two Witnesses, namely the Laws and Principles in the Bible which properly can and should be applied for the righteous organization, governing and worship of a nation, will not cease from making such remonstrating point. The Catholic Religion had perverted the actually Biblical Witness/Testimony here, but these Truths would continue to still make their case.
prophesy for... - “prophesying” here involves “fore-speaking” and/or “speaking for” in regards to a message of/from God. This ministering respectively either involves warning of ‘something that is to come’ and/or ‘admonishingly speak about something which need to be redress...and before things get much worst or it is too late’
...1260 days - As discussed previously on the Historical Rev 11:3 fulfillment, this is thematically allusive to Rev 12:6 where God nourished His faithful and persecuted wilderness-relocated church (=“woman”) for 1260 prophetic days (=1260 years). Just as done with Elijah, God there was ‘giving’ his faithful followers physical nourishment while in the wilderness, but this can also be understood as vitally being Spiritual nourishment from His Word (cf. Job 32:12; Matt 4:4|Luke 4:4; John 4:32)
And while this 1260-day period is pointedly for the “Elijah (Ecclesiastical/Church) Witness” versus the pointed “Moses (Civic/State) Witness” of the 42 months above in Rev 11:2; as a Godly Rule/Government would involved living according to Godly/Biblical Laws and Principles (cf. Deut 17:18-20); this Spiritual Witness would “prophesyingly speak” to/in more than just Ecclesiastical/Church affairs, but also to matters of the State, namely the Morality/Righteousness of the State, given that really: “as goes the Church, so goes the State”.
Case in point the prior American Revolution did not experience the same internal aberrations as did the later French Revolution, mainly because the Americans had not decided to ‘ditch/lose their religion/morality’ as did the French.
having clothed themselves in sackcloths - this special outfitting of the prophet was to enact the mourning of death. This was either for something which had already died (such as the practicing of justice and righteousness in a society); or the striking warning that sure death is going to be the outcome of a present ly pursued course (cf. Ezek 18:31-32). Either way, both of these applications inherently, implicitly, are a call to repentance.
Recap: So the events that are to be looked for to fulfill these prophetic/Spiritual elements involve: a warning call to Spiritual/Religious repentance, before things get much worse, -and even “mourningly” deadly, from a, though not outward recognizable, Biblical entity which is increasingly still prophesying despite having been persecuted and marginalized and taken refuge in a Spiritual Wilderness.
French Revolution Fulfillment: Summarily/“Thetically” stated right at the top, though Roman Catholicism was, and to this day still is, far perfect, and even heretical, compared to the Libertine (=“Sodom”) Atheism (=“Egypt”) the people of the French Revolution endeavored to establish as a replacement to the lower rung of apostasy and unrighteousness in “Babylon” (in which many of God’s sincere People (to this day) are found (Rev 18:4)), the partially Biblical and partially Heretical religion of Babylon in Roman Catholicism was way better. A call to return to the more Biblical Protestant movement (which had had many roots in France; i.e. Reformers like: Louis de Berquin (ministering from 15??-1529, GC 215.3-219.1); Guillaume Briçonnet (+1516-1534, GC 214.2-215.2); Jacques Lefèvre (+1492-1536, GC 212.1-214.3) Guillaume Farel (1522-1565, GC 213.2-214.2); Jean Calvin (1536-1564, GC 219.3-236.2); and the Huguenots) would have been much better, but returning to Catholicism versus diving into Atheism was therefore comparatively/relatively good.
As stated earlier, the revolution against the rule of the French Monarch would not have been complete, or even sustainable, if almost equally ruling Roman Catholic Religion was not significantly degraded even to the point of total annulment. And so, not long after the start of revolutionary acts in mid-1789, acts against the stranglehold grip that the Church ideologically had on the people of France began to be bindingly undermined. The following are such anti-Catholicism, “de-Christianization”, and also anti-religion in general actions [mainly from this timeline of major events] within the first year of the French Revolution:
1789
August 23: The Assembly proclaims freedom of religious opinions.
August 26: The Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (which was directly influenced by American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson) which was seeking to replace ‘traditional/theistic law’ with "secular/humanistic natural law". [Clearly the quasi-deist Jefferson could not pull off a similar purely humanistic stance in Populacely (Protestant) Christian America.]
October 10: the National Constituent Assembly seizes the properties and land held by the Catholic Church.
November 2: The Assembly votes to place property of the Church at the disposition of the Nation.
December 19: Introduction of the assignat, a form of currency based not on silver, but on the value of this property of the Church confiscated by the State.
December 24: As another slight to the authority of the Catholic Church, the Assembly decrees that Protestants in France, -who lately (i.e. starting from 1661; =since the actions by King Louis XIV against the 1598 Protestant rights-granting Edict of Nante) had been warred-against, persecuted and marginalized, are eligible to hold public office; Jews are still excluded. This indeed was merely a slight at Catholic authority in public affairs, and was not an endorsement of Protestantism.
1790
February 13: The Assembly forbids the taking of religious vows and suppresses the contemplative religious orders.
March 12: The Assembly approves the sale of the property of the church by municipalities
March 29: Pope Pius VI condemns the Declaration of the Rights of Man in a secret consistory (=church tribunal/governing council).
Well by this point of successive degrading of the Catholic Religion, certain groups of people were having enough and between April 5 and June 10, 1790, a series of pro-catholic and anti-revolutionary riots in the French provinces; in Vannes (April 5), Nîmes (April 6), Toulouse (April 18), Toulon (May 3), and Avignon (June 10) protesting measures taken against the church.
Again, with the Revolutionary movement in France effectively being making the Church subjected to the (endeavoringly atheistic) State, rather than having a Separation of Church and State as done in the America Revolution [something that a later (1801) State||Church-reverting France didn’t do until 1905], this uprising to uphold this form of Christianity, despite Catholicism being theologically misguiding in many areas, was better than the sought for Atheistic, Secular, Humanistic and Libertine alternative. So here, from whatever Biblical knowledge and validity that Catholic adherents had, this series of uprising was an applicable form of them standing for a comparatively much better way than was the main revolutionary movement. Their advocated for “light” was dim, but compared to this (Catholic-reactionary) “abysmal” swelling up of Atheistic darkness, it was still light.
However as opposition to such pro-catholic/religion stands continued to be systematically suppressed by the governing Revolutionary powers between 1790-1793 (see in the timeline [2]2), it is not surprising that more of such mass protests/riots are not reported to have occurred, for, as later seen, in early 1793, it would literally take a full blown “religio-civil” war, as it occurred in the Vendée region, to try to overcome the, moreover increasingly authoritarian/fascist, ruling Revolutionary Power, and pointedly/fittingly when it was then forcedly called by the State, through military conscription, for every (eligible/applicable) person to fight, and potentially give their lives, for this (also Atheistic & Libertine) Revolution.
So towards suppressing such uprisings in its realm, the Revolutionary government (known as the National Convention then), established as a police force the Committee of General Security in October 1792. It was designed to protect the Revolutionary Republic from its internal enemies, which also included anyone who opposed its State-sponsored Atheism stance. Then on March 21, 1793 it set up Revolutionary Surveillance Committees in all communes and their sections. Then on April 6, 1793 it established the Committee of Public Safety to oversee the ministries and to be chief executive body of the government. It had an ideologically quite telling name, which in French was: Comité de salut public = literally “Committee of Public Welfare/“Salvation”” instead of, “tellingly”, not being geared towards substantive matters of ‘Public Security.’ Public “Salut”/Welfare/“Salvation” has more of an ideological/quasi-religious notion, (resembling the Greek term for both “being made whole” and “salvation” in the Bible of sozo [Strongs #4982] as in ‘what was good for societal well-being/success’.
The implicit or effective calls of these inclusively anti-Christian/anti-revolutionary movements was that this alternatively sought atheistic and libertine course was not the answer, effectively “prophesying” that ‘things would not turn out well.’ Indeed any endeavor/policy/movement which is fundamentally devoid of the Bible and Biblical morality is bound to damagingly fail [Case in point: the 1960's+ STD, then HIV/AIDS epidemic which was unleashed upon humans through an endeavored joint Atheistic/Humanistic/Libertine/Sexual Liberation movement of “Free Love” & Homosexuality]...and the counter-response by the forces for Revolution in France effectively were: “what can possibly go wrong with Secular/Atheistic Humanism”...
So by the late summer of 1793, with the war against the “Catholic and Royal Army” of the anti-Revolution resistors in the Vendée region of west-central France still raging [and not to be put down until December of that year], the Committee of Public Safety, now led by the aforementioned Maximilien Robespierre, -who, as discussed before, had been “inspirationally” instrumental in the decision to execute King Louis XVI, “so that the French People may live’, acted to take more inceptively preemptive measures, surely in order to prevent such warring anti-Revolutionary uprisings from ever taking root. On September 4, 1793 a radical faction known as the Sans-culottes (=“without breeches”) occupied the Convention and demanded the arrest of suspected opponents of the Revolution, and the creation of a new revolutionary army of 60,000 men. The next day, Sept. 5, a Law of Suspects was introduced to the Convention, then 12 days later, on September 17, 1793 the Convention adopted the new Law of Suspects, permitting the arrest and rapid trial of anyone suspected of opposing the Revolution and putting the onus on the accused to prove their innocence and loyalty.
What could possibly go wrong in this effort to establish and maintain an atheistic and secular society where “liberty” would reign???...Well as historians rightly point out here, it is at this very point, with this enacting of these sweeping arrest and penal powers for the Revolutionary government, that the infamous “Reign of Terror” (Sept 17, 1793-May 28, 1794) of the French Revolution began. (More on this period later)
Clip: Terror Robespierre and the French Revolution
for 1260 days - The passing of the Law of Suspect ‘chillingly silenced’ outspoken anti-revolution sentiments...i.e. to avoid any ‘suspicions’ as this would prove to be deadly. People were even careful with their body language and reactions so as to not intimate, insinuate and/or betray any degree of a notion of disapproval or dissent against whatever the Revolutionary government would do. So, in regards to the prophetic theme for the reckoning of the “1260 days”, the binding start of this ‘utterly silencing” development on September 17, 1793 is seen as what brought about any endeavor to try to call, or act to bring, France to repent from its, pointedly Spiritually, its anti-Bible/Christianity (albeit Catholicism), Atheistic & Libertine movement. The start of this effective call to repent is seen as the initial series of mass uprising against the actions which the Revolutionary government were taking against the Church starting on April 5, 1790...And between those two book-ending dates, 1262 days passed, as shown below:
 |
| Reckoning of the 1260 days of Rev 11:3 during the French Revolution |
That’s actually ‘close enough’ for this type of prophetic fulfillment here,* [somewhat just like the above reckoned 42 month period thematically could acceptably have included the additional 6 subsequent days that it took for the, albeit unwarranted, execution of the French King].[3]3
* Pointedly/especially when such prospectively to-the-day foreplanned precise time prophecies are dependent on a nation/country/people which/who have (atheistically/agnostically) devoted themselves to Satan and his cause (=Rev 11:7a).
Rev 11:4 - These are the two olive trees and two lampstands, the ones standing established before the Lord of the Earth.
standing established before the Lord of the Earth - As discussed earlier, in the historical exposition of this verse, this declaration speaks of how both the Bible’s Civil/Governing (=Moses) and Church/Religious (=Elijah) Witnesses were more the perfect model for the ordering and success of any Kingdom and Society in the World. Revolutionary France had undertaken to try to show that they can do better than what they believed, -by seeing the Church & State “witness” from the Catholic Religion, was what, and all that, the Bible and Christianity had to offer on those matters.
French Revolution Fulfillment: So now armed with their ‘terrorizing’ Law of Suspects, the French Revolutionaries plunged headlong into working to complete their (Democratic) Revolution, and with them most prominently deeming their that anti-God+Bible+Christianity tenets and stance was key to the ‘salvation/welfare’ of their prospective Republic. As seen from the timeline of events in this period:
October 5, 1793: To break with the past and replace traditional religious holidays, the Convention adopts the newly created French Republican/Revolutionary Calendar. It infamously also adopted a 10-day week.
October 21: The enactment of a law making all non-juring priests (i.e. those who would not take an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy) and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight
October 28: The Convention forbids religious instruction by clerics.
During which time, -a “Reign of Terror” period which [thankfully] lasted (only) about 10 months [i.e. Sep 17, 1793-Jul 28, 1794], certain statistical, historical estimates have given numbers as ca. 500,000 people being accused and arrested for being suspected of “treasonous” activity, and(/with) at least 200,000/300,000 of them (or in addition to them) being assigned to house arrest and in prison, with ca. 10,000 dying from diseases infected prison confines; and of course with the Revolution’s “National Razor”, the Guillotine being used as often as deemed warranted for the execution of somewhere between ca. 17,000-40,000 “suspects”...(therefore ca. 54-127 executions per day on average over that ca. 314-day period).
November 8: Madame Roland, who is guillotined in the purge of the Girondins political faction, cries out before her execution: “Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!”
Then, formally starting of November 10, 1793, -which many historians consider the climax of the de-Christianization movement, the Revolutionaries, led in this by Jacques Hébert, endeavored to set up their version of a “religion”, -but of course a civic/atheistic/humanist one, in the Cult of Reason. It explicitly was meant to be ‘man-centered’ (=secular humanism). “Its goal was the perfection of mankind through the attainment of Truth and Liberty, and its guiding principle to this goal was the exercise of the human faculty of Reason.” For this philosophy/cult “there would be “one God only, The People.” The Cathedral of Notre Dame is re-dedicated as a Temple of Reason and its Christian altar is dismantled and an altar to Liberty is installed and the inscription "To Philosophy" carved in stone over the cathedral’s doors. Additionally, one of the elemental tenets of this Cult came to be that “Death is an eternal sleep.” which of course encouraged the, today dubbed: “YOLO”, “You Only Live Once” ideology and mentality....(=1 Cor 15:32) there indeed is “nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9-10).
This Cult was inaugurated with a Festival of Reason, (who’s goddess role was played by a provocatively dressed woman), which ‘many contemporary accounts reported as a "lurid", "licentious" affair of scandalous "depravities".’
Later on, on November 23, the Paris Commune orders the closing of all churches and places of worship in Paris. Nationally, by Easter 1794, few of France’s 40,000 churches remained open. Many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses.
It is said that: ‘the contemporary accounts about the Festival of Reason, -whether real or, as some claim, embellished, galvanized anti-revolutionary forces and even caused many dedicated Jacobins like Maximillien Robespierre to publicly separate themselves from the radical “Montagnard” faction.’ Plus, ‘the Cult’s rejection of the existence of a deity appalled the rectitudinous Robespierre, who was known as "the Incorruptible", for his ascetic dedication to his ideals. So in late 1793, he delivered a fiery denunciation of the Cult of Reason and of its proponents and proceeded to give his own vision of proper Revolutionary religion.’ “Belief in a living god and a higher moral code, he said, were “constant reminders of justice” and thus essential to a republican society.’
Ironically/Twistedly enough, while proclaiming liberty, on February 5, 1794, Robespierre lectures the Convention on the necessity for the Terror [Full Speech: Fre|Eng]: He encapsulatingly says:
“If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror. Virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. ... The Government of the Revolution is the despotism of liberty over tyranny.”
“Robespierre was coming to the conclusion that the ends justified the means, and that in order to defend the Revolution against those who would destroy it, the shedding of blood was justified.” For him terror was “nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue.”
And while all of this ‘virtuous terror’ is still going on, Robespierre makes some moves to try to establish his manufactured, albeit more Christianity-like, religion. On May 7, 1794 Robespierre asks the Convention to decree “that the French people recognize the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul”, and to organize celebrations of the new cult. (=The Cult of the Supreme Being). Compromisingly enough, Robespierre looked at the Ancient Civilization of Greece and Rome and deemed that such key religious tenets seemed to have served them well in regards to producing civic-mindedness and public virtue. “Belief in a living god and a higher moral code, he said, were "constant reminders of justice" and thus essential to a republican society.”
Then, as if the fabricator of new cult/religion wasn’t enough for one man’s ego to handle, on June 4. Robespierre is unanimously elected president of the Convention.
So on June 8, 1794 the Festival of the Supreme Being is celebrated, conducted by Robespierre, in Paris’ Champ de Mars, with a massive "Altar of the Nation" built atop an artificial mountain and surmounted by a tree of liberty. Beyond this national Festival, future republican holidays were to be held every tenth day—the days of rest (~sabbaths) in the new French Republican Calendar.
{Historical Event movie clip: Fre[02:07:08-02:09:54]
Interestingly enough about this chosen “Champ de Mars” location for this Festival of the Supreme Being, [incidentally where presently the Eiffel Tower is] it is a religio-ideological relative/descendant of the ‘Mars Hill’ of the Bible, the “Areopagus”, mentioned in Acts 17:16-34 where Paul used the opening of an altar set up for “the unknown God” to try to introduce the Greco-Roman Pagans there to the Creator, Righteousness and (Future)-Judging God. (Acts 17:24, 31)
Recap: So while the French Revolutionaries were scrambling, in-fighting and flailing to bring about a religion to morally and virtuously oversee and guide their movement, the unshaken Truth remained that God’s True Religion, the one Testifying of what a Righteous State and a Pure&True Religion was, was still only to be found in the testimony of the Bible.
But not to be abated, indeed now enshrined as a fundamental tenet of the Revolution’s Official/State religion, the Reign of Terror still rages on in this aspired quest to squeeze/press sweet “virtue” out of this thus far sour, and at best acquired-taste, domestically-bloody Revolution:
June 10, 1794: Law of 22 Prairial - As the prisons are full, the Convention speeds up the trials of those accused. Witnesses are no longer required to testify. From June 11 to July 27, 1,376 prisoners are sentenced to death, with no acquittals, compared with 1251 death sentences in the previous fourteen months. The Convention also gives itself the exclusive right to arrest its own members.
No doubt the eyes of the (Western) world was looking at France to see how this atheistic and libertine experiment would turn out, and what it would produce on the other end, and thus far, it was candidly more repugnant than attractive, and a testimony against itself.
Rev 11:5 - And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, that is if anyone might desire to harm them, it is necessary that in the same manner he be put to death.
Fire proceeds from their mouth... - As it was discussed earlier, and also in the eschatological post, this prophetic element is, in joint-part, taken from the episode in 2 Kgs 1 where an apostasized King Ahaz, finding himself in trouble, sought to get a word from the priorly despised and rejected prophet Elijah, and thought to ‘order’ Elijah to provide him the answer he was seeking. After Elijah demonstrated that there is (still) a Living and Almighty God in Heaven to whom Ahaz and his army must also bow, and be subject, to, Elijah’s rebuking remonstrance to Ahaz before telling him that he is still going to die is: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word that you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’ (2 Kgs 1:16). The other joint-part of this message is Jeremiah’s prophesying that, despite what people may say against, and persecutively do to, him, the apostasized, thought-to-be-holy, city/entity of Jerusalem and its corrupted Temple would be destroyed as per the infallible Word of God Himself. (Jer 1:9; 5:14)
French Revolution Fulfillment: It is said that “The establishment of the Cult of the Supreme Being represented the beginning of the reversal of the wholesale de-Christianization process that had been looked upon previously with official favour.” Clearly Robespierre saw that there was not a viable future in a State/society devoted purely to Atheism, pointedly in order to restrain and guide the natural immoral passions in men. But rather than turning to the Living God and seeking what His principles are in His Word, Robespierre opted for the compromise of his Christian-ish Deistic religion. But like Ahaz, he still pursued to wrong course, and this likewise ‘knowing and deliberate’, and moreover pompously so, slighting of the Word of God would not go unpunished.
As seen in 1 Kgs 18:21 and Rev 3:14-17ff God does not approve of a fence-straddling and lukewarm religion.
harm them...it is necessary...same way - This was the core message of the ‘“prophesying” repentance warning message’ (Rev 11:3) of the Two Witness
French Revolution Fulfillment: What the French Revolution, led at its height by Maximillien Robespierre, had been endeavoring to do against the Word/Testimony of God would be done against him and their Atheistic, later Paganistic Revolution. The Religion and the “virtuous” Society that they/he were thus trying to ‘extra-Biblically’ upbuild would be adjudged, as seen fulfilled later at Rev 11:8. ....Fittingly a similar fate is also promised to the likewise compromising (here parent-entity of) Babylon. (Rev 18)
Rev 11:6 - These have the authority to shut up heaven so that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesy. They also have authority over the waters in order to turn them into blood and (also) to smite the earth with every plague as often as/if they may desire.
shut up heaven - This is a statement that God would not be, even basically (Matt 6:45b), aiding this unrighteous, blasphemous and idolatrous nation, made up of formerly professed believers who were more willing to comply with the State-sponsored Atheistic agenda than hold on to their Faith, to begin to prosper. Spiritually speaking, this lack of rain would bring about a famine of both “righteousness” (Amos 5:24; cf. Matt 5:6) and of ‘hearing from the word of God’ (Amos 8:11) and by this people will be constrain to, -as it was the case with God’s apostasied Israel, re-examine their chosen course of unrighteous living. (=1 Kgs 8:35; Lev 26:19-20)
waters to blood - With “waters” being symbolic of “peoples”, even ‘those that Babylon rules over’ (Rev 17:15, 18), this can be understood as permitted, even/indeed ‘terrorizing’ (Lev 26:16) strife and bloodshed occurring amongst those who are persecuting and rejecting God’s Word and His Two Witnesses.
smite with every plague - By refusing to acknowledge and obey God in order to ‘let His people go so that they could freely worship Him according to His Law and Word’ (Exod 5:1) ‘Atheistic Pharaoh/Egypt only attracted more plagues on their defiant nation.
French Revolution Fulfillment: By so barring the Bible and the free worship of the Living God, Revolutionary France has positioned itself to suffer the judgements of God, even as simply as God withdrawing His tempering Spirit and allowing the unrestrained passions of men to reign. Between just the Reign of Terror’s official, but wanton and summary, executions, and just the civil war in the Vendée, it is estimated that total of ca. 470,000 people lost their lives in France.
Much like, as discussed in a point here, God, at the needed time, Himself, as He had planned (Exod 4:21; 7:3-4), acted to harden Pharaoh’s heart before all of the 10 Judgement Plagues had been poured out on Egypt, the quite manifest withdrawal of God’s Spirit from Revolutionary France, leaving people to fully act out their various immoral passions served as an object lesson to all (as also later would Soviet-style Atheist Communism), of what happens to a society that is devoid of any Biblical and Judeo-Christian principles, values and morals. “Neo-Babylon”, (i.e. the ‘lamb-seeming but dragon-like speaking’ United States (Rev 13:11ff)), the apostasy step/phase just before the explicitly “Sodom&Egypt” debacle of an Atheistic Society has “lukewarmly” put such a similar outcome in its largely ungodly society on slow-burn, but, as promised in Rev 18, God Himself will judge her to expose her core corruption and awhoring shame to all.
Satan, =the “dragon”, doesn’t mind if he deceives people either through the use of an outright Atheistic and Libertine society as fully done in Revolutionary France, or, in order to dupe lukewarm, righteousness-lax and half-baked Christians, the spuriously-false Christianity guise of World-Harlot Babylon. (Rev 17)
Rev 11:7 - And whenever they shall have completed their testimony, the beast which is coming up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.
whenever they shall have completed - As stated above in Rev 11:3, the prophetic testifying of the Two Witnesses for a viable State and Society was effectively silenced, thus ended with the passing of the Law of Suspects on Sept. 17, 1793. And from then on, with no one daring to utter words of dissent and reproof, unless at the penalty of their lives, Revolutionary France openly devolved into a atheistic and decadent (i.e. Cult of Reason), paganistic (i.e. Cult of the Supreme Being) and blood-shedding (i.e. Reign of Terror) society.
beast from the abyss - As discussed priorly in the historical exposition of this verse, this beast involves Satan coming up out of the place where he was imprisoned because he now has people to deceive. Well in Revolutionary France, Satan certainly had a country (=a “beast”) with Atheistically and Licentiously fully opened hosts that he can unhinderedly sway the passions of. Despite the incorporation of Paganism in Catholicism, they themselves had not made such an open and devoted invitation to be ruled by Satan. But Revolutionary France did, and Satan certainly seized this opportunity, pointedly to introduce his “post-modern” ideology in what had thus far been (especially in the Western World) a more or less Christian Dominion.
kill them - As stated just above, whenever the witness, and the opportunity for a witness based on the Bible was silenced in France, God’s Two Witnesses indeed came to be overcomed and killed. Thus officially on Sept. 17, 1793.
French Revolution Fulfillment: However a further understanding can be made here. As stated earlier about the (oddly) indefinite term “whenever”, it is not speaking of a definitely known ending, but indeed at an indefinite date. This would seem to be odd if this ending is understood to come at the end of the 1260 days time period, which, as discussed earlier at Rev 11:3, ended (plus 1 day) on Sept. 17, 1793 with the passing of the radical Law of Suspects. But implicating the predictive themes/imagery of: “overcoming”, “war/warring” and ‘a warring ending as a killing death’, it would seem most fitting that the ensuing ending of the protracted, 12+ Battle, most detrimental (i.e. 450,000 deaths), religio-civil war against the anti-revolutionary “Catholic and Royal Army” in the Vendée Region of France, in December of 1793, can be seen as this “indefinite” war-killing ending of any opportunity for any degree of Biblical witness to be made against this by then deeply Satanic Country of Revolutionary France.
So really, the ‘overcoming and killing’ end of the Two Witnesses testimony came to its (indefinite) end a little beyond the (definite) 1260-day time allowed for their testifying and prophesying occurred in that December 1793 resolution of the Vendée anti-revolution War.
Rev 11:8 - And their dead body will lie on the street of the Great City, whichever one causes itself to Spiritually be called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
their dead body on the street of the Great City - As discussed earlier in the Historical exposition for Rev 11:8, this “Great City” is incontrovertibly, i.e. as symbol-interpreted by the Bible, Babylon itself. They however are merely the parent entity here. The statement here specifies exactly the type of quarter in that Great City where this slaying of God’s Two Witnesses will focally occur.
causes itself to be called S&E - Of course, by its open Atheism and Sexual Libertinism, Revolutionary France came to be the pointed area in “Babylonian Christendom” which clearly fulfilled these prophetic elements. As discussed earlier, the parent “Great City” Babylon had similar issues of apostasy towards God and His Word, but their apostasy was more veiled and cloaked, whereas France’s stance was openly naked.
where their Lord was crucified - =Heb 13:11-14 = the place just outside of the city gates of Jerusalem, where deemed/adjudged criminals were executed. Historically “Babylon”, i.e the Roman Catholic Church, had made the Bible seem to be a dangerous, thus criminal, book. (Much like Apostate&Capitalist Protestantism (=Neo-Babylon) is currently doing so, leading people to deem the Bible as an evil book). And so the Word of God was made to be treated as such by Revolutionary France. The Bible & Christianity was summarily outlawed, cast out and executed....
Historical-Eschatological Culmination of the Two Witnesses Prophecy
So, as introductorily expounded on earlier, as organizationally structured in the Interlude Prophecies in Revelation, midway through Rev 11:8 the priorly unfolding Historical fulfillment of the Two Witnesses prophecies, starting in 538 A.D. and involving the “Great City” Babylon, the Roman Catholic Church, was seamlessly halted and a recursive Eschatological Application of Rev 11:1-8 came to occur now focusing on what more advancedly, derivedly, took place in Revolutionary France. And whereas the prophetic time elements of the 42 months (Rev 11:2) and the 1260 days (Rev 11:3) were fulfilled according to the ‘1 prophetic day = 1 literal year’ Biblical interpretive principle in the Historical Application, these time periods were to be literally applied as stated in the Eschatological Application in the French Revolution.
But at this point, starting at Rev 11:9 these two paths of fulfillment of Rev 11:1-8, the Historical and the Eschatological come to virtually converge as all eyes, from Catholics to Protestants abroad can’t help but turn to France to see what will become of this radical anti-Christianity/Bible stance. So from here on, pointedly in Rev 11:9-10, the joint application to both the Historical and the Eschatological fulfillments will be given showing how they apply to the wider conflict of Protestants against the Catholic Church and the Biblical-Theists/Christians in France who were upholding the Bible as they best knew, against the Revolutionary Atheists/Pagans.
And in this joint-fulfilment, the year-day principle once again comes to be applied to both waves of fulfillment.
Rev 11:9 - And those out of the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations will glance at their dead body for 3.5 days, however they will not abandon their dead bodies in order for them to be laid into a tomb.
those out of - This speaks of a ‘called out” group, i.e. a “church” as it came to be the case for the New Covenant Church....
the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations - This special expression speaks of the base/realm over which Harlot Babylon has managed to overrulingly, Imperially reign (Rev 13:7; 17:1, 15) (as done in the “Holy Roman Empire”); nonetheless, from this realm God is still able to reach in (cf. Rev 10:11; 14:6) and “call out” a Remnant. (Rev 5:9; 7:9; cf. Rev 7:13-14).
So Historically, and more widely, this applies to the Protestant Movement that was called out from under the realm of Harlot Babylon, and Eschatologically, and more focally, this applies to the People in Revolutionary France who came to separate themselves from the imposed Atheistic&Paganistic Ideology to return to the Bible and Christianity in the form of their relatively more Biblical Belief System of their prior Roman Catholic Faith.
glance at...not abandon...not lay in tombs their dead bodies - Like the disciples who enduringly held on their faith despite Jesus having been arrested, condemned, crucified and buried, these ‘called out Remnant groups’ will not abandon their faith in the God, the Bible and Christianity.
So Historically, Protestants did courageously adhere to the Bible despite the 1260 years of deadly Papal oppression and persecution towards Biblical Christians; and Eschatologically, many people continued to, however secretly so, hold on to their Biblical faith until, eventually, people in France came to a sobering realization that the outlawing of Christianity and the Bible was the wrong course to take and a move was made to allow a return to, at the very least, not making it and the Bible outlawed.
glance at - =Greek blepo (Strongs #991)- this is not a ‘closely examining/perceiving/discerning/“view”-theorizing look’ (Greek theoreo -Strongs #2334; e.g. Rev 11:11), but merely a glance, but nonetheless an interested look.
...not to be laid in tomb - If dead bodies are not allowed to be laid in tombs, it is manifestly because those not allowing so are expecting that they will eventually resurrect. And also by merely “glancing” at these bodies, instead of more ‘closely examining/observing/“view”-theorizing’ at/into them.
So if any resurrecting, as anticipated, is to occur with them, i.e. the Biblical/Prophetic Testimony, it will be because even those ‘paying attention to it’, will have understood in advance that this would occur, though they would have been “looking forward” to such a development. But it still will be in an unexpected way, despite the preserving measures that they would have taken to allow for this resurrection event to take place.
for 3.5 days - Four days is considered the extreme time limit of senses-bearability, -especially in terms of smell (cf. John 11:39), for a, especially outdoor openly lying, dead body, which by then would be in advanced stages of decomposition, thus unpreservingly corrupt, and with no part of it then being salvageable for contributing to life, -thus deemed to be wholly/totally dead...So 3.5 days was really cutting it close just in terms of being able to, merely “naturally”, salvage any part of this ‘dead body’ (i.e. as (vitally-inherently or indifferently dishonest & patently both scientifically and Biblically-ignoramus) atheists/anti-theists/skeptics/agnostics like to smugly patronizingly say: ‘the “good” parts of the Bible’. -[the whole of the Bible, itself (i.e. exegetically interpreted, accurately “divided”, properly understood and rightly applied), is, like its contributing and overseeing God: Good (cf. Luke 18:19ff|DA 518.3), i.e. (and unlike trial&erroring/failing, selfishly-self-preserving, unbelievers), conducive to, and protective of: (conceived/born) life (including the glibly, mischievously and/or lyingly (=John 8:44) mal-translated/construed Num 5:11-31) and ‘abundantly so’ (John 10:10), which is contrary to the moronic Satanic culture of: (immediate or inevitably eventual) pain, death and selfishness which “Babylon”, then France, served to inflict and unleash onto the world.[4]4]
....And restoring the full body to back whole life after this would definitely take a Super-Natural miracle. So would the power and glory of God (cf. John 11:40) be manifested at the end of this time period??!
This 3.5 day prophetic period is very close to another time period expressed in Revelation, at Rev 12:14 of ~3.5 times. That verse involves how God protectively (cf. Exod 19:4; Deut 32:11) acts to lead his persecuted ones to a physical refuge. Rev 12:14 is also thematically related to the 1260 day period as seen from Rev 12:6 which likewise speaks of God’s nourishing care for His wilderness banished entity. As already seen, the 1260 day period pointedly refers to the Ecclesiastical/Church/Elijah witness, and with the 3.5 times being a period of persecution (Dan 7:25; 12:9), but which is just under the time period of 42 months which involves full-blown, State-borne “warring” (Rev 13:3). So the effective amalgamation of all of these elements as: “3.5 days”, can be interpreted to be expected to fulfill as a period when God has provided a refuge from persecutions for his faithful ones, namely here, His Two Witnesses, and manifestly eventhough they are still lying there dead....
Historical and Eschatological fulfillments - Indeed these two paths of fulfilment come to converge at this point, i.e. in what was culminatingly unfolding in France.
The turning point in the French Revolution occurred in an series of coup d’état incidents which have come to be called the Thermidorian Reaction. It was crystalizingly triggered when, on July 26, 1794, the then President of the Revolutionary Government Maximillien Robespierre ‘gave a violent 2 hour-long speech at the Convention, demanding, without naming them, the arrest and punishment of conspiring "traitors" in the Committees of Public Safety/Welfare and General Security.’ It surely didn’t help that Robespierre ironically enough “railed against the bloody excesses he had observed during the Terror”, thus effectively putting the blame on others for this than, as deserved, he himself. And given the way in which these committees had been authorized to summarily act against any such suspected person, and since Robespierre had not given any names (probably because he couldn’t with evidence), the members of the Convention became fearful that any of them could be declared Suspects and thus be arrested and summarily put to death, without condemning evidence or any, or an extensive, trial (e.g. not allowing for all witnesses to testify). So they therefore saw the effectively widely accusing Robespierre himself as the threat, and they therefore self-preservatingly turned against him and, later upon deliberated pondering, called for his own arrest and execution....
....and that is exactly what capitally happened to Robespierre (along with 21 of his closest associates) on July 28, 1794, [most strikingly, only ca. 50 days after the/his (somewhat, and probably contributively, still irritating) celebration of his “Cult of the Supreme Being” on June 8, 1794], and then other allies of his in Paris on July 29 [5]5
It is said that:
“For historians of revolutionary movements, the term Thermidor has come to mean the phase in some revolutions when power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership and a radical regime is replaced by a more conservative regime, sometimes to the point where the political pendulum may swing back towards something resembling a pre-revolutionary state.”
Well from then on, while France did not swing back to re-establishing a Monarchy, in matters of Religion and the Church (=the Elijah Witness), gradual changes and actions were taken to allow for a free-willed return to one’s prior Christian belief and practice if they so wanted to, as seen in the following timeline events:
1794
September 18, 1794: The Convention stops paying officially-sanctioned (i.e. jurist) priests and stops maintaining church properties.
1795
February 17: An amnesty granted to former Vendéen rebels restoring freedom of religion.
February 21: On a proposal by (Calvinist) Boissy d'Anglas, the Convention proclaims freedom of religion and the separation of church and state and legalizing public worship, (albeit with strict limitations. The ringing of church bells, religious processions and displays of the Christian cross were still forbidden).
So these paradigm shifting events, in the sudden, and most ironic, uprising against Maximillien Robespierre on July 26, 1794, followed the next day by vote by the French Convention to arrest him on July 27, 1794, and ending in his execution on July 28, 1794, and which came to be an end to the Reign of Terror (with, also ironically, a “White Terror” to later arise between February 2-June 27, 1795 against those who had been associated with the Reign of Terror, with the seeds of this reaction having started to be planted on August 1, 1794 with the series of political arrests right upon that coup against the Robespierre regime), and which gradually allowed for a return back to a freedom of religion and worship is seen as the beginnings of the 3.5 prophetic day = 3.5 literal years.[6]6 ...The case for a definite date of precisely one these three candidates will be made later.
It may be objectingly asked/claimed, that this period of 3.5 prophetic days when ‘a remnant people will be looking at the killed/dead bodies of the Two Witnesses’ should have begun right upon their killing, which has been shown earlier at Rev 11:3 to be when the Law of Suspects had been passed on September 17, 1793 which began the Reign of Terror. Or even, as explained earlier at Rev 11:7, when the war against the Catholic and Royal Army of the rebels in the Vendee Region of France was final ended in December 1793. But as the prophetic statement here in Rev 11:9 only specifies how long for the ‘called out remnant people will be glancingly looking at the dead bodies of the Two Witnesses. In order words, the bodies of these killed witnesses may have lied there for a while before that emerged remnant would have begun to “glancingly” pay attention to them.
According to the understanding here, this is indeed what specifically happened. Perhaps it was the chilling effect of the Law of Suspect and the Reign of Terror which led even up to then adherents of the Bible and Christianity to now not even dare appear to be faithful followers. So in those 10 months since Sept 17, 1793 (or the ca. 6-7 months since the war end of Dec 1793) till the ending of the Reign of Terror these (secret) Christian adherents now did not even dare to seem to be interested in anything Biblical or Christian thing, but starting from the watershedding events of July 26-28, 1794, they increasingly became free to do so. Indeed the formal decision on February 17/21, 1795 to allow for the Freedom of Religion and Worship most likely came from an increasing populace returning back to Christianity which just had to be democratically recognized by the French Government. As it has been rightly encapsulated in a historical work:
“The period that began with the fall of Robespierre and ended with the second victory of the Republicans through the coup d'etat of 18th Fructidor VI. (September 4th, 1797) [discussed later] it was for France a renewal of its religious life, but for the head of the Church and the Papal States it was the beginning of a deep humiliation.” (Pastor, p. 289 (1899))
This event/period would indeed be the ‘beginning of the end’ for the Roman Catholic Church leadership and its territorial foothold. So the 3.5 days period does start in July 26-28, 1794 [7]7 ...
Rev 11:10 - But the ones dwelling upon the earth will rejoice over them and will celebrate and they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tortured the ones dwelling upon the earth.
the ones dwelling upon the earth - This clearly cannot be literalistically referring to ‘all of the inhabitants of the world’ as Rev 11:9 just above has stated that many will be respectfully looking at these dead bodies. So the Spiritual definition of Jesus in John 15:18-19, 17:14-16; is to be distinguishingly applied here showing that these ‘earth dweller’ are those who are “of this world/age”, i.e. “worldings”....and what ‘set these ones apart’ from the world is: ‘the Truth in/of the Word of God’ (John 17:17)!!
So either non-Bible believers, (or applicably even Bible-Believers who do not actually have/understand the Truths of God’s Word, fall into this ‘hatefully’ (John 15:18-19) oppositional camp. Cf. in this post at Ezek 39:24 in relation to the present (post-1844 Eschatological) wave of application.)
rejoice and celebrate over them... - Clearly this group is happy about the fate of the Two Witnesses. But from the drastically contrasting reaction in Rev 11:9 versus the one here, moreover given that the faithful ones in the prior verse have enough authority and power to prevent the death-sealing act of burying the Two Witnesses, all demonstrate that some degree of religious freedom, both for and against the Bible and Christianity, has indeed by now come to be the state of accepted public policy.
tortured the earth dwellers - This involves compelling these worldlings to confess to the Truth. This was really a self-inflicted torturing as Revolutionary France painfully learned from their Atheistic and Paganistic State, Religion and Society experiment. But as this is just as the Bible had been testifying and prophesying would happen, then these worldlings are here doing the patent reactionary thing of rebels against God Word of “blasphemously” faulting and blaming God for not having more clearly warned them of the consequences of them rebelling against Him and His Word...and all the while, while vexatiously choosing not to repent. (Cf. Rev 16:21; 9:20-21). As indeed patently typical, they are rather incensed that God would ever enter into judgement against them.
send gifts... - The term “gifts” here Greek: doron (Strongs #1435) has the specific connotation of a religious “offering” (e.g. Matt 5:23; 23:18-19; Heb 9:9). It is related to the Greek: doma (Strongs #1390) which specifically refers to “presents” (e.g. Matt 7:11|Luke 11:13) as both of these terms are derived from the same verbal term “give” Greek: didomi (Strongs #1325). Doma speaks of the ‘initiative granting of something of worth’, but doron involves ‘the paying up of something that is due’, indeed just as in religious offerings.
So here these worldlings are duly sending religious like offering to others throughout the Earth who like them are rejoicing over this demise of this Testimony of God in His Word. Clearly this offering fuels/seals/validates their “euphoric” reaction. It therefore is contributive to their celebratory happy state of mind. Thus, as is involved in the ‘present’ of the Holy Spirit by Christ in Eph 4:8 (=Psa 68:18), this ‘religious due’ offering exchange is a communicating of spirits, as in a ‘meeting of the minds’, as in the necessary sharing of a common ideology.
Therefore it can be seen that these worldlings are here celebrating because they believe that, despite their own recent setbacks their movement of defiant opposition to the word of God is still successful. And while they may have allowingly recognized that the Bible should be allowed to be freely used by some as a moral guide from them which can be of benefit to society in general, they clearly do not see any reason to also do so themselves.
French Revolution Fulfillment: So this here is speaking of the founded secular humanism ideology of Revolutionary France that is still being heralded by some (worldly-minded) people. And this is in an open taunt to the Bible, which they themselves deem to be a “dead letter”, just as they had deemed for their opposition movement.
Indeed the Secularism, Atheism and Libertinism which France engendered then in their late-18th century Revolution, would remain and increasingly spread the throughout like-minded, -so-called “Free Thinker”, people throughout the rest of the world. [Indeed starting even in 1798, with an attempt in Switzerland to emulate the Secular Republic of France for their Helvetic Republic]
Seventh Series
At this point in the Interlude, -as shown in the organizational charting, the next 3(+1) verses (Rev 11:11-13, 14) are part of the Seventh Series of that Interlude. As with the other main Seventh Series in the book of Revelation, this is the point where a Seven Events Series is finally resolved, patently with the direct Supernatural intervention of God. So this is what is to be expected here in these upcoming prophesied denouements in regards to the ordeal of the Two Witnesses.
Rev 11:11 - But after the 3.5 days a breath of life from God came into them, and they stood (established) upon their feet; and a great fear fell upon the ones who were observing them.
But after the 3.5 days - The completed reckoning of the 3.5 days will be given at the beginning of Rev 11:13, and as already explained in Rev 11:9, it had started between July 26-28, 1794, therefore, by simple reckoning it can be see that the 3.5 days = 3.5 years ended between January 25-27, 1798, but this verse is now stipulating that these statements are to take place “after” this time period has run out. So after this endpoint date.
a breath of life from God - This is the “Supernatural/Divine Intervention” element.
stood (established) upon their feet - First of all, as explained here, this “standing” is not one of mere posture position, but more deeply a notion of “being established”.
With these elements of: dead and unburied bodies on the ground; a breath of life from God; standing on their feet , it can be exegetically seen that Ezekiel’s Vision of the Dry Bones in Ezek 37:1-14 is here being alluded to. As understood from that vision, it is a representation of the armies of the seemingly soundly defeated and dead Israel of God, both the Northern Kingdom Israel and the Southern Kingdom Judah. (=Ezek 37:11) But God commands Ezekiel to prophesy the “word of the Lord” on this fallen army (Ezek 37:4). This “breath of life from God” is to come from one of the Four Winds (Ezek 37:9), and Rev 7:1-3 and 20MR 269.2; ML 308.1-5 prophetically show that these Four Winds represent various forms of calamities, and also strife which themselves are actuated in the ‘unrestrained passions of men’, as seen in various shades of war. And the result on this resurrection is the reconstitution of an “exceedingly great army”. (Ezek 37:10) As this “breath of Life from God” is actually “God’s Spirit” (Ezek 37:14), then it can be figured out that what produces this resurrection is a Divine Spiritual perceiving and understanding of what is produced by one of the Four Winds being made to blow.
Really the only major and striking substantive/thematic difference between the imagery of Ezekiel’s Dry Bone and the Two Witnesses is that the bodies of the Two dead Witnesses here have not decomposed to bare bones as had the defeated army of Israel. This is naturally reflective of how relative recently the Two Witnesses had suffered their deadly blow, and how God more immediately acted to rescue them, i.e. before their dead bodies decomposed and rotted, unlike Israel and Judah who were allowed to be dead for a long time before God stepped in to overturn their fate. The Southern Kingdom had its “resurrection” upon their return from their 70-year Babylonian Captivity; and it can be seen that in the Gospel going out to Gentile People on top of Jews starting from the First Century A.D. Advent of Christ, the Northern Kingdom had its, at least Spiritual, resurrection. It is that ‘Gentile Kingdom’ which went on to form the major part of the New Testament Church, but which eventually devolved into the Spiritual Babylon apostasy, which here had contributed to the infliction of this deadly blow to the Two Witnesses who were trying to reform them. So in the resurrecting of those Two Witnesses, God would be able to revive the True Testimony which would reform His Spiritually dead Israel. That is, both the Southern realm, which can be seen as the Moses (=Law) Witness, and the Northern realm, which can be seen as the Elijah (=Church) Witness.
great fear fell...those observing them - Unlike the mere “glancing” stipulated in Rev 11:9, here a deeper looking is involved, a ‘look with perceiving/understanding’, thus from an “observation” (=Greek theoreo -Strongs #2334). So those who “get it” here, with the result of ‘fear falling upon them’, are not those who had been merely, even passingly, but respectfully, glancing at those Two dead Witnesses, and had not been permitted them to be buried, but those who went much deeper, and had been observing them. So it can be understood that they had stood by those dead bodies for those 3.5 days to observe them, and now they witnessed their resurrection.
French Revolution Fulfillment: In short, this verse is speaking of those in both France and in the wider world, who had returned to paying attention to the Bible pointedly at this point after the apogee of the French Revolution had been reached, and of those, the ones who engaged in deeper Bible studies now observed the Word of God coming back to life and in the manifest prophesying of a coming major/pivotal confrontation and conflict upon the Earth.
In regards to events leading up to these culminating dates of January 25-27, 1798, the SDA Christian historical researcher Leroy E. Froom did a great job of documenting various bible/prophecy expositors of that time who were seeing from their renewed study of the Bible impelled by the seeming apocalyptic developments that had been going on in France with its, Spiritually-concerning, Atheistic & Libertine Revolution and the ensuing ruthless and bloody Reign of Terror, and they were variously seeing/understanding that the Papacy was surely soon to fall, and that France would likely be the power which brings about this Fall. See detailing in Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers Vol 2:741.2-747.2 (Original Book) [8]8 (See also Froom’s citing/listing (Ch. 32/pp. 2:723-730; partly reposted here) of 17+ even earlier [i.e. during 1644 to 1794 A.D.] various predicting statements [not all exegetically and/or interpretatively correct] by Bible prophecy expositors about a looming: ‘France vs. Rome/Papacy’ clash.).
And do most significantly note the irony of all of these key developments in this prophetic time period of these 3.5 days=years, pointedly as is was prophesied to be involved in Rev 11:6:
(1) Maximillien Robespierre had set out to achieve “virtue”, i.e. “the quality of doing what is right [a.k.a. righteousness] and avoiding what is wrong”, not by allowing the principles in the Word of God (which are not always in concordance with the teaching and traditions of the Catholic Religion), but instead by deliberately having set it, and its Christianity (cf. John 1:1-3) aside, [i.e. for his humanistic Cult of the Supreme Being], and culminating in the institution of his ‘Virtuous “Terror”’, and his own measures ended up executing him...
(2) France in general had set out to replace the Word of God as being dead and obsolete, and now they were unwittingly being set up to act in fulfillment of its long predicted, major prophetic event, even as the coopted (=Isa 46:11a) ‘army of the Israel of God’.
(3) And even more widely in these Rev 11 developments, the Roman Catholic Church had effectively made null and void the Word of God, and persecutively put to death anyone who would preach it pure and unadulterated by man’s opinion/wisdom, and now the Word of God was being fulfilling towards dealing to it a widely-witnessed deadly blow.
And this is all what careful students of the Bible and its prophecy could, and indeed were, beginning to perceive and figure out. As thee 3.5 years kept progressing, the faith of such Bible students in the Bible could confidently grow. These are the prophesied “observing” ones who came to fearfully see that the Word of God was ‘coming to life’, and, like the alluded to resulting “exceedingly great army” in Ezekiel’s Vision, God’s word (cf. Rev 19:15), was due to bring about an “earthshaking” development, -which would really/indeed have to be of militaristic proportions.
Rev 11:12 - And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” And they ascended into heaven in the cloud and their enemies observed them.
great voice out of Heaven - This is the (audible) “Voice of God” which patently “shakes the heavens and/or the Earth’ (-discussed here); such as with the ‘shaking of the powers of Europe. (EW 41.1-2). When God makes His Voice audibly heard from Heaven, it is because He is about to effectuate a major shift in the affairs of Earth, or even in Heaven (=Spiritual Matters). (Heb 12:26-27)
“Come up here” - This echoes what had been stated in Rev 4:1ff, after the fate of the First Century Seven Churches had been observed (Rev 2-3). As in Rev 4:1, this involves God about to show/reveal to His prophetic envoys “what is to take place after these things”. What follows in Rev 4:1ff is a revelation of what God would work to accomplish during the now post-First Century prolonged time of Church History. Of course the prophecy of the Seven Churches in Rev 2-3 also come to have a (Spiritual) refulfillment in Church History.
So likewise here, this “Come up here” instruction comes at the ending the Christian Church’s Historical development, which it has failed, even managing to cause injury to the Truthful Word/True Witnesses of God, but from this point here, God plans to reveal what is to next take place in His actions to repair and restore what had been damaged by Babylon and AntiChrist in Church History.
they ascended into heaven in the cloud - Only two people in the Bible ascended into heaven in a cloud, Elijah (2 Kgs 2:9-12) and Jesus (Acts 1:9). Both were taken up however without having completed their intended prophetic mission on Earth. This task was left for others to fulfilled. And so, answering the question which ended the commentary on Rev 11:11 above, though the Word of God had prophesied that a militaristic earthshaking event in favor of His Witnesses would take place, it would not be an army of them who would take the field.
their enemies observed them - The enemies of the Two Witnesses were now, in the light of this miraculous witness, looking at them with perception and understanding. They would therefore have some comprehension into what their message and prophesy was about. They would here been seen as God’s True Witnesses, and others who are not like them as apostates and impostors.
French Revolution Fulfillment: By the year 1796 the Social and Militaristic Imperialistic Power of France had reached a climatic point against the Religiously and Societally Influential Power of its main foe, the Roman Catholic Church and its, albeit waning, Holy Roman Empire vestige as still manifested in its (Italian) Papal States. Not merely were the Secularizing and Atheistic actions taken by France during its Revolution pointedly at odds and hostile to this majority religion of Catholicism, but the extending influence of the Church was such that adherence to it would naturally set people against France and its Revolution.
France and/through its military general in Italy then, Napoleon Bonaparte, saw it as crucial to their Imperial Ambitions to not only push back and contain the influence the Papal State to within Italy itself, but, as France also wanted to spread its Revolutionary ideology to interested people groups located on the Italian Peninsula, they were increasingly seeing it as necessary to divest the Papal Authority of the territories it held outside of Rome which led it to continue to think that it was still a political world power, and in which it was inciting adhering people to resist and oppose the advances of France.
So by 1796, the French Directory began to unfurl its intentions to act towards limiting, even overthrowing/abolishing if left no other cooperating choice, the Papal Authority. As Fernand Mourret states:
“When the Directory came to power the situation had changed. One of its principal aims was the destruction of the Papal authority, both spiritual and temporal. Harking back to the threat of war, it decided that Bonaparte, who during the past few weeks had won its complete confidence was, with his energy and ambition, the man best suited to carry out the project. In a communication dated February 3rd, 1796, he was invited to consider the idea of destroying Rome as a scourge in the hands of fanaticism; it was not a definite instruction and was only to be acted on if opportunity offered.”
(Histoire générale de I'Église, Paris, 1913 VII p.251. -also cited/quoted in here (p.293))
But Napoleon was more of a pragmatist than an ideologue....(albeit more in the sense of: whatever means allowed France to realize and effectuate its secularist policies which they deemed would be best conducive to stability, prosperity and peace), and although he was quite blunt and forceful in his exchanges with the Papal Power that France would not tolerate the ongoing opposition and interference incited by the Papacy against its imperial affairs,* when he got an “opportunity” to come to a peaceful resolution, he took advantage of it.
* See e.g. Napoleon’s October 21, 1796 letter to Rome’s Diplomat Cardinal Alessandro Mattei after Rome had refused the latest demands of France for a peaceful resolution, in which he coldly states: ‘Rome is (instead) arming itself. She wants war. She will get it.’ and: ‘Given the known forces and power of the army which he command, to destroy the temporal power of the Pope....he will only have to will it.’ (But Napoleon’s purpose in this letter was to make another appeal to a peaceful resolution, ‘given,’ as he states, ‘the inevitable ravages of war on the general population’).
And that opportunity ended up in the February 19, 1797 Peace Treaty of Tolentino. (See the full text of the treaty in Napoleon’s Letter #1511 [pp.444-449]; relatedly, see also his writing about it to the Pope in Letter #1512 [pp.449-450]).
Napoleon had of his own discretion and initiative, differing from the will the French Directory, come to this peaceful resolution with Rome, but in his ensuing informing and explaining correspondence to them (see Letter #1510 pp.442-444) he rationalized that given the severe terms of the treaty, this peaceful approach would end up having the same results as would have a direct military overthrow. He says:
‘My opinion is that Rome, once deprived of [‘its 3 best/most beautiful provinces of:’] Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna, [which included the newly created, France-allied, Cisalpine Republic] and of the 30 million which we are taking away from it, will no longer be able to exist: that old machine will wreck itself.’ (p.442, cf. p.443)
However, given how Rome had previously repeatedly reneged on its understandings and deals with France, Napoleon clear-eyedly went on to state that: ‘it may be possible that he has been mistaken in opting for this deal (but he still had not sacrificed for his glory the interest of his country)’. (p.443)
All this prefacing to say and show that despite this binding Peace Treaty understanding between France and the Papal Power, which capstoned the developed fact that by now Revolutionary France had come to grant that the Bible should be unbanned, -thus allowed to live and function, and Christians should be free to practice their religion, they nonetheless went on to have ongoing issue of non-reconciled differences and tensions with the Roman Catholic Church and its Papacy. (On this, see the works of e.g. Pastor (pp.325-330ff)||Duppa (pp.6-10ff)||Bourgoing (pp.319-326ff)||Baldassari (pp.134-143ff). Clearly this all basically stemmed from the overall policy of France continuing to be towards the secularization of the State/Government, while Rome, on the other side, was continuing to feel that it had a Divine Right, even Mandate, to fully exercise Religious Temporal Power with Territorial possession. Manifestly Rome had agreed to this Peace Treaty as a much better option than war, and perhaps were seeing this effective concession from France as Divine Providence, but that (would) only serve to embolden them in their Resistance to Secularizing France. (Cf. a recent Catholic Herald magazine article on: “How Catholics brought Napoleon to his knees”.)
So it really merely was a matter of time when, in the late summer of 1797, on September 3-4, open clashes between Secular France and the Catholic Religion reignited. Revolutionaries in the French Government, in, what has come to be known as, the 18 Fructidor Coup, executed a pre-emptive purge against suspected conspiratorial pro-Royalist, and Catholic Church-endorsed factions in the government which they said were trying to overturn the revolution and reestablish the monarchy.
This rift revived the earlier persecutive and marginalizing measures taken against certain suspects, pointedly within the leadership of the Catholic Church. This time around however, there were no penalties of executions, but rather, so-dubbed “dry guillotine”, expulsions and banishments of these clergymen from France to harsh (especially for them) French-jurisdictional/territorial locations elsewhere in the world.[9]9
Then, in a September 29, 1797 correspondence (#2266 p.466||English:#47 p.43), -which, pertinently enough, is prefaced with how: ‘the French Republic had been generous at Tolentino, and that it would not happen again in similar circumstances’, Napoleon instructed his (older) brother Joseph Bonaparte, -then, (through Napoleon’s influence) Ambassador of France in Rome, that ‘if the [then 79-year old] Pope, Pius VI, should die, Joseph should do all in his power to prevent the election of new pope and that a Revolution takes place’....And in the case that he is not able to accomplish this Revolution, and there is no way of preventing a new pope to be elected, ‘he should staunchly object that Cardinal Giuseppe Albani be elected as a new Pope, or else he, Napoleon, would instantly march on Rome.’ (p.467||Eng. p.48) That was because Cardinal Albani was accused by France of being complicit in the assassination of French “outspoken revolutionary” Diplomat Nicolas de Basseville back in 1793, -lynched by a Roman crowd, for having had, the day before, “indulged in a provocative display of the tricolour, symbol of French anti-clerical republicanism.”
All of these tangible clashings came to a climatic head in mid-November 1797 when Napoleon, also of his own discretionary initiative, decidedly threatened the Pope with war and the invasion of Rome. (See the following related official communiques of Napoleon on this issue: #2365 (pp.583-584)||#2366 (pp.584-585)||#2371 (pp.587-589)). And it can be seen that by then France, along with Napoleon himself, were seeing it as in their best national interest to, one day, and the sooner the better, go ahead and do overthrow the Papal Rule/Government in Rome. And, from then, in the subsequent various government initiated and sanctioned subversive actions against the temporal rule of the Papacy, they had resolved to, by whatever opportuning/actionable reason/excuse, and through whatever biting and achievable measure, accomplish this end...
...And by late-December 1797, they had their actionable “excuse/reason”:
Note: What follows is a succinct summary of primary/contemporary sources and secondary but researched/sourced historical accounts (themselves based on and/or citing primary sources) with a brief, hyperlinked, bibliography given in this Note #10[10]10 [As the account of Jules Gendry from his 1906 biography of Pope Pius VI is comprehensively detailed, and robustly primarily sourced, -citing many unpublished contemporary documents from the “Secret” Vatican Archives [cf. this documentary], of all of the cited works in this supplied mini bibliography, this would be the recommended reading work (i.e. pp. 284-307). Since it is written in French, viewing these pages in their plain text mode, and then copying&pasting it in Google Translate should be (better-than-nothing) helpful.] {An associated Youtube comment discussion response of mine (succinctly) relates the same preluding historical development.}
As related e.g. here|here|here, an anti-French riot broke out in Rome on December 27, 1797. But what is commonly not mentioned as a, actually inciting, background to this riot is that it was actually deliberately instigated by the calculated provocative actions of French Ambassador in Rome Joseph Bonaparte, enjoined by French General Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, who was at the command of an “agitator squad/troops” sent directly by the Directory in Paris. And so, and for a while now, they had been engaging in “continual” pro-Republican Revolution parties in their Palace of Sora (which was only ca. 400 feet from the (Counter Reformation) Chiesa Nouva Catholic Church, and less than a mile from the Vatican) inviting all of the ‘political malcontents, partisans of new/revolutionary ideas and enemies of the pontifical government’. Relatedly, earlier in December, France had taken actions which had violated part of their terms in the Treaty of Tolentino by having allowed Polish troops enrolled by France, and their allied Cisalpine Republic, to occupy the small Republic of Saint-Léon. So France was variously acting to spark a populace, anti-Papal Government uprising in Rome, and through even bribing means. And they had December 27 circled on their calender to try to achieve this popular revolutionary insurrection.
As that attempt failed that night, they decided to try again the next night: December 28, 1798. Incitive cheers of ‘Long Live Liberty’; ‘Long Live Equality’; ‘Long Live the French Republic’ and ‘Long Live the Roman Republic’ were used...and...fast-forwarding to the plot...a riot ended up breaking out, and during the scuffling, General Duphot, -who (some other accounts say/claim) had just been merely injured by a gunshot, was murderously “dispatched with papal bayonets” (Froom 2:751n10; note 10 source). News of the riot and murder was written up, (some [rightly] say (e.g. Baldassari 158-159): ‘exaggeratingly/distortingly so, -and for calculated inciting purposes’), then sent to France, by Ambassador Joseph Bonaparte (after he had left Rome to relocate in Florence, Italy [ca. 179 miles away]) on January 1, 1798, (Gendry, p.289n1), along with an apology that Pope Pius VI had issued the next day (December 29). Manifestly these communications reached French’s (5-member executive/governing committee called) The Directory in Paris (some 858 miles away) between January 8-10, but it is said that: “its effect on the Directory in particular was like a spark in a barrel of gunpowder.” Moreover newspaper publishing caused the population to also join in on the outcry. The Pope’s apology did not help as it was misconstrued as the Papacy taking responsibility for the murder. So they proceeded to direct their Military Commander-in-Chief Napoleon Bonaparte, who had recently returned to Paris in late December, to not merely send a military contingent to Rome to punish those responsible, but to also depose the Pope, abolish the Papacy (i.e. do not allow the College of Cardinals to elect a new Pope), and convert Rome into a Roman Republic. [Looks like they had their “justifying 9/11 Event” for their long desired pontifical regime change in Rome.]
So Napoleon set out to execute that Directive: He issued an Order, and detailing instructions in a January 11, 1798 correspondence [#2404 pp.626-631] [11]11 to his General, and good friend, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, who, (according to Gendry p.290.1a), would be starting his march from Rimini, Italy [12]12 -which was ca. 721 miles away from Paris. In these war plans, Napoleon is clear to tell Berthier to keep his ultimate Papal Overthrow and Roman Republic intentions secret (as well as the military contingent’s march towards Rome (I guess ‘as secret as possible’, because that “secret” advance became evidently well known/seen, including by those in Rome. In fact it is said that some people from the villages and towns that this military contingent was passing by would engage them in minor oppositional skirmishes; no doubt easily figuring out what ca. 13,000 French soldiers marching towards Rome were going to do. [Another 3,000 Italian+4,000 Polish=7,000 soldiers were to remain stationed in Rimini as readied reinforcement if necessary, especially if Naples joined the fight])), and to use lies and deceptive reassurances whenever needed....which is exactly what Berthier did throughout.
Beyond just trying, through this, to lessen any opposition from troops in Rome, Napoleon was concerned about the recent rebellious opposition he was getting from the king of the Kingdom of Naples, King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, who had approached himself to the imperiled Papal Government. Napoleon was concerned that King Ferdinand would join in the fight on the otherwise militarily very weak Papacy’s side, and an actual/real and protracted war would then break out. So earlier on that same day, he also wrote a correspondence [#2403 #624-625] to his General Guillame Brune and clearly instructed him to go to Naples and, in no uncertain terms, make it known to the King of Naples what would be the consequence if he chose to side and fight with/for the Papacy. In short: ‘there would be war with the Kingdom of Naples, (along with his joint territory of the Kingdom of Sicily), and that would most likely be terrible for King Ferdinand)’....
As an overview point of reference and clarifying illustration, the following is a charting of various mentioned details (i.e. in Gendry’s account [pp.290-292] and Napoleon’s Order+Instructions [pp. 626-631]) about this march of the French Military Contingent towards/upon Rome. Its #1-#9 main entries will be expounded upon, as necessary, in further detail in the ensuing discussing.
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| Dated Itinerary of Berthier’s Military March on Rome (1798) |
First of all, #1: going by the fact that Gendry mentions the start of Berthier’s march just before a dated mention of January 16, 1798, and corroborating information about General Berthier from a January 24, 1798 responding correspondence [#2410 p.637] by Napoleon where he is pleased to hear that Berthier ‘had set out in his march towards Rome’, as Napoleon letter had been written, and likely also dispatched on January 11, 1798 and 13 days later he was responding to a response he had gotten about it, then the midpoint date between these correspondence of ca. January 16, 1798 does indeed seem to be the date when Berthier and his contingent began this march.
An overarchingly key factor here is that Napoleon had told Berthier to march at a “forced pace”. With the normative human walking speed being ca. 3.1 mph, it can be assumed that a military’s normal marching pace who are carrying personal packs, supply stock and weapons would be slightly slower than that, perhaps around 2.0 mph, but a “forced march” would tick that rate up back around slightly over 2.5 mph. So a rate of 2.65 mph seems to be proper here.
Napoleon jointly ordered Berthier to march in “long days”, thus perhaps around10-12 hours of walking per day, instead of a normative 8 hours.
As seen in the charting about, these factors are verified when used in conjunction with the various known dates of arrival [=dates in navy blue-bold] at some stops: I.e. normative full days of 12 hours of walking.
Now summarizingly stating the traveling of this itinerary:
-Upon starting off from Rimini, Berthier divided his contingent in two colonies. One was to go, -effectively ahead, southward from Rimini through the Furlo Pass and then through Perugia towards their preliminary destination of Foligno [=a 112 mile route] where they were going to (manifestly: wait for) meet up with the second colony, in which Berthier was.
#2-#4: Berthier’s (and his second) colony would #2 first head southeastward towards Ancona, [=62 miles] -as instructed by Napoleon where Berthier would complete his ordered total marching troop number of 13,000. Then, as Napoleon told him, as soon as he had had enough men in Ancona, including the force which was to remain there, he was to #3 set out towards Rome. Berthier would go further southeast on the road towards Loreto, Marche [=16 miles], and then #4 turn westward towards the meet up of Foligno [=69 miles]
Having met up there with the first colony, they were going to continue their march towards #5 Terni [=34 miles] then #6 Narni [=8 miles].
At first, #5 near Terni, the ambassador of Naples, the “prince of Belmonte” having left from Rome on January 22, 1798 had a brief meeting with Berthier. (=ca. January 23, 1798) Afterwards, as he was heading back to Rome, he met with the 3 person delegation from the Pope, (1 Vicar-Cardinal and 2 princes) who he had left Rome shortly ahead of them, and he informed them that Berthier would not have a meeting with them. They insisted on still going and they found Berthier now at #6 Narni. As warned of, Berthier refused to meet with them, but only met with the Naples Ambassador again. The group then returned back to Rome which was 53 miles away, and reached there by the night of January 24, 1798 (surely traveling by (horses-drawn) stagecoach which has a speed of 5 mph and a 60-70 miles/day limit range. Therefore this was feasible one-day’s range trip from Rome, which took only a ca. 11-hour return trip from Narni) In the morning (January 25, 1798), they related to the Pope the results of their trip.
#7 Following those meeting, the full contingent then marched closer to Rome, moving 32 miles closer to Monterosi reaching it on January 25, 1798.
Now Berthier’s instruction from Napoleon (p. 629.2), was that he had to make a stop when he would be 2 days journey (=ca. 64 miles) from Rome, and from there he would, in Napoleon’s words: ‘threaten the Pope and all the members of the Government in Rome who had made themselves guilty/liable of the “greatest of all crimes”, in order to inspire fear in him and make him flee Rome’. But with this stop at Monterosi being 29 miles out from Rome, this stop, and declaration, should have been made back at Terni which was 61 miles out from Rome. But it seems that in the uncalled for encounter that Berthier had with the Naples Ambassador at Terni, then again at Narni, -(and with also the Vatican delegation also attempting a meeting), and during which, as Duppa, pp.31-33 relates, Berthier had then only spoken soothing and reassuring words to the Ambassador for the Pope, i.e that he would only be seeking to arrest those who had committed the murder of General Duphot, it may seem that Berthier still had some concerns about the involvement of the King of Naples in the affair, and so chose to both tone down his declaration/statement then, and to also move up closer to Monterosi.
But a further odd thing is that, as it is known, from all accounts/records agreeing that Berthier and his troops did not reach the immediate vicinity (gates) of Rome until February 9, 1798, and as it surely did not take the French army “15 days” to cover these final 29 miles in their march on Rome (they could have easily covered it in just ca. 11 hours), then, for “some” reason, -considered later, Berthier and his troops went on to stay in Monterosi for the next 15 days (I.e. from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8/9).
But before later dealing with that oddity, it can here be chronologically seen, -from this this calculated/reckoned itinerary of the March on Rome, that Berthier came to this (albeit odd) extended stop/pause in his march on Rome on January 25, 1798.[13]13 And that dovetails with the “Ending-1” reckoning of the 3.5 days=years prophetic period:
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| Charting of the 3.5 days of Rev 11:9 |
[The appended “+15 Days-1|2|3” sections will be explained in detail in the next verse’s (i.e. Rev 11:13's) commentary].
At this point either Bible believer or unbeleiver, could nonetheless see that something portentous and consequential was about to take place here, pointedly upon the clear insistence of France to keep on marching upon Rome, i.e. from the turned down attempts for manifestly a Peace Treat Resolution in the meetings at Terni and Narni. The theme of the 3.5 day=year time period was a time for people to, even if merely cursorily, ‘glancingly look upon God’s Word for an expected triumph’, and that is what especially Prophecy-studying Christians outside of France were doing. And this warring march certainly heightened their faith.
And the tangible, Spiritual involvement here of this Rev 11:12 passage was seen in the reality that, by having effectively come to what was a/the Biblical understanding of what God’s True Testimony about Church and State was, France had effectively come to see that what the Papacy was continue to do in their Church+State affairs was not really Biblically valid. Though by now, France had Religious respect for Christianity, and also the Catholic Church, they did not accept these persisting Church encroachments in State Affairs. So the only permanent solution they saw, and which the riot and its murderous outcome offered them the perfect pretext to execute, was in the complete removal of the Papacy from his inherently temporal chair/position. So effectively, France came to unwittingly, -but through some applicable Biblical comprehension, decide to carry out the militaristic ‘earth-shaking’ agenda that God had revealed through His now resurrected, but ascended, Two Witnesses.
So God would thus be using even the most strident enemies of His Word to accomplish His Judgement Work. See this principle at work in Psa 110 [discussed in here] for the ascended Jesus (e.g. via the Romans against the rebellious Jews and Jerusalem); and 1 Kgs 19:15-17 [discussed here] for the ascended Elijah (via especially the Arameans against apostate Northern Israel).
Rev 11:13 - And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth of the city fell and seven thousand names of men were killed in the earthquake. And the ones who remained became fearful and gave glory to the God of Heaven.
in that hour - The notion of “effectuated judgement” is often mentioned with/as an “hour” in Revelation (Rev 14:7; 3:3, 10; cf. Rev 8:1; 14:15 =Second Coming), pointedly in God’s dealings against Babylon (Rev 17:12; 18:10, 17, 19), but as previously introduced at this section’s Rev 11:3's Note #3: when God wants to involve a precise “to the day” prophetic fulfillment, this smallest of prophetic time symbology is then also cited. It is here proposed and substantiated that the “hour” mention in this verse is indeed also relating to a judgement, but also involves chronological time, namely that 1 hour = 15 literal days.
in - And this verse is here stipulating that what will take place will have transpire “in {Greek en} that hour”, that is ‘some time within those 15 days of judgement’.
that - Additionally, one of three types of “demonstrative pronouns”, (see Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics pp. 325-328ff), is here used, translated as “that”(=Greek: ekeinos). This is the remote demonstrative pronoun, as opposed to the proximate one: Greek houtos, or the proleptic/anticipatory one: Greek ode. The proleptic ode would be anticipatorily indicating speaking of what is about to be said in Rev 11:13, and the proximate houtos would be referring to immediate preceding context of Rev 11:11-12 which is the time “after the 3.5 days”. The use of the remote ekeinos however is forcing a break here which creates an separate context for the events in this verse. It is still “after” the 3.5 days but a distinct context is here being made here for Rev 11:13. So we can interpretively see that that “hour” (=15 days) is to be appended to the 3.5 days (=3.5 years). And what is said to take place in this verse is to occur within the 15 days of this appended time segment.
a great earthquake - this is to be seen as a symbol and interpreted, from the Bible (i.e. Heb 12:26-27) as” ‘God’s shaking of the powers of Earth so that what can remain will remain’. (Cf. EW 41.1-2). God’s prior/initial Earth Shaking Voicing had been when He, speaking at Mount Sinai (Heb 12:18-25ff), established Israel as a nation/kingdom in this Worlds Affairs having called them out of from under the rule of the then world hegemonic leader Egypt for this purpose. That action indeed had shaken the established order of things in the World. Well the present action is to also do the same, by shaken down and out what cannot remain. Similarly, in the end (i.e. the Seventh Plague Rev 16:17-21), that is how a then iconized Babylon (Rev 13:14-15) is displaced from its re-granted Earth ruling/reigning position (Rev 17:12-18).
the tenth of the city fell - The tenth is Biblically understood to be the ‘chief/leading part’ (=Isa 6:12-13) which, as involved in the tithing practice, is presented above the other 9 parts, as being most devoted to/for God. The city is, through antecedent tracing, the “Great City” of Rev 11:8, which is, comprehensively, Babylon (cf. Rev 16:19). So the leading part of this Babylon entity, even its “holy seed” (Isa 6:13), which patently had tentacles throughout world kingdoms (cf. Rev 17:18), would be the area which is most damagingly affected by this shaking of the Earth (i.e shaking of Earth Powers).
By pointedly mentioning/focusing on the “city” aspect of Babylon, the Divine Intelligence is here speaking of the affectation of its Civic territorial establishment and not its Religious ecclesiastic entity. So though Babylon would lose its Temporal footing and seat amongst other world nations, it still continued to exist intact as a (global) Spiritual/Church Body.
7000 names of men were killed - It would be the life of men who would be killed here, but their “name”, i.e. their status and thus their position. And unlike in the Elijah episode in 1 Kgs 19:18 from which this prophetic statement is based, whereas God was then able to “spare” 7000 men as they had not bowed the knee to Baal, in this judgement here, these men are not able to be spared, thus evidently as they had allowed themselves to be swept up in the idolatrous apostasy...In fact, by being amongst the ‘chief/leading part of this city that falls in this earthquake’, which is manifestly why these men suffer loss, they clearly were actually leaders in/of/for this apostasy!
So God here is targeting the leadership of Babylon in this ‘Earth Powers Shaking Event’. This entity evidently could not remain standing. Therefore it clearly had not followed the template of the Sinai Church+State Kingdom establishment by God. So, as indeed inherent with Babylon, it was clearly a Nation/Kingdom pretending to be God’s very own Establishment, that was not to be toppled down, by targeting the leading part of it.
“Jeremiah Witness” - By the way, this “hour” of fulfilment which is to involve the humbling and ‘dethroning’ of the leading part of Babylon, -which actually was God’s (NT/Spiritual) Israel then, thus a (NT/Spiritual) Jerusalem is fulfilling the earlier alluded to “Jeremiah Witness” in Rev 11:5a, as per Jer 1:9; 5:14-19ff.
“Jeremiah Witness” - By the way, this “hour” of fulfilment which is to involve the humbling and ‘dethroning’ of the leading part of Babylon, -which actually was God’s (NT/Spiritual) Israel then, thus a (NT/Spiritual) Jerusalem is fulfilling the earlier alluded to “Jeremiah Witness” in Rev 11:5a, as per Jer 1:9; 5:14-19ff.
-The Rev 11:5b Elijah II* Witness [*=for a potential Mal 4:4-6 last chance, ‘second advent’, of the 'full restoration Elijah message/warning'] fulfilled in the 3.5 days involved a priorly arrogantly and warringly oppositional entity/power gradually coming (back) to a humbled respect for God and His Word given the (effectively) self-inflicted judgements that they are suffering. I.e. as the dispatched military contingents gradually did in regards to Elijah (2 Kgs 1:1-16) and as Revolutionary France increasingly did in regards to Christianity and the Bible during that Rev 11:9 3.5 days = 3.5 years period.
These 4 other alluded to Prophets/Prophetic Episode Witnesses of Rev 11:5-6, {interestingly enough, cited there in reverse order of effectuation}, are summarized in the following table:
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| Prophets/Prophetic Episode Witnesses |
French Revolution Fulfillment: The symbols in Rev 11:13 here interpretingly really speak for themselves. These prophetic statements are seen to be fulfilled in what went on to happen when General Berthier and military contingent, resumed their ordered march on Rome (after that earlier mentioned: ‘odd 15-day stay in Monterosi’). As seen in Gendry’s account pp.292-295) Berthier’s troops reached the vicinity/gates of the city on February 9, 1798 and setup their camp on Monte Mario, while also securing access to the nearby Ponte Molle (Milvio) bridge, and right up to the northernmost Porta del Popolo Gate, from which they can enter into the then still-significantly walled-in city/built-up area of Rome. Berthier himself has set up his headquarters in the (urban) La Storta area [manifestly not the same area as the present (sub-urban) municipal zone which is ca. 15+ miles from Rome] while he himself is lodged at the Villa Mellini (cf. here) where the present Monte Mario Observatory is located, which is straightly only ca. 1.3 miles from Vatican City. At this lodging Villa, on the night of February 9, 1798, the Pope sends a delegation of 3 people (José Azara (a Spanish diplomat), Duke Luigi Braschi (who is Pope Pius VI’s nephew; -the Pope’s actual name was: Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi), and the Pope’s Cardinal Secretary of State: Gisuppe Doria Pamphili), the resolution of their meeting is that they agree that: in the morning, two princes, (Prince Giulio Gabrielli and Prince Vincenzo Giustiniani), will come to the Villa Milleni to hear Berthier’s/France’s formal Terms of Capitulation.
That is what happens that morning =February 10, 1798. -Gendry includes all of these 21 Terms in his account (pp.293-294). The various demands, more than (an-opportunistic) less, all revolve around the passing of measures, the call for various redresses, and the infliction of, also several severe, penalties in regards to dealing with the circumstances which led to a riotous outbreak causing the murder of General Duphot. The two princes then return to the Pope and relate to him those harsh demands and penalties. The matter is turned over to a “State Congregation” to decide what to do, and they come to the agreement/decision to go by all of the terms. Though “appalled” by those terms, the Pope goes along with the decision to comply to them. He was actually hoping that by such ready compliance and acceptance of responsibility for the murder of Duphot, he would be able to prevent the complete destruction of his Papal Government. The decision is then made official with the Colonel Baruichi being sent by the Pope to a parliamentary proceeding where Baruichi signed the capitulation terms on/for the Papal/Roman side, and General Jean-Baptiste Cervoni being the signer on/for the French side. Berthier and his troops then enter Rome, unopposed. (Blanchard (1800) pp.258-259 says that Berthier had paid off a small number of people in Rome to, in the name of the Roman People, invite him inside the city. And upon that “invitation” he entered.).
But in all of these dealings, Berthier, strategically enough, had made no mention, nor given a hint, of: ‘the Pope having to step down from his position and a Roman Republic to be formed’. That is all because Berthier is still being, just as he had been instructed by the French Directory through Napoleon, secretive about his/their real intentions now towards the Papal Government. Berthier first strategically wanted to have his troops enter Rome without any resistance or a fight, and once they were inside the city, occupied it and controlled it through a quasi-marshal law imposition, his plan to overthrow the Pope were to try to do it through a seemingly purely grassroot popular Republican Revolution uprising.
(Gendry pp.296-297ff): But to Berthier’s deception, -and despite French ‘agents provocateur’ (=“inciting agents”) having been sent throughout the populace to try to effect this “patriotic” insurrection, he quickly realizes that there is no such ‘seething spirit of liberty’ amongst the people. And on February 11, he mentions this ‘obstacle’ in a report to be sent to the French Directory stating that ‘he therefore does not see that the (organic) Revolution views/aims of the Directory for the Roman people can be achievable.’
Perhaps perceiving that it is the fear/religious respect of the people for the empowered Pope, Berthier, over the next couple of days, takes various decided measure to increasingly rein in, and quarantine the Papal Government, thus gradually eroding its authority and power. And by February 15 everyone knows that the Papal Government is as good as done. Berthier then, manifestly deliberately, chooses this date of February 15 to make the overthrow and Revolution official as it coincides with the anniversary of the Pope’s election to office, (some 23 years before, which was then the longest pontificate of a modern Pope). Protracted/Detailed story short, the Pope is indeed officially deposed on that day, signing the official conceding documents, -though he first had had to be dragged from his altar in order to be put on house arrest in his chambers. Then a couple of, America-inspired, “Trees of Liberty” are (trans)planted to a couple of public squares, -including on the grounds before the (ancient) Capitol, -as this is a symbol of the French Revolution, and by a couple of public Proclamation, including one by the Roman People, Rome is declared to now be a Roman Republic.
Ensuingly, on February 17, the 80 year old, and then sickly, Pope is informed that he is to leave Rome to go away in permanent exile on February 20, 1798. That is indeed what happens around 6:00 AM that day, with the Pope heading then to Siena, Italy. (ca. 140 miles away). [Pope Pius VI would die while in exile, the next year on August 29]
Humbly enough, when made aware of the official change of power on/of February 15, the Pope still declared that: “he adores the impenetrable decrees of Providence”....Indeed it was all the Prophetic Will of the “All Mighty”, -and a most timely one at that!! Namely for the timely fulfillment of the (historical) 1260 days/42 months/3.5 times which were to end in 1798 A.D., having had begun in 538 A.D.
Relatedly, Leroy Froom relates at 2:751.2b (footnote #13), -from Duppa’s account (p.34, 35, 91), that upon entering Rome “Berthier immediately pledged by proclamation that the Catholic "cult" should remain untouched”, and yet he knew that he was going to depose the Pope. But this also is exactly as it was prophesied as only the “tenth”, =leading, part of the city Babylon, namely the Papal hierarchy, would be affected in this earthshaking development! This ‘“tenth” of the city” also applicably speaks of the “leading”, deemed ‘most holy’, sector of the city of Rome, namely the then ruling area where the Papal Temporal seat was located: (now known as): Vatican City.
Quasi-contemporarily writing of this event in 1814, Georg Theodor von Merck biasedly, vitriolicly characterizes this development on pp.28-29 of his book on ‘The captivity and death of Pius VI’ as:
‘The French Directory trying here to execute their project to obliterate the Christian [i.e. Catholic] religion, tried to attack the whole [Catholic] Church at one time, in the person of her chief, and by that ‘“great/terrible” “shock/tremor/shaking”’ [cf. here] make the whole edifice of Saint Peter, which God had laid on a rock [Matt 16:18], crumble to the ground.’
Interesting that he was (of course unknowingly) figuratively variously seeing this exactly as the prophetic symbolism in Rev 11:13 were describing them. There indeed was a “great (Spiritual) shaking” in/of Babylon (and even a ‘fear-inducing/terrifying’ event), but as the Papal Church then was also a (esp. influentially) leading Temporal World Power, e.g. within the Holy Roman Empire, this indeed was also a “political earthquake”; indeed just how France was intending to, in regards to Global matters, “shake things up” in their favor, with the prior Church & State governance World Order model of the Papacy having here been taken out of the way to allow France’s Secular Humanism Nation model to unimpededly establish and spread itself.
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| Repost of the Charting of the 3.5 days+1 hour of Rev 11:9, 13 |
Now in the full charting of the fulfilment of the 3.5 days=years posted in Rev 11:12, and reposted just above here for immediate reference, it is seen that this time period had come to an end on January 25, 26 or 27, 1798. And as seen/stated there that is when Berthier evidently halted his march on Rome in Monterosi where he “oddly” paused for the next 15 days. What is interesting here is that with the overthrow of the Papal government having been officially achieved within 7 (inclusive) days of the French Army having reached the gates of the city of Rome, i.e. from February 9-15, with the Pope being officially taken out of the way with his exile 5 days later (for a total of 12 days), It can be seen how the “appended” prophetic “hour” time element here in Rev 11:13 which converts to 15 literal days would more than likely have seen this swift downfall and removal of the Temporal Papal Government. So the 3.5 years+15 days would, contiguously, have been accurate fulfilled, pointedly as the Heavenly Intelligence’s prophetic prediction had stipulated that this “earth shaking”/overturning events would occur: “in that hour” i.e. “within 15 days”. (No doubt with the All Mighty God “fore-planning” to (if necessary) overrule things then to keep this development as “peaceful” as possible, thus without the outbreak of a protracting war).
It can however be satisfactorily deemed that, with France always having had the intention to overthrow the Papal Government in/of Rome/Italy, and with their entry into Rome being most careful to conceal this ultimate revolutionary objective of theirs, when the Pope’s representatives signed France’s 21 terms of Capitulation on February 10, 1798, that was actually their effected downfall. And so, despite the here discussed odd delaying by Berthier’s Army, with that Feb 10 date&event occurring 14 days after the end date of the 3.5 years on January 27, 1798 , it can indeed be deemed that the “within 1 hour=15 days” prophetic time element of/in Rev 11:13 also came to be fulfilled on time!! And that seamlessly, “contiguously” so!!
So then, the additional discussion which follows directly here below is only in regards for those who would rather want to consider February 15, 1798 as the formal/official date of the Fall of the Papacy in Rome. The Heavenly Intelligence may have influentially overseen developments here to have an applicable fulfilled for either the Feb. 10 or the Feb. 15 events.
It can however be satisfactorily deemed that, with France always having had the intention to overthrow the Papal Government in/of Rome/Italy, and with their entry into Rome being most careful to conceal this ultimate revolutionary objective of theirs, when the Pope’s representatives signed France’s 21 terms of Capitulation on February 10, 1798, that was actually their effected downfall. And so, despite the here discussed odd delaying by Berthier’s Army, with that Feb 10 date&event occurring 14 days after the end date of the 3.5 years on January 27, 1798 , it can indeed be deemed that the “within 1 hour=15 days” prophetic time element of/in Rev 11:13 also came to be fulfilled on time!! And that seamlessly, “contiguously” so!!
So then, the additional discussion which follows directly here below is only in regards for those who would rather want to consider February 15, 1798 as the formal/official date of the Fall of the Papacy in Rome. The Heavenly Intelligence may have influentially overseen developments here to have an applicable fulfilled for either the Feb. 10 or the Feb. 15 events.
Indeed the Heavenly Intelligence was not at all foiled by the odd delaying of France’s army for having an accurate timely fulfillment, because, as exegetically stated above, a remote demonstrative pronoun had been used to say “in that hour”. This is instead of a proximate demonstrative pronoun which would have said “in this hour”. The key/substantive difference in meaning and understanding here is that the remote pronoun allows for a “remote” i.e. ‘“disconnected separate/apart in time” hour/15 days’; whereas a ‘proximate hour/15 days’ would logically be directly/contiguously appending this added prophetic time period to the 3.5 days=years. In fact, contextually, it can be seen that this “that hour” specification incorporates what is stated in Rev 11-12 to occur “after the 3.5 days”, thus: ‘after their ending on January 25|26|27, 1798’; and yet ‘not necessarily contiguously so’.
So interpretively putting everything together here:
‘the witnessing Word of God would be seeing this militaristic, “earth(=political)-shaking” development against Babylon occur within a period of 15 days, sometime after the 3.5 years have ended, (which was on January 25|26|27, 1798)); and/but by a [even enemy] foreign power/army’.
And at this point, it can be conclusively resolved from the fulfillment discussion at Rev 11:11, that the sudden and ironic uprising against Maximillien Robespierre which triggered his rejection and downfall and the end of his ruthless and bloody Reign of Terror, which occurred on July 26, 1794 best Thematically/Spiritually fulfills this prophecy, pointedly as it comes to have its chronological end on January 25, 1798, when it was, as stated earlier, then formerly announced/reported to the Pope from his returning envoys to Berthier, that the French Army was not going to relent on its march on Rome.....And yet, there is the issue of the odd 15-day halting/pausing by Berthier at Monterosi on this end date. Why in the world would they would do this protracted stop, particularly as an enunciated key tactic for the French Military contingent here was quickly arriving and thus unrelenting pressure, in an attempt to make the Pope just flee from the city. This respite surely could only have given resistance hope to the Papacy supporting camp in Rome. Indeed, they may have been interpreting it as God intervening to change the will of Berthier and his troops.
I have not seen any reason given as to why Berthier spent 15 days in Monterosi. It can possibly be surmised that:
(A) the French where then waiting for now called upon reinforcements (i.e. from Ancona) to join them. But there is no historical hint of that at all, nor would it have taken that long as Ancona was just 164 miles (Which could be covered in ca. 2-3 days one way by sent messenger and at most ca. 5 days by a returning contingent of marching soldiers); or:
(B) the French were using this time to make their final war plans. But that would defeat their other, more significant plan of keeping the pressure on Rome. Plus being encamped around the city while doing those plans would be a better show/use of force.
(C) there is also the natural possibility that, as this trekking march was being done in the midst of the Italian winter, perhaps the weather, esp. snow falls, may have had an affectation here. And it is stated, in at least one work that I have found (see here/pp.148-149), about this march of Berthier and his troops that: ‘they were only retarded by the snows of the Appenine’ and also that other than that: ‘they met no other resistance’. The Appenine(s) is(/are) a(/3) main mountain range(s) that dominantly run through the central length of the Italian peninsula. As they are indeed so dominant on the topography of Italy, the entire peninsula is also dubbed by that name, it seems manifest that the author here was referring to the mountain range itself, and indeed pointedly the central range as this was the one that Berthier and his troops had to cross over.
Now having to cross these mountains in the dead of winter would surely present a heightened obstacle to them of greater snows/snowfall to have to deal with, and even, in regards to snow-falls/-storms, have to wait out. But as the Jules Gendry-based dated itinerary charting (posted in Rev 11:12 above) of the advances of Berthier and his troops show that they were making good/normative time (i.e. 12 hours/31 miles per day) until right through reaching Terni, and with, as seen from Google Earth’s Satellite View (Labels Bordering), the Central Appenine Mountain range footing being almost exactly midway between Terni and Narni which are ca. 8 miles apart, long before Monterosi which is 32 miles further away from Narni, it would seem that the only ‘delaying’ that would have been from the snows of this mountain range would have been between Terni and Narni. And this corroborates with the itinerary charting observation that it took an unusual while for Berthier’s contingent to cover those 8 miles between Terni and Narni (elevation = ca.485 ft down from previous elevations of ca. 4,000 ft). But there is no statement at all of snows (or even cold weather) having caused them to have had to camp in Monterosi , (again which was way beyond the Appenine Central Range), for, a moreover-more-stunning, 15 days.
(D) So, with those explanations not being satisfactory/logical, I am instead going to go with a Spiritual (i.e. Eph 6:12) explanation here which is that, by then Satan had realized, from studying out the additionally pertinent prophetic portion here of Rev 11:11-14 [and Satan does have to study Bible prophecies to understand what God is planning to do (see e.g. PK 686.1; DA 115.1)], what was about to prophetically, and timely so, transpire here, i.e. the fall of the Papacy within the 15 days just after the end of the 3.5 day=years, and so, -patently just had he had tried to foilingly do through Egypt to prevent the birth of Israel's Deliverer (Exod 1:15-22|PP 242.1); and the in regards to the Birth of Jesus the Messiah (Matt 1:16-18||DA 65.1), he tried to foil, at the very least, what he thought would/could only be the timely fulfillment of this prophetic element and so influenced Berthier to run down this 15-day period in this odd march halt. Up to this point, Satan had had no problem with his spawned: “Egyptian and Sodomic”, i.e. ‘Atheistic and Libertine’, “abysmal earth power/“beast” (Rev 11:7) France, going to put down the relatively now impeding religious power of the Papacy/Roman Catholic Church, pointedly as France was indeed was ‘an advancing step’ (=GC 276.4) from Satan’s prior choice for a world-(religiously)-deluding beastly power in the Papacy/RCC (Rev 13:2b). But now, he just realized the potential prophetic proof that would be established by an uninterrupted unrolling of this development here, and so “successfully” influenced Berthier to make this, most apparently, unnecessary, and exactly, 15-day hiatus. (Cf. on Dan 10:20-21 -cited in here).
But if all this was the “behind the scenes” case, Satan should have gotten a clue by the, no doubt unhindered, allowance by God for him to successfully do this. Because the Heavenly Intelligence knew that such a delaying would not disturb nor foil the actual fulfillment that God had stipulated would happen here; for it would be a ‘detached/remote period of 15 days’ which would see the prophetic stipulation accurately fulfilled. In Spiritual fact, with now Satan exulting “resting on his laurels” he probably did not see it as necessary to try now to influence the Papacy and/or his Naples ally to put up a fight against France, and thus make this overthrow of power/government take much longer than 15 days to complete, -especially as a bloody coup could have revolted the people of Rome against France just as Robespierre bloody Reign of Terror measures had recently done with the Revolutionist French People. So, yet once again (cf. PP 245.1; DA 65.5), God had outsmarted the unwitting Satan into helping Him to do His exactly always/long planned/anticipated (prophetic) purposes!! God indeed can “use” even the “predatory” (cf. Rev 12:10-12; Eph 2:2) Devil himself to fulfill prophecy (=Isa 46:11!!!).
Fulfillment of the “hour” - So when/how exactly did this “remote, within 15-day” period come to pass: Straightly said, it started with the “first warring shot” being fired in this clash between France and the Papacy. Looking at the developing events at the time, on page 292, Gendry, [manifestly also correcting other prior conflating accounts (see in his note #1)], relates that on February 6, 1798, the Pope sent three representative “plenipotentiaries” (i.e. a person invested with supreme authority), [namely: Cardinal Giulio della Somaglia, Monsignor Arrigoni and the Roman Prince Vincenzo Giustiniani]; out to Berthier, -who was then still stopped ca. 29 miles away at/around Monterosi, with a formal, manifestly treaty-type letter which he had written up on February 4. But when these 3 representatives reached Berthier, he not only categorically refused to meet with them, manifestly again/likewise claiming, as with the prior failed meeting attempts with another similar Papal delegation at Terni and Narni, as the reason that ‘he had been ordered to avoid any appearance of a treaty settlement’, manifestly meaning that ‘France would not be capitulating, including from physically entering Rome to carry out its ‘(feigned) policing punishment’’, but also had them arrested for 24 hours “without any legitimate reason and in violation of their Civil Rights”. So this ‘unwarranted and unlawful’ action against these 3 Papal-government-representing “fully empowered” plenipotentiaries, can be seen, and reckoned, as the effective first shot in this Battle between these two powers.
So then, with them having been released by, and then, surely immediately departed to go back for Rome on “February 9”, it can be seen that they had had their attempted-but-failed, meeting with Berthier early on February 8, (or even late on Feb 7; I.e. they could have arrived on Feb 7 and unsuccessfully tried all that day to meet with Berthier, who then proceeded to have them arrested either late on Feb 7 or early Feb 8 and held them prisoner for 24 hours until Feb 9. So Feb 8 is indeed an acceptable approximating date for this failed, peace treaty-like, meeting.)
So this date of February 8, 1798 can be considered and reckoned as the start of the 1 prophetic hour = 15 days time of/for decisive overturnings....And with the Papacy having been officially deposed 7 days later on February 15, 1798, and then exiled on February 20, 1798, it can be seen, as show in the Overthrow Events Charting below that these events did indeed all transpire, as prophesied: “within 15 days”, 13 days to be exact!! [the page reference of each event in Gendry’s account are cited in the far right column]
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| Charting of the 1 Hour=15 days Period of Rev 11:13 |
Broader Historical Context/Prophetic Implication of the 1 Hour=15 Days
For people who have the non-Biblically substantiated theological Classical Foreknowledge view (as holds the SDA Church) about God & the Future, when they view Bible prophecy, they can only see them as having a single potential fulfillment in history. That is because, according to that Classical Foreknowledge view: ‘God has seen (from the ceaseless ages of Eternity) what that fulfilling event would be’. So it is sequiturly to be understood that God would have only been referring to that one event when (cryptically) composing a prophecy about it (which He then would reveal to a prophet (cf. Rev 1:1-2)). However, according to the Biblical Foreplanning View about God & the Future, God instead would have composed an All-Wise template plan of what and how He wants to see the Future unravel/culminate, and then would have set out to find a faithful person and/or a group of people through whom He can accomplish, through Sovereign “All-Mighty”/Overmastering Power if necessary, this Prophetic Master Plan (=Isa 46:9-11).
So in this latter, and Biblical, understanding, history can, and indeed has had, in several times, various upstart movements and developments which were on a path “pre-ordained” to fulfill a certain prophecy, but somewhere along that path, certain conditions for fulfillment were not met or altered and so the prophecy was not completely fulfilled, although some parts of it may have, usually contributively so in regards to the understanding of future fuller fulfillments, but also even exclusively and bindingly so, in the sense that those elements which were fulfilled in that partial fulfillment, no longer need to be sought to have a future, at least literalistic, (re-fulfillment) when the prophecy is then attempted to be (fully) fulfilled again (i.e. in another time, with another group/movement). And it is in this latter category that the prophetic time element of Rev 11:13's “one hour” fit in.
In this (SDA) prophecy study [at 24:21-25:47] on Rev. 18, the presenter Norman McNulty, tries to explain why, if (as rightly understood -see here+here), the SOP is clear that: ‘after 1844, there no longer is to be a prophecy/prophetic message that depends on chronological time in its fulfillment’ {Many (SDAs, e.g. David Gates) still choose to ignore this key point}. But that dictate seems (for Classical Foreknowledge people) to conflict with the prophecies of Revelation about the Fall of Babylon as it states that the plagues of Babylon would come in “one day” (Rev 18:8) and her judgement would come in “one hour” (Rev 18:10, 17, 19; cf. also Rev 17:12). Of course, using the “one day=one year” interpretive principle, the “one day” would cover “one year/360 days” and, as discussed earlier above, the “one hour” would cover “15 days”. So since (Classical Foreknowledge) SDAs see that this Rev 18 “Fall of Babylon” prophecy can, and will only have one fulfilling event, and that this is still in the future, then they have to rationalizingly try to explain how this does not mean that the “future” Fall of Babylon will not be according to strict prophetic timings of: 1 year/360 [or 365] days and 15 days. In that study presentation McNulty claims that those cited time elements were only meant to convey a “short period of time”. But it would seem that the generic prophetic statement of “a few days” used in Dan 11:20 would have been used instead.
In a prior post, when commenting on Rev 18:10, the explanation of those expressions given there, -indeed in the SOP light that they cannot be involving literal chronological time, is that the “one day” undefinedly applies to the period when the “plaguing” sentence for Babylon will be poured out, but the “one hour” element which comes within that “one day” refers pointedly to the culminating “crisis” period of that wider plague judgement period at which point Babylon would actually be overthrown.
However here in the Historical Fulfillment of Rev 11:13, it can be seen that the “(one) hour” period here is linked to the crisis “one hour” of Rev 18:10, 17, 19; in that in and around 1798, God was then acting to have prophecies fulfilled all for an effectuated Second Coming around 1844, as proclaimed by William Miller’s Second Advent Movement then. Indeed the events befalling the Roman Catholic Church/Papacy in 1798 were the fulfillment of the First Fall of Babylon. A Second Fall of Babylon would later occur in the 1840's now involving the “daughters” of the Mother Church Babylon, in the sealing of the apostasying of the Protestant Churches by their rejection of the Remnant Church-forming message of the Millerites. (Cf. EW 237.2-239.2/1905 JNL, GSAM 171.1-180.1ff) That is why Babylon is said to have “Fallen” twice in Rev 14:8 and again in Rev 18:2. It was now time for God faithful Church-Reforming people to completely break away from Babylon and return to solely adhering to Biblical Truth.
And it is in the events leading up to the Fall of Rome in 1798 (=the culmination of the (First) Fall of Babylon) that both of the time elements of “one day” (Rev 18:8) and “one hour” (Rev 18:10, 17, 19) still managed to, -i.e. though the End/Second Coming was not realized by/around 1844, have a precise chronological fulfillment, and which turns out to be the “exclusive and binding” fulfillment of these elements as the timed developments for this prophecy.
“One Day” (=from Tolentino Treaty)
Earlier above in the prelude to the details about the early 1798 military invasion of Romy by France, the crucial 1797 Tolentino Peace Treaty was discussed. As stated then, by seeing France, mainly from Napoleon’s hopeful discretionary will, opt to resolve things peacefully with Rome, rather than assault and overthrow it in war, the Papal Power may have deemed that to be the approving Providential Hand and Will of God acting in their favor. And such a belief would only have served to embolden them in their resistance to Atheistic Secularistic France. Arguably, compared to such ideologies from France, it is understandable why the Papal Power would have deemed that God was fighting for them. But really God was appeasingly acting to temp down human nature/passions in order to achieve the timely fulfillment of Bible Prophecy.
And also prophetically enough, Rome on the other hand was likely pompously, defiantly “thinking/saying in her mind/heart” the prophetic dictum of Rev 18:7 : “I sit (as) a Queen and I am not a Widow, and will never see mourning”. Interpretively meaning that: with a woman in Bible prophecy representing a Church, (moreover thinking/supposing to be the “New Jerusalem bride of Christ” (Rev 21:9-11), -God’s achieved: “queen of kingdoms” (DA 576.3)), and with a Queen being the co-ruler of the one who holds Kingly temporal Power, she, Babylon, despite being merely a Church, was actually seated as an entity which had, and was suppose to have, (Over-Ruling) Kingly Temporal (cf. Rev 17:18) as it had achieved during its now 1260-year Holy Roman Empire reign. And the fact that she could see in the backing down of France that Jesus Christ had not abandoned her in/despite this stance, and would likely rebound from any (temporal) losses that she herself had conceded for this treaty, and since Jesus Christ Himself wouldn’t die, then with He, being thus an Eternal Husband, who had not left her, she then surely “will never see mourning”. The pointed way in which Foreplanned Prophecy does indeed come to be accomplished (i.e. without God having had to “see” the (non-existent) future) is because God duly does incorporate such expected “natural” thinking/feelings/reactions by the non-righteous. And so, God acting to have Babylon’s judgement be delayed in 1797 actually served to ensure that it would emboldenedly defiantly act to then fully exasperate the granted patience of France. And as Napoleon had said (Letter #2266 p.465||English:#47 p.41), ‘a next time, and in similar circumstances (i.e. as what was the case leading up to Tolentino), things would then not be resolved in the same peaceful way’....And it certainly did not....
So how does this all chronologically turn out, i.e. in terms of a prophesied “one day” judgement time?! Well, summarily said: The Peace Treaty of Tolentino, -seeming to avert any overthrowing judgement allowed by God, was signed on February 19, 1797[14]14.... The Papacy however went on to be overturned within one year (=Rev 18:8) of that hopeful aversion, by February 15/20, 1798!!
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| Charting of the “One Day” Babylon Judgement’s Time Delimit |
As the above charting shows, if, in harmonizing light with the 42 months/1260 days/3.5 times (Rev 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5; cf. Dan 7:25; 12:) reckoning a “year” could be understood to have 360 days (though the full 365.25 solar year days can also be applicable, leaving some “wiggle room” to accomplish a timely prophetic fulfilling), then at the most extreme it took 361 days for this “one day” period to be fulfilled culminating on February 15, 1798 when, as detailed earlier above, the Pope signed the terms of the Papal State’s capitulation to Rome.
But if one would not be reckoning inclusively here, where Day 1, is the actually Treaty signing day of February 19, 1797 instead of February 20th, then the 360th day indeed fell exactly on the date of the Capitulation of Rome, and a 365th (solar year) day fell on the date (February 20, 1978) when the Pope left Rome to go into exile.
And in keeping with the earlier related exegetical understanding that the “one hour” (15 day) was a smaller, pivotal, “crisis” part/segment of the larger “one day” judgement, that “15-day crisis” was the above discussed military assault of Rome by France “within which”, as stipulated in the text of Rev 11:13, it accomplished this desired overthrowing of Rome (i.e. between February 6|8 to 15/20, 1798)!!
And so, these time elements in this Fall of Babylon prophecy would have been chronologically fulfilled in the Historical (and up to 1844) Wave of Fulfillment for this prophecy, even though all of the other elements in that prophecy were not also fulfilled then as the Second Coming was delayed from occurring, as planned/possible, around 1844. As discussed earlier, these time elements still would not have been chronologically fulfilled in the post-1844, present 1996+ Eschatological Wave of fulfillment of Bible Prophecies, when, as explained in this post, it now is the Socio-Economic Neo/“Daughter” Babylon (i.e. the West-leading Protestant Church+United States) which fulfills these prophetic elements.
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the ones who remained - the leadership in Babylon hadn’t remained, nor did the 7000 (names of) apostasying men. So those who remain here must be those in Babylon who were not leaders in this Baal-like idolatrous apostasy. So this would effectively be anyone else within Babylon at large who had not been swept up in this widespread apostasy.
To an applicable extent, this was mainly seen in the many hordes of Protestants out there, who themselves also were part of Babylon, but had separated themselves from the more apostasied and idolatrously so, Catholic bloc of adherents.
became fearful - This occurs whenever one has perceived that they have just witnessed the Almighty. As it did at Sinai (Exod 19:18ff; 20:18-21) when God’s then did likewise ‘shake the Earth’ (Heb 12:18-28). Indeed many Protestant recognized this deposing of the Papacy as God’s own doing in the fulfillment of (timed) prophecy.
gave glory to God - And from this judgement of God these Protestants would know to “offer God an acceptable service of reverence and awe” (Heb 12:28-29; cf. here =Exod 20:22-26).
Eventually God would form a Remnant (Rev 12:17; 14:12) from out of various Christian denominations, starting with the Millerites, then the SDA Church (see the recounting movie below), which would, -like those Spiritually perceiving these Rev 11:13 Divine Judgement developments, become ‘‘fearful’ and “give glory to God” in the indeed similar context of the understanding that His "hour" of judgement had come.’ (=Rev 14:6-7ff)...This time in a/the Second Fall of (now Protestant) Babylon (=Rev 14:8).
Relatedly see Season II of the Lineage Journey Series about the sweep of Reformation History, now focusing on this Remnant Church Movement (i.e. post ca. 1798). Season I was linked to earlier, dealt with Church History/Protestant Reformation up to ca. 1798.
Eighth Series
The Eight Series Events relaunch a new era of still needed further developments/fulfillments, and here, now that the Historical Roman Catholic Church had been here deposed, but not before having contributed to, -through the revolution it had incited in France, the unleashing of a new “abysmal” ideology in secular humanism. So now things are being “reset” here to also deal with the future unraveling and challenge from this new opposition to Truth and Righteousness.
Rev 11:14 - The second woe departs. Behold the third woe comes quickly!
These 3 woes (Rev 8:13) had their beginning in the Fourth Trumpet of Rev 8:12, when by then, the widely ruling, Apostate Catholic Church had caused “Dark Ages” to befall on the Earth various affecting various leading aspects amongst world leading lights. I.e. the sun, moon and stars. (Rev 8:12)
The “stars” affectation (=messengers) had been stabilized in the effectuating of the First Woe in Rev 9:1-12, when, during the Fifth Trumpet, Militant Islam had been allowed by God to exist and war against the armies of the Roman Catholic Church, so as to divert from the Papacy hindering the burgeoning work of messengers of the Reformation. (Cf. the Fifth Church’s work in Rev 3:1ff).
The Second Woe had here transpired in Rev 11:1-13 to redress the various religious (=“moon”) corrupting detriments that the Historical Babylon, the Roman Catholic Church, had done in Christianity. From now on, people could see that the Church-State model advocated by Roman Catholicism was of God’s ordaining, pointedly as the religious (=moon) part was unBiblical.
Then the quickly coming Third Woe (=the Seventh Plague) would revolve around matters of the “sun” which are socio-economics. And this would be God’s redressing of the Capitalism perversion marshaled by Eschatological/Daughter Babylon, namely the United States of America (Rev 13:11-18). And when that is done, God would have liberated the kingdoms of this world from the deluding influence and misleading grip of Babylon (Rev 17:14-18; 11:15-18)...establishing His own Temporal Kingdom of True Righteousness. (Rev 15:1-2ff).
Notes
1. [1] See also the excellent (short) historical documentaries series (cf. here&here) on the Reformers & the Reformation entitled Lineage Journey by Adam Ramdin; as well as the also excellent “Reformation 500” one entitled: Light Unshackled by Philip Mills Jr..
-See also the “Reformation Then & Now” (Part 1) sermon by Mark Finley.
-See also the “Reformation Then & Now” (Part 1) sermon by Mark Finley.
-The Light Bearers ministry’s 2017 Convocation entitled “500: The Reformation Continues” focused on the works/ministry of Martin Luther, with 17 presentations by: David Asscherick, Fred Bischoff, James Rafferty, Jeffrey Rosario, Ty Gibson. (free video of presentation #15; mp3 audio recordings of each presentation are a free download).
2. [2] Further Anti-Catholicism(falsely deemed: ‘all Christianity’) Actions by the French Revolutionaries:
1790
July 12: The Assembly adopts the final text on the status of the French clergy in passing the Civil Constitution of the Clergy which subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government Clergymen lose their special status, and are required to take an oath of allegiance to the government. It was never accepted by the Pope and other high-ranking clergy in Rome.
July 23: The Pope writes a secret letter to Louis XVI, promising to condemn the Assembly's abolition of the special status of the French clergy.
October 6: Louis XVI writes his cousin, Charles IV of Spain, to express his hostility to the new status of the French clergy.
November 27: The Assembly decrees that all members of the clergy must take an oath to the Nation, the Law and the King. A large majority of French clergymen refuse to take the oath.
December 27: Thirty-nine deputies of the Assembly, who are also clergymen, take an oath of allegiance to the government. However, a majority of clergymen serving in the Assembly refuse to take the oath.
1791
January 3: Priests are ordered to take an oath to the Nation within twenty-four hours. A majority of clerical members of the Assembly refuse to take the oath.
February 24: Constitutional bishops, who have taken an oath to the State, replace the former Church hierarchy.
March 3: The Assembly orders that the silver objects owned by the Church be melted down and sold to fund the government.
March 10: Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
March 25: Diplomatic relations broken between France and the Vatican.
April 3: The Assembly proposes transforming the new church of Sainte Geneviève, not yet consecrated, into the Panthéon. a mausoleum for illustrious citizens of France. On May 4, the remains of Mirabeau are the first to be placed in the new Panthéon.
April 13: Encyclical of Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
June 15: The Assembly forbids priests to wear ecclesiastical costumes outside churches.
November 29: Priests are again ordered to take an oath to the government, or to be considered suspects.
1792
April 5: The Assembly closes the Sorbonne, a center of conservative theology.
May 27: The Assembly orders the deportation of priests who have not signed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, oath to the government.
June 11: Louis XVI vetoes the laws on the deportation of priests and the formation of a new army outside Paris.
August 18: The Assembly abolishes the religious teaching orders and those running hospitals, the last remaining religious orders in France.
August 22: Royalist riots in Brittany, Vendée and Dauphiné.
September 2: over a forty-eight-hour period beginning on, as the Legislative Assembly (successor to the National Constituent Assembly) dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops and more than two hundred priests were massacred by angry mobs; this constituted part of what would become known as the September Massacres.
September 10: The government requisitions all church objects made of gold or silver.
September 20: Last session of Assembly votes a new law permitting civil marriage and divorce.
1793
March 7: Armed uprising against the rule of the Convention, and particularly against conscription into the army, begins in the Vendée region of west-central France.
March 19: The Convention decrees the death penalty for any participant in the uprising in the Vendée.
3. [3] For those who have the incorrect/unBiblical Theological View about God and the Future, this slight discrepancy can be deemed as a “deal breaker” as they would believe that ‘God had looked into the future, (and from the ceaseless ages of Eternity), and seen the exact dates when these prophecy fulfilling events will take place and would have exactly stated such time in the giving of a timed prophecy about it/them. But that is not at all how the Bible states that God deals with the future, nor formulates prophecies. Theologically speaking, He instead, as clearly stated in Isa 46:9-11, declares beforehand what He will have accomplished in the future, and then acts, even sovereignly so, to see that it is accomplished as such. However, there are instances of prophecies where God plans to have a most precise (i.e. to the day) fulfillment. But that is not always the case.
Indeed the major time prophecies of the Bible in these historical 3.5 times/42 months/1260 days (Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev 12:6, 14; 13:5) and also the related 1290 & 1335 days of Dan 12:11, 12) were not fulfilled “to the very day”, or even to the very month, as seen in the anchoring dates for these prophecies (which are documentedly presented in this dedicated research site): of:
-The State and Church Coalition of King Clovis I and the Papacy around December 25, 508 A.D.
-The Papal Power Ascendency in the Seat of Pagan Rome in the March 538 A.D. (#11 in here)
-The (as later discussed) Deposition of the Papacy by France on February 10 1798 A.D.
Likewise see the “5 months” (=ca. 153|4 applicable calender month’s days) of Rev 9:5 fulfilled from July 12, 1299 to May 29, 1453 in the Rise of the Ottoman Empire, as clarifyingly discussed and precisely reckoned within this post at Rev 9:5 (Fifth Trumpet).
Then there is the accurate seasonally fulfillment of the 70 Weeks of Daniel (Dan 9:24-27) and its larger 2300 prophetic days period (Dan 8:14) as provedly demonstrated in this blog post and the research/book work that it is summarizing.
But then there is the most strikingly, to-the-very-day, accurately fulfilled prophecy of the “hour, day, month, year” (=360+30+1=391 years & 15 days) of the Sixth Trumpet (discussed within this post at Rev 9:15) which, as historically related in 1905 JNL, GSAM 128.3-132.4 (cf. here) and GC 334.4-335.1||GC 691.1-3 served to predict 2 years in advance, by Josiah Litch, -{see his August 1, 1840 anticipating commenting here, and his subsequent January 6, 1843 confirming comments here|here}, the fall (=‘the subjugation to Christian powers’) of, and the day of it, of the Muslim/Turk Ottoman Empire on August 11, 1840. (-supported here and here; -however see this fair extensive & documented critique of that understanding/conclusion of SDA Pioneers).
And so the prophetic interpretation principle that can be drawn from this is that when God expects to involve a “to the day” fulfillment in a prophecy, then, -as it will later be posited for Rev 11:13, the more specific element of “an hour”(=15 days) is stipulated.
So technically speaking the extra (potential 6) and 1 days for the 42 months and 1260 days reckoning in the ‘historical-eschatological’ fulfilment of Rev 11:2, 3 in the French Revolution would fall within the ‘margin of non-exact-day-specified latitude’.
And this all ties in to what the Medieval Catholic Church went on to unBiblically do during, moreover the time of the New Covenant which, which eventually led to the religious revolt of the French Revolution. The New Covenant did not now make it lawful to commit the crimes and sins that the Old Covenant checked. The Law of God was still involved in the New Covenant (Jer 31:27-34), but as this was a Covenant that was now to spread as a Gospel Message, through the Church, throughout the whole world and beyond national borders (=Rev 6:3-4; -discussed in here), God/Jesus had not given His Church the mandate to spread this Message by the use of force. But that is what the Compromising Catholic Church set out to do, having seized the military power of the “dead” Pagan Rome (=Rev 13:3ff). And, as discussed earlier at Rev 11:2, that is how they came to unlawfully, forcefully “corral” a bunch of (Paganistic) Gentile people whose heart had actually not really been converted to Christ Gospel message....and this all eventually came to a head with France, when they revolted against that 1260-year ‘unequal yoking’ (2 Cor 6:14-18).
4. [4] Case in point, the rallying cry of unbelievers today is indeed to rail against what they deem to be an “Evil Bible”, claiming/thinking that “just reading the OT will make you an atheist”. (e.g. here)...Well, as is the whole point here: if you read the Bible moronically/ignoramusly/idiotically ...i.e. non-exegetically, and not only in terms of reading things out of their actual textual context, but out of their historical/era context. The common unbeliever today do not bother to consider what a paganistic, violent and primitive era and society times were in those recorded times of ca. 3500+ years ago. And one can get a pretty good idea of how things were back then. -(which is quite odd for people who claim that: ‘they are only animals’ and “they have been evolving)...Remember New York City in the 1980's early 1990's??? and many societies today are still just that violent, criminal, murderous, filthy and lawless. Only a resolute Law Enforcement crackdown could save those societies....And can easily be seen, e.g. parts of Chicago today, that a return to lax Law Enforcement can easily cause a society, devolve back into chaos.
Well back 3,500 years ago, things were just the same, human-nature wise, and even worse as people did not have the sophisticated measures to commit crime (in order to get what they want for themselves) that exist and are used today. It literally was “blood and gore” (which some people today entertain themselves with in movies). Back then these paganistic cultures would even pass their own infants through fire as an offering to their gods....(Today they obey their god of convenience and economics by “sophisticated” going to an abortion clinic...Different method same purpose and result)...Well it is in that pointed context that God had to deal with, not only a people, i.e Israel, who had been exposed for over 200 years of such paganism while residing in Egypt, but who, as quickly seen with the Golden Calf debacle (Exod 32), would readily devolve back to paganistic, idolatrous-atheistic and licentious behavior....And all that despite having had just witnessed the great power of God in their Deliverance from Egypt (Exod 7-11ff) , including the miracle at the Read Sea (Exod 14) and the very visible&audible presence of God (Exod 20ff).
And that is the patent thing with unbelievers, they divorce the Law and Ordering measures of God from such context, and thus malconstrue what God had to deal with in order to have a righteous society. As their later (candidly recorded) history revealed, Israel could act just as bad, and even worse, than the surrounding pagan nations around them...and given what these violent, lawless and (existentially) sickly nation were doing, that was indeed an existential threat (cf. Lev 20:22-24, 26; -search for: “Peace-loving” in this post).
The other major thing that unbelievers patently do in railing against the Bible is to think that God was imposing His Law and Order Covenant (=Constitution) on non-Believers/non-Israelites....He did not. Only the people in His Israel, and those who voluntarily joined it, were subject to it. It was only when surrounding nations became an existential threat, including by having developed highly contagious, deadly epidemic diseases, that God then logically saw that it was time to deal with them (Gen 15:13, 16)
And on the flip side, people in Israel were free to leave this nation and go join the surrounding nations around them...If those other nations would welcomingly have them rather than enslaving and abusing them. But when Israelites would remain in that Covenant Nation but would want to live outside of that Covenant’s obligations, then they had no ‘Constitutional Right’ to stand on...And democratically enough, that was as long as their was a majority of righteous people in Israel who wanted to enforce their Covenant.
And this all ties in to what the Medieval Catholic Church went on to unBiblically do during, moreover the time of the New Covenant which, which eventually led to the religious revolt of the French Revolution. The New Covenant did not now make it lawful to commit the crimes and sins that the Old Covenant checked. The Law of God was still involved in the New Covenant (Jer 31:27-34), but as this was a Covenant that was now to spread as a Gospel Message, through the Church, throughout the whole world and beyond national borders (=Rev 6:3-4; -discussed in here), God/Jesus had not given His Church the mandate to spread this Message by the use of force. But that is what the Compromising Catholic Church set out to do, having seized the military power of the “dead” Pagan Rome (=Rev 13:3ff). And, as discussed earlier at Rev 11:2, that is how they came to unlawfully, forcefully “corral” a bunch of (Paganistic) Gentile people whose heart had actually not really been converted to Christ Gospel message....and this all eventually came to a head with France, when they revolted against that 1260-year ‘unequal yoking’ (2 Cor 6:14-18).
5. [5] Which actually may have been over a literal 3.5 day period itself for this most pivotal/climatic development in the French Revolution depending on the exact time when Robespierre gave his speech on July 26 and when the execution of his 70 allies within the Paris Commune, -(the largest mass execution to have ever taken place in Paris), was completed on July 29. I.e. if the speech occurred at 9 AM on July 26 and the 70 allies of Robespierre were all arrested and only all executed on July 29 by 9.PM, then that would be 3.5 days.
6. [6] Reflective enough of how the coup against, and execution of, Maximillien Robespierre was pivotal in, and climatic to, the French Revolution, the epic 1989 2-Part TV Movies Series on the French Revolution [co-produced by 6 countries on/for the 200th anniversary of that 1789 event; for $300 million francs (=$48.25M USD = $94.5M USD2017)], -(whose pertinent major scenes are depictingly cited in this blog post exposition), which runs for a total of 5 hours and 20 minutes long, ends with the execution of Robespierre and then briefly with the widow, (and, assumedly, mother-in-law, and children), of Robespierre‘s former friend, then political enemy: Georges-Jacques Danton, who had been executed during the Reign of Terror (on April 5, 1794), lighting candles in a Catholic Church accurately reflecting how the Catholic Church and its services indeed soon thereafter came back to an accepted status and observance in France. {Ending scene: Fre[02:28:40-02:30:29]//Eng[E4P9=08:33-E4P10=00:32]}
7. [7] Relatedly, the law dubbed “the Law of the Great Terror”, -which is the Law of 22 Prairial, enacted on 10 June 1794 by which the Committee of Public Safety simplified the judicial process to one of indictment and prosecution, thus heightening the power of the Law of Suspects, was officially repealed ca. 3 days after the execution of Robespierre and his associates on August 1, 1794.
8. [8] Froom also later relates (at 2:750.3) quoting from the contemporary (i.e. 1799) work of Richard Duppa entitled: A brief account of the subversion of the papal government. 1798 p. 11 that on December 27, 1797 some Italian and French people amongst a riotous mob that had formed, aided by an Abbey, speaking against the present governing status quo: “proceeded to make public harangues, and pretended to shew clearly by several texts of scripture, that the time was at hand to overthrow the existing government”. As likely/surely pro-Catholic, these, demonstrators probably could not conceive that such passages would actually be speaking of the ending of the, by then 1260 year prophesied temporal reign of the Papacy.
9. [9] In 1887, a french writer by the name of Victor Pierre wrote a 510-page book decryingly recounting what he effectively characterized as a swept under period of the late revolution, titling his book: ‘The Terror Under the Directory: The history of the political and religious persecutions after the coup of 18 fructidor’. (cf. his preface at: xiii-xv).
10. [10] Brief Bibliography for the late 1797 and early 1798 clash between France and Papal Rome:
Primary, Contemporary Sources
Bonaparte, Napoleon: Correspondance de Napoléon Ier; publiée par ordre de l'empereur Napoléon III. Vol. 3 (pub.1859) pp.624-637
Bonaparte, Napoleon: Correspondance de Napoléon Ier; publiée par ordre de l'empereur Napoléon III. Vol. 3 (pub.1859) pp.624-637
Duppa, Richard A brief account of the subversion of the papal government. 1798. (1799) pp.7-58
Bourgoing, Jean-Francois Historical and philosophical memoirs of Pius the ... v.2 (1799). pp.324-337 (alternate posting)
Original French Book: Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur Pie ... vol. 2.
Consalvi, Ercole - Mémoires du cardinal Consalvi [1757-1824] (pub.1866) pp.
Secondary, Sourced Works
Gendry, Jules (1906) Pie VI sa vie, son pontificat (1717-1799) : d'après les Archives Vaticanes et de nombreux documents inédits pp.284-307
English Title: Pius VI - His Life, His Pontificate (1717-1799): From the Vatican Archives and numerous unpublished documents.
Baldassari, Pietro Histoire de l'enlèvement et de la captivité de Pie vi (1839) pp.141-196-246
English Title: History of the removal and the captivity of Pius VI (alternative posting)
Pastor, Ludwig, freiherr von. The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn from the secret Archives of the Vatican and other original sources; (1899) pp.329-337
Chapter VIII: Bonaparte and the French in the Papal States: The Establishment of the Roman Republic and the Expulsion of the Pope
Baldassari, Pietro Relazione delle avversita e patimenti del glorioso papa Pio 6. negli ultimi tre anni del suo pontificato (1842)
English Title: Report of adversities and sufferings of the glorious Pope Pius 6. in the last three years of his pontificate
Theodor von Merck, Georg La captivité et la mort de Pie vi (1814) pp.28-30
Blanchard, Jean-Baptiste Précis historique de la vie et dupontificat de Pie VI (1800) pp.255-270
Research Works
Blanchard, Jean-Baptiste Précis historique de la vie et dupontificat de Pie VI (1800) pp.255-270
Research Works
Heidi Heiks - AD 1798|1843 Sourcebook [Docs] - Book PDF Copy
11. [11] That Napoleon military correspondence is worth reading as it give a glimpse of the natural military mind/genius of Napoleon. I would be that he was an organizational freak, but just the specific detailing in those instructions and also the knowledge of the precise location and numbers strength of various military units dispersed about in Italy, which he was instructing Berthier to gather together and/or strategically relocate for this assault on Rome, is really quite impressive...particularly for the late 18th century times. Napoleon here seemed like a human computer. And even if he had assembled all of this date and info from records that he kept, given that he had just recently returned to Paris and also that he had had probably less than a couple of days to formulate this precise plan, still makes it quite impressive. No wonder he quickly arose from a simple corporal to commander-in-chief of the military of France, and later the Emperor of the Empire that he was trying to achieve.
12. [12] This is contrary to Froom 2:751.1a who says that Berthier was in Milan then. As Napoleon is, in his Order Correspondence to Berthier, actually informing Berthier of pertinent troop force strength in Milan (p.626.4), but when speaking of Rimini, only tells Berthier how many troops he should hold there (p.627.5; 627.12), it corroborates Gendry’s statement more than Froom’s (manifestly not specifically documented) own.
It is probable that Froom (and others) had such an understanding then, i.e. ‘that General Berthier was in Milan then on January 11, 1798’, from a January 6, 1798 letter from Napoleon to a “Citizen General” then at Milan who was specifically unnamed in the body of the letter, but has been supplyingly identified in the letter’s label, e.g. in this 1884 book (p.199), (cf. in here), as having been ‘General Berthier’. However a more scholarly compiling work, namely this 1859 one p.620 #2400) had identified this General to have been “General Bernadotte”, full name: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. As Bernadotte had honorary-heir royalty ties to Sweden, and this letter is footnoted to have been supplied for this compiling work by the King of Sweden, then that corroborates/confirms this identification.
Evidently, -as it is alluded to in the ensuing ‘explanatory notes’ in the wrongly identifying work, having contributed to the confusion here, another letter (pp.619-620 #2399) written that same day, -to again a “Citizen General”, is this one identified/labeled to have been written to General Berthier.
13. [13] Some earlier works/accounts (e.g. one of 1805 (pp.148-149) -(cf. in here) & one of 1858 (pp.264-265) -(cf. in here), state/claim that ‘Berthier left Ancona for Rome on January 25 (1798)’. It can easily be seen that the later, and better sourced (1906) work of Jules Gendry, who states that: ‘Berthier first left Rimini around January 16, and to go to Ancona’, and then gives ensuing specific dates for the other stops along this march, is the account to be trusted as being more accurate here.
However, those earlier-other claims can have substantively, (versus chronologically), corroborating value in that: As instructed by Napoleon, Berthier was supposed to complete his needed troop strength from the “13,000+” soldiers stationed in Ancona, and when he had sufficient forces, -(with at least 7000 to be left behind there), he was then to set out towards Rome. So it can be understood that Berthier’s own “fully staffed” mission/march, (i.e. with him having had already dispatched a contingent from Rimini, who he would meet up with later at Foligno), effectively had indeed “started” from Ancona.
And as for the date of January 25, 1798, again Gendry’s better-sourced detailing, which works out to an ‘Ancona-departing date’ of January 18, 1798, is thus more reliable, =accurate.
14. [14] Technically speaking, -as indicated in the footnotes of Napoleon discussion of this arrived at Tolentino Peace Treaty [Letter #1511 p.444], it would have to go on to be:
-ratified by the Pope, which would occur on February 23, 1797;
-approved by the French Directory and ratified by France’s Council of 500 [=the French Parliament’s Lower House] which would occur on March 30, 1797; and
-ratified by France’s Council of the Ancients/Elders [=France’s Upper House] on April 29, 1797
However it was, and continues to be customarily considered in International Treaty dealings that the date upon which the negotiating parties sign the intent to ascribe to a common deal is the official starting date of the treaty. (Which indeed is why history sources are reckoning this Treaty of Tolentino from this, its signing date of February 19, 1797).
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Islam Versus Christianity I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. Glad it is helpful. Given the theme of your own, pro-Christianity, blog: “Islam vs. Christianity” and also on the book of Revelation, you may also find these blog posts of mine helpful:
DeleteExpounding on Revelation’s Fifth Trumpet/Series which is about the Divinely prophesied and strategically purposeful rise of [the nonetheless false religion of] Islam in Church History (=e.g. Rev 9:1-13).
And also see the Bible’s best prophecy that shows that Jesus was exactly who and all that He claimed to be, including about His (atoning) death; and that also shows the Bible and Christianity true in the (summary) post on “The Biblical Interpretation of Daniel’s 70 Weeks. The full book is posted in this dedicated blog.
God Bless!!