Revelation for the Head and the Heart

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Norman McNulty

Mystery of God Finished

So we're going to continue this morning with where we left off last night.

And last night I gave an overview of the sanctuary message through the church's seals and trumpets.

And the presentation this morning for the next few minutes is going to be dealing specifically with Revelation chapter 10, and we're going to focus in on verse 7 of Revelation chapter 10, dealing with the mystery of God.

But in order for us to understand the total significance of Revelation chapter 10, we do need to understand the setting of Revelation chapter 10 historically, because without a proper understanding of the historical setting, we may miss the greater significance.

Now, I realize if you were here at my presentation last night, I went through the information pretty quickly, especially the first half of the book of Revelation.

We'll slow down a little bit this morning as we hit some specific areas within the book of Revelation.

When you look at the setting of Revelation chapter 10, Revelation chapter 9 concludes with the ending of the sixth trumpet.

And Revelation chapter 10 also is before the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which is described in Revelation 11 verses 15 through 19, and you're going to hear more about that later in another presentation.

So Revelation chapter 10 is in the section of the book of Revelation describing the 7 trumpets.

And understanding the 7 trumpets and the historical nature of the trumpets helps us then to understand the timing of Revelation chapter 10.

Now you're gonna hear about the timing of the trumpets in greater detail in further presentations, but just for some quick clarity, I'm going to mention that the first 4 trumpets, from my belief of how things are set up in the Book of Revelation, the trumpets are judgments.

And I mentioned this last night, The first 4 trumpets are judgments on the Western Roman Empire, and I believe that that culminates, especially with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

Then you have the fifth and the sixth trumpets, and there are time prophecies associated with these 2 trumpets, the fifth and the sixth trumpets, that are connected to what are called the first and the second woes.

And we're going to see what inspiration says about the timing of these trumpets.

We believe historically that the fifth trumpet begins on July 27, 1299 when the Ottomans first attack the Eastern Roman Empire.

Historically, Adventists have taught that the Ottoman Empire fell on August 11, 1840.

This is based on the time prophecy in Revelation 9, verse 15, where it says, and the 4 angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men.

So that's 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year.

You do the math, 1 year is 360 days, so that's 360 years.

1 month is 30 days, that's another 30 years, so now you're up to 390 years.

Then a day is a year, so now you're up to 391 years.

And then an hour, if you do the math, is 15 days prophetically.

So 391 years, 15 days, and that takes us to August 11, 1840.

And when that comes to its conclusion, then we have Revelation 10.

Let me just read you, this is just briefly to set the table for Revelation 10.

Josiah Lich was the 1 who first came up with this prediction, he was a Millerite preacher.

And Ellen White comments on this in Great Controversy 334.

In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest.

2 years before, Josiah Lich, 1 of the leading ministers preaching the Second Advent published an exposition of Revelation 9 predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

According to his calculations this power was to be overthrown in AD 1840 sometime in the month of August.

And only a few days previous to its accomplishment, he wrote, allowing the first period, 150 years, so that'd be 1299 to 1449, to have been exactly fulfilled before Diakoses ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, 15 days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken, and this, I believe, will be found to be the case.

Now, continuing, notice what Ellen White says.

At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations.

Notice what it says in bold, the event exactly fulfilled the prediction.

When it became known, multitudes were convinced of the correctness of the principles of prophetic interpretation adopted by Miller and his associates, and a wonderful impetus was given to the Advent movement.

Men of learning and position united with Miller both in preaching and in publishing his views, and from 1840 to 1844, the work rapidly extended.

Now, there's recent books and elements, even in the church, that have discarded this prophecy, and yet Ellen White calls it a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy and says that the event exactly fulfilled the prediction.

Josiah Lich later himself gave up a belief in August 11, 1840.

And so some modern Adventists have used that as justification to also give up a belief in this specific prophecy.

But Josiah Lich also gave up his belief in the 2300 days in 1844, so we don't discard that, so we shouldn't discard August 11, 1840 either.

That sets the table then, the time frame then, for Revelation chapter 10 and the mighty angel.

So you get to the end of Revelation chapter 9, you have 1840, you come to Revelation 11, 14, it says the second woe is past, that's the sixth trumpet, and behold the third woe, or the seventh trumpet, cometh quickly, So there's this time period between 1840 to 1844, and Revelation 10 describes that time period.

Revelation chapter 10 describes the time period between 1840 to 1844.

So historically, Revelation chapter 10 is going to describe the rise of the second advent movement.

Turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 10 verse 1.

And we're going to look at what these passages say here.

And here John the Revelator says, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

If you can identify the description or the things that are used to describe this mighty angel, the association of the mighty angel, that he's clothed with a cloud, He has a rainbow on his head.

The verse 2 says he has a little book open in his hand.

If you can connect the dots with those elements, the cloud, the rainbow, the feet like fire, the book in his hand, you will know exactly what this angel is setting out to do.

So the mighty angel is just not randomly described as being clothed with a cloud or having a rainbow upon his head or his face shining like the sun.

Now in the interest of time we're not going to be able to necessarily go through all of the verses, but when you look at Revelation chapter 1, verses 13 through 15, you see that Jesus, the Son of Man, has feet like fire that are burning in a furnace.

And here this mighty angel has feet as pillars of fire.

Furthermore, as we talked about last night, Jesus is the angel with a censer in his hand at the beginning of the 7 trumpets.

And here at the end of the 7 trumpets, he's not just the angel who is the intercessor, he is the mighty angel.

But he's still doing a work of intercession.

This mighty angel is clothed with a cloud.

Now, when you think back in the Bible to the pre-incarnate Christ, we can go to Exodus chapter 13, verses 21 and 22, as well as Leviticus 16, too.

If you go to Exodus 13, 21 and 22, notice what it says.

It says, and the Lord, this is Exodus 13, starting in verse 21, and the Lord, so this is the pre-incarnate Christ, went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." So the pre-incarnate Christ was clothed with a cloud leading the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.

And when you go to Leviticus 16, 2, interestingly it says, and the Lord said unto Moses, speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not, for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

So when you have a mighty angel who was doing a work as an intercessor and angel at the beginning of the trumpets, now he's a mighty angel who's clothed with a cloud.

You see the connection to Christ as he was in the Old Testament.

And Christ in the Old Testament clothed with a cloud was above the most holy place.

So what does that tell you about the mighty angel?

He's coming down from heaven to raise up a new movement just as he did in the Old Testament.

He led the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.

Now he's coming down around the time period of 1840 with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the sixth trumpet.

Now he's coming down from heaven to raise up a new movement, and by being clothed with a cloud, he's announcing to the world that he's moving to the most holy place.

And not only is He clothed with a cloud, a rainbow is upon His head.

And you're going to hear more about the rainbow later in some of these presentations.

Genesis 9 talks about the rainbow being a covenant between God and Noah that God would not destroy the earth again with a flood.

And Revelation chapter 4 verse 3 shows a rainbow is around the throne of God.

So this rainbow is a symbol of a covenant that God plans to renew with his people from the throne in the most holy place.

Because he's clothed with the clouds, so he's going to the most holy place.

And a rainbow is above his head, so he's going to renew a covenant from the throne, and the throne is moving from the holy place to the most holy place.

And the covenant, according to Hebrews 8, 10 through 13, and chapter 10, verses 16 and 17 you can turn there it says, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD.

I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." So God is renewing a covenant, and in that covenant, which is His law, there is a commandment that had been forgotten, the fourth commandment.

So as God, as Christ moves into the most holy place, he's moving to the most holy place as our high priest to renew a covenant with his people based on His law, which is a transcript of His character of love, and He's going to raise up a movement of people who will remember His law again and the fourth commandment.

Mystery of God Finished

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