Who is the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit?

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Rev. 11:7).

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:17).

This post will show that the opening of the bottomless pit is the common point of three separate prophecies in Revelation, and by linking them together we unfold the mysterious symbols of the larger vision of Revelation.

As a denomination, we need to revisit our stance on the fifth trumpet. This is a badly needed correction that is the only way to see where we are in relation to the closing events of earth’s history. We need the trumpets’ guidance to keep us encouraged for the difficult days ahead.

Because we see in Revelation 11:7 the bottomless pit open after the 1260 year papal supremacy, and again in Revelation 9:1 after the announcement of the sealing in Revelation 7:3, we are forced to conclude that the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit in the fifth trumpet is not the Saracens, as Uriah Smith understood. You will see in this post that the fifth and sixth trumpets have been progressively fulfilled since the Advent movement finished the Sabbath Conferences in 1850. This is a historicist interpretation. This is historicism.

“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:3).

The trumpets have to do with the sealing, especially the 5th and the 6th trumpets. As we look at Revelation 13 and 17 we will see that the beast that ascended from the bottomless pit has been destroying the whole earth, initially Protestant America. This is so that, in the wake of the destruction of faith and morality, there may be a restoration of the old papacy, a beast with a vengeance, an Inquisition on steroids. It will have the New World Order for a society and government, and a New Age of Aquarius for its one world religion. It will be a fully Jesuit Vatican that will go into perdition, and drag the whole world down to confusion with it.

“Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.” (Isa. 5:14).

I realize that it’s a lot to read, but please compare the actions of the beast in Revelation 13 and 17 and see how the seven trumpets fit into its restoration.

“Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

“Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Rev 13:6  And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”

“Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

“Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

Taking all that the vision prophesied that the first and second beasts would do, how that the second beast helped the first beast come back to life, so that the second beast could regain power over all the nations, now we will see the same again from another perspective. Its verse 8 bring together the two visions that we looked at above.

“Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

“Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.”

“Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not [it received a wound by a sword but is revived again by the beast with lamblike horns]; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Rev 17:9  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Rev 17:10  And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”

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

Rev 17:13  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”

Now we will bring into the picture the trumpet prophecy of Revelation because our opening verse of the beast ascending from the bottomless pit was first spoken of in the seven trumpets of Revelation.

We need to revisit our stance on the fifth trumpet. The beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit in the fifth trumpet is not the Saracens, as Uriah Smith understood. The fifth trumpet has been progressively fulfilled since 1844.

“Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev. 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”

Revelation 9:4 must be understood by the only other verse like it, and which introduced its concept of the sealing.

“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:3).

Revelation 7:3 is a cry made immediately after the sixth seal has been fulfilled in Revelation 6:12-17, that is the last day signs in 1755, 1780, and 1833. Then comes the time for the Lamb’s judgment on the race of mankind that has become incurably wicked. But, the righteous are not yet sealed within the first six seals. In order to seal the righteous, a test must be given to the world, and especially to Protestant America during “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” (Rev. 3:10).

This temptation divides the wicked from the righteous. Both groups will be tested by Satan’s temptations that God sends. Out of the test will arise the purified and holy children; and it will also single out the wholly wicked children. These believed the locust temptation that there is no God and no Judgment Day. The locusts devoured all their faith and fear toward their Reformation fathers’ God with whom their fathers made a covenant of peace for His land of refuge and its amber waves of grain. Their rejection of the God of their fathers opened their hearts and minds to do all the wickedness that Satan whispered to them. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned [judged] who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thess. 2:11,12).

Revelation 13:3, 13-15 and 17:8 confirm this. The beast of Revelation 17:8 “is not” because it has received the deadly wound by the Reformation sword of the Spirit. But it “shall ascend out of the bottomless pit” when the second beast brings it back to life and restores its power to terrorize the human race, and give it the mark of the beast.

“Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not [it received a deadly wound by a sword]; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit[it is revived again by the beast with lamblike horns], and go into perdition [it places the abomination that makes desolate by putting its mark in the beliefs of “all the world”]: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder in [be in awe], whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

“Rev 13:13  And he [the second beast] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

Please read my book on the trumpets, The Seven Trumpets and the Investigative Judgment, by David D. Burdick. Time is getting short, almost too late. My book is in print and e-book form. The e-book price is only about $10.

If the book seems difficult to follow, below is a concise overview of my book from a post I wrote dated TUESDAY, MARCH 05, 2019:

In several ways my book takes a different approach to The Revelation, compared to that of traditional Adventism. In particular it looks at the spiritual issues contained in the seven trumpets that are much deeper than our traditional interpretation of military conquests. The locusts of the 5th and 6th trumpets are afflicting us today. The deeper issues are that of the everlasting gospel, which is especially the case in the 5th and 6th trumpets. The sealing and the marking are the issues of the 5th and 6th trumpets that make up the language of the 3 angels’ messages.

And I see that, by the current pervasive rebellion in humanity against the Law of God, we are nearing the final end of the 6th trumpet. (It is almost time for the Revelation 10:11 pronouncement in heaven.)

Introduction

Revelation chapters 4 through 11 form the core storyline of the book of Revelation. The chapters that follow chapter 11 are brought in to expand and to add more details. The seals and trumpets drama are not optional to understand Revelation, they form the vital heart of the last book of the Bible.

Chapter 1: Revelation chapter 4

This scene shows the throne of God before sin began. Heaven was a holy place, a peaceful place, a joyful place. The praises to God concern creation only, His pleasure, His power, His honor, in creating. And no praise mentions a Redeemer, because in those eons before the great controversy, there was no need of redemption.

Chapter 2: Revelation chapter 5

Sudden change comes over the angelic atmosphere of heaven. It’s the same picture with God upon His throne, except that God has a mysterious book (a scroll) sealed up so tightly that only the crucifixion of the Son of God could authorize its opening. This book is the great controversy, the accusations against God and the issues over His Law. God is on trial. Has He been the proper leader? Has His government offered the best for the greatest happiness of the kingdom? Has He overreached His own Law and become a dictator? These were accusations that Lucifer brought against the Creator of heaven and Earth. Christ crucified is the only one able to clear God of His charges. Afterwards, the whole family of heaven and earth sing praises to Him who sat on the throne and to the Lamb. Those praises are now about redemption only.

Chapter 3: Revelation chapter 6

The Lamb takes the seals off of the scroll, one at a time. The first seal represents the church during its apostolic period, ending at 100 AD when John dies. The second seal (100-321 AD) represents a church period of intense pagan persecution until Constantine stopped the persecution and allowed the church to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The third seal (321-538) represents the dying church period when it, in order to please its government employer, conformed its standards to paganism in order to let the pagans join the state religion, Christianity. The fourth seal (538-1517) represents the dead period as papal church continued its trajectory to kingly greatness and exalted itself higher than the kings of Europe. Satan possessed the Church that silenced anyone who cried out against its corruptions and wickedness, and its inbred spiritualism. Then Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation. The fifth seal (1517-1755) represented the aftermath of the Reformation. During the Counter-Reformation 900,000 Protestants were martyred. They are shown in the Revelation as sacrificial lambs laid on the altar. This period ends at the close of the sixth seal (1755-1844), which represented the short period that begins in an end-times conscious Protestant America and the Second Advent message by William Miller. Just prior to the seventh seal is removed from the scroll we see a scene of Christ’s second coming. This was not the actual return of Christ—it was the global Advent movement of the 1830s and early ‘40s. But, the people were not ready for His coming. Before He can return, His people must be sealed. The sealing will be the necessary preparation for the actual day that He visits His judgments on the Protestant nation and the world that it has protected from the Roman papacy.

Chapter 4: Revelation chapter 7

This chapter introduces the sealing. That is such a major issue that it pauses the removal of the seals from the sealed scroll pageant to explain who will stand when the Lamb comes and who will run in abject fear. The answer is: Whoever gets the seal in the conscience will go with Jesus, and leave this doomed world. And this chapter gives the first picture of how happily the great controversy will end.

Chapter 5: Revelation chapter 8

After the chapter 7 intermission, we need to come back to where we left off when the 6th seal closed. So, the Lamb removes the seventh seal. The sanctuary scene that follows is connected with the seventh seal. Since the 6th seal ended in chapter 6, and the seal of God is shown ascending from the east in 1844 in chapter 7, then, chapter 8 picks up after the foretaste of all the happy celebration throughout eternity. Silence divides the chapter 7 intermission from the chapter 8 sanctuary scene; the silence separates the previous rejoicing at the end of the controversy scene of chapter 7 from the solemn chapter 8 events to follow in order to set up a new mindset in the reader. It is a reminder that our celebration is promised, but not yet ours to have as Paul groaned for (Romans 8:23). We are the church militant against self that must first endure the rigors of the trumpet dangers yet to come. Through a special dispensation of faith by an abundant gift of His Spirit in the Latter Rain, Jesus gives us a way of escape so that we are able to endure the great time of trouble.

The Angel High Priest is in the Holy Place, ready to enter the Most Holy. But, first He casts His censer to the earth and the 1st trumpet blows. We can say that the 1st trumpet is connected with the previous sanctuary scene because the contents of the censer and His blood are what fall from the sky onto the earth during the 1st trumpet. The contents damage “the third part” of the trees and all the fields of grain. This signified the start of the Christ’s work of sealing by His sparing some of the trees (leaders of Protestantism), and His work of marking by God’s overthrowing the denominations and the worst of the Protestants who rejected the plain truth of the blessed hope of Jesus’ return. The Bible compares people to trees and grain.

The 2nd trumpet blew and Mt. Sinai is thrown into the sea and quenched, showing the churches abrogating the Law of God. Now most of the Protestants had no protection from Satan’s spells.

So, the 3rd trumpet blew and Satan is seen poisoning their hearts and minds, and their whole way of viewing this world and the providences of God. Faith, true, genuine faith leaves every American who would remain in the new lawless Protestantism. Now that God is fictionalized by the new Protestants’ rejection of His Law, this world is all that most of them can live for.

The 4th trumpet blew and the Sunday churches went totally dark spiritually, as institutions. But, the door of heaven was still open to them individually. Scripture shows that the darkened heavenly lights symbolize that the Bible is no longer understood by Protestantism, and the Bible’s central importance is lost to Protestants. Now that Protestant America has lost its only resource for a spiritual compass in God’s word, an angel flies over the earth, alarming the world of the three woes that come with the last three trumpets.

Chapter 6: Revelation chapter 9

The 5th trumpet blew. God looses Satan to ransack Protestantism and bring it, and the world it that has blessed, into subjection to the powers of hell. Every Protestant not being sealed, especially in Protestant America, is tormented with the same vexation of spirit that Solomon and King Saul experienced when they apostatized from the Lord. Christ forewarned his people of this in His Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, 29 curses. Specifically, Deuteronomy 29:18-22 speaks to the Revelation 5th trumpet, as does the 3rd angel’s message of Revelation 14:9-11. In fact, the 3rd angel’s message is all about the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues; the components of those two trumpets make up the message of the 3rd angel of Revelation 14—the torment and desolation of soul that comes from not fearing God as our Judge and not getting to know Jesus as our merciful Advocate, preparing for His judgment and His final return.

The ancient false religion that caused such havoc to Israel was Baal worship. But Baal was simply one face among the thousands of false religions around the ancient world as well as our modern world, all spawned from ancient Babel. It is a religion that dares to approach God with the worshipers’ own manufactured repentance and holiness. The modern counterpart of Baal and Ashtoreth worship is Spiritual Formation.  Spiritual Formation sets aside the Law’s reproofs, which bring us to need a Savior from sin. Before Christ can be a Savior, He must be a Prince who wields His glittering sword. God will have it no other way. But, Satan, stepping in between God and His people, offers a more comfortable redemption, without the messy humbling that God requires. By peace and flattery he has destroyed many since the days of Cain; and now he is doing the same in the Protestant churches and in the Advent movement. We are repeating the history of Israel at Baal-peor, and many Adventists are falling for it, including leaders. This is the message of the 3rd angel and it speaks of the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues.

The language of the 3rd angel’s message comes from the 5th and 6th trumpets—another reason to believe that the trumpets happen during the heaven-ordained Advent movement and investigative judgment that precede the antitypical Day of Atonement. It only makes sense that all the seven trumpets should blow during the Advent movement that awaited the heavenly sanctuary cleansing, since the typical feast of trumpets was connected with the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary.

There is a time period with the 5th trumpet—5 prophetic months, 150 years. I realize Ellen White seemed to say that there would be no more time prophecies after 1844. But, that is not what her statements actually say. She was speaking of time proclamations, as William Miller gave. She left no commentary on the seven trumpets. I believe she only communicated what Jesus wanted her to give us during the time of the 150 year time prophecy. If, in the 1800s, we had known we would be here another 150 years and beyond, we doubtless would have apostatized into pagan celebration a long time ago.

One thing is very clear, Revelation 9:4 (the 5th trumpet) and 7:3 (1844) are unarguably speaking of the same holy transformation—the seal of God in the forehead. So, my conclusion is that Revelation 7:3 introduces the sealing, and 9:4 explains how it is received (and, therefore, how the mark of the beast is avoided). Sr. White wrote volumes on every other subject, while she wrote essentially nothing about the seven trumpets, evidently because Jesus gave her no light on the trumpets. The time must wait until the prophecy was completed before He would bring its meaning to light. That time has arrived. I believe that the 5th trumpet time prophecy began as we were hammering out our fundamental beliefs in the Sabbath conferences. In 1849, the start of the 5th trumpet prophecy, the California Gold Rush altered the face of Protestant America. In 1999, 150 years later, another gold rush closed the 5th trumpet—the stock market gold rush of the late 1990s. These two gold rushes are the bookends for the 5th trumpet.

In between those years technology exponentially developed and drew the world-loving Protestant multitudes permanently away from God and His Law. And that separation from the Protestants’ God has tormented them like Jesus was tormented on the cross because His Father had left Him. During those 5 prophetic months, the Spirit of God had been leaving Protestant America and Satan had been moving in to fill the void, and bringing his bitter wormwood spirit with him. Largely through the earthly agencies of Rome and her Jesuit masters of deception temptations have stolen all the freedom and happiness that the original Protestant Reformers passed down to Protestants in America. The Jesuits and the Vatican are the locusts from the bottomless pit of the 5th trumpet (Rev. 9:3) (they are called “the beast” in Revelation 11:7). Satan, driving them across the earth, is the billowing black smoke.

The 6th trumpet blew. Now that Protestant Americans have departed from God and lived on His promised land of refuge with total forgetfulness of the God of Protestantism, He allows for their complete possession by the god they love so much, the god of this world. As the 10 tribes of Israel lived for Baal for 200 years until the Lord vomited them out of His land, so is He doing to Protestant Americans today. Soon, and very soon, Protestantism’s enemy from the Dark Ages will have conquered their empire by locusts filling the leading offices of their CIA, FBI, NSA, FDA, FEMA, AMA, the media, the Federal Reserve banking system, and the three branches of the U.S. Government. I won’t be surprised if the Vatican initiates the official desolation of free America when Protestantism is ended. By an official declaration and documentation, the union of church and state began at the healing of the Lutheran church and the Church of Rome on Protestantism’s 500th anniversary—Halloween 2017.

In the 6th trumpet, the locusts can do what they were forbidden to do during the 5th trumpet, that is, “kill” the soul. All of their torment until 1999 came from the work of separating the people from the one true God of their Reformation fathers. Now that the denominations are fully separated from the God of the Bible, they commit the unpardonable sin by returning to the spiritualistic, pagan Vatican; and they become a persecuting nation. This explains the unjust destruction of Muslims based on the false premise that Islamists caused 9/11. All the evidence of 9/11 points to specially placed and protected individuals within American government agencies—Jesuits—who choreographed the 9/11 black flag operation under the purview of Rome. (Dan. 8:12).

9/11 has set the stage for the coming tribulation of all nations. We are in the very end of time. God is almost finished scattering of the power of His holy people (Dan. 12:7).

When the seventh trumpet will blow, the 3rd woe will mean total world domination by Satan and his filling every heart with his mean anger. Then, the few who in reverence seriously received God, His Law, and His redemption will stand out from the demon-controlled crowds. Everyone who played off the Spirit of Prophecy counsels as unneeded during the 5th and 6th trumpets God will require it of them in the seventh trumpet. This we see at the end of Revelation 11.

Chapter 7: Revelation chapter 10

This chapter begins to show glory from the end of a long, dark, distressing tunnel of woe. It opens during the unconscionable desolations by the conscienceless world of the Revelation chapter 9 6th trumpet. Christ is seen clothed with a cloud of incense and glory. The little sealed scroll, which He took from His Father in Revelation chapter 5, is now opened after the trumpets have done their work of scattering the power of faith living in His Protestant people (which includes the SDAs, as will be seen in Revelation 11). Christ roars like a lion because His forbearing work as Lamb is finished, and it is time to judge the world and to end Satan’s controversy against God. With infinite thunder, God agrees with His Son.

So, Jesus swears by His Father that the delay of the 6th seal is all but complete—the sealing is almost finished—when He can finally come in power and glory. But, first He will give humanity one last opportunity to be saved, as He gave it the antediluvian world. He commands John to eat the scroll of the great controversy and to “prophesy again.” But, if we use scripture to interpret scripture, then this is not speaking of the Millerite Great Disappointment of 1844. It is speaking of an event within the final chapter of the seal/trumpet chronology, Revelation chapter 11.

When do we see any prophesying taking place since Revelation chapter 4? We don’t see any prophesying up to Revelation chapter 10. But, we do see it in the next chapter, almost immediately following the command of chapter 10 to prophesy again. We see it in Revelation chapter 11.

Chapter 8: Revelation chapter 11

This chapter concludes the seal/trumpet story that is the core of Revelation. The chapter introduces its intent to judge the church by John being given a measuring rod. The church is found guilty of apostasy, except for a very small remnant that defends the truth “in the days of their prophecy” (Rev. 11:6). The prophecy of that very small remnant sweeps through 2,000 years to include the apostolic church, the church in the wilderness, and the Reformation. The fire of truth shoots out of the mouths of God’s wilderness church champions of truth, and devours the enemies of His gospel, like their Master (Isa. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:8). This campaign against Satan continues successfully until 1849 when the hosts of darkness fly out of an opened bottomless pit (Rev. 11:7). Then, the Lord’s witnesses are warred against, later are overcome, and eventually cease their prophesying. In the lengthy Revelation 11 prophecy, this victory over the prophesying witnesses by the beast from the bottomless pit is where the Revelation 10 scene occurs. Revelation 10 is giving the greater historical context of Revelation 9 when the locusts have desolated the mighty and holy people, and led them to repentance and the sealing. Thus, it is time for the mighty and holy people to prophesy again.

Satan cannot immediately kill the Advent movement while Ellen White lives. But, he first makes war (also seen in Rev. 12:17), then he overcomes, and finally he kills the Advent movement. We lay dead in the aisles of the church for a period of time that figuratively expresses judgment on God’s people (Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17). Then, when God has accomplished our total humbling and all of our self-sufficiency is gone, then He resurrects His two witnesses, gives them the Latter Rain, and the earth is reaped. This ends the 2nd woe; and the seventh trumpet blows. Total chaos rules the world and the last we see is a Most Holy Place in heaven empty of a High Priest because Christ has left there to come and get His people. The mystery of God’s character of love and fairness, as written in the little scroll, is finished. His judgment is finished, and He is exonerated by His character perfectly reflected in His sealed children.

This ends the core of Revelation. I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow. The rest of the book of Revelation expands upon the main storyline of chapters 4 through 11.

I’ve heard much about chiasms in Revelation, which describe it as a tiered literary structure, the first vision being similar to the last vision, the second vision similar the second-to-last vision, etc., a ABCD…DCBA pattern. Centuries ago, the subject of chiastic structures in the book of Revelation began small and gradually grew in acceptance. I’ve looked at charts that show the chiasms of Revelation, and it all seems good. But, I see that the primary view of Revelation must be a concise storyline for the first half of Revelation, and detailed visions given afterwards to be fitted into the basic story. I see Revelation chapters 4 to 22 simply as basically two halves of one book. In the first half, we have the core first 8 chapters that give a bird’s eye view of the book, such as this overview does for my book. Then, the next 11 chapters give details that must be brought in at the correct places of the core storyline of Revelation, chapters 4 through 11.

The Spirit’s organization of the Revelation visions in a simple story format seems very wise. A simple storyline I can handle. But, chiasms are a little too complicated for me.

Even children can understand the simple core storyline of Revelation. Of course, the symbology is a deeper subject, and that makes the Bible a challenge for adults. But, I’m thankful that Revelation is much more understandable than most people think because of the way it was laid out as a simple story by the Spirit of God.