Day 39 September 17 - Revelation 8-15

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Discussion

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Rev. 8 The Seventh Seal


Rev. 8:1 there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour


The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of this same silence in heaven. Interestingly, in that account, we are told that the face of the Lord is unveiled immediately after the silence. This chronology is not apparent from the Revelation which rather gives the impression that the desolations poured out upon mankind begin at the end of the silent period.

And there shall be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour; and immediately after shall the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a scroll is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the face of the Lord shall be unveiled;
And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him. (D&C 88:95-96)

Orson Pratt

Whether the half hour here spoken of is according to our reckoning—thirty minutes, or whether it be according to the reckoning of the Lord (21 years) we do not know. We know that the word hour is used in some portions of the Scriptures to represent quite a lengthy period of time. For instance, we, the Latter-day Saints, are living in the eleventh period of time; and for aught we know the half hour during which silence is to prevail in heaven may be quite an extensive period of time. During the period of silence all things are perfectly still; no angels flying during that half hour; no trumpets sounding; no noise in the heavens above; but immediately after this great silence the curtain of heaven shall be unfolded as a scroll is unfolded. School children, who are in the habit of seeing maps hung up on the wall, know that they have rollers upon which they are rolled up, and that to expose the face of the maps they are let down. So will the curtain of heaven be unrolled so that the people may gaze upon those celestial beings who will make their appearance in the clouds. The face of the Lord will be unveiled, and those who are alive will be quickened, and they will be caught up; and the Saints who are in their graves, will come forth and be caught up, together with those who are quickened, and they will be taken into the heavens into the midst of those celestial beings who will make their appearance at that time. These are the ones who are the first fruits, that is, the first fruits at the time of his coming. (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 16: 328.)
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Rev. 8:5 and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake

These destructions come upon the wicked for persecuting the saints and for rejecting their testimony. They are a belated answer to the prayers of the saints.

And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.
For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.
And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.
And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people. (D&C 88:88-91)

Gerald N. Lund

The plagues, the famines, the thunderings and lightnings, the hail and the earthquakes are all necessary, for the children of men will not otherwise heed the warning voice of the Lord. In these times of chaos and catastrophes which are coming, the missionaries of the Church will be called home, and the Lord will preach his own sermons to the people. (The Coming of the Lord [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971], 42.)

Brigham Young

All we have heard and we have experienced is scarcely a preface to the sermon that is going to be preached. When the testimony of the Elders ceases to be given, and the Lord says to them, "Come home: I will now preach my own sermons to the nations of the earth," all you now know can scarcely be called a preface to the sermon that will be preached with fire and sword, tempests, earthquakes, hail, rain, thunders and lightnings, and fearful destruction. What matters the destruction of a few railway cars? You will hear of magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulfing mighty cities. Famine will spread over the nations and nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom and states against states, in our own country and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for blood and lives of their neighbors, of their families, or for their own lives. (Rulon T.Burton, We Believe [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994], The Last Days, #401)

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Rev. 9:1 to him was given the key of he bottomless pit


“John witnesses Satan turn the key to unleash the very powers of hell upon an unsuspecting world. The predator's intent is to destroy the earth. From the onset of this millennial battle, John shows that Satan leads the hosts forth upon the earth. Before this, God overmastered the plagues through the destroying angels. From this point on, Satan personally directs the operations bringing the misery that fuels hell to the surface of the earth. The Seer reveals the Adversary at his worst—venting anger, frustration, and rage. The world will feel the full thrust of his fury.

“John sees the evil pour out of the pit in the abyss. Ancient writings show this place to be the abode of Jehovah's enemy and a kind of holding tank for fallen angels or even Satan himself. The key Satan uses to open the pit symbolizes power, authority, and ownership. But note, Satan does not own the key. He receives it. Once again, John reveals that someone acts behind the scenes, controlling and directing even the machinations of the Evil One. Ironically this potent one, for all his flaunted authority, cannot free the might of hell until God gives him the key. In this way John shows that Perdition's dominion starts and ends where the Lord dictates. Satan's limits are firm—he cannot go beyond them (Richard D. Draper, Opening the Seven Seals: The Visions of John the Revelator [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1991], 101.)

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Rev. 9:5-11 they should not kill them, but… be tormented five months

Orson Pratt

The fifth angel will sound his trump, and an angel will descend holding the key of what is termed the bottomless pit, and he will open the door of this pit, and there shall issue therefrom certain terrible creatures called locusts. And it will be given unto them to torment men five months—the time which is to intervene between the sounding of the fifth and sixth trumpets, and during that time these awful creatures, such as neither we nor our forefathers, in all the generations before us, have ever seen on the earth, will torment the wicked. These creatures have wings, hair like women, teeth like lions, tails like scorpions, and with their stings they will torment the wicked for five months. But it will not be given unto them to destroy men, only to torment them. That will be a terrible judgment. They will have a king over them, whose name in the Greek tongue is “Apollyon,” in other words the devil. He has power over them and with them, and commands these awful beings, and they go forth and torment the inhabitants of the earth, but are not permitted to kill them. Men in those days will seek for death, but it will flee from them, although they will greatly desire it on account of the terrible torment they endure.

When the Lord permits the devil to go forth and torment people he has considerable power. You can see this in the case of Job. When the devil stirred up the Lord to torment Job, the devil was permitted to go and strike Job with pestilence, with sore boils, and to make him feel sorrow, pain and distress. Said the devil to the Lord, “He will curse you to your face,” and to prove whether he would or not Job was sorely smitten and afflicted; and so will men be afflicted by these awful creatures which will issue from the bottomless pit, and are under his command. (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 15: 339 - 340.)

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Rev. 9:20-21 the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues… repented not

“As amazing as it seems, those that are not killed continue to worship the very forces that worked for their destruction. They refuse to give up their materialistic idolatry. Their hearts continue to crave gold, silver, brass, and other material objects that, as John points out, ‘neither can see, nor hear, nor walk’ (v. 20, KJV). Though their world is collapsing because of it, these wicked souls sell themselves as the lackeys of the Never-living and the Destroyer-doomed-to-destruction. Thievery, murder, and fornication, specifically prohibited in the ten commandments, all continue apace.” (Richard D. Draper, Opening the Seven Seals: The Visions of John the Revelator [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1991], 109.)

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Rev. 10:7 in the days of the… seventh angel… the mystery of God should be finished

What is the mystery of God? What work is it that He must accomplish? First of all, the 144,000 must be sealed (Rev. 7), but secondly John’s mission must be accomplished—to gather Israel and restore all things (D&C 77:14). The latter two have been a particular focus of all the prophets. Christ can’t come “until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21)

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Rev. 10:8-9 Go and take the little book… and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey

Q. What are we to understand by the little book which was eaten by John, as mentioned in the 10th chapter of Revelation?
A. We are to understand that it was a mission, and an ordinance, for him to gather the tribes of Israel; behold, this is Elias, who, as it is written, must come and restore all things. (D&C 77:14)

Perhaps it seems strange to eat a book. The imagery is symbolic of accepting an assignment from the Lord. Ezekiel was also asked to eat a book. His mission was the same as John’s, “when I looked, behold… and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and… said… eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.” (Ezek. 2:3) The roll is both bitter and sweet—sweet because so many souls will be saved by his ministry among the house of Israel—and bitter because many others would reject the gospel of Christ and suffer the judgments of God.

What was John’s mission? It was to gather the twelve tribes of Israel. This began with his mortal ministry and continued with his appearance to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to restore the Melchizedek Priesthood. Furthermore, he has worked as a translated being among the lost ten tribes—preparing them for the Second Coming of Christ. His mission has been to restore the priesthood to the earth and to restore the House of Israel according to the great promises made to their fathers.

John Whitmer

The spirit of the Lord fell upon Joseph in an unusual manner. And prophesied that John the Revelator was then (June 1831) among the ten tribes of Israel who had been led away by Salmanasar King of [Assyria], to prepare them for their return, from their long dispersion, to again possess the land of their fathers. (The Book of John Whitmer, typescript, [Provo: BYU Archives and Manuscripts], chap. 7)

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Rev. 11 Introduction



Parley P. Pratt

Suffice it to say, the Jews gather home, and rebuild Jerusalem. The nations gather against them in battle. Their armies encompass the city, and have more or less power over it for three years and a half. A couple of Jewish Prophets… are slain, and the city is left in a great measure to the mercy of their enemies for three days and a half, the two Prophets rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. The Messiah comes, convulses the earth, overthrows the army of the Gentiles, delivers the Jews, cleanses Jerusalem, cuts off all wickedness from the earth, raises the Saints from the dead, brings them with Him and commences His reign of a thousand years. (David B. Galbraith, D. Kelly Ogden, and Andrew C. Skinner, Jerusalem: The Eternal City [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1996], 536)

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Rev. 11:1 the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God


The command to measure the temple must have brought to John’s mind the writings of Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw an angel with a measuring reed. In a grand display, Ezekiel was shown the Jerusalem temple to be built in the last days. For nine chapters, Ezekiel explains in vivid detail, the Temple, its dimensions, some of its ordinances, the temple workers, the feasts to be re-instated, and Jerusalem itself (Ezek. 40-48). John sees the same temple already built before the Second Coming.

Just who is going to build this temple is not clear. Certainly, the Jewish people would be the most interested, but one would think they would need help from the most experienced group of temple builders—the LDS church.

“A yeshiva (school) in Jerusalem called Ateret Cohanim concentrates on studies pertaining to Temple service and ritual to ‘enable their students to step in the moment a Temple is erected.’ The dean of the yeshiva, Matityahu Hacohen, maintained that ‘we are ready to begin building the Temple the minute we get the go-ahead from the Chief Rabbinate and the Israeli government.’ His enthusiasm was tempered by the former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, one of the country’s foremost experts on the Temple and its religious meaning to the Jews. Goren warned that ‘one of the greatest Jews who ever lived, King David, lost the privilege of building the First Temple simply because he did not enjoy the proper guidance by a prophet.’

“…An organization called the Temple Institute has reconstructed thirty-eight ritual implements required for temple service. The Institute hopes to finish the remaining sixty-five items as funds become available. Small shops, such as Beged Ivri, create clothing; Harrari Harps make musical instruments. The Institute spokesman, Zev Golan, said, ‘If we do not prepare and show God that we want a temple, then God won’t give it to us.’ Accordingly, the Institute is using a computer to draw up blueprints for rebuilding the Temple.

“The objective of those physically preparing for a future Temple is to be ready when the time comes. Without exception, those preoccupied with studying or actually preparing for the Temple concede that they do not know when it will come about, but they all share a common goal: to be ready when the time does come.” (David B. Galbraith, D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner, Jerusalem: The Eternal City [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1996], 478-479)