[This is a short outline and study - a trying to get to the 'bare bones' of the vision. While doing the study, during the middle of the night, I woke up with the number 2784 very strongly on my mind. So the next day I looked it up in the numbers of the Greek, which the New Testament was written in, and found it is - "kērýssō (#G2784) – properly, to herald (proclaim); to preach (announce) a message publicly and with conviction (persuasion)". So here it is ...God bless!]
Chapters 1 - 5 are a separate study, being concerned with important spiritual matters.
Chapter 6 -- The First Six Seals - is where the vision Jesus gave to the apostle John, in his 'old age' begins. The seals are on a rolled up scroll. As each seal is broken, more of the scroll is then able to be unrolled and read. Blessed are those hearing the words of this prophecy and keeping the things in it.. (verse 1:3) Included in each seal description, is the full range of it, from its first appearance, to its last, at full maturity.
When the first seal on the scroll is broken, a rider on a white horse, given a crown, rides out "conquering and to conquer". Clues: the Greek conquering is nikao, conquer, overcome, from the root word nike` - victory. His crown (stephanos) is the same as in 14:14, where also is ridden, a white horse. [The victorious gospel rides forth and throughout the age conquering and to conquer. Each horse of the apocalypse (and seal) continues its ride to the 'end' of the vision]. And each seal, like prophecy, in its telling and in its occurring, works like a telescope, or more exactly, from 'smaller' range to greater range.
When the second seal was broken a fiery red horse came out, with the rider who takes peace away. He is given a great or large sword. Clue: Great sword / weapon of war, war, eventually, was given a great weapon.
When the third seal is broken, out rides a black horse whose rider carries a scale, the balances of which are uneven. [Each horse and rider continue their ride and progression throughout the age - the years of our Lord, A.D.]
When the fourth seal is broken, a pale (chloros) horse, whose rider's name is death, rides forth. Riding with him, and following him, is the grave (hades-place of the dead). Clue: Including the mass grave? When all is said and done, this rider (element of the age) destroys one fourth of the earth by war, famine and wild beasts. Clue? Beasts in prophecy symbolize governing powers.
When the fifth seal is broken John sees the souls of martyrs under the altar crying out to God, and they are told to wait for the full number of them.. Clue: Surely this is expressed symbolically like everything else, and is like the blood of Abel which cried unto God from the earth, and represents another element, also present and progressing, throughout the age.
When the sixth seal is broken open there is a great (megas) earthquake, the sun becomes black as sackcloth (mourning) and the moon (clue: included in the greek word, whole, complete) becomes like blood. Clue: The moon reflects. I believe this particular "opening" (originally) is man's splitting (open) of the atom which occurred (fire from the sky, 13:13) at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But it too progresses to the end of the age. Clue: With its full progression (at the 'end') included in the description, it works mightily to obscure and confuse the vision. Interesting note, during the bombings, it was the dark of the moon (phase). Clue: See seal two/mega obvious. ...And do you remember? - The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave (workers) and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. This actually occurred - small range - after the (huge) events called Fat Man and Little Boy.
Chapters 7- 8:1 - And then, four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, hold back the winds (of seal 6, surely?) that it not harm earth, sea or trees until the servants of God are sealed on their forehead (seal of clarity/truth?) [144,000 of Israel and a crowd too many to number from every nation (ethnos) tribe and tongue. The One on the Throne will shelter them, they will not hunger or thirst and no heat nor sun shall smite them.] I believe this pause / holding back the winds is where we are at now in Bible prophecy, and have been since after seal six was first opened.
When the seventh seal is broken there is silence in heaven for, what seems to John, to be about a half an hour.
John sees twelve angels before the throne who are each given a trumpet.
END PART ONE
Chapter 8 -- Things escalate - Seven angels with seven trumpets - these "trumpets" are in, and are, the seventh seal.
Another angel, who has a golden censor, is given much incense to offer with the prayers of believers upon the golden altar before the Throne. And the smoke of the incense and prayers rises up before God's throne. Then the angel takes the censor and fills it with fire from the altar. And he throws it to the earth! There are noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
Then the seven angels having the trumpets prepare to sound..
At the sounding of the first trumpet - a third of trees are burned, and all green grass. At the second trumpet, fire is thrown into the sea and a third of the sea becomes as blood. At the third trumpet bitterness falls upon a third of the rivers and streams. The fourth trumpet darkens day and night by a third.
An angel flies through midheaven - higher sky where eagles and the like fly as opposed to lower sky where the little birds fly - he cries out "woe", three times, because of the remaining three trumpets about to sound.
Chapter 9 -- The fifth trumpet sounds and John sees a star as though fallen from heaven and it opens the abyss. (Here's where I most agree with the idea that Revelation/Apocalypse also describes the spiritual transformation within each child of God, as I think of the bottomless pit as the potential of imperfection and evil in the wayward heart, both collective and individual. As in "how low can ye go?" And history proves this quite well.)
John sees thick smoke rising from the pit, smoke from the previous trumpets. (Prophet Joel's dry, smoky day.) And out of the rising smoke come what to John resemble loud locusts (which swarm? and) can sting with their head or tail / front or back. And these torment mankind for five months. I have to think this is widespread enforced martial law for five months and not a happy time. "A first woe is past".. [Clue: Reseach marshall law, what's usual?]
The sixth trumpet is sounded and the angel cries out "release the four angels (aggelos) bound (prohibited, declared unlawful) at the river great Euphrates". There are two hundred million horsemen (or look like to John?) who wear red, blue and yellow. The heads of the horses look like the heads of lions and out of their mouth and tail comes fire and smoke. A third of mankind perishes. A second woe is past.. Meanwhile...
Chapters 10 - 14 are visions within the vision, which act as inserts to the narrative, and to the information being given.
Chapter 12 is a complete story and history - which seems to end at the very place where the sixth trumpet just left us. It is the history of the faith upon Earth. A Great Sign / A Virgin Conceives - A woman/nation births a manchild (Son of man) which the dragon - using Herod the Great - tries to devour as soon as He is born. But instead the manchild/Son of man ascends to God's throne where He will rule all nations. The dragon is enraged and pursues the woman/the faith (70 A.D.) and she flees to a new place. But there is war in heaven between the dragon and angels, and Michael and angels. The result being the dragon and his angels are no longer allowed acess to the heavens. The dragon is enraged and persecutes ("hunts down"/inquisitions?) the woman, but she is given the two wings of an eagle to fly (sail?) to a new place safe from the face of the dragon, which later, in its serpent guise, spews a flood after the faith trying to wash it from off the face of the earth. But the earth will swallow the flood. (This swallowing of the flood [also] allegory for/indicating drought?) And then the dragon turns his attention to the rest of her offspring, who have the commandments of God and (by then?) the testimony of Jesus. [Remember the sealings upon the foreheads? And how Jesus said - Jerusalem, Jerusalem.. you will not see Me again, until you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" - Matthew 23:39.] Clue: The dragon goes off to make war with the rest of her offspring (12:17). Cross Reference 16:14,15,16.
END PART TWO
Chapter 13 is a famous chapter for it coincides so well with the Book and visions of Daniel the Prophet. In this chapter there are two beasts. Verses 1-10 is of a 'bigger' beast who rises out of the sea. And verses 11-18 are about a 'smaller' one (smaller seat of power) which has two horns/seats? Clues: 1 -The larger beast has "ten horns" as does the fourth beast of Daniel's vision of four great beasts (Dan. 7). 2 - King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a tall statue made up of different metals, each metal representing a world kingdom (Dan 2). Of it, the metals bronze, all agree, represented Greece, and the iron, Rome. The fourth great beast of Daniel's vision has in it, iron teeth (columns?) and bronze claws "with which the residue not subdued by the iron, is scattered/broken up". (Greek, secularism influencing all nations.) 3 - Revelation 17:12-18 tells us the (big) beast's ten horns is "ten kings" (or seats? divisions?) which rule one (final) hour with the large beast/body. Nebuchadnezzar's dream statue has "ten toes" (seats?) which are part iron/western, and part not/clay. It is in the days of this kingdom (the feet of iron and clay) that The Rock arrives, is thrown at the feet of the statue, the statue falls, shattering into pieces. And the dust of it is blown away.. (Daniel chapter 2)
The second beast of chapter 13, with its two horns/seats, brings fire down upon earth in the sight of mankind convincing them to worship (be allied to?) one of the heads (manifestations?) of the 'big' beast which head/manifestation/dragon power had expired. (I've always thought, in our modern world, when the 'head' or dreamer up of it, didn't sign on after all, it expired and after the event of 13:13 carried out by the 'smaller' beast/two-horned office, it was then begun anew.) Clues: Verses 12-14, how this second one will end up exercising "all the power of the first ('larger') beast and persuades those who dwell on earth to make an "image" (Greek - "an image, statue, likeness, representation.. from 'be like'.. mirror like.. reflects its source.. very close in resemblance like a high definition projection" - http://biblehub.com/greek/1504.htm - This office (or one from it? Currently at the time? Or otherwise?) is given power to give breath (and authority?) to the image, that it should both speak and cause as many as would not worship it to be killed and causes all to have its (identifying?) mark in order to buy and sell, but I think these 'mandates' (programs?) are reversed in order (logically, affecting buying and selling first). This chapter ends with - "Here is wisdom, let he who has understanding let him count the number of the beast.. hex(akosioi) hex(ekonta)... hex."
Daniel 12:11,12 is an interesting riddle which seems to be a counting backwards to the final abomination that desolates. In times past a desolation of the temple was the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, the people of God (believers) are called the Temple of God. Daniel writes (verse 11) that three (Hebrew calendar) years, plus seven months after a "perpetual" (daily) sacrifice is stopped or taken away (or a place of in Jerusalem?) is when the final desolation of abomination will occur. [Verse 12 says, "happy the one waiting and coming to forty-five days later"!]
Meanwhile - weaved through the inserts - two prophets of Israel will trouble the world. In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.. An angel flying in mid heaven cries, "Reverence He who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water".. Then another angel cries, "Babylon is fallen, fallen".. will drink the cup she filled.. And then a third angel, "Any who reverence the beast and receives the mark of its image will drink of that cup"..
The seventh angel sounds his trumpet, and there are great voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."
END PART THREE (Brings us to the same place as "End Part Two".)
Chapters 15,16 -- The seventh trumpet is the last woe, and in its sounding is what's called the seven bowls. In them the 'wrath' of God is complete. [They are the final results of man's doings, the evidence of what cannot work, God being (surely?) both life, itself, and perfection. Hence, imperfection can never work or endure, for it is the opposite of life. When God endowed thinking ability a whole new world (or tree) of possibilities came about, for with thinking ability comes the ability to make choices. But what is the other option? No rational creatures? Ever?]
The bowls are poured out quickly - resulting in - some sort of ailment, burn or sore, from the mark of the image; life in the sea dies; rivers and streams turn red; the sun burns and scorches; the throne and kingdom of the beast goes dark; the Euphrates goes dry; the kings of the earth gather for the final battle - behold Jesus comes suddenly and happy the one watching - and the nations gather to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon - [ 16 : 14 - 15 - 16 ].
Chapters 17,18 are inserts looking backward. And are the descriptions of the last empire of man (or last manifestation of Babylon called "great" whose forehead is "mystery babylon"/mystery babble/all untruth, error, confusion). She is called a harlot (Greek, pornos) and is said to be upon seven hills (ultimately, continents) seducing, enchanting and making drunk all the world. The kings of the earth (politicians) are in bed with her..
The ten horns which you saw on the beast - ten horns/ten toes/ ten kings/divisions of the larger/world beast, part iron, part clay "will hate Babylon the great, and will consume her, the merchants, made wealthy by her, will mourn. [?Socialism will, finally, consume/destroy capitalism? Both gone extreme.]
Chapter 19 -- After this.. rescue and deliverance, glory and honor to the God of us! Let us be glad and rejoice for the marriage of the Lord is come.. Behold the heavens open, and out comes a white horse and He who sits upon it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness does He battle.. And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him.. and then the beast was captured and the false prophet with it, and they were cast out (into the lake of fire/crucible of refinement - metaphor). These two - the 'big' beast with ten horns/seats/divisions, and the false prophet/teacher/teaching of a strong delusion which has caused Western Civilization, once called Christendom, to fall away from the faith - are active at the time of Jesus' return, thus the language is - thrown alive into the lake of fire, the second death, here, abolishment).
END PART FOUR
Chapter 20 -- Then I (John) saw an angel descending out of heaven with the key to the Abyss and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the Abyss, and shut and sealed it over him.. until the thousand years are ended.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. - 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17
...In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.. the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruptibly, and this mortal must put on immortality. - 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
..And thus we shall always be with the Lord. - 1 Thessalonians 4:17d
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. - Zechariah 14:4
Verse 5 - But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are ended..
..The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say - "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths... He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. - Isaiah 2:2-4 [1 Jn 4:8 - God is Love. Ps 136:1 - His mercy endures forever.]
From 20:6-10 -- Satan having been released from his prison, deceives the nations at the four corners of Earth.. gathers them for battle.. but there is fire from God out of the heavens..
From 20:11-15 -- And I saw a great white throne [GWT] and the One sitting on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled.. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne..
Clue? The spacing of Ancient Israel's Autumn holy days (of Leviticus chapter 23) - the Spring ones having been fulfilled by Jesus' first advent - as though they were prophecy - so perfectly. Surely the three peaks of His long second advent will fulfill the Fall ones of - Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. There is 10 days between Trumpets and Day of Atonement (1000 years between the last trumpet/His return and the great white throne [GWT] 'Day' of Judgment). And there is 5 days between Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:29) and Tabernacles.
[Matthew 13:33 - The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened. 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 - For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then, comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet". But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all (and) in all. Romans 11:32 - For God has consigned all ("the whole") to unbelief, so that he may have mercy on them all ("the whole".]
Chapters 21,22 -- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And He shall wipe away every tear .. and death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any pain, for the first things have passed away" ..Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.. In the midst of its broad way, and of the river on this side and on that, is a tree of life, yielding twelve fruits, in each month its fruits.. and the leaves of the tree are for the service and healing of the nations..
..To the one thirsting I will give of the spring of the water of life freely..
The lion will eat straw like the ox, the bear will graze with the cow. - Isaiah 11:7
And they will sit each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be none troubling.. Micah 4:4
His Kingdom will never end.. Luke 1:33
Chapters 1 - 5 are a separate study, being concerned with important spiritual matters.
Chapter 6 -- The First Six Seals - is where the vision Jesus gave to the apostle John, in his 'old age' begins. The seals are on a rolled up scroll. As each seal is broken, more of the scroll is then able to be unrolled and read. Blessed are those hearing the words of this prophecy and keeping the things in it.. (verse 1:3) Included in each seal description, is the full range of it, from its first appearance, to its last, at full maturity.
When the first seal on the scroll is broken, a rider on a white horse, given a crown, rides out "conquering and to conquer". Clues: the Greek conquering is nikao, conquer, overcome, from the root word nike` - victory. His crown (stephanos) is the same as in 14:14, where also is ridden, a white horse. [The victorious gospel rides forth and throughout the age conquering and to conquer. Each horse of the apocalypse (and seal) continues its ride to the 'end' of the vision]. And each seal, like prophecy, in its telling and in its occurring, works like a telescope, or more exactly, from 'smaller' range to greater range.
When the second seal was broken a fiery red horse came out, with the rider who takes peace away. He is given a great or large sword. Clue: Great sword / weapon of war, war, eventually, was given a great weapon.
When the third seal is broken, out rides a black horse whose rider carries a scale, the balances of which are uneven. [Each horse and rider continue their ride and progression throughout the age - the years of our Lord, A.D.]
When the fourth seal is broken, a pale (chloros) horse, whose rider's name is death, rides forth. Riding with him, and following him, is the grave (hades-place of the dead). Clue: Including the mass grave? When all is said and done, this rider (element of the age) destroys one fourth of the earth by war, famine and wild beasts. Clue? Beasts in prophecy symbolize governing powers.
When the fifth seal is broken John sees the souls of martyrs under the altar crying out to God, and they are told to wait for the full number of them.. Clue: Surely this is expressed symbolically like everything else, and is like the blood of Abel which cried unto God from the earth, and represents another element, also present and progressing, throughout the age.
When the sixth seal is broken open there is a great (megas) earthquake, the sun becomes black as sackcloth (mourning) and the moon (clue: included in the greek word, whole, complete) becomes like blood. Clue: The moon reflects. I believe this particular "opening" (originally) is man's splitting (open) of the atom which occurred (fire from the sky, 13:13) at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But it too progresses to the end of the age. Clue: With its full progression (at the 'end') included in the description, it works mightily to obscure and confuse the vision. Interesting note, during the bombings, it was the dark of the moon (phase). Clue: See seal two/mega obvious. ...And do you remember? - The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave (workers) and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. This actually occurred - small range - after the (huge) events called Fat Man and Little Boy.
Chapters 7- 8:1 - And then, four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, hold back the winds (of seal 6, surely?) that it not harm earth, sea or trees until the servants of God are sealed on their forehead (seal of clarity/truth?) [144,000 of Israel and a crowd too many to number from every nation (ethnos) tribe and tongue. The One on the Throne will shelter them, they will not hunger or thirst and no heat nor sun shall smite them.] I believe this pause / holding back the winds is where we are at now in Bible prophecy, and have been since after seal six was first opened.
When the seventh seal is broken there is silence in heaven for, what seems to John, to be about a half an hour.
John sees twelve angels before the throne who are each given a trumpet.
END PART ONE
Chapter 8 -- Things escalate - Seven angels with seven trumpets - these "trumpets" are in, and are, the seventh seal.
Another angel, who has a golden censor, is given much incense to offer with the prayers of believers upon the golden altar before the Throne. And the smoke of the incense and prayers rises up before God's throne. Then the angel takes the censor and fills it with fire from the altar. And he throws it to the earth! There are noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
Then the seven angels having the trumpets prepare to sound..
At the sounding of the first trumpet - a third of trees are burned, and all green grass. At the second trumpet, fire is thrown into the sea and a third of the sea becomes as blood. At the third trumpet bitterness falls upon a third of the rivers and streams. The fourth trumpet darkens day and night by a third.
An angel flies through midheaven - higher sky where eagles and the like fly as opposed to lower sky where the little birds fly - he cries out "woe", three times, because of the remaining three trumpets about to sound.
Chapter 9 -- The fifth trumpet sounds and John sees a star as though fallen from heaven and it opens the abyss. (Here's where I most agree with the idea that Revelation/Apocalypse also describes the spiritual transformation within each child of God, as I think of the bottomless pit as the potential of imperfection and evil in the wayward heart, both collective and individual. As in "how low can ye go?" And history proves this quite well.)
John sees thick smoke rising from the pit, smoke from the previous trumpets. (Prophet Joel's dry, smoky day.) And out of the rising smoke come what to John resemble loud locusts (which swarm? and) can sting with their head or tail / front or back. And these torment mankind for five months. I have to think this is widespread enforced martial law for five months and not a happy time. "A first woe is past".. [Clue: Reseach marshall law, what's usual?]
The sixth trumpet is sounded and the angel cries out "release the four angels (aggelos) bound (prohibited, declared unlawful) at the river great Euphrates". There are two hundred million horsemen (or look like to John?) who wear red, blue and yellow. The heads of the horses look like the heads of lions and out of their mouth and tail comes fire and smoke. A third of mankind perishes. A second woe is past.. Meanwhile...
Chapters 10 - 14 are visions within the vision, which act as inserts to the narrative, and to the information being given.
Chapter 12 is a complete story and history - which seems to end at the very place where the sixth trumpet just left us. It is the history of the faith upon Earth. A Great Sign / A Virgin Conceives - A woman/nation births a manchild (Son of man) which the dragon - using Herod the Great - tries to devour as soon as He is born. But instead the manchild/Son of man ascends to God's throne where He will rule all nations. The dragon is enraged and pursues the woman/the faith (70 A.D.) and she flees to a new place. But there is war in heaven between the dragon and angels, and Michael and angels. The result being the dragon and his angels are no longer allowed acess to the heavens. The dragon is enraged and persecutes ("hunts down"/inquisitions?) the woman, but she is given the two wings of an eagle to fly (sail?) to a new place safe from the face of the dragon, which later, in its serpent guise, spews a flood after the faith trying to wash it from off the face of the earth. But the earth will swallow the flood. (This swallowing of the flood [also] allegory for/indicating drought?) And then the dragon turns his attention to the rest of her offspring, who have the commandments of God and (by then?) the testimony of Jesus. [Remember the sealings upon the foreheads? And how Jesus said - Jerusalem, Jerusalem.. you will not see Me again, until you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" - Matthew 23:39.] Clue: The dragon goes off to make war with the rest of her offspring (12:17). Cross Reference 16:14,15,16.
END PART TWO
Chapter 13 is a famous chapter for it coincides so well with the Book and visions of Daniel the Prophet. In this chapter there are two beasts. Verses 1-10 is of a 'bigger' beast who rises out of the sea. And verses 11-18 are about a 'smaller' one (smaller seat of power) which has two horns/seats? Clues: 1 -The larger beast has "ten horns" as does the fourth beast of Daniel's vision of four great beasts (Dan. 7). 2 - King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a tall statue made up of different metals, each metal representing a world kingdom (Dan 2). Of it, the metals bronze, all agree, represented Greece, and the iron, Rome. The fourth great beast of Daniel's vision has in it, iron teeth (columns?) and bronze claws "with which the residue not subdued by the iron, is scattered/broken up". (Greek, secularism influencing all nations.) 3 - Revelation 17:12-18 tells us the (big) beast's ten horns is "ten kings" (or seats? divisions?) which rule one (final) hour with the large beast/body. Nebuchadnezzar's dream statue has "ten toes" (seats?) which are part iron/western, and part not/clay. It is in the days of this kingdom (the feet of iron and clay) that The Rock arrives, is thrown at the feet of the statue, the statue falls, shattering into pieces. And the dust of it is blown away.. (Daniel chapter 2)
The second beast of chapter 13, with its two horns/seats, brings fire down upon earth in the sight of mankind convincing them to worship (be allied to?) one of the heads (manifestations?) of the 'big' beast which head/manifestation/dragon power had expired. (I've always thought, in our modern world, when the 'head' or dreamer up of it, didn't sign on after all, it expired and after the event of 13:13 carried out by the 'smaller' beast/two-horned office, it was then begun anew.) Clues: Verses 12-14, how this second one will end up exercising "all the power of the first ('larger') beast and persuades those who dwell on earth to make an "image" (Greek - "an image, statue, likeness, representation.. from 'be like'.. mirror like.. reflects its source.. very close in resemblance like a high definition projection" - http://biblehub.com/greek/1504.htm - This office (or one from it? Currently at the time? Or otherwise?) is given power to give breath (and authority?) to the image, that it should both speak and cause as many as would not worship it to be killed and causes all to have its (identifying?) mark in order to buy and sell, but I think these 'mandates' (programs?) are reversed in order (logically, affecting buying and selling first). This chapter ends with - "Here is wisdom, let he who has understanding let him count the number of the beast.. hex(akosioi) hex(ekonta)... hex."
Daniel 12:11,12 is an interesting riddle which seems to be a counting backwards to the final abomination that desolates. In times past a desolation of the temple was the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, the people of God (believers) are called the Temple of God. Daniel writes (verse 11) that three (Hebrew calendar) years, plus seven months after a "perpetual" (daily) sacrifice is stopped or taken away (or a place of in Jerusalem?) is when the final desolation of abomination will occur. [Verse 12 says, "happy the one waiting and coming to forty-five days later"!]
Meanwhile - weaved through the inserts - two prophets of Israel will trouble the world. In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.. An angel flying in mid heaven cries, "Reverence He who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water".. Then another angel cries, "Babylon is fallen, fallen".. will drink the cup she filled.. And then a third angel, "Any who reverence the beast and receives the mark of its image will drink of that cup"..
The seventh angel sounds his trumpet, and there are great voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."
END PART THREE (Brings us to the same place as "End Part Two".)
Chapters 15,16 -- The seventh trumpet is the last woe, and in its sounding is what's called the seven bowls. In them the 'wrath' of God is complete. [They are the final results of man's doings, the evidence of what cannot work, God being (surely?) both life, itself, and perfection. Hence, imperfection can never work or endure, for it is the opposite of life. When God endowed thinking ability a whole new world (or tree) of possibilities came about, for with thinking ability comes the ability to make choices. But what is the other option? No rational creatures? Ever?]
The bowls are poured out quickly - resulting in - some sort of ailment, burn or sore, from the mark of the image; life in the sea dies; rivers and streams turn red; the sun burns and scorches; the throne and kingdom of the beast goes dark; the Euphrates goes dry; the kings of the earth gather for the final battle - behold Jesus comes suddenly and happy the one watching - and the nations gather to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon - [ 16 : 14 - 15 - 16 ].
Chapters 17,18 are inserts looking backward. And are the descriptions of the last empire of man (or last manifestation of Babylon called "great" whose forehead is "mystery babylon"/mystery babble/all untruth, error, confusion). She is called a harlot (Greek, pornos) and is said to be upon seven hills (ultimately, continents) seducing, enchanting and making drunk all the world. The kings of the earth (politicians) are in bed with her..
The ten horns which you saw on the beast - ten horns/ten toes/ ten kings/divisions of the larger/world beast, part iron, part clay "will hate Babylon the great, and will consume her, the merchants, made wealthy by her, will mourn. [?Socialism will, finally, consume/destroy capitalism? Both gone extreme.]
Chapter 19 -- After this.. rescue and deliverance, glory and honor to the God of us! Let us be glad and rejoice for the marriage of the Lord is come.. Behold the heavens open, and out comes a white horse and He who sits upon it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness does He battle.. And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him.. and then the beast was captured and the false prophet with it, and they were cast out (into the lake of fire/crucible of refinement - metaphor). These two - the 'big' beast with ten horns/seats/divisions, and the false prophet/teacher/teaching of a strong delusion which has caused Western Civilization, once called Christendom, to fall away from the faith - are active at the time of Jesus' return, thus the language is - thrown alive into the lake of fire, the second death, here, abolishment).
END PART FOUR
Chapter 20 -- Then I (John) saw an angel descending out of heaven with the key to the Abyss and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the Abyss, and shut and sealed it over him.. until the thousand years are ended.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. - 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17
...In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.. the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruptibly, and this mortal must put on immortality. - 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
..And thus we shall always be with the Lord. - 1 Thessalonians 4:17d
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. - Zechariah 14:4
Verse 5 - But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are ended..
..The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say - "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths... He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. - Isaiah 2:2-4 [1 Jn 4:8 - God is Love. Ps 136:1 - His mercy endures forever.]
From 20:6-10 -- Satan having been released from his prison, deceives the nations at the four corners of Earth.. gathers them for battle.. but there is fire from God out of the heavens..
From 20:11-15 -- And I saw a great white throne [GWT] and the One sitting on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled.. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne..
Clue? The spacing of Ancient Israel's Autumn holy days (of Leviticus chapter 23) - the Spring ones having been fulfilled by Jesus' first advent - as though they were prophecy - so perfectly. Surely the three peaks of His long second advent will fulfill the Fall ones of - Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. There is 10 days between Trumpets and Day of Atonement (1000 years between the last trumpet/His return and the great white throne [GWT] 'Day' of Judgment). And there is 5 days between Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:29) and Tabernacles.
[Matthew 13:33 - The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened. 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 - For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then, comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet". But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all (and) in all. Romans 11:32 - For God has consigned all ("the whole") to unbelief, so that he may have mercy on them all ("the whole".]
Chapters 21,22 -- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And He shall wipe away every tear .. and death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any pain, for the first things have passed away" ..Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.. In the midst of its broad way, and of the river on this side and on that, is a tree of life, yielding twelve fruits, in each month its fruits.. and the leaves of the tree are for the service and healing of the nations..
..To the one thirsting I will give of the spring of the water of life freely..
The lion will eat straw like the ox, the bear will graze with the cow. - Isaiah 11:7
And they will sit each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be none troubling.. Micah 4:4
His Kingdom will never end.. Luke 1:33
