Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #22 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to read Revelation 11:12:

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

The voice that was heard by the people that witnessed the “two prophets” as they stood upon their feet was the voice of God as it was heard through His Word, the Bible.  When God sent forth the warning trumpet sound of His Word into all the earth, proclaiming that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day, those predestinated to salvation from the foundation of the world heard and they “saw” and great fear fell upon them.  They heard that “great voice from heaven,” and that is important because the Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  This great voice was mentioned earlier in Revelation 1, verses 10 and 11, as “a great voice as of a trumpet,” and that voice belonged to Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Great fear fell upon these people, who can only be that great multitude which God saved out of Great Tribulation, and there is a lot of usage of the word “great” because it is a tremendous and magnificent thing that God completed His salvation program.  It was done in a grand way, to bring everything to a great climax and a final end, as He saved more people at the end than He had throughout the period of earth’s history.

Here, in Revelation 11:12, we read:

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.

Some people assume that this statement, “Come up hither,” is referring to the Rapture, but that is not the case.  The same wording is found earlier in Revelation 4:1:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither…

What is interesting is that the voice which the Apostle John heard was “as it were of a trumpet,” and that reminds us of Revelation 1:10-11, where John heard “a great voice, as of a trumpet,” and it was Jesus Christ and that, in turn, reminds us of the “great voice” which was heard by those that fear fell upon, as they heard from heaven.  Again, it is the Word of God, the Bible.  It is nothing supernatural, in the sense that there is an audible voice thundering from the literal heaven.  This is, spiritually, the voice of God.  In the Apostle John’s case, he was receiving divine revelation, and “the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”   Now what is important for us to understand about this phrase, “Come up hither,” is that John did not literally go up into heaven, as far as we know.  He was on the island of Patmos and he remained there to receive all the revelation God gave to him.  But, spiritually, God gave him a vision and God caused him to see things that could be found in heaven, yet John’s physical location never changed.  He was on the earth, on the island of Patmos, and yet, spiritually, he was commanded to “Come up hither.” 

And that is the idea when we read of this command in Revelation 11:12, when it says, “Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”  We must think spiritually.  The Bible is a spiritual Book.  God hides truth through the use of parabolic language and, especially, in the Book of Revelation we have seen repeatedly that the things which God tells us are spiritual in nature.  They are not literal.  They are not physical things.  So when He is telling us that a “great voice from heaven” was heard, saying, “Come up hither,” and then “they ascended up to heaven in a cloud,” we must look at the language to see what this could spiritually relate to.  We do find some answers in Proverbs 25:6-7:

Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.

This is actually telling us of salvation.  This is revealing to us that it is better to wait for God to lift you up and exalt you, spiritually, in salvation than to lift yourself up and then be put down in the presence of the king.  We know this is the spiritual meaning of this verse in Proverbs 25:6-7, because these verses remind us of the parable that Jesus Christ gave us in Luke 14:7-11:

And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Of course, this agrees exactly with Proverbs 25 and the verses we just read there.  It describes God’s salvation program.  It is giving us the Biblical principal about what it means to be bidden to a wedding.  The Gospel call that went out to all the world for centuries during the day of salvation when God was encouraging people to seek Him and to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”  It was a set time.  It was the appointed time of the “day of salvation” and the time that had been allotted to man in which he could go to God in order to cry for mercy.  That time has now expired and it is past.  God is not encouraging anyone any longer to come to Him to seek salvation.  The only thing the Bible will allow at this point in history is to go to God, saying, “Having had mercy, have mercy.  Is it possible you might have saved me before you ended your salvation program and shut the door of heaven?” 

I know that many people are upset by this language, but what they do not understand is that this is Judgment Day.  This is the day of the wrath of God and, of course God is not granting salvation in the Day of Judgment.  God is not bestowing mercy upon sinners when He is pouring out His wrath in the time when He has said He will have “judgment without mercy.”  Obviously, God is not working the work of salvation in the time which He has appointed for punishment and this is what people do not understand – the Scriptures that applied to salvation applied to a previous “time and season.”  They do not apply to Judgment Day.  They would realize this if God were bringing some sort of physical judgment, but just because it is a spiritual judgment does not mean it is any less the time of judgment.  It is the end of God’s longsuffering patience; it is the time of His fury, His anger and His wrath, so those many verses that are in the Bible no longer have application for this Day of Judgment that we are presently in. 

Yet, there was a time, a wonderful and glorious time, when God encouraged people to seek Him and it lasted quite a while.  His people loved to carry that message.  We at EBible Fellowship loved to carry that message and we warned people to go to God while He may be found, but we cannot carry that message any longer because God will not permit it.  But when we did carry that Gospel call, it bid all the hearers to a “wedding.”  It was a wedding between the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His bride, the elect: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  The “few” are the elect and what often distinguishes one that was “called” from one that was “chosen” was how they came to God, as it says here in this parable in Luke 14; the call went out and God says, “But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room.”  The Lord worked it out in the lives of the elect and as He drew them to Himself, He humbled them as He did so and He caused them to understand that there was nothing they could do to lift themselves up in salvation, but that salvation was an act of God, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We were saved by His faith and not our own and, therefore, they “waited” on the Lord; they waited in the “lowest room.”  It was not a pleasant place; it was not a beautiful place at all. It was a place where there was a struggle, a place where you could be troubled in mind, a place where there was no assurance of salvation – you were not sure if you were saved or unsaved and you were not sure if you would be destroyed by God or if He would grant you His mercy.  You were not sure if you were one of His elect, or not, and you had to wait on God to witness to your heart and soul and to “speak to you” in your inner man and confirm that you were one of His children; and He would do this through His Word, the Bible.  But until God lifted you up in salvation and placed His Holy Spirit within you and began to give you the assurance of salvation, you were in that “lowest room.”

On the other hand, the “many” that were called were individuals that immediately took the “highest room,” through their own belief, or through their church membership, or through their understanding that the amount of money they had given to their church had bought them a place in heaven, or through their action of “walking down the aisle” and “accepting Christ,” and it brought salvation to them (they thought) and, in so doing, they all took the “highest room,” the room God warned against.  It was because they had “done the work.”  They had lifted themselves up into a “high and lofty” place in believing they had salvation when, in reality, they did not.  This is why the Biblical principal is that he that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  That is how God worked out His salvation program. 

So when we read in Revelation 11:12, “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither,” this has to do with salvation and being lifted up by God and not by man’s own efforts.  God exalts those that He saves.  He lifts them up to that exalted place of being “seated in Christ Jesus.”  We read of that in Ephesians 2:4-6:

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

When does that happen?  When a sinner dead in trespasses and sins is quickened with Christ and lifted up, does that happen at the Rapture?  Does that happen at the end of the world in the resurrection of the physical body?  No.  Of course, that will complete what God had started, but when God saves sinners, at the moment of salvation, we are quickened and brought to life together in Christ and God raises us up together with him, and as it says in Ephesians 2:6, “and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  This is the moment of salvation. 

Here is exactly what happens.  Let us say there is a young woman and she hears the Gospel and God had appointed a time for her redemption.  She is one of His elect and He had chosen her from the foundation of the world.  God patiently waited for this young woman to be born and He waited for her to reach a certain age.  Of course, it all had to fit in the proper time and season when God was still performing the work of salvation, but at the “set time” God sent forth His Word to her ears and to her heart and He used His Word to create a new heart within her.  A that moment, spiritually, she is saved and “quickened together with Christ,” and it is as though she has been immediately lifted up in her soul to be seated (to reign) together with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.  We know Christ is seated at the right hand of God, yet that young woman never left her city or her country or this world.  It was a spiritual action that God took and God reckoned that she was now in Christ Jesus, exalted with Him into the heavenlies, and she remains in Him even though she never went anywhere.  She is still living on the earth at this time, but she was spiritually lifted up.  That is what is in view with those that heard the great voice from heaven, saying to them, in effect, “Come up hither, in the sense that I am lifting you up to the highest room.  I am now saving the great multitude and they are being lifted up into the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.”  But in reality, they did not physically go anywhere.  This is what God did when He saved the millions of peoples from the nations of the world during the second part of the Great Tribulation period.  When He concluded the Great Tribulation, it was as if they had all gone up and ascended into the heavenlies in Christ, but they actually went nowhere; there was no Rapture – no leaving the earth.

Let us just look at one more verse that will help us understand this.  In John, chapter 1, we find the same Greek word.  In Revelation 12, the Greek word for “come up” is the same Greek word as the word “ascended.”  It is Strong’s #305.  When it says, “Come up hither.  And they ascended up to heaven,” this could just as easily read, “and they came up to heaven.”  It is past tense, but it is the same Greek word.  When we read the word “ascend,” we think of the word “ascension” and it directs our minds to the idea of the Rapture, but all they did was go up, just like those that are quickened in Christ Jesus are taken up into the heavenlies with him, but they never went anywhere.  In John, chapter 1, we read of Nathanael and his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am going to read John 1:47-51:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Here is our word “ascending.”  This verse sounds very mysterious and, yet, it is fairly simple.  The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to Nathanael, telling him that he will see angels of God ascending (going up) and descending (coming down) upon the Son of man.  What does He mean?  What is in view?  Once we understand that “angels” can be, and should be, translated as “messengers,” then we can fully understand.  Christ is saying that the moment He saves a person, that person is instantly “lifted up” into the heavenlies to be seated in Christ Jesus and this is the glorious moment of salvation.  At the same instance, that same person is dispatched back to earth as a messenger of God to carry forth the Word of God, the Gospel.  So this is all a figure of speech to represent God saving someone and then immediately commissioning that person to be a messenger of the Gospel.  The person that is being spoken of as “ascending and descending” upon the Son of man did not change locations.  As far as he knew, he may not even have realized that he became saved and he did not know that he had been commissioned as a messenger of God.  He may have known none of that, but this is the way God is looking at this person from that point. 

So this relates very much to Revelation 11: “Come up hither.  And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud.”  They “ascend up,” just as Jesus said to Nathanael when he said that the messengers of God will “ascend and descend upon the Son of man.”   But, you see, the difference is in the “time,” because it is now Judgment Day when this great multitude is saved and they all go up and ascend into the heavenlies in Christ.  It is Judgment Day and there is no more evangelization of the world and, therefore, notice that they “ascend” but they do not “descend,” because they are no longer sent forth by God to carry the gospel message of salvation.