Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #27 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 11:13:

And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

We have been looking at this verse for the last couple of studies and we saw that this is speaking of the “hour” of judgment, the point at which the Great Tribulation concluded and the point at which God began to judge the unsaved people of the world.  He likens Judgment Day to the time of a “great earthquake” and the earthquake is that which ended God’s salvation program – it was a spiritual earthquake.

Then “tenth part of the city fell.”  We looked at this phrase last time.  We saw that the “tenth” normally identifies with the elect.  Now we are going to continue and we will see that the next statement also normally identifies with the elect.  It says in Revelation 11:13:

…, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand…

This is saying that in the judgment (at the point of beginning of judgment) “seven thousand” were killed as a result of the “great earthquake.”  We are going to look at this language and do what we did when we looked at the “tenth part.”  We are going to look at how God uses this term elsewhere and we are going to find a similar thing: the “seven thousand” points to the elect.  It says in 1Kings 19:9-10:

And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of JEHOVAH came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for JEHOVAH God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

Elijah was convinced that he was the “lone” prophet of God and that there were no others.  He had not come across any, it appears.  But God responds to him a little later in this chapter in 1Kings 19:18:

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

This indicates that these “seven thousand” were “true men.”  They were true believers and they were not going to serve another God.  They were not going to be involved in other kinds of gospels, as we would understand it today.  This is quoted in the New Testament in Romans 11:1-5:

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

There it is.  God identifies the “seven thousand” who had not bowed the knee to Baal with the “remnant according to the election of grace,” so the “seven thousand” represent those that are elect in the 1Kings, chapter 19 account and in Romans, chapter 11. 

But it is a different story when we come to Revelation 11, where the “seven thousand” do not typify the elect, just as the “tenth part of the city” that fell did not typify the elect.  Instead, they typify with the churches which had come to identify strongly with the elect, so they have taken on the language of the “tenth part” and of the “seven thousand” unto themselves.  God is indicating though this that the corporate church (even the most faithful that give the closest appearance to the true believers) has come under the judgment of God.  Actually, they are killed in the earthquake and this reminds us of Revelation, chapter 9, when the “third part of men” were killed.  That took place, spiritually, on May 21, 2011, when the transition was made from God’s judgment on the churches to God’s judgment on the world.  The “third part” numbered about two billion souls in the churches and congregations which remained there during the Latter Rain period when God was saving outside the churches.  When the transition to judgment on the world began, the Latter Rain stopped, the second Jubilee period ended and God shut the door of heaven and this killed the “third part of men,” because now they had no hope; they could not have been saved in the churches when God was working His glorious work of salvation of the great multitude outside in the world.  Then when God ended His salvation program and was no longer saving anyone, this meant the spiritual death of the “third part.” 

It is the same teaching in our verse in Revelation 11:13, when we read of the “tenth part” of the city falling and “and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.”  It could just as easily read, “and in the earthquake were slain the third part.”  It is teaching the identical truth: Judgment Day killed the “third part.”  It cast the tares into the fire. 

There is still some hope from man’s perspective for those that had remained outside of the churches.  Perhaps God saved some before He shut the door to heaven.  This is the only hope which remains for mankind.

Let us just look at one other thing concerning the “seven thousand.”  We can see clearly that the “seven thousand” normally represents the elect, but not in this case.  However, there is something unusual in the Greek text that helps us understand that the “seven thousand” are not the true believers or the elect.  There was something that was not translated into the English.  For whatever reason, the King James Bible translators did not translate this particular word.  It is a Greek word that means “names,” and, literally, the Greek text reads this way: “Slain in the earthquake names of men seven thousand.”  So there is a word that did not get translated.  Again, I will read what we have in the King James Bible: “and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.”  They left out the word “names,” and, yet, it is clearly there in the original text.  If you have a Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible, you will see it in the text in the literal translation.  It says, “Slain the earthquake names of men seven thousand.”  What is the significance of that?  We know God wrote it that way for a reason.  Why did He include “names of men”?  Well, it reminds us of something we read back in the Book of Genesis.  In Genesis, chapter 6, there is an unusual and strange verse that some theologians have struggled with and they have come up with elaborate scenarios to try to explain it.  But, once we understand how God wrote the Bible and we look for the clues that God gives us, we are able to decipher verses like this.  Of course, if you do not know how God wrote the Bible, then you can come up with all kinds of theories and ideas that are way off course as far as finding truth.  It says in Genesis 6:4:

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Now some theologians theorize: “The sons of God are angels and they had children with the daughters of men.”  Of course, that is impossible.  Angels are spirit beings and they are a different kind of creature than mankind.  You cannot have intermarriage between angelic beings and mankind.  It is just way off base and it is not even in the realm of possibility.  What God is talking about is those that were the people of God in name (descendents of the line of individuals God was dealing with at that time) and these “sons of God” came in unto the daughters of men and this would mean they joined with women who were not of the people of God.  It is just like in the days of Israel; there were the Jews who were the people of God and there were the Gentiles who were not the people of God. 

It is also just like it was in the New Testament church age.  There were the professed Christians that were the people of God and there was everyone else that was not the people of God.  So this intermarriage in Genesis 6:4 were between those that professed to be the people of God and they came from a family line that was the people of God. 

But at this point in history, the “sons of God” came in unto the daughters of men and they had a mixed marriage – this “mixed marriage” had nothing to do with race or anything like that.  The Bible’s idea of a “mixed marriage” is to be unequally yoked – an unbeliever married to a believer.  This is the unequally yoked marriage that God warns against because it is inevitable that the direction of that family will lean in the direction of the nonbeliever.  It is not going to go the other way, typically, but it will go the way of the world.  When the “world” enters into the marriage, this is what is going to happen.  So the professed son of God has already shown there are problems within him because he is marrying someone he should not be marrying, so what do you think is going to happen with the children?  The children, at best, have a weak witness from the father and no witness from the mother, so they are going to follow the lead of their mother because all people are born into sin and that is their natural tendency.

But what does this verse have to do with our verse in Revelation?  Let us read it again in Genesis 6:5:

…and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

The Hebrew word translated as “renown” is Strong’s #8034 and it is the word that I would pronounce as “shem.”  It is the word that is often translated as “name.”  For instance, in the previous chapter, it says in Genesis 5:29:

And he called his name Noah…

The phrase “called his name” is the Hebrew phrase pronounced “kaw-raw’-shem” and it is normally a clue phrase indicating an immediate father-son relationship.  Again, the word pronounced “shem” is the Hebrew word for name, so literally in our verse, it would say, “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of a name.”  They had the “name” of the sons of God, but, again, it was at a time when there was a dilution of the Gospel waters and the Gospel was being perverted and altered – there was a “mixing” of the purity of the Word of God, as well as a mixing of the people of God with people that were not of God.  Whenever that happens, there is big trouble and this happened at a time when God determined to bring judgment (the flood) on the earth.  It could be a precursor of judgment beginning at the house of God, followed by judgment on the world.  It seemed that judgment on the world in the days of Noah when God would destroy it by the flood was begun when the “sons of God” began to intermarry with the daughters of men.  This brought about the great displeasure of God.  The children born to these mixed couples were “men of a name.”  They had the “name” or the “professed belief” of their fathers who were “sons of God,” and today we would call them “Christians.”  Today in this world we have about two billion professed Christians – people of a name. 

This is exactly the point God is making in Revelation 11:13 (and I am going to say this literally): “Slain in the earthquake names of men seven thousand.”  The “seven thousand” (which normally would represent the elect people of God) are those in the churches that are no longer faithful, but they have the vestige of it; they have what remains of it, which is the “name” of faithfulness or the “name” of Christians – those that once refused to bow the knee to Baal.  But, again, these are the churches at the point of judgment and they have not only “bowed the knee to Baal,” but they have made an image to the beast, or they could not have remained in the churches of the world.  They are not the same people of their forefathers.  Spiritually, we could all trace our heritage to those “seven thousand” that did not bow the knee to Baal.  They are our spiritual fathers, in a sense.  But these people that are now in the churches had the heritage and they had the “name,” but they were only “people of a name,” and they were no longer like the “seven thousand.”

Again, God uses the “tenth part” and the figure of the “seven thousand” to represent those in the churches that identify with the true believers and they have been killed.  It is terrible and sorrowful news, but it is what the Bible teaches – the tares are bundled for the burning.  There is no hope the Bible offers for the possibility of salvation.  All that God will allow, as far as the people that remained in the churches when Judgment Day came, is that they may request of God that the “cup may pass from them.”  That is it.  God will permit anyone to pray to Him that the cup of His wrath might pass from them; they can beseech Him along those lines, but that is all.

Let us continue here in reading Revelation 11:13:

… and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The Greek word translated as “affrighted” is “emphobos,” and it is a compound word that literally means “in fear.”  The remnant was “in fear” and gave glory to the God of heaven.  We will look up the word for “in fear,” but we probably will not have time to look at “remnant” or the phrase “gave glory to God.” 

We know that true believers “fear” God and, here, we read that “the remnant was affrighted.”  The word “remnant” can also be used to apply to the true believers, but it is another word that can go either way.  The “remnant” really means “those that are left,” and we will see that this refers to the unsaved people of the world that were outside of the churches.

The word “affrighted” can be used in the New Testament to describe the people of God when they saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ, but it is also used in Acts 22, when Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus and Jesus appeared to him.  It says in Acts 22:9:

And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.

The word “afraid” is the same word translated as “affrighted.”  They were in fear.  These men that were traveling with Saul were on the same mission – to hail men and women following “that way” (Christ) to bring them to prison and to do whatever they could do to compel them to blaspheme.  These men were obviously not saved and they did not have the same experience as Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul.  God did not work in them or draw them, like He did Saul.  So we would have to say these were unsaved men that were in fear. 

It is even clearer in Acts 24:24-26:

And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.

The word “trembled” is a translation of the same Greek word that is translated as “affrighted.”  Here, we find that Felix is listening to the Apostle Paul who is preaching the Gospel of the Bible and telling him of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” and this causes Felix to tremble.  It is the teaching of the truths of the Bible that put Felix in fear.  He was an unsaved man.  He was not listening to Paul for the right reasons; he was hoping to get money from him, so from everything we read, he never became saved and, yet, he was in fear.  He was affrighted at the news of the Word of God.  This is what is going on in our verse with the remnant in Revelation 11:13: “and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

Lord willing, when we get together in our next study we will discuss this and think about this a little bit more.