Answer: A .

This angel had a “rainbow on His head,” and “His face shone like the sun, and His feet like pillars of fire.”  This fits the description of the Son of God found in Revelation chapter 1, verses 15-16! The word “angel” in Greek means “messenger.”  This is no ordinary angel!  This "Angel" has the power to declare that “time shall be no longer.”  See verse 6.   This Messenger John saw was none other than Jesus Christ!

God originally placed the rainbow in the church as a token of His covenant with Noah and all mankind that He would never again destroy the world by flood.  See Genesis 9:11-13.  And, while the world will pass through some awesome judgments of God, He is still a God of mercy to those who will call on Him!  Hence the rainbow over the head of this special Messenger of the covenant! He comes with power and might and judgment, but also His mercy to those who seek to have a covenant relationship with Him!

2.  What did this Angel have in His hand?  verse 2.

Answer: A open.

3.  How was this Angel standing?  verse 2.

Answer: He had His foot upon the , and His foot upon the .

The Greek implies that this little book was now opened and had at one time been closed.  It is a “little book,” but a very important one!  There is no doubt that this little book that the Lord’s Messenger was holding was part of the Word of God.  But what book of the Bible was sealed until the time of the end? There is only one answer to this question: that book was the book of Daniel the prophet!  See Daniel 12:4.

The fact that the Angel had one foot on the land and the other on the sea indicates that the message revealed in the little book would circle the earth!  It was originated by Jesus Himself!

Remember that chapter divisions in the Bible were put in by men centuries after the Bible was written.  The events of chapter ten follow in succession the events of chapter nine and are a part of the flow of these chapters!

Chapter 9 ended with the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire in 1840.  The events of chapter 10 begin at that time!  Here is the question, was there a religious movement going on in the 1840s that involved the book of Daniel and that would spread around the world?  The answer is an emphatic YES!

In the 1800s, people all over the world began to study the book of Daniel.  They became excited about the prophecies of the Bible, and what they thought was the very soon return of Jesus Christ to this earth!

In the United States, a Baptist preacher by the name of William Miller, along with hundreds of others, began to preach the prophecies of Daniel!  There were preachers all over the world, with no contact with each other, who were all impressed to read and preach the book of Daniel.  In fact, the Great Second Advent Movement was also known as the “Daniel Movement.”

It is interesting that all the other books of the Bible are either quoted or alluded to in the New Testament, except the book of Daniel!  Jesus mentioned it just one time in Matthew 24:15 when He was talking about the last days of earth’s history before His return!

The New Testament’s silence concerning the book of Daniel is explained by the fact that it was to be sealed until the time of the end!  We are living now in the time of the end.  In fact, we are almost at the end of time!

4.  John was about to write what he heard the “seven thunders” utter, but what command was given him at that time?  See verses 3-4.

Answer: He was told " up the which the seven uttered, and them ."

Whatever it was that the voices of the seven thunders uttered, it was not God’s intention that these things be revealed.  It seems that there are things that were to be revealed in the last days through the Spirit of Prophecy that were not for John’s time!

5.  What did this special Angel declare concerning time?  See verses 5-6.

Answer: That there should be .

Since literal time has continued from John’s day till now, the time referred to in this text could not mean just literal time.  But since the Second Advent Movement or the Daniel Movement especially focused on the prophetic time periods, with the last one reaching to 1844 (we will explain this shortly), it seems clear that the reference to no more time pertains to prophetic time!  In other words, there are no more Bible prophecies dealing with a time past the year 1844!  Anyone who claims to know exactly when Jesus will come is in error because there is prophetic ‘time no longer’!

6.  What will happen when the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet?  See verse 7.

Answer: Then the of would be .

The seventh trumpet is that trumpet that will sound when Jesus comes again!  See 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.  When the seventh trumpet sounds "the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"   Revelation 11:15.

7.  What did the voice from heaven tell John to do concerning the ‘little book’?  See verses 8-9.

Answer: the little book and it.

To "eat" a book of the Bible means to read and understand it!  See Jeremiah 15:16.

8.  What was John told would happen when he ate the little book?  See verse 9.

Answer: It would be in his , but it would make his .

9.  Did this happen to John when he ate the little book?  verse 10.

Answer: .

This is exactly what happened during the Great Second Advent Movement of the 1840s!  The thousands of Adventists (those who believed in the soon advent or coming of Jesus) "ate" the little book of Daniel.  From their understanding of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, they believed Jesus was coming soon!

Open your Bible to Daniel 8:14 and let’s read the verse.  It says, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."  The advent believers believed that the sanctuary was the earth.  Hence, the cleansing of the sanctuary, they reasoned, must mean that Jesus will come to cleanse the earth of sin at the end of 2,300 prophetic days which would be literal years!  This time period began with the "going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem."  Daniel 9:25. This date, as many Bible scholars agree, was 457 B.C.  See also Unger’s Bible Dictionary, page 94.  Thus counting forward 2300 years from 457 B.C. brings us to the year 1844.  This is why the little book was sweet in their mouth!  Jesus, they believed, was coming in 1844!

The same prophecy also said that there would pass ‘seven weeks and three score and two weeks’ from the beginning of this time period ‘unto Messiah the Prince.’  See Daniel 9:24.   69 weeks have 483 days in them.  If we apply the year for a prophetic day principle here, it would mean that 483 years after 457 B.C., the Messiah would come!  Friends, this is exactly what happened!  483 years after 457 B.C. brings us to the year 27 A.D.  At that exact time Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, and began His work as Messiah the Prince!  So you can understand why the believers in the Great Advent Movement became excited when the prophecy said that at the end of the 2300 days (from which the 69 weeks were cut off), the ‘sanctuary would be cleansed.’  Jesus, they thought was coming in 1844! 

When the date passed and Jesus did not come, there took place what religious history calls "The Great Disappointment"!  For thousands the world over, the little book of Daniel that tasted so sweet in their mouth had now made their belly bitter just as God said it would!  They were correct about the date, but not the event!  The sanctuary that was to be cleansed was not on earth, but rather in heaven as Hebrews 9:21-24 states!  The cleansing of the sanctuary was what the high priest did on the Day of Atonement in ancient Israel.  See Leviticus 16:15 and 29-34.

All the Old Testament services performed by the high priest in the sanctuary were a type of the ministry of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary!  Just as the Passover feast represented Jesus’ death on the cross (1 Cor. 5:7), and the feast of Pentecost pointed forward to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:2-4), the third of the three principle feasts, the Day of Atonement, pointed forward to a time in the history of God's people.  The Day of Atonement was the last holy day and event in the yearly round of services.  It was a day of soul searching and judgment for the people of God!  See Leviticus 16:29-30.

Likewise, there is a Day of Atonement going on right now in heaven!  Jesus is acting as our ‘High Priest’ in the heavenly sanctuary offering His blood on our behalf!  See Hebrews 9:12-14.

Thus, Jesus is now in the last phase of His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary carrying on a work of investigating the lives of those who have answered His call to come to the wedding feast!  Jesus informed us about this investigation when He told us the parable of the wedding supper found in Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14.  In Matthew 22:11, the King comes in to ‘see’ the guests.  The word translated ‘see’ in that text is the Greek word theaomai which literally means ‘to examine closely’!  This is what Jesus is doing now in the heavenly sanctuary during this heavenly Day of Atonement period just before His return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  The advent believers had the time right, but the event wrong.  But this movement was destined to finish the Lord’s work all over the world!

10.  What was John (who represented the believers of the Daniel Movement) told to do after his belly became bitter?  verse 11.

Answer: "Thou must again before many , and , and , and ."

From the Great Second Advent Movement came the Seventh-day Adventist Church which is today explaining prophesy (prophesying) to all the nations of the earth!  This movement was raised up by God in the last days of earth’s history to proclaim the truths mentioned in chapter 14.  The message is sent from God and you are privileged to be hearing it today!  You must ask the Lord to show you the truth, and you must love the truth.  If not, then believing a lie will be easy!  See 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12.

May the Lord lead and bless you!

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