By John McTernan
Revelation 11:9 – “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. (10) And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”
The background of Revelation 11:9 is the death of two prophets just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They are God’s witnesses and hated by most people on earth as they are warning mankind of the judgment for rebellion against God. These witnesses are given special powers as proof they are true prophets from God. They are able to cause droughts, turn water into blood, and send plagues.
Revelation 11:6 – “These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”
These witnesses are specially protected by God and cannot be killed until a certain time. The Beast, commonly known as the Antichrist, is allowed to kill them in Jerusalem. For three and a half days, their bodies lay unburied on the street. The prophet’s deaths cause a world-wide celebration for these three and a half days. Because of the intense hatred against the two witnesses, people all over the world are going to be happy and send gifts to each other.
Revelation 11:9 clearly states that people all over the world will see the prophet’s dead bodies lying in the street in Jerusalem. There will be a world celebration all at the same time. This means that a way of world-wide communications has to be in place for the entire world to simultaneous witnesses this event.
In years past, scoffers of the Bible would cite Revelation 11:9 as proof the Bible was wrong. Their minds could not conceive how the entire world could simultaneously witness an event in Jerusalem. In their day, information took months to cross the Atlantic Ocean, so how could the entire world witness this event? To these scoffers, Revelation 11:9 was proof that the Bible was full of wild tales and exaggerations.
Television, Satellites and the Internet
It was utterly impossible until after WW ll for the entire world to simultaneously watch an event. This was impossible until the invention of the television and world-wide communications. Modern technology has made the possible fulfillment of Revelation 11:9 very easy.
The idea of the television is much older than most people realize. The Scientific American Magazine first introduced the idea of a television in the 1880s. The first known use of the word was in 1900 at the Paris Word Fair. There was no one person credited with inventing the television rather it was several people who each put together a part of the puzzle. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth, an American, was the first inventor to transmit a television image, and in 1927 he received the first patent for a television. Farnsworth’s invention became the foundation for the modern television.
The BBC began the world’s first public, regular, high-definition television station in 1936. By WWII, there were only 8,000 television sets sold. The progress in developing the television was very slow prior to WWII.
After the war, the technology and sales of televisions exploded. By 1950, over 8 million homes had a television. In 1951, the first live coast to coast broadcast took place in America. This meant that now everyone in the US could simultaneously watch an event. In 1954, color television was introduced to the public. Today, over 1 billion televisions have been sold world-wide.
Through television all the people throughout the world can simultaneously watch an event; however, a mechanism was needed to allow for the entire world to simultaneously watch an event. The mechanism would be the satellite and the Internet.
In 1962, the communication satellite Telstar was launched. This was the first satellite to carry TV shows which allowed for the international relay of broadcasts. The beginning of direct satellite broadcasting was 1983. Computer technology advanced very quickly, so that starting in 1996 the television could be directly connected to the Internet. Today with the Internet and communication satellites a person can have instant visual communication with anyone in the world at any location.
To fulfill Bible prophecy, the television was needed for the entire world to simultaneously watch an event. But, other media was also needed to alert the entire world. Now, modern technology provides this media which includes the radio, Internet, telephone, television news sources, and newspapers.
The 2008 Olympics is a great example to show how the entire world can simultaneously watch an event. The opening ceremony was broadcast live from China, and an estimated two billion people from all over the world simultaneously watched. The Nelson rating company said the following:
“August 14, 2008, Beijing: Based on television audience data collected from 38 markets around the world, The Nielsen Company estimates that just over 2 billion people – almost one third of the world’s population – watched the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.”
This is a perfect example of how all the world can watch the death of God’s two prophets in Jerusalem. The 2008 Olympics can be viewed as a trial run for the entire world’s simultaneously viewing an event.
Revelation 11 does not indicate if this confrontation between the prophets and the Beast is scheduled or spontaneous, but people world-wide are able to respond and watch the confrontation and events for three days. When this confrontation takes place, the world’s news sources will announce it. The Internet websites will be buzzing over it. There will be an enormous amount of emails and telephone calls discussing this event. Even in the remote places of the world, people with some distance to travel can watch. If over two billion people simultaneously watched the opening of the 2008 Olympics, easily 90 percent or more of the world’s population are now able to watch this coming confrontation between God’s prophets and the Beast.
Revelation 11:9,10 now can easily be fulfilled with modern technology. The only thing missing is the cast of characters which might appear in the very near future. The prophetic events in the Bible are literal. Modern science and technology are now enabling prophecies to occur that were impossible not many years past. It appears that the world now is racing to fulfill these events. Remember, this confrontation occurs just prior to the awesome Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I see this teaching complete and do not intend to add information or articles to show additional technological development in this area.
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