Jesus said the Gospel of the Kingdom would be preached to all nations as a witness and then the end would come. This tells us that just before the close of the Church Age there will be a tremendous empowering of the witness of the Kingdom.

We find in the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Revelation just such a scenario. There is an empowering of the Kingdom witness. As soon as the Divine testimony has been given to God's satisfaction the Christian witness is destroyed from the cities of the earth. Finally the end of the age arrives.

Notice that it is the "gospel of the kingdom" that is to be preached just before the end of the Church Age.

At some point during the very early centuries of the Christian Era the Gospel of the Kingdom of God coming to the earth was changed to the gospel of the going of the Christians to Heaven. While there is no emphasis whatever in either the Old Testament or the New Testament on the believers making their eternal home in Heaven, the change in the Gospel has persisted to the present hour.

Now, however, our eyes are being opened to the fact that the Bible tells us about the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, not the going of the believers to Heaven.

So just before the end comes the Gospel of the Kingdom is to be renewed and preached "in the whole world as a testimony to all nations."

When we turn to the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Revelation we find the Lord's Word being fulfilled. The Gospel witness is empowered and the testimony is borne to the nations of the earth, and then the end comes in that the witness is overcome. Soon after this the seventh trumpet sounds and the saints are called up into the heaven. The end of the Church Age is here.

The tenth and eleventh chapters of Revelation should be one chapter, I believe, for they tell of the events leading up to the sounding of the last trumpet, including the preparation of those who will participate in the great harvest outpouring of God's Spirit.

I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. (Revelation 10:10—NIV)

If we would be part of the end-time revival we must eat the word of the Lord. It is not enough just to learn the Bible, we must partake of the Word of God so it enters our personality and becomes part of us. The Words of God are sweet as honey, but when they work in our inward parts they are bitter. A sword divides between our soul and spirit and our adamic nature is brought down to death.

Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (Revelation 10:11—NIV)

The last-day revival is the "again prophecy," the spring rain that will come just before the harvest of the earth. The Book of Acts describes the fall rain, the former rain. This was a time of planting the Divine seed. The spring (latter) rain will bring the harvest of the earth to maturity, both the wheat and the tares.

To be continued.