I have also read that those that do not overcome appetite will not be prepared when Jesus comes.

Be sure the Sabbath is a test question, and how you treat this question places you either on God's side or Satan's side. The mark of the beast is to be presented in some shape to every institution and every individual. . . . {3SM 395.4}

The light that we have upon the third angel’s message is the true light. The mark of the beast is exactly what it has been proclaimed to be. All in regard to this matter is not yet understood, and will not be understood until the unrolling of the scroll, but a most solemn work is to be accomplished in our world. The Lord’s command to His servants is “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” {CTr 350.4}

(His child, You may want to address this post (#134719) related to your “Mark of the Beast” quotings above in this thread.)

I agree. Another point is that Ellen White states somewhere (maybe someone can find the quote), that the Bible will become a forbidden book again like it was during the dark ages. The retreat of the Two Witnesses into the wilderness or their being slain at the end of their testimony may also be symbolic of the banning of scripture. In other words if the Two Witnesses represent both the remnant and the scriptures, their retreat to the wilderness and slaying could have a double meaning: in the case of God's people the retreat could mean a national Sunday law and their slaying could mean a universal extermination order; in the case of the scripture their retreat could mean a partial ban and their slaying could mean a total ban.

The quotes that I know of re the Bible being taken away in the future are below.

One suggestion here might be to take a hard look at the word "scatter" in Daniel 12:7, and ask what this really means for God's people. Modern translations use the stronger "shatter", and the same Hebrew word shows up in verses like Judges 7:19 and Jeremiah 13:14.

Another line of study would be to look at what EGW says about the universal death decree. An example is found on PK 512.

It might be possible to correlate this information with the Revelation 11 sequence, as you suggest.

I think that you (Mark) and glenm’s interpretation of this prophecy is too partitioned. I.e., you are only looking at some parts of the prophecy in this indeed refulfillement and not at it as a whole. If you just take a verse here or there, or even just part of a verse, then you can claim just about any interpretation. The prophecy must be view as the whole that it is.

Having done this, I rather see, indeed based upon many included elements in the prophecy, which are, at the very least, spiritually corroborated in the SOP (as this was not a Present Truth for EGW and her time) (see this post) that the interlude vision/prophecy of the Two Witnesses is focused upon a precursor judgement of the Church, pointedly the (Jerusalem of God) and its leadership itself. That is why the “Gentiles” are left out of this judgement (Rev 11:2). However, like a similar judgement of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., this impactful judgement spills out into the rest of the secular world. (Rev 11:10).

In this eschatological age, this is (a) the SDA Church among all of the Christian world (God’s Israel) and (b) the Church’s leadership above the laity (cf. here). Once this Temple has been judged and set right, ‘those who remain and give glory to God upon this judgement’ (=vs. 13b; cf. Rev 14:6) are then ready to proclaim the three Angels’ Message to the rest of the world, including the Christian World.

By the way, as it is pertinent to the Two Witnesses here, Elijah is said in the SOP to be (as easily seen): “the greatest prophet since the days of Moses” (PK 224.1).

Ok, let me ask it a different way. In what way does the health message play in your message? If people who don't overcome appetite will not be prepared, and your books are to prepare the people, what part does the health message play in your books in preparing the people in addition to any other message?

Good suggestions.

The thing that troubled me about interpreting the Two Witnesses as the remnant only is that they are slain and we know that the final group is translated rather than slain. But if the Two Witnesses are also the scripture then their being banned would be a symbolic fulfillment of the scripture effectively being slain.

Your point is well taken though that the shattering of the holy people in Daniel 12 could be the primary application/interpretation here in Revelation 11. That is, the number of martyrs could far outweigh the number of those who survive and/or the action of the nations in imposing the death decree will in itself be a repudiation of the Law, the covenant and scripture.

NJK, I'm agreeing that the Two Witnesses measure the church and that the gentiles aren't measured. But because the elements within Revelation 11 line up with Daniel 12 and this "woe" occurs just prior to second coming and reign of Christ in Revelation 11:15 and because of other scriptures that align with Revelation 11, this measuring is the final call to the remnant just prior to the return of Christ. Scriptural evidence points to this as the Loud Cry under a different figure.

Interesting points, however this is where things are not as “simple” as they should seem to be.

(1) As discussed in my blog post on this prophecy, Rev 11 makes mentions to a “42 months” period. While this is one of several ways to express the 1260-day period, it has pointed understanding due to this different way than Dan 12:7's rendering. It links this to Rev 13:5's period and the thematic understanding there is the First Beast power having authority to act in defiance to God and opposition to God’s people for that time. However the pointed notion of shattering or killing the saints is not discussed there. The main issue here is ‘the waging of (the more general and formal) war against the First Beast power (Rev 12:4) (and not persecutions) and as linked to in Rev 11:2, involving God’s holy city e.g., “Jerusalem”.

Rev 11:3 “1260 days” itself links up to Rev 12:6 fulfilled where this is speaking of God protecting His actual True Church, in a place that had been prepared for her for this, during that time.

The simple shift between 42 months and 1260 days in Rev 11:2, 3 is quite telling that there indeed is a deliberate and specific meaning in the use of those times. Using Dan 7:25 & 12:7's ‘time, times and half a time’ would be pointedly implying the distinct aspect of physical and personal persecutions.

2) The organizational structure of the book of Revelation (see this chart)has to be kept in mind here, especially in the Time of the End (Eschatological times) vs. the Historical Times. It shows that Rev 11:1-14 does not necessarily have to be linearly followed by the (literal) blasting of the 7th Trumpet in Rev 11:15-18. A Spiritual fulfillment is likely, however, as it was also discussed in this blog post; EGW’s Shaking vision involves all of the visions in an horizontal “Remnant Church” cross section of the prophecies where the Two Witnesses are found. So the actual “next development” is the re-proclaiming of the Three Angels message by the remnant group that survives this Rev 11 judgement. As I read things, this 3AM proclamation is made with more Biblical depth and accuracy than previously done by the SDA Church, for all 3 Messages. The Loud Cry (Rev 18:1-20) only occurs in 2 more developments, after opposers of this new and more tangibly affecting 3AM campaign have formal assembled and organized themselves (Rev 16:15, 16).

So this structural/organizational element for the book of Revelation is key here.