Hello! I am Jon Paulien and I’m glad you came to this page to check out my work. I am a New Testament scholar and Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University. On this website you will find a collection of my articles, commentary on Revelation, and links to my blog, videos, and other resources. Make sure you check the articles link above regularly to see the latest postings. In my hand above is an exact replica of p52, the earliest extant New Testament manuscript fragment, containing portions of John, chapter 18. Centered above my head is a replica of ancient Greek pottery. At either end above are two sets of books from, and about, my favorite spiritual author, Ellen G. White. I hope you enjoy the site.

Daily Devotional For July 17, 2026

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Those who live on the earth will rejoice over them, celebrate, and send gifts to one another because these prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days the breath of life from God entered into them and they stood up on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them. Rev 11:10-11.

           In April of 2004 I was flying from Hong Kong to San Francisco. A couple of hours into the flight I took a casual look at the flight data screen. My head snapped forward with amazement. The screen said that our plane was traveling 775 miles per hour, well past the speed of sound. Thanks to a 200 mile per hour tail wind, we had smoothly broken the sound barrier.
           It was October 14, 1947. Chuck Yeager was preparing for his ninth flight in the experimental rocket plane XS-1. Each flight had edged closer to Mach 1, the never-crossed barrier beyond which man would fly faster than the speed of sound. It was dangerous, he knew. A British test pilot had been blown to bits going Mach 0.94. Yeager, the fearless test pilot who would one day pilot a rocket plane out of the earth’s atmosphere, climbed down into the XS-1 as it lay in the airborne belly of the huge mother ship, a B-29. Yeager snapped the cover shut using a sawed-off broom.
           At 20,000 feet, he dropped out of the bomb bay with a jolt. All four rockets fired, causing the plane to shake violently. The Mach needle edged up past 0.965, and then it went off the scale. Yeager was thunderstruck. He was flying supersonic and “it was as smooth as a baby’s bottom: Grandma could be sitting up there sipping lemonade,” he said later. Yeager’s XS-1 had accelerated to Mach 1.06, or 700 miles per hour. He half didn’t believe it until the tracking crew ran up and reported hearing the world’s first sonic boom, a sound that marked the end of the Wright Brothers’ era and the beginning of the space age.¹
           According to our text, the emotions of “those who live on the earth” shifted suddenly from great rejoicing to great fear. In both cases the emotions were related to the future. When the two witnesses were dead, people foresaw no “torment” in their future. But the resurrection of the witnesses brought great fear. There was no telling what would happen to them.
           Today we routinely break the sound barrier and we hardly notice it, but Yeager had no way of knowing it would be that smooth. In an act of great courage he faced his fears and tried. Those who are on God’s side don’t have to be afraid of the future. We already know that the “sonic boom” at the End will not harm those who are sealed.

           Lord, thank You for the assurance that we have nothing to fear for the future except we forget how You have led us in the past.

¹ Story based on Cathy Booth Thomas, Flying Faster than Sound, Time, March 31, 2003, A27.