Revelation 11:9

9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.

A. All nations will be aware of the dead body. While all know it is dead, no one wants to sign the death certificate.

B. Study the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:1. This was a church that had a name (visible in appearance) of being alive, but this church was dead. Some churches and dead but no one wants to bury them.

C. Pronouncing a church dead is a difficult thing. It admits our failure.

D. In this case, the visible church, the corrupted and altered church, was still performing weddings and funerals. They baptized babies and said prayers for the dead. There was no life in this body. The Bible, the bread of life, was not read or even available to be read.

E. NOTE: In my mission work in Russia, I have seen the work of a church without power. During the era of communism, the Russian Orthodox Church was just a shell. It had no rights, except to baptize, marry and bury. This is what happened during the Dark Ages. The true church had no power or ability to preach the gospel to a lost world.

F. Here the term 3 ½ days describes the period of time the witnesses lie in the street. As noted above, I am not sure we can assign a specific event to know when to start counting or what event would mark the end of this period. I believe the phrases are related to the same period of time. See the notes about this in verse 3. It seems to me that this period of time represents the era when the church was powerless, dead, and in limbo. Roughly, this would be from the from about 550 or 600 to the early 1800’s when the Restoration Movement of Campbell and Stone began to revive the church to activity and power.