Remember that Revelation is a symbolic book. The word “signified” in Revelation 1:1 means putting the message in signs, pictures.

Verse 1: The church class is the temple of God. (1 Corinthians 3:16). True Christians understand God’s perfect standard of judgment (measuring rod) and they honor the doctrine of atonement (altar). The church participates in the sacrificial offerings of Christ. (Colossians 1:24, Revelation 6:9.) But in the court, the unsanctified condition, the unregenerate “Christian” world will suppress the truth for 1,260 years. 

This chapter discusses two witnesses being kept in sackcloth for 1,260 days (vs. 3). We know from study that a day = a year, thus this is a period of 1,260 years. The two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments which Papacy kept in a dead (sackcloth) language for that period of time.

The olive trees (vs. 4) provide the holy spirit which is in the two witnesses. At the end of the 1260 years, a beast (vs. 7), which represents a civil/religious power ascends and makes war against the witnesses, that is, Christendom fought to keep the truth from the people. 

These 1260 years began with the elevation of Papacy (539 AD) and closed in 1799 AD, when the backbone of the Holy Roman Empire was broken by Napoleon. The Peoples’ form of government in France passed laws which outlawed the Bible and religion for three and a half years (3 1/2 symbolic days). The nation even repurposed the Cathedral of Notre Dame as the Temple of Reason. It seemed the Bible was effectively dead. 

Bringing the narrative to 1803 (vs. 9), the Lord providentially allowed the Bible societies to print and spread the Scriptures. They were back in the ecclesiastical heavens (vs. 12), where Protestantism made them an authority. During this violent time, society was shaken in the French Revolution (earthquake, vs.13) and 7000 titles of nobility ceased to exist. 

Then in verse 15, the Seventh Trumpet sounded. Of course, not literally but symbolically, great proclamations were made that the earthly kingdoms were now the Kingdom of God, and Christ’s reign on earth began.

The rest of the world was angry (vs. 18) that the time of the Resurrection had come, and that they should submit to the risen prophets, and to the saints.

In verse 19, we see that God’s church is revealed, at which time society feels the change. The form of great announcements, which are made, seem to the sinful world to be flashes of lighting (truth about equality, justice, love). These hard-cutting truths (hail) bring earthquakes of trouble.  

For a more detailed study, see also the free download at the following link: "Revelation: How to Study & Have it Make Sense"