"My Two Witnesses"

            Before moving into the actual content of this writing I would encourage a little review.  First, and above all, you might need to read the previous blog posting The “Rapture” Question.  Until you have discovered that there is no pretribulational “rapture” of the entire church body you are totally handicapped in understanding the difficult passages presented in the Revelation. If by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit you have gotten past that barricade to your understanding then I would recommend that you read two more blogs.  First, the “man child” blog will teach you that the main body of the church will pass through the great tribulation. Then move on to a more recent posting entitled “measuring the temple”. If you can comprehend from these three blogs what is happening here at the beginning of the tribulation then you will be able to understand the ministry of “my two witnesses” beginning at Revelation11:3. If you have received your spiritual nurture in the mainstream evangelical churches you very likely are going to have difficulty in grasping these concepts because these truths are unknown in today’s fundamentalist churches. What you really need to do is order a copy of my title: These prophets and the Revelation to equip yourself with a complete understanding of end time biblical prophecy. But since you do not have that information in hand we will have to move forward anyway with as much as we can without it.

            The topic of Revelation 11:1-12 is a preparation for a ministry of the gospel of the kingdom throughout the world to be accomplished in a period of three and on-half years. This fact is verified by Jesus at Matthew 24:14 where we read: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.” Evangelicals in general do not understand that the resurrection of the saints does not take place until after the tribulation.

            So what is seen first in the passage after the measuring of the temple is that the Lord is going to empower his witnesses to carry the gospel message to the entire world before the end of the age.         The next problem to overcome is that if we interpret literally there are only two people to accomplish that feat which by

any sense of reason is impossible. So we must come to understand that the two witnesses represent a spiritual principle by which God has always operated. Most evangelicals would say that it is Moses and Elijah or maybe it is Enoch and Elijah, or whatever. The principle of two witnesses and testimony to all truth in order for it to be conveyed is that first the Lord must have people who are walking and living according to the Spirit. Now then those people however many they may be have access to the second witness which is the Holy Spirit. When I write this blog if the Spirit of God does not testify to you that these words are truth then you have no ability to understand what I am saying. If the Holy Spirit says Amen to your spirit then you know that it is truth.

            The time of the tribulation is one of great difficulty and one of total persecution of the people of God because the enemy through the Antichrist is seeking to destroy anything which bears testimony to the reality of Christ. So we do not interpret that literal fire is coming from the months of the witnesses. It is a metaphor. (Compare Jer. 23:29).  Nor do we interpret that they have power to stop it from raining for three and one-half years. It is that the Spirit of the Lord in them testifies to the word of God coming down from haven. Read the power given to Elijah at I Kings 17:1 and context and then understand that it usage her is  being portrayed in metaphor. The same is true of the ministry of Moses in delivering the Israelites out of Egypt. Then there were physical miracles being performed because the Holy Spirit was not then active in the way that He is now. It is written in metaphor.

            As the testimony of these witnesses is completed each one individually the beast “shall make war with them, and shall overcome them and then kill them.”

(verse 7). This activity of the ministry of the gospel and the martyrdom of the saints will last over the entirety of the three and one-half years. The word days in verse 9 should have been translated years because the translators did not completely understand the context. Look it up in a concordance and you will see that the translation of the word is governed by the context. Context here it is 31/2 years, forty and two months or one thousand two hundred and three score days.

            We see in verse ten that the world will be rejoicing over their martyrdom and death even sending gifts to one another. Their joy and elation will be but for a short time because we see that at the end “the Spirit of life entered into them and they stood upon their feet: and great fear fell upon them which saw them.” Why?

Because the resurrection began occurring.  “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud: and their enemies beheld them.”(Verse 11). Compare this with IThes. 4:13-17 (not the rapture as dispensationalists teach, but rather the resurrection. See also Matt. 24:29-31.

            This is a brief explanation of the passage. Much more detail can be found in my book Thee Prophets and the Revelation as well as many other insights explaining the words of the prophets. If you really have an interest in learning the truth of end time events you may find it here. You won’t find it in your church.

David Lance Dean                          theseprophets.blogspot.com