THE TWO WITNESSES

 

   “And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses, and They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Who are the “Two Witnesses”? 

 

     Are they already come, are they coming in the future?  What does the Bible say?  What do we read in the Sure Word of Prophecy?

Revelation 11: 1

 

    “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod:

    

     and the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise, and measure The Temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

 

     John is told to measure The Temple and the people.  What does it mean to “measure” The Temple and the people?  Jesus said:

 

Matthew 7:2     “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” 

 

      Measuring then, indicates a time of judgment. John was to compare the lives of the people with the “measuring rod”.   What does the “measuring rod” represent?  The Word of God.

John was to examine The Temple and the people and see if they met the standards set forth in The Scripture .  This Scripture applies to US.  Every person alive today who professes to be a follower of Jesus.

  There is a Judgment” going on in the Heavenly Temple at this very moment and one by one the people are being examined according to how they lived their own lives and how they measured the lives of others, how we have treated others will determine how God will render the final sentence  upon us !  When we compare our lives with The Law of God,  which is the standard in The Judgment, which at this very moment is taking place in Heaven, will The Judge sentence us for  eternal life or eternal death!

 

     Revelation 11:2   “But the court which is without The Temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and The Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

    The first temple of the Hebrew people was the Wilderness Tabernacle which Moses was    instructed to build the first year of their Exodus from Egyptian bondage.  It looked something like this:

 

       Inside it looked 

 

   something like this:

When Israel was settled in the Promised Land, King Solomon built a permanent structure which was one of the marvels of that time.  It looked something like this:

       This temple was destroyed about 600 B.C. because of the terrible apostasy and wickedness of Israel.  Many of the Jews were killed and many were taken as captives to Babylon.

     When the Jews returned from Babylon another temple was built which was not as lavish as the former and became known as “Herod’s Temple”, because King Herod,

spent a lot of money improving the exterior.  This is the temple that was standing in the time of Christ and when John received the visions in the book of Revelation.      So with that little bit of history, look again at Revelation 11, verse two.

    “But the court which is without The Temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and The Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

 

     So in reference to our study of the “Two Witnesses, what is meant by  “the court”;  The Holy City; and the period of , forty and two months.” ?

     The text says the, “The Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

      The Holy City is Jerusalem, to the Jews, the Moslems and to    most Christians.  Was there ever a time in history when the literal city of Jerusalem was “trod under foot” for; forty and two months ?    Whether we take the forty and two months  as literal time, which would be 3 and a half years,  or as standing for “Prophetic Time”.  In Prophetic time  “each day represents a year, making, forty and two months  equal to “1260 years”.

     Jerusalem has never gone through such a time period in history. So then, the Holy City must have a “spiritual” or “symbolic” meaning.  What would you say was the symbolic meaning of “The Holy City”, in this verse ?  Could it represent the “Church of Christ” on this earth?

 

     Jesus said in Matthew 23:37

 

     “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen     gathereth her chickens under her

 wings, and ye would not!

 

23:38 “Behold, your house

     ((The Temple)) is left unto you desolate.”

 

        Christ is talking to the people of Jerusalem who claimed to be His Church. Jerusalem was the center of all Jewish worship.

 

 The Temple was in Jerusalem and three times a year the people assembled for the yearly feasts.  Jerusalem was the center of worship.  The Temple, consisted of a Holy and a Most Holy place.

 

 

When Jesus was on earth, the end of a Prophetic Time period was rapidly coming to a close.  The Jewish Nation had been given a period of 490 years to turn from their evil ways.  Christ was to come near the end of that period of time and had the Jewish Church repented and accepted Christ for who He really was, Jerusalem would have become the Light of The World  

     because Jesus The True Light had come to bless them with

His Divine Presence.

 

    But, the rebellion and apostasy of The Jewish Leaders was so great that they rejected their Messiah and put Him to death.

 

     That horrible act, sealed their eternal destiny, they had divorced themselves from God and a terrible judgment awaited them in the destruction of  their Temple and the City of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That is why Jesus said as He left The Temple for the final time just before His crucifixion;

    “Behold, your house ((The Temple)) is left unto you desolate.”

 

   Christ had withdrawn His Presence never to return to The Jewish Church.  Further evidence was given when on the day of the Crucifixion, at the very moment when Christ died, and the priests were assembled to sacrifice the Passover Lamb, The large curtain which divided the Holy Place from The Most Holy Place was rent from top to bottom exposing to all the people, the very room to which only the High Priest could enter but once a year!

 

 

  When that curtain was rent from top to bottom by an unseen hand, the hand of an angel of God,  a new and living way was opened for all mankind, from that point on men and women, young men and maidens and whosoever will may come to Christ and be saved without priest or ruler!

 Behold His

   Amazing

Grace

 

         

And so today, we who profess to be followers

of God are in a Prophetic period of time and  the final Judgment is in progress in The Heavenly Court .  Jesus our Heavenly High Priest, is about to declare:

“It is Finished”!

 Are we ready for that moment?  Are we ready for that moment when the eternal destiny of every person on earth will have been written in the books of heaven’s court, and there will be no appeal!  

  Have we confessed all our sins”?

And not only confessed but, Are we obeying all the light we have received

from God’s Holy Word?

Revelation 14: 6 

      “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having The Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

     Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

              Revelation11: 3 

     “And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses, and They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” 

     1260 days. Remember verse two said:

 

     “The Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

      How many days in 42 months?   A Bible month of prophecy is always calculated on 30 days per month.  So 30 x 42 = 1260 days.

And verse three says:

“..a thousand two hundred and threescore days..”

     This is the very same time period stated in two different ways.  The period in history known today as The Dark Ages.   The time allotted to the development of the Roman Catholic Church,

    Starting in 538 AD and ending in 1798 AD.

The Catholic Church ruled Europe for exactly 1260 years.

 

“And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses, and They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

God says His Two Witnesses would prophesy for the time period of 1260 days,

clothed in sackcloth. 

     What does the sackcloth represent?

     Sadness, mourning, no happiness or joy in their life because they were not free.

     But this fact of the 1260 days being in the past shows us that God’s, “Two Witnesses” have been on earth already for many centuries, They are not coming in a future event!  They were prophesying all through the Dark Ages but were very limited in giving their message because The Catholic Church did not want people to read The Bible!

Revelation 11: 4

    “These {{The Two Witnesses}} are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”

      The Two Witnesses are also represented by “two olive trees”

 

    and “two candle sticks”.  So where in The Bible do we read about the Olive Trees and the Candle Sticks?

 

Look here in Zechariah 4:1 – 14

     4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,

 

   4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold,  with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:

 

  4:3    And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

 

    4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?

    4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

 

 

  4:6    Then he answered and spake unto me,

    saying, This is The Word of The Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith The Lord of hosts.

 

The two olive trees

 

     Are a symbol of The Word of God and the Golden Oil

 

      is the Holy Spirit that gives power to that Word and places it in our mind.

 

 

 

Why two olive trees ?

 

The Two Olive Trees

 

represent

 

The Old and New Testaments !

 

        4:11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

       4:12     And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the    two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

 

 

    4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

   4:14   Then said he, These are The Two Anointed Ones, that stand by The Lord of the whole earth.”

 

   4:6   Then he answered and spake unto me,

      saying, This is The Word of The Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by   might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith The Lord of hosts.

 

The Golden Oil

 

Represents

 

The Holy Spirit

 

         It is The Holy Spirit that speaks The Word of God into our mind and gives us power to obey!

 

     These verses tell us that The Two Witnesses were prophesying all the way back in the days of Zechariah, many centuries before the birth of Christ and over a thousand years before the 1260 years of The Dark Ages!

 

       The Two Witnesses are The Word of God .

 

      Therefore they are a Symbol of Christ Himself

 

who is

 

The Word Personified.

 

John 1:1   “In the beginning was

The Word, and

 

     The Word was with God, and The Word was God.

 

The Two Witnesses have always existed, They are Eternal!

 

 

 

Revelation 11:5

 

“And if any man will hurt Them, fire proceedeth out of Their mouth, and devoureth   Their enemies: and if any man will hurt Them, he must in this manner be killed.

 

So The Two Witnesses have the power to destroy the wicked by fire!  Remember this event recorded in Numbers 16: 35

 

“And there came out a fire from The Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.”

 

Leviticus 10:1

 

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before The Lord which He commanded them not.

10:2    And there went out fire from The Lord, and devoured them, and they died before

The Lord.”

 

2 Kings 1:10

 

“And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven,       and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.”

 

It was the power of God’s Two Witnesses that in the days of Moses and Elijah spoke The Word and consumed these wicked men! That takes us back 1500 years before the birth of Jesus!

 

Friends; The Two Witnesses are the Old & New Testaments of The Bible.  The Two Witnesses are The Word of God!

 

Revelation 11: 6

 

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”

 

 

1 Kings 17:1  “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As The Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

 

1 Kings 18:1  “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of The Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”

 

       James 5:17  “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are,   and he prayed earnestly that it

           might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of

three years and six months.

    5:18     And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

 

 

This was done by the power of the

Two Witnesses which are The Word of God!

 

By the power of God’s Holy Spirit, speaking through God’s chosen Messengers!

 

When were the waters turned to blood?

 

 

When Moses was called by God to deliver the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

 

One inspired writer wrote it this way:

 

“Let every soul note the importance of having a supply of oil. Fill your lamps with holy oil from the two olive trees. This oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is poured into the minds of believers, that they may be co-workers with heavenly agencies. The wise virgins, the waiting ones, had their faith and love and patience nourished by the oil of the Spirit of God. Thus it must be with each one who is saved. It is by the Spirit, the gracious agency of heaven, that the lamp is kept from flickering.  1888 1761

 

 

 

The Wise Virgins

 

“Believers must shine as lights in the world, in readiness for the Lord's coming. Readiness for the Lord's appearing is now to be earnestly sought for. The church of the living God is to put on her beautiful garments,--the white robe of Christ's righteousness,--that she may be ready and waiting for the summons.

1888 1761

 

 

 

 

 

The White Robe of Christ’s Righteousness

 

Do we have on the Wedding    Garment?  How do we obtain one?  Christ tells us how:

 

     1 Peter 1:22  “Seeing ye have purified your souls

 

    in obeying  The Truth through The Spirit    unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that

ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

 

1:23    Being born again, not of corruptible

seed, but of incorruptible, by The Word of God,

 

which liveth and abideth for ever.”