March 18, 2011

  • Revelation Series 30: Two Witnesses - God’s Prophets Rev. 11:3-13

    Two great witnesses appear, sovereignly raised up by God to be witnesses for Him in the days the “beast” is in control of the earth. The center of the activity is in Jerusalem during Daniels last 3 ½ years of the 70th week. God will have two witnesses and Satan will have two men (Rev.13). Both will be empowered to perform miracles (Rev. 11:6; 13:14-15). There will be a veritable battle of miracles as God’s witnesses call down fire, plagues, and judgement as the “beast” and the false prophet deceive man with “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:10). In the end, the “beast” will slay the two witnesses, much to the delight of the whole world, and will leave their bodies to rot for 3 ½ days in the street of Jerusalem. These two witnesses will suddenly be resurrected and their ascension into heaven will be accompanied by a devastating earthquake which will wipe out a tenth of Jerusalem. They, in turn have won multitudes to Christ, both Jew and Gentile. Many of these will possibly be people who have been awakened by God’s judgement on Russia (Ezek. 39:21-22, 27-29) and who therefore would be ripe for these witnesses. This World-Wide Revival will probably not last very long. God doesn’t say, but thing’s are beginning to move at a very fast pace in the Apocalypse at this time (Rev. 12:12).

    These two witnesses are men, not covenants, dispensations, or any other thing, but two living, breathing, walking men. They are symbolized by two olive trees and two candlesticks which stand before God (v 4; Zech. 4:11-14), they are already in heaven when Zechariah prophesied, about 500 years before Christ (Zech 4:11-14), so they have been in heaven long enough to exclude any one after 500 B.C., from being the witnesses. They will be invincible for the first 3 ½ years of their ministry (v 5-7). They will have power to destroy their enemies (v 5), they will cause fire to come out of their mouths, turn water into blood, and smite the earth with plagues (v 6). They will leave behind 144,000 Jewish Missionaries to continue their work, so instead of two, Satan will have thousands of God’s witnesses to contend with.

    Through the years for some, it has been a guessing game as to who these two witnesses have been. But there are only two men that really fit the description throughout the word of God, Enoch and Elijah. Elijah is clearly predicted to be one of them in the Book of Malachi 4:5-6, and Enoch is the only other man to be translated without seeing death during his time on earth (Gen. 5:21-14; Heb. 9:27; 11 5; 2 Kings 2). Both were prophets of judgement (Jude 14-15; 1 Kings 17-18), as those returning must be.

    Bible Study and commentary on Revelation from “Hints from Harry”

    Written by Harry Taylor

    Next: Revelation: Series 31 “The Seventh Trumpet, the Third “Woe” Rev. 11:14-19