The Two Wtnesses

 

Who are the two witnesses highlighted in Revelation 11? And just what is the prophetic message of this enigmatic vision? The teaching that most Christians have grown accustomed to is that the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses, or Enoch and Elijah, who will come back to earth to witness, and perform miracles during the Great Tribulation. They will be killed, and left to lay in the streets of Jerusalem for three days. Then they will be caught up to heaven, in full view of all the inhabitants of the world. That interpretation makes for an incredibly dramatic storyline for the Great Tribulation fantasy, but it is not at all what God was delineating.

The two witnesses are not two men, rather they are two chosen and elected peoples of God – Israel and the Church. For several millennia they have fulfilled the role of bearing witness to God’s offer of love and redemption, as well as His sovereignty. Elijah and Moses were the hallmark personalities of the first witness, Israel, performing miracles that glorified the God of the Jews. The four miracles mentioned in Revelation 11 happened in history past; they are not going to occur again during the last days.

The symbolic mention of 42 months and 1260 days is not referring to the last half of the Great Tribulation. The Gentiles are not going to trample on the holy city for 42 months during a supposed Great Tribulation. No, they have been doing so ever since 70AD, when the Jews were dispersed to the four corners of the world. The time period, “times, time, and half a time”, depicted in this chapter as 42 months and 1260 days (Rev 11:2,3), represents an undisclosed length of time, designed and determined by God. So, then, the two witnesses will bear testimony for 1260 days, not during the Great Tribulation, but for the whole course of the age of the Gentiles, the Church age.

Once God’s timeframe for the two witnesses is complete, when their testimony is finished, they will be slain by the beast out of the abyss. They will be left lying in the streets, while the inhabitants of the earth gloat over their dead bodies, celebrating. The great city where they are slain probably refers to the earth as a whole, the same place where Jesus was crucified. Jesus left His place in heaven to come to this earth, take on the likeness of a man, and become obedient to death on a cross.

The beast out of the Abyss is mentioned in other places in Revelation, most notably in Revelation 17. It is synonymous with the eighth beast (17:6, 8, 10-13). That beast is a ten-nation Arab coalition, who will destroy America, the Great Babylon (Rev 17:16), and invade Israel and trample on Jerusalem (Ezek 39:2; Zech 14:1-2). After wreaking all that death and destruction, slaying the two witnesses, it seems that they will pause to gloat over their victory. That is when the story takes an astonishing turn of events.

The witnesses will be resurrected, by the breath of God, and will ascend into heaven, in a cloud, while their enemies watch in amazement. This resurrection and ascension in a cloud is obliquely referring to the rapture. That great event will not just gather the saints who are still alive, but also resurrect the dead in Christ, those of Israel and the Church who have died and been slain over thousands of years. When Christ returns, He will defeat that great beast out of the Abyss (Rev 17:14), and avenge the slaying of the two witnesses – Israel and the Church. The great earthquake mentioned in the closing of Revelation 11 is a trademark event that accompanies the second coming of Christ (cf. Rev 6:12; 8:5; 16:18; Ezek 38:19; Zech 14:4).