Prophecy
9
The Two
Witnesses –
Revelation 10:1-11:19
_____________________________
Beginning
Point in Time: A few
days before the censer in Revelation
8:5 is cast down.
Ending Point in Time: The
1,265th day of the Great Tribulation
Summary:
God will
empower His Two Witnesses for 1,260
days at the end of Earth’s
history. Their work is vital during
the Great Tribulation because the
people who will be alive then (the
living) cannot be judged without the
input of His Two Witnesses. God told
Moses that no one could be put to
death on the testimony of one witness
because condemnation had to be
validated by two or more witnesses.[1] God
uses two witnesses in the book of
Revelation to indicate the living
will be judged and two infallible
witnesses will exonerate or condemn
each person. According to Matthew 24:14, the gospel
of Jesus will be proclaimed
throughout the world as a testimony
to all nations before the end will
come. The 144,000 will deliver the
gospel and Jesus will pass judgment
on each person according to the
testimony of His Two Witnesses.
Shortly after His pre-Advent judgment
is completed, Jesus will return to
Earth to deal with humanity.
Introduction:
If the
previous prophecy on the seven
trumpets reveals the severity of
God’s redemptive wrath, this
prophecy reveals the amazing reach of
God’s redemptive grace. The
Bible declares that God is love.[2] This
means that God’s actions are
eternally consistent with principles
of love. In other words, if you want
to see what love does in any given
situation, study God’s actions.
Because God has infinite wisdom, He
knows how and when to impose justice
and when to extend mercy.
Although it
is not obvious at first, this
prophecy aligns with the selection
and empowerment of the 144,000 and it
ends with a powerful display of
physical phenomena at the seventh
trumpet. The Two Witnesses and the
144,000 are inseparably linked
because the Two Witnesses will
validate the testimony of God’s
prophets. As you examine this
prophecy, keep this crucial fact in
mind: The Bible teaches that
validation requires two or more
witnesses. Jesus said to the
Pharisees, “If I testify about
myself [claiming that I am the
promised Messiah], my testimony is
not valid. There is another who
testifies in my favor [you have heard
John the Baptist testify about me],
and I know that his testimony about
me is valid. You have sent [a
delegation of priests] to [question
and investigate] John and he has
testified to the truth. . . . And the
Father who sent me has himself [also]
testified concerning me. [But the
testimony of the Father means nothing
to you because] You have never heard
his voice nor seen his form, nor does
his word dwell in you, for you do not
believe the one he sent.”[3]
Jesus came to
Earth to reveal the truth about God.
Jesus spoke the words which the
Father gave Him and His testimony was
true, but His words created a
firestorm of conflict because light
is incompatible with darkness. We
know that anyone can claim to speak
for God. Anyone can claim to be born
again. People often make outrageous
claims, but self-made claims of
legitimacy are not valid. Two or more
witnesses are required for
validation. This is why Jesus offered
the testimony of John the Baptist and
His Father’s voice as two
witnesses that validated His
Messianic identity. The issue of
legitimacy explains why the 144,000
will need two witnesses to validate
their testimony!
The Bible
declares that God loves everyone on
Earth the same.[4] Therefore,
it is reasonable to conclude that the
144,000 will be dispersed among the
inhabitants of Earth on the basis of
population. This assertion is made on
the basis that God will ensure
everyone on Earth will have an equal
opportunity to hear and consider the
eternal gospel concerning Jesus
Christ before the Second Coming.
Jesus said, “And this gospel of
the kingdom will be preached in the
whole world as a testimony to all
nations, and then the end will
come.”[5] The
144,000 will present a gospel that
stands in conflict with almost
everything people believe to be true.
God knows this will be the case, so
He will not ask anyone to believe His
servants on the basis of their
testimony or miracles. Instead,
God’s Two Witnesses will
validate the gospel of Jesus and each
person will determine his eternal
destiny by his response to God’s
two witnesses!
If the
144,000 are distributed by
population, then the United States
will have approximately 6,200 of the
144,000 prophets. China and India
will each have about 24,000 prophets
and Mexico City’s ten million
people will have about 200 prophets.
When the censer is cast down and the
first four trumpets sound, life as we
know it will dramatically change.
Television, radio, telephone,
banking, travel, and other
infrastructures that we now depend on
will become very limited or
nonexistent. This means the 144,000
will work alone as did Elijah, who
thought for a while that he was the
only person left in Israel who had
refused to worship Baal.[6] As time
passes though, honest-hearted people
will listen to the 144,000 and these
people will embrace the gospel
because God’s Two Witnesses will
confirm and convict them that this
gospel is true. These converts will
join with the 144,000 during the
Great Tribulation and encourage
others to receive Christ and be
saved. However, compared to the
opposition, the number of people
aligned with God’s prophets will
be a small minority. This is always
the case. Remember how Elijah faced
down 450 prophets of Baal on Mt.
Carmel.[7]
When we
contrast the singularity of
God’s prophets with the many
clergy employed by the religious
systems of the world (which are
opposed to the gospel of Jesus), and
add the number of people who have no
interest in God or His gospel, a
serious problem emerges for the
144,000. Who or what will validate
their testimony? What will prove to
the diverse people of the world that
one lone voice speaks for Almighty
God? This is the same situation that
Jesus faced when He came to Earth to
reveal the Father to the nation of
Israel. Jesus fed multitudes, healed
the sick, cast out demons, restored
eyesight to the blind, and raised at
least two dead people. These miracles
did not affect the leaders or the
majority of Israel at all. This
brings us to a very important point:
Miracles do not change hearts.
Miracles affirm what the heart wants
to believe. This explains why
Lucifer’s counterfeit miracles[8]will be such
a powerful delusion. He will call
fire down out of the sky at will
simply to affirm a false gospel which
the wicked want to believe. Jesus
knew that any self-made claims about
His identity would be worthless and
the same conclusion will be true for
the 144,000.
Once we grasp
the idea that the 144,000 will be
geographically distributed all over
the world, we can see why each
prophet of God will require two
witnesses. Something has to validate
their testimony. Even more,
God’s Two Witnesses will observe
each person’s response to the
gospel and report back to Jesus.
Their testimony will enable Jesus to
pass judgment on the living.
From
Observer to Participant
John’s
role changes in this prophecy.
Earlier in the book of Revelation,
John writes from the perspective of
an observer, but in this prophecy, he
becomes a participant. John is
transformed into a participant so he
can describe the experience of the
144,000 to us. I think God made John
a participant because false prophets
are found everywhere. People all over
the world prophesy out of their own
imagination every day. They claim
that God has shown them certain
things when in reality, God has shown
them nothing. People who do this are
offensive in God’s sight and He
will punish them at the appointed
time.[9] God
made John a participant in this
prophecy so that ordinary people will
have the ability to determine who is
a member of the 144,000. Each person
who is one of the 144,000 will have a
personal encounter with Jesus similar
to John’s experience. Each
person will be given words to speak
(represented by the little book given
to John) and like John, they will be
commissioned to prophesy and measure
the inner court in the temple. As an
example for the final generation, God
put John through the same experience
that each last day prophet will have
to endure. If a person claims to
speak for God during the Great
Tribulation and he or she has not had
the experience recorded by John in
this prophecy, and if his or her
testimony is not validated by
God’s Two Witnesses, then he or
she is a false prophet.
Many people,
who do not realize what they are
saying, express their desire to be
one of the 144,000. If Jesus should
call you to be among that group, then
you must accept His calling. You can
be sure He will enable and sustain
those He calls. On the other hand, no
human should desire the experience
the 144,000 will face. There will be
1,260 days of strenuous effort,
torture, rejection, imprisonment, and
death. The 144,000 will suffer as
Jesus suffered and there will be no
relief from their burden until death.
God gave John a participant’s
experience so that we can understand
the sacrifice, the distress, and the
victory of God’s servants.
Ordinary people will not know when
the 144,000 are called and sealed.
Unless one of the 144,000 happens to
be a close friend who shares his
experience of meeting the Lord and
eating the little book, I do not
think we will know who the 144,000
are until the censer is cast down on
Day One of the Great Tribulation.
Personification
Personification
is described as giving
“life” to something that is
inanimate. For example, after months
of wrangling, in 2010, the House and
Senate of the United States passed a
health care bill that dramatically
changed the health care system. Prior
to the final vote, some protesters
carried signs on Capitol Hill that
read, “Kill the Bill.” Of
course, no one can “kill” a
piece of paper, but people treat
House Bills as living things because
once a bill is signed into law, it
takes on a life of its own.
Therefore, killing a bill (voting
down some concepts written on a piece
of paper) before it is signed into
law is the only way to stop a bill
from coming to “life.”
God also uses
personification in the Bible. For
example, God personified the behavior
of a divided Israel (ten tribes and
two tribes) as two adulterous sisters
in Ezekiel 23. Personification is
effective because it says so much
with so few words. By personifying
Himself as Israel’s faithful
husband and Israel and Judah as two
adulterous sisters, God wanted His
people to understand His breaking
heart. What better way could He
reveal His sorrow than to portray His
people as two adulterous women? This
background information about the use
of personification has been presented
because in this prophecy, God
personifies the work of His Two
Witnesses. This literary technique
has misled many people to reach
conclusions that are not valid, but
we will see in this prophecy that God
also speaks of His Two Witnesses as
two lampstands and two olive trees as
well as two prophets.
Consider
this: When Moses raised his staff and
stretched out his hand over the Red
Sea, the Red Sea parted, but we know
that Moses did not make the Red Sea
part.[10] We know
that an ordinary man does not have
this kind of power. When Peter
commanded the lame beggar to walk,
Peter did not make the beggar walk,
even though the beggar jumped up and
began running around! Peter addressed
the astonished crowd who had gathered
saying, “ . . . Men of Israel,
why does this surprise you? Why do
you stare at us as if by our own
power or godliness we had made this
man walk?”[11] God’s
power rested on Peter and it was
God’s power that healed the man;
not Peter’s power.
Metaphorically,
Moses and Peter were “the arms
and legs” through which the Holy
Spirit’s power was manifested.
Keep in mind that even though Holy
Spirit power rested upon them, Moses
did not enter the Promised Land and
Peter was martyred for his faith. In
other words, Holy Spirit power did
not keep Moses from sinning or Peter
from death. Moses and Peter were
ordinary mortals like you and me, but
when God’s power came upon them
– His “power” enabled
them to do signs and wonders.
We learned in
Prophecy 6 that the Holy Spirit is an
unseen member of the Godhead that
works through people when directed by
Jesus or the Father to do so. The
Holy Spirit will not be one of the
144,000, but instead, the Holy Spirit
will work through the 144,000 in the
same way that He worked through Moses
and Peter. We will discover in this
study that one of the Two Witnesses
is the Holy Spirit and the other
witness is two great laws of love
that govern the whole universe.
God’s Two Witnesses are
personified in this prophecy because
they are invisible. Keeping the Two
Witnesses separate and distinct from
the 144,000 makes their work and
mission easier to understand. The
144,000 will proclaim the gospel of
Jesus and they will appear to perform
many signs and wonders, but the signs
and wonders will actually come
through Holy Spirit power and their
words will come from the little book
that Jesus will give them. And like
Moses and Peter, Revelation
16:4-7 and other texts
indicate that most, if not all of
God’s last day prophets, will
die in the line of duty.
One more
point must be refreshed before we
begin with this prophecy. The 144,000
will receive the seal of the living
God prior to the beginning of their
ministry for three reasons: First,
there will be no hint of sin
(dishonesty, greed, or immorality) in
God’s servants. Given the
amazing powers that will rest upon
them, the removal of the sinful
nature will prove to be very
important. God’s holy name will
not be profaned by some foolish
choice of words or impetuous act.
Second, the 144,000 will be living
examples of what human beings can
become when the sinful nature is
removed. When a repentant sinner
finally understands the incredible
power that sin has over him, he wants
to be set free of this curse.
Therefore, Jesus will start the Great
Tribulation with 144,000 living
examples of what it really means to
have freedom from sin’s curse!
This demonstration will be very
encouraging to those who love truth
because the gospel of Jesus includes
the promise that anyone can be sealed
– if only he will surrender to
the demands of the gospel and live by
faith! Finally, the 144,000 could not
accomplish the task before them if
they had sinful natures. The
ridicule, rejection, persecution, and
torment which they will endure would
be too great for man’s fallen
nature. Remember how Moses met with
God on several occasions and that
Moses performed many signs and
wonders, but God did not permit Moses
to enter the Promised Land because
his carnal nature rose up on one
rebellious occasion and indignation
caused him to sin.[12]
