Prophecy
9
The Two
Witnesses –
Revelation 10:1-11:19
_____________________________
Theological
Vacuum
The Bible is
clear that God will separate the
sheep from the goats at the end of
the world. Today the world is full of
antagonistic religions and competing
gospels. This is not a problem for
God. The Father decided long ago to
demolish the religious gridlock that
would exist at the end of the world
with seven “justifiable”
judgments on mankind. These judgments
are designed to accomplish several
objectives at the same time. For
example, they will shatter billions
of false paradigms, humble everyone,
prove the reality of God, and will
reveal man’s need of a Savior.
When the
censer is cast down and the seven
trumpets begin, Jesus will create a
theological vacuum. This vacuum will
suddenly form because the
world’s clergy do not properly
understand the Bible, especially the
books of Daniel and Revelation. They
do not anticipate the seven trumpets
and seven bowls. Consequently, they
do not understand God’s end time
plans or purposes. The clergy of the
world will be caught by total
surprise when the censer is cast
down. Jesus will use the seven
trumpets to discredit the clergy
because He wants laymen to consider a
gospel they have not heard before.
Jesus will use overwhelming
destruction and the temporary vacuum
that follows to propel the eternal
gospel throughout the world with a
minimum of resistance.
The 144,000
will have an opportunity to present a
gospel that is contrary to what most
people currently believe. The 144,000
will proclaim:
1. The
Creator of Heaven and Earth and
everything in them is
Jesus Christ. (This will be a hard
pill for Atheists, Hindus, Jews, and
Muslims to swallow.)
2. Jesus
Christ is Sovereign God and He is
angry with man’s degenerate
behavior. He is responsible for the
judgments that are striking the
Earth. (This will be a very hard pill
for many Christians to swallow.)
3. After
creating the world in six days, Jesus
rested on the seventh day of the week[105] and
declared it holy and he commands all
mankind to rest from labor on His
holy day, Saturday, the seventh day
of the week. (This will be a very
hard pill for Catholics, Protestants,
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and
Atheists to swallow.)
4. All have
sinned and everyone is condemned to
death because of his sins. There is
only one way to escape the second
death and that is to worship Jesus
and do as He commands. (This will be
a hard pill for billions of religious
people to swallow.)
5. Jesus has
paid the price for every repentant
sinner with His own blood. There is
no other means to salvation.
6. Jesus will
gather His followers on the 1,335th
day of the Great Tribulation.
(Billions of people will scorn this
information.)
The religious
and political leaders of the world
will respond to the testimony of the
144,000 with hatred and blasphemy.
They will claim to have a better
idea, a better solution. They will
create a global government (called
Babylon in the book of Revelation)
which (they think) will appease
God’s wrath. They will demand
uniformity and will eventually
persecute everyone who rests on
Sabbath, the seventh day of the week!
Demonstrating
a Profound Point
Remember,
Jesus consistently judges the dead
and the living according to this
principle: “Anyone, then, who
knows the good he ought to do and
doesn’t do it, sins.”[106] While
this principle sounds very simple, it
is profoundly wise! Please consider
two points:
1. The
religious and cultural diversity of
mankind is infinite. Suppose fifty
billion people have lived on Earth
during the past 6,000 years and most
of these people lived and died
without even hearing the eternal
gospel. This is not a problem for God
because Jesus came to Earth and paid
the penalty for sin for every
honest-hearted person. “For God
so loved the world that He gave . . .
.”[107] Many
Christians do not understand that
Jesus paid the penalty for sin for
everyone – including those who
died without hearing about Jesus and
His redemption! As we just discussed,
Jesus fairly and justly uses three
witnesses to judge the dead and two
witnesses to judge the living.
2. Knowledge
expands over time. Have you marveled
at the explosion of knowledge over
the past two hundred years? For
thousands of years, man could travel
no faster than a horse could run and
today we think nothing of commercial
jets flying from city to city at 350+
mph. Knowledge has radically
transformed life on Earth during the
past two centuries, but some people
still live in very primitive
conditions. The gulf between people
flying in jets and those people
living in primitive conditions has
been highlighted to make an important
point. Suppose that at any given time
in Earth’s history, the gulf in
man’s knowledge of eternal truth
ranges between 1% and 10%. (No one is
totally ignorant of the laws of love
and no one but God has 100% perfect
knowledge.) When Jesus judges a dead
person who has a knowledge base that
contains 1% truth, He judges that
person according to what he knew to
be right and true. When Jesus judges
a living person during the Great
Tribulation who has heard ten times
more truth, He will judge that person
in the same way He judges a dead
person, according to what that person
knew to be right and true. Since
Jesus judges according to this
principle, everyone is judged in the
same way.
God’s
policy for judging people illuminates
a profound fact: Anyone who
conscientiously does the good that he
knows he should do is honest-hearted.
Each time our knowledge expands, God
challenges our honesty all over
again. God constantly challenges us
to see if we will be happy in an
environment where advancing knowledge
of eternal truth never ends. An
honest-hearted person will embrace
truth (regardless of the
consequences) because he loves truth.
Such a person, even if he died having
only 1% truth, would be eternally
happy in the company of God and the
holy angels because his knowledge of
God’s truth will forever expand.
Jesus said, “But whoever lives
by the truth comes [continues coming]
into the light, so that it may be
seen plainly that what he has
[learned and] done has been done
through God.”[108] The
144,000 will proclaim the eternal
gospel throughout the whole world
with great power and authority for
1,260 days. To make sure that the
living know that the 144,000’s
testimony is true, the Holy Spirit
will torment every heart and convict
the world of sin, righteousness, and
judgment![109] The
honest in heart will respond to this
enlightenment just like steel
responds to the pull of a magnet. A
love for truth will separate the
sheep from the goats!
Long ago, the
Father predetermined that the living
would be tested with enlightenment at
the end of the age. Because the
Kingdom of God is built upon the two
laws of love, God wants to test
mankind to see who will embrace His
two laws of love after the 144,000
proclaim them and after they are
fully proclaimed and validated. The
amazing thing about this coming test
is that two self-selecting groups of
people will form. In other words, the
sheep (the honest in heart) and the
goats (those who disdain honesty)
will voluntarily separate themselves
from each other by exercising their
power of choice! The Father foreknew
the whole process could be
accomplished in 1,260 days. Actually,
every human being will make his
decision before the 1,260th day ends,
but God will hold the door open a
little longer to make sure that
everyone is settled in his or her
decision. This is why Jesus will
empower the Two Witnesses for 1,260
days at the end of the world. The
living must be tested and separated.
The influence of the Two Witnesses
cannot be killed until this mission
is accomplished.
The
Sequence Continues
Revelation
11:8-9
And
their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city, which
spiritually is called Sodom and
Egypt, where also our Lord was
crucified. And they of the people and
kindreds and tongues and nations
shall see their dead bodies three
days and an half, and shall not
suffer their dead bodies to be put in
graves.{8} The
bodies of the Two Witnesses will lie
in the street of the great city,
figuratively called Sodom and Egypt,
where also their Lord was crucified.
{9} For three
and a half days men from every
people, tribe, language, and nation
will look at their bodies and refuse
to bury them.
Remember, God
is using personification to describe
the experience of the 144,000 and His
Two Witnesses. John’s experience
in this prophecy represents the
experience of the 144,000. The Two
Witnesses are personified as two
prophets because they testify –
they confirm the testimony of the
144,000. The death of the Two
Witnesses personifies the death of
the 144,000 (who serve as the arms
and legs of the Two Witnesses).
One-third of mankind will be killed
during the sixth trumpet.[110] Many of
God’s people, and most, if not
all of the 144,000, will be killed.
These are the martyrs described in
the fifth seal.[111]Because of
their contempt and hatred for the
saints, Satan’s forces will
refuse to bury God’s saints and
prophets when they are slaughtered.
Throughout history, armies have left
their enemies to rot in the street as
a display of utter contempt for their
foes. Scenes of dead people rotting
in the street; providing food for
vultures and vermin sent a repulsive
message to anyone who might want to
rebel.[112]
It is
interesting to notice that the
language used in verses 8 and 9
parallels the language used in Revelation
19:19-21. When Jesus destroys
His enemies at the Second Coming, He
too, will not bury His defiant foes.
They will be left to rot in the
street and vultures will gorge
themselves on their flesh![113]
The phrase
“the great city that is
figuratively called Sodom and Egypt,
where also their Lord was
crucified” is symbolic and the
Bible defines this symbol with a
relevant text. The Bible says
“the woman is the great city
that rules over the kings of the
Earth.”[114] The
book of Revelation contrasts two
women. One is pure and gives birth to
the Savior of the world.[115] The
other woman is a wealthy whore.[116] The
pure woman represents the people of
God (His holy city). The whore
represents the wicked (a great city
containing people who worship
Lucifer). The pure woman is called
“the bride of Christ.” The
corrupt woman is called
“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the
Mother of Prostitutes and of the
Abominations of the Earth.” The
whore has no conscience. She sits on
a beast having seven heads and ten
horns (Babylon), drinking the blood
of God’s prophets and saints.[117] Corporately
speaking, the wicked who join
Lucifer’s theocracy will make up
“the great city.” When the
Bible says the bodies of the Two
Witnesses will lie in the street of
the great city (the whore), the Bible
is not talking about a geographical
location. It is talking about a
worldwide group of defiant people
described as Sodom (sexual perverts),
Egypt (hard hearts) and Jerusalem
(people who rejected the clearest
evidences of truth).
God uses
repetition and enlargement in the
book of Revelation to help us
understand the counterfeit theocracy
that Lucifer will establish.
Lucifer’s whore (Lucifer’s
theocracy) is given another name in
Revelation 13. She is also called
“an image to the beast.”[118] Lucifer’s
theocracy will be a mirror image of
the crisis government that man
created during the first four
trumpets. The essential difference
between the formation of the crisis
government (Babylon – Phase I)
and the formation of the whore/image
(Babylon – Phase II) is
consolidation. When the seven
trumpets begin, world leaders will
create Babylon (a crisis government
– Phase I) and the governments
of the world will obey the
instructions of the seven heads (the
seven religious systems on Earth).
When the sixth trumpet sounds,
Lucifer will assert his authority and
abolish the religions and governments
of the world so that he can set up a
counterfeit theocracy (Babylon –
Phase II). He will rule over the
world as king of kings and lord of
lords. The devil will create a
one-world-church-state religion and
ten puppet kings (the ten horns on
the composite beast) will report to
him. During the time of the
whore/image, (Babylon – Phase
II), Lucifer will do his best to kill
the opposition. He will kill a third
of mankind. Babylon – Phase II,
is described as a prostitute because
everyone participating in
Lucifer’s theocracy knowingly
does wrong. The wicked will
prostitute themselves to do whatever
Lucifer demands in exchange for
survival.
