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God's Two Witnesses

Revelation 11

In the eleventh chapter of Revelation we encounter one of the most extraordinary events and one of the most fascinating chapters in the book. The chapter division is arbitrary, since the scene is a continuation of that in Chapter 10. The second woe (the plague of demonic horselike creatures) is just finishing its thirteen-month course, and the Lord Jesus Christ, appearing as the angel with the rainbow over his head, is still speaking to John.

The New Temple

At the time of John’s experience on Patmos, the magnificent temple that had once been the beauty of Jerusalem was merely a twenty-five year old memory. John, in fact, had been present on the Mount of Olives when Christ had prophesied its destruction, saying: “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). The prophecy had been fulfilled by the Roman armies in A.D. 70.

And yet the old prophets had often written of the holy temple as it would be in the last days (Ezekiel 40-48; Amos 9:11; Micah 4:1; Haggai 2:9; and Zechariah 6:12,13). Somehow the temple must therefore some day be built again.

Though John could not know this when he wrote, over nineteen centuries would come and go after his death, before the temple would reappear. The holy city would be “trodden down of the Gentiles,” even seeing a Moslem mosque erected where the temple should be, for year after long year.

But one day it would be built again, and this is the temple in the Book of Revelation that John was allowed to see.

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.

The angel, as shown before, is Christ, and he is ultimately the one who has allowed the new temple to be constructed. However, on earth, it will apparently be authorized by a treaty made by the Israeli government with the head of a confederation of European nations. As noted in Chapter 6 (see page 41), this coming king will make a seven-year covenant with the Jewish leaders (Daniel 9:27), allowing them to rebuild the temple and reinstitute their ancient worship, including the sacrificial offerings.

Orthodox Jews have long dreamed of this day and have been making plans for decades to rebuild the temple when opportunity allows. The miraculous defeat of Russiaand her Moslem allies (Ezekiel 38) will provide the opportunity and they will make the most of it. Construction crews will quickly raze the Islamic “Dome of the Rock” which now stands on the temple site and then erect a magnificent new temple edifice as rapidly as possible. When it is completed and dedicated, the Levitical rituals and offerings will be restored, and many of the faithful orthodox Jews will begin to take part.

But this will all seem like a strange anachronism to many, not only to the Gentile world at large but no doubt even to many of their Jewish brethren. That sophisticated modern men and women would actually start offering the blood of bulls and goats on a sacrificial altar once again will be too much for many to take. Even though the period will have begun with Israel held in worldwide awe because of her miraculous deliverance from the Russian hosts, the old prejudices and resentments will soon surface again.

It is questionable whether all, or even most, of the Jews will actually practice the ancient worship. Although even the most atheistic of the Zionist Jews had been profoundly impressed by God’s intervention on their behalf, many will be unwilling to participate in the animal sacrifices that will be instituted by the ultraorthodox.

There are many who will, however, and it is these to whom the angel directs John’s attention. By the time the temple is built, and the sacrificial offerings activated, much of the first three-and-a-half-year period of the tribulation will have been completed, and it is at this point that John is sent to the scene.

He had just been told that he would have to prophesy again of peoples and kings – this time of those who would be prominent in the last half of the tribulation, during the time of the sounding of the last trumpet. And the first of the nations of whom he must prophesy is Israel.

The instruction is somewhat cryptic: “Measure the temple, and the altar, and the worshipers.” The measuring “reed” with which he was to do this (Greek kalamos) was commonly grown in the Jordan valley, and had many uses, one of which was as a measuring rod. In smaller lengths it was used as a “pen,” and the word is so translated in 3 John 13. In the Septuagint, it was used to translate the Hebrew kaneh, meaning “rule.”

There is obviously more to this measuring process than merely determining the size of the temple. The latter is not given at all. Furthermore, the worshipers were to be measured as well as the temple.

But how does one measure a worshiper? Evidently this type of measurement has to do with spiritual standards rather than physical. The temple and its altar and its worshipers are to be evaluated in terms of their conformity to God’s spiritual criteria, and John is to be the one who measures (or judges) them.

This responsibility is evidently given because, as a joint-heir with Christ, John is (along with all the redeemed) to participate in the work of judgment (see the discussion in the preceding chapter). Just as Israel is the first nation of whom John is to “prophesy again,” so Israelis the first to be judged. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17).

This is always the order. God judges His own people first to cleanse and purify them. Then He judges His enemies to punish and banish them. The judgment seat of Christ, where Christians are purged and prepared for eternal service in the kingdom of God, takes place a thousand years before the judgment of the great white throne, where unbelievers are separated from God forever in the lake of fire.

The reconstructed temple in Jerusalem is based on a covenant made by Israel with a godless dictator. The new altar is an insult to the Lamb of God, who had offered one sacrifice for sins forever; and the worshipers in the temple, though professing to honor God, have rejected Christ. Therefore, all come short, when the measuring rod of God’s standard is applied.

Israel is, therefore, about to enter the time of her greatest suffering. God will use the heavy hand of wicked Gentile nations to chastise His people, but the process will purify them. It will be the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), the “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Daniel 12:1), the “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world” (Matthew 24:21). This final great judgment on Israel is initiated in Revelation 11:13, but most of the rest of the book is devoted to God’s judgments on the Gentiles. The details of Israel’s judgment had already been outlined in the prophets (Zechariah 14:1) and by Christ Himself (Mark 13:14-20).

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.

Traditionally, Gentiles were allowed to enter the outer courtyard surrounding the temple but never into the temple itself. This area, therefore, was not to be included in John’s measurement. That is, it was the judgment of Israel, not that of the Gentiles, with which he was to be concerned at this point. Jerusalemfirst, Babylonlater, would feel God’s wrath. Purification of His people first, then punishment of His enemies.

Gentiles, furthermore, would retake Jerusalem and would still “tread it under foot” for three and a half years. All the time the sounding of the seventh trumpet continued to echo across the world. The Jews had finally possessed the temple site and much of the city itself but now the Gentiles would wrest it all back once more.

This temple, in fact, is the fourth temple built in Jerusalem– the first by Solomon, the second under Zerubabbel, the third by Herod. Each in turn had been destroyed by invading Gentiles, with the third temple (the one in which John himself had worshiped) having been leveled to the ground by the Roman armies commanded by Titus in A.D. 70. Ever since that time, the temple and Jerusalem itself had been under Gentile domination.

Christ had prophesied of the Jews’ long exile in the following words: “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). Israel had finally been reestablished as a nation in 1948 and had regained most of the city of Jerusalem itself in the Six Day War in 1967. However, the temple site, the most vital part of Jerusalem, remained under Moslem control.

Then, finally, it had seemed that the great prophecy was fulfilled when the Western Prince made a seven-year covenant with the Israeli government allowing them to build their temple and reinstitute their ancient worship. By the time of Revelation 11, the pact had been in operation for three and a half years, and the Jews no doubt were feeling happy and secure.

Nevertheless, the city and the temple were theirs only by sufferance of the great Prince who was rapidly gaining control of the world’s nations. Furthermore, he was becoming increasingly irritated with them; their worship of their Creator (even though they still had not identified Him as Christ) was inimical to the humanistic worship promoted by the dictator, and their bloody sacrifices were an offense. Furthermore 144,000 of these Israelites had actually accepted Christ and were preaching the gospel everywhere, seemingly immune to all the plagues and persecution that were afflicting the world.

Painting #30 Two Witnesses - Revelation 11:3

The Days of Their Prophecy

This will be the situation when the tribulation period nears its midpoint. The Israelis’ enjoyment of their freedom will be brief, and the Gentiles are soon to drive them out of their temple and city once more. For another forty-two months, Jerusalem must be trodden down of the Gentiles before their judgment would come and the times of the Gentiles be finished.

Revelation 11:3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

The mighty angel appears suddenly to change the subject, speaking of “my two witnesses.” The assertion that these two witnesses are peculiarly His witnesses is further proof that the angel is Christ. Furthermore their witness was to be in the form of prophecy. They were true prophets, speaking by divine revelation under the authority of Christ and the duration of their prophetic testimony was set at 1260 days, corresponding to forty-two months of thirty days, or three-and-a-half years.

They are obviously prophets of judgment. The mohair sackcloth which serves them as clothing has for ages symbolized suffering and grief. Furthermore their prophecy is clearly worldwide in scope, with people everywhere aware of their message of warning and doom. They preach to both Jew and Gentile. In fact, this two-fold division of mankind is probably why there are two witnesses, and why they are suddenly introduced at this point in the narrative. John is himself to prophesy concerning both Jews and Gentiles, and the witnesses are prophesying against both Jews and Gentiles. The burden of both sets of prophecies concerns the imminent judgments, first on the Jews, finally on the Gentiles. The duration of their prophecy is given in terms of days, probably to emphasize that they are not once-a-week preachers. Every single day, for three-and-a-half years, their testimony of judgment to come is conveyed to a rebellious and resentful world.

The identity of the two witnesses has been a matter of much speculation. Many have suggested that they represent the Law and the Prophets, but both the narrative and the context show clearly that they are real men who speak and perform miracles and then die and rise again. Many commentators conclude that they are two great future prophets whom God calls in the last days but whose names are unimportant and therefore unrevealed. This is a possibility, but seems unlikely in view of Christ’s special identification of them as “my” witnesses, as though they were somehow known to Him and serving Him long before. The reference to Zechariah’s prophecy of the olive trees and candlesticks (verse 4) suggests the same.

That they are men, however, and not angels is obvious from the fact that they die. The most likely conclusion is that they are two of God’s faithful witnesses from former ages, sent back to witness again in the final age.

This is strongly supported by the remarkable prophecy concerning Elijah: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5, 6). This prophecy is all the more remarkable in that it contains the very last words of the Old Testament.

Some assume that this prophecy was fulfilled in John the Baptist but John the Baptist himself denied it. “And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not” (John 1:21). John did indeed come “in the spirit and power of Elias” (Luke 1:17), but he was not Elias, and his coming did not fulfill Malachi’s prophecy. Jesus Himself confirmed this. “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” (Matthew 17:11).

Elijah was taken into heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11). God must have had a reason for such a remarkable action; Elijah was no more deserving of such a privilege than many other saints before and since. Evidently, God had a ministry for Elijah which required that he still remain living in his natural body. There he has remained ever since, awaiting the time at the end of the age when he would return to earth to complete his prophetic mission to the people of Israel just “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”

But if Elijah is one of the witnesses, who is the other? The majority of commentators believe it is Moses, primarily because Moses appeared with Elijah on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:3), and also because both Moses and Elijah had called forth miracles from heaven in the form of plagues on God’s enemies and could effectively represent both the Law and the Prophets.

However, there do seem to be serious problems with this solution. Moses was not taken into heaven as Elijah was, but died and was buried (Deuteronomy 34:5, 6). The appearance of Moses with Elijah on the mountain was not an actual physical descent from heaven but was merely a “vision” (Matthew 17:9). Despite the mysterious reference to Michael’s dispute with Satan over Moses’ body (Jude 9), it is likely that Moses’ spirit, like all others who died before Calvary, was in Sheol, at least until the time of Christ’s resurrection.

The greatest problem, however, with the assumption that Moses is one of the witnesses is that this would mean Moses would die twice, which would contradict Hebrews 9:27: “It is appointed unto men once to die.” Furthermore, both Moses and Elijah were prophets to Israel, whereas the two witnesses of Revelation 11 are prophets of judgment to the whole world, both Jew and Gentile.

All of these considerations point clearly to the great antediluvian patriarch Enoch as the second of the two witnesses. Enoch is the only other man in all human history, besides Elijah, who was taken directly into heaven in his natural body without dying. “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death” (Hebrews 11:5). Neither he nor Elijah were given immortal bodies when they were translated, however, because it was necessary for Christ first to die for their sins and rise again. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Thus Enoch and Elijah have been waiting in heaven in their natural bodies through all the intervening ages since their respective translations. Therefore, although we cannot be absolutely certain, it does seem most probable that these are Christ’s two witnesses, sent to earth again in the last days to complete their prophetic testimonies to an ungodly world just before Christ returns. Enoch’s testimony, given to the antediluvians, could well be the essence of his message to the world in the tribulation period: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14, 15).

Enoch and Elijah are uniquely appropriate selections for this peculiar ministry in the last days. For approximately the first 2,000 years of human history (Adam to Abraham), God was dealing with the world of mankind as a whole. For approximately the second 2,000 years of history (Abraham to Christ), He was dealing primarily with the chosen nation Israel. It is significant that Enoch’s prophetic ministry was to the first group and that he preached and was translated during about the middle of the “Gentile” (or “nations”) epoch of history. Elijah’s ministry was to Israel, and he preached and was translated at about the middle of the period from Abraham to Calvary.

The third major period of history is the Church Age, also about 2,000 years in duration, during which the members of Christ’s Church, through the prophetic written Word, preach to both Jews and Gentiles. This age is terminated by the rapture of the Church. During the tribulation, with the Church no longer on earth, God will send back His two greatest prophets of the two former ages to renew and to complete their respective testimonies to Gentiles and Jews, proclaiming to the whole ungodly world the mighty judgments of God. After living in their natural flesh in heaven for an average of over three-and-a-half thousand years, they will preach again on earth for a final three-and-a-half years, and then finally be put to death for three-and-a-half days.

Revelation 11:4. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Here is another intriguing evidence that these two witnesses have been living in former ages. They are said also to have been “standing before God” back in the days of Zechariah.

Zechariah had been granted a series of remarkable visions, which evidently had a twofold application, first to the current project of temple rebuilding and second to the end times. In Zechariah’s time (between the times of Ezra and Nehemiah), the rebuilding of the temple, though authorized in the days of Ezra, was languishing and Zechariah’s mission was to encourage Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest to proceed with the task.

One of these visions was of a golden candlestick (or lampstand) with seven lamps, flanked by two olive trees yielding golden oil for the lamps. The olive trees were interpreted as “the two anointed ones [or “the ones with the oil”], that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:14). The phraseology is obviously the same. Thus the two witnesses were “standing before” or “standing by” the Lord long before John’s time.

These two great men were peculiarly men accustomed to being in God’s presence. When they were on earth before, it was said that Enoch “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah first introduced himself thus: “As the Lord of Israel liveth, before whom I stand” (1 Kings 17:1). They have continued close in His presence throughout the ages. They had been specially anointed as God’s prophets to the nations and the chosen nation, respectively, and their concern for their responsibilities has been no less immediate and passionate in heaven than it had been on earth.

Zechariah had seen them in a vision as two mighty olive trees, each bearing an especially strong and fruitful “branch” which perpetually emptied its golden oil into a golden bowl on the apex of a golden lampstand, from which coursed the oil through seven pipes to the seven lamps on the lampstand. The whole apparatus thus symbolized the divine Light to and through the chosen nation Israel, all energized by the Spirit of God. The message to Joshua (same name as “Jesus”) was that the blessing and power for the nation must be received through “my servant the BRANCH” (Zechariah 3:8) which, in turn, was the name of the man who would ultimately build the eternal temple and would be both its priest and king (Zechariah 6:12, 13). The message to Zerubbabel was that all this would come “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit” (Zechariah 4:6), as symbolized by the flowing oil. The branch is Christ, the oil is the Spirit, but both were conveyed, as it were, to Israel by the two anointed ones, said specifically by the Lord to be represented by Zechariah’s two olive trees, and also by the two witnesses here in Revelation 11.

But the witnesses also were called “the two candlesticks” as well as “the two olive trees,” whereas in Zechariah there was only one candlestick. The reason probably is that one candlestick represents Enoch’s witness to the nations, the other Elijah’s witness to Israel.

The Lord Jesus Christ called them “my two witnesses,” indicating that these bore a special relationship to Him which was not shared by other witnesses. These were the two that had stood by Him for long ages, sharing His great concern and love for those who loved Him, but also sharing His wrath against those who despised and rejected Him.

They had stood by Him in the days of their flesh, in the midst of their own ungoly generations. After their translation to heaven, they stood by the Lord in His dealings with their brethren through the centuries, with just this intriguing glimpse provided for us here in Zechariah’s vision: “These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:14). Note that, even though the immediate situation was concerned only with Israel (thus there was only one candlestick in the vision), it was still important for Zechariah’s hearers to remember that God was Lord of the whole earth.

Although it is obviously speculation, it seems possible that they may even have stood by Him when He came to earth, or at least at the climax of that visit when He died and rose again. On the morning of the empty tomb, it is remarkable that there were two men standing by. “And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments” (Luke 24:3, 4).

Similarly there were two men standing by at His ascension back to heaven. “And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel” (Acts 1:10).

The time had finally come, however, when Christ’s two faithful witnesses must return to earth to “finish their testimony” (verse 7). They had stood by Him: now, surely, He would stand by them.

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.

Like the 144,000 Israelite witnesses (Revelation 7:3; 8:4) these two chief witnesses will be protected from all harm during the three-and-a-half years of their testimony. Their daily pronouncements of condemnation and warning, in addition to the miracles of judgment which they called forth on the earth, will make them feared and hated above all men before them, and many attempts will be made on their lives. But they will be invulnerable and, furthermore, they will have the power to slay their enemies merely by a spoken word as though a consuming fire were leaping from their tongues. Such power is manifest otherwise only by Christ Himself (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 2:16; 19:15). Furthermore, in whatever manner anyone seeks to hurt them, he himself will be slain by an analogous judgment.

Elijah, in fact, had been able long before to call down fire from heaven with his spoken word (1 Kings 18:37, 38; 2 Kings 1:10, 12), and had been invulnerable then as well. He was recognized, in his day, as the one who summoned “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:12).

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.

Not only do the two prophets have miraculous power to defend themselves against all enemies, but also to call forth great plagues on the earth. First of all, they call for the greatest drought ever experienced on earth. The “days of their prophecy” are “a thousand, two hundred and threescore days” (verse 3), so it will “rain not” for three-and-a-half years. As Elijah had called for a three-and-a-half year drought in the land of Israel(James 5:17), so now he and his fellow prophet inflict the same on the whole world.

Such a drought obviously will generate worldwide famine. This seems clearly to correspond to the judgment already described under the third seal, right at the beginning of the tribulation (Revelation 6:5, 6).

This fact is one indication that the three-and-a-half year period of the prophecy of the two witnesses corresponds to the first half of the tribulation. More significantly, the forty-two month period of Gentile tyranny over the holy city (Revelation 11:2) and of absolute rule by the beast (Revelation 13:5) apparently becomes possible only by the execution of the two witnesses by the beast (Revelation 11:7). As long as the witnesses exercise such power over both men and nature, it is impossible for the beast to acquire absolute world power. Thus it seems necessary to conclude that John is here being given a retrospective view of the ministry of the witnesses, from the chronological standpoint of the middle of the tribulation. As a matter of fact, each of the sub-histories of these parenthetical chapters (11, 12, and 13) will be seen to begin with a retrospective review of the background events leading up to the midtribulation turning-point, then to continue with a preview of events yet future.

Almost simultaneous with the beginning of the drought, was the restraint of the world’s atmospheric circulation (Revelation 7:1). Such a combination of meteorologic phenomena will result in a gradual reestablishment of the prediluvian waters above the firmament, and thus help to prepare the world for the idyllic environment of the millennium.

Note also that the ability of the prophets to turn waters into blood corresponds to the judgments of the first and second trumpets (Revelation 8:7-9). In fact, they were also responsible for “smiting the earth with all plagues.”

All the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments were also called “plagues” in the summary statement of Revelation 9:20. Since the two witnesses were empowered to smite the earth with all plagues, it is evident that, as far as the earth-dwellers were concerned, the judgments through which the earth had been passing had been directly caused by the imprecations of the witnesses.

Thus the various plagues had both a heavenly cause and an earthly cause. John had seen the horsemen and angels and other emissaries of judgment sent forth from heaven. Now he learns that they had also been announced on earth by the two witnesses. These two prophets were Christ’s witnesses, still in perfect harmony on earth with His will in heaven. Whatever they asked on earth was done for them in heaven (Matthew 18:19).

No wonder the ungodly men and women on earth had come to fear and hate these witnesses with such intensity. Right from the first, they had been told that the plagues had been sent as punishment from God for their wickedness and continuing rebellion against Christ.

It is, of course, difficult for us to understand how these two prophets could live for 3,000 and 4,000 years, respectively, in heaven in their natural bodies without dying. Furthermore, how could they get there and return from there in bodies controlled by the normal gravitational forces that control all matter in our existing space-time cosmos? We can perhaps understand in part how angelic bodies, or resurrection bodies, could do this, since they are not controlled by such forces, but how can natural material bodies be transported from earth to heaven (wherever that is) in any reasonable time? As a matter of fact, science does not yet understand gravity itself.

The Victory of the Beast

To such a question we can have no answer at this time except that a miracle may be involved. There may, of course, be some type of anti-gravitational energy implicit in nature (as Peter’s walking on the water and Philip’s being “caught away” from the Ethiopian eunuch by the Lord) which is simply undiscovered as yet by modern science. Whether this is the case or whether such events are purely miraculous, it is obvious that they are well within the capabilities of God. The one who created all natural laws is able to utilize them or modify them according to His own will.

Revelation 11:7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.

Their testimony and the judgments which they inflict have been ordained by God to last for three-and-a half years. During that time, despite all manner of opposition by the ungodly hosts of the nations, especially of the great leader who has organized the nations of the west in a great confederation, they have proved invulnerable. In fact, all the police and military forces sent to arrest them have themselves been destroyed. Assassins dispatched to execute them have fallen by the same means they were preparing to use. They seem indestructible, and the terrible plagues unleashed by them have raged through the world without restraint. Furthermore, multitudes have been converted to Christ by believing their testimony, along with that of the 144,000 sealed Israelites who also receive miraculous protection.

But now, for the first time in Revelation, we meet an amazing character known as “the beast.” Much additional information is provided concerning him, notably the fact that he is a man, not a demon, even though he has ascended out of the great abyss and is Satan-controlled (Revelation 13:2, 18).

He is introduced at this point in the narrative without any word of explanation, as though John already knew of him. Indeed, even though this is the first mention of this beast of Revelation, John did know of him through the prophet Daniel. Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7) involved four great empires symbolized by wild beasts, the fourth of which was the same as this one. In particular, the final king that would acquire control over this fourth kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy is the one whom John now recognizes as the beast here in the Apocalypse.

Furthermore, this is the same as Daniel’s “prince that shall come” (Daniel 9:26), the one who had made the seven-year covenant with Israelpermitting the reconstruction of their temple. During this first half of the tribulation period, he has been involved in consolidating his own worldwide political power, well aware that it is the great dragon, Satan himself, who is enabling him to gain such power (Revelation 13:2). However, he has been hindered and thwarted again and again by the two witnesses and their followers, both by their condemnatory preaching and by the devastating plagues which they bring on the world.

Finally, he will decide to mount an all-out war against them. He must be rid of them at all costs, regardless how many of his own followers perish in the process. This is also the time of the plague of the sixth trumpet, when the hordes of demonic “horsemen” are slaying the third of the world’s population. They are desperate days calling for desperate measures and the beast dispatches great armies both to fight the horsemen and, more importantly, to kill the two prophets.

And, finally, he is successful. Somehow, his forces manage to penetrate the hitherto invincible wall of fire about the witnesses and to slay them. At the same time, the last of the demonic horsemen are destroyed, and suddenly the people of the world think that all their troubles are over. Satan’s man has conquered God’s men, and now the people of the world are finally free to live as they please, without fear of retribution from a suddenly-impotent Christ. They “repented not” (Revelation 9:20), but rather rejoiced in the great victory of the beast. Little will they understand the fact that the two witnesses have merely “finished their testimony.” The 1260 days are completed; otherwise, not even the armies of the beast would have been able to touch them.

But who is the beast? John merely says at this point that he had ascended out of the abyss. Daniel 9:26 says that his “people” were the ones who would destroy Jerusalem, which suggests that his nationality will be Roman, or at least from one of the nations that came out of the old Roman empire.

Because of these factors, many ancient and modern commentators have suggested that the beast would be the emperor Nero returned from the dead. Some in modern times have proposed Mussolini as a candidate for such a resuscitation. Others have suggested Nimrod or Judas. All such suggestions overlook the fact, however, that Satan is not the Creator and would therefore be unable to create “resurrected” bodies in which the departed spirit of some great Antichrist leader of the past could return.

On the other hand, Satan is extremely powerful and capable of manipulating natural processes in many marvelous ways, short of actual creation. Many cases have been reported from eastern and other occult religions, for example, of mystics who have apparently “died,” and have remained in a state of suspended animation for a time before reviving. In various such cases, as well as in certain remarkable tales of those who testify of UFO encounters, the “dead” person has returned to tell of amazing journeys on which he had been taken while in such a condition.

In the case of the beast, it may be that John recognized him as one who had recently been “slain,” but had returned to his body after a brief interval and had been telling the remarkable story of a trip to the great abyss, where he had received great power from Satan, including a commission to rule all nations.

Such and experience would be an impressive counterfeit of the resurrection of Christ, and will persuade multitudes (already impressed with his political abilities) to follow him. He is not a false Christ, however, but AntiChrist! He will not pretend to be Christ, but will openly blaspheme and oppose Christ, boasting that he has received his authority from Satan and that he and his master will soon depose God and His Christ.

By studying the relevant Scriptures (note especially Revelation 13:1-6), it seems that his pseudoresurrection may have occurred near the end of the first half of the tribulation. When he returns boasting of his encounter with Satan, and then demonstrates his great power by suddenly putting an end to the career of the two witnesses, the whole world will marvel and gladly submit to his authority.

Painting #31 Dead Witnesses Lying On The Ground-Rev. 11:8-10

People Rejoicing

Revelation 11:8. 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.

The Lord Jesus said one time, in sad irony: “I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee… Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37, 38).

Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of peace and the temple of God, is also the city where God’s prophets die and their Lord is crucified! These two greatest prophets must also die in Jerusalem, their testimony refused even by God’s chosen people. It is there the armies of the beast finally will apprehend and slay them and leave their bodies unburied in the street for all their enemies to see.

An indication of the moral degeneracy of Jerusalem at this time is indicated by its “spiritual” name, Sodom and Egypt. The same word (pneumatikos) is used elsewhere only in 1 Corinthians 2:14, where the things of God’s Spirit are said to be “spiritually” discerned. The holy city Jerusalem, even with its rebuilt temple and renewed worship, has become so wicked that it is called by the Holy Spirit and all spiritually-minded believers by the name associated with its terrible behavior – “Sodom and Egypt,” Sodom, whose very name has been identified for 4,000 years with sexual perversion, and Egypt, associated ever since Moses with the persecution of God’s people, indicate pungently the wicked character which the city of Jerusalem had taken on, even in the brief period since its great deliverance from the armies of Gog.

The city had also probably become an international center by this time, filled with commercial speculators and political adventurers of every stripe, together with a deluge of tourists and tourist-oriented entertainment complexes, with all their associated evils. All of this may well have vexed the souls of the religious Jews in the city, even as with Lot in the days of the original Sodom (2 Peter 2:7, 8), but they no doubt enjoyed the resulting prosperity and managed to rationalize it. With all their rejoicing over God’s deliverance and the renewal of the ancient religious system, they still had not repented of their rejection of Christ. And now, in the same streets through which Christ had long ago walked to His crucifixion, the bodies of His two faithful witnesses lay dead.

Revelation 11:9. 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.

Although the two prophets, like Christ, had returned to Jerusalem to die, their preaching and the plagues they invoked had affected all nations everywhere. They had been regarded for three-and-a-half years as the greatest enemies of the entire human race and had been feared and hated like none else before them. The news of their conquest and execution spread immediately throughout the world, carried by satellite to television screens in homes and public places everywhere. Believers who tried to give the bodies a proper burial were driven away.

The gloating of the happy spectators knew no bounds. “Free at last!” they thought, and the beast who had rid them of their tormentors quickly became an international hero. Day after day they kept the bodies in the street, blaspheming their God and defying His vengeance. His most powerful prophets were dead, and their plagues at an end.

Revelation 11:10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

It is like Christmas. Worldwide merrymaking is in order and a great holiday celebration gets under way. Sales boom again and gifts are exchanged freely. Joy to the world, the Lord is dead! Men once celebrated the birth of Christ in such a manner; now they will rejoice in His death. No more will they have to hide in caves of the earth from the wrath of the Lamb. Nevermore will angels fly across the sky, warning those who dwell on the earth of great woes about to fall. The stinging scorpion-locusts and the frightful horse-demons are a bad memory that will never torment them again.