Then there is the fact that there is no temple. The temple was destroyed in 70 AD, and Revelation was written about 26 years later. I knew that John wrote Revelation while exiled on the Isle of Patmos. That doesn't sound all that bad. "You go live on a Greek island!" What I didn't realize is that he had to work in the salt mines there. Anyway, when John wrote this there was no temple. John also writes about Babylon, but there was no Babylon when John wrote Revelation either. Will the temple be rebuilt? There are a lot of reasons why the temple must be rebuilt for prophetic reasons. The sacrifices will be resumed. Have you ever wondered why there are no sacrifices? The sacrifices are required to be offered at the place where the temple was, and no other place. If there is no temple there is no place to sacrifice. The "Abomination of Desolation" spoken of the the prophet Daniel will enter the temple and demand that he be worshipped as God. Therefore there must be a temple. Have you ever wondered where the Ark of the Covenant is? Maybe not, but a lot of people have. I think it will turn up one day, and the temple will be rebuilt and the Ark will be put in the temple. Why? Mostly because I can't imagine God going to the trouble to appear at Mt. Sinai and personally etch the Ten Commandments in stone, and then allow them to be destroyed.
Why is John told to measure the temple? There isn't a temple. Some say God is about to judge the temple and the worshippers because they are not found acceptable. How did anyone come up with this idea? What temple? Oh, maybe the point of measuring the temple and worshippers was to say, "You don't measure up." Or maybe to clearly delineate the temple as a sacred place. "But," John is told, "leave out the outer court of the temple because it is given to the Gentiles and the holy city will be tread under their feet for forty two months." Again, forty two months is three and a half years, the last half of the Tribulation. The holy city will be trampled, by people who could care less about its sacredness. Measuring the temple is also found in Ezekiel and Zechariah. One more temple thought: Revelation 11:19 "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." The ark of his testament would be the Ark of the Covenant. One person explained to me that this shows that the Ark of the Covenant has gone to heaven. Well, so has the temple. Or maybe the earthly temple and Ark of the Covenant were modeled after the heavenly ones.
God tells John that He will give power to his Two Witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days. That would be three and a half years. So for the period of the Great Tribulation there will be Two Witnesses sent from God speaking against the Antichrist and people who follow him.
The Two Witnesses are very incredible. The Greek word used for witness is the word we get the word martyr from. For the three and a half years of the Tribulation, they are able to speak their minds about the Antichrist and are invincible, because as long as they have this work to do, God protects them from their enemies. They are called God's two olive trees and two candlesticks. Why is this? I suppose we're to understand that they have been annointed. Also, they will prophesy wearing sackcloth. What's that? There used to be a material made of goat hair that was used to make bags like flour sacks. Sometimes people used this material to make rough clothing. Will the Two Witnesses actually get clothing made of goat hair to wear? I don't know. I think their dress will be unusual.
What powers do they have? They have the power to prevent rain from happening for the entire three and a half years of the Great Tribulation. This is something that the Bible has spoken of before in I Kings, chapters 17 and 18. Elijah told Ahab that there would not be rain or dew. After three and a half years, the word of the Lord came to Elijah telling him to visit Ahab and God would send rain.
I have heard some say that Revelation states that there will not be rain for the period of three and a half years during the Great Tribulation. I'm not sure it's saying there won't be rain, but that the Two Witnesses can prevent the rain for the three and a half years they prophesy, and it could be the whole three and a half years. It seems like it would make sense that if it is a parallel of the drought brought on by Elijah, it would last the same period of time.
But that's not all. They are able to turn water into blood. They are able to smite the earth with plagues as often as they decide to, and if anyone tries to injure them they kill them with "fire that proceedeth out of their mouth." Oh. Does that sound Christian? Well, they are acting on behalf of God against evil on a level that the world has never seen before. God, and the Two Witnesses on God's behalf, intend to let humanity know in no uncertain terms that they have taken a wrong turn. This means war! To God, that means judgment and the wrath of God.
I can imagine the macabre scene the Two Witnesses must make. Clothed in sackcloth, standing on a soapbox prophesying, surrounded by a hostile crowd that makes fun of them, and their odd clothing. The crowd more than makes fun, and begins to attack them physically. The people that do so get an unpleasant surprise.
And so it is that the Two Witnesses prophesy against the evil of their day for three and a half years, and not just prophesy, but bring about a dreadful drought, plagues, probably like giant hailstorms, infestations, turning all the water to blood, and breathe fire on people.
In doing so, they don't become popular. The Antichrist, or "the beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit," "makes war against them," overcomes them and kills them. That seems curious. Making a war against two people? What isn't being said?
Another curious thing about the Two Witnesses. A great many people feel that Christians will be raptured before the Tribulation. After that, people can get saved, but all the saved people would have to be people who were saved after the Rapture, or else they would have gone with everyone else in the Rapture. So the Two Witnesses either are recently saved, or the Rapture hasn't happened yet. Or, or.... Or maybe they are people like Moses and Elijah and they are sent back to earth during this period!
Who are the Two Witnesses? Moses and Elijah? Enoch and Elijah? They seems to me to be most like Moses and Aaron, sent in Exodus to announce to Pharaoh that Egypt will have to let the children of Israel go. Why did Aaron go with Moses? A big reason is moral support. The earth, like Egypt, is about to have two prophets call down judgments from heaven on them. What set this off? The people of earth by and large have declared their allegiance to the Antichrist, Satan on earth.
Public sentiment does not favor the Two Witnesses or God. The Antichrist has deluded the masses of people on earth, so that almost everyone is convinced that he is God. He came back from the dead. He does awesome miracles. He has a mouth that speaketh great things and blasphemies. Why doesn't this bother anyone? Well, he is extremely persuasive. Even "the very elect," according to Christ, will find themselves feeling drawn by the Antichrist. He seems to have solutions to crises. Not to mention the fact that people want to follow someone. Yes, he makes some claims that from anyone else would seem evil. He blasphemes God, he claims he is God. Is he holy? Not so much. Isn't God holy? Apparently they don't think God needs to be holy anymore.
The Two Witnesses are there to challenge this affront to God.
After three and a half years without rain, the world would have dreadful problems, crops failing, water supplies drying up...way past alternating days that we water the lawn. Where did the rain go? People drill deeper wells. And then the Two Witnesses turn the water they found to blood! When that doesn't wake anyone up, the Two Witnesses send greater levels of plagues, like Moses did in Egypt. Someone has to stop these two! For the children!
After the three and a half years, the Antichrist finally succeeds in killing the Two Witnesses, because their work is done and his time has come, although he doesn't know it. And yet, at this point in Revelation, the Antichrist hasn't even been said to come to power. That happens in the next two chapters. After he assumes power, and after his reign of three and a half years, he kills the Two Witnesses. People hate them so much for all their "crimes," that they just leave their dead bodies on display in the streets of "the great city," "spiritually Sodom and Egypt," "where also our Lord was crucified." So, John is talking about Jerusalem, the holy city, but calling them Sodom and Egypt. Well, this is the time when they are being tread under foot by the Gentiles.
The dead bodies of the Two Witnesses lie in the street for three and a half days. During this time, the people on earth celebrate. Revelation 11:10 "And they that dwell upon earth shall rejoice over them, (lying dead in the street) and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two witnesses tormented them that dwelt on the earth."
Listening to Dr. Toussaint discuss the Two Witnesses, he told of how one year at Christmas, his family received a Christmas card, with this verse, "And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another," as a scriptural basis for the way Christmas is celebrated.
After three and a half days, the spirit of life from God is breathed into the Two Witnesses, and they stand on their feet alive again. This is probably broadcast via satellite on the nightly news. People are aghast to see this.
Then a great voice from heaven tells them to "Come up hither," and away they go, floating off to heaven in a cloud. This too is probably on the nightly news. This is a terrifying turn of events to "them that dwell upon the earth." I guess so.
The second woe is past, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. It's taken a long time for the second woe to pass. The sixth trumpet sounded in Revelation 9, three and a half years ago.
Then, after all this time since the sixth trumpet sounded, the seventh angel sounds.
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