Revelation 11:3-13 “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." (4) These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing before the God of the earth. (5) And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. (6) These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. (7) When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. (8) And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (9) Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. (10) And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. (11) Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. (12) And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. (13) In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
This brings us to the second role which God’s two witnesses will play in the earth at that time. So what role is that? The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that these two will have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. And so we see from this passage that Moses and Elijah will prophesy to the nations during those days. The question is then asked what they will prophesy. The answer to that question lies in the fact that Moses and Elijah will have power to strike the earth with various plagues as often as they desire, thus tormenting those who dwell on the earth. Clearly the Lord’s two witnesses will be prophesying judgment to the nations during that time. So which nations will the two witnesses be prophesying to? They will prophesy to the nations that choose to align themselves with the reign of the anti-Christ. And so we see that the two witnesses will follow the work of the false prophet. We have seen earlier that the false prophet will travel to the various nations of the earth to convince them to subordinate themselves to the reign of the anti-Christ. We have also seen that once a nation chooses to submit themselves to the reign of the anti-Christ, then that nation will immediately begin to persecute the Lord’s saints living in those nations. And so we see that once the false prophet has completed his work in a particular nation and moved on to the next, then the Lord’s two witnesses will show up to pronounce judgment on that nation. Moses and Aaron did something similar when God was delivering the Israelites from Egypt. They would go to Pharaoh demanding that he release the children of Israel from captivity, and each time Pharaoh would refuse. In response to Pharaoh’s refusal, Moses and Aaron would then pronounce a new judgment on the nation of Egypt. And so we see that in a similar manner, Moses and Elijah will go to the leadership of the various nations demanding that they renounce their allegiance to the anti-Christ and desist from persecuting the Lord’s saints. The nation’s leadership will refuse to comply, thus eliciting the judgment pronounced on them by the two prophets. As this passage declares, there are various judgments that Moses and Elijah will bring to bear on a nation i.e. drought, rivers turned to blood and various plagues. The various plagues that the two witnesses will employ will be similar to the plagues incurred by Egypt when they were judged, i.e. plagues of frogs, lice, flies, locusts, boils and skin infections, destructive hail storms, pestilence destroying their livestock and darkness. This passage teaches us that the affected populations will very clearly understand that the two prophets are the ones responsible for the judgments that their nations are incurring, which indicates to us that when the two witnesses prophesy to a nation it will be done in a public forum that everyone can witness, most probably even on live TV. As an aside, Moses and Elijah will be transported in the spirit realm to the various nations around the globe, which means that they will instantly appear and then disappear. This passage also declares that if anyone wants to harm the two witnesses, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. Clearly when Moses and Elijah arrive in a nation they will have a hostile reception and there will be some who will try to assassinate them. And so in order for us to have some idea as what will take place during that time we can imagine the following scenario; a nation’s parliament is in session which is being covered on live TV. All of a sudden Moses and Elijah appear in their midst and begin to prophesy judgment on the nation because of their chosen path to align themselves with the anti-Christ and their persecution of the Lord’s saints. In response to their intrusion the security detail will attempt to apprehend the two witnesses, but will be destroyed by the fire proceeding from their mouths. Moses and Elijah will then pronounce their choice of plague upon the nation and disappear. The pronounced plague will then will descend upon that nation. This process will be repeated in every one of the approximately seventy nations that will eventually bow their knee to the anti-Christ. Throughout the forty two month period however and much to the frustration of the anti-Christ and false prophet, the Lord will ensure that paths of the two witnesses and the anti-Christ and false prophet do not cross.
Revelation 11:7-13 “When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. (8) And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (9) Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies’ three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. (10) And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. (11) Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. (12) And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. (13) In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
The above quoted passage of scripture declares that when the two witnesses finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. So when will that event take place? This event will take place once the two witnesses have completed their work of testifying against all nations that have followed the anti-Christ i.e. at the end of his final the forty two month reign. Just prior to this event the rapture of the church will take place. We know that because God will not allow Moses and Elijah to be killed while the Jewish saints are still in the mountains needing their protection. And so it will be directly after the church is removed from the earth, that Moses and Elijah will then appear in front of the temple in the city of Jerusalem to challenge both the anti-Christ and the false prophet. Because this event will take place in full view of everyone it is probable that the anti-Christ will be in the middle of addressing the nations on TV. And so in response to the challenge from Moses and Elijah, the anti-Christ and false prophet will come out to face the two prophets who will be standing in the street in front of the temple. Moses and Elijah will spew fire out of their mouths to consume the anti-Christ and the false prophet, thereby mortally wounding both of them. However, because both the anti-Christ and false prophet are immortal beings, they will both begin to recover immediately from their deadly wounds. It is at that point that the anti-Christ and the false prophet will call down fire from heaven upon Moses and Elijah, and because both prophets are mortal beings, they will be killed. We can now understand why these two men qualify as the Lord’s two witnesses, because both men have never experienced death and it is appointed to men only to die once (Hebrews 9:27). This passage then goes on to say that the nations of the anti-Christ will see their dead bodies’ three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And they will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another in celebration, because the anti-Christ and false prophet have destroyed the Lord’s two prophets. And so we see that the fourth kingdom will rejoice during this time because their champions have destroyed the Lord’s two prophets. Their rejoicing will be short lived however, because this passage then goes on to say that after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. The fact that this passage declares that their enemies saw them, indicates that this event will take place on live TV, because don’t forget that TV cameras will be transmitting images of the dead bodies of the two prophets during the whole three-and-a-half day period. Clearly the event of the resurrection of Moses and Elijah will come as a complete and troubling shock to the world. But that is just the beginning of their troubles, because this passage goes on to say that in the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell and in the earthquake seven thousand people were killed and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven. The “rest” will have every reason to be afraid, because it is at that time that God’s wrath will begin to be poured out on the earth; a time in which God will single out the anti-Christ and his kingdom for specific judgment.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comentários