Christian
Churches of God
No.
135z
Summary:
The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses)
(Edition 3.0 19950923-20000708-20081228)
This work deals with the identity of the Witnesses and poses the only source of biblical identification. The two viable alternatives are discussed as well as the option that involves time travel. This perhaps overlooked solution is nevertheless an important and exciting possibility. Various terms are used for the Two Witnesses that stand on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the Last Days. The terms are the Two Witnesses, the Two Lampstands and the Two Candlesticks. They are also referred to as the Two Olive Trees or the Two Golden Lampstands that stand before the God of this Earth.
Christian Churches of God
E-mail: secretary@ccg.org
(Copyright ã1995, 1997, 2000, 2008 Wade Cox)
(Summary by Sarina Derksen, ed. Wade Cox)
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The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses)
The witnesses are two candlesticks who stand before the God of the earth. They constitute a very powerful spiritual force. They each hold a candlestick as each of the seven churches hold a candlestick. So they are very powerful instruments of God.
Firstly we will delineate the possibility of who they are and will deal with the concept of the period from 1996, which marks the end of the time of the Gentiles. From 1996 it is thirty years through to 2026 to finish off to the millennium and the times of the demons and prepare all of the nations to put them back for the treble harvest year prior to the Jubilee of 2027-28.
It appears quite certain that the two witnesses will commence their prophecy over that thirty years. The period of the witnesses is given as 1,260 days and equals the period for which the court outside of the Temple is trodden under foot, together with the Holy City, which is Jerusalem. This task immediately precedes the coming of the Messiah and the witnesses are resurrected after being legally dead for three and one-half days (Rev. 11:11-12).
This period of the witnesses involves two
prophets who cause rain to cease during the period of their prophecy. The
witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth for the period of three and one half
years. They cannot be killed until they have finished their task (Rev.
11:5-10). This has never happened before, so it is obviously an event in the
future.
They stand before the god of the earth who is Satan (2Cor. 4:4) to witness against him and this world’s system. Nothing is condemned unless it is condemned in the mouth of two witnesses. That is a biblical proposition. So the world cannot be condemned unless it is condemned in the mouth of two witnesses. It is at the end of the 6,000 years of the system of this planet that Satan and the demons are then condemned through his system.
As the people try to deal with the witnesses they are dealt with in like manner. That is the biblical principle of: how you judge, so shall you be judged. From the witnesses we’ll see the restoration, which commences the system of judgment to be implemented and enforced by Messiah at his return. This is the power of Elijah. Elijah had the power to call fire down from heaven against the priests of false gods and those who would harm him (2Kgs. 1:10-15) or indeed show him disrespect as God’s appointed messenger (2Kgs. 2:23-24).
Elijah had power over the waters (2Kings 2:19-22) and over rain. Heaven is shut up because of the sin of the people evidenced in the mouth of two witnesses (1Kings 8:35; cf. Deut. 11:17). This power of Elijah was used in a number of ways and it had various applications. Elijah shut the heavens according to his word. Elijah understood that he had the power over rain even to the point of whether or not there was dew on the ground (1Kings 17:1). From the power we see given to Elijah over drought, fire and the elements, we can see that the witnesses are thus in the power of Elijah as promised from Malachi 4:5-6.
The power of this prophet is not only in the matter of the performance of miracles, but also concerns the re-establishment of family relationships on the earth so that it might be saved. John the Baptist was a forerunner to this prophet but he was not that prophet (Mat. 11:12-14; cf. Jn. 1:21).
The witnesses have the power to restore all things under that system of the last days (Mat. 17:11). This restoration includes the Jubilees and the New Moons together with all of the structure of the Kingdom of God and all the understanding. No teacher on this planet has done all of those things to date. These things will happen.
When John the Baptist finished his ministry, Christ then commenced to teach. God did not give Christ charge until John finished. In the same way, Messiah will not come until the witnesses are finished.
There are two alternatives in dealing with the witnesses.
The first alternative is if Elijah is one of the witnesses, then he must be joined by another to stand in Jerusalem. The most likely candidate can be determined from Scripture. There are only two people that have been taken prior to death from the biblical narrative. These are Elijah and Enoch. If this is correct, then the prophet of Jeremiah 4:15 precedes them, because neither is of Dan-Ephraim as that prophet is. Enoch was the first taken. His function was to witness to the generations before the flood. One was taken from this side of the flood and one from the other side of the flood because the witnesses needed to expand and expose the continuum of the satanic rule and destruction.
On the righteousness of Enoch the earth was judged and destroyed. The reason Enoch is important is because the pre-flood existence concerned the Nephilim, and the destruction of the earth up to and through the flood. The destruction of the earth in total will occur at the end of the 6,000-year period. So we had one elimination under the flood judged against Enoch.
The second alternative is that the witnesses in the last days exercise the same powers of Elijah. The traditional view is to say they are two prophets and living on the planet today. The first view is not the traditional view.
The two prophets appear and exercise these powers, being nominated as prophets in the last days. The text notes that they are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the god of the earth. They thus confront Satan. Remember, Satan confronted Christ first. Satan was judged by his judgment of Christ.
One of the most important single verses in the Bible is: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Nothing will happen on this planet through force or power or any magnitude or combination of those elements. It will happen through the Spirit of God and that is why God will do the work in the last days through two individuals, speaking in the Spirit of God.
There is another aspect of the witnesses that covers a much larger field of prophecy and endeavour than the two great prophets who stand in Jerusalem in the last days for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. This aspect has been misunderstood and often confused with the two individuals themselves.
God names Jacob and Israel as His witnesses (Isa. 43:1-13). Notice in this text we have Jacob and Israel mentioned as distinct entities.
One can say that there was a dual aspect of this prophecy in that the 1,260 days of the persecution was also over 1,260 years of the system of the Holy Roman Empire from 590 to 1850 when it was disbanded.
We know from Isaiah that there will be a great exodus out of the nations to the Promised Land at the end days that will make the exodus from Egypt remembered no more (Isa. 66:18-24, RSV).
The witnesses are thus the last phase in this process and they will be killed after they have done their job. This was done in part with Messiah in that he lay for three days and three nights in the tomb, and then waited until the morning to ascend as the Wave-sheaf.
The same will occur at the end. As Christ and John were killed for their witness against Judah, so too will the witnesses of the last days be killed. The entire world will exchange presents in celebration of their deaths. This was not and cannot be done concerning the nation of Israel and the Church. If it was, then Scripture would be broken, but Scripture cannot be broken. One is a type of the other.
The Church stands as witness against the world. Most of the elect of the Church have been killed for the faith over the 1,260-year period. However, not all have been and not all will be at the end. In the same way, the nation survives. The reason Messiah returns is for the elects’ sake. If he did not return when God cuts short the time of the end, there would be no flesh left alive (Mat. 24:21-22).
If the elect were all in the Church and hence in the first resurrection, then it would not matter if the days were cut short. He returns to keep those alive of the nation who will go into the physical Millennium as physical kings and priests so that the plan of God might be fulfilled.
The witness is continuous and at the end it involves two great prophets as well as having that responsibility carried by the Church and the nation over the centuries.
The Church and the nation thus act in the following aspects: from physical kingdom at Jerusalem to Messiah and the spiritual kingdom of the Church with the destruction of the physical Temple; and from the 1,260 years from 590 to 1850.
They are the prototype of the two witnesses of the final 1,260 days or three and one-half years immediately prior to the return of the Messiah.
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