The Witnesses

Intro

We are not an Island alone in a sea, left to do things by ourselves, we where never meant to be.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

The words ‘No man is an island’ were embedded in a sermon about how human beings are connected to each other, and how important that connection is for the wellbeing and survival of any individual. When you hear the church bell tolling for someone who has died, don’t ask who it is, Donne says, just know that it’s tolling for you too because you are part of the same society and the death of anyone takes a part of your own life away.

It is because of this why many churches stopped doing much for online services after Covid. People became to comfortable going to church in there Pajamas on their own, but we as followers of Jesus where never meant to be that way. Look to how Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out two by two. We are all part of one bigger whole, we are all made better because we are a big family of God, chipped off from the whole, broken off from the whole we are diminished.

It is the same when it comes to sharing the gospel of Jesus, we are not meant to do it on our own, we are not witnesses apart, alone, split off from the whole. We witness together filled with the spirit of God. We go out not with our own power, not with our own strength or our own wisdom but we go out anyways knowing we are called to do so By God.

Sometimes we think we are going out alone, Like a Missionary being sent out into a different country, an unfamiliar place. But even then we are not alone. We have a home church to support and pray for us. We stand on their shoulders as we go out, we need them, they go with us in spirit as well. But it is not always this easy. As we go out together for the sharing of the gospel, w need to be willing to walk with the gospel even unto death, to be willing to be martyred even for the cause of the gospel. We face anger and defiance here in Canada but would we be willing to join together if it meant our lives?

In the last times when people will have one last chance to turn to Jesus and leading up to then we must be willing to share the gospel together. This will come at the expense of our lives. Our own lives, our own comfort becomes secondary when eternity is at stake.

We go into a sermon dealing with timelines and subtleties that we may never fully understand, but the overall message remains the same. We share the gospel together, even unto death. Remember this as we get into some of the minutia.

The temple

This passage deals with dates and subjects that I do not believe are wise to be stuck in the mud over. I should clarify one thing first though. I have mentioned that I do not believe in the rapture. To clarify I do believe in a rapture like event happening. The more I research the more I grudgingly come to the understanding that the passages that deal with Christians being caught up in the air with Jesus will come after the tribulation. But this is something that is not an essential, the timing of it anyways. We can still all be family here.

The second thing I need to clarify is something that has been a struggle for many theologians for centuries. The difference between the symbolic and the literal. When it comes to prophecy like this, when to know what is symbolic and when it is literal, it is hard to tell sometimes. We like to think we know but really we do not. So I try my best to explain what is going on here and what it might mean.

I want to start out with dates. Fun I know. But this passage deals with times, 1260 days, 42 months we see repeated. So I want to go back to the book of Daniel to help explain a few things.

When it comes to the timeline of all of this the first question is how long will what we call the tribulation be?

Daniel 9:24 CSB

Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city— to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

Seventy weeks are decreed to bring and end, to usher in the day of the Lord. We went over this a while ago. The work for weeks here is something called heptads. Not literally weeks but 70 sets of 7. 70 x 7 years. which works out to 490 years.

The next verse in Daniel elaborates on this. from the time of the decree to rebuild the temple to the ministry of the messiah would be 483 years. That leaves one week or 7 years left to be accounted for. Which the passage in Daniel talks about a Antichrist that will come in secret in a manto start a 7 year covenant with Israel but will break that covenant half way through the time and set up an image of Himself in the Temple and desecrate it. Then Satan will make Himself known as the “messiah” and force people to worship Him.

This is where we get the 7 year period of the tribulation for, split into 2. The A of D will be given authority over the earth during the second half it would seem, called the great Tribulation.

The Measuring Reed

The reason why this preamble was important is what we will see next. Lots of this will be elaborated on again in Rev 13.

Revelation 11:1 CSB

Then I was given a measuring reed like a rod, with these words: “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there.

This measuring of the temple has significance, but is it’s meaning symbolic or literal? I believe it could be a little of both. In context, we read that the A of D is going ot make a covenant with Israel, set up sacrifices again. So it would not be out of place to also allow them to rebuild the temple. The true Character of the Antichrsit has not yet been revealed, it is the beginning of the trib this is referring to.

But prophecy can also be symbolic, it can be both literal and symbolic.

Revelation 11:1–2 CSB

Then I was given a measuring reed like a rod, with these words: “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there. But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Don’t measure it, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

Johns measuring of the temple could be literal for the rebuilding of the temple, which makes sense, but it could also be symbolic for something much bigger.

To measure something in this way is also a symbolic action for claiming something for yourself and declaring the preservation of something. Essentially what we see is the church seen from two different perspectives. . We start out with the temple set apart and declared under God. They represent the faithful believers, the Christian community saved from the spiritual war of the Antichrist but not from physical death and tribulation that comes with that.

We have the outer court that is going to be trampled. This is the trampling rule of the evil one who is going to mislead others. The true believers set apart may be physically decimated but no one can touch our true source of life.

But for 3.5 years, the Antichrist is going to be given permission to trample, to lead astray, to mislead others. The agreement with Israel will be broken and Jerusalem will be overrun. But they will not be able to lead astray spiritually the ones that truly belong to Jesus.

There will come a time when the world will get worse and worse and one who promises peace will arise and seem to spread peace. But half way through this promise of peace He brings things will turn around and He will set Himself up as a messiah to worship, He will trample and wage war. Many will be led astray. But rest assured those true followers of Jesus will be set apart as belonging to Jesus. There will be a remnant of believers who Satan will led the rest to wage war against but they cannot touch our true source of Life.

We may lose our lives for the sake of our faith but Satan can not touch our eternity with Jesus.

The Witnesses

This is another area where the line between Symbolic and literal is confusing. Lots of you have probably heard of the prophecy of the two witnesses. These appear to be given authority to prophecy and do miracles for the first half of the Tribulation.

Revelation 11:3–4 CSB

I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

1260 days works out to about 3.5 years. These witnesses as written here are modeled after Moses and Elijah, but there are 3 different views as to who these guys are. Remember, the identity of the witnesses does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

There are two views that take a symbolic approach to who these two guys are. They both essentially say that the two witnesses represent the prophetic witness of the church that is telling people about Jesus and the consequences if they don't. The fire coming from their mouths representing the power of the word of God.

Revelation 11:5 CSB

If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies; if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

Them being called lamp stands supports this idea as this is what was used to reference the churches at the beginning of Revelation.

The other view takes a literal approach that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah and that their ministry is real and they are going to do big things to share the message of the gospel.

They are going to be given authority during the first half of the tribulation to turn people to Jesus we know this because it is the A of D that is going to kill them. He wont be given authority till the last half.

Revelation 11:7–8 CSB

When they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, conquer them, and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city, which figuratively is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

They will remain dead among st celebrating people for 3.5 days. Due to lack of time, the rest of this is in verses 7-14, so follow along as I explain it. While people gloat over the death of the group that tormented them, God will raise them from the dead in front of them all.

They will be taken up with a great earthquake that will level parts of the city and kill many people.

There is not much more to their ministry then what you read here, a great ministry, many miracles will happen, the word of God will spread because of them. We have an idea when this all will happen in the timeline of things. Everything seems to fall into place except for who are they going to be?

I think we will be amazed and surprised as to what is going to happen and how it is going to look. We cant really know for sure if it is literal or symbolic when it comes to who they are. But what matters is what these represent. whether a select group of believers or two literal people the message remains the same.

Shared witness is something we are all called to do, to share Jesus together. This is not prophecy as in hearing new words from God. But speaking the message of the gospel into the lives of people in such a way as they can understand and want to change.

Those who view the two witnesses as future literal witnesses can view them as paradigmatic for the church, because we are also witnesses (19:10) in a time of hardship (1:9). Those who view the witnesses as symbolic for the church in this age will naturally view them as even more paradigmatic.

This is the main idea, a role model for us to follow. we are called to follow the example set before us and be willing to share the gospel together, even unto death.

So What?

The timing of all of this is fun, it is fun to look at how prophecy has all lined up with what actually happened. It is fun to know that everything is all panning out the way that the Bible says it will. It seems like we can not all agree on what the ends times is going to look like, and that is okay. what matters is the big idea and what the big idea says. This is what is important. The first big idea through all of this is

No matter who the two witnesses are, they can be reminders for us today.

If the two witnesses are the a group of people out of the church then they can provide a direct model for us. If they are two specific people then the same is true, they should inspire us as models the same is true for us. We must be spirit empowered witnesses together for the sake of the gospel. Our time is short here on earth, this period of time we are dealing with is only 7 short years.

We stand as voices of truth in the world today. Though sometimes virtually alone, we will never be alone when we work together as the body of Christ, when we help each other out.

God’s people sharing God’s word can not always expect deliverance

But as we do this, the more we do this we need to remember that deliverance from hardships and death will not always be the case. Miracles and signs and wonders are promised during the end times. But not everyone is called to have all of the gifts, and all of us are supposed to be preared to give our lives for the gospel.

In the end we need to understand that though we are called to witness to others we are not alone. We stand on the shoulders of those that have gone before us. We go with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. There are many people who have the wrong idea of God, or are searching in all the wrong places for hope, or do not know God at all. We are ccalled to share with them the hope that we have. Remember that through it all our God is in control.