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Two Witnesses
Please give a brief exposition of the verses
in the eleventh chapter of Revelation. T.L.C.
Verse 3 says: “I will give power unto my
two witnesses.” Doubtless this refers to
the Old and New Testaments. Speaking of
the Old Testament and that which he knew
would constitute the New Testament Jesus
said: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye
think ye have eternal life: and they are
they which testify of Me.” John 5:39.
A witness is one who testifies, and the
Scriptures, both the Old and New Testa-
ments, are witnesses to Christ.
These were to prophesy in sackcloth a
thousand and two hundred and threescore
days. A day in prophecy represents a year
of literal time. (See Ezekiel 4: 6; Numbers
14: 34; and Isaiah 34:8.) Then the one
thousand two hundred and threescore days
would be twelve hundred and sixty literal
years. This period of 1260 years is men-
tioned seven times in the Bible. It is
spoken of as ‘““a time [Jewish year] and
times [two years] and the dividing of time
[a half year].” A Jewish year consisted of
three hundred and sixty days. One year
and two years and a half year would total
twelve hundred and sixty days or years.
(See Daniel 7:25.) In Daniel 12:7 it is
mentioned as a ‘‘time, times, and an half,”
while in Revelation 11: 2 it is mentioned as
“forty and two months.” The Jewish
month had thirty days, making twelve
hundred and sixty days, or literal years.
In the third verse, as we have already
seen, it 1s mentioned as “a thousand two
hundred and threescore days.” Revelation
12: 6 mentions it in the same manner,
whereas the fourteenth verse of that
chapter speaks of it as “a time, and times,
and half a time,” while Revelation 13:5
mentions it as “forty and two months.”
This period was allotted to the papal su-
premacy, which began in 538 A. Dn. and
terminated in 1798 A. p.
In the fourth verse are introduced the
figures of the “two olive trees, and the two
candlesticks standing before the God of the
earth.” From Uriah Smith’s “Thoughts
on Daniel and the Revelation,” pages 531,
532, we quote:
“Evident allusion is here made to
Zechariah 4: 11-14, where it is explained
that the two olive trees are taken to repre-
sent the word of God; and David testifies,
“The entrance of Thy words giveth light;’
and, ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and
a light unto my path.” Written testimony
is stronger than oral. Jesus declared of the
Old Testament Scriptures, ‘They are they
which testify of Me.” In this dispensation,
He says that Hisworks bear witness of Him.
By what means do they bear witness of
Page EIGHTEEN
Him? Ever since those disciples who were
personally associated with Him while on
earth passed off the stage of life, His works
have borne witness of Him only through
the medium of the New Testament, where
alone we find them recorded. This gospel of
the kingdom, it was once declared, shall be
preached in all the world for a witness to
all nations, ete.
“These declarations and considerations
are sufficient to sustain the conclusion that
the Old and New Testaments, one given in
one dispensation, and the other in the
other, are Christ’s two witnesses.”
The fifth verse shows the power which
attends the preaching of the word, as
exemplified in many experiences in Old
Testament history. Their power to shut
heaven was emphasized in the days of
Elijah.
Verses seven and eight speak of the
experience of the word and the regard in
which it was held in spiritual Sodom, an
evident allusion to the attitude of France
toward the word of God during the period
from the overthrow of the monarchy until
the end of the Reign of Terror during the
closing days of the 1260 years. It mentions
that period as three and a half days, or
three and a half literal years, during which
the word of God was interdicted, and it was
not permitted that this word should be
preached. The long dreary three and a
half literal years of French vengeance is
pointed out; but after the three and a half
years had passed, verse eleven says, ‘‘the
Spirit of life from God entered into them,
and they stood upon their feet,” and the
Holy Scriptures once more were revered in
France.
In 1793 a decree was passed by the
French Assembly suppressing the Bible.
Just three years thereafter a resolution was
introduced in the Assembly superseding
the decree and giving toleration to the
Scriptures. That resolution lay on the
table six months, when it was taken up and
passed without a dissenting vote. Thus in
just three and one half years the witnesses
“stood upon their feet; and great fear fell
upon them which saw them.” Nothing but
the appalling results of the rejection of the
Bible could have induced France to take
her hands off the two witnesses.
Verse twelve tells us that ““ they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud: and their enemies
beheld them.” Of Nebuchadnezzar’s great-
ness Daniel 4: 22 says: “Thy greatness 1s
grown, and reacheth unto heaven,” which
really means great exaltation of favor.
Have the two witnesses, the Scriptures,
attained such? Let us observe that shortly
after this time the British and Foreign
Bible Society was organized in 1804 and
then the American Bible Society in 1817
and others followed. The home of the great
agnostic, Voltaire, in France became a
depository for Bibles, and the Scriptures
still remain the world’s best seller.
Verse thirteen mentions a great earth-
quake which affected a great city, when a
tenth of it fell. Revelation 17: 18 indicates
that the great city ‘‘reigneth over the
kings of the earth.” That city is papal
Rome. France was one of the ten horns
which supported Rome but the overthrow
of the dynasty in France and the intro-
duction of the Republic with consequent
religious liberty definitely weakened papal
Rome, hence its strength was depleted to
that extent, and thus it is said a ‘““tenth
part of the city fell.”
With the opening of the fourteenth
verse, scenes are introduced which usher in
the finishing of the work and the establish-
ment of the kingdom of Jesus Christ;
however verse eighteen indicates that prior
to the complete establishment of His king-
dom comes the anger of the nations, the
wrath of God, the judgment of the dead,
the reward of the righteous, and the punish-
ment of the wicked. To show how this
would be brought about the servant of the
Lord was permitted a vision of the temple
of God in heaven as recorded in verse
nineteen. There was seen in this temple the
‘““ark of His testament,” wherein were kept
the Ten Commandments, showing that in
the days when men should largely depart
from God emphasis once again would be
placed upon obedience to the Ten Com-
mandment law. All churches just now are
emphasizing the fact that disobedience to
that law has brought about our world
debacle. Men like Archbishop Spellman of
New York, the Archbishop of Canterbury
of Britain, J. Edgar Hoover, head of the
FBI, and Mahatma Gandhi of India
trace our present ills to a disregard of that
law which John evidently beheld when he
saw the ark of God’s testament in heaven.
Since John beheld ‘the ark of His cove-
nant,” it is evident that attention will be
called again to the claims of the Ten Com-
mandments, the fourth included, which
enjoins the observance of Saturday as the
Sabbath.
Is Dur World Doomed?
(Continued from page 17)
efforts of the few to lead the nations into
right paths, the whole civilized world ap-
pears to be morally rotting.
For millenniums God has been biding
His time. He has given man every chance
to set his house in order. But moral failure
and hopelessness are written large on the
international horizon. Whether the inva-
sion of England by her enemies comes or
not, the whole world seems ripe for that
direct “invasion” of God which will estab-
lish His own everlasting kingdom, and
which is an essential part of the Christian
faith. In the government of that kingdom
there will be no depraved standards of con-
duct, no disreputable twists and turns of
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