Why Haven't the Two Witnesses Shown Up Yet?

     Revelation 11 features one of the more mysterious sections in the entire book of Revelation - a book that is itself a non-linear collection of figurative images, vignettes, metaphors and poetic descriptions, none of which are meant to serve as literal descriptions of exactly what things will look like on the ground during the Tribulation period. In this post, I am going to dig for a bit into what prophecy researchers have investigated as the question of the Two Witnesses. As in my initial post about the many links between Trump and the biblical figure of the Antichrist, and as I also did in my post looking into whether Elon Musk could be a candidate for the role of the False Prophet, here I am going to start with a detailed analysis of what the imagery and diction suggest to us about how to interpret this chapter. Next, I’m going to hone in on several questions that might pertain to the current events we’re all living through right now.

                Preliminary setting of the scene: How Revelation 11 describes the Two Witnesses

                Below is the pertinent section of text from Revelation 11 that we’ll be dealing with (in the RSV translation). I am again going to place in bold certain words and phrases that demand further inquiry and analysis as we ponder the meaning of these verses:

                “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

                Let’s take these bolded words and phrases one by one as we look into how this imagery should be understood by us today:

• ·         There is a “temple of God” located in “the holy city,” and this temple’s outside court is “trampled over” by the nations (or Gentiles) for “forty-two months”. First, note that other passages in Revelation refer to the “temple of God” (c.f. Paul’s language in 2 Thess.) as heavenly or spiritual/communal, not an earthly, physical building. For example, see Rev. 11:19: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” There is a common misconception amongst some prophecy researchers, to the effect that there will necessarily be built in earthly Jerusalem a ‘Third Temple,’ complete with priestly rituals, special instruments, animal sacrificies and grain offerings. The way we know that this probably won’t happen is that this specific temple mentioned in Revelation 11 has a holy altar and holy worshipers within its proper confines. Now, a rebuilt Third Temple in Jerusalem – were such a thing even plausible at this late date, given animal rights activists’ likely response to such a development – would not be a hagios topos (Greek for ‘holy place’) – rather, it would be a meaningless building, not holy in any way. Therefore, we must conclude that John is here referring to the heavenly temple, and that he is also thus referring to the “outer court” defiled by the nations as a sort of fake/worldly/decoy religio-political “holy temple,” which would be a description in precise alignment with 2 Thess. 2’s description of the Antichrist’s desecration of the Body of Christ (which 1 Peter defines as the true new spiritual temple). In tandem with the Antichrist and under his leadership, the Gentiles/nations – i.e. non-Jews/non-Christians – will participate in a fake decoy Body of Christ, and their “trampling” over it will be destructive and mindless, like a herd of buffaloes trampling over smaller animals on a prairie.
• ·         The forty-two month period again makes an appearance in Revelation, to go along with its other mentions in Revelation 12 and Revelation 13. In the former, the woman (Israel/Church/Mary) and her Christian offspring are said to be ‘protected’ in ‘the wilderness’ for forty-two months, safe from the verbal attacks of the great red dragon (Satan and his followers). In Rev. 13, the Antichrist is said to be ‘granted authority’ over all the world’s people for a period of forty-two months. In Rev. 11, it is said that the nations’ trampling over the ‘outer court’ of the heavenly temple/Body of Christ will last for forty-two months. Note that this time period is also listed as the period during which the Two Witnesses will have ‘power to prophesy’ (1,260 days is 42 months, counting in Hebrew prophetic years of 360 days each). Note that it is not clear that these four different mentions of forty-two months are directly overlapping with one another – each period might take place according to its own timeline, out of alignment with the other 42 month periods. Or, they might all overlap and take place together. We can’t be sure about that now; we’ll have to wait to see how these things play out in reality.
• ·         The Two Witnesses are said to be ‘clothed in sackcloth’. This is familiar Old Testament imagery from the major and minor prophets, to describe people lamenting and mourning, with great sorrow and repentance over the sins associated with doomed cities and nations. To be ‘clothed in sackcloth’ means that the Two Witnesses’ prophesying is directly related to their prophetic message of imminent judgment and doom. They have separated themselves from the rest of their fellow men and women, who are going about their business, ‘eating and drinking’ ‘as in the days of Noah,’ as Jesus put it in the Olivet Discourse. Indeed, as we’ll see, this prophetic message of imminent judgment is precisely why the peoples of the earth hate and fear the Two Witnesses. 
• ·         The Two Witnesses are described as ‘the two olive trees’ and ‘the two lampstands,’ and this is a direct reference to Zechariah 4, where Zerubbabel and Joshua (respectively, the governor and high priest associated with the post-exilic rebuilding of the second temple in Jerusalem during the time of Zechariah’s prophesying) were said to be ‘anointed ones’ who ‘stand before the Lord of the earth’. Now, one might ask at this point: Does that mean that the end times two witnesses are literal reincarnations of Zerubbabel and Joshua? And does the suggestion of their own ‘anointing’ mean that they are truly messianic figures? Not necessarily, because as we’ll note below, these Two Witnesses are also associated with Elijah and Moses. What I believe the comparison with Zerubbabel and Joshua is meant to signify is that the Two Witnesses in Revelation are associated with the building up of the true third temple, which is that heavenly temple of God where true martyred believers will be taken once they have sacrificed their lives during the Tribulation. Just as Zerubbabel and Joshua presided over the re-gathering of the Jewish people back out of Babylon and into Jerusalem for the reformation of their political and spiritual communities, the Two Witnesses help build up the Body of Christ as they face persecution by the Antichrist and his minions during the Tribulation.
• ·         “Fire pours from the mouth” of the Two Witnesses to consume their foes. There is no mistake, then, about the dramatic effect of their prophesying: It doesn’t just predict future events. Their message has the power to lead to their enemies’ deaths. And, effectively, the whole world has become their enemies. It is literally “Them vs. the World”!
• ·         During the period of their prophesying, the Two Witnesses are also divinely protected from harm. That means that though they have many enemies in the world, for some reason, God’s hand of protection prevents those enemies from shutting the mouths of these two powerful prophets. Later on in this post, I will address the interesting question of how that could even be: How could the witnesses be so hated and loathed by the world’s people, yet still protected by God from being harmed by their enemies?
• ·         Prophesying about rainfall associates the witnesses with Elijah, the Old Testament prophet whose speaking was connected to rain and drought. And the detail about turning waters into blood is an obvious reference to Moses, who used his rod to smite Pharaoh’s kingdom with that precise plague in the book of Exodus. What does it mean that the Two Witnesses, then, are like an end times version of Elijah and Moses? Well, when we recall that Elijah prophesied against King Ahab of Israel, and that Moses prophesied against the wicked Egyptian pharaoh in Exodus, we can conclude that the Two Witnesses’ testimony will probably be focused on their own wicked kings: the Antichrist (and his False Prophet). The Jewish people revere Elijah and Moses as powerful faith leaders and community leaders. Thus, we can conclude that the Two Witnesses (who are officially unnamed in this chapter) will be of similar dramatic significance to both the Christian and Jewish communities who will be targeted by the Devil and his earthly puppets at this time. The mention of rainfall and waters turned to blood is probably a figurative way of representing the power and accuracy of these witnesses’ message – not necessarily an indication that their testimony will be literally miraculous (although it certainly might be).
• ·         At the end of their period of public testimony, the Two Witnesses will be killed by the Antichrist (and, by extension, his beast kingdom, the Revived Roman Empire). The fact that this king and empire were not able to kill them for 42 months heavily implies that the divine shield of protection that surrounded the witnesses prevented them from being killed for some reason which we can only speculate about. When the witnesses die, their dead bodies will lie in earthly Jerusalem, where Jesus was indeed crucified (figuratively Sodom and Egypt), and at that point “some among the nations” will celebrate and exchange gifts to mark the occasion. It is crucial to realize here that almost all of the world’s people are completely ignorant of the existence of the Two Witnesses – and their deaths and messages. Only “some of the peoples” see their dead bodies – i.e., their corpses won’t be livestreamed on CNN for all the world to see. This is for two reasons:

o   We know from the Olivet Discourse that the vast majority of the world’s people will be taken completely by surprise when Jesus’s second coming takes place. Therefore, most of them will go through the Tribulation period without realizing that it’s the Tribulation period. This is a vital point to always remember, because most end times prophecy researchers don’t emphasize this. And from that fact, we can necessarily conclude that all of the Two Witnesses’ prophesying – which tells about what would shortly ensue on the earth, in precise detail – was something that most of the world was completely unfamiliar with. (Indeed, this fact may align with what we might conclude about why the Two Witnesses were divinely protected from death for so long, in the face of their enemies’ attempts to attack them).

o   The earthquake that strikes after the Witnesses are raptured to heaven leads many people to be terrified into repentance and into the giving “glory to the God of heaven”. Therefore, logically, we must then conclude that those people brought to repentance had not been familiar at all with the Two Witnesses and with their testimony. Rather, the people who were familiar with their testimony hated them for it, we are told. The post-earthquake repentant ones had not hated them for it, because they hadn’t been aware of it.

• ·         Finally, we are told that after the rapture of the witnesses to heaven, “seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake” which took place in “the city”. “A tenth” of that “city” fell. Are we, then, talking about earthly Jerusalem? No, we know that we’re not – because current day Jerusalem has over a million inhabitants. If “a tenth of [earthly Jerusalem]” were to fall, about a hundred thousand people would die! Therefore, this earthly “city” should probably be taken to signify a single metaphor for all of the world’s corrupt cities, who have turned to apostasy and blasphemy under the influence of the Antichrist and his False Prophet. Like with other numbers in Revelation, the “seven thousand” figure for the earthquake’s victims is probably meant to be purely symbolic, not literal. (This should remind us to be cautious about the ’42 months’ as well – perhaps that number is also symbolic and not literal). This could also mean that the dead bodies of the killed Two Witnesses won't necessarily be located in earthly Jerusalem, but that rather, earthly Jerusalem ("where our Lord was crucified") stands here for corrupt worldly cities in general. 

Addressing questions that might pertain to current events, and clarifying our interpretations of Revelation 11

    Now let’s ask the obvious question that readers of my blog might be asking at this point: If the Two Witnesses are two powerful end times prophets associated with the imminent coming of the Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist’s world government, and if Trump is likely that Antichrist – and in power right now – then why haven’t the Two Witnesses shown up on the world scene?

                This question assumes something that we probably shouldn’t assume, though: It assumes that the Two Witnesses will be so globally famous that everyone worldwide in possession of a smart phone will know who they are and will be intimately familiar with their prophecies and public testimony. However, we can infer from the phrasing and context used by John in this chapter that this almost certainly won’t be the case at all. No, most of the world’s people – perhaps almost all of them – are completely oblivious to the witnesses and completely unfamiliar with who they are and what they say.

                I believe that this could be precisely why they are divinely protected for forty-two months: The Antichrist and his forces don’t want to kill them because he doesn’t want to turn them into famous martyrs – he wants to keep their testimony a secret from the world so that he and the False Prophet can continue to delude them. By keeping them alive, the beast system (like Herod keeping John the Baptist alive in prison so as not to inflame the populace with anger by killing him) “keeps them under wraps”. The fact that the Two Witnesses have so many powerful enemies, and yet those enemies are themselves killed if they try to harm them during their period of divinely protected testimony, indicates to me that their deaths would be seen as dangerous and highly inconvenient to those Powers that Be. At some point, though, the beast system will decide to eliminate them from the earth altogether.

                Therefore, the two witnesses might be out there right now prophesying, and the Christian community (by and large) could be totally unfamiliar with them as we speak. I’m not saying this is a certainty, but I would posit it as a strong likelihood given that Trump is confirming the covenant with many in Israel right now, and fulfilling so many other prophecies on a regular basis.

                Another question that comes to mind is this: Why do the two witnesses get killed at the same time? There is a strange doppelganger effect here: they get killed together, they prophesy for the same amount of time, they both have their corpses lie in the street for several days, and then they both get raptured to heaven. Why this continual linkage in all of their actions if they are two individual, separate people?

                One way to thread the needle of that question has been adopted by some respected Bible commentators: Perhaps the Two Witnesses aren’t two individual men at all. Perhaps they are metaphors for the overall Body of Christ, prophesying against the Antichrist. Perhaps the image of “two people” simply refers to “all of those who speak out against the Beast and who are martyred for it”.

                I think that this is a possible avenue of interpretation. I try to be open minded about this, because the language in this chapter is quite a difficult interpretive nut to crack. So I’m definitely not going to dismiss that reading out of hand.

                However, I tend to think that it’s more likely that these two individuals are not just symbolic people, but that they are instead literal human beings. This is because:

• ·         Not all Christians are prophets. Indeed, one can lack the gift of prophesying and still be a completely faithful, saved, loving Christian. Elijah and Moses were set apart from their contemporaries. They had unique spiritual roles of leadership and guidance bestowed upon them by God. This doesn’t mean they were any better or more worthy of praise. It just means that their offices were unique tools used by God to deal with His people’s enemies of those times.
• ·         The Two Witnesses’ prophesying is said to specifically protect them from death for a period of 42 months. However, other Christians will be martyred during this same time period. And presumably many of those martyrs will suffer and die for preaching the gospel, and for not taking the mark of the beast. Why wouldn’t they be similarly protected? Perhaps, then, it is a mistake to just see “the church” referred to in the image of the Two Witnesses. It would seem that the church (the elect) *isn’t* divinely protected from death and martyrdom for 42 months. The Two Witnesses are, and that implies to me that it’s more likely that they are individual human beings.

    The fact that all of their behavior and circumstances are mirrored in many instances, perhaps signifies that the prophetic power, gifting and spiritual office represented by the Two Witnesses are equally valuable in God’s eyes. In reality, people’s circumstances wouldn’t be precisely mirrored in all of those ways. But remember as well that Revelation is a poetic text with lots of figurative language and symbology, not a step by step account of what things will literally look like in practice. We don't even know whether the Two Witnesses will know one another, or be located in the same physical places.

Conclusion

                Summing all of this up, these are some key take-aways that I think we should keep in mind as we relate this chapter to the other puzzle pieces in Revelation:

• ·         The Two Witnesses might be on the world scene right now, with only certain people aware of it. And most of the world’s people might never get any clue that these two figures even existed – at least until after the fact.
• ·         Keeping in mind that most of the world will be so deceived that they won’t even realize that Jesus’s second coming is right around the corner – until it springs upon them like a thief in the night (c.f. Matthew 24-25) – the dramatic prophetic testimony that is given by the Two Witnesses must, by definition, be kept a secret from the rest of the world – at least until the time when they are killed.
• ·         The Two Witnesses are nevertheless integrally connected with the governorship and priesthood of the true third temple, which is heavenly, not earthly. There will probably be no literal third temple at any point during the Tribulation, as this would interfere with the “under the radar” delusion used by the Antichrist and False Prophet to fool the world’s population into consenting to their own damnation, unawares.
• ·         The Two Witnesses – whoever they are and wherever they may be right now – are just as powerful and important as Moses and Elijah, two of the most highly respected figures in all of Jewish lore. Their scriptural role, while mysterious and vague in a lot of ways, is nevertheless as dramatic of a turning point in God’s historical plan as any Hebrew prophet has ever participated in – with the exception of Jesus’s ministry, death and resurrection. Jesus was far more important than even the most prominent prophets in Jewish history because Jesus was far more than just a prophet. He was also our moral teacher and rabbi for all time. So as important as the Two Witnesses’ testimony is in God’s end times plan, these individuals still pale in significance when we compare their roles to that of our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

    With all of this being said, though, I recommend leaving a fair amount of “wiggle room” in how we define and interpret this fascinating chapter. It could be that I’m wrong in some of the assumptions I make above, and that we won’t be sure either way until we’re looking at these events in retrospect. Nevertheless, remember that John's overall point in this chapter is that the Two Witnesses will be hated because they proclaim doom to a world that doesn’t want to hear such “bad news”. (It’s only ‘bad news,’ of course, if you separate it from the ‘good news’ (or gospel) that comes as its corollary – but most of the world doesn’t understand that). Revelation 11 should encourage all of us to not shy away from being direct and blunt with the unsaved during these times. We should be brutally honest with them about the stakes of all these developments. After all, the word “witness” means “martyr” – and that’s something we certainly shouldn’t be afraid of becoming when “all of these things begin to take place."