August 14, 2018
AN EXPOSITION OF THE TWO WITNESSES – PART 3
October 22, 2009
Revelation 11:3
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
In Part 2, I listed seven things we had established in Part 1. In Part 2 we established: (1) The link between the church with Elijah through John the Baptist, (2) The two witnesses as preaching a message of repentance in the spirit of Moses and Elijah, as they preached by the same Spirit of God, and (3) That they represent the two institutions given the responsibility of presenting God’s word to the world in the past and in the present, the local church and the assembly of Israel.
Although I am not one who is fond of using “types,” because it is very easy to apply them to things they may not represent, I suspect that Elijah, who was transported directly into heaven, without ever having his body placed in a grave, is a “type” of the living who are transformed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at what is called the first resurrection. While Moses, whom God buried, but who later appeared in a glorified body on the Mount of Transfiguration, may represent the physically dead in Christ who come out of their graves to be glorified at the first resurrection. Some identify Enoch as being one of the two witnesses, but I have found more connections for a combination of Moses and Elijah, than any other combination of the three men.
I established the connection of Elijah through John the Baptist with the church, and Moses’ connection via the Law with the assembly of Israel. And this is one of the reasons I believe the two witnesses represent the local church and the assembly of Israel, who were the two bodies God chose to be the witnesses of Messiah in their times of empowerment by His Spirit.
Revelation 11:4
These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
The two witnesses are flesh and blood men representing the two olive trees, through which God’s Spirit operated to carry His witness to the world. His first natural olive tree was Israel, and the wild olive tree, that came out of the natural tree by a graft, is a remnant of the covenant with Abraham, the first church organized by Jesus in his earthly ministry.
Romans 11:5,17,23-25
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. [17] And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; [23] And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. [24] For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? [25] For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
The two witnesses will testify during the last 1260 days of the tribulation period, then the fullness of the Gentiles will come in at the close of the battle of Armageddon, at the Second Advent. At that time Israel will be grafted back into the natural olive tree.
I also believe that the two witnesses of Revelation and Zechariah are the same personages.
Zechariah 4:11-14
Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? [12] And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? [13] And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. [14] Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
Lord willing, I will elaborate on the comparisons of these figures in this series