Chapter 15 The two witnesses (Rev. 11)
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER 11: THE TWO WITNESSES
11.1. There was given me a reed like a rod: and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship there; and the court which is without the temple leave without, for it hath been given to the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty two months (-11.2).
The imagery of this section continues that of Chapter 4. We are still in the heavenly temple and in the presence of the altar of incense (4.8; 8.3). The saints of God are regarded as belonging to this temple, even though they are living on the earth or sleeping in their graves (6.9; 7.10). All believers worship in the Father's true house, in spirit and in truth (John 14.2-6,23; Ephesians 1.3; 2.6; Hebrews 4.16; 10.19-22), and this measuring of them together with the temple at this point is yet another reassurance that they lie under the protection of God in the tribulations which are to follow, a confirmation of the sealing of Chapter 7 which is to be renewed again in 14.1-5; 15.1-4. The symbolism of the reed for measuring the temple is taken from Ezekiel's prophecy of the restoration of Israel (Ezekiel 40.3ff; perhaps also Zechariah 2.1-5), but it is not of that temple that we learn. No measurements are given: but they are known to God, and cannot be changed by any act of man.
The Tabernacle and Solomon's temple had Most Holy and Holy Places, and an Outer Court. The temple in which the saints worship makes no distinction between the Most Holy and the Holy Places, for the veil has been torn down (Matthew 27.50 ; Hebrews 9.3; 10.20). Outside that sanctuary, though, all has been usurped by the Gentiles (11.2). The true disciples are in a belea-gured fortress, while all around are their enemies, possessing everything except the citadel.
"The holy city shall they tread under foot" takes us back again to the Olivet Prophecy, where "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled" (Luke 21.24), but it can hardly be of literal Jerusalem that God is speaking here. Revelation has its own "holy city" (3.12; 20.9; 21.2; 22.19), which shall be "measured" in due time (21.16), and that city is not the literal Jerusalem, great though the glory of that city also shall be.
It is a characteristic of this Book to give a second and less literal meaning to many Bible terms and prophecies. The reed of this chapter is making no such measurement of actual buildings as that in Ezekiel 40ff. The description of the gates and foundations of the city of Ezekiel 41.31-34 becomes one of the qualities of the inheritors of eternal blessing in Revelation 21.12; the trees of Ezekiel's vision become the Tree of Life (Ezekiel 47.12; Revelation 22.2); the river of Ezekiel becomes a river of waters of life (Ezekiel 47.1; Revelation 22.1)fSo here the Holy City is not that literal city so designated in Matthew 4.5; but is that which will ultimately represent the eternal possession of the saints. At present there is no earthly site for it, though: the Gentiles are in occupation of the earth.
Forty two months. This is the first appearance of this intriguing time period in Revelation. It will recur in the 1260 days of 11.3 and 12.5, as well as in the "time, times, and half a time" of 12.14; and as 42 months again in 13.5. The same period, as "time, times, and half a time", originates in Daniel 7.25 and 12.7. It refers to very diverse events, which are tabulated below:
Daniel 7.25; The saints of the Most High are in the power of the Fourth Beast.
Daniel 12.7: The power of the holy people shall be broken in pieces.
Revelation 11.2: The holy city shall be trodden under foot by Gentiles.
Revelation 11.3: The Two Witnesses will prophesy, clothed in sackcloth.
Revelation 12.6: The woman who bears the Manchild will be nourished in the Wilderness.
Revelation 12.14: The same.
Revelation 13.5: The Beast from the sea shall continue, and during the period will make war with the saints and overcome them.
But the corresponding literal period (whether it is literal in Daniel and Revelation or not) is also that during which no rain fell on the earth in response to Elijah's prayer (1 Kings 17.1; 18.1; Luke 4.25; James 5.17), and it has the same length as half of the last week of years in Daniel 9.27.
Evidently at least some of the periods correspond. The persecution of the saints is a common factor in Daniel 7.25; 12.7; Revelation 13.5. It could well be implied by the language of 11.2,3; and since when the woman is nourished in the Wilderness in 12.6,14, the power called "the Dragon" is making war with "the
remnant of her seed that keep the commandments of God" (12.17) the same is effectively true there also. Since there us "no rain" while the Witnesses are prophesying (11.6), the parallel with Elijah is being deliberately drawn out, too.
Since everything we have so far found points to a short and
sharp sequence of events during these days, it would seem that, if
a precise period is defined by this time-period at all, it must be a
literal 3.5 years, and could not be anything approaching an actual period of 1260 years, which a principle of a day for a year would require.
This is the appropriate time to introduce an examination of the view that the period is really 1260 years, as seen in a continuous historic view.
THE CONTINUOUS HISTORIC VIEW OF THE TWO WITNESSES
Expositors of this view have assumed that all the periods referred to above must be understood as referring to 1260 years, and have accordingly looked for periods of history of this duration when evil powers were in the ascendant, and the people of God afflicted. But the various historical periods selected are unconvincing, and there are other objections. One should not start, either, with the assumption that the oppressing power is to be identified exclusively with the Roman Catholic Church or the Papacy.
We take the most popular choice first. The period of Papal power is said to extend from a decree of the Eastern Roman emperor Phocas, confirming papal headship of the church in 604, to the end of papal temporal power in 1870, a period of 1266 years. But Pope Gregory the Great (590 to 604) was one of the greatest of the 270 or so Popes of Rome (and incidentally one who looked earnestly for the Lord's Second Advent), and undoubtedly advanced the prestige of his office. This man did not need, in the last year is his life, any support from Phocas, perhaps the biggest scoundrel of all the Eastern emperors. In fact the support was probably an embarrassment to the papacy, especially when it declared that while Rome was the head, Constantinople was the first, of all the churches. The decree acknowledged the Pope as the head of the church, but it gave him no temporal power: to have done that would have transgressed a first principle of the ecclesiastical policy of the Eastern Empire.(Papal temporal power did not begin until 150 years later.
The foundation of papal temporal power was laid when the Prankish king Pepin III handed over to the Pope's sovereignty certain lands in Italy, including Rome and district, formerly belonging to the Eastern Empire, but recently conquered by the Lombards. This took place in 755 to 756, and accordingly an older student of the Apocalypse, Robert, Bishop of Clogher, writing in 1751, expected the end of the papal temporal power 1260 years alter that, in 20J5. In fact that power ended in two stages: in 1861 when the formation of the Kingdom of Italy under Victor Emmanuel deprived the Pope of all his dominions except the 'Patrimony of St. Peter', reducing his provinces from 20 to 5 and their population of more than three million to about 685,000; and in 1870 when these, too, were incorporated in the Kingdom. Time has proved the bishop wrong, but his interpretation was at least consistent.
Moreover, the downtreading of the spiritual holy city (if Revelation 11.2 were to be so understood) did not begin with the assumption of temporal power by the Popes, nor did it end with the loss of that power We may ask finally: is it really to be expected that the Holy Spirit would pay so much regard to periods of this kind unless they were far more clearly defined and characterized, historically and especially spiritually? •'
An even less convincing calculation of the supposed 1260 years is in connection with the prophesying of the Two Witnesses in 11.3, a calculation also applied to the nourishing of the woman in 12.6. This is the period from 312 to 1512, based on interpreting the Two Witnesses as (1) aggressive and (2) pacific protesters against corrupt ecclesiastical powers. It is said that this witnessing began with the accession of Constantine in 312. But true witnessing in the face of imperial persecution began centuries earlier, against which it is claimed that the witnessing must be understood as being against professingly Christian but actually apostate authorities. It is hard to discover any basis for this, and in any case Constantine's government was not Christian, even though it favoured Christianity. Moreover, Constantine's persecution of the Donatists (supposed to be early witnesses) did not begin until 316, and soon ended. Further, the main difference between Donatists and the orthodox was not doctrinal, but consisted in the stand the former took that clergy who had surrendered sacred books during the recent persecution under Diocletian should be debarred from office in the church. The Novatians around half a century earlier had similarly maintained that those who sacrificed to idols during the persecutions in the mid 3rd century should not be restored to fellowship even when repentant.
The terminal year of 1 72 we find to be baseless. The persecution of Huguenots in France went on until the Edict of Nantes in 1598 gave French Protestants the right to worship according to their belief. In Britain under Elizabeth I (1558 to 1603), Protestants as well as Catholics were persecuted and martyred. The last religious martyrdom in Britain was the burning of an anti-Trinitarian at Lichfield in 1612. Persecution of nonconformists occurred under Charles II (1660 to 1685). The Conventicle Act of 1662, for instance, forbade religious assemblies other than those of the Church of England. John Bunyan was imprisoned for twelve years under this Act. On the Continent, Protestants were persecuted in Bohemia and much of southern Europe. In 1685 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes led to many Huguenots fleeing to Britain and North America. The period of 312 to 1572 thus fails to satisfy the requirements of 'sackcloth witnessing'.
We consider next the death of the Witnesses, with their dead bodies lying in the street of an evil city before being raised from the dead and caused to ascend to heaven, followed by a great earthquake (11.7-13). The end of the 'sackcloth witnessing' continued, not only in France but in England, on the Continent until far into the 17th century. In France, in fact, after a quiet period from 1598, persecution gathered momentum after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and continues well into the 18th century.
Accordingly, C.C.W. and R.R. proceed to date the death of the Witnesses as in 1685. But in that event what becomes of 1572? And incidentally, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, despite the persecution which followed, was the signal for a Huguenot revival. Protestantism drew new life from the persecution. Finally it must be recorded that Huguenots accepted infant baptism, the Trinity; and the immortality of the soul. John Calvin fiercely attacked and even persecuted all who thought otherwise. A
We come now to the somewhat desperate efforts made to account for the dead bodies of the Witnesses lying unburied in the street of the great city for 3!/2 days (11.8-9). On the principle of a day for a year, this should be 3'/a years, which cannot be fit in anywhere. Recourse has been had to an interpretation by the Baptist Pastor Bicheno of Newbury (1793). He reckoned the 3'/a days as lunar and not earthly, thus 3!/•> months or 105 earth-days, and arrived at 105 years as the meaning, this being the interval between 1685 and the French Revolution (1785 to 1794). What, then happened in the French Revolution which might be said to mark the end of the lying of the Witnesses in the street, their resurrection, and ascension?
The answer is that the "Great voice" (11.12) calling the raised Witness to heaven is to be interpreted as the royal convening of the archaic French States-General in 1789. King Louis XVI was a well-meaning but simple weakling, whose summons could hardly be called "a great voice from heaven". Even more incredible is the view that, as a result of this, the Witnesses "ascended to place and power in the political heaven in multitudes" (C.C.W.). This is wholly untrue of God's Witnesses. What happened is that the French Revolution brought about the eclipse of the monarchy, a major reduction in the power of the nobles and the church, and an alleviation in the lot of village priests, freedom and relief for the peasantry, and a reign of terror which deluged the country in blood. Since the Witnesses cannot possibly be identified with those who came to power in the French Revolution, many of whom were ruffians and members of extreme political clubs, but some of whom were idealists, R.R. leaves the Witnesses on one side, and writes about the common people being "raised to power in a cloud".
The "great earthquake" (11.13), in which "a tenth part of the city fell", is applied to the French Revolution and the fall of France. But immediately after the Revolution there follows one of the most glorious eras of French history, with the rise to power of Napoleon. As for "the remnant giving glory to the God of heaven", this is linked with the revolutionary leader Robespierre having had a decree enacted which proclaimed the existence of a Supreme
Being (1794). This was done to oppose both Catholicism and atheism, but is little more than a passing curiosity. The sentimentalism of Rousseau which inspired Robespierre could scarcely be described as giving glory to the true God of heaven.
Finally, is it really likely that the Holy Spirit would devote so much attention to France from 1572 to 1794? The identification of France with the "street of the great city" is without substance. France may have been called 'the eldest son of the church', but its relations with the papacy became increasingly troubled throughout the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.
With this quite devastating rebuttal of the continuous historic view of Revelation 11 and its Two Witnesses in mind, we return to our study of the Witnesses themselves.
11.3: / will give unto My two Witnesses, and they shall prophesy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth (-11.4).
There is absolutely no doubt that the "two olive trees" are drawn from Zechariah 4.1-4, as is the symbol of the lampstand (one only in Zechariah, two here), and the picture of the Two Witnesses "standing before the Lord of the earth". The prophecy in Zechariah was spoken when Jews had returned to their land from the exile in Babylon, and in great adversity were engaged in rebuilding the temple. At that time their leaders were Zerubbabel (4.6,9,10), and Jeshua or Joshua ben Josedech, the high priest (3.1-9). They were to be strengthened in their hard task by God's Spirit, which they were to receive in symbol from the Lampstand in the Holy Place. This symbol might, though, also mean that they themselves were to pour the oil they received from God into the candlestick so that it might give light, which fits better their description as two olive trees (or sons of oil), the source of pure olive oil for the Lamp (Exodus 27.20). The fact that in Revelation the Lampstands become two, one corresponding to each Witness, is fully in harmony with the substitution of seven individual Lampstands for the Congregations in place of a single branched Lampstand (see pages 42-43). These Witnesses have no association with a material temple, for wherever they are gathered together in His name, there is the Lord Jesus in their midst (Matthew 18.20).
It is plain already, therefore, that the prophecy is concerned with faithful followers of God, called on to proclaim the gospel in adversity, who will in some sense carry out their task, not by human power alone, but supported by God's Spirit. They work among men, but they stand before the Lord of the earth in which the men live even as they do so. They remain in "the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" while they "make known to principalities
and powers the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3.10).
11.5: If any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies: and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner he must be killed. These have power to shut heaven that it rain not during the days -of their prophecy; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire (-11.6)
That "fire proceeds out of their mouths" means, no doubt, that at their word the fire comes from heaven to destroy their enemies, as it did at the word of Elijah (1 Kings 1.10-14), something which the Lord predicts at this point, though He refused to emulate it during His own period of witness (Luke 9.54). It is from Elijah, too, that the power to shut heaven that it should not rain is drawn, which, together with the period of 3'/a years, leaves no doubt that Elijah is one of the models from which the Witnesses are derived. The other one is no less plain, for the power of the Witnesses to turn water into blood, and smite the earth with every plague, is as surely based on the pattern of Moses in Egypt (Exodus 4-12). ffo-a VtA-
This departure from the peaceful preaching of the gospel by the Lord and His apostles must be for very good reasons, which are not far to seek. By the time we have arrived at in this Book the world has already refused to repent, and is to be given its last opportunity to do so. In view of the frightful visitations which must now result, is it surprising that God should use such powers as these men possess in the last effort to save some, snatching them out of the fire (Jude 23)?
11.7: When they shall have finished their testimony, the Beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city which spirtually is called.Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
This is our first introduction to "the Beast", but it will be prominent in the picture until nearly the end of the Book from now on (13.Iff; 14.9,11; 15.2; 16.2,10,13; 17.3ff; 19.19-20; 20.4,10). The power it represents becomes the principal enemy of the gospel and its adherents, and not until it is destroyed is the kingdom of God to be set up. It is introduced at this point simply to show us how the Witnesses, powerfully protected though they are while they preach, become its victims when their work is done. In this they are like their Lord before them, upon Whom none could lay hands for as long as His "hour was not yet come", but Who gave Himself willingly into their hands when that day came (John 7.30; 8.20; 12.23;27; 13.1; 17.1).
Indeed, the passage before us seems to make the comparison deliberately, for the dead bodies of the Witnesses lie "in the street of the great city where also their Lord was crucified". The servant is not greater than his Master (John 13.16), and these servants suffer as their Lord has suffered before them. Moreover, whether literally or not, the place of their suffering is the same. ;The city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt is certainly in the Old Testament Jerusalem. Sodom is applied to Israel at large, Judah in particular, and Jerusalem minutely, in Isaiah 1.10; 3.1,9; Jeremiah 23.14; Lamentations 4.6; Ezekiel 16.45-48, and in prophecy even as early as Deuteronomy 32.32. It is true that the term is also used a couple of times in relation to Babylon (Isaiah 13.19; Jeremiah 49.18), but this is much more rare and less direct than the ascription to Jerusalem. As for Egypt, the references here are more oblique, as in Ezekiel 23.3-19, but the long history of Israel turning back to Egypt in the Wilderness, making unholy alliances in Egypt in the days of Solomon and onwards to Zedekiah, and seeking to flee there against the instructions of God when Jerusalem had been taken, all point to Egypt as a proper spiritual description of Judah's apostacy (1 Kings 3.1; 2 Chronicles 36.4; Jeremiah 42.14). So, whether literally or not Jerusalem is plainly the right description of the place where the Witnesses meet their death.
There is at least one more link between these Witnesses and Moses and Elijah. When the Lord Jesus was transfigured, there appeared with Him Moses and Elijah, who were witnesses ofHis glory (Luke 9.30 ). This in itself is striking enough, but what are we to say when we learn that these men spake with Jesus of "his exodus which He should accomplish at Jerusalem"? On the mountain these two prophets played their part in preparing the Lord for His death in Jerusalem; now, at least as far as the bare meaning of the words goes, the Lord prepares us for the exodus of those bearing the same names, and in the same place. It is unbelievable that this should be a mere coincidence.
''Even now we are not quite finished. When the Lord Jesus came first, the Jews had expected Him to be preceded by Elijah, basing their expectations on Malachi 4.5: "Behold, I wil send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord". The Lord Jesus says, to be sure, that this promise was fulfilled in the work of John the Baptist (Matthew 17.10-13; cf. Luke 1.17), but there is a widespread opinion that there is to be a further ministry of Elijah at the time of Jesus' return. Is it not therefore remarkable that Revelation should speak in such terms, and actually place Elijah in company with Moses, which is perhaps what Malachi 4.4 does also, when it bids the people "remember the law of Moses My servant which I commanded him in Horeb", immediately before speaking of the coming of Elijah?
If the words were to be understood literally, the picture would be terrifying indeed, for then the real Moses and the real Elijah, recalled each from his lost burial or hiding place (Deuteronomy 34.6, 2 Kings 2.9-12), who were brought before the Lord at the transfiguration to prepare Him for His death, would then, preserved or sleeping in some manner we know not, be recalled again to participate, as leaders of a larger company perhaps, in the last call to the nations, and would then suffer death for the faith they preach just before the Lord returns. C& J -4n •
This would be possible, but that is all we can say. In such a Book of symbol, and in a chapter where things elsewhere literal (like the temple) are given a spiritual meaning, it would be wrong to be insistent that Moses and Elijah, however circumstantially they are identified, must refer to these two men in person. There are, of course, difficulties of another kind in imagining that these men, who suffered so much in their natural lifetime, should be brought from the dead to be used so cruelly. So we cannot affirm that this will be the manner in which this chapter will be fulfilled; but those who do expect the literal return of Elijah should take due note of this chapter and consider how painful that return could be A humble, if rather fearful, watchfulness to see what form the fulfilment will take may be all, for the moment, that we can maintain.)But the parallels in this chapter are too numerous and detailed to be devoid of the most pertinent meaning.
The very striking parallels between this chapter and Psalm 79 (79.1 = 11.8; 79.6 = 11.18, omitting from the list in H.A.W., pages 148-149 others which seem less convincing), adduced to show that the Two Witnesses represent the nation of Israel, and their death the temporary extinction of the nation, do not, the present writer feels, lead to that conclusion. This should be regarded as yet another place where natural Israel in the Old Testament provides a basis for matters on a wider canvas in the New. The chapter itself suggests this, for the same chapter could hardly refer to the same city within 7 verses as both "the holy city" and "Sodom and Egypt", so that even if the latter is restricted to natural Jerusalem the former could hardly be so.
11.9: From among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them and make merry; and they shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth (-11.10)
The evidence is again that these are no ordinary Witnesses. The world hates them not only for the reason that it hated Jesus, because He testified that the works thereof were evil (John 7.7), but because they caused it to be tormented, something that Jesus never did. The death of the Witnesses brings upon them great indignities, and causes the world delirious excitement.
The length of the Witnesses' ministry is given as the same as that of their Lord (11.3), though the latter is a matter of inference rather than of plain statement. But they are sharply contrasted with their Lord in their death in that they are not buried, while by the special intercession of His friends the Lord "made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death" (Isaiah 53.9; John 19.38-42. This might signify that the saints at this hour of their trial have no friends left in the world, which is wholly in thraldom to the evil power which dominates it. But the saints lie dead, moreover, for 3'/a days, while the Lord Jesus spent no more than three days in His tomb since "the third day he rose again" (Matthew 16.21 ). Reasons have already been given for rejecting the idea that this period might be symbolic of 105 years (see page 192), but it is not as easy to see what this short time period actually does signify. But the Lord Jesus' three day burial is associated with the prophecy that God "did not suffer His Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm 16.8-11; Acts 2.25-28, 31), while Lazarus, of whom Martha feared that "by this time he stinketh" (John 11.39) was four days in his grave. The exposure of the Witnesses is something between the two. Can it be that, just as men were beginning to feel that the Witnesses' cause was beyond hope, something happened to vindicate them, showing that God was with them after all?
11.11: After the three days and an half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell on them which beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them (-11.12).
There are parallels with both Old and New Testaments here. The resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus are plainly the pattern, for did not He also experience, in ihe view of His disciples, being "taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1.9)? There is no doubt that the situation here concerns a symbolic rather than an actual ascension, for heaven is not the destination of the saints, but in the symbolism the parallel is there, none the less. As to the Old Testament there is a double parallel. Creation is represented by the "breath of life" which entered into the Witnesses (Genesis 2.7), while both this and their standing on
their feet are reminiscent of Israel's dry bones in Ezekiel 37.5, 10.
Once again, though, it seems that an Old Testament prophecy which concerned, and still does, natural Israel, is being adapted to a wider application to the spiritual Israel of God. These are true Witnesses of the gospel, while natural Israel continues in its unbelief until the Lord comes, and "they shall look on Me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12.10), and this point has not here been reached. The Witnesses are recently dead bodies and not disintegrated skeletons, and in the analogy with the Lord Jesus we seem to be too committed to His true saints to be concerned here with the physical nation of Israel.
It is not really surprising that it is difficult to be more specific. If we had been able to interpret in advance the apparently miraculous manifestations accompanying the testimony of the Two Witnesses (11.5-6), we might be better able to understand the nature of their 'resurrection' (11.11) and 'ascension' (11.12). All we can usefully do, in advance of clearer signs as to what the fulfilment is to be, is to note the parallels; and the ones so far given are exciting enough.
But these Witnesses "went up into heaven in a cloud" (11.12). Not only is this what the Lord did, but we are told elsewhere that "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thes-salonians 4.17). Once again the parallels are too close to be accidental. In both cases dead saints rise; in both they are caught up from the earth; in both they meet their Lord. May not this be the augury of what has been found already from other passages, that at some time before the final manifestation of the Lord on earth, saints will be caught away and transported to the judgement seat (Matthew 24.40-42; Luke 17.34-36)? For that same judgement seat follows immediately in the next few verses (11.18). The amazement of their enemies as the Witnesses are removed from the scene (11.12) would fit this parallel too; and it would be appropriate that at this point, when the people of God are removed from the scene, some at least of the world's population should observe the event and "give glory to God" (11.13). It is true that the repentance is also attributed to the great earthquake (11.13) which immediately followed the Witnesses' ascension. It was a similar combination which brought conviction to some at the time of the Lord Jesus' resurrection (Matthew 27.50-54). We have already encountered earthquakes in the Sixth Seal (6.12), and in the prelude to the Seven Trumpets (8.5). After its appearance here in die Sixth Trumpet we find it yet again in 11.19 at the time of the announcement of the setting up of the kingdom of God; and, last of all, when the Seventh Vial is poured out on the earth and the last of the tribulations comes to its end (16.18). All the references to earthquakes in Revelation pertain to the last days, increasing in intensity until the last-named which, like the one before us, also affects "the great city". It might almost seem that the "earthquakes in divers places" of the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24.7; Mark 13.8; Luke 21.11) may be concentrated particularly in this series of five in the last days of the Apocalypse. If, once again, we cannot be sure whether the signs when they arise will be literal, or will refer to some upheaval in human affairs hitherto unimagined, it is clear that when the sign actually comes to pass there will be no mistaking it.
11.13: In that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell: and there were killed in the earthquake 7000 persons: and the rest were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The tenth part of the city fell. The city must be "the great city, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt", which is the last-day counterpart of Jerusalem. We have no really adequate "tenths" in the Old Testament to which this can be related, though there is in Isaiah 6.13 the phrase, "if there be yet a tenth in it" — the land and cities of Judah — "it shall again be eaten up" (R.V., where the idea is that the very tithes of the people's provisions would be experiencing the siege which should follow on the rejection of the prophet's message. The thoughts may be related: God will exact His tithe of the 'great city' to show that the whole belongs to Him, and so that those who survive will be warned. But we remain basically ignorant of the meaning both of the "tenth part" and of the "seven thousand" who are slain: it is true that the latter is the same as that of the prophets "who had not bowed the knee to Baal" in Elijah's day (1 Kings 19.18), and in view of the prominence of Elijah in this prophecy perhaps the coincidence is purposeful: as God spared 7000 who had not bowed to idolatry in Elijah's day, He will now punish an equivalent number who have given themselves to false gods, that the rest may fear, and repent?.
The rest gave glory to the God of heaven. If the great city is indeed natural Jerusalem, this might be the sign of that repentance of the nation, which is to culminate in, "They shall look on Me Whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12.10). The parallel with the Lord's resurrection and ascension comes into the picture again, for it was by this that He was vindicated as "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2.36), and those who were then convinced and convicted were "pricked in their hearts" and said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (2.37). Might it not be the same with
some who see the very saints they have persecuted revived and caught away, and so, seeing the dreadful evil they have done, begin that repentance which will result in the reconciliation of their nation with God?
NOTE: GOD'S WITNESSES
H.A.W., pages 147ff, considers that the Witnesses are national Israel, using the familiar heading "THE JEWS, GOD'S WITNESSES" to introduce familiar passages like Isaiah 44.8 and 43.8-12 in support. But this is unsatisfactory. For in the first place the witnesses referred to in both these passages are unwilling witnesses who have fallen into idolotry (44.9-21), bearing witness through their privations rather than by their reach testimony to the work of God, and needing His mercy for their restoration. In both passages they are to be restored to their land by God, but in neither are they the declarers of His gospel/By contrast the Witnesses of Revelation 11 are given their message from God, they are prophets (11.11), and they die for their faith.) JovoL-
In the second place, though, we have a more direct identification of the nature of the Witnesses in the way this word is used in the New Testament. It is only necessary to examine Luke 24.48; Acts 1.8,22; 2.32; 3.13; 5.32; 10.39,41; 13.31; 22.15,20; 26.16; 1 Peter 5.1; Revelation 2.13; 17,6 (as to the noun), and Acts 23.11; 1 John 1.2; 4.14 (as to the corresponding verb) to see how the New Testament uses the word. The apostles and the preachers who follow them are the true Witnesses of God for these days. Nothing could correspond less with the spirit of Revelation than the statement that "The two Witnesses are the Jews of the Last Days of God's indignation against them when their newly-born State of Israel, fashioned and cemented with blood, toil, sweat and tears, is seen to crumble (H.A.W., page 150). It is true that the author recognizes that the Jews testify to God by their blindness and deafness: what is not true is that the Witnesses of Revelation 11 do anything of the kind.
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