Who Are the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11?

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, and I guess like one of the TV programs says, and away we go, huh, whatever. Right back into the book, and you can be turning to Revelation chapter 11. For those of you on television, we like to welcome you, and we like to hear from you, naturally. It's the only thing that keeps us going is to know that we're accomplishing something. We don't want to be wasting the Lord's time or the Lord's money. I've also been asked to announce that after this taping now today, we'll have our next videotape ready, tape number 11. So many of you who have already received all 10 of them, if you're ready for number 11, let us know by word of mouth, or by a letter, or by a phone call. However, after today, the next one will be ready. Also, for those of you who are just tuning in for the first time, all of our programs dating clear back to Genesis 1 -1 are available by video. We've put 12 programs on one six-hour tape, and we sell them or give them out, however you want to call it, as reasonably as we can, and the same way with the booklets. So if you'll call us, and we'll let you know their approximate cost, because we don't make anything on them, we are just endeavoring to get the Word out to as many people as we can. All right, now if you'll turn with me to Revelation chapter 11. And here is where I mentioned several programs ago, where you can pick up a time frame if you'll just take the time to study it. Now you'll find here in verse 3 of chapter 11, where God says He will give power unto His two witnesses, and they shall prophesy, or not necessarily tell the future, but they're going to speak forth the Word. Now the word prophesy in Scripture can mean either one. It can either mean telling the future, or it can mean just speaking forth the Word. In other words, like when the Apostolic Church had men with the gift of prophecy, it wasn't that they had a gift for telling the future, but they had a gift for speaking forth the Word. That was one of the gifts given to the early church, because the printed page hadn't come out yet. And so these two witnesses are not necessarily going to be telling the future, but they're going to be speaking the Word. They're His witnesses, and of course they're going to come to the nation of Israel. They're going to minister primarily in the area of Jerusalem. But all right, they shall speak forth, or they shall be a witness, 2,000 or 8,203 score days. That's 1,260 days is 3-1-1 -2 years. Now we know that this is not the last 3-1-1-2 years, because you see, when you come to the end of their ministry, verse 12, they heard a great voice from heaven saying, Come up hither. And they ascend, and in verse 13, in the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and so on and so forth, and we'll make reference to that. That is not the end of the tribulation, that's the middle. So these two witnesses will minister in the area of Jerusalem in that first 3-1 -1-2 years. So that's why I've come to chapter 11, after leaving you in chapter 6, because again we're going to come right back to an event at the beginning of the tribulation, and it is the appearance of the two witnesses. Now I guess I'll have to comment on who those two witnesses might be. We can't again be dogmatic, because the Scripture doesn't tell us. There's nothing in this verse that says it will be so-and-so and so-and -so. Now we can speculate. The one I think is a little easier to decide on than the other, and that is Elijah. I think it's very possible that one of these two witnesses will be Elijah, because Elijah was taken up without having died. And the other reason is that, now I've got you in Revelation chapter 11, keep your hand in there and come all the way back, if you will, to Malachi, the last book of your Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5, Malachi chapter 4, verse 5. And then if you happen to be going through Matthew and you hit Matthew chapter 11, I put a marker in that. We'll come to that next. But Malachi chapter 4, verse 5, Malachi 4, verse 5. Malachi 4, verse 5. The Prophet writes, God is speaking of course through the Prophet, "...Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Now that's plain English. I know originally it was in Hebrew, but for us it's plain English, that before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, Elijah will come. Verse 6, "...and he, Elijah, shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Now let's flip back to Matthew chapter 11, and again we're in Jesus' earthly ministry. And then in chapter 11, He makes an unusual statement, starting with verse 11. Matthew 11, let's start with verse 11. Matthew 11, verse 11. "...Jesus is speaking, and He says, Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Now standing he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now," and remember this is during Christ's earthly ministry, "...the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied," that is of the coming kingdom, "...until John." Now look at verse 14, and what's the next word? If. See a little word like that is so easy to gloss over. But it's loaded, and if you will receive it. Now who is Jesus talking to? Jews. He's talking to the nation of Israel. If they would receive what? The king and the kingdom. That's what He's offering. He's their king. He's ready to set up the kingdom. Now then, if Israel would accept the king and the kingdom at this point in time. Now remember it's an offer, and we know that according to prophecy it couldn't happen because Christ had to die. But nevertheless, it was still a valid offer. They had the opportunity to have accepted Him as their king. So now read it in that light, that if you will receive it, that is the kingdom, this is Elijah. Who is? John. Now think about that for a minute. Jesus is offering the kingdom to the nation of Israel in fulfillment of those Old Testament covenants, the Abrahamic and all the rest of them. Now then, the Old Testament said that before the return of Christ, or the setting up of the kingdom, Elijah had to come. But Jesus said, if you accept the kingdom now, then what? John is the prophesied Elijah. Now that's kind of hard for us to comprehend, but that's what He's saying. But, since Israel did not accept the kingdom, what still has to happen? Elijah has to come. So now then, if you'll come back to Revelation chapter 11, I have to feel that on the basis of those two scriptures, that one of these two witnesses will quite likely be the Old Testament Elijah, brought back on the scene. He also was, you remember, at the Mount of Transfiguration. So now if you come down to verse 4, they are going to prophesy, or they're going to speak forth for 1,260 days, or for three and a half years. Verse 4, these two witnesses then are the two olive trees, the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. In other words, they're God's messengers for that time. The candlestick, I think, refers to the light that a candlestick gives forth. In the midst of the tribulation darkness, the wickedness, the iniquity, the cataclysmic events that are taking place, these two men will still be like a lighthouse, a spiritual lighthouse. Now verse 5, if any man will hurt them, or try, I should say, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemy. They're going to have a special power for their own protection as they proclaim the Word of God, and devour their enemies, and if any man would hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. In other words, these two witnesses are going to have that kind of power. Verse 6, here's another reason many feel that one of these witnesses will be Elijah, because he's going to do the same thing that he did in his Old Testament experience. These have power to shut heaven, and that it rain not in the days of their prophecy or their speaking. Now what did Elijah do back in the Old Testament? He stopped the rain for three years, see? And they also have power over water to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all the plagues as often as they will. Now that kind of language gives us an idea it could be Moses, see? Now I don't get dogmatic. Others may say it has to be Enoch, because Enoch didn't die, and Elijah didn't die, whereas we feel that Moses did die physically, but whatever. This isn't all that basic to our doctrine. All we have to understand is that the Sovereign God is in control, and He's going to bring these two men to the city of Jerusalem at the very onset of the seven years of tribulation. All right? Verse 7, when they have finished their testimony, they're three and a half years, remember. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit... Now remember, I've pointed out in weeks gone by, the beasts in Scripture are not some wild animal, but they are a governmental authority. Number one, I think the beast could either be the Roman Empire, which has now come out of its demise from the third or fourth century, and is back on the scene, and we know it is as Western Europe is coming together with the common market, and the United States of Europe, whatever you want to call it. Or the beast here could, of course, be in reference to the Antichrist himself. Now I threw this little tidbit out, and I do it only to get people to start studying, and you know, this is what thrills me. I had a gentleman the other night say, you know, Les, after I got home from class, he said, I got out my old Strong's Concordance, and I got out a couple Bibles, and he said, I started studying, and he said, the first thing I knew, I looked at the clock on the wall, and it was 3.30 in the morning, and I thought, man, I've got to go to bed. Well, you see, this is what thrills me. They don't have to listen to what I say, but to get them into the book, and I've had people tell me that over and over. I remember years ago, a lady walked out the door, and she had just been a visitor, and she had come from another part of the country, and she says, well, she says, I don't know that I agree with you, but I'll give you credit for one thing. I've already promised myself that starting tomorrow, I'm going to study my Bible. Well, hey, that's the only reason I teach, is to get people to study. See? Alright, so whether this is Elijah and Moses, or whether it's Elijah and Enoch, or whether it's two other people, that's really beside the point. I think you already see what I'm driving at. But this beast that shall come out of the bottomless pit, again, is not some wild, frozen animal, but it's an authority, a government. It'll either be the Antichrist himself, or that assortment of nations that come together, that what we call the revived Roman Empire. Then verse 7 winds up that this government, which I think will be the Antichrist and his revived Roman Empire, will make war against them. In other words, they're going to do everything they can to destroy these two men. And they're going to succeed, and they're going to overcome them in spite of their power to resist, and they're going to what? Kill them. So these two men, men, not angels, these men will be put to death. Verse 8, "...and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom, and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." So what city is it? Jerusalem. So they're going to be killed, and they're going to be left to rot, you might say, on the sun-drenched streets of Jerusalem, just because of their mortal hatred for these two men. Verse 9, "...and so they of the people, and kindred, and tongues, and nations, that which will make up this revived Roman Empire, the government of the Antichrist, they shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not permit them to be put in their graves." They're going to just let them lay out in the hot sun, three and a half days. Verse 10, "...and they that dwell upon the earth," not just Israel, not just the Middle East, but they that dwell on the whole planet, from one end to the other, "...will rejoice over them, and make merry, and send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them who dwelt on the earth." Well how did they torment them? By just simply pointing out their wickedness, and their iniquity, and the righteous judgment of God, which is already to a certain degree upon them. And the world is going to hate them. But the amazing thing is, that verse 11 now says something that fifty, sixty years ago was almost hard to swallow. The average Bible believer had problems with this. The only thing you could say, is that God in His own wisdom knows how He's going to do it. And now you see it's so common. What is it? Verse 11, "...after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them," God brings them back to life, "...they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them who saw them." Who sees them? The whole world. How do they see them? Television. I mean we do it every day. I mean it's as commonplace now as anything can be. And yet I can remember when I was a kid, and I heard a preacher preach on this, and I was still sitting in the back seat of the car, and going home after church, I can still hear Mom and Dad talking about how in the world can that ever be? How can the people of the world see two dead bodies laying in the streets of Jerusalem? And now we take it so for granted. It'll be on five o'clock news, or five-thirty, I'm not a news watcher on the evening, but I guess it's five-thirty. It'll be on every five-thirty news broadcast. And the whole world will see that these two witnesses suddenly ascend. See verse 12, "...and they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither." See? Come up. And they, what's the next word? They ascended. The Book says it. They are going to just simply right in view of the cameras. There they go. And I'll tell you what, this is going to shake people up, because they're, like I said, this is a time of the miraculous, the supernatural, and God isn't going to hide it in the slightest. And when these two witnesses who have been put to death are suddenly made alive, and not only made alive, but they're going to ascend right out of the midst of Jerusalem, and the whole world will witness it. Now these are tribulation days. These are days of the supernatural. All right, now then let's go on in the moment or two that we have left in the verse 13, and the same hour. Now this is the midpoint of the tribulation. And the same hour there was a great earthquake. Now you have to remember that Jerusalem, and especially the valley of the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee, is sitting right on a tremendous fault line. It's historical. In fact, that's probably why the Dead Sea is so deep, and why it's so far below the sea level, is because at times the fault has literally dropped the surface of the earth in that area. And so the whole Jordan Valley, you know, is below sea level. In fact, I didn't know until we were there a few weeks ago that the Sea of Galilee is even below sea level. How many feet, Nancy? 600? 600 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea, of course, I always knew was 1,200, 1,400 feet below sea level, and almost that deep. So you see the bottom of the Dead Sea is by far the lowest point on earth, because it sits on this fault line. So when the Bible speaks of great earthquakes in that part of the world, that's not unusual. It's very, very commonplace. So at the midpoint of the Tribulation, now, that's why I say as you study Revelation, rather than trying to go verse by verse chronologically, take it by events, the beginning, the appearance of the Antichrist, the appearance of the two witnesses, and then if we've got time we're going to go back and picture out what comes from this. But then at the midpoint we have the end of these two witnesses. We see their ascension. We've learned earlier that the Antichrist is going to come in from probably his headquarters in Europe, and he is going to go in and desecrate and defile the Temple, turn on the nation of Israel. See, those are all events that take place at the midpoint. But for now, rather than looking at that, that will be in the next program I trust, now come back with me to Revelation chapter 7. And here is, I think, a fact of Scripture that again has been so distorted and has been so completely perverted that we have a lot of confusion, and it doesn't have to be. It's so plain. Now since these two witnesses are beginning to proclaim godly things, and I think again just like Jesus said, they're going to be proclaiming the King and the Kingdom is coming out of their preaching immediately. I think right off the very first week or so, they're going to have a response of their prophesying or their speaking by the 144,000 young Jewish men that we find in chapter 7. Now let's read it. Verse 1, "...Now after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth." Now remember, this is supernatural experiences in a supernatural time. "...And they're holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And this angel cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt or to bring on judgment on the earth and the sea. And the admonition is," verse 3, "...saying, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Now isn't that easy to understand? Hold everything, nothing, until we seal these servants. All right, these servants I feel have been listening to the two witnesses. And so they are responding. And now look who they are, verse 4, "...And I heard the number of them who were sealed," or designated, or commissioned now, "...and there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand," but watch where they come from, "...out of all the tribes of the children of Israel." And then He names them. The tribe of Judah, 12,000. The tribe of Reuben, 12,000. And on and on He goes right through the 12 tribes, and they're all listed except one, and that question comes up almost weekly. Why isn't Gad mentioned in these 12 tribes? Well he's left out for a purpose. I think it's Gad, isn't it? No it isn't Gad, I'm sorry. Who is it? It's Ephraim. Ephraim, I'm sorry. Ephraim isn't listed. All right, huh? Dan, that's the one I want, Evelyn, thank you. I knew it was Dan, not Gad. Dan, and why? Remember Dan moved up clear into the northern area of Israel when they didn't have enough in their designated place. What was the tribe of Dan guilty of? They were the first ones to go into idolatry, and consequently Dan is left out of these 12 tribes. So, 12,000 from each one of the other 12 tribes, all sealed, and they are given a particular mission. And now verse 9, here it comes. The result of their sealing, and after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations, not just Israel, but all the nations, kindreds and people and tongues, who now stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes. Now you remember back in chapter 6 when we talked about that fifth seal, wasn't it? How that the martyred were already under the throne, and they say, how long? And then it said, until the rest that would be martyred as you were. Alright, now here is where it all begins. These 144,000 young Jewish men will be encircling the globe in a miraculous way. They won't have to buy tickets to an airline, I think they're going to be Spirit -sent. They're not going to have to sit down and spend 6 months learning a language. They're going to know the language of every tribe and dialect wherever they go. And these 144,000 young Jews throughout at least the first 3-4 years of this 7 will encircle the globe. And here is the result then of their ministry. Verse 13. I have to skip a few for sake of time. And one of the elders answered and said unto me, What are these, or who are these, who are arrayed in white robes? And whence, or where did they come from? And John said, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they, or these are those, I guess we'd say today. These are they who came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now you see, that's a vast number of people from every tribe and tongue and nation. And they're going to be martyred almost as soon as they believe. But a few will survive. And we'll pick them up in a later program. There will be some survivors, as we saw in Isaiah 23, a couple of programs ago. They're going to somehow find themselves at the end of all this alive. But they're believers. And they will be the candidates then to go in to the Kingdom when it will finally be set up. Now in just a few seconds I have left, what I think we have here is sort of a compensation or an evening out of what the nation of Israel utterly missed. They were originally intended to be the vehicles to bring the pagan, Gentile world to a knowledge of their Jehovah and they missed it. But the 144,000 will sort of make a compensation for that. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries Route 1, Box 760 Kinta, Oklahoma 74552 That's Route 1, Box 760 Kinta, Oklahoma 74552 74552 Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.