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CHAPTER 7

Mathematical Moments in the Career of History

7) From News 87, End-Note 1

Revelation 11

Note
An Excursion
or Musical Postlude
with a Touch of Mathematics
on Revelation 11

*1    It is of interest, viewing the numerous references to this event in the Bible: the call to heaven en masse, of the saints in the height of the carnal storms of a dying earth,  to see where it might appear in the book of Revelation. It appears in Rev. 11:12. The reason for seeing this in that call to

"Come up here!",

to the two witnesses may be briefly indicated as follows.

(Cf. Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 5, and see
Biblical Blessings Chs.  1,  2,  6, SMR pp. 886ff., 943ff.)
 
 

THE ARITHMETIC

The 1260 days assigned them (Revelation 11:2-3) are of course the 42 months and the three and a half times or years, in the nomenclature used. It is dealt with in SMR pp. 886ff., 969, and refers to the arithmetic of Daniel, whose system turned the 70 years of exile of the Jews in Babylon leading into the 6th century B.C. - after which they returned to Jerusalem by predicted decree of Cyrus - into a 70 7's device, which would cover the prophetic future, including the Messianic death and triumph (see Daniel 9:24ff., and references noted above). The first magnificently accurate prediction of the Jewish exile, became the source book for the next and final stage of prophecy, one incorporating a precise foretelling of the death date of the Messiah. Let us now see its phases.

The death of the Messiah after 69 of the 7's, and involving action into the first half of the last one, left just one half seven, literally 3.5 years, to go (SMR pp. 886ff., esp. 894ff.). As previously shown (cf. SMR pp. 959ff.), this period has been symbolised, following the affront to and assault on Christ the King; and it is awaiting His pleasure. The Messianic seven, HIS OWN, is first fulfilled to the midst, and He dies, and then rises, as predicted in Psalm 16 and elsewhere (cf. Joyful Jottings 25 ), and then administers the rest.

THE CONTROL

Thus He remains in control (cf. Matthew 28:18ff., Psalm 2:7-12) with His Father, sending forth His Spirit, as the One who determines and dispenses. This control is manifested in Daniel 9 when it states that He shall make firm the covenant with many (cf. Matthew 26:28 cf. SMR pp. 894ff.), and then cause the authorised sacrifice to cease (as predicted - cf. Isaiah 52-53, 66:1-4, Jeremiah 3:16), while making the temple desolate (as He indicated and indeed predicted would occur, as He foretold His rejection and execution - Luke 19:40ff., Mark 11:28-12:12). God does not OMIT the MAIN point of the Gospel, the vast emphasis made so often in His word, on the sacrificial potency for everlasting righteousness of His Son's death. Instead, He focusses it with that same economy of expression, pungency of clarity and yet, with that, lustre of determined mercy and gravity that moves in such brilliant divine action amid such murderous human folly. That folly is then shown proceeding to its climax, and His judgment, watchful and sure, proceeds to its height in its time. There is nothing rushed; there is nothing omitted. It is all sure.

Thus Daniel's  prediction in Daniel 9 is not of an evil in control, but of God in authority; not of some creaturely facet in glittering array, but of the divine Lord, resurrected, asserting His authority in the midst of it all, and dispensing history with sovereign hand, yes UNTIL everlasting righteousness is brought in.

It is not brought in as if by some evil majesty, but DESPITE THIS with His own firm control, authority being given to Him, yes ALL power in heaven and on earth while He pours the desolation due onto the unrepentant dynamisms of controlled evil, even upon the whole desolate apparatus. There is 'one making desolate', there is 'that determined' which is poured duly on the sickening site of such a pretender (in parallel with  II Thess.2:4-8), such insolence, upon the whole foolish scenario of arrogance and presumption, misuse and failure to realise the Messiah who IN HIMSELF is now the focus, not some site. Indeed how drastic in the end is that outpouring (Daniel 9:27) on the desolate.

There is a certain dueness, justice, proportion, appointment: it is DETERMINED because God has resolved. In material things, there is a a determinacy because God made the laws and procedures, the material protocols, being the lawgiver of all law. But in man's events the personal Lord makes personal provisions which, wrought with judgment and mercy, are nonetheless sure. Thus in this case: The LORD acts, the desolator enters, the Lord acts again, the end is on the desolation. What is determined is done! It is in this way that the divine conduct proceeds as from the first with the 70 year exile, to the last, with the sure conducting of the manner of salvation, so that it is indeed brought into the world, predicted, performed and paid for;  and  here it is duly and truly shown to be so, while its adversary is focussed only in his desolating and desolate end.

That is the way of things as they come to their forlorn conclusion after much bluster and ballyhoo; this is the way and place of deceit and theft, as if to steal the universe from its Maker and take a name, when only pretence and duplicity is there: the desolator acts, the desolation proceeds with divine apportionment of the woes on the way and the finale which manifests the impotence posturing of the evil incumbent. Such is the way of evil: as to God however, His is justice, even in salvation, the Messiah being brought to desolation (Daniel 9:26), cut off, and there is nothing for Him; but He is raised, and for Him are all things.

It is indeed His covenant (Daniel 9:27) which, already in existence, is ratified, confirmed (Hebrews 9:13-14), and as in Psalm 40, Psalm 22 His resurrection is pre-supposed; and indeed declared as in Psalms 2 and 16 (cf. Joyful Jottings25). It is thus that in Daniel 9, the requirements for everlasting righteousnessness are not omitted, as if overshadowed, indeed eclipsed into darkness by the power of darkness; or as if present in principle (9:24) but excused in practice, a sort of contradictory parody of James.

Nothing could be further from the emphasis of Psalm 2 as also Psalm 16. Alive, active, transcendent, and in judgment, the commanding centre of attention, the Messiah, the Prince, makes His people members of His covenant (Daniel 9:27) and voids the  now fulfilled Old Testament sacrifices ( cf. Isaiah 66:2-3) which He confirms by fulfilling them, in Himself duly replacing them (as in Psalm 40:1ff., Isaiah 53)), so rendering sacrifices irrelevant. Meanwhile, an unbelieving (Jewish) nation (cf. Isaiah 49:7) has a different result. Excluding  Christ, it excludes it thereby own mercy, and so suffers generations of desolation (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:1-2, Luke 19:42ff.). Thus the Messiah at work as such, after the 69 sevens, and later cut off, in the midst of the 70th week, by dying, annuls animal sacrifices, and fulfilling the 1st covenant of Moses with the 2nd in Himself, covers His  'many' (as in Matthew 26:28) till the end, with its vile, violent desolations.

For all this the seventy sevens are now seen in Daniel 9, to be prophetically unleashed. It is stated in 9:24, and we have now traced its detail as in Daniel 9:25-27.

THE VERSATILITY WITH CLARITY

The magnificent brilliance of the initial depiction of the besevened 70 of Daniel 9, inspired by God, is now seen. While the initial impact cannot rationally be distanced from its abundantly clear base in an actual 70 year exile, in precise and powerful focus in the actual context (Daniel 9:1ff.), yet the manner, the unusual manner of its statement, a seven-ing of the 70, and indeed, the emphatic word order (NOT seventy sevened, but 'sevened - seventy', i.e. with respect to the seventy it is a sevening that is to the forefront), not to mention the simple fact that it is 'seven' that is the literal term: all this means that the sevening is under jurisdiction. Its meaning is clear, but equally clear and emphatic is this: its meaning can be redefined at will, should circumstances arise to make this appropriate.

What however could make its unit length, or time, extend ? What would be appropriate ? one might ask. What might in some way on some day lead to an alteration of its eminently clear initial context ?

Why this:  precisely such a thing as the crucifixion of the Prince. Here was the new impact, the novel dawning of a drastic day, one to end in darkness before its hours were up (Matthew 27:45). Here, with the very Prince of glory sacrificed, could come indeed an employment of the SEVEN concept to FIT with His dignity and glory and power. How deftly the Lord provides: it is clear, it is adequate, its arithmetical aspect is emphasised from the start, and it is significant to the end.

And what then might be the new dimension of the seven, when this extraordinary and infinitely insulting but gloriously effective thing, the crucifixion of Christ,  happened ? Why a functional one to suit the Messiah! And what would better suit Him, one might ponder, than one which brought about by His death, would then allow its full significance, VIA THE GOSPEL, to be brought to all men! HENCE HE WOULD NOT RETURN, as Christ Himself stated, till the Gospel had gone throughout the earth (Matthew 24:14). It is THEN, He there declares, that the end will come.

It is this '3.5' notation of time which appears several times in the Book of Revelation. It circles as 42 months, 1260 days, times, times and half a time, 3 and one half days, and moves to the ultimate crisis as in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13:5, or to the overall period from Christ to Christ, virtually death to return as in Revelation 11. It jets, skis, cavorts like a swallow, reminding us constantly of Christ's words in Acts 1, that the TIME of the end is not available arithmetically, and in fact must await the WORK of the Christian Ministry to the world, being fulfilled. Details may even involve a fuller consummation in the final application (as in Daniel 12:7, with 12:11-12, in parallel with Daniel 2:35). Just as surely as the historic 69.5 7's of the 70 had to come to the Messiah, the remaining half-seven has to go till  its work is finished.

We need thus to look at the two aspects of this thing.

If you were a Jew in the time of Daniel, dispossessed but blessed by continuing revelation from God, and about to be restored from disciplinary exile, you would see the tremendous focus that there would be on this figure of 70. In it has been incorporated much grief, much chastening, much soul searching. THAT was the number of your exile. From it would come deliverance, at its end: physical, national and personal. Its besevening to cover residual time in view, this would not pose any initial problem, proceeding till the very face of the Son of God was brutalised, and then at His pleasure till His will should be accomplished, to whom it had all pointed, and through whom, now that He had arrived and done His work, it would now be mediated.

Indeed, it would be inconceivable that the days and weeks and months and years of the exile endured - and this not merely emotionally, but endured with the realisation that the work of the Jewish testimony in Israel was for this time suspended in disgrace - would become merely surreal. It would not be simply used as a basis for what was not quite as real and sure, defined and definitive indeed as its base in Babylon.

WHEN however THIS grace and mercy and reciprocity of time, in augmentation by 7 reached the NEXT vast contribution of the Jewish nation (not the race) in crucifixion of the Messiah, at 69.5 sevens on the scale of prophesied history, then the WORK committed to the church would take precedence and this NEW folly, one of regicide,  again would change the consummation prospects into desolation reality, long to be endured. Our eyes in 9:26-27 pass from this much predicted  desolation (cf. Luke 19:42ff.) for the Jews to that evil eminence who would afflict the world till the time determined was complete. The Jews themselves would endure till the the mercies of Abraham again should intervene (SMR Appendix A, pp. 755ff.), and until, as in Zechariah 12:10 (and Romans 11:25f.) many would come to embrace the forsaken Messiah, and hence their own mercy once more.
 
 

THE TIME AND POWER OF THE WITNESSES

For our part, then, in our generation, we are as just shown - with the earlier references added, to be dealing only with the last half of the last seven. It may be expressed as 1260 days or 42 months, for example. Things have moved along... since then, since those former days and this is the donation of time for our Age.

We are approaching, in fact, the end. Let us look at the picture which gives attention to the entire Gentile period and see the ending motions in the light of their Biblical perspective.
 

  • It is in Revelation 11:1-3, that this half-seven number is used to refer to the entire period in which the JERUSALEM would be under Gentile control (an historical phase which would in fact end, as  noted in the words of Christ, in Luke 21:44; and of course since 1967 with increasing clarity, it HAS ended). Here the dual use of the significant number with its historical significance, and its relation to the time of the Temple's subduing under Gentile control, make the powerful point that history is turning. Drama has come. Time is coming up to its climax.


 

  • This is important. This Gentile period of domination of Jerusalem relates rather closely to what might be (and often is) called the Church Age, or better the Christian Church Age, since (Acts 7:38) the Church had existed for millenia: the assembly of those called to worship and professing to do the same, in the name of the ONLY GOD (the One who is, and not some imagined one!).


 

  • Now the TWO WITNESSES noted in the same chapter of Revelation (11), are at once focussed, in Revelation 11:3-12. THEIRS IS CLOSE TO THAT SAME TIME as that HERE signalled for the subjugation of Jerusalem, for its rule by aliens, conquerors. It is after this period that they go - with the 3.5 days of their apparent 'death' on the streets (q.v., and see Revelation 11:8-9) still to come. After all this, this ministry of power is then gone (cf. John 14:12). A desolate earth awaiting judgment excites itself to its inglorious final crusade (Revelation 16:13-16,  19:19). Jerusalem under Gentile control, meanwhile, and the work of the two witnesses are one and the same in time.


 

  • Hence these have a ministry during that period just found, namely the Messianic Residue of history till Christ the Lord comes for His people - and of course, then He is to come WITH them. It is indeed then, as Paul states, that that which restrains shall be moved out of the way (II Thess. 2:7):


COME UP HERE! is the call (cf. I Thess. 4:15ff.).  It all has a time and the time ends, as the END itself approaches.
 

  • What then has been this time of the witnesses ?


This has been around 2000 years so far, and there is only one body which relates to such a testimony for such a period - and it is the Christian Church. The TWO testimonial witnesses of Rev. 11, refer quite inescapably back to Zechariah 4, where they expressly represent the High Priest and the Prince in the rebuilding program for Jerusalem, which was active in the 5th and 4th century B.C.. In Zechariah 3:6ff., we have just seen the High Priest symbolised, and made to be a prototype for the coming Lord, the well-known and often noted Branch, the One to bear the sin (Zechariah 3:9 and Isaiah 49, 52:10-53:12), who is the Lord Himself in human format (Micah 5:1-3, Zechariah 12;10, Psalm 45, 72, 2).
 

  • Thus these two witnesses in Revelation 11 symbolise the organised overall testimony to the faith in God which is ministered through covenants, first the old and then the new, but here specifically the New,  and reaches its culmination in Christ crucified, yes, rather risen, as Paul declares.

It is interesting that Jerusalem STILL has the temple site, or that near it, in Islamic use, so that the liberation of Jerusalem is in one sense not quite complete. In Revelation 11 where the temple is measured and the site is paramount, this terminus clearly is not yet reached.  Moslem mosque is at least intruding into this liberty. The impact however is clear. Authority is available, and the site is available: it is a political tension which induces waiting. WE, meanwhile, are warned. As far as the city PER SE is concerned, it is delivered (Luke 21:44); but when the terms of reference as here, are critically focussed on the temple, that fulfilment is merely near, not here. Thus, in Revelation 11:1-2, the temple is expressly focussed, so here must be given full weight to its non-release. Matters of fine definition enter in. At a moment, however, there can be an end even of that.
 

But what of their powers ? James 5 indicates in terms of Elijah's faith what may be done in the Lord's name for His work, and the Bible is full of such things. The church not only suffers but testifies, and this mightily (cf. Luke 21;14-15), and Fox's Book of Martyrs has much testimony on this almost stunning testimony! Indeed, it would be less than frank if one did not acknowledge most clearly that the Lord has helped this present writer in ways which to him have appeared quite spectacular, in such matters; for where there was no help but in HIM, there He was! (cf. Isaiah 58:9). The Lord so helps millions who rely on Him. The joint effects of this total thrust from the presence of the Lord are vast.

The witnesses, the two, to represent the testimonial and ruling aspects of the church (cf. Zechariah 3:6-4:14), and embodying as a pair,  the concept of a sure and safe report (cf. Deuteronomy 17:6, John 8:17): these are that great body of Christ, the Church (Ephesians 1:22-23), which has existed from His calling of it into existence, and in prototype, long before that.

WHEN THEREFORE these two witnesses are called: "COME UP HERE!" in Revelation 11:12, it fills what otherwise is a missing element in this testimonial of God's coming dealings with His people (Revelation 1). It does so as is very usual in this book, in symbols; and again, as is customary here, it is done in well-known and striking, well-attested Biblical symbols, thus tying together many things, which is one reason why the book of Revelation is like the best wine, very challenging to the palate, but well worth it!

Their lying 'dead' in appearance for 31/2 days (Rev. 11:8-11) is one more play on the half-week, or 3.5 theme, which not merely indicates the sense of GOVERNED TIME, but reminds of what was lost in the crucifixion of Christ. It is now HIS time, and the half-week is to be fulfilled at HIS discretion when HE is ready and HIS program is complete, and when the requirement that  the gospel be preached to all the world, is deemed done! (cf. Acts 1:7-8,11). The components of preparation for the ending of their testimony are nearly complete. Pauses can occur in heaven (cf. Rev. 8:1, Daniel 12:7-12), but the structure of things is both clear and determinate. As for the Lord's return, that is the way it is intended to be (cf. Acts 1:7ff., Luke 21:28).
 
 

TO REVIEW CERTAIN ASPECTS

After all, let us summarise, literally, it was seventy  SEVENS which were to pass for the fulfilment of prophecy to the bringing in of everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24-27: see E.J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel, p. 195). The "weeks" term is merely a way of translating it. Sevens, the literal meaning, can be of any definable length; and while the first length was undoubtedly literal, the death of Christ led to His prolonging this period, quite explicitly as seen in Acts, until the Gospel need was fulfilled, and all might hear, while the testimony of truth made its various attestations, demonstrations and exposures in the meantime (cf. Ephesians 3:10ff.).

Of course (Daniel 9:1-4), Daniel had just been pondering the 70 year exile, prophetically determined for the Jewish people, and had resolved to fast and pray, since the time of its fulfilment - 'time to go home' as soldiers in a foreign battle field might feel - was in his mind. "Open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name; for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive, O Lord hearken and do; do not defer, for Thine own sake..." (from Daniel 9:18-19). Hence it is clear that 70 years are focussed, and it will be in such terms of supplication we might legitimately expect a tender-hearted, heeding answer from the Lord.

Now the Lord addresses not merely the 70 year predicted, disciplinary exile imposed on the people, but explicitly, turns to the whole gamut of prophecy to the bringing in of everlasting righteousness (9:24). For THIS, a BESEVENING of 70 (Young, lit. loc.cit.) is to be required. As noted this does NOT mean weeks. It is sevens, and the participial form indicates this besevening. It thus comes out as : besevened seventy.

Like a teacher - and who better! - the Lord says, as it were,
 

Now Daniel, your concern is 70 and current return to Jerusalem, and its restoration.

Now look: I shall give you far beyond this. For the entire fulfilment to this vast showering of reconciliation and everlasting righteousness upon the earth, in the final domain and past the preliminaries, what ? not seventy but BESEVENED SEVENTY will come.

It will come: as to this is coming, it will ALL come. Let us be clear to the end, then. Not just this current point, but the entire global and human history disposition is under fine-tuned control and will assuredly happen.

Nevertheless, that being said, it remains true that the term chosen is not ONLY seven, arithmetically, a sevening of the 70, but one which being in the unusual masculine gender (Young, loc.cit.) calls attention to this fact rather pointedly. Elasticity of concept is certainly present, although the immediate context is equally emphatically set in what has been a simple historical routine of a 70 which was expressed in years. Thus the POTENTIAL for the more general concept of 7 times 70 years is as surely present as is the initial reality that it is a magnification by the factor of 7 of what has just passed, which of course was seventy years. As seen elsewhere (SMR pp. 886ff.), this gives both an amazing prediction of the death date of the Messiah (9:26, cf 892-896, 943ff.) and a facility BECAUSE of that death, to allow the Church's gospel mission to be fulfilled at the Lord's own leisure, in the time both hidden and determined, which He shall set (Acts 1:6-8).

Here, following His resurrection,  the Lord Jesus Christ quite explicitly tells them to forget about knowing the precise point of the end, for that item is not their business, but to get on with the missioning, gospelling, teaching of the word until HE who has set it, makes that apparent. As He had already shown, it was part of the divine strategy that THIS BE NOT KNOWN (Matthew 24:42ff.), and this parting authorisation confirmed that directly.

Equally it has made yet more squalid and foolish the efforts to authenticate themselves of the various false christs and antichrists towards the end of our Age, since the time for THE MESSIAH is a couple of thousand years or so, too late! The measured time to the death of the Messiah is long over, and as we have shown (above refs.), it was to be in the vicinity of 30A.D.; and as it was to be, so it was.

Accordingly, the actual death of Christ did occur, right on time, more reliable even than old-time British rail: an attestation of the thrilling power of the Lord to consign events with precision in history, from long before, to say it and to do it, as none could (as declared to be the case in Isaiah 48); for in the precision of this prophecy is involved the millions of decisions over hundreds of years from the time it was made till it was fulfilled: in this time were the myriads of people any one of whom, doing something NOT foreseen, could overthrow any such prophecy in a moment.

None did, because ALL is foreseen and foreknown, carefully composed in the DIVINE SYMPHONY: its graces and rebukes, its opportunities and its grandeur. As the death, so the resurrection pre-announced a thousand years, duly proceeded unable to be delayed or thwarted, adjusted or consumed!

What then of these innovators, this other Jesus contingent of hopefuls, these twentieth century messiahs ? They strut onto the scene,  a couple of thousand years out of kilter, two millenia or so too late; and even for today's wild religions, this is not really ... adequate!

Meanwhile, the actual end of the 70 7's, taken in one unaltered pattern, would be in the AD 30's:

  • after the crucifixion,
  • the resurrection (implied in Daniel 9:27 as shown),
  • Pentecost,
  • Stephen's speech and the confrontation of the truth with entrenched confusion and reaction,
  • the 40 days of demonstration of the Lord's power and bodily presence
  • and the ascension:

so in that sense, the main thrust of Daniel's prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 would already have been fulfilled at that time of the apostles in straight line 70x7 years: the everlasting righteousness brought in, the whole gospel being paid for, the whole power being displayed over even death, and the whole plan of salvation being seen.

Nevertheless, the full manifestation of the victory, the final sealing up of the prophecy is still to come, in the Messianic rule on earth,  while the final ruin of the devil awaits (Daniel 9:24 -'to seal up vision and prophecy'). It is towards this phase that the disciples would have been looking (cf. Acts 1:4-8), and it is here that the final session of the final half-seven in its final magnitude is kept back at the Messiah's discretion with His Father (andHe has assuredly earned this ! - cf. Revelation 5:1-10).  It is this phase which we see in high focus in Daniel 12:8-12:13, in Revelation 11 and in the Lord's announcement that it was NOT for them to know the final timing of the 'settlement' at the end (Acts 1:6-7, cf. Luke 24:44-49).

Indeed, it is this phase of PROCLAMATION of the FINISHED WORK of CHRIST leading to His manifest place in power on earth (as in Isaiah 66:23, Micah 7, Isaiah 2, Amos 4, and all in this in the light of Isaiah 65:13-16), which is in view in Isaiah 66:18-21 (cf. Romans 15:7-16, and see SMR pp. 791ff., 875), and especially in the last of these verses.

The rains have come; the seed is being sown continually; the growth is occurring, the comings and goings occur, the church raises the standard (Isaiah 59:19) even as "the enemy comes in like a flood"; the world languishes in its rebellion; but the Lord shall come personally in triumphant brilliance (II Thess. 1) to complete this whole symphony of grace (cf. Zechariah 14). In this epochal finale, following the return of the Jews (SMR Appendix A), and the restoration of Jerusalem (as in Luke 21:24). "The Redeemer will come to Zion" - Isaiah 59:20, Romans 11:25-26.

So the 70 7's goes on to its climax. The two witnessing completing their tour de force which is likewise a tour of grace with the gospel - but let us return to the detail of our interest, in Revelation 11:7-11.
 
 

THE THREE AND ONE HALF DAYS

What, then, of the 31/2 days in which the witnesses lie as dead in Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8 - or rather their 'bodies' so lie), just before their call to heaven ? THIS ...

1) This is undoubtedly a VERY short period, as it is one in which gifts are exchanged in a party-like spirit, by those rejoicing in their apparent disaster.

2) While the gates of hell shall NOT, by assured divine promise, prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16), yet there is to be vast falling away (II Thessalonians 2) which will reveal, like a virus laid up in a rose's place the evil one, the mystery of iniquity reaching its culmination in the devil's messiah (cf. SMR pp. 721 *11, 743ff., 750Bff., 732Bff., 505ff., 513, 929, Biblical Blessings Ch. 2), a vain figure (II Thessalonians 2:4,9), and one both deceived and deceptive.

Hence at the acme, when the power of evil is bursting on the groaning earth (cf. Matthew 24:22, 5ff.), there will be appearance of slaughter of the church (cf. Revelation 12:11-12, 12:17, 17:6, Matthew 24:3,9, Luke 21:12, 16) as if its large organised outwardness ('body') would equate its inner inability to be crushed. No more indeed, the outward finery, now the reality of faith would continue for a very short time, without the clear and obvious demonstration of public appearance. In Russia and China how much towards such a state has been done, from time to time, as if a prelude!

It might then seem that all was destroyed because the outward apparatus was no longer public, and that the body was dead. Indeed, into the large outward body, increasingly compromised with statecraft (as in the Chinese control mechanism and 3 self church and so on, formal ways of masquerading as righteousness while simply acting to subvert), there come false teachers according to plan (II Peter 2:1ff., I Timothy 4:1ff., II Timothy 3ff., Jude) whose role is a very searching one, and MANY, as Peter declares, will follow this chary charade, this fifth column, this quisling apparatus, this deceitful device. MANY will be purified on the other hand, and made white (Daniel 12:10).  The dimensions of the test and of this phase of the music are of the grandest magnitude.

This fits precisely with what is said elsewhere, not only in II Thessalonians 2, but in Daniel 12:10, 7:21.

3) Just as all seems won by the machinations of evil, then all is lost. Their 'triumph' is ephemeral, their deceit exposed, their darkness fleeing before the light of the returning Lord. First, the witnesses are raptured (Revelation 11:12), and received (Revelation 19:5-9), then the Word of God, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, taking His time, appears (Revelation 19:13-20). Then the evil devil's messiah will the Lord "consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming" , being "revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance"  on those who did not know God, even on those who did not obey the Gospel, being rebellious.

Far is this from the Gospel Age, when there is a coming NOT to judge the world but that it might be saved (John 3:16-17). THIS is JUDGMENT! Long has it waited (II Peter 3:9), in a whole expanded duration of grace. Now is the happening phase, the motion motif.

As the coming of Christ FOR His saints was like "the lightning which comes from the East and flashes to the West", a thing of moments, "in the twinkling of an eye" ( Matthew 24:27, I Cor. 15:52), so His return will be militant, confrontational, corrosive and destructive of evil, categorically overthrowing the whole power and presence of evil in any form of rule whatsoever, in an advent both sudden and devastating.

Thus is the  power of God is manifested, the doom awaiting the fraudulent misusers of faith  on their defeated and delinquent heels; and the Word of God  looms with the brightness of doom, declares itself with the fashion of passion, judgment no longer stayed, and He comes with power to prevail against those whose ruin of the earth is proudly associated with the joint ruin of their own souls (Revelation 19:8 with 19:11-21).
 

8) From Acme, Alpha and Omega : JESUS CHRIST

CHAPTER 5

TWO WITNESSES ?

who are they ? what do they do ? what does this teach us ?
what has it to do with Christian Apologetics ?
 

WHO ARE THE WITNESSES ?*1A

Revelation 11 introduces - or more strictly re-introduces us - to the two witnesses. Who are they ?

The reference to the olive trees (two) and the lampstands standing before the Lord matches only one base, and that is found in Zechariah 4. If you were a Jew in the period when John wrote Revelation, under the power of the Holy Spirit, then in your (compared to now) very limited literature base, and the exceedingly well known book of the Lord, there would not be the slightest difficulty in recognising the allusion in Revelation, which teems with such allusions.  It is in one sense a wrap-up work, sealing symbols and indicating the latest reference point for them; and in another, tying up the matters so that NO THING could be added (Revelation 22:18). If you add to THESE THINGS, plagues and not blessing are your privilege, exactly as was the case with the covenant of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32, 13:4-5).

The lampstands are to supply oil to the lamps, from the source of the olive tree. In the Revelation case, there are two lampstands, one for each witness it seems. "These," says the text (11:4) are the two olive trees and the two lampstands. In other words, the symbolism of Zechariah, which was in the location of Chs.3-4, addressing the coming Messiah through the dressing up of the high priest in filthy robes, then changed for clean ones, and a turban of presence. This symbolised the sin-bearing saviour to come (as in Isaiah 52-5), as shown in 3:9 where He is seen as the stone on which the inscription of sin, like the handwriting of condemnation for sin, is seen. By this means, He carries off the iniquity in one day, ample and sufficient for all whose sins are inscribed on Him: though as He explained, if any did not BELIEVE it was He, then of course their sin would remain with them, and they would die with it (John 8:24).

Following up on this symbolism for the Messiah is the case of Zerubbabel (4:6ff.), who is to finish the building of the temple. It is he who is to 'bring forth the capstone" with cries to IT, of 'grace, grace!'.

In this process relating to 1) the high priest in the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century B.C. and 2) the governor overseeing the operation, we see these highly specific references to two things. First, is the completion of the work in repentance and faith,  and second, the preparation for the eventual coming of the Messiah, who will fulfil the sin covering in Himself, which the temple was merely symbolising.

It is important to note that the reference in the case of Joshua the high priest, is not only to the official himself, but -
"Joshua, the high priest,
You and your companions who sit before you,
For they are a wondrous sign..."  (3:8). This is IN VIEW of the coming Messiah (3:9), the "stone which is laid before Joshua" whose very ordinary status is reviewed in trenchant terms by the dressing up in filthy robes, changed for clean one, leading on to the Saviour on whom the sin is to be inscribed as noted.

Turning back to Revelation 11, our current focus of interest, we find that they are to perform their witness for 42 months. The elaborate symbolism is simple if you know the word of God, as many of the Jews would have done. Daniel in 9:24-27 was introduced by divine revelation to a singular fact. While the Jews in his life-span had been in Babylon for around 70 years, a discipline for chronic rebellion as specified IN ADVANCE by Jeremiah (cf. Isaiah 30:8-9), and the time was about up, Daniel was seeking the Lord with fasting, sackcloth  and supplications. In response, he was shown that each of the years - namely 70 - of the exile would be replaced for the extensive review of coming history about to be given, by a SEVEN.

Thus not seventy years, but seventy SEVENS were to come. After 69 of these would be the MESSIAH. In the midst of one week there would be a cutting off of the sacrifices. This was to be followed, as it was, by great devastation (for example, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed in A.D. 70, and Jews forbidden to enter in a succeeding period). With 69 of the 70 gone, and the last action concerning the rejection of the Messiah past, there would be left out of the total, one half seven. That of course is 3 and one half. In years, literally, that is (on a 360 day style year such as you see in the equivalents of Revelation 11:2-3) 3 and one half, in months 42, and in days 1260.

You see all these figures in Revelation. As shown in SMR pp. 959ff., these become symbolical as to size after the death of the Messiah, who declined to quantify the time of His return (Acts 1) when asked. The Messianic seven is at the Father's discretion, and lasts until all the world has heard the gospel and all the requirements are met (Matthew 24:24:14). One of these was the return of the Jews to Jerusalem (Luke 21:24), and that has been met recently (1948,1967).

This is the interesting part of the fact that the 70 lots were of SEVEN, and this number, having been used with great and dramatic precision to show in advance by hundreds of years, the atoning death date of the Messiah (cf. SMR pp. 886ff.), is now in service until the time comes, and its value is to convey the sense of the end, in terms of the post-murder period concerning Christ.

Thus when we see the 1260 and 42 months in Revelation 11, we realise that this is an end-time symbol and signal! In fact, it is to last until the holy City of the Jews, Jerusalem, is no more trodden down by the Gentiles, that is, in their care or control. That is apparently NOW, but the huge international cry against Jerusalem for the Jews, one of the prodigalities of the UN as noted earlier on this site (e.g. The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch.6) means that amongst other things, the TEMPLE site is far from free for the Jews, and is in fact inhabited by a giant mosque of an alien religion (cf. SMR pp. 822ff.). At all events, the time is in the present plan of things, and we are in its immediate vicinity.

Thus if we have any 1900 + year old people, they would be arithmetically in the right area of age! In other words, we are dealing not with two individuals at all, but with what has gone on since Christ and what is to continue to the end of the Age (Luke 21:21-25 makes this explicit). What has testified, in the symbolic sense that Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest did, in this period; and what has followed in what these two stood for, together ? Theirs were the authoritative and the testimonial phases of the life of the people of the Old Covenant, those called (in an earlier phase) "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38). The New Testament equivalent is the New Testament Church. It is this which comprises the "two witnesses" in time duration, in function and in what is to follow.
 
 

WHAT DO THEY DO ?

 

The functions of course focus on TESTIMONY, and in Rev. 12:11, we find of the Christians that "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." Him ? the devil, thrown out of heaven and wrathful on earth.

The "fire" from their mouths reminds one, in this symbolical work, of Luke 21:15, of Paul in II Corinthians 10:5, of Titus' instructions in Titus 1:9, 3:10. It relates rather closely no doubt to the express depiction in Acts 2, when a tongue of fire sat on the head of each apostle.

The death may occur in various ways, but the judgment which is constituted by the fire on the enemies, is eternal, when there is no repentance. The plagues (11:6) are allied to the turning of waters to blood, which is precisely what has happened in the last 50 years in this world, where murder and massacre, mayhem and carnage have been vast and constant. The cry of the saints (as in Rev.5) is not only in heaven, and as the Lord hears and answers, following the murders, tortures and imprisonment of His people, this is the form it has taken. Those who live by the sword, die by it. It is rather like the case of Jeremiah in Ch.1, where he is to oversee the rising and falling of nations: AS a prophet, and IN this, that the word of the Lord through him is to be operative in dealing with Israel and the surrounding nations. It is in this sense that the events, including plagues, as prophesied earlier in Revelation (6,16) come. What has the church to do with this ? WHEN it prays for the early coming of Christ (Rev. 22:20), it is praying for the opening of the books, the termination of this Age's history. THAT in turn is filled with precisely the plagues noted, and which have come, do come and are coming.

As to the power regarding rain withholding as a penalty, we are reminded of James 5, where we learn that Elijah was a man of "like passions" to ourselves, yet in earnest prayer (in pursuit of the Lord's direction), he was used to shut and later to open the heavens, in a divine demonstration to Israel which had grown hard of hearing the word of the Lord, of the mind of his Creator! So here.
 

 

WHAT DOES THIS TEACH US ?

It teaches us that the power of prayer of vast; that the word of the Lord will CERTAINLY be done, that the church of Jesus Christ loves not its own life to death, but continuing anyway, is enabled to perform whatever the testimony requires (as in Rev. 12:11). It is NOT a silent majority, for it is FILLED with testimony and far from being in charge of the things of this world. It continues the flashing beauty of the work of the saints as noted in Hebrews 11, in these two millenia since, and in the rugged courage, constancy of devotion of such men as John Knox, Martin Luther, John Calvin and the Wesleys, Anglicans in the sacrifice of the 1660's, Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, social reformers, slavery overturners, living sacrifices in jungles, cities and countries both dangerous and backward, fulfilling the testimony of Christ as commanded.

It has brought into being great institutions like Princeton, great arms of prowess in fields academic, physical and among the greatest scientific geniuses of all time like Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Boyle (cf. A Spiritual Potpourri  Ch.4, pp. 72ff.). in these two millenia since, and in the rugged courage, constancy of devotion of such men as John Knox, Martin Luther, John Calvin and the Wesleys, Anglicans in the sacrifice of the 1660's, Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, social reformers, slavery overturners, living sacrifices in jungles, cities and countries both dangerous and backward, fulfilling the testimony of Christ as commanded. It has brought into being great institutions like Princeton, great arms of prowess in fields academic, physical and among the greatest scientific geniuses of all time (cf. A Spiritual Potpourri Ch.4, pp. 72ff.).

It is not a cultural captive, for it is in DIRECT opposition to the prince of this world (as in John 14:30, and Revelation 12). It has the presence of Christ in heart and in the love of Christ, it follows the desire to win and persuade, but well enough knows as did the Master, the Son of God Himself, the tragedies which will certainly follow the continued rejection of the Gospel by this world (John 3:17ff., Luke 19:42). Love rejoices in the truth, and the truth is that if the truth is long enough and implacably enough resisted or rejected, what follows is unlovely. That is the NATURE of it, for where love is denied in terms of some mere enclave of flesh, the very love of God rebuffed, then its absence becomes increasingly intolerable.

It teaches us something else. In II Thessalonians, Paul, like Christ in Matthew 24, speaks of the enormous departure from the faith (cf. II Peter 3, II Timothy 3, I Timothy 4) which is to come. This is coming. It is becoming so apparent that some would like to write the large institutional church off as a passé apparatus. As we have seen in Stepping out for Christ Chs.1, 4, A Spiritual Potpourri 13 and in Repent or Perish 5 and The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Chs. 1,  6, 7 and 10, with SMR 687ff., 864ff., for example, there has been a vast erosion of the faith in many of the large and settled institutions, a process much multiplied by the sects themselves, leading to an air of indifferentism in many, which acts as an accelerator in the second phase of the process.

Thus when, in Rev. 11:9, we see the 'dead bodies' of the witnesses, just prior to their ascent to the haven of heaven, lying in the streets, a subject of unblushing rejoicing by this world (11:10), we realise the extent of the invasion. It is NOT that the church fails, for it is guaranteed. Matthew 16 shows us the church where Christ as the rock is central - cf. Psalm 62 and Ch. 3 above, pp. 30ff.; its power continues unabated, but not by papal armies or social sanctions. Founded on the only permissible foundation (I Cor. 3:10-11), it is indestructible; but the bodies of its citizens are not! They die in considerable numbers (cf. Rev. 6:11). Persecution becomes vast and implacable (cf. Rev. 13:16ff.).

The imposing social edifice which many churches made, the political power which some have experienced, the financial plumage, all this passes quickly. Persecution mounts to maddened heights, and already it is feverish at  many levels (cf. That Magnificent Rock Ch.8, The Other News  Appendix 1, and Ch.3 above). Thus we learn to expect an invasion of liberties, an harassment of opportunities, an exclusion in many fields and a deterioration of structural power in SOCIETY as many of the large enterprises in religion in the past, crumble, being taken over by fiddlers, fiascos and wolves. Examples moving, Biblically, in this direction, are noted in the references two paragraphs above.

Thus fearless in the power of the Lord, with answers to every challenge that glorify Him, in apparent weakness, but in undying strength, despite the appalling judgments slotted for the earth, in answer to growing and maddened rebellion, the actual church of BELIEVERS will continue unbowed, enabled to the end; but its social prowess and political clout will die as if it lay in the streets. The example of Paul does not fade (cf. II Cor. 4:7ff.,  I Cor. 4:9ff.), who found the power and riches of Christ his stability, the source of enterprise and the source of whatever miracle or word was needed for the faith at the time (II Cor. 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:19, Acts 13-16, II Tim. 4:17, Philippians 4:13 cf. Isaiah 33:6).

What courage, what constancy, what originality of re-organisation (always on the Biblical draft lines), what testimony it must now make; and with what spiritual weapons, in the love of Christ, it must wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, giving humbly but irrepressibly the REASON for the faith (I Peter 15), living the LIFE of faith and acting with the SAVOUR of the Lord (I Cor. 2:16), a saviour of life to the dying, who resist to the end the grace of the Lord, and of life of the living, who rejoice in a life which starts now, but continues for ever (I John 5:12-13).

THEN! Are they not perhaps near to being the three most beautiful words in the Bible, these which come to the witnesses, the church, from heaven: "COME UP HERE!" (Rev. 11:12)*1 . They they go as he did (Acts 1). They go to the place prepared, just as, in the beginning before sin's onset, the earth was the place prepared. The pilgrimage over, they are then on recall, while the ends of things for the current Age, unfold. It was the Lord Jesus, the Lamb who ALONE was permitted to take the scroll of history to come (Revelation 5:2-13), since blessing and glory, and honour and power are to the Lamb, and the Father who sent Him from heaven, for ever. With HIM He shares His glory (Isaiah 42:8), since He with the Father is one God, He who sends and He who is sent (Isaiah 48:16, Hebrews 1, John 1, 5:19-23). What delight to rejoin as adopted children, the Son of God, and to know express and sure, the very face, the invitation fulfilled, to see God face to face (Revelation 21-22).
 
 

WHAT HAS THIS TO DO WITH CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS,
WITH A REASON FOR THE FAITH ?

This

  • 1) shows us the nature of events concerning the church, and dramatises it so that it is not subject to confusion, hence fortifying the Christian, and verifying once more the word of God as we see just these things, documented on this site, occurring NOW, when they are supposed to occur, in the overall setting (as in SMR Ch.8).


 

  • 2) reminds us of the death time of Christ as highly precise in its prophesy, but the call to heaven time for the saints as deliberately concealed - we are to be READY, in the very schema of precision (cf. Acts 1, and the Lord's statement on this there).


 

  • 3) warns all of the nature of the deadly conflicts to come, and serves an instructive purpose for all to ponder, who see beginning, and in some nations, moving rapidly to maturity, the processes here described. As they ARE deadly it is also verification already.


 

  • 4) focusses the Lord Jesus Christ as the acme, alpha and omega, something highly prominent in the book of Revelation, HE the one who alone can take the scroll of history, to unroll it so that the Age can end; HE who with the Father has eternal glory, and shares His throne (Rev. 22:3), ONE throne! It is all about what He supervises, His protestations, His continuing invitation, "I Jesus have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!". And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely" - Rev. 22:16-17.


 

 
 

END -NOTES

*1A This topic is covered a little differently in Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane 87, End-note 1. The two together may help a composite picture for some.
 

*1 It would be unthinkable that the church whose departure is so dramatic (Matthew 24:21ff.), and the subject of such warning (Matthew 24:45ff., 25:1-10), in direct speech and in parable alike, that the church whose presence is so impactive (Matthew 16:16ff., 24:11-14), power so celestially given (Luke 24:49ff., Acts Chs. 1-16), should not be seen to go.

That the departure of the blood-covered (Revelation 1) church should not be mentioned in a book where the seals are loosed concerning what is to come to pass, on the document of coming events, and this by none less than Christ Himself (Rev. 5:4-7), leading to the dénouement where the Word of God in His own Person comes in flaming victory and judgment in the midst of His saints, fresh from the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:5-9) after many cumulative and carefully calibrated preliminaries in seals, thunders, trumpets and vials : it would be like a time table without a train.

It is precisely here in Rev. 11 and nowhere else, that the reception of the saints occurs, that is to occur; the reception of the saints of God, called at last out of this world, before the judgment arises and arrives as in Rev. 19. In parallel with this, the very designation of the church as just given above, is readily symbolised just as Rev. 11 gives it: active in the furnace, empowered, assaulted, delivered. Small wonder NONE of these things can be added to, NONE of these words reduced (Rev. 22:18ff.). THAT, it would be like someone writing to the newspapers about things which were to take place in a court of law, adding to the words of a judge, duly inscribed and duly pronounced by his own person! or subtracting from them. Such a thing would be pure illusion.