Part 11

While the “holy city” is trampled underfoot by the nations for 42 months, the two witnesses will prophesy for the same period, expressed as 1,260 days.

Some Bible readers at least have a passing interest in the prophecy of the two witnesses. Yet, it seems no one—including the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses—has ever considered why they are called “my two witnesses” or what they may witness. Since they are said to be standing before the Lord of the whole earth, it must be that Jesus is the one calling them “my two witnesses.” But why?

The law of Moses stipulated that the testimony of two witnesses establishes every matter. So, it is a legal precept.

To appreciate the role of these two legal witnesses, we should consider the significance of Moses and Elijah appearing in the Transfiguration vision. That is because, although Revelation leaves them unnamed, the two witnesses are described as performing mighty acts similar to those which the real Moses and Elijah were empowered to execute during their ministries.

Moses, therefore, represents the Law since he was the mediator of the Law covenant. It is often even called the law of Moses.

Elijah was the foremost prophet. This is ironic since Elijah did not write any of the prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Instead, he performed many powerful works, such as the first known resurrection. “Elijah” is also a forerunner of Christ. Jesus identified John the Baptizer as fulfilling the role of Elijah in the first century.

Just as Moses announced in advance to the ruler of Egypt the Ten plagues, Elijah declared to the apostate king of Israel that it would not rain except by his order. For 42 months, a severe drought gripped the land of Israel.

Elijah also called fire down from heaven to convince the Baal-worshipping Israelites that Jehovah was the true God, and later he twice summoned fire from the sky to consume those who had been sent to arrest Jehovah’s prophet.

Together, Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets—the totality of God’s dealings with Israel over 15 centuries that culminated with Christ. That is why Jesus said he did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.

However, although Paul explained that God had nailed the Law to the stake with Christ, the prophecies were not completely fulfilled with the life and death of the Messiah, far from it. Do not all of the prophecies ultimately point to the second coming and the establishment of the Kingdom in the final part of the days? They surely do.

It is especially noteworthy that the closing words of Malachi, which was the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures, mention both Moses and Elijah, and place the coming of Elijah with the fiery day of Jehovah: “Remember the Law of my servant Moses, the regulations and judgments that I commanded at Horeb for all Israel to obey. “Look! I am sending to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awe-inspiring day of Jehovah. And he will turn the hearts of fathers back toward sons, and the hearts of sons back toward fathers, so that I may not come and strike the earth, devoting it to destruction.”

And that is why Moses and Elijah appeared in the Transfiguration vision, which is a foregleam of the parousia. Then is when the new covenant and the prophecies, including Revelation, will be fulfilled, and the sacred secret will come to its finish.

Moses and Elijah had common experiences. Both of them had close encounters with God on Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai—“the mountain of the true God.”

“SEVEN THOUSAND PERSONS WERE KILLED”

When Elijah was fleeing from the Jehovah-hating, murderous Jezebel, he holed up in a cave in Horeb, and Jehovah came down upon the mountain. And as the true God was “passing by,” there was a fierce windstorm, followed by a great quaking that split mountains and crags, and after the wind and quaking came fire. But Jehovah was not in the quaking, the wind, or the fire. After the mountain settled, Elijah stood at the cave’s entrance and wrapped his cloak over his face as he heard a calm, low voice speak to him. Among other things, Jehovah informed the prophet that he was not alone; God had 7,000 who had not bent the knee to Baal.

The apostle Paul cited this declaration and applied it to the first-century appearance of anointed Christians whom Christ bought for God, saying: “Yet, what does the divine pronouncement say to him? ‘I have left for myself 7,000 men who have not bent the knee to Baal.’ So in the same way, at the present time also, there is a remnant according to a choosing through undeserved kindness.” – Romans 11:4-5

The inspired apostle referred to the 7,000 as “a remnant.” That is odd, since in all likelihood there were many more than 7,000 Christians when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. And why would he call first-century Christians “a remnant”? True, the original Christians were all Jewish, so it could be understood that they were the remnant of Israel. But Paul was writing to non-Jewish Christians.

The expression “remnant” appears in the 12th chapter of Revelation in connection with the dragon going off to wage war against the remnant of the seed of the woman after Christ’s Kingdom comes to power. It seems Paul was speaking prophetically himself, applying the 7,000 making up a remnant, or “remaining ones” as the New World Translation words it, to those final sealed ones who will see Christ face-to-face. It is especially to them that the closing words of the letter to the Romans apply: “For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”

Please note that 7,000 are mentioned in connection with the two witnesses in the 11th chapter of Revelation. And just as the two witnesses are killed, the 7,000 are killed as if by a great earthquake. Be reminded that Jerusalem was rocked by a great earthquake when Jesus was killed. So, the two witnesses symbolize the collective of the chosen ones, whereas the 7,000 reveals the actual number of individual witnesses to Christ’s parousia.

As for those laboring under the Watchtower’s theocratic delusion, you may be certain that the 7,000 were not persons who were symbolically killed in 1918 when they rocked Christendom by requesting to have their names removed from church membership rosters. Do Jehovah’s Witnesses even realize the Watchtower makes ridiculous statements such as this and passes them off as inspired?

Jesus spoke about his followers being made to stand before governors and kings on two separate occasions. And both times, he warned that brothers would hand over brothers to be killed. In that context, in the 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus said not to fear those who can only kill the body but not the soul. That takes on even more meaning when we realize that the chosen will not sleep in death for even a nano-second, but will be changed from flesh to spirit in the twinkling of an eye.

Is this not what is represented by Elijah being whisked away in a fiery war chariot that ascended into the heavens in a windstorm? Call it a rapture if you wish. Moses was also taken by God, only literally. Although Moses was 120 years old, and his strength had not diminished, God took him, and no one ever found where God buried him.

“SEE, I HAVE MADE YOU LIKE GOD”

The ministries of Moses and Elijah have other similarities. Both prophets stood before kings and announced Jehovah’s judgments. At Exodus 7:1, Jehovah told Moses: “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your own brother will become your prophet.”

Jesus said during the finale that the chosen ones will be brought before local courts. In the footnotes of the NWT, “local courts” could mean the judicial body of a local synagogue. When Jesus said men will hand you over to local courts and you will be beaten and thrown from the synagogues, he was foretelling that the chosen will be persecuted and judicially disfellowshipped because all will not accept the witness they will give.

Haven’t Jehovah’s Witnesses been deluded into believing in an invisible presence and manifestation? Understandably, the testimony of those who will be witnesses to the revelation of Christ will be disbelieved by many, just as many of the Jews refused to accept the witness of those who saw Christ after he rose from the dead.

Jesus pointedly instructed his followers not to rehearse beforehand what they will say when they stand before governors and kings, assuring them that what they will say will be provided in that very hour by the holy spirit. In the 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus said, “The ones speaking are not just you, but it is the spirit of your Father that speaks by you.”

They will speak for the Father and Jesus, since they will be in complete union with them then. That is what Jesus meant when he told his apostles: “In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. In that day you will know that I am in union with my Father and you are in union with me and I am in union with you.” – John 14:19-20

In other words, “in that day,” those who will be made to stand before the rulers of the world during the time of the end will be like God to them, as was Moses to Pharaoh.

It surely is no coincidence that the two witnesses prophesy for 42 months, as that corresponds to the three-and-a-half-year ministry of Jesus Christ. And at the end of his 42-month ministry, Jesus came under judgment by the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin, as well as the representatives of the Roman Empire—both Pilate and Herod.

With modern means of communication, the message of the two witnesses for Christ can reach the world in a very short time. What exactly will their message be? It is the prophesying contained in the little scroll that John was handed and commanded to ingest, which made his belly bitter.

Apparently, the two witnesses will present their message to the eighth king. The revived wild beast will then conquer and kill them. Revelation 11:7-10 states: “When they have finished their witnessing, the wild beast that ascends out of the abyss will wage war with them and conquer them and kill them. And their corpses will be on the main street of the great city that is in a spiritual sense called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also executed on the stake. And those of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not allow their corpses to be laid in a tomb. And those dwelling on the earth rejoice over them and celebrate, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those dwelling on the earth.”

In what sense was the Lord killed in Sodom and Egypt? Through Isaiah, Jehovah unflatteringly referred to the leaders of his people as the dictators of Sodom. And Jesus was condemned to death by the leaders of the Jewish nation, just as the two witnesses will be condemned by their former brothers and beaten in the synagogues. But the designation “dictators of Sodom” especially applies to the leaders of God’s people during the final part of the days when the mountain of the house of Jehovah is established.

Since the eighth king springs from the seven, and Egypt was the first, it may symbolize the entire beast, regardless of which empire rules. Hence, the Roman Empire was the “Egypt” in Jesus’ day, just as America is the “Egypt” in prophecy, including Daniel, where the king of the south is represented as Egypt, the original king of the south. And it is the seventh head of the beast that advocates making an image of the beast.

The message of the two witnesses is said to torment those dwelling on the earth. In the ninth chapter of Revelation, the locusts of the abyss that the Terminator unleashes are said to torment “only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” So, their prophesying to the peoples, nations, tongues, and many kings will be a message of doom. And apparently, the people of the world will get the message, and that is why they will rejoice when the beast kills the two witnesses. They will not wish to know that they will have approved of the death and piercing of Christ anew.

End of part eleven