Lesson Three

Chapter 11:7-12

Death and Resurrection of the Two Witnesses

a) Death of the Church (11:7-10)

- The task of the witnesses/church during this final period of world history is to maintain their witness even in the midst of terrible persecution. And the task of the witness is to maintain their conquering perseverance and to witness eve by their death.

- The beast is a demonic figure (cf. 9:3-4, 11; 13:1) Read Dan 7:7-12. The four beast in Dan 7 prophesy for world empires that would dominate the Jewish people from the exile through the intertestimental period. They have been identified as: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

- Rev 11:7 speaks about the beast “waging war,” conquer and kill the saints. And he does so, only because God allows it (cf. Dan 7:21, 25).

- In 16:14 and 19:19, the beast gathers the world armies together from Armageddon, and in 20:8, the dragon gathers God and Magog from the four corners of the earth for the final stand against God.

- But in actual fact, this is not final stand against God because no one can stand against God. Rather it is the final act of defiance made by an already defeated foe and the death of the saints is their actual victory over Satan. In their suffering and death, the witnesses/believers replicate the passion of Jesus and join in “the fellowship of his suffering” (Ph 3:10). The two witnesses have proven the truth in John 1:5, “The Light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” And as we will see later, this sacrifice of the Church is what was needed to turn some hearts from rejection of 9:20-21 into repentance 11:13.

- The universal scorn heaped on the witnesses after they are martyred. The “great city” represents all cities that oppose God; cities of self-sufficiency in place of dependence on the Creator; achievement in place of repentance; oppression in place of faith; the beast in place of the lamb; and the murdered in place of the witnesses to God.

- This city speaks of apostate Jerusalem: Sodom = ungodliness; it is depravity and rebellion against God. Egypt = bondage and oppression (Has 8:13; Joel 3:19).

- The ungodly on live for the things of this earth and worship the earthly gods (9:20-21). And they rejoice for the dark because it hides their sins (John 3:19-20).

- There is a contrast between the joy of the earth-dwellers and the joy of the heaven-dwellers. Earth-dwellers joy is short-lived victory and the saints are eternal joy.

b) Resurrection/Rapture of the Church (11:11-12)

- Three and half days = during of the celebration is cut short to demonstrate the sovereignty of God. Allusion to the resurrection of Jesus on the third day and to the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37.

- The witness are raised to life and taken up to heaven. Does this symbolize the resurrection or rapture of the church? Some say no because the ascension to heaven in Jewish writings refer more to the vindication of the prophets and thus “represents the church’s victory over death blow of the beast. The key is the cloud. There are two primary uses of the cloud metaphor in Ot. It can indicate the presence of Yahweh as the Shekiniah presence; or it can signify the theophanic appearance of God (Eze 1:4), in which the cloud encircles him in majesty. Therefore the cloud here seems to signify vindication.

- However, the two witnesses may be the resurrection of the church because of the timing. It occurs at the end of the three and half years but there is still to follow by eschatological earthquake and the conversion of many spectators (11:13).

- Yet in 19:11-12, 14 it is clear that the parousia occurs at the end of history, with the battle of Armageddon to follow and the resurrection of the church clearly occurs at the return of Christ in the NT (Mark 13:24-27; 1 Thess 4:16-17).

- Possible order of events (if the two witness are two end time prophets):

1. The ascension of the witnesses,

2. The eschatological earthquake,

3. The conversion of many earth-dwellers,

4. The return of Christ,

5. The rapture of the church,

6. The final battle,

7. The aftermath (millennium, great white throne judgment, and the coming of the new heavens and new earth).

- BUT these order of events have the death and resurrection of the witnesses not running concurrent with the gathering of the armies for Armageddon in the sixth bowl (16:12-14; cf. 19:11-21).

- So here is another possible order of events (if the two witnesses is represented as the Church):

1. The tribulation (death of the Church),

2. The rapture/resurrection of the saints (ascension of the two witnesses)

3. The return of Christ, the final call (14:6-7),

4. The final battle/eschatological earthquake,

5. The surviving earth dwellers who converted (11:13)

6. The aftermath (millennium, great white throne judgment, and the coming of the new heavens and new earth).

- After the tribulation the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Read Matthew 24: 9, 21, 29-31, 36-44; Mark 13:26-27. Here we see the resurrection and rapture happening at the coming of the Lord: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthian 15:52-53. The Rapture refers only to what happens to the believers who are living at the time of the return of Christ. Paul writes, “We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them [the dead in Christ] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

- It is more likely that the two witnesses are symbolic of the witnessing church in the last days before the end of the church. This stems from either Duet. 19:15 (cf. John 8:17) or it emphasizes the church’s “royal priestly functions” as suggested by the two metaphors in Zachariah 4. Two Olive trees = Joshua high priest and Zerubbabel the Jewish governor. (New International Commentary of NT).