Will the church be on earth during the great tribulation? Will all (ethnic) Israel be saved, and, if so, will they be members of the Church? Who is in view when Israel is portrayed in the book of Revelation? Some of the proposed answers to these and similar questions have divided covenant and dispensational believers. But a closer look at Revelation chapter 11, especially the identity of the two witnesses, reveals that there is truth and error in both camps and a need to reexamine our entrenched positions in eschatology (the doctrine of "last things").
In the New Testament, the Temple and its various features became a means of illustrating truth about the Church and the members of the Church, that resulted from the redemptive work of Christ. Peter writes to members of the Church, "... you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (I Peter 2:5). Paul reminds the church at Corinth, "... for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are" (I Cor. 3:17). In the Lord's message to Philadelphia, members of that church are promised that they will be made "...pillar(s) in the temple...." (Rev. 3:12). In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he refers to the wall of the temple that divided the inner Jewish court and outer gentile court when he discusses how the redemptive work of Christ tore down "the dividing wall" and created one body of believers (Eph.2:14). When John is here instructed to measure the inner court and leave out the outer court, these features of the temple are being similarly used to distinguish between believers in the Church. The entire Church, the whole body of Christ, is presented by the figure of the temple, but those who worship in the altar (Rev. 11:1) are in focus[1]. The subsequent discussion and description of two witnesses is not the introduction of a new topic, but is a further discussion of those "measured" members of the Church: believing Israel.
Our understanding of the central purpose of the two witnesses' ministry is established when they are described as "... those who worship in [the altar]..." (11:1). The entire book of Revelation is a call to worship in the altar, to recognize and value above all else, the nature of God demonstrated in the Lamb. It is the Lamb that is central to God's rule, "... in the center of the throne ..." (5:6, 7:17). It is the Lamb's wisdom ("eyes") and the Lamb's power ("horns") that are the spirits sent "... into all the earth..." (5:5). It is from the altar that prayers ascend and judgment descends (8:3-5). It is in the blood of the Lamb that robes are made white (7:14). It is the sacrifice of the Lamb, the ultimate Priest and King, that makes both priests and kings (5:10). The power of the altar, "... four horns of the golden altar...," appropriately calls out the inevitable destruction inherent and residing in the Euphrates, the life-source of Babylon (9:13-15). It is from the altar that the angel comes to reap the harvest of the earth hostile to God (14:18). It is the altar that speaks during the judgment of the earth's rivers and springs saying, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy Judgments" (16:7).
Thus, in chapter 11, our attention is drawn to two witnesses of the altar. They are first characterized and distinguished by the scene where John is instructed to measure between the Jewish and gentile courts of the temple. They are described specifically as those who worship in the altar. And then their identity is further developed as "...the two olive trees and the two lampstands ...."
In verse four, the two witnesses are identified as "... the two olive trees ... that stand before the Lord of the earth." Although the two olive trees are not familiar elsewhere in the book of Revelation, Zechariah (chapter four) identifies them. In that context, an angel shows Zechariah two olive trees that supply oil to a single Lampstand. As Zechariah presses the angel for understanding of the two olive trees, especially the two olive branches, he learns that "these are the two anointed ones, who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. 4:14). Dr. Feinberg says of this scene,
"Practically all expositors interpret the last three verses thus: the two olive trees are the priestly and kingly offices of Israel; the two olive branches or twigs are their then incumbents, Joshua and Zerubbabel. Theirs is a position of responsibility in service before the Lord of all the earth. Ultimately these two servants of God in their official capacities adumbrate the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah who is both King and Priest" (God Remembers, Charles Feinberg, p. 80, American Board of Mission to the Jews, 1965).
Thus the reference to the two olive trees tells us that the two witnesses of Revelation stand respectively in the offices of priest and king.
In their respective offices the two witnesses are also "the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth." Lampstands are a familiar symbol from the context of Revelation chapters one through three. In chapter one, the seven churches are identified as seven lampstands (1:20). In chapters two and three, the two lampstands, the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, are distinguished by the fact that they stand without criticism, while the five others are warned by the Lord to repent.
But for Philadelphia and Smyrna to be "the two lampstands that stand," we would expect them also to be composed of Jews, with one church demonstrating the priestly office, and the other church the kingly. Such appears to be the case.
Of all the remarks made to the seven churches, only Smyrna and Philadelphia are addressed as Jews who had become followers of Christ. In both cases the Lord speaks to the concern of believing Jews who had been put out of synagogues by unbelieving Jews, "those who say they are Jews" (2:9, 3:9). The fact that the Lord addresses only these two churches regarding their experience with the "synagogue of Satan", ethnic Jewish non-believers who falsely claimed to be God's true synagogue, argues favorably that the Lord regarded Philadelphia and Smyrna as the rightful claimants to the title "Jew," and saw their assemblies as the true synagogues. Gentile churches would not be inclined to a negative reaction toward ethnic, non-believing Jews calling themselves Jews, or consequently in need of the Lord's assurance that He regarded such false claimants as a synagogue of Satan. Converted gentiles were called Christians, not Jews, and they gathered together as churches, not synagogues.
Likewise, of all the seven churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia are addressed as those destined to demonstrate the offices of priest and king. Whereas Smyrna (2:8) is presented with a picture of Jesus "who was dead and has come to life" (first advent, the great High Priest who gave His own life), Philadelphia (3:7) is presented with a picture of Jesus "who has the key of David" (second advent, the King of Kings). Whereas Smyrna will suffer tribulation and death just as her High Priest Jesus, Philadelphia will be treated as a king by her enemies who "will come and bow down" at their feet.
Philadelphia and Smyrna are therefore two lampstands, ethnic Jewish churches, that stand and exhibit characteristics of the priestly and kingly offices: the two olive trees.
The act of "measuring" both of these churches apart from the five gentile churches ("court which is outside"), relates to enabling these two churches to accomplish their special prophetic task, whether they find themselves in the heat of persecution (as in Smyrna), or in a position of relative safety (as in Philadelphia). In the same way, whether Old Testament prophets were persecuted, as Elijah, or roamed free, as Elisha, they were equally set apart and supernaturally endowed for the service of God.
This picture of ethnic Jewish believers being distinguished from, and treated differently than gentile believers with whom they share a common identity in the body of Christ, is consistent also with the pictures in Revelation seven, 12, 14 and 15. In chapter seven, the 144,000 of the 12 tribes of Israel share a common identity as servants of God with the great multitude of all the nations, but are distinguished by nationality and the act of sealing. In chapter 12, "the woman" (verse one) and "the rest of her offspring" (verse 17) share identity as those who "keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" but are distinguished in the exclusively Jewish-Christian description of the woman, and the special treatment ("place prepared by God," " nourished", "two wings of the great eagle") given her by God during the career of the dragon. In chapter 14, the 144,000 are with the Lord on Mount Zion as "firstfruits" of the Lord's harvest, singing a song no others could learn, while an undesignated group "who had come off victorious from the beast" (15:2) sing the Lord's praises with the phrase, "all the nations will come and worship before Thee." This last group only comes into our view after the 144,000 are with the Lord, and the subsequent scene of harvest is described (14:14-16).
This singling out of a believing Jewish remnant for a powerful prophetic ministry during the time of the great tribulation was prophesied by Joel (Joel 2:28 ff.) and repeated by the assembled saints on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17)[2]. Joel said that the Spirit was to be poured out upon the sons of Israel without distinction between sex, age or class ("all flesh"), resulting in a ministry of prophecy and the display of God's power.
Some commentators have suggested Old Testament prophets such as Moses and Elijah as historically typical of the two witnesses, or, coming again to be the two witnesses. Indeed, some such Old Testament individuals or scenarios may be in some ways typical of the Revelation scene. A likely pair whose case strongly resembles the present scene is Moses and Aaron. In their cases they filled the offices of priest and king in Israel in opposition to the wicked Pharaoh and his magician priests. In that case also we see God's supernatural power granted in opposition to the diabolical power of Pharaoh's priests.
However likely it is that Moses and Aaron, or others, are typical of the two witnesses' ministry, the language of chapter 11 does not support the suggestion that the two witnesses are two individual persons. The text states that they are "the two lampstands that stand," a direct reference back to the churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna. The singular nouns "mouth" (11:5), and "body"[3] (11:8-9) properly express functions of a large body of people, but, would be linguistic errors in reference to two persons. The beast is said to "make war with them and kill them" at the conclusion of their testimony. Such a description does not fit the simple execution of two persons. Next we are notified that their dead body lies (verb supplied by translators) "in the street of the great city." Since the phrase "the great city" is discovered to be a reference to the "woman" (great harlot) of chapters 17 and 18, who personifies the multiplied Babylon-like cities of the world, then a great number of dead are envisioned lying in the streets of the world's cities. It was here in the Babylon-like world-city that the Lord Jesus was crucified. In addition, the wide number of those from "the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations" who look at their dead bodies speak of a large number of dead bodies distributed widely. Nothing in the text of Revelation chapter 11 leads us to hypothesize two individual persons; but everything about the text, and the further context of Revelation, leads us to the two churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia.
As the witnesses fulfill their prophetic calling in the context of the beast's opposition, calamity results on a world-wide scale. A comparison between the description of the two witnesses' miraculous power, and the scene from chapter eight at the beginning of the trumpets, brings this picture into sharp focus. In chapter eight, the ascent of the saints' prayers is seen to precede the hail and fire (trumpet one), a great star burning with fire (trumpet two) and a great star burning like a torch (trumpet three), all of which fall consecutively on earth with various consequences, followed by a darkness (trumpet four) and a plague (trumpet five). By comparison, in chapter 11 it is said of the two witnesses that,
... if any one desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies ... these have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire (Rev. 11:5-6 NASB)
If "fire proceeds out of their mouth" means that they speak
and fire results as Moses spoke and a fiery hail resulted, or Elijah spoke
and fire came down from heaven, then the scenes under the trumpets, and
the ministry of the two witnesses, appears to be one and the same. The
two witnesses turn water to blood and smite the earth with plagues and
call fire down from heaven just as we see under the trumpets. And if to
this we add the scene that Joel foresaw, then we conclude that the supernatural
calamity under the trumpets is directed from heaven in response to the
words of the two witnesses against the ungodly. This is not unlike the
case of Israel being delivered from Egypt.
Thus we conclude that the two witnesses are the two churches, Philadelphia and Smyrna, demonstrating the priestly and kingly functions, composed exclusively of the tribes of Israel. They are set apart from the five gentile churches who will, by this time, have become compromised by the world to the point where they no longer present themselves as an effective force for the Lord[4]. They will be supported spiritually by faithful gentiles who, as minority members of the five churches, continue to obey and glorify the Lord (cf. Rev. 2-3).
The identity of the two witnesses, and the condition of the five gentile churches, provides a chilling reminder of Paul's words to the Romans,
You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, and you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. (Rom. 11:19-21 NASB)
- Steve Amy
Lamb Light and Lamb Light Short Studies are produced by a team of Christians from the Christ Evangelical Church, Orem, UT. We are accountable for our conduct to the members and leaders of that local church. The Lamb Light team leader is Stephen Amy. The Pastor of the church is Scott McKinney, (801) 225-3038.
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