Pod Prep: The Two Witnesses and the Places of Safety Rev Ch. 11 & 12
PROBABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S TWO WITNESSES REVELATION 11
Many speculated as to who the two would be and some have even been so presumptuous as to claim the title of God’s Two Witnesses for themselves. You can never be too small to be used by God but you can easily be too big! We will look at the facts revealed by Revelation 11 and Zachariah 4 for vital insights. The following characteristics fit the facts of the Bible:
1. The Two Witnesses will not be crazed, unstable individuals spouting fire as some movies have depicted them. God’s Spirit conveys a sound mind and love See II Tim 1:7.
2. They will be two men who are prophets in the Biblical traditions, and can be killed.
3. They will come in the spirit of Elijah and Moses but will not be Elijah and Moses resurrected. God sent John the Baptist ahead of Christ in the spirit of Elijah. According to the kinds of miracles they performed, Moses and Elijah are the models for prophets. The Two Witnesses will have miracle power carte blanche. See Rev 11:3-6.
4. They will not be unconverted or novices. Paul and Barnabas were a type of the two witnesses for the gentile world of the first church century. They turned the world upside down changing much of the empire from pagan to Christian. See Acts 17:6. Paul was not a novice. He had three years in the desert with Christ and did not begin his historic evangelic missionary journeys until he had been in the truth for about a decade.
5. Most of the greatest prophets were reluctant. God drafted most of the prophets including Paul and Moses. Many felt they were unworthy and unprepared or two young etc. God usually calls someone who is not eager for the role.
6. They will be unpopular because they bring light into a world that loves darkness and lies and evil. See Revelations 11:3-6, 7-10, 11-14. Note the lampstands in Zachariah 4.
7. The Two will use God’s power not human or organizational power to complete the witness against an evil society. See Zach 4:6. Will the two provide instructions for the Churches and or will the Churches guide and help the two get started?
REVELATIONS 12 THE DRAGON AND THE PLACES OF SAFETY
Israel gives birth to the Messiah and Satan the Dragon tries to devour the child. This happened historically to Jesus and Moses. Possibly, symbolically the dragon is trying to both prevent the return of Christ to rule and the birth of all the saints into His family violently. See Rev 12:3-4. Note it does not pay to follow evil as a third of the angels have done. In verse 5 we learn that the Messiah will soon rule the world. In Rev 12:6 that the woman was protected by God and we want to be on His side.
Note the Church or spiritual Israelites and Messianic Jews will flee to the wilderness at the crucial moment. The historical example of around 20,000 true believers in Jesus heard a message at the Temple to flee into the mountains. Titus withdrew his siege of Jerusalem and the Christian fled while the Jews hoped and believed they had won, 70A.D. Three months later Titus returned with a reinforced army of many brutal legions to totally destroy the Temple and city. Most of Jews were killed or sold into slavery. But the true believers escaped the horrors.
War breaks out in heaven and the devil makes one last attempt to dethrone God and is rudely kicked back down to earth. (See Rev 12:7-9) He then attempts to destroy the true believers in Jesus. See Rev 12:14-16, God blocks all the devil’s attempts to persecute those in places of safety. The true believers have already been tested and proven. So the devil goes after those left behind. We must learn to be selfless in serving God. Some will have to learn that in the last hours.
DRAMATIZATION PART TWO
The World’s Peace Falls Apart.
The King of North that ruled the new all-powerful Holy Roman Empire in Europe stabbed a weakened America in the back. America PC leader’s level of naiveté is remarkable and was easily exploited by our enemies. Therefore one day of rationing and other restrictions ended for the Idlers. They were suddenly put in a box car and sent to a labor camp. They had tried hard to ignore all the words of the Two Witnesses and their neighbors and rarely even watched world news. They were in total shock.
The Mockers made fun of the Goodson’s words and even more so the warnings of the Witnesses. What a joke they yelled. They eagerly took the Mark of the Beast and felt they would be protected. Why? Because they loved the Beast and the false prophet. Why would they hurt us they said? Until one day the authorities came for the Mockers. The Mockers screamed that it was unfair and wrong. The more they screamed the more their captors beat them on the way to the labor camps.
The Goodson’s mysteriously disappeared a few days before the evil guards came to the cul-de sac to take slave laborers. They are comfortably in the wilderness somewhere worshipping God. More on the fate of the three families this summer.
