Interpreting Revelation 11

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The Creation Concept


A brief commentary

The temple in heaven

Malachi's prophecy

Measuring the temple of God

The two olive trees

How heaven is shut

War with the beast

Spiritual warfare

The church overflowed by the world

Samson and the two witnesses compared

John Napier's paraphrase

Commentary on Revelation 11:1-15 by David Pareus

Thomas Cartwright on the two witnesses

The Two Witnesses

The church overflowed by the world

Below are some of Hengstenberg's comments on the prophecy of the two witnesses, rearranged into paragraphs for improved readability.

The Revelation of St John: expounded for those who search the Scriptures, Volume 1, By Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, p. 479.

The church appears under the symbol of the temple, which for so many centuries was the seat and external representation of the kingdom of God, and hence occurs, otherwise than in vision, in a series of passages in the New Testament as the designation of the church, John ii. 19 ; Mark xiv. 58; Eph. ii. 21, 22; 1 Tim. iii. 15; 2 Cor. vi. 16; 2 Thess. ii. 4; Heb. iii. 6.

The temple proper denotes those, who are deeply filled and penetrated by the spirit of the church, the outer court those, who are only superficially affected. The rising up forms the contrast to the sitting. But both the sitting and the rising belong only to the vision. In the reality, it is the transition from rest to activity, which is denoted by the rising.

The import of the measuring is determined by the opposite throwing out. It is measured as far as the preservation is to go. Where the measuring ceases, there the line of abandoning begins. The figurative representation here rests upon Ezekiel, by whom in ch. xl. the restored temple was measured. The symbolical action here has respect to the preserving of the object represented.

Beside the temple proper, which in the material building at Jerusalem consisted of the Most Holy Place, the residence of God, and the sanctuary, as the ideal abode of believers, the altar also is measured or preserved; and by this we can only understand the altar of burnt offering--comp. on ch. vi. 9. It is here transferred to the temple itself, for the therein can only refer to the temple: measure the temple of God, and the altar (in it), and them that worship in it. This shows that we are here entirely on an ideal territory. In the temple of Jerusalem the altar of burnt-offering stood in the real place of resort to the people, in the outer court; but here it is transferred to their ideal dwelling-place, to the temple itself. The meaning of the altar we learn from ch. vi. 9-11: under the constraining power of love believers present themselves there as a free-will sacrifice to him who has redeemed them with his blood.

Therefore, however hard the world may press, how great soever may be the desolations which it effects in the outworks, still the church remains in existence; the spirit of joyful sacrifice is preserved; true believers continually abide. The court in ver. 2, as contrasted with the temple proper, must not be limited to the outer court, but denotes whatever belonged to the sanctuary beside the temple proper: the without the temple forms a manifest contrast to the within. To designate by the court without those who have not in their souls been penetrated by the spirit of the church, was the more natural, since, according to the phraseology even of the Old Testament, true believers dwell in the house of God, and come into his sanctuary, while the multitude, who are but externally related to the church, only tread the courts--see Isa. i. 12. That the court should be thrown away, and given up to the heathen, stands related to the treading down of the city, as an effect to its cause.

The overflowing of the church by the world brings it to pass, that from many, who have not, shall be taken away even that which they have. Nothing but the strong mound of a firm faith can resist their powerful billows.--The two and forty months contain only an apparent determination of time; as, indeed, all numbers in the Apocalypse have only an ideal signification; they belong not so properly to the chronological, as to the symbolical forum. The common signature of the dominion of the world over the church in the Revelation, resting on the prophecies of Daniel (comp. at ch. xii. 6, xiii. 6), is the three and a half, in which we have only to think of the broken seven, the signature of the church. So that the meaning is here conveyed, that however the world may lift itself up, however it may proudly triumph, it can never attain to anything complete and lasting. These three and a half years return again in different forms; a time, two times, and an half-time, ch. xii. 14, forty and two months, here and in ch. xiii. 5, 1260 days in ch. xii. 6. In the number of the beast also in ch. xiii. 18, the same thing substantially holds as in these numbers. We have here before us a representation, which does not bring into view some particular period of time in the world's history, but the whole course of it, only that towards the end everything realizes itself in a more perfect manner.

Wherever the world is found overflowing the church, from that of which John himself saw the commencement, to the last in ch. xx. 7-9, of which we have now the beginning before our eyes, there the substance of the prophecy always verifies itself anew, there the obligation still remains to those who are affected by the evil, to take it as the ground of consolation and warning to their hearts.

John seems to identify the city with Jerusalem, which of course is a name that is applied to the church in Heb. 12:22-23, but in the same manner that he does with the temple, there is some ambiguity involved, as Jesus "suffered without the gate."

Hengstenberg refers to the "world overflowing the church," which exactly describes the state of things today.

Why Jesus said "flee to the mountains"

The "land promise" is prominent in the promises God gave to Abraham, and several scholars have said it has a spiritual application to Christians. I think that this idea provides a background and context to the commandment of Jesus, "flee to the mountains" in Matthew 24:16.

Jesus directed these words to "them which be in Judaea," which need not be understood literally because in prophecy, those who are in Judea, may refer not to ethnic Jews, or Palestinians, but the saints, who Paul described as "the circumcision," who are spiritually Israelites, and children of Abraham by faith in Christ. Paul said:

Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

The mountains that Jesus referred to are mountains of Israel, and they are symbolic of the revelations of God, including the prophecies, and promises, and the teachings of Jesus in the sermon of the mount.

The land promise made to Abraham and to Israel provides a background for the 7 trumpets in Revelation. Just as the capture of Jericho heralded the Israelites taking possession of their promised land, the prophecy of the seven trumpets of Revelation heralds the saints taking possession of their promised inheritance, which includes an understanding of all the prophecies in the scriptures. Jesus promised his disciples:

John 16:13
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

The connection between the seven trumpets in Revelation and the seven trumpets that were blown before the capture of Jericho by the Israelites, prior to the destruction of the city, shows that there is also a promised land to be possessed by the church. The literal land that Israel possessed in the time of Joshua was a type and figure of spiritual things promised to those who are in Christ.

The prophecy of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 is located in the midst of the account of the seven trumpets, between the 6th and 7th trumpet. The account of the two witnesses tells of their death, and their remarkable revival. After they are killed, their corpses are exposed in the street, and are subjected to ridicule by the world, for three days and a half. Then, they suddenly revive!

The two witnesses may be identified as the scriptures, and the Spirit, which fit the description given of their role in the prophecy, up to the point that they are considered lifeless, and become topics of scorn and ridicule by their enemies; they have been overcome, and "killed" by the beast from the bottomless pit, which clearly represents Satan. How has this happened? The prophecies of scripture are understood by Christians in terms of the theories of either preterism, or dispensationalism, which are opposite, and each cancels the other, which effectively "kills" the power of the church's witness to God's word! Paul said:

1 Corinthians 14:6-9
6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.

This is how the church's message seems to the world; an uncertain sound; Christians fighting one another; almost every prophecy is viewed in either one of two ways; it either describes Jews in 70 AD, or Jews in a future seven year tribulation, which the church escapes by being raptured to heaven! Who could have any real confidence in such beliefs?

John's prophecy of the two witnesses has come true; the word and the Spirit are lifeless corpses, but they are not buried. The prophecies of scripture are studied by scholars, and discussed, debated, many books are published about them, but they are rarely understood or believed. Paul spoke of the last days as characterized by people, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: ... Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." [2 Timothy 3:5, 7]

What remains to be seen is how the two witnesses revive, and ascend to heaven in a cloud. Their revival suggests that theories of preterism and dispensationalism will be abandoned by the saints, in favor of a better system of interpretation of prophecy.

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas Cox
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