Philippians 2:10-11 ESV
Revelation Chapter 11
The Two Witnesses and
The Seventh Trumpet
Revelation chapter 11, identifies the two witnesses, the role of believers during the end times and the Church's witness to the nations before the final judgment
Revelation chapter 11:1-13, reveals what has not been revealed so far in prophecy, which is, the believers role in bringing the world to repentance and faith through their witness and faithfulness to Lord Jesus Christ.
This passage, essentially, is the central message of John's whole prophecy, in the Revelation to John. Revelation chapter 11:1-13, gives John's fullest treatment of the way in which the church's witness secures the repentance and faith of the nations.
It is placed here, just before the seventh trumpet judgment, to indicate how the church's witness to all the nations of the world intervenes before the final judgment (Rev 11:15-19).
Then, in Revelation chapters 12-15, the church's victorious conflict with the powers of evil is given a much more extended treatment, which is then integrated into the prophecy of the final judgment and its results (Revelation chapters 15-22).
The relationship between Rev 11:1-13 and chapters 12-15 can be seen from the way a series of new images are briefly introduced, with a fuller treatment in chapters 16-22.
The new revelation is that the believers faithful witness, throughout their life, is to be instrumental in the conversion of the nations. Their victory, that they persevered through trials and tribulations, is not simply their own salvation from a world doomed to judgment, but the salvation of the nations as well.
God's kingdom on earth is to come not simply by saving believers from an evil world, merely by extinguishing the rebellious creatures. It is to come as the sacrificial witness of believers also brings the rebellious nations to acknowledge Jesus Christ is Lord.
The people of God have been redeemed, "from all the nations" (Rev 5:9), in order to bear prophetic witness "to all the nations (Rev 11:30-13). This is what the story of the two witnesses (Rev 11:3-13) symbolically dramatizes.
Revelation chapter 11:1-13, is not meant to correspond to any sequence of events in the church's history. The story is more like a parable, which dramatizes the nature and result of the church's witness. It demonstrates what will be happening, all throughout history, from the writing of John’s apocalypse to the end of history, as believers bear faithful witness to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
Revelation chapter 11
the two witnesses
Revelation 11:1-4 English Standard Version
The Two Witnesses
11 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
The phrase “forty-two months’, in verse 2, is the same time period as the “1,260 days”, in verse 3, and symbolizes the entire time period of the church's conflict with the beast, from the writing of the Revelation to John, until the final judgment and the end of history.
The two witnesses are dressed in sackcloth (Rev 11:3), the symbol of repentance. This shows that, confronted with a world addicted to idolatry and evil (Rev 9:20-21), they proclaim the one true God and His coming judgment on evil (Rev 14:7), but they proclaim God's coming wrath along with a call to repentance.
As witnesses, they are also prophets (Rev 11:3,10), especially modelled on Old Testament prophets Elijah and Moses (Rev 11:5-6), which is the description of the power of Moses and Elijah’s prophecy. Moses delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egyptian gods, while Elijah delivered the Israelites from the power of the Phoenician god Ba’al.
In Rev 11:4, The two witnesses are the Holy Spirt and the church, believers.
John's allusion to Zechariah 4 and Rev 1:20 is clear. The two olive trees provide oil as fuel and power to the lampstand in Zech 4:1-6, and the two lampstands symbolize the Church in Rev 1:20. Believers can do nothing without the power of God the Holy Spirit.
John alludes to Zech 4:1-6 and Rev 1:20 to reveal the identity of the two witnesses as believers witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah 4:1-6 ESV
A Vision of a Golden Lampstand4 And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Revelation 1:20 ESV
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
A believer has no power within, to accomplish God’s will, only by using the power of God the Holy Spirit, can any believer accomplish anything God the Father and God the Son, ask them to do.
The first new image introduced, are the two witnesses, the two olive trees and the two lampstands. These will wage spiritual war with the next two images introduced in Revelation chapter 11, the beast and the great city.
The Beast and the Great City
Revelation 11:5-8 ESV And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
Moses and Elijah, whose power of their prophecies are alluded to in Revelation chapter 11:6, do not stand for the law and the prophets. Both men were prophets who confronted the world of pagan idolatry, controlled by rebellious, evil spiritual beings. They set the precedent for the church's prophetic witness to the world.
A new enemy is introduced in Revelation chapter 11:7, the “beast” arises from the bottomless pit, wages war against the saints and kills them. Their dead bodies lay rotting in the streets for all to see. It appears, the powers of darkness have won.
Revelation 11:9-13 ESV
9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Revelation chapter 11:9-10, shows unbelievers dancing in the streets, rejoicing over the dead two witnesses, who had been tormenting them with the call to repent and believe in Jesus.
Then, three days later, in verses 11-12, just as in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the two witnesses rose from the dead, and the unbelievers saw them carried away into heaven. A devastating earthquake immediately followed, in verse 13, which killed one tenth of the unbelievers. The unbelieving survivors were terrified and gave glory to God.
It is the witness of Jesus himself, that the "two witnesses" continue, and their death is a participation in the blood of the lamb.
Judgments alone do not lead to repentance (Rev 9:20-21), however, the witness of the "two witnesses" does lead to repentance, though not independently, but in conjunction with judgments (Rev 11:6,13).
The two witnesses are dressed in sackcloth (Rev 11:3), the symbol of repentance. This shows that, confronted with a world addicted to idolatry and evil (Rev 9:20-21), they proclaim the one true God and His coming judgment on evil (Rev 14:7), but they proclaim God's coming wrath along a call to repentance.
Therefore, once their witness is seen, not to be refuted by their death, but vindicated as the truth upon their resurrection from the dead (Rev 11:11-13), all who see repent. Revelation chapter 11, verse 13 clearly means their repentance was genuine, along with their accompanying acknowledgment that Jesus is Lord. After the earthquake which accompanied the witnesses' vindication, those not killed, "feared God and gave Him Glory."
To be the witnesses who bring the nations to faith in the one true God, is the unique role of God's eschatological people, His church. This was revealed in Rev 11:1-13, which is the contents of the scroll that only Jesus the Christ could open.
Should anyone ask, why the prophetic witness of the church was so much more effective than that of the Old Testament prophets, the answer is certainly the witness of the church derives its power from the victory of the Lamb, Jesus the Christ.
Revelation chapter 11:15-19
The seventh trumpet
Revelation 11:15-19 ESV
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying,“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great,and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Revelation 11:15-19 ESV
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying,“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great,and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.