Rev 11:5-6, Part 1 – The Power Of The Two Witnesses
Audio Download
Rev 11:5-6, Part 1 – The Power Of The Two Witnesses
[Study Aired Oct 20, 2024]
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Introduction
In our last study we learned that the two olive trees signify the same thing signified by the “four beasts”, the “four cherubims”, and the two candlesticks. They, one and all, signify Christ within His elect who are destined to be kings and priests who will rule with Him over the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years followed by the judging of all men of all time at the great white throne judgment.
If we were to take these verses at face value as the natural man does, then they would be telling us that if any man attempts to hurt God’s elect, “fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, and must be killed in this manner”, and furthermore God’s elect also have the power to “shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.”
The producers of the movie ‘Left Behind’ presented all of this as literal, physical events with literal fire coming out of the mouths of the two witnesses, killing those who would do them harm. It is the mantra of most seminaries that if any prophecy can be taken in a literal sense, then that is the way to take it. That is the doctrine which produced the film entitled ‘Left Behind’ in which the two witnesses literally breathed fire upon their enemies and killed them, literally!
But wait a minute. How can God’s elect do any of these things as His witnesses with the testimony of Jesus Christ, considering the very doctrines of Christ teach the very opposite of what we have just read?
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Remember how disgusted Christ was with James and John when they wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village which had refused to accommodate them for one night:
Luk 9:51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
Luk 9:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
Luk 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Luk 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of [The spirit of the law of Moses].
Luk 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
Didn’t His apostles teach the very same doctrine of loving our enemies? Here is what Paul taught.
Rom 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Here are John’s own words in His first epistle:
1Jn 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
1Jn 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
The Truth is that no one in whom Christ has taken up His abode would ever think of “killing his enemies with [literal] fire”. Nor would he ever even think of literally “smiting his [neighbor or his enemies] with all plagues” or literally “turning his [neighbor’s] water into blood”.
It is obvious, considering the sum of God’s Word (Psa 119:160), that those who have been given eyes that see, and ears that hear the hidden wisdom of God, will understand that these two verses are not to be understood as outward literal statements. This is a book which has been signified, with signs and symbols of things which are intended to be ‘kept’, and inwardly “kept” by those who are given to “read, and to hear, and to keep the things which are written and signified in this book”:
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Only those who are sincerely asking, “How do I personally “live by every word” (Mat 4:4), and how do I personally “keep the things written therein” (Rev 1:3)”, will have any hope of understanding how God’s two witnesses can burn up their enemies within, with the armies of the nations within, with fire from their mouths. Only the few chosen will be granted to understand how the Lord’s witnesses can “smite the sinful earth within, with all plagues, and turn the waters within, into blood, and still love their enemies and do good to those who persecute them”.
What then is the meaning of…
The symbols of these two verses?
The symbols of verse 5 are: 1) if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of the mouths of God’s two witnesses, and 2) and they kill those who would hurt them with the fire from their mouths.
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
The symbols of verse six are: 3) the two witnesses have the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, 4) to turn waters to blood, and 5) to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
So let’s begin by asking, What is the spiritual meaning of…
1) If any man will hurt them fire proceeds out of their mouth?
Here is the Biblical definition of what is being discussed when scripture speaks of fire in one’s mouth.
Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
This is the exact same wording we find in:
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
That is the ‘manner’ in which their enemies are “killed”. They are killed with the words of God, in the mouths of those who are faithful to those words. “In this manner…” is not at first an outward statement for any man. Remember this admonition at the very beginning of this prophecy:
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
True servants of the Lord are never violent nor vengeful:
2Ti 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
If we are to “keep those things which are written therein” then it is we who first “oppose ourselves”, and who place ourselves in opposition to the words of Christ. If we see ourselves only as ‘the two witnesses’ with the fire of the Lord’s words in our mouths and do not take these words as an admonition against our own self-righteous and rebellious ‘first man Adam’, then we are no better than the self-righteous Pharisees who asked Christ if He considered them to be spiritually blind:
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
The message for all of us in John 9, is that we are all born spiritually blind by default:
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
If we are granted to see ourselves first as the wood, hay, and stubble fuel for the fire of the Lord’s words, then we can confess that we really are born spiritually blind, and are by nature fuel for the fire of the Lord’s words which burn up our wood, hay, and stubble, and will kill our rebellious, self-righteous, old man, then in time through that dying process we will be born again as Christ’s fire-breathing two witnesses having “kept [all] the things written therein” (Rev 1:3).
No “servant of the Lord”, no “disciple indeed” would ever literally kill anyone with literal fire coming from their mouths. Only the most spiritually blind would fail to remember that this prophecy is a “signified” prophecy, designed to be kept a secret from the multitudes who come to Christ (Mat 13:10-15). Far from literally killing anyone, this is the doctrine of Christ and His apostles:
2Ti 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
So when you hear a “great man of God” say “The first thing I’m going to do at the resurrection is walk up to Adam and punch him in the face”, you should be able to discern that this is not “the gentle, meek… servant of the Lord” that Paul is speaking of here. Yet that is a word for word quote from the mouth of a big name minister with a mega church in Houston, Texas, here is the United States.
“The gentle… meek servant of the Lord” remembers that it is not someone else who was first taken by the snare of the devil. “That man” (2Sa 12:1-10) was you and me. It is we who first withstand the words of Christ, then it is you and I who later, after we repent, we become those who “instruct those who oppose themselves” to the words of Christ and are taken in “the snare of the devil.” As a repentant sinner we have no interest in being anything but “gentle unto all men… that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil”.
If we allow ourselves to forget for one moment the fact that God’s kingdom comes first within and that we “live by every word” (Mat 4:4), and that we are commanded to “keep the things written” in this prophecy (Rev 1:3), then we will automatically do what the natural man always does, and think of ourselves only as the two witnesses, and we will see ourselves only as those with the fire in our mouths devouring our enemies. But the truth, which is the sum of God’s word, is that “all these things must come to pass in this generation”, and that they are “all ours”.
Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Like the spiritually blind Pharisees, until we are given to see that we are all first spiritually blind, then we will remain as spiritually blind as those who want to harm the Lord’s elect. If ever we are granted to see our own culpability, only then are we granted the privilege of becoming the Lord’s elect who are being hurt by the men of this world. So it is with all the symbols of verse 6 of this 11th chapter of Revelation, and with the rest of the symbols of all scripture.
The only way to know how any of the eight different symbols of these two verses are to be understood is to remember how we are instructed to view this prophecy at the very beginning of this book. As we have so often said, the first three verses of chapter one are the key to understanding this entire prophecy. Here are those verses:
Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Rev 1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
If we fail to apply those verses to our understanding of the words of our study today, we will be forced to ignore and to violate the doctrine of Jesus Christ who told us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us.
Luk 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Luk 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Seeking to harm God’s two witnesses is something we all, as natural men, do and keep within our own selves when we reject and withstand the words of God’s witnesses. We do and keep these words, by rejecting those who first bring to us this witness of God’s fiery, spiritual, purifying words.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
So it is we who first persecute and “hurt” God’s elect, because we are all “first natural” before we, by God’s grace, become those same elect witnesses who are on the receiving end of this “hurtful… daily dying” experience which is “written therein”. This is all us because “all things, things present and things to come, are all are ours”:
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Those two verses of 1Co 3 never made sense to me when I believed that there was a physical “place of safety” for God’s elect where the things written in this prophecy could be avoided. Those two verses cannot make sense to anyone who believes in any form of exemption from the things which are written in this prophecy because “things present and things to come” would certainly include these “things which must shortly come to pass”, of which we were told in the first chapter of “the book of prophecy”, “All [these] things… are ours… to read, hear, and keep”.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
None of us are born believing on Christ, so we really are “shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin” with “the wrath of God abiding on us”, as we “hurt” God’s two witnesses.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
2) The two witnesses kill those who would hurt them with the fire from their mouths
So here we are as the first man, as the natural man. It is these words which pronounce us as dead and kill us. The apostle Paul agrees with the apostle John.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course [Greek, aion, age] of this world [Greek, kosmos, world], according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation [Greek, way of life] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.Col 3:5 Mortify [“kill”, Rev 11:5] therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
“Afterward that which is spiritual”:
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Col 3:3 For ye are dead, [We have been killed by the fire in the mouths of the two witnesses] and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Those verses overlap, but we are first to see ourselves as “children of wrath, even as others… having walked… as children of disobedience” before coming to be “dead and buried with Christ… killed” by the fire that proceeds out of the mouths of the two witnesses.
To those in Babylon, we are said to be “the smell of death” and not even worthy of being buried.
2Co 2:16 To the one [the many called of Babylon] we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? [“but Christ { who} lives in me”]
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers [of the two witnesses].
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
“Three days and an half” and three and one half years or “a thousand two hundred and threescore days”, here in this same chapter, “are one” just as the cows and the corn in Pharaoh’s dream “are one”.
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, [three and one half years] clothed in sackcloth.
Gen 41:26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
We will pause our study at this point and continue with the significance of these two verses in our next study.