TROUBLOUS TIMES—APPEARANCE OF THE WITNESSES—WHO ARE THEY?—HOW THEY CAN BE IDENTIFIED—THEIR MISSION, WORK, AND SUFFERING—THE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF CHRIST’S COMING.

“And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score days, clothed in sackcloth.”—Rev. ii. 3.

We will all agree that the person and work of Anti-Christ are yet in the future. For while Anti-Christ is ruling in Jerusalem, and battling with the saints of the Most High, having conquered and plucked up by the roots three of the ten-horned kingdoms by his victories and cunning craft, and his alliance with the beast or the Church of Rome, he will become proud, blasphemous, and arrogant, and will at once try to force the people to worship the beast. He will claim to be the promised Jewish Messiah. He will enter the new Jewish Temple and actually sit enthroned as God incarnated, commanding the people to worship him. He will be so received by the Jews, some of the Israelites and the Romish Church, by the Communists and scientific infidels, and by “such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries,” men of understanding shall fall; indeed, Christianity will seem to be about destroyed.

Russia will aid by her influence his pretensions with a secret purpose to take the spoils and gain her long-desired object, Jerusalem and Palestine. England will stand aloof for a time, waiting an opportunity to interfere. Then will be a time to try men’s faith—to test the Church. England and America will stand alone as representing freedom and religious liberty. “And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and deceive many; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved.” This is the time when Communism, infidelity, and Romish Jesuitism will combine against God and liberty, and, thank heaven, this is the time appointed when they all will be destroyed. Then the kingdoms of this world will be given to the saints of the Most High. The struggle will be fierce, long, and terrible, but victory will be on the Lord’s side.

In the very midst of these awful times there will appear two famous persons as witnesses for Jesus: one who will specially appear to the Jews, the other to Israel, and both testify for God and Jesus. These two witnesses will turn the tide of battle, confront Anti-Christ and his host, and give to the world new views of God and Providence.

These two old men, or witnesses, will be endowed with miraculous power to bring fire down from heaven, or turn the water streams into blood, and smite the earth with all manner of plagues, as often as they will. Their presence and power will cast a gloom o’er the nations of the earth, and Anti-Christ and his allies. They will finally be slain in the streets of Jerusalem. At the time of their death a great feast will be held to commemorate the victories of Anti-Christ, and to inaugurate the setting up of an image of him in the temple. So in the city there will be peoples, kindreds, and tongues of many nations. And they will see the dead bodies of the two witnesses lying exposed and unburied in the streets for three days and a-half, for Anti-Christ will not suffer them to be buried. On the wings of the wind, by the telegraph and by signals, the news of their death will spread rapidly abroad to all the nations of the earth. Infidelity, and Communism, and the Jesuits will be emboldened. Feasting and rejoicing will be the order of the day. “And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth.” That will be the merry wake for you—a wake that will suddenly end, and that too, before the corpses are buried. The victories will be cut short and the rejoicing checked.

The spirit of life from God shall enter into the two exposed and corrupting bodies, and they shall stand upon their feet to defy Anti-Christ and his host, and laugh at the pains of death. Great fear will fall upon them who saw the dead so raised. This time the telegraphs will be muffled, and the news is kept back from the nations as much as possible; but astonishment ends not here, for over the destroying and now idolatrous city of Jerusalem hangs a peculiar cloud, and voices peal as thunder through the air, to call the attention of the multitudes. And when every eye is skyward, the cloud moves and opens, as a chariot of fire and glory, and rising in majesty and composure up above roofs, temples, and pinnacles, will be seen the two witnesses of Christ; they enter in and are borne heavenward. “And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.” Then, while the multitude are wrapt in wonder and all amazement, the pinnacles sway to and fro, the houses rock, the earth trembles, the walls of the city fall, and Olivet cleaves in twain. Then Anti-Christ is slain with many of his followers, and the remnant fear unto repentance. “And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.”

These are some of the wonders yet to come. Then how say some that Anti-Christ has already been? The witnesses have not yet appeared: they have not yet wrought their miracles. The Lost Ten Tribes and the scattered Jews have not yet been gathered from all countries whither the Lord God hath scattered them, and placed in their own land, to go out no more, to be plucked up no more. Jerusalem is yet being trodden under foot, the land is comparatively desolate, no temple yet adorns the city, nor priest, nor Levite, attend at the altar. Pshaw! upon the Biblical interpreters of this day, who wilfully or ignorantly careen through the line of prophecies, despising the order established by God. They are like the girl with her novel, who cannot wait to read through the book, and take events in their order, but she turns to the last leaf to find the destiny of her hero. So men, borne by passion and choice, skip by several of the prophecies, and harp everlastingly on the last—the coming of the blessed Jesus—“He whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts iii. 21). The world is not yet ready for Christ; it is yet too much upside down, too much confused. But God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. It does not now look like God; so God and Christ, Providence and the Church, must work on till the house is in order for His return. “Hon dei ouranon men dexasthai archri chronon apokataseos panton,” whom, indeed, heaven must retain until the time of restoration of all things. If things are not now restored or reconciled, or in order, why, then, Christ cannot come. He will not come to put them in order; this He has left for and with the Church to do, and has promised to be with His Church to the end.

A few Sunday evenings ago, a brother kindly asked me where the Church would be while Anti-Christ was reigning. I simply said anywhere and everywhere, wherever it happened to be. He thought the Church would be taken away by Christ; he referred me to several passages. I said, Come next Sunday evening, as those passages will be partly considered in my next sermon. He replied that he might be taken up by that time. All right, I said, then we will excuse you. Now, in the name of common sense, why have men, and why do men, down through the centuries, and now, entertain such views? Because every Bible reader must see that there are many prophecies that must be fulfilled before Christ can come—one of which is the appearance of the two witnesses of the text. They will be specially sent and commissioned to testify for Christ, as against Anti-Christ.

Let us now ascertain who these two witnesses are, or are to be. I find on examining the subject all manner of views set forth. And, as is often the case in studying a subject of this kind, I find few that agree—so much so, that at last I found relief in turning from what men said and thought to what God in His Holy Word had written and said.

First. They are two men. Second. They are sent to Jerusalem which, because of the wickedness of the city at the time of their visit, will be called Sodom and Egypt; but, lest we should mistake the place from these names, John adds: “Where also our Lord was crucified.” So Isaiah i. 10 says: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.” This fixes safely the place. Besides, the place is pointed out from the fact that they oppose Anti-Christ, who at that time we know will be at Jerusalem. Third. They are sent. You ask where they are sent from? The answer is, From heaven, from standing before the God of the whole earth. Fourth. Who sends them? We answer, Jesus—because the Book of the Revelation is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto John.” Fifth. What were they sent for? In the first place they were to be special witnesses for Jesus, for He calls them His two witnesses. In the second place, they were to prophesy, to be prophets in the fullest sense, to forecast the future, to interpret past and present; to work miracles; to assume control in directing State affairs. Sixth. It is worth your careful notice to note that they are not constituted witnesses by being sent; they are sent because they are witnesses. They are not then to be endowed with miraculous power; “these have power” in the present tense. These facts, if nicely considered, will at once suggest the persons.

Whoever they are, they must have gone from earth to heaven with their bodies, two persons who have escaped death, for their death takes place in Jerusalem. They must have been prophets before they left earth for heaven the first time. And in the third place, they must at some time and place have been special witnesses for Christ. In fact, they are two anointed ones, or, in other words, they are two persons who have been set apart and prepared for the very visit spoken of in the text.

Daniel, when speaking of them, and the visit spoken of in the text, calls one “the Ancient of Days;” the other one was “like the Son of Man.” He represents these two persons as sitting in judgment on Anti-Christ, and the seven horns, or kingdoms. “And the ten horns that were in his head and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows (this is Anti-Christ). I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom” (Dan. vii. 20).

Many interpret “the Ancient of Days” and the “one like the Son of Man” to be Christ. They stagger not at the fact that there are two persons, and that they are introduced one to another, and that the Ancient of Days seems to be the greatest. It is nothing to such interpreters that there are two persons; these they make one. The one looking like the Son of Man they make out to be the Son of God, although Daniel says he only looked like Him. The judgment spoken of by Daniel they make out to be the general judgment, when, in fact, Daniel tells on what and where they sat in judgment—namely, at Jerusalem. About Anti-Christ—and that Anti-Christ is soon destroyed after this—and “as concerning the rest of the beasts (that is, the seven horns), they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” The vision and scene of the whole chapter belongs to this world, and the kingdom of the saints here spoken of is as much material and political as the other. The difference is, the rulers and people are Christians, they are called saints.

Every throne should be double-kinged; that is God’s purpose, that is Heaven’s plan. Christ wants no earthly throne excepting that way. As the Creator is Lord of lords and King of kings, so Christ after His resurrection assumed His Father’s place, and stands to us as God to the Jews of old. All power was given to Him in heaven and in earth, therefore, He, Christ, has long since begun His reign, and He must continue to reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet. When David was king over Israel and Judah, so was God. We repeat, every throne should be double-kinged.

To this end will come these two witnesses. Who will they be? We answer, Moses and Elijah: these are the two brave old men now living and waiting to fulfil their mission. For hundreds of years they have been anointed. Moses is “the Ancient of Days;” the “one like the Son of Man” is Elijah the Tishbite. This interpretation chimes in with the Divine Word, without twisting and distorting to make both ends meet.

We said these two were to be human: so they are. They being sent from heaven, we said they must have passed by death with their bodies; so they did. They were to be prophets; so they are, two of the grandest prophets of all. They were to have power over fire and water; so they had when they lived on earth. The bloody stream of the Nile gives witness for Moses. The parched land and time of drought speaks of Elijah in Ahab’s time. They both called fire down on them who sought to hurt them. They were to be special witnesses of Christ; so they were on the Mount of Transfiguration. These two olive trees stood one on each side of the golden candlestick, Jesus; Peter, James, and John, testify to having seen Moses and Elijah. These two old veterans know Christ well, hence they will be sent to testify for Him against Anti-Christ. Moses is a Jew. He will appeal unto the Jews, who will be found in the new temple, performing according to the old Mosaic law. He will change and lead his people from Anti-Christ to Christ. Elijah is an Israelite. He will specially bear testimony to the Israelite, his long-lost, but then restored, brethren.

More next Sunday evening on these two Christian heroes.