************************** THE TWO WITNESS *****************************
John the baptist, and the Lord Jesus the Christ.
GINOLJC, to all. in understanding God's Revelation to John, and to us, is to understand the pivotal points in this book. chapter 12 of his (the Christ) birth and chapter 11 of his (the Christ) ministry, and DEATH. of course this is my belief. I would like to take theses witness one step at a time and fully discuss them.
Witness #1. I'm using the color blue for John, because he used WATER to baptized with. witness #1. John the Baptizer. first, we must understand how we got to him as a witness. Revelation 11:4 "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth". we will give this descriptive answer of these two witness from the book of Zechariah, read chapter 3 and 4. to make it short and to the point, Zechariah 4:14 "Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth". clearly these two men are anointed with the Holy Spirit, to be empowered to do the same things that their counterpart or the one's they was in analogy to, Moses and Elijah. let me make it clear that the two witness was NOT, let me say it again, was NOT Moses and Elijah, but only an analogy, or symbolic to. I hope that's clear. second, we need to understand the definition of witness here in Revelation 11. it is the Greek word, G3144 μάρτυς martus (mar'-tïs) n.
1. a witness.
2. (literally) judicially.
3. (by analogy) a “martyr” (meaning witness).
KJV: martyr, record, witness
notice definition #3. martyr, when used as an analogy as here in Revelation 11 means: a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs. one who can or does aver, what he has seen or heard or knows. the word aver here means to declare positively. one cannot witness accurately to something if they had not seen, or heard it.
Knowing all of this, we can now examine the two witness correctly. Revelation 11:3 "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth”. God gave "power" unto his two witness. and Power here is "authority". but some might say Power is not in the verse, correct, but we can deduce that it is, Power/authority, coming from the bible itself, there are two word in the Gree that translate in our English language as "POWER", G1411, dunamis, (MIGHT), and G1849, exousia, (authority). that's the one we want, scripture, Matthew 21:23-26 "And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? 24 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? 26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet”. so John's and the Lord Jesus authority is from God, let's back up John's authority "FROM" God. John the baptist was sent "from" God, not just sent "by" God to be a witness, but sent "FROM" God, big difference. scripture, John 1:6 "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John". so clearly it was of God and not of men. so his power/authority was of God. back to Revelation 11, "and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth”. prophesy, means to preach. scripture, Matthew 3:1 "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea". what was John Preaching? verse 2 "And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".
at this point we will give the function of the two witness. 1. preaching (repentance) and Baptizing (for the remission of sins). so that one may receive the gift, the KINGDOM of God, THE HOLY GHOST. so the two witness in the EARTH today is 1. preaching the Gospel. and 2. Baptism = 3. SALVATION. I know that there will be disagreement, but I'm prepared for all. REPENTANCE, and BAPTISM are our two WITNESS in the EARTH REALMS today. and they witness today. both preach, with fire, and both baptized with water. John (man) preached with fire, (the word of God the Gospel). and he baptized with water (NATURAL WATER). the Lord Jesus (God) preached with fire, (the word of God the Gospel), and baptize with with the Holy Ghost (LIVING WATER). now I know many would say, the "FIRE", yes, the fire is the Word of God. let the bible interpret itself, Jeremiah 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 how they devour, scripture, Revelation 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 word of God is "FIRE" in the mouth of his two witness. yes the Lord Jesus used fire also, his preaching. Matthew 3:11 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire". let's see the PREACHING of the Lord Jesus as was with John, Matthew 4:17 "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". so the preaching of the gospel leads one to repentance and hence, one is washed, (water), and (Spirit), (water death), (Spirit alive). scripture, Romans 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". and baptism fills all righteousness. Matthew 3:13 "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him".
this is enough for now but we'll pick back up on John with more evidence of his being a witness of the two.
be blessed.