The Two Witnesses

So, okay, let's go in because I talked about giving this sermon. Let me watch. Look at my watch. I talked about giving this sermon the last time I was here and also in the past because we're going to be going through a lot of prophecy during the next few weeks as we prepare for this time of the year. I'll meet in due season as it's also mentioned, but I wanted to do today some things to make it easier for everyone to understand prophecy because I get it from everybody. Well, I understand it. Well, I don't understand it. And what is this and what is this? And so I like to break it down and make things simple because then it's easier to understand. We'll do some very simplistic things today as we're looking at Scripture. The most asked questions about the two witnesses that I have received are to read them. Who are they? I'm going to answer every one of these today. So if you have your pen, you can write it down, then you'll have the answers. Are they alive today? Are they two men? Are they two witnesses in the UCG? And could I, not Chuck Smith, could one of you be the two witnesses? Had that. Well, I'll be glad to tell you that over the last few years I have met both of the two witnesses. I'm not laughing. One I met many years ago in the Bahamas who said he was one of the two witnesses. He had a message for me to take back to President Barack Obama at the time. I never got that message back to President Obama. But the other one I met even last week and the week before. And he lives outside of Fort Lauderdale. He was told many decades ago that his understanding of prophecy was unlike anyone these ministers had ever heard. And they questioned him and said, it could be possible you are one of the two witnesses. To which now, forty-something years later, we had to sit down and talk as he explained this to me over the last few weeks. And I was able to assure him he was not one of the two witnesses. Sincere, as he was at the time, he lost his way. And he was afraid that he was going to miss out. So those aren't the only two everybody have heard many stories before. So let me answer these very quickly. Who are they? I don't know. That's the first answer. Are they alive today? Possibly. And probably. If Christ returns in the next twenty years, I'd say they're here. They're here today. Somewhere. If he returns. If he returns in the next ten years, yes. Say they're here.

Are they two men? Could be. Or could not be. Am I right? Because scriptures that we're going to read today, because all I want to do is take out the scriptures that tell us about the two witnesses. There's only two sections of scripture in the entire Bible that tell us about the two witnesses. Unless you're going to look at what it says. We're not going to talk about what it doesn't say. We're not going to add to or take away. I think then it becomes very crystal clear. So we can all understand it. Could it be a man and a woman? Could be.

I know a man and a woman that Jeff knew claimed to be the two witnesses. What? Three and a half years ago. I guess they missed the vote, because Christ didn't come at the end of their ministry. But different people, could it be two women? I don't know. It does not say. And if you do not find that interesting, I question your study of the Bible. Why did he leave it blank? Because God usually doesn't leave things blank. But He did. Will His eyes go to and fro over the whore to see who's most loyal to Him?

Do you mean the side? Yes. So the fourth? Yes. The fourth are the two witnesses in UCG. Probably not. Probably not. And I say that not because I'm not for UCG or believe there's righteous people in UCG. I just believe it's kind of like Elijah caught up on his run from Jezebel. And he starts crying that he's the only one. The only one stood for you. And what did God say? I have seven thousand who have never bowed their knee to Baal nor kissed that pagan idol. So God's got people we don't even know on this earth. And these two are going to finish His work. We have work to do. That's why I'm here. Trying to do His work. That's why you're there, trying to do His work. But we won't complete His work. They will. The two witnesses will complete His work. And we'll go through and hopefully be able to show you that. So could you be one of the two witnesses? Yes. Yes, you could.

But probably not. It's my answers because I want to be real about this. Because all I want to do is speak the truth and teach what is laid out for us in the Scriptures. Let me ask you a question that I really would like you to ponder. Because it could be a reality. Across the websites, across different theological teachings. That's out there right now. There are various dates that people are saying will be the return of Christ. It's been that way ever since I was born. It's been that way before I was born. But there's one now that is gaining popularity and I think it will continue. That date is 2031, which is 2,000 years to the date that Jesus Christ was killed. And so a lot of people are throwing that date around. Because we know it's not in four years that Christ returns. We know that. We can figure that out. Absolutely. Because things have to go in motion in the three and a half years of the two witnesses. That's what Scripture says. That's what we're going to cover. So we know it's not four years. It may not be five. It may be ten. I don't know. We don't know. It's sad when they even ask.

Christ said He didn't know.

And He's a lot smarter than I am. A lot smarter than anyone that's ever walked on this earth.

So if we knew for sure, I want you to ask yourself this question. If you knew for sure Christ comes back in the year 2031, would that might affect how you live the next year?

Think on it. Would it might affect how you live the next five years? Would that be a positive? Don't think so. Right, Dale? I don't know that would. I think if all of us were honest.

Just look at April 15th.

Yeah, you look there. Everybody waits until the last minute to get down. Can't even get to the post office because we usually like to wait around. Now if it did, there would probably be a lot of people waiting to say, well, you know, I'm going to find the Lord in 2030.

I'm going to find Him in the next two or three years, so I've got plenty of time.

Well, it's kind of like He comes as a thief in the night. Matthew 24, 44. But we don't know. I've got friends who have died in the last year or two. They didn't expect to die. None of us knows. Anybody drives on these roads. Guess what? You can go at any time. So let's go because our main source for us, the only source, the Word of God, is the only word that matters when it comes to what's going to happen in the future. And I've been in church quite a few years and heard all types of predictions and flat-out speculation and truth that really wasn't truth. And it's happened for a long time. That's why I gave the sermon I gave this morning about false prophets. And why Christ warns. Why Peter warns. Peter, Paul. Paul warned that false prophets to deceive the very elect. I don't want us deceived. I don't want anybody deceived. And we shouldn't be as long as you stick to what the Bible says and not what. Men write in books and speculate and everything else. Because I don't know any more than anyone else. I know what this book says. And I've studied it and I used to be a little, let's say, probably intimidated by the book of Revelation. And that was Mary's fault.

We were doing a circuit back in Tennessee. I did a circuit in Jackson and Memphis, the first Sabbath of every month, for years. And we went down this little church in Memphis and only one person in bad weather. Something happened and only one person showed up in the church. And I traveled four hours to get there. I had a service in the morning in Jackson and had that. So I went on over. And so there was this guy who had been around church for decades. And so I said, well, we'll have services. We're two or more together together. And then Mary, the wonderful wife that she is, said, what would you like to have a service on? Ask anything. He'll give you a study on anything. And what do you think he did? How about Revelation?

After that, I decided to know as much as I could and talk to people who really didn't speculate, but who laid it out as it is. And it was. And that's what we will go through, the two witnesses today, and on trumpets. We're going to go so you understand the picture. You understand not just what trumpets symbolize, but where it fits, why it fits, and how it works. Simplistic. And a week from today, we will also go in. So hopefully, you may not understand the whole book, but you'll understand what you need to understand. And so you're not pulled away by some strange guy saying, he's one of the two witnesses. Here I come, because I will come and be there. So he says, don't add or take away from his scriptures, right? You heard that before? Where did it come from? Revelation 22, right? Is that the only place? Do you think it's important to God? He says, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, or even by the mouth of scripture. You don't see the Sabbath, you don't see the Holy Days, you don't see the important things, you just laid out one time in scripture, do you? No. God repeats them so that we don't have an excuse. Yes, he says it in Revelation 22. He says it in Deuteronomy 4. He says it in Deuteronomy 11 or 12. It's 11.

He says it. Don't add or take away. Why? Why do people then add so much or take things away? Has everyone here heard somebody that just added something to scripture and you're just like, what?

Or you come back later and go, I thought, well, it's not in the Bible. That was the most frustrating part to me over all these years. Is that I would go back and think something would come up and they'd come in my head and I'd go, oh yeah, that's not in the Bible. Where did they get that? So that's why I think it's so important that we're a Bible believing, Bible reading, Bible keeping church.

I just think that's what we need to do. So there are 12 major verses that teach us about the two witnesses. It's in Revelation 11. If you have a Bible, please turn there.

We're going to go through all 12 and then you'll know exactly what the Bible says. And we're also going to go through a few more where they tie into the two witnesses. And there are only, I can only find, if you find more than that, let me know. But I have searched and searched and everything. There's only two places.

Revelation and Zechariah. That's it. And we'll go through that. Because I want you to understand, not because you need to understand that you're sitting out in your car waiting for one of the two witnesses to appear. I want you to be able, when somebody asks you a question, you can teach it straight from the Bible. My job is to teach teachers. That's it. I'm not here to, oh, look how much I know, or look what I can do. No. It's to teach teachers. I had people teach me. I was just a difficult student. Okay? It took me a long time and I also looked and said, I don't believe that. Show me. I wasn't from Missouri. So let's look at this as we go. But let's not read. Let's examine. Don't mind. Look at time. You got enough time. What time sunset? No.

Revelation 11 verse 1. I'll read from the New King James Version. It said, because John is looking at this, this is Revelation 12, so God is showing him. He is seeing this in vision and he sees a temple.

Because he said, verse 1, then I was given a read like a measuring rod.

This is my read. I almost brought a yardstick up here. Everybody used to have a yardstick, didn't they? I did. My mother smacked me with one and she would make sure. She might have to double it because she'd smack me too hard and break the one. But everybody had a yardstick. Nobody has a yardstick anymore, do they? You got one for him? No. Frying pan. You must have a hard hit. But there are a few people that have yardsticks. They didn't have yardsticks. They didn't have a Home Depot that gave out yardsticks back then. But what they did do, they took rods, pieces of wood, and they cut them to a certain length. This is what they did when they had construction. You would have different rods like this. This is more of a dowel pin. Jeff doesn't get on my case. Well, that's not really a rod. That's a dowel pin. But it's like a rod. They would take a rod. They had different lengths. You would keep that in your house. So if you needed to measure something, this is how you measure it. This is four foot. Exactly four foot. Not three foot, 11 and 7 eighths. Not four foot, one and a sixteen. Exactly four foot. And everybody had the same measure. Because otherwise, how would you measure something if you've got this and you've got that? Different ones. So this is what these...

This was given to him. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. Who gave him that reed? Anybody care to speculate?

An angel? It looks like as he's talking here to angels or taking him through this thing. He's seen vision of Christ. He's seen the vision of God at the throne in the earlier chapters, which we'll go into. I think chapter four and five are amazing. And I want to go in there again and examine that one time. But he says, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar. Where was... Wait a minute. I thought the altar was part of the temple.

No. No. No, it wasn't. The altar was outside of the temple.

Because that's where they sacrifice the animal. You're not going to take it in and smoke up the... and burn animals inside the temple.

But he said he's asking you to measure the temple. Okay. Here. And then he said, measure the altar, which is just outside of the temple where they sacrifice. Right? Whoa! And then what does it say? And those who worship there.

I'm four foot. It's supposed to be right at six foot. So is that what it means? Measure me.

Think about it. Whoop!

Because he's looking at a physical temple here. But there is a duality here. The duality is you. Yes, the spiritual. Where is the temple of God today? Uh-huh. Because what does he say? We're going to get into this next week. Don't want to go too far there. About 1 Corinthians. He says it twice. Because you are the temple of God. Are we ready to measure ourselves? Have you measured yourself? We always talk about examining ourselves. When? Passover, right? Full Passover. Are we measuring ourselves? The scary part is is God measuring us. To see if we fit His size of what He's wanting.

Fit. Do we measure spiritually? That seems to be what's really important to Him. And so here we're looking at a physical, spiritual correlation.

Because this is John looking into the future.

Is he seeing us?

Is that and those who worship there? Hmm. You've got to ask yourself that question. I have to. But then he says in verse 2, But leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it.

Why?

It's not important. It's not important to Him. That time. And they're not included. Not at this time. Not at this time. Eighth day? You get to, you know, eighth day? Eighth day? Hopefully you'll be able to feast every day. To hear about those, to hear about them, about the Gentiles and all the people and what a beautiful story that is. Has to be one of the greatest success stories ever. Not about the people, the plan. And to what I've been working on my last day message and it's just like, Man, that plan! It's just, you know, Who thought of that? God. That tries to get everybody in. A plan to try to get everybody to win. Win.

So let's go here. Believe the court which is outside and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. How much? Three and a half years. How many days?

Yes.

Sixty. Yes. Okay. So he lays that out. So, we are about to see the two witnesses come onto the scene. They're here at this end. So they're going to be there and they are going to take up some time.

And let's see what time they take up.

The Gentiles will be basically saying over the holy city. And in verse 3, And I will give power to my two witnesses.

And they will prophesy how long?

The same amount of time that the holy city will be under Gentile control. Where they will be underfoot, the city, the temple, the altar, whatever, is there in Jerusalem. It will be occupied. And we'll go into another time where the sacrifices will be cut in half. The time will be cut in half. Sacrifice stopped. I don't want to go there today. I want to keep it simple so we understand about the two witnesses. But let's look at this. Verse 3. I will give power. Okay, so that means that's what they're going to look like. So all we have to look at is... You guys take your shirts off and we can see whether any of them are here. I prefer not to. Okay. So is this the power he's talking about? No. No. But that's what people think. About power, strength, and so forth like that. Okay. I will give power to my two witnesses. You remember what it says? Zechariah 4 and verse 6. This is about us. Remember? This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might, not by power, but what? My spirit. We're going to see what they're going to accomplish. That's not going to be by muscle-bound guys. They're going to do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what these men, slash men, women, slash women, women, I don't know. That's what these two witnesses are going to come in the power of the Holy Spirit. You think you'll recognize them? Oh, I bet we will. There won't be any doubt we will recognize them. We know what they won't do, and we know what they will do. We know what they celebrate. We know who their God is and what He expects. So you can eliminate a lot of people in the world right now. Right, Dan? Right? They're going to follow God because it's going to be by His power, of His Holy Spirit. They're going to be led, guided, directed by His Holy Spirit.

A lot of us have a few things in common, don't we? Like I gave, I was a sermonist, sermon the other day, about we have the same diet. We don't eat the same thing. Yeah, we have the food. It's all the same in here that we don't eat. Well, you can see these things. It's easy. But let's say, I will give power to my two, here are the words, word witnesses. You know what the Greek word for that is? Greek word for witnesses, this one, is martus. Martus. It's where we get the word martyr. It's where we get the word martyrs. And you know what a martyr is? You're going to die for what you believe in. You're going to die for a purpose. So how many people want to walk out now? I'm one of the two witnesses. I want to be drug around the city, did. No. So I will give power, which we see the Holy Spirit, to my two witnesses, and they will prophesize 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. Burlap. Anybody ever had a burlap around them? That's rough, right? So we're going to be, nobody wears burlap today. Nobody wears it. So we're going to be able to see them real easy by saying, there's a man in burlap, one of the two witnesses. There she is! She's got a burlap dress on. That's her! Chrissy, you got one? No. No. You're going to make one. Yeah, everybody, everybody will be wearing burlap. Everybody will be going, Oh man, this just, get rid of this preacher. No. Sackcloth was symbolic. It's still symbolic here. It's symbolic. Because that's what they did. That's what they did in the story of Jonah. That's what, you know, that's what other things. They took it because it was a sign of humility. Are we there? It is a sign of humility. It is a sign that they are humble. You hardly ever see that, do you? Humble power. Humble power. Usually power, not humble. This is what they're going to do. We're going to be able to see the humility, also the gift of God through the Holy Spirit. But we're also going to see the power. So it's not going to be there just striking people down. Boom! You! You! No! Can someone tell? Why is God sending them? Why is God sending the two? There's one answer. They're a witness to the world, but they're asking the world to do what Christ has said and the whole reason all these plagues are going to be poured out. They're going to be poured out and repent! Repent, change, and turn to God. That's all they care about.

That isn't that part of our message. It's a warning message. We need to repent. The world needs to repent. We know we do because we study His Word every day and find out I'm about that tall. I read His Word and I want to become more the size of Christ.

So it will be clothed in sackcloth, which is humility.

So we're going to recognize that. Have you ever seen very many powerful individuals that can have the world stage and yet they're humble? Nope. It's hard. I haven't seen any in my lifetime. I've seen some businessmen. I've met a few. They weren't great big powerful men, but they were wealthy men who were humble. So those are out there, but here are two individuals who take the main stage of the world. They have the whole world looking at them, and yet they're able to be humble.

Is this something that God requires of us? Asking us to do now? Yes.

Okay, let's move on because I have to look at my clock. I don't want to be run out of here. Then we come to verse 4, and that's where this gets interesting to me, and that's where most people get confused. Verse 4 says, These are the two trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. If yours has God of the earth... Does yours say that? Okay, that's wrong. It wasn't in any of the majority manuscripts. It wasn't in any of the text of all the thousands of texts. God wasn't in there. People put it in there. The Lord is what it had. It was. Lord. Wasn't in any of it. Why they did that? I don't know. But I just want to tell you, if something's not translated right, I'll tell you. Because it's obvious. So, these two olive trees. So where do we go? Well, to find the two olive trees, we have to go to Zachariah. Zachariah 4. Will you follow me there, please? Zachariah 4. Now, if you read in commentaries, you read in all these various places. Hardly anybody will bring this out. They just don't. They just don't. I mean, it's obvious, but they won't. They don't bring it out. So, I want to teach you because it was taught to me, and then things begin to fall in line. Let's go to Zachariah 4 and verse 1. I'll read from the New King James Version. You've got to understand Zachariah. Zachariah was sent in the year 520 B.C. He was sent to get the temple built. Get the city built. Get the job done. Complete the job. Others had been there. There was a rebel, one of them, who was the governor. He was a ruling guy. And you had Joshua. Yeshua was a high priest at the time. The Jews had been there for 17 years. They were released 17 years earlier to go over there and start it. They went over there and built a little bit, but then they decided to throw a few stones together here. We'll throw the altar together, but we're not going to do this. Then they started building their own houses. We ought to take care of ourselves. For 17 years, well, really 15 years, nothing got done. And God's house is still standing. A mess. Just stones. It wasn't a house. And yet, that is what they were all excited when they left to get to remember the temple and God's presence. Because He was saying, the Messiah is going to come there. And He did, didn't He? 500 years later. But He wanted them to finish the work. That's where they were released. So, Zechariah gets there, and he sees, they really want to work.

And so, He has to motivate. And so, He goes to the two leaders.

The governor, Zerababel, and Joshua, or Yahshua, as he's called. In Hebrew, let's get moving! God says, we've got to get this going. And so, He gets on both sides. The governor for getting the manpower to go to work. Let's go! Get the crews out here! You have full authority of the emperor who's in charge. You have full authority. Tell those men to go to work. They'll go to work. Get the priests in line, Joshua! Get them in line! They need to start doing this. They need to start sacrificing. We need to have all this together. So, Zechariah was a motivator. And God sent him there. That's the kind of prophet He was. And He had a certain personality. So, God gave him incredible vision. Not only for His time, because you can imagine going there, and it's just, it's still a bunch of rubble. Nothing's been changed. All these stones are down, and He's thinking, wow! Where's the temple for all the people to come back? Because the majority of the people weren't back yet.

And He had to motivate because a lot of the people were going, well, we had somebody come back from there. Uh-uh! We're staying in Babylon, where it's kind of nice. There's food. Everything's built. Well built. So, can you see a problem? See a problem where Zechariah, man, he's got to get them going because these people are just going to buy into Babylon. They're going to lose their identity. So, here we go to chapter 4. I said, Now the angel who talked to me came back and awakened me as a man who is waking out of his sleep. And he said to me, What do you see? So I said, Damn, I am looking and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it. And on the stand, seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. What? I'm not going to take you because of time today. I'm not going to take you back to Revelation 1 and verse 4 where you can see some of those lampstands. I'll tie that in in the next two services because I want you to get this. And then he said, Two olive trees are by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on the left. So I answered and spoke to him and said, Who talked with me? What are these, my Lord? He's seeing this vision and he's going, What is it? Then the angel who talked with me answered and said, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my Lord. So he answered me and said, This is the word of the Lord. There is a rubber bell. Not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord, Who are you, O great mountain or nations? Before the rubber bell, you shall become like a plane and he shall bring forth the capstone with the shouts of grace to it. Talking about, Don't worry about other nations coming in and picking on you. Don't worry about what's going on. I gave you a job to do. Don't be worried about all this other stuff. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, The hands of the rubber bell have laid the foundation of the temple. Yeah, they just got a few stones laid down there. It's about it. His hands will also finish it. So Zacharias having to tell the rubber bell, You're going to finish this thing. Wait a minute. He's been there 17 years. You're going to finish it? Yes, you are. You are going to finish this.

His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoiced to see the plumb line. Everybody know what a plumb line is? It's how you get everything straight. It's how they knew. They didn't have levels back then, but they had a plumb line, and it's accurate if you've ever used one. And so here, the plumb line is in the hand of the rubber bell. Meaning what? Something's actually going to get done. Because the leader is going to have the governor, the head of it, is going to have a plumb line. He's going to make sure this gets done.

They are the eyes of the Lord who scan to and fro. Where was that? Who is that? He has talked about this for these seven rejoiced to see the plumb line. You go back to Revelation 1, you go back to Revelation 3. In Revelation 1, it tells who the seven eyes are, who the seven of all these various... Let's go back there. I've got to go back there. I can't not go there. I didn't want to try to cover this, but I want to understand. Revelation 1. Revelation 1. Revelation 1, verse 4. It says, The seven spirits are...

Seven? They are... As a lampstands they are. But there are seven spirits, which seven is a word for what? Completion. Totality. Okay, is that means there are only seven churches in the world? No, but it means the totality of the churches. And here, these seven eyes that go around, the seven stars, they're the totality of angels.

They are not just seven angels. They are a total number of angels that's going to keep watch over the churches. The people. That's what this... that's the beauty of this. And he said, here they are actually watching you, Zerubbabel, get this done. And when you pick up that plumb line, they're all going to shout with joy because they've been told, we've got to get this temple built. And they're going to protect you. They're going to put this around you. They're going to take care of you. Quit worrying about these little things. Okay, let's go back to Zechariah.

Zechariah. I said, okay, these are the seven of them. Rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. 2 Chronicles 16, 9, the eyes of the Lord. Continue to go across the earth to see whose... Okay, those eyes. You think it's God? No, it's the angels. They're the ones. There's billions of them. Okay. God's in charge. They are the eyes of the Lord who scan to and fro throughout the whole earth. Isn't that interesting? You have entertained angels, underwear, and Hebrews. Whoo, we don't know how many.

Better keep our eyes open. Hearts open. Then I answered and said to him, What are these two olive trees? One on the right, one of the lampstand, and the other on the left? And I further answered to him and said, What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from the golden oil drains? Then he answered to me and said, Do you not know what they are? And I said, No! No! And he said, These are the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord on the whole earth. Two! At this time, at that time, those two, and Bill, I wish I had your artistic ability. But I don't mind making a fool of myself, because there's a couple of things in this world I can't do. I can't sing. I can't dance. And I can't draw. But today, I'm going to draw. Can I turn this down? No. Can I turn it down this way? Thanks. I don't want to mess it up. Too much. Bill, I want your help.

Bill is an artist. If you've never seen his art, he is really good. That's why I want him up here, so that he can laugh. And hopefully he can actually take this, take my child drawing, and make it.

Later, he can really give us a picture of it, so we can understand. Okay, Bill, if you'll hold this. Put it right there.

Does anybody understand what I just read? Do you think you could draw it? See, this was a vision that God gave to Zechariah. And so he was seeing this, and he's going, how does this all come together? In the middle. Remember, I don't lose that. In the middle was a candlestick. Okay? Yes, and here is a light, and then what happens after this?

Right? You with me so far? Does this look? Yeah, I started to do that too, but I was afraid you wouldn't be able to laugh. Oh, you did? Okay, so everybody recognizes that as a menorah. How many lights? What does that mean? Complete. That's what he ties the churches in Revelation to. You know, he talked about the lampstand. You have all this stuff because of seven. Okay, so he's saying, here is this thing here. Well, all of a sudden you've got, and this is what I wish Bill could do, two trees, okay? And you've got limbs coming off. That look like limbs?

Okay, and you have limbs coming in. And then, but here's the thing. Here is, right here, come up here, here is a bowl. A bowl, you see. These, he says, are olive trees. You with me? So, these olive trees are feeding into this bowl. Oil. What's oil symbolic of? Oh, that's a no-brainer, right? Yep. Romans. But then he said there's seven tubes or whatever coming out of this bowl. So, you have things coming here, here, back to this one, and this one, and this one, and they feed. These lines feed the church. So, he's asking, and who are these? These are olive, right? Olive trees. They're dripping oil. Holy Spirit, this is all symbolic. This is what he's trying to get us to understand. So, now he's telling him, he's given his vision, he goes, well, I don't understand. What is that? Would you be able to tell what it is? He goes, this is Arababel. This is Joshua.

They're going to feed the Spirit, and they're going to get this work done. They are going to finish the God's work. Here, go. Now, everybody understand that? Good. Let's get rid of this, Bill. Let's go to the Scripture in Revelation 11.

Revelation 11. Get back there. Revelation 11. Verse 4. Nope. That's it. Thank you, sir. Don't you think you can do a better job than everybody? No, I'll just wait to see here. The reason I did that is I was going to get a picture. There's pictures out there and so forth. But when I was taught this many years ago, I couldn't really understand it until the guy who drew it, and he's ten times worse than I am. I understood it, so that's how I knew that I could probably teach this by doing it.

So let's go to verse 4. These are the two olive trees and two lampstands before the Lord of the earth. Do we see that that was finishing the physical, the spiritual work before Jesus Christ gets here is going to be done by these two witnesses? They are the two olive trees. They represent the two olive trees. Are the olive trees represent them? And they will finish the work. They will feed the church. They will finish the work. And they will do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. That oil, that oil will drip. That oil will drip. Okay? These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth. Ever had that before? Boom! They're going to see it. You're going to see it. Fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies.

And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. Do you remember? Do you remember Elijah? And King Ahaziah was so tired of him, he said, go get him. He's causing me problems. Sent 50 men out to go get him. Bring him back. And so he sent his bravest man out there, General, and they said, all right, come down. We're going to get you. Boom! The ashes.

They turned to ashes. Well, they must have been scared, so the king sent another one. And he said, go get them. And they went up and did the same dumb thing. And fire came and burnt them up. Boom! Just like this. Finally, the last one came and said, Mr. Elijah, Mr. Elijah, you know, can we talk? Okay, this is what's going to happen. It says if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. So it's not going to be like, oh, it's going to be boom! Poof! You're gone! Is that not power?

And verse 6, these have power to, man, I'm running late. These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy, and that they have power over waters to turn them into blood. Imagine 3 1⁄2 years. Their prophecy is 3 1⁄2 years. There's no rain on the entire earth for 3 1⁄2 years.

How dead is everything going to be? No rain, no water, food. Look what's going to happen. And then it said, bad enough, we'll just go to the streams. No, he's turning them into blood. This is serious. Can you see how they will be so hated? It's not South Florida. It's the entire world. This is going to happen to. And it says in verse 6, "...and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire." So they're going to be preaching repentance, and people are going to send somebody out to kill them.

They're going to go, boom! And then they're going, okay, what plague do you want? I've got all kinds. I've got a pocket full of plagues. And as much as they want. You understand why it takes humility now? These people are the most powerful people on the planet. But they're led by the Holy Spirit. Now, when they finish their testimony, the beast that it sends out of the bottomless pit, we'll talk about the two beasts later next week and the next. Okay, because this is the second beast, not the first beast.

There's two beasts. This is the one that comes out of the land. This is the religious leader. Okay? This is a false prophet that comes after them. And we'll make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. Why are they able to be killed? Because they've done their job. They've done their job. Why was John the Baptist killed at 31 years of age? He did his job. He did his job. And many people we know, their job's done.

And God took them. And verse 8, And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually calls Sodom and Egypt, where also is our Lord was crucified. Which is talking what? Jerusalem. So they end up in Jerusalem. Don't know if they start there. Some people go, oh, they're in Jerusalem the entire time. Not that they strike the whole world. They can go anywhere they want. They can do anything they want. But they end up in Jerusalem.

When I said Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. Other translations actually write down Jerusalem. Because that's the center of the next things that come into play. That goes to Zechariah 14. You'll see it all. You know, it's all going to come down at that time. And then it says, Then those from the peoples... Now look at how this is stated. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongue, and nations will see their dead bodies. Why would he go into such detail? Because it's talking about everyone. Every tribe, every nation, every tongue, everybody in the entire world will see their dead bodies three and a half days and do not allow their dead bodies to be put in graves.

They're just going to be put out there. They're just going to be laying there in the street three and a half days. Everybody, yeah, seems to have a phone. Well, all this by that time, everybody will see it. Very good chance. All right, are they going to... think about it. This is a drought. Nothing's happened three and a half years. Are they going to let the birds come in and just peck on them?

Because the birds are going to want to. The birds, when it's dry, you study this from drought. There's one thing they want. They go for your eyes because there's moisture there and then they like to open up the stomach so they can get moisture because they don't want to eat just dry food. Is this going to happen? I don't know. That's not my speculation.

I'm just saying. They're laying out there for three and a half days. In the Jerusalem sun, not going to be pleasant. Regal Mortis is set in. Stiffness, everything else. They're going to be able to go kick the body and it's just going to... And then it says in verse 10, Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them. Make merry and send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwelt on the earth. They're going to be giving gifts to each other.

They're dead! They're dead! Ah! Party party! Here's a drink. Let's toast to the death of these people. They're dead. Yeah. Ding dong, the witch is dead. Makes me even wonder if... And this is purely my speculation. If when they're finally dead, if there isn't rain, there isn't moisture. Because that would give you room. Oh, we did a great thing, wouldn't it? Can't say that. That's just mine. I don't like speculating, but it makes sense that they would. Verse 11, after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them. And they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

They come back to life. And it isn't night of the living dead. They come back and look like they...and they're strong. And everybody in the world has seen them dead. They're supposed to be dead, right? Christ was in the grave.

How long? Three days there. How long was Lazarus in the grave? Because it shows they're dead. These people are dead, and yet this comes back. And they heard a loud voice from heaven, saying to them, Come up here. And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. We'll pick it up from there on the Feast of Trumpets.