In 70 AD, exactly as Yeshua spoke it into being about 40 years earlier on “this generation”, more than 2 million Jews who had rejected YHVH’s Savior and his message of salvation through righteousness died from disease, starvation, slaughter or torture by crucifixion. More than 1 million Jews were sold into slavery, which led to today’s Diaspora.
But before this specific episode of punishment for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was inflicted, forty years earlier 1) John the Baptizer in the spirit of Elijah and 2) the Christ / Prophet in the likeness of Moses preached repentance and return to YHVH to Israel to avoid the condemnation.
YHVH maintains the rules of order written in the law of Moses when condemning an offender.
“One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.” (Deuteronomy 19:15)
The requirement for two witnesses provides for the strongest likelihood of justice for the accused.
Unlike the Inquisition where no witnesses were required – only accusers,
Regardless of one’s religious opinion on the historic Jesus, the documented evidence of his mistrial is indisputable.
“And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.
- For many bare false witness against him,
- but their witness agreed not together…
- the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
- And Jesus said, I am...
Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? YE have heard the blasphemy: what think YE? And THEY all condemned him to be guilty of death.” (Mark 14:55-64)
Keep in mind, this was the same religious leadership who heard John the Baptizer’s testimony that Jesus was the Christ.
“And this is the record of John, when the Jews / religious leadership of Israel sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he / John confessed, and denied not; but confessed,
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- I am not the Christ [of Daniel].
- What then? Art thou Elias [of Malachi]? And he saith, I am not.
- Art thou that prophet [like Moses]? And he answered, No.
Not just two but three scriptural witnesses answer the Jews / leadership questions.
- Daniel’s timetable for Israel’s deliverance from foreign subjugation by Messiah / Christ the Prince, i.e. the Seed of the Woman who reclaim dominion over the whole earth as the Son of God.
- “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth [in this context the land of Israel] with a curse.” (Malachi 4)
- “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me [Moses]; unto him ye shall hearken [respond]” (Deuteronomy 18:15)
- The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world…And I saw, and bare record that THIS is the Son of God / Representative / Heir / Priest-King of the World / Melchizedek.” (John 1:19-34)
So the religious leadership had been told by the most highly respected prophet of the day. The problem is, they refused to accept his message – submit to Jesus’ as Melchizedek.
“And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he / Jesus taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?
The answer was “YHVH Himself as written in your scriptures and preached to you by John the Baptizer.”
“And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: The baptism of John [for repentance of sin in order to identify with / be baptized with the Holy Spirit of the Son of God], was it from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying,
- If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
- But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.” (Luke 20:1-8)
First of all, what’s the point? More importantly, legally his sole witness was inadmissible, either at that time, or during his mistrial shortly after.
“If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not [legally acceptable as] true…There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.” (John 6:30-34)
Sometime in the future there will be a repeat of two men with the spirits of Elijah and Moses in the ultimate end-game – screaming at the top of their lungs to the religious leaders to call on YHVH’s Savior as Lord / Authority instead of trusting for security on the military alliance with the last iteration of the Roman Empire.
There has been a lot of speculation over the identities of the two messengers at the temple but when we follow the script, the Bible states clearly who they are.
“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” (Revelation 11:4)
“I [Zechariah] looked, and behold
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- a candlestick all of gold
- And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word / message / vision / sign of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
[A second time] What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?…which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil [iconic for spirit] out of themselves? And he answered me and said…These are the two anointed / chosen ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.”
We can understand the role of the two messengers by comparison to “the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims” (I Samuel 4:5) who likewise stand by the LORD of the whole earth.
Closer to home, we can understand their role as equivalent to the two bodyguards of the President of the United States, who job 1, as everyone knows, is to protect the authority vested in the President by throwing themselves in the line of fire if need be.
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- Joshua the high priest standing before the angel [physical manifestation} of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
- And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee…
- [And he said to Joshua] If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house…
- Hear now, O Joshua the high priest…behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch / Seed of The Woman / Promised Redeemer.” (Zechariah 3:1-2)
- Zerubbabel the Prince [governor of the Persian province, as the heir to the throne of David] saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts….
- The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house;
- his hands shall also finish it [against all odds];
- and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you….
- and [when ye] shall see the plummet / measure / standard of rightness in the hand of Zerubbabel.” [Zechariah 1-4)
- Joshua the high priest standing before the angel [physical manifestation} of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
Immediately after YHVH’s Savior left earth we find the required number of two witnesses in the temple who meet this criteria by standing up for YHVH and standing against the enemy.
“Now Peter and John went up together into the temple…Ye men of Israel…
- The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus…
- those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
- Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing / renewal / resurrection shall come from the presence of the Lord.
- And he shall send…the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began…
And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead…their rulers, and elders, and scribes…the high priest…commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus [from the dead]… HIM – NOT Antichrist – hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost – NOT the deceptive “life” force from Antichrist – whom God hath given to them that obey him.
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.” (Acts 4-5)
Later in scripture we find another – required two – witnesses standing up for YHVH’s savior in opposition to the Antichrist.
“And when we were come to Jerusalem…Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders…declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they…said unto him,
- many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
- As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication [practices binding oneself to hyperdimensional beings, especially at this time, the Antichrist].
Paul…entered into the temple…the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him…and drew him out of the temple…went about to kill him.” (Acts 21)
Recall that, due to the Jewish leadership’s rejection of the Christ, Paul had transferred kingdom leadership to the Gentiles. Accordingly, as specified in this passage, at this time in history the two witnesses are a team composed of
- a leader of Gentile believers – commonly called the Christians –
- and a leader of the Messianic Jews.
Until kingdom rule is transferred back in full to a Jewish Melchizedek – beginning with a Messianic Jew standing up for the Christ – we must accept that Gentiles remain responsible for leadership – including testifying to the Jews at the Temple.
But not necessarily Christians. See previous posts for details on the definition of Gentile / Gens being a national group belonging to the Roman empire.
The Muslims, who have battled for control of the Temple Mount since their inception, are the obvious group from which a spokesman stands up for the God of the Whole Earth. As within Christianity, there are many false teachers and exploiters of religion for personal gain and wolves in sheep’s clothing, but there are also true believers who are classified as one nation of Hebrews among the nation.
Without question the last two notorious witnesses are preaching the same message the Apostles preached at Herod’s temple. They are begging the people
- to reject Antichrist’s promise of salvation from death,
- and instead accept God’s promise of resurrection after death.
Their militaristic responses to the enemy’s attempt to cut them down align with Elijah’s [Jewish] and Moses’ [Hebrew], giving us to understand that these are perilous times.
- “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, [may be short hand for stating that they call down fire] and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” (Revelation 11:5)
- These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy” (Revelation 11:6)
- and have power over waters to turn them to blood (Revelation 11:6)
- and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will (Revelation 11:6)
The supernatural events brought about by the witnesses are the requisite signs to the Jews proving both the greater power of Christ over Antichrist and their identification with the national God of Israel YHVH who likewise empowered his pre-Judaism Hebrew prophets in the past.
But it takes time. Remember the Exodus. How many contests of wills, with the violence escalating?
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit / who became the king of the world shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city…where ALSO our Lord was crucified.”
Sounds gruesomely like the two witnesses were “also” crucified.
Even public enemy #1 YHVH’s Savior was buried. Leaving the bodies to rot in public, especially in a religion that requires burial within 24 hours, is a common way of desecration to intimidate followers into ending revolt against the powers that be.
But these fools in Jerusalem play right into God’s hands.
As the quintessential Jewish comedian says:
Undoubtedly the bodies of these two witnesses are surrounded by guards. Perhaps these enemies of God are trying to undo the problem encountered in the past when Jesus’ body was left under the supervision of too few soldiers to keep him in the grave.
But this is not unbelief, this is oppositional defiant disorder, from men whose die is cast, and there is no turning back now.
And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.” (Revelation 3:11)
The last and greatest sign! Resurrection from the dead!!
The two witnesses knew the day of their death. They’ve read Revelation, haven’t they!
They must have been dying laughing as their throats were cut or they were crucified or shot or however they received their Purple Heart, at the fact that the idiot enemy itself set up this last and greatest proof of the true Christ’s superiority over their imitation Christ, including the wide open view, to prove the fact to the huge on-site crowd and the whole world through 24 hour internet feed!
“Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.” (Psalm 69:22, Romans 11:9)
“The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” (Psalm 9:16)
And he that was dead came forth…Then many of the Jews…believed on him / YHVH’s Savior.” (John 11:43-44)
“And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand:
CAN I GET A WITNESS!!
and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Revelation 11:10-11)
Kingdom Come 