After posting my end times
chart a while back, a few people e-mailed me to tell me I was wrong for placing the Two Witnesses’ ministry in the second half of the Week. Here is my explanation for this if you were one of those wondering why I believe as I do. This is a very neat timing issue within Revelation that is connected to other issues within the book that are equally interesting. When put together a bigger picture of how the puzzle pieces fit together is seen. It will help if you follow along in your Bible.
To start, we know that the abomination of desolation takes place at the midpoint of the Seventieth Week. And we know that the sixth seal takes place after the midpoint of the Week because we see the same triple sign in the sun, moon and stars that Jesus said would take place after the abomination that causes desolation (Rev. 6:12-13, Matt. 24:29). And we know that the trumpet judgments can only begin after the seventh seal is opened. It’s impossible for the seals, trumpets and bowls to take place concurrently as some suggest, but I digress.
This brings us to the moment before the fifth trumpet is sounded. Rev 8:13 says:
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
In the above verse the three “woes” are said to be associated with the final three trumpet blasts, and this is exactly what is proven as one reads on. On completion of the fifth trumpet, Revelation 9:12 tells us that:
The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
Obviously the fifth trumpet is the first “woe,” and the sixth and seventh trumpets will be the second and third “woes.” Chapter nine then continues in consecutive order informing us of what will take place during the time of the sixth trumpet. I won’t include it here, but you should read it to get a clear picture.
Chapter ten takes us to an interlude, and in verse seven we’re informed that, “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished…”
What is the “seventh angel” “about to sound” that will inform us that “the mystery of God is finished?” The seventh trumpet. The third “woe.”
Now this finally brings us to the chapter in question—chapter eleven. Verses one through fourteen tell us what the Two Witnesses will do and how long they will do it. They will prophesy for 1260 days (Rev 11:3). After their work is completed they will be killed (11:7), they will lay in the street for 3.5 days (11:9), and then they will be brought to life and will be raised to heaven (11:11-12). In that hour there will be an earthquake with thousands of people killed (11:13).
The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly. (Rev. 11:14)
The second woe is said to be in the past once the ministry, death and resurrection of the Two Witnesses is completed, and because the second woe is said to be associated with the sixth trumpet it is clear that their death takes place during the period of the sixth trumpet, and that the ministry of the two take place in the last 3.5 years because, as we discussed in the second paragraph, the seals fill up the first half of the Week and continue into the second half only to lead into the trumpet judgments. And in nice, orderly fashion, the very next thing mentioned in Rev. 11:15 is that “the seventh angel sounded…”
This goes to show that it only makes perfect sense that the Witnesses’ period of prophesying was previously recorded in the beginning of chapter eleven as being linked with the time when the holy city will be trampled.
Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. (Rev. 11:2-3)
The holy city will not be trampled during the first half of the seventieth week because this is the period when the covenant is yet to be broken, the temple is undefiled by the beast and the Jewish sacrificial system is in progress. It’s not until the midpoint of the Week when the covenant will be broken by the beast and the Great Tribulation will begin resulting in the city being “tread under foot.”
And if you haven’t figured it out already, the timing of the Two Witnesses also shows us why the seven bowls must take place after the completion of the 70th Week. Visit an
earlier post for this explanation.
All this may sound complicated to the individual new to the study of prophecy, but hang in there, there are many rewards that come with the study of end things, even if it is the study of secondary issues such as the timing of events.
