Church grafted into Olive Tree = Romans 11:24 Olive Trees and Candlesticks = |
10-17-22, Looking at the 'Two Witnesses' in Revelation 11:1-4 we must realize much of the Book of Revelation is figurative language [1] and the time may be factoring actions of the past not all future. Inside the Old Testament the temple was a candlestick with seven lamps that were to be always kept burning. In Zechariah 4:2-11 vision he saw one candlestick with two olive trees by it and in Revelation 11:4 the Apostle John saw two candlesticks. [Note: Olive trees produce the olives that provide the oil [Lev 24:2] for the continual lighting of the lamps in the temple figurative language?] There are many witnesses explained in scripture:
| Regarding the 1,260 Days [Revelation 11:2-3, 12:6]: The prophecy of time in Daniel equaling 1,260 days (a time and times and the dividing of time or 3-1/2 years) a time of sackcloth because a power makes war on the saints speaking against the Most High God. (Dan. 7:21, 25) Many conclude this is future time; but what if it's the past 'Dark Ages?' [2] The 1,260 days … my understanding:
[2] https://thepersecuted.org/history-of-persecution-against-christians/ [3] Pope: history.info/on-this-day/1798-pope-captured-rome/ [4] “It is Written Revelation Seminar” -- Lydia Haga https://www.jlfoundation.net/ ; https://jlfoundation.net/aboutme.html More here: https://www.revelationforkids.com/olive-trees-and-candlesticks-the-two-witnesses/ And here http://www.mikerogersad70.com/trumpets-of-tribulation-part-5/ |
The two witnesses are Israel as organized and constituted in the Mosaic and the Messianic ages. As we have seen (aa), the “nation” of Israel is God’s church kingdom in both ages. The Old and New Testaments both refer to this nation thus constituted as an individual man, as God’s witness, as an olive tree and as a [one] candlestick. Scripture applies this combination of symbols to no other entity.
To illustrate this is within the mainstream of conservative Christian interpretation, we offer the following quotes.
- R. Fausset says, “As two candlesticks are mentioned in Rev 11:4, but only one in Zec 4:2, I think the twofold Church, Jewish and Gentile, may be meant by the two candlesticks represented by the two witnesses.” (bb)
- Christopher Wordsworth suggests the two candlesticks represent the church “under the Two dispensations, the Law and the Gospel, as being therein the divinely-constituted Guardian, Keeper, and Interpreter of the Word of God.”
- Simon J. Kistemaker proposes a similar “symbolic interpretation.” [bb]
- In the Old Testament God says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). He addreses the multitude as a single person.
- The same is true in the New Testament: the Apostle Paul says God has created “one new man” (Eph. 2:15) made up of many persons.
- The Apostle John refers to the “two witnesses” as individuals (Rev. 11:2).
- Scripture refers to Israel in both ages—our proposed “two witnesses”—in just this way. A “witness” like this can be an entire nation. Scripture also represents these “individuals” as God’s witnesses. God says to Mosaic-Age Israel: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen.” (Isa. 43:10)
- In the New Testament, Jesus told the apostles that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:47–49) This “witness” in the “city of Jerusalem” affects our interpretation of Revelation 11:4. This was the city of the Temple John measured for destruction (Rev. 11:1–3), the city “where also the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified” (Rev. 11:8), the city in whose streets the “two witnesses” died (Rev. 11:8), and the city shaken by “a great earthquake” (Rev. 11:13).
- Jeremiah told Israel: “The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit.” (Jer. 11:16)
- The New Testament applies this imagery to Messianic-Age Israel. Paul says, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” (Rom. 11:17)
Earl Palmer integrates the candlestick and olive tree images with the two witnesses in a manner similar to ours he says (dd): “The witnesses are described as “two olive trees” and “the two lampstands.” We know from earlier references in this book that the lampstand image has referred to the Christian churches. Now what is added to that lampstand symbol for the church is the olive tree symbol, placed in poetic parallelism to it.”
The Lord Jesus prohibited Israel’s new age prophets—the apostles—from calling down literal fire on the apostate Jews (Luke 9:54–56). We understand this defense imagery applied to them as a metaphor, as when “God told Jeremiah that his words would be a fire in the prophet’s mouth.” (Jer. 5:14; 23:29)
Therefore, the “two witnesses” had sufficient defenses to “finish their testimony” (Rev. 11:7) to the apostate Jews. [These apostates were not “of Israel” (Rom. 9:6) and not God’s witnesses; they were internal enemies.] The apostles “tormented” them, cutting them to the heart (Acts 2:37; 5:22, 28; 7:54; 22:22). They did so until just before the end of the Mosaic Age. James (ee) the Lord’s brother, witnessed in Jerusalem until the apostates murdered him in AD 69.
Under Nero the Roman Empire or its representative(s) persecuted the church in the Messianic Age Israel for about 42 months then destroyed Mosaic Age Israel during the 42 months of the Jewish wars. By the fall of AD 70, both witnesses had “died” in the streets of Jerusalem. Death and contempt for the bodies of the slain are fitting images for how “the children of the flesh . . . [who were] not the children of God” (Rom. 9:8) treated God’s “two witnesses”— faithful Israel of both ages.
The resurrection John sees is figurative. Beasely-Murray (ff) says: “The church is crushed by its enemies for three and a half days, a deliberate play on the three and a half years of the tribulation, which, however, is also the period of the powerful ministry of the witnesses. . . . The statement that a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, cites Ezk. 37:10, which refers to the spiritual quickening of the nation Israel.” The Apostle John also sees two olive trees in the “Jerusalem which now is” (Gal. 4:25). These olive trees are “two prophets” (Rev. 11:10) who have power with which to defend themselves (Rev. 11:5–6). They have bodies capable of death and desecration (Rev. 11:7–9).
Again, Zechariah saw one candlestick, but John saw two. John’s theme in Revelation includes events that move God’s people from the Mosaic Age into the Messianic age = The Two Witnesses.
Sources:
(aa) http://www.mikerogersad70.com/israel-gods-church-kingdom/
(bb) http://www.mikerogersad70.com/trumpets-of-tribulation-part-5/#easy-footnote-bottom-5-2533
(cc) Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Book of Revelation, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 329
(dd) Earl F. Palmer and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, 1, 2 & 3 John / Revelation, Vol. 35, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 185.
(ee) He is mentioned in Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; Acts 12:17; 15:13; Gal. 1:19; 2:9, 12; James 1:1; and Jude 1. A few of these may refer to another James.
(ff) George R. Beasley-Murray, “Revelation,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 440.
* http://www.mikerogersad70.com/trumpets-of-tribulation-part-5/
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