When attending Bible School, many years
ago, in Hermeneutics class, we learned about the 23 principles one should use in
interpreting Scripture. One of those principles is called "The Direct Statement
Principle". The definition is, "That principle under which God says what He
means, and means what He says. This is an important principle, and we enunciate
this because of the attempts of many people to spiritualize the Word of God, and
to make it a mystical book. To many people, God's Word is not to be taken
literally at all."
When we start to spiritualize, or
allegorize, or interpret Scripture to not be literal, we are standing on
dangerous ground. Many liberal denominations, and liberal churches do this all
of the time. Once one starts down this road, it is a very slippery slope. If
we do not like the literal interpretation of a certain Scripture, we start to
take license, and liberty, to attempt to change it to our liking. Soon one is
left with believing those Scriptures which suit his fancy, and ignoring the
rest. The Word says that, "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God."
To carry "The Direct Statement Priciple"
one step further, it means to take every Scripture literally, unless it is not
possible to do so. This includes the Book of Revelation, which, to many, is to
be taken only as an allegory, or a mystic book. The purpose of this email is to
encourage all Bible students to believe that the two witnesses in the Book of
Revelation are literally two men.
We have no legitimate reason to believe
these two witnesses are the 144, 000, or that they are the Jews and the Church,
or anything other than two men. When the Word gives us great detail, PROVING
CONCLUSIVELY that these are two men, why should anybody doubt the Word of God,
and try to twist the Scripture into meaning something other than what is so
obviously stated?
Here is what the Word of God says about
the two witnesses, PROVING CONCLUSIVELY that they are LITERALLY TWO
MEN:
1. Rev. 11:3--It gives us the exact
length of their ministries, and prophecies, of 1260 days.
2. Rev. 11:3--It tells us what they
would be wearing--clothed in sackcloth.
3. Rev. 11:5--Fire proceeds out of
their mouths, and destroys their enemies. This same thing happened literally in
the O.T.
4. Rev. 11:6--These same TWO witnesses
have power to stop it from raining.
5. Rev. 11:6--These same TWO witnesses
have power to turn water into blood.
6. Rev. 11:6--These same TWO witnesses
have power to smite the earth with all plagues. God does not need ALL of the
Church, and ALL of the Jews, or 144,000 people, to performed these things in #
3--# 6. All He needs is TWO PROPHETS.
7. Rev. 11:10--This verse should
remove ALL doubt in anybody's mind that these two witnesses are literally TWO
MEN. It reads, "...THESE TWO PROPHETS tormented them who dwelt on the earth." It is a witness to the
awesomeness of God's power, that so much could be accomplished with just
TWO PROPHETS.
8. Rev. 11:8--This verse gives us even
more detail, by describing the city of Jerusalem, where these TWO PROPHETS are
killed.
9. Rev. 11:9--This verse gives us the
length of time the TWO PROPHETS lay in the streets of Jerusalem--three and
one-half days.
10. Rev. 11:10--The people of the earth
shall rejoice over the dead bodies of these TWO PROPHETS, and make merry, and
shall send gifts one to another.
11. Rev. 11:11--The Spirit of life from
God entered into them, and these TWO PROPHETS stood upon their feet, and great
fear fell on them which saw them.
12. Rev. 11:12--A great voice said unto
the TWO PROPHETS, "Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud;
and their enemies beheld them."
When the Word of God gives us this much
detail about the lives and ministries nd deaths of these two witnesses, and
refers to them as TWO PROPHETS, let's not doubt
that God says what He means, and means what He says. Anything other than a
literal interpretation of these two witnesses, is simply doubting God's ability
to communicate to us what He is so obviously
saying.
Let us not become like the liberal
theologians, and try to spiritualize, or allegorize, the Book of Revelation. We
should always take the Scriptures literally unless there is a very good reason
not to.
Over the past 40 years, I have read so
much speculation on the identity of these TWO MEN, OR TWO PROPHETS. Most, but
not all, believe that one of these men is Elijah. The leading candidates to be
the other man appear to me Moses, Enoch, and John, although other candidates
have been mentioned.
I have read all of reasons why Moses
just HAS to be one of them, including that he appeared on the Mount of
Transfiguration with Elijah. There are three main reasons why I do not believe
that Moses is one of the two witnesses:
1. Moses has already died
once.
2. Moses was not a good speaker. His
brother, Aaron was his spokesperson. He seems like an unlikely candidate to be
seen prophesying, with his mouth, for three and one-half
years.
3. The main reason that I don't think
Moses is a good fit is that God wants to glorify His Son. He wants the Jews and
the rest of the world to be drawn to His Son, Jesus. The Jews would worship
Moses, almost like a cult hero, if he should be one of the two witnesses. Moses
is a very popular figure in Jewish history.
I maintain that there has to be a reason
for God to only Rapture two people in the Old Testament, the same as the number
of witnesses in the New Testament. The Word tells us that one of those two,
Elijah, would be sent to earth, by God, in the last days. It only makes perfect
sense that the only other man to be Raptured, without dying, was Enoch. It is
my contention that the two witnesses are probably Elijah and
Enoch, but with different modern names, possibly Ernie and Bert.
Maranatha!
Ron Reese
No comments:
Post a Comment