B
Bob_Crowley
Guest
I’ve started a blog, but at this stage it’s hardly worth reading. However I did put in this item, and I thought it might be worth repeating here. It is based on Scripture, but I’m not sure if it shouldn’t be under “spirituality”.
Here goes -
Revelation 11:1-14 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.”
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and consumes their foes; anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in this manner. They have authority to shut the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days members of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to allow them to be placed in a tomb; and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven while their enemies watched them. At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe has passed. The third woe is coming very soon.
I don’t think anyone has adequately identified who these two witnesses are supposed to be . I’ve heard arguments ranging from the Scripture and the Church, Enoch and Elijah (who did not die, but were taken straight to heaven), down to two individuals, who would need to be “men of iron”.
The Collegeville Bible Commentary simply says, “The dominion of the gentiles is matched by the sign of the two witnesses. Two probably refers to the number of witnesses required by law. It is difficult to determine who the witnesseses are.”
The article goes on, but also mentions that “Refusal to bury a corpse was the worst punishment antiquity could imagine. An unburied corpse would render the whole city polluted. Yet Revelation shows us people staring at and even celebrating around the two corpses in the street. All the world is involved. The corpses lie there for the symbolic three and half days.”
A world which could stare at two corpses and gloat over them would necessarily be a televised world.
My own opinion is that the two witnesses are supernatural beings, who take on the form of men for the purpose of giving a drastic warning. Arguments in favour of this are that they are the two olive trees and candlesticks who stand in front of the Lord of the earth (representative of life and light); that men simply cannot hurt them, and they are easily able to destroy human enemies; the ability to consume their enemies with fire; their immense power to shut up sky and render water useless; their lack of humanitarian feeling for all the suffering they are imposing – as inhuman angels they would simply be doing their job; and the fact it takes an all-out brawl with another supernatural being, the devil, to destroy them.
That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.
However I will tell you of the peculiar, slight embarrassing and mildly humorous twist to this chapter in my own life.
As a new Christian, starting in 1982, I became aware of direct spiritual influences rather early one, having my first “double whammy” a little over a year later. However one of the things which influenced me rather heavily in the early stages was the rise of Creation Science. I had long wondered how one reconciled Genesis with evolution.
One day I was at a Creation Science seminar at Mt. Gravatt, in Brisbane. But as I listened to one of the speakers, whom we will call “Max” (not his real name), I became aware that his voice was rather unpleasant and there was a demonic cast to his eyes. At some stages he looked at me with distaste, which was odd, since neither he nor I knew each other from a bar of soap.
Anyway it was soon over, but as I was poking around amongst the literature for sale, I became aware of a oppressive presence. But I shrugged it off.
(To be continued)
Here goes -
Revelation 11:1-14 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.”
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and consumes their foes; anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in this manner. They have authority to shut the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days members of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to allow them to be placed in a tomb; and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven while their enemies watched them. At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe has passed. The third woe is coming very soon.
I don’t think anyone has adequately identified who these two witnesses are supposed to be . I’ve heard arguments ranging from the Scripture and the Church, Enoch and Elijah (who did not die, but were taken straight to heaven), down to two individuals, who would need to be “men of iron”.
The Collegeville Bible Commentary simply says, “The dominion of the gentiles is matched by the sign of the two witnesses. Two probably refers to the number of witnesses required by law. It is difficult to determine who the witnesseses are.”
The article goes on, but also mentions that “Refusal to bury a corpse was the worst punishment antiquity could imagine. An unburied corpse would render the whole city polluted. Yet Revelation shows us people staring at and even celebrating around the two corpses in the street. All the world is involved. The corpses lie there for the symbolic three and half days.”
A world which could stare at two corpses and gloat over them would necessarily be a televised world.
My own opinion is that the two witnesses are supernatural beings, who take on the form of men for the purpose of giving a drastic warning. Arguments in favour of this are that they are the two olive trees and candlesticks who stand in front of the Lord of the earth (representative of life and light); that men simply cannot hurt them, and they are easily able to destroy human enemies; the ability to consume their enemies with fire; their immense power to shut up sky and render water useless; their lack of humanitarian feeling for all the suffering they are imposing – as inhuman angels they would simply be doing their job; and the fact it takes an all-out brawl with another supernatural being, the devil, to destroy them.
That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.
However I will tell you of the peculiar, slight embarrassing and mildly humorous twist to this chapter in my own life.
As a new Christian, starting in 1982, I became aware of direct spiritual influences rather early one, having my first “double whammy” a little over a year later. However one of the things which influenced me rather heavily in the early stages was the rise of Creation Science. I had long wondered how one reconciled Genesis with evolution.
One day I was at a Creation Science seminar at Mt. Gravatt, in Brisbane. But as I listened to one of the speakers, whom we will call “Max” (not his real name), I became aware that his voice was rather unpleasant and there was a demonic cast to his eyes. At some stages he looked at me with distaste, which was odd, since neither he nor I knew each other from a bar of soap.
Anyway it was soon over, but as I was poking around amongst the literature for sale, I became aware of a oppressive presence. But I shrugged it off.
(To be continued)