TROUBLOUS TIMES—APPEARANCE OF THE WITNESSES—WHO ARE THEY?—HOW THEY CAN BE IDENTIFIED—THEIR MISSION, WORK, AND SUFFERING—THE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF CHRIST’S COMING.
“And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score days, clothed in sackcloth.”—Rev. ii. 3.
We will all agree that the person and work of Anti-Christ are yet in the future. For while Anti-Christ is ruling in Jerusalem, and battling with the saints of the Most High, having conquered and plucked up by the roots three of the ten-horned kingdoms by his victories and cunning craft, and his alliance with the beast or the Church of Rome, he will become proud, blasphemous, and arrogant, and will at once try to force the people to worship the beast. He will claim to be the promised Jewish Messiah. He will enter the new Jewish Temple and actually sit enthroned as God incarnated, commanding the people to worship him. He will be so received by the Jews, some of the Israelites and the Romish Church, by the Communists and scientific infidels, and by “such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries,” men of understanding shall fall; indeed, Christianity will seem to be about destroyed.
Russia will aid by her influence his pretensions with a secret purpose to take the spoils and gain her long-desired object, Jerusalem and Palestine. England will stand aloof for a time, waiting an opportunity to interfere. Then will be a time to try men’s faith—to test the Church. England and America will stand alone as representing freedom and religious liberty. “And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another,
and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and deceive many; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved.” This is the time when Communism, infidelity, and Romish Jesuitism will combine against God and liberty, and, thank heaven, this is the time appointed when they all will be destroyed. Then the kingdoms of this world will be given to the saints of the Most High. The struggle will be fierce, long, and terrible, but victory will be on the Lord’s side.
In the very midst of these awful times there will appear two famous persons as witnesses for Jesus: one who will specially appear to the Jews, the other to Israel, and both testify for God and Jesus. These two witnesses will turn the tide of battle, confront Anti-Christ and his host, and give to the world new views of God and Providence.
These two old men, or witnesses, will be endowed with miraculous power to bring fire down from heaven, or turn the water streams into blood, and smite the earth with all manner of plagues, as often as they will. Their presence and power will cast a gloom o’er the nations of the earth, and Anti-Christ and his allies. They will finally be slain in the streets of Jerusalem. At the time of their death a great feast will be held to commemorate the victories of Anti-Christ, and to inaugurate the setting up of an image of him in the temple. So in the city there will be peoples, kindreds, and tongues of many nations. And they will see the dead bodies of the two witnesses lying exposed and unburied in the streets for three days and a-half, for Anti-Christ will not suffer them to be buried. On the wings of the wind, by the telegraph and by signals, the news of their death will spread rapidly abroad to all the nations of the earth. Infidelity, and Communism, and the Jesuits will be emboldened. Feasting and rejoicing will be the order of the day. “And they that dwell upon the earth
shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth.” That will be the merry wake for you—a wake that will suddenly end, and that too, before the corpses are buried. The victories will be cut short and the rejoicing checked.
The spirit of life from God shall enter into the two exposed and corrupting bodies, and they shall stand upon their feet to defy Anti-Christ and his host, and laugh at the pains of death. Great fear will fall upon them who saw the dead so raised. This time the telegraphs will be muffled, and the news is kept back from the nations as much as possible; but astonishment ends not here, for over the destroying and now idolatrous city of Jerusalem hangs a peculiar cloud, and voices peal as thunder through the air, to call the attention of the multitudes. And when every eye is skyward, the cloud moves and opens, as a chariot of fire and glory, and rising in majesty and composure up above roofs, temples, and pinnacles, will be seen the two witnesses of Christ; they enter in and are borne heavenward. “And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.” Then, while the multitude are wrapt in wonder and all amazement, the pinnacles sway to and fro, the houses rock, the earth trembles, the walls of the city fall, and Olivet cleaves in twain. Then Anti-Christ is slain with many of his followers, and the remnant fear unto repentance. “And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.”
These are some of the wonders yet to come. Then how say some that Anti-Christ has already been? The witnesses have