“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth” (Revelation 11:3,4).

The Greek word translated witnesses in this vision is used thirty-two times in the New Testament, and invariably refers to individuals, generally the Apostles, and the many other witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. It always has contained in it the thought of one who bears testimony, either in a judicial sense, as in Matthew 18:16, 26:65, or one who in any way or manner testifies to the truth of what he has seen or known, as in 1 Timothy 6:12, 1 Thessalonians 2:10, Romans 1:9, Luke 24:48, Philippians 1:8. In the latter instance the word is rendered record. The word is also used in the Scriptures in the same sense as the word martyr is now used, that is, to describe one who suffers persecution or even death in bearing witness to the truth. It is so rendered in the case of Stephen (Acts 22:20). It is translated martyr in Revelation 2:13 and 17:6, the first instance referring to “Antipas, my faithful martyr”; and the last instance in connection with the vision of the symbolical harlot woman, the apostate Church who is represented as “drunken with the blood of the martyrs [witnesses] of Jesus.” In Hebrews 12:1, the same Greek word is used to describe the Old Testament saints. It has been divinely arranged that the “Word of God” requires the “man of God” to have it become a witness, and it is in this way that the word seems to be used in this vision.

Examining carefully the symbol, we note first that the expression, “These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks [lampstands],” seems to mean that these two witnesses are symbolized by the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. That churches in the Revelation are represented by candlesticks or lampstands, there can be no question, for the reason that Christ himself interprets such to represent churches: “The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven Churches” (Revelation 1:20). We therefore accept this Divine interpretation as the basis of interpreting the other feature of this vision. The symbolism in this vision, however, seems to be more complex — more than churches seem to be referred to. In seeking to discover the full significance of the symbol, we note in the words, “These are the two olive trees,” etc., an evident reference to Zechariah 4:2, 3, 11, 14. There the Prophet saw in a vision a candlestick or lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top, and seven lights on its seven uprights, with seven branches for the lights. Two olive trees also stood, one on the right side and the other on the left. Zechariah is represented as inquiring of the Divine messenger who had been conversing with him what these two olive trees were, or what they represented.

The first reply of the messenger seems to be a general one, as relating to the entire vision: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it.” The significance of this explanation seems to be that Zechariah was given the word of the Lord to encourage Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest (his associate), in the work of building the temple of the Lord. However, it seems manifest that Zechariah did not understand this explanation to be a particular, a definite answer to his inquiry, for we read that afterwards he repeated the question: “And I answered [inquired] again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:1-14).

It seems evident that there is here a reference to the ceremony that was performed in the anointing of priests and of others for their special work or service for the Lord. If we are correct in our understanding, then it seems that the two olive trees or branches in this vision of Zechariah represented Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, who were clothed with Divine power to act as instruments of God in superintending the work of building the second temple after the return from Babylon. This incident occurred in 520 BC.

In Sackcloth of Humiliation

Applying this explanation of the Divine messenger to the vision under consideration, we understand it to signify that all through the long period of the twelve hundred and sixty years of the treading down of the citadel of truth, and the defiling of the antitypical temple, the Church, (except for a brief period of three and one half years) the Lord would have faithful teachers or pastors, symbolized by the two olive trees, ministering the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, to His true children gathered together in little companies, churches (candlesticks). That this is the true interpretation will be seen to be confirmed in the actions, etc., of these witnesses described farther on in this vision. Thus the expression, “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth” (verse 4), would signify that they represent those ministering servants of the Lord, who, like Zerubbabel and Joshua, who superintended and encouraged the Lord’s people in Zechariah’s day in the work of building the typical temple, encouraged and instructed the members of the little churches, candlesticks, during the long period of the defilement of the antitypical temple, by the great apostate system.

To sum up the whole matter briefly, the symbol seems to teach that during the long period of the twelve hundred and sixty years, except during a brief period of three and one half years (which will be referred to later), there would be little churches (candlesticks) supplied with the Word of God by members of the anointed priesthood (olive trees). Witnessing in sackcloth would mean witnessing churches bearing testimony to the Word, humiliated and downtrodden, but sustained through the long period of Papal apostasy, amid persecution, suffering, poverty, sorrow, and humiliation — out of favor with both the civil and the religious powers of the world. And as the testimony would be based upon the teaching of the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, the meaning would also seem to be that these also would, to the masses of the professing Church, be hidden in the sackcloth of a dead language.

Again, “fire proceeding out of their mouths and devouring their enemies” (verse 5), would seem to teach that they represent those who, like Moses and Elijah (Numbers 16, 2 Kings 1), call fire down from heaven and devour their enemies. In the instances referred to, however, the fire was real, in this it is symbolical. The fire proceeding out of their mouths seems designed to teach that in their testimony for God, and in their defense of themselves, they would use only the truths of His Word. We have an illustration of fire used in this sense in Jeremiah, where the faithful Prophet was called to give testimony against Israel of old. His words are: “But His Word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9,10). Another instance is found in Jeremiah 5:14: “I will make My words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”

The expression, “if any one desire to injure them, thus must he be killed,” evidently signifies that for these witnessing ones to resort to any other method in their defense or testimony, for them to seek the aid of the civil magistrates, or the use of carnal weapons, would be inconsistent with the character of true witnesses. It doubtless teaches also, that the consumption of all enemies of the Truth, the anti-Christian systems, would be accomplished by a gradual testimony of the Truth, and that they would be destroyed by the judgments of the Second Advent.

This is so stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, where the gradual and final destruction of Antichrist is described, as we read, “And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth [the truth], and shall destroy with the brightness [bright-shining] of his coming [presence]”; that is, the bright shining of truth on every subject will be that which will eventually be used to destroy the anti-Christian systems.

Spiritual Drought in the Days of Their Prophecy

It is further said of these witnesses that “These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (verse 6).

A reference is here made to Elijah, the Prophet, who foretold the drought in the days of Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kings 17:1, James 5:17); and the prophecy was fulfilled, in that it rained not for a period of three years and six months, which typically refers to the period of 1260 years mentioned in the vision under consideration. We quote Mr. Russell’s explanation of this type:

“Elijah was ‘three years and six months’ in the wilderness, and during that time there was no rain, and a great famine was in the land (James 5:17, 1 Kings 17:7, 18:2).

“The Church was three and a half symbolic years (a day for a year — 1260 literal years) in the wilderness condition, during which there was a spiritual famine because of the lack of truth — the living water. (Compare Revelation 12:6, 11:3, Amos 8:11.)”

The fuller meaning of the expression in the symbol is that the blessings of the Gospel and the Divine favor and protection would be withheld from those who failed to heed, and who despised the testimonies of the Scriptures as proclaimed and exemplified by those making up the little churches (candlesticks) during the twelve hundred and sixty years of their preaching.

Their having “power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (verse 6), would mean that those represented by these witnesses are like Moses and Aaron, the agents who inflicted the literal plagues of this character upon Egypt. In Scripture language the prophets of God are often said to be the authors of the plagues or judgments which they declare and foretell, and in this sense, it may be said that the woes, plagues, that come on apostates, proceed from them, that is from their unfolding of the prophecies to this effect. Undoubtedly, however, the full accomplishment of the prophetic judgments proclaimed by the witnesses will be in the “day of the Lord” when the “vials of wrath” of Revelation 16, will be poured out.

It would, therefore, seem from these statements concerning the symbolic actions of these witnesses, together with the similar use of the vision of Zechariah, that the Word of God would, during the twelve hundred and sixty years (except during a brief period of three and one half years), be proclaimed by those referred to in the prophecy of Daniel, as the “saints,” against whom the fierce “little horn” prevailed (Daniel 7:20,21); in other words, it would be proclaimed by the pastors and teachers of the little churches [lampstands] existing during this period. We quote from several noted expositors:

“The witnesses, therefore, cannot be any two men or any two churches, but must be a succession of men, and a succession of churches” (B. W. Newton).

“The two olive trees and two lamps, which symbolize the two witnesses, are those doubtless, or like those exhibited in vision in Zechariah, chapter 4:4,11–14, of which the trees that distilled the oil into the lamps, represented the teachers, and the lamps, the recipients of their doctrines, or believers. The two witnesses are the teachers, then, and the recipients of the truth, in whom it exerts and displays its power, as the oil transmitted from the olive trees to the lamps burned and diffused its light through the temple” (D. N. Lord).

“These two olive branches were subsequently declared (Zechariah 4:14) to be ‘the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.’ The olive trees, or olive branches (verse 12), appear in the vision of the Prophet to have been connected with the ever-burning lamp, by golden pipes, and as the olive tree produced the oil used by the ancients in their lamps, these trees are represented as furnishing a constant supply of oil through the golden pipes to the candlestick, and thus they became emblematic of the supply of grace to the Church. John uses this emblem, not in the sense exactly in which it was employed by the Prophet, but to denote that these two ‘witnesses,’ which might be compared with the two olive trees, would be the means of supplying grace to the Church. As the olive tree furnished oil for the lamps, the two trees here would seem properly to denote ministers of religion; and as there can be no doubt that the candlesticks, or lamp-bearers, denote churches, the sense would appear to be that it was through the pastors of the churches that the oil of grace which maintained the brightness of those mystic candlesticks, or the churches, was conveyed. The image is a beautiful one, and expresses a truth of great importance to the world — for God has designed that the lamp of piety shall be kept burning in the churches by truth supplied through ministers and pastors” (Albert Barnes).

The foregoing is in harmony with St. Paul’s words in Ephesians 4.

“These witnesses unquestionably represent the faithful evangelistic churches, which held fast the Gospel all through the Dark Ages of Roman apostasy. They are called candlesticks, and we are told in the first chapter of the book, that candlesticks symbolize Churches. They are called ‘olive trees,’ and this figure is used in Zechariah (where two olive trees are seen supplying the candlestick with oil) to represent faithful ministers. The double symbolism seems to predict that all through the darkest period of anti-Christian apostasy, faithful pastors would exist. They might be few and feeble, persecuted and hidden, small in numbers, and inconspicuous in status; yet acting as Christ’s faithful witnesses and holding forth the Word of life, they would alight amid the darkness, the lamp of truth. The number two is used apparently in compliance with the law of testimony: ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.’ These witnesses are not individuals, but churches, and their prophesying or preaching lasts all through the Dark Ages, through the entire period of Papal domination, with the exception of the brief interval, during which they are to all appearance killed. In addition to witnessing for Christ and to his Gospel, these evangelical churches would also witness against the Roman Antichrist, and his assumptions” (H. G. Guinness).

The interpretation offered by William Miller regarding the two witnesses, is of interest in this connection. We quote from a sermon preached by him in 1842: “The angel in his allusion to the two olive trees quotes Zechariah 4:3: ‘And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.’ Here the olive trees are used in a figurative sense, and properly denote the ‘sons of oil’ or the two cherubim, which stood over the ark, and spread their wings over the mercy seat. The wings of the cherubim stretched from either side of the house, and their faces turned inwards down upon the mercy seat, and the glory of the God of Israel was above the cherubim. These cherubim are a lively type of the Old and New Testaments. These cherubim were made of olive trees and overlaid with pure gold. Again, the angel tells Zechariah what the two olive trees are: Zechariah 4:4–6, ‘So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my Lord? Then he answered and said unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,’ etc. Here we are plainly told [?] that the two olive trees are the Word of the Lord, and the angel tells John, that the two witnesses are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks. Candlesticks are the means of light as is the Word of God. And David says, ‘Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’ Therefore, I humbly believe that I have fairly and conclusively proved that the two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments.”

While agreeing in part with Mr. Miller, we observe that he ignores two very important things in his interpretation of this vision. One is the fact that the Savior himself explained that a candlestick or lampstand represents a church (Revelation 1:20). The other is the interpretation of the messenger to Zechariah (Zechariah 4:14), that the olive trees represent “the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth,” which applies them to living intelligences, human beings. He therefore bases his conclusion wholly upon his wrong interpretation, we believe, of the two cherubim of the inner apartment of the tabernacle. A seemingly reasonable interpretation of the cherubim as given by Mr. Russell is as follows: “As the ark represented the Christ, so the mercy seat, glory-light, and cherubim represented Jehovah God. The two cherubim represented two other elements of Jehovah’s character, as revealed in His Word, namely Divine love and Divine power.”

This last writer, while not giving a full interpretation of these witnesses, refers to them as representing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We quote his words when calling attention to the closing of the twelve hundred and sixty years of Papacy’s domination over the saints:

“And forth came, and are coming, the Sanctuary class, the ‘holy people,’ weak, and halt, and lame, and almost naked, and blind, from the dungeon darkness and filth and misery of Papal bondage. Poor souls! they had been trying to serve God faithfully in the very midst of the lurid flames of persecution, clinging to the cross of Christ when almost every truth had been swept away, and courageously endeavoring to emancipate God’s two witnesses (the Old and New Testaments), which had so long been bound, and which had prophesied only under the sackcloth of a dead language.”

The events of history as they disclose the work of the Little Flock of God’s consecrated ones during the long period of Papacy’s dominating the world, have been such as to fulfill every feature of these striking symbols. We shall refer to the historian’s account of these transactions in our consideration of the very remarkable and startling symbols contained in the verses that follow. It will be evident to the thoughtful Bible student that while the events recorded in the symbols of chapter ten reach down to and beyond the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the vision we are now considering is retrospective, that is, it goes back in history to the rise of the great apostate Christian system and portrays very fully the Great Reformation, and brings us down to the period of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. We learned in the previous exposition that the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet would be discovered by the events occurring, among which would be a clearer, more nearly correct understanding of the “mystery of God” — the hitherto mysterious features of the Divine Plan. It would be in this way that the Master’s Presence would be discovered.

Seeming Difficulties Considered

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them” (verse 7).

Having discovered that the symbols used to describe the two witnesses comprehend, first, the little churches in possession of truth from the two great divisions of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, enough to preserve their consecration and to discover the great Christian apostasy, and, second, faithful pastors serving these churches with the truth, the Scriptures, we are prepared to consider the vision of the “wild beast” warring on the same. First in order is the consideration of the expression, “when they shall have completed their testimony.” That this does not refer to the last testimony of the Church on earth is seen from the fact that the symbols which follow their (symbolical) death, describe a continuation of their testimony under different, indeed increasingly favorable conditions, when the anti-Christian system would gradually begin to be shorn to a considerable extent of its power to persecute and hinder them. In other words, the expressions, the slaughter of the witnesses, their lying dead in the streets of the great city three days and a half, their resurrection and ascension to heaven, are all to be understood symbolically, as describing occurrences during their present earthly witnessing. It should also be kept in mind that these occurrences cover comparatively a long period of time.

It is admitted that it would seem from the Common Version translation that not until the full end of the 1260 years would the Papal war on the witnesses and their slaughter (suppression), take place. It reads, “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” It should be noted, however, that if we understand the “beast” that makes war on the witnesses to be Papacy (and there is no other solution), we meet with an insurmountable obstacle in applying the words, “And when they shall have finished their testimony,” as meeting their fulfillment in 1799, for the reason that the inspired record states that when they shall have finished their testimony the beast shall make war on the witnesses and overcome them, and kill them. Now the Papal beast did not make war against the witnesses at this time; no such event, nor anything like it, occurred at or after 1799. Indeed, the very opposite occurred, for it was at this time — the period of the French Revolution — that Papacy received its most terrible blow, at the hands of Napoleon — a blow that so weakened its power that it was utterly unable to wage a war of extermination on the witnesses of Christ. It was at this time that the witnesses — the saints, and the Word of God as well — were delivered out of Papacy’s power. It was at this time that the witnesses, whether they be understood to represent Christ’s saints or the Word of God, or both, ascended to heaven (Matthew 11:23), that is they came into favor with the powers that be. Furthermore, the overcoming, or death of the witnesses and their lying dead in the street of the great city was a result of the Papal war, and nothing occurred in 1799 or since, that can be construed to fulfill these symbols. On the other hand, it is an indisputable fact of history, that all these things occurred in the period before, during, and since the great Reformation, reaching their culmination in the humiliation of Papacy in 1799. That Papacy should wage war on the witnesses and overcome them is foretold in another vision of the Revelation, as we read: “And it was given unto him [the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Revelation 13:7). Who can doubt that the same “war” is referred to as in this vision. History records this event, as we shall see.

Another matter that has a very important bearing on the vision’s interpretation that is well to have in mind is, that if it were possible to apply this part of the vision to 1799, there would be a passing by, an ignoring in the Apocalypse of the most critical, trying experiences that the true saints of God ever encountered in connection with their testimony or witnessing for their Lord and Master. It would be incredible to believe that those three centuries before the Reformation, which marked the most terrible persecutions that the saints of God ever experienced, would be passed over in silence, or at least no special mention be made of them in the Apocalyptic visions; this would be true, if we applied all the symbols of this vision to the end of Papacy’s domination in 1799.

The indisputable facts of history, as we find them, fulfill every feature of the vision, and should cause us to examine very carefully and critically the seemingly conflicting words: “And when they shall have finished their testimony the beast that ascendeth out of the Abyss shall make war against them and shall conquer them.” In doing this it will be necessary to examine the translation. Thus we discover that there are several different renderings given by able and eminent Scripture writers. Of these we note three:

“And when they shall be about finishing their testimony” (Newton).
“And whenever they shall have finished their testimony” (Stuart).
“And when they shall have perfected their testimony” (Elliott).

This last, as we shall endeavor to show, seems to be the correct translation; for thereby we are enabled to see a most wonderful and beautiful harmony of this remarkable vision with the facts of history. Mr. Elliott’s translation of the passage under consideration is: “And when they shall have perfected their testimony,” instead of, “And when they shall have finished their testimony,” as given in the Diaglott. The question to be decided is whether the Greek verb should be rendered perfected or finished. Concerning this Mr. Elliott says:

“Let it be remembered, then, that to finish, is by no means its only, or only frequent, sense; but quite as frequently [it has the significance] to complete, or perfect. So in effect our translators [of the Common Version] render this [same] verb in Revelation 15:1, ‘For in them is filled up the wrath of God.’ For ‘filled up’ is there intended evidently in the sense of completed. Liddell and Scott thus speak of this verb: ‘The strict signification [of this verb] is not the ending of a departed state, but the arrival of a complete and perfect one’; therefore it signifies most properly to bring [the testimony] to such a state of completion and perfectness. My conclusion is that much in the same way the two Apocalyptic witnesses’ testimony is viewed in the prophecy as a thing of growth, and that so soon as, having gone through the preliminary stages, it should have come to embrace all the subjects of protest [against Papal errors] that it was intended to embrace, and shown forth also all its [the testimony’s] evidence of Divine inspiration — so soon it might be said, according to the mind of the Spirit, that the testimony was perfected, or had reached its culminating point; yet not so as to imply that the testifying was to be then at an end; but rather that it was thenceforth to be continued [after the resurrection of the witnesses] in its complete and perfected form.”

Mr. Elliott next shows what the testimony that was required of the witnesses before their testimony would be suppressed for three and one half years comprehended. His words are: “Obviously a protestation for Christ against each of the successively developed, and enforced anti-Christian errors of the Apostasy; errors as defined (not by a commentator so as to suit his own hypothesis of interpretation, but) by the Apocalyptic prophecy itself.”

This writer next enumerates the errors of the Apostasy, noting the places in the visions of the Apocalypse where they are symbolically referred to. It is not the purpose in this connection to point out the particular places in the Apocalyptic visions in which these gross errors are referred to as characterizing the anti-Christian Apostasy. It will be sufficient here to say that they relate to an utter perversion of those vital, fundamental truths, that all true Christians recognize as entering into, and as constituting that which is an absolute necessity to a vital, living union with Christ as Savior and Lord. These errors, as all true Christians know, are:

The Sacramental error; in other words, the so-called sacrifice of the Mass, which was claimed by the great apostate Church to be a continuation of Christ’s sacrifice.
The Mediatorship of departed saints (so called).
The Paganized idolatrous worship of saints, martyrs, relics, etc., that prevailed almost universally in the Dark Ages of the great anti-Christian Apostasy.
The false claim of the Romish Church to be the true Church of Christ on earth.
The false claim of the Pope to be the Head of the Church.

These constitute the successively developed characteristics of the Apostasy, noted in the Apocalypse. The protestation of Christ’s witnesses, of course, embraced them all. As soon as they had given such a witness, and proved the same by the sacred Scriptures, it could be truthfully said that their testimony was perfected, in the Divine sense intended by the expression: “And when they had perfected their testimony.” It is an established fact of history that such a testimony was given during those dark centuries of the great Apostasy. However, it was not until the Twelfth Century that a testimony against all these egregious errors was finished — not until the Twelfth Century that this testimony was perfected. Furthermore, when the testimony of these witnesses was perfected, by their making a bold, fearless announcement that the Romish Church and the Papacy fulfilled the Apocalyptic visions of the harlot and the beast, we reach an epoch in history when the Papacy instituted by a decree of the third Lateran Council, a systematic warfare against these witnesses of Christ. The expressed avowal of this decree was the extermination or utter suppression of the testimony of the witnesses. This occurred in 1179. Mr. Mede observes that: “Never before this time [that is the Twelfth Century] had suspicion arisen of the Papacy being anti-Christian.” Another writer adds: “The beast made not war against the witnesses immediately from the commencement of his existence, but in the Twelfth Century; at which time the war was made by him against both Albigenses and Waldenses, and saints of Christ, called, as it might be by whatever other name.”

Concerning this Mr. Elliott writes: “From early times we have seen that the witnesses both of Eastern and Western origin made protestation against the sacramental error, the Mass, and the Mediatorship of saints; setting forth Christ as the one source of life, Christ as the one Mediator and Intercessor; and his Church constituting the faithful, the only true Church; and against the idolatrous forms of worship of the Church of professing Christendom. But against Rome, Papal Rome as the predicted head of the apostasy, and Babylon and Harlot of the Apocalypse, and against the Roman Popes as Antichrist, they for centuries protested not. Nothing meets us nearer to a protestation on this point than the Paulikians saying, ‘We are Christians; ye are Romans,’ until we come to Berenger’s notable statement, made in the Eleventh Century, ‘that the Romish Church was a Church of malignants, and its See, not the Apostolic seat, but that of Satan.’ And that was but an insulated voice; and made by one who shrunk from acting the confessor. It was a hint, however, not lost. A century later came the time of Peter Valdes [Waldo] and his disciples. The Noble Lesson, written by one of them somewhere between 1170 and 1200, marks in what it says of Antichrist a preparation of mind, indeed more than a preparation to make the great step and recognize the predicted Babylon, Harlot, and Antichrist in Rome and the Popedom; a step of advance actually taken ere the termination of the Twelfth Century, by the Waldenses, or orthodox associated Paulikians, and other sectaries. Just at this time the mighty act was done of the translation and circulation of the Scriptures, far and wide, in the vulgar tongue. Then the witness testimony might indeed be considered to have been brought to its culminating point and perfected.

“And what then followed? Forthwith the Popedom — of which previously, the separate members alone, acting independently of the Head [the Pope] had moved against heretics — roused itself collectively in the third Lateran General Council of 1179, and declared war against them.”

Putting the Witnesses to Death

In Revelation 17:7-18 we learn that the ten-horned beast represented the Papal Roman Empire in its divided state, the ten horns representing the ten European kingdoms under the power or control of the Papacy; the Papacy itself being represented by the beast’s head; or in other words the beast’s head was the ruling power at Rome. In Revelation 13:7 we have reference made to this “war against the saints”: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations,” and in verse 5 it is stated that his dominion will continue “forty and two months.”

This awful beast, representing a masterpiece of satanic ingenuity in the form of a great evil system, was said to come forth from the abyss (the deep), that is, it was born of the invisible powers of darkness, and originated out of the ignorance, superstition, and depravity of humanity — of which Satan took advantage. The kingdoms presided over by Papacy for a long time before the Reformation were all united together as persecutors of Christ’s true followers, being incited by Papacy; but up to a certain time the object of such war was to cause them to recant and to join themselves to the Roman Catholic communion. The warring mentioned in the Scripture under consideration, however, differs from the other in that the avowed object of this war was to kill, exterminate, destroy them, and thus silence their testimony. This seemingly successful attempt of Papacy to exterminate Christ’s faithful witnesses is recorded by all historians, and meets fully all the requirements of this symbolic vision. We quote in this connection:

“At the third Lateran Council (1179 AD), the Popedom roused itself collectively to a war of extermination against heretics. Previous to this, separate members of the system, acting alone and independently, had opposed the truth by force and cruelty. But in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, Romanism then in the plenitude of its power, gathered itself together for a great, determined, united, and persistent effort to crush out all that opposed its supremacy, and to clear Christendom of heresy. During these three centuries … the furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated. Persecution raged systematically. The fourth Lateran Council in 1215, sanctioned all former plans for the extirpation of heresy, urged their adoption with renewed vigor and subordinated secular authority [the ‘great city’] to spiritual power for the purpose. If kings would not clear their dominions of heresy, their subjects were to be absolved from all allegiance to them. Crusades against heretics were to be organized, and to secure the same privileges and rewards as crusades against the Turks. The Holy Scriptures were to be interdicted to the laity; even children were to be forced to denounce their own relatives.

“All sorts of methods were to be used for the detection of heretics; bishops were to gird themselves for the work of ferreting out and exterminating them; and all the Franciscan and Dominican monks were to supply instruments for carrying out this process of inquisition and blood. The Waldenses and Albigenses were, of course, especially singled out for extermination. A crusade was proclaimed against them and plenary absolution promised to all who should perish in the holy [?] war. Never was a more merciless spirit of murder exhibited than by these terrible crusaders against the meek and lowly and Christian-spirited Vaudois. The Inquisition — the invention of Dominic, or rather Gregory IX — established its horrid tribunal for making inquest after unseen, secret, ‘heresy’; and wherever any revival of true religion took place, or any confessors of Christ could be found, they were hunted, if possible to death. Genuine disciples of Christ, under whatever name they might pass, whether called Petrobrussians, Catharists, Waldenses, Albigenses, Wycliffites, Lollards, Hussites, Bohemians, or any other name, it mattered not — to the torture and the stake with them if they held fast the Gospel of Christ! Savonarola, one of the wisest and worthiest of his age, was burnt at the stake in 1498. [John Huss suffered the same in 1415.] Seven years of cruel war was waged against the Hussites, and a civil persecution more bitter still. Eighteen thousand soldiers were sent into the valleys of Piedmont, towards the end of the Fourteenth Century, to exterminate the Waldenses of Piedmont, and appropriate to themselves all their property. The Christians of Val Louise in Dauphiny, were actually exterminated, burned alive and suffocated in the caves in which they had sought refuge. Four hundred infants were found dead in their mother’s arms, and 3,000 perished in the struggle. Lorente calculates from official reports that in the forty years prior to the Reformation the Inquisition alone burned 13,000 persons and condemned 169,000. The latter half of the Fifteenth Century was a time of Satan’s raging against the saints. But in spite of racks, and prisons and sword and flame, the voices of the witnesses of Jesus were still raised in behalf of the Truth and against the powers and pretensions of Antichrist. At last, however, as the Fifteenth Century drew to a close, the furious crusade seemed about to accomplish its object. The ‘beast’ had all but conquered and killed the witnesses according to the prediction. The strong figure employed of the witnesses lying dead for three and a half days means of course that their testimony was silenced [for 3½ years]. They no longer prophesied; they were silent, helpless, extinct for a brief period. They ‘were worn out.’ The wild beast from the abyss had prevailed against them. For the moment the struggle was over” (H. G. Guinness).

The historian’s record of this condition of affairs existing amongst the Lord’s consecrated just before the Reformation, has already been noted. Let us for a moment view the terrible symbol here employed, as forcefully described in the language of the writer last quoted:

“There stands the fierce wild monster from the abyss. He has prevailed against his defenseless victims. The struggle has been long and hard; it has made him all the more savage and impatient but it is over at last! His jowls still drop gore, his claws are red with blood, as he stands glaring with his fierce eyes on the pale cold silent corpses of Christ’s two witnesses, so long empowered from above to resist and defy his might. As John (in the vision) watched the sad scenes, did there not occur to his mind scenes in the amphitheater of Pagan Rome, scenes such as Doré has imagined and painted for us, scenes with which the exile of Patmos was all too familiar. The arena strewn with the cold, stiff corpses of the faithful witnesses of Christ, and the victorious wild beast glutted with their flesh and blood, standing guard over the remains. That was the symbol. The reality was witnessing churches silenced by long and bloody persecution.”

Do we not see now what is meant by this strange and startling symbol — the prophesying of the witnesses and of their being slaughtered? How plainly do we have taught us that this complex symbol predicts that all through the darkest period of the anti-Christian apostasy, faithful churches, having faithful pastors ministering the Word of God, would exist. This period covers what is known to historians as the Dark Ages, when the world seemed to make no progress; when spiritual enlightenment and civilization were almost at a standstill; when the preaching of the Word of God, and the simple primitive worship were, by the great nominal Church, supplanted by forms and ceremonies — in fact by the establishment of a paganized Christianity, where all the forms, ceremonies and rites of Paganism were crystallized into so-called Christian symbols, and falsely called the religion of Christ. It was the reign of Antichrist — the mock Millennium of the Papacy. And who among Bible students does not know that as that system increased in power and influence, all who dissented from its teachings were treated as heretics, cast out of society, threatened, tortured, or persecuted unto death? Who that is acquainted with history is ignorant of the fact that the Bible, which in the first two centuries was loved and cherished by all Christians as the sole guide in spiritual matters, was gradually lost sight of and buried in the rubbish of Papal superstition? And from the Twelfth Century to the sixteenth, even amongst the clergy of the Church of Rome it was scarcely known. Nay more, the Bible was taught to be pernicious, and a dangerous book for the people to have access to; so that the great mass of the people looked for their knowledge of the Christian religion to come from the debauched clergy of Rome. Such, in brief, is an outline picture of those long centuries.

But thank God there was another side to this picture. There were a few here and there who did not bow down to Papal altars; and throughout this long period true churches ministered over by faithful and true pastors — weak in numbers, it is true, and located mostly away from the centers of civilization, existed. We read of the Paulikians in the East. We also read of the Berengarians, Wycliffites, Lollards, Hussites, Bohemians, Waldenses, Albigenses, in other parts of the Roman Empire. These all had faithful ministers. They clung to the Bible and held tenaciously to the uncorrupted doctrines of Christ, and had sufficient knowledge to understand that the great Church nominal was apostate. But amongst them all none were so noted as the great witnessing Church of the Waldenses. The motto of this Church was as given by the historian, “‘the light that shineth in a dark place,’” and their symbol or crest, a lighted candle on a candlestick, the very symbol employed in this Divine prophecy of them and their fellow-witnesses.” This Church, until the period just previous to the great Reformation, possessed a remarkable missionary spirit, and in spite of interdictions and persecutions numerous, they spread the measure of truth they held in every direction; and not even the cruel rack and all the devilish instruments of torture that their enemies could devise could compel them to recant or to deny their allegiance to their Divine Master. In this connection we quote a few lines from Dante, who wrote in the Thirteenth Century. His poem on Hell, Purgatory and Paradise shows that he saw Papacy in its true colors:

“Woe to thee, Simon Magus! woe to you
His wretched followers, who the things of God
Which should be wedded unto goodness, them
Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute
For gold and silver!

“Your avarice
O’ercasts the world with mourning; under foot
Treading the good, and raising bad men up,
Of shepherds like to you; the Evangelist [John]
Was aware, when her who sits upon the waves
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld
She who with seven heads towered at her birth
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.

Of gold and silver ye have made your god,
Differing wherein from the idolater,
But that he worships one, a hundred ye?
Ah Constantine to how much ill gave birth
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower
Which the first wealthy Father [Bishop] gained from thee!”

In his poem on Paradise he further describes Papacy:

“My place he who usurps on earth hath made
A common sewer of puddle and of blood,
No purpose was of ours that the keys
Which were vouchsafed me should for ensigns serve
Under the banners that do levy war
On the baptized; nor I for sigil [seal or signature] mark
Set upon sold and lying privileges,
Which makes me oft to bicker and turn red.
In shepherds clothing greedy wolves below
Range wide o’er all the pastures. Arm of God
Why longer sleepest thou?”

In his poem on Paradise he refers to the Apostle John as:

“The seer
That ere he died saw all the grievous times
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails
Was won.”

“You will observe [says Mr. Guinness] that these beautiful and touching words recognize the Historical interpretation of the Apocalypse. The Apostle John according to Dante ‘saw all the grievous times’ through which the Church was destined to pass. And what Dante saw, the Albigenses saw and the Waldenses. What wonder was there in this? Would not the wonder have been had the saints remained blind to a fulfillment of prophecy so plain and palpable that even the world recognized it.”

The poet Milton, born of godly parents in 1608, also understood these wonderful visions of St. John regarding Papacy. In one of his poems he thus describes these terribly momentous times of suffering for the Little Flock of Christ’s followers:

“Avenge O Lord Thy slaughtered saints whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even those who kept Thy truth so pure of old;
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones
Forget not; in Thy book record their groans,
Who were Thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by bloody soldiery, that rolled
Mother and infant down the rocks;
There mourns the vales redoubled to the hills and they
To heaven, their martyred blood and ashes sow.
O’er all the Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant, that from these may grow
Abundant fold, who having learned Thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.”

Lying Dead in the Street of the City

“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (verse 8).

From what we observe foregoing we are prepared to understand that the symbol of the witnesses lying dead in the street of the great city, means simply that the testimony of the Scriptures which had been given by Christ’s true followers was silenced — the Word of God had none to publicly witness to its teaching; the little companies of consecrated ones were scattered. As the Historian Milner expresses it, the confessors of Christ “worn out by a long series of contentions were reduced to silence.” Another writer informs us that “everything was quiet, every heretic [?] exterminated.” The Lateran Council that closed its session in 1514 AD congratulated itself that the Church was no longer to be troubled by heresies. This was announced by a public proclamation: “There is an end of resistance to the Papal rule, and religious opposers exist no more. … The whole body of Christendom is now seen to be subjected to its head, i.e., to thee [Leo X].”

“The pillars of Rome’s strength were visible and palpable, and she surveyed them with exultation from her golden palaces. The assembled prelates [of this Lateran Council] separated with complacency and confidence, and with mutual congratulations on the peace, unity, and purity of the apostolic [?] Church. The power of Rome was de-facto paramount in the Church” (Waddington).

“The edifice of an unlimited Papal monarchy had at that time come victoriously out of all the preceding fights, and established itself on a firm basis. In the last Lateran Council at Rome, the principle of an unlimited Papal power was established in opposition to the principle of general councils, and the Waldenses and Hussites had no more any importance to fight against Papacy” (Neander.)

Another writer, Cunningham, is quoted in “Romanism and the Reformation” as saying: “At the commencement of the Sixteenth Century Europe reposed in the deep sleep of spiritual death. There was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped.”

It was the first and only time in the history of the Church of Christ that its testimony was silenced. So far as any united, collective testimony is concerned Christ’s witnesses were silenced.

In the statement, lying dead in the street of the great city, the city undoubtedly refers to symbolical Babylon, Christendom, controlled and dominated by the forces of the Papal system. The literal streets of a city are its public thoroughfares; anything committed to or exposed in the street would be brought prominently to the public view. Thus the persecution and suppression of the two witnesses were given all the publicity that was possible for those times — they were in the full view and gaze of the public throughout the great symbolic city, which is spiritually called Sodom (wicked and corrupt and doomed to destruction — for type see Genesis 19), and Egypt (typical of oppression and of the worldly state of separation from God), where also our Lord was crucified — it was by depraved humanity that our Lord was put to death.

“And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves” (Revelation 11:9).

In view of the foregoing facts regarding the relentless war that was carried on against the witnesses just prior to the Reformation, resulting in their suppression and death, it seems a most reasonable conclusion that it was between the dates, May 5, 1514, and October 31, 1517, that the three years and a half, during which the symbolic transaction described as the dead bodies of the two witnesses remaining unburied, and exposed to public gaze and derision, find their fulfillment. The expositor, Mr. Barnes, summing up the conclusion from the historian, writes:

“But it was with remarkable accuracy that a period of three years and a half occurred from the time when this proclamation [the proclamation that all heresy and opposition to Papacy was suppressed] was made, and when it was supposed that these ‘witnesses’ were ‘dead,’ to the time when the voice of living witnesses for the Truth was heard again, as if those witnesses that had been silenced had come to life; and ‘not in the compass of the whole ecclesiastical history of Christendom, except in the case of the death and resurrection of Christ himself, is there any such example of the sudden, mighty, and triumphant resuscitation of his Church from a state of deep depression, as was just after the separation of the Lateran Council, exhibited in the protesting voice of Luther, and the glorious Reformation.’ All accounts agree in placing the beginning of the Reformation in 1517 AD. See Bowers’ History of the Popes, also Murdock’s Mosheim. …

“The remarkable coincidence in regard to time — supposing that three years and a half are intended — will be seen from the following statement. The day of the ninth session of the Lateran Council, when the proclamation above referred to was made, was, as we have seen, May 5, 1514; the day of Luther’s posting up his theses at Wittenberg (the well known epoch of the beginning of the Reformation), was October 31, 1517. ‘Now from May 5, 1514, to May 5, 1517, are three years; and from May 5, 1517, to October 31 of the same year, 1517, the reckoning in days is in all 180, or half of 360 days, that is, half a year; so that the whole interval is precisely to a day three and a half years.’ Elliott, II 402, 403. But without insisting on this very minute accuracy any one can see, and all must be prepared to admit that, on the supposition that it was intended by the spirit of God to refer to these events, this is the language which would be used; or, in other words, nothing would better represent this state of things than the declaration that the witnesses would be ‘slain,’ and would be suffered to ‘remain unburied’ during this period of time, and that at the end of this period, a public testimony would be borne again for the truth, and against the abominations of the Papacy, as if ‘the spirit of life from God should again enter into them, and they should stand upon their feet’ (verse 11).”

Thus we are enabled to see from the historian the period during which the witnesses were silenced. The proclamation of the ninety-five theses¹ referred to were propositions advanced by Luther which he offered to maintain and did actually maintain, that nearly all the great dogmas of Rome were against Scripture.

¹One of the principles contained in these theses was afterwards expressed by Luther: “I, Martin Luther, unworthy herald of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works justifies before God, and I declare that it shall stand forever in despite of the Emperor of the Romans, the Emperor of the Turks, the Emperor of the Tartars, the Emperor of the Persians — in spite of the Pope and all the cardinals with the bishops, priests, monks, nuns — in spite of kings, princes, and nobles — and in spite of all the world and the devils themselves; and if they endeavor to fight against the truth, they will draw the fires of hell upon their heads. This is the true Gospel and the declaration of me, Doctor Martin Luther, according to the teaching of the Holy Ghost.”

The Witnesses Denied Sacred Burial

Concerning the expression, they “shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves,” we believe the thought intended to be conveyed is that the individuals faithful to Christ and his Truth who were left here and there in Christendom, but who had ceased to bear witness because of the awful persecutions, would now be subjected to great humiliation and would be derided and scoffed at and abused. It was customary in the ancient nations to deny burial to the lowest criminals. This usage prevailed among the Jews during and before our Lord’s day. The bodies of the lowest criminals were cast into the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) and burned. The teaching seems to have gained credence among the Jews that such were unfit for resurrection — a future life. The unrepentant heretic (?) was, and is today, by the Papal hierarchy, denied burial on consecrated (?) ground, and considered an outcast of both God and man. The figure under consideration is drawn from these literal transactions. Mr. Barnes, quoting from Waddington and D’Aubigne, says:

“One of the punishments constantly decreed and constantly enforced [by Papacy] in reference to those who were called heretics was their exclusion from burial as persons excommunicated and without the pale of the Church. Thus in the third Lateran Council (1179 AD) Christian burial was denied heretics; the same in the Lateran Council 1215 AD, and the Papal decree of Gregory IX, 1227 AD; the same again in that of Pope Martin, 1422 AD; and the same thing was determined in the Council of Constance, 1422 AD, which ordered that the body of Wycliffe should be exhumed, and that the ashes of John Huss, instead of being buried, should be collected and thrown into the lake of Constance. It may be added that Savonarola’s ashes were in a similar manner cast into the Arno, 1498 AD, and that in the first bull entrusted to the Cardinal Carjetan against Luther, this was one of the declared penalties that both Luther and his partisans should be deprived of ecclesiastical burial.”

In the language of this same commentator the significance of the symbol would then be that “they [the witnesses] would be treated with indignity, as if they were not worthy of Christian burial … they would be treated after they were silenced, like unburied corpses, putrefying in the sun.”

“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 on the earth” (verse 10).

The rejoicing and exulting over the death of the witnesses would represent that the Papacy and its followers would deem themselves rid of the annoying testimonies to the Truth and their denunciations of the Papal abominations. It was true that there was always rejoicing, and even public celebrations of victories over the humiliation of Christ’s faithful tried ones. That referred to here, however, describes particular rejoicings and celebrations at this date, May, 1514, over the supposed complete suppression of “heretics.” The historian has recorded this special rejoicing. One writer has said of this when referring to the Papal proclamation¹ of triumph made by the orator of the occasion of the last Lateran Council, May 5, 1514:

“This was the hour when Papal Rome seemed to triumph, and when the silence of death and the grave appeared to oppress all opposing voices. And the merry-making, the giving of gifts, the joyous festivities, with which the announcement was celebrated, as described by contemporary writers, eclipsed in splendor any that had been witnessed in the seven-hilled city since the days of her ancient greatness” (F. E. Tower).

Some Interpretations Not Corroborated by History

Some Adventists, also others more recently, who quote from Smith’s Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, have applied the three and one half days (years) as beginning in 1793 and ending three and one half years after. The quotation from this work on prophecy is as follows:

“In 1793, a decree passed the French Assembly suppressing the Bible. Just three years after, a resolution was introduced into the Assembly superseding the decree, and giving toleration to the Scriptures. That resolution lay on the table six months, when it was taken up, and passed without a dissenting vote. Thus, in just three years and a half, the witnesses ‘stood upon their feet’ ” (Uriah Smith).

Our firm conviction is that the symbols themselves, as well as the undisputed facts of history, will not admit of this application of the vision. We quote the historian’s record of the transaction cited by Mr. Smith as occurring November, 1793:

“With these reforms [?] effected, the revolutionists next proceeded to the more difficult task of subverting the ancient institutions of religion. Some of the chiefs of the Commune of Paris declared that the Revolution should not rest until it had ‘dethroned the King of heaven as well as the king of earth.’

“An attempt was made by the extremists to have Christianity [?] abolished by a decree of the National Convention; but that body, fearing such an act might alienate many who were still attached to the church [?], resolved that all matters of creed should be left to the decision of the people themselves.

“The Atheistic chiefs of the Commune of the capital now determined to effect their purpose through the church itself. They persuaded the (Roman Catholic) Bishop of Paris to abdicate his office; and his example was followed by many of the clergy throughout the country. The churches of Paris and of other cities were now closed and the treasures of their altars and shrines confiscated to the state. Even the bells were melted down into cannon. The images of the Virgin and of the Christ were torn down, and the busts of Marat and other patriots set up in their stead. And as the emancipation of the world was now to be wrought, not by the Cross, but by the guillotine, that instrument took the place of the crucifix and was called ‘the Holy Guillotine.’ All the visible symbols of the ancient [false] religion were destroyed. All emblems of hope in the cemeteries were obliterated, and over their gates were inscribed the words, ‘Death is eternal sleep’ ” (Myers’ History).

The careful Bible student will see from this record of the historian that instead of this being a suppression of the Scriptures and of evangelical testimony — the death of Christ’s witnesses — it was a judgment on Papacy and the great apostate Church. It will also be noted that even this was local in its effects — confined to France alone. And as finally settling the matter that this great and startling event of French history could not fulfill this grand symbolic vision of the Revelation, it will be noted that the chronological feature fails utterly in meeting the requirements of the vision. We quote the historian in this connection:

“November 10, 1793, the Catholic worship superseded by reason;

“May 30, 1795, the public exercise of the Catholic religion authorized” (M. A. Theirs, Chronology of The French Revolution).

Again we read from Myers’ History bearing upon this latter occurrence:

“The Fall of Robespierre (July, 1794). — By such terrorism did Robespierre and his creatures rule France. … The awful suspense and dread drove many into insanity and suicide. The strain was too great for human nature to bear. A reaction came. They [the people] began to turn with horror and pity from the scenes of the guillotine. The first blow at the power of the Dictator [Robespierre] was struck in the Convention. A member dared to denounce him upon the floor of the assembly as a tyrant. The spell was broken. He [Robespierre] was arrested and sent to the guillotine with a large number of his confederates. … The delirium was over. France had awakened from the ghastly dream of the reign of terror (July 28, 1794).

“The Reaction. — The reaction which had swept away Robespierre and his associates continued after their ruin. The deputies that had been driven from their seats in the Convention were invited to resume their places and the Christian [?] worship was reestablished (May 30, 1795).”

However, while it is not corroborated by the facts of history nor the symbols themselves that the death of the witnesses and their lying dead in the street of the “great city” were fulfilled in the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, this remarkable occurrence so disastrous to Papacy’s power is portrayed in another part of this very remarkable vision, as we shall endeavor to show. Indeed all the events symbolized in this vision do not reach their culmination until the seventh trumpet sounds.

The bodies of these witnesses lying dead in the street of the great city would, in addition to what we have already shown, denote that God’s Truth so long proclaimed amidst the most terrible persecution ever known, was, just before the Reformation, cast down in the street. Error had for a little time triumphed over Truth. This figure is used in other places in the Scriptures. The Prophet Isaiah uses it in the language, “Judgment is turned away backward, for truth is fallen in the street” (Isaiah 59:14). The symbol would also mean that the little companies (churches) existing previous to this time here and there in Christendom, were broken up and their members scattered. The Lord’s Little Flock of consecrated ones were compelled, because of the terrible persecution, to cease for this brief space of time to assemble themselves together; or at least this was the state of things that Papacy and its supporters (Christendom) believed was existing for the three and one-half years prior to October, 1517.