Tribulation Temple and The Two Witnesses
Revelation 11:1-14
We Should Have a Burden for the Lost
We Must Have a sense of Urgency - Life is too short, Eternity is too long, and there is no more Delay
I. The Temple
1. It has been rebuilt
The Tribulation temple will be built early in the first half of the Tribulation under the patronage and protection of Antichrist 4th Temple will be built in Jerusalem during Tribulation Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4
2. It will be measured
Inner Temple/Holy Place and Holy of Holies
Judgment or Ownership? This is a reminder of God’s favor towards Israel and His wrath on an unrepentant world.
II. The Two Witnesses
1. Their Mission – Preach
2. The Method – Sackcloth - Repentance, Mourning
3. Their Identity
Two Olive Trees and Two Lampstands
Represent the Light of Revival – Zechariah 3:1-10
Possibly Moses and Elijah
A number of reasons that suggest that they may be Moses and Elijah.
First, the miracles they will perform (destroying their enemies with fire, withholding rain, turning water into blood, and striking the earth with plagues) are similar to the judgments inflicted in the Old Testament by Moses and Elijah for the purpose of stimulating repentance. Elijah called down fire from heaven (2 Kings 1:10, 12) and pronounced a three-and-one-half-year drought on the land (1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17)—the same length as the drought brought by the two witnesses (Rev. 11:6). Moses turned the waters of the Nile into blood (Ex. 7:17–21) and announced the other plagues on Egypt recorded in Exodus chapters 7–12.
Second, both the Old Testament and Jewish tradition expected Moses and Elijah to return in the future. Malachi 4:5 predicted the return of Elijah, and the Jews believed that God’s promise to raise up a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15, 18) necessitated his return (cf. John 1:21; 6:14; 7:40). Jesus’ statement in Matthew 11:14 that “if you are willing to accept it, John [the Baptist] himself is Elijah who was to come” does not necessarily preclude Elijah’s future return. Since the Jews did not accept Jesus, John did not fulfill that prophecy. He came “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).
Third, both Moses and Elijah (perhaps representing the Law and the Prophets) appeared with Christ at the Transfiguration, the preview of the Second Coming (Matt. 17:3).
Fourth, both left the earth in unusual ways. Elijah never died, but was transported to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11–12), and God supernaturally buried Moses’ body in a secret location (Deut. 34:5–6; Jude 9). The statement of Hebrews 9:27 that “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” does not rule out Moses’ return, since there are other rare exceptions to that general statement (such as Lazarus; John 11:14, 38–44). John F. MacArthur Jr., Revelation 1–11, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 300–301.
4. Their Miracles
5. Their Murder
by the Beast/Antichrist (see Chapter 13)
6. Their Resurrection
7. Their Results
God Has Not Given Up on Israel
When All Hope Seems Lost, God is Still in Charge