Exploring Revelation: The Two Witnesses
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
Revelation 11:1-13
I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on 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 terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Psalm 98:1-3 (responsive reading for live service)
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Read the written message below with music videos
Imagine if the biblical book of Revelation were a true, literal prophecy. It would mean that one day we as a species will battle a seven-headed dragon, as well as locusts with human faces, and will also be confronted by two “witnesses” who prophesy to the entire earth, killing anyone who tries to harm them with fire from their mouths. Not only that, but once these witnesses are martyred, the entire earth rejoices over their deaths, to eventually be stunned to silence when the witnesses are resurrected and then fly into heaven in a cloud. But what if these messages were not meant to be taken literally, but were symbolic parables connecting to a rich tradition of symbolism found throughout the entire Hebrew scriptures – from the seven days of creation to the final holy city descending from the sky? What if they, like the seven days of creation, were meant to invite us to listen to our higher internal witnesses, the love and truth at our core, and allow all our delusions to be stunned into silence and to fall away for the heavenly light of resurrection, peace, and renewal (no matter our religion)?
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? The seven days of creation has confounded many, particularly because evangelical Christianity has become quite invested in the literalness of the Bible, a tendency that has gained traction ever since the West has flirted with the false idea that either science is true or spirituality is: that they’re mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, this has meant that Christians have largely loss the important thread of symbolism throughout their scriptures, even though every corner pastor knows that Jesus often taught through parable. Indeed, this literalism has also reinforced the idea that you must be a “literal” Christian to know God and to go to heaven, an idea at odds with logic and Jesus’ message entirely.
In the creation story, we have a story meant for each single being that tells the tale of their very own spiritual awakening, their spiritual beginning you might say. We start off as a spiritual void, but God is still there, hovering over the waters. Eventually, some deeper truth starts to awaken us, and, as it says on the first day of creation, “let there be light!” These symbols are grounded in more than just conjecture, the Bible presents a long history of authors and tales that similarly use light as a symbol for spiritual truth and awakening – as it says, “Jesus is the light of the world, but the darkness knew it not.”
The indigenous Jews knew this, which is why there’s such a rich history of internal interpretation within that tradition, such as in Jewish Kabbalism, a trend we also see in many other indigenous peoples’ approaches to ancestral tales and spiritual knowledge sharing. Fast forward to the end of the seven days of creation (seven meaning what is holy and complete), and the person who was once a spiritual void is now a Sabbath – a being that exudes and is peace and humanity itself, at rest even as they still share the light and creating powers of God.
Revelation is even more clearly meant to be taken metaphorically, with its beasts and its flying towns, perhaps this is why many churches won’t touch it with a 12-foot pole. Moreover, we know that John “was in the spirit” when he had these visions, which lends credence to my favourite mystic’s claim (Emanuel Swedenborg) that the spiritual realm is filled with the same types of symbols and images that we see used in the parables of the Bible and other scripture. Perhaps if we start to tie the images found in the metaphorical book back to similar images found throughout scripture, we can start to understand what message is trying to get across to us.
In our reading from Revelation 11 today, we are told about the two witnesses we discussed a bit earlier. The term witness is often used in relation to Christ in scripture, saying that he was a witness of the truth and of God. Clearly, in this case, we have a similar type of witness going on, with two beings “prophesying” to the entire earth. Although Swedenborg writes that these two witnesses are specifically witnessing that Christ’s nature is Divine and also that we must follow the 10 commandments (in fact, he says that these two ideas are what the witnesses represent), I believe we are in a good place to expand upon his assertions. Indeed, it was Christ’s divine message that all beings are fundamentally, at their core, divine, because all life is from the God known by many names across cultures.
And ultimately, to say that Christ’s nature is Divine, is to witness to the truth of Christ’s message, that all beings should find complete unity with him, with love, and with God, as we are all intrinsically one with these things. It is only in a delusional and ignorant state (even if at times it is long-lasting) that we think we are separate from others and our fundamental angelic nature. Thus, we might say that the witnesses could represent that all beings are Divine since they are “of God,” and that we should unveil that divinity in our thinking and living (following the 10 commandments and all its deeper meanings).
Whether this is the meaning of the two witnesses, or perhaps a further broadening is warranted as “love and truth” (another thing that Christ represents and was a witness of!) seems to fit, we see in our story that at least some people of every culture and nation celebrate their seeming demise. But, like Christ, this death is only an appearance as the Witnessing Spirit of love and truth can only seem to be dead, and they rise after three and a half days. This prophecy speaks to the reality that even though some people of every culture come to know and live a life centered on love and its wisdom, there are some in every culture that celebrate its perishing, often due to their investment in dependency and attachment toward domination, destruction, lust, control, and fear.
What’s beautiful about this message is that it speaks to how, even when we personally feel entirely distracted by the cares of this world and its desires, the two witnesses within are only seemingly perished. Its promise is that love and truth will eventually again rise even in the lives seemingly devoid of them, miraculously so, astounding our normal way of thinking as these attributes within pull our awareness into heaven and its glory, ridding us of our hurtful habits in the subsequent spiritual earthquake and transformation. This is what seems to be meant by the very earthquake that kills “seven thousand” of the city inhabitants, with the rest turning in “terror” toward the God that is life itself, subduing even our fearfulness and trembling with peace, love, and awe. How amazing!
Peace is you,
Rev. Cory