The Two Witnesses: Scattering their Power (excerpt of It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)

THE TWO WITNESSES: SCATTERING THEIR POWER (EXCERPT OF IT IS TIME FOR A REFORMATION OF CHRISTIAN THINKING)

From: It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking

* * *

The rule of Antichrist will produce tremendous desolation and destruction in the earth, as the rule of man apart from God always does. The true saints will be required, through Christ, to gain personal victory over the abundance of sensuous pleasure available in the closing days of the present age. Then they will be hounded from the centers of civilization, being forced to live with their children in wilderness areas of the earth. There the disciples will dwell, with the elect Jews, under the Lord’s protection until He appears in the clouds of the heaven and calls them up to their reward.

The “power of the holy people” is the Holy Spirit. This is the Power who restrains the revealing of the man of sin. In order for Satan to elevate Antichrist in the earth he first must scatter the power of the saints. He must dissipate their ability to pray and act in the power of the Spirit of God.

It is written that the power of the holy people will be broken in the last days. Let us watch and pray that we may survive all that comes to pass until we stand in triumph before the Lord Jesus Christ.

* * *

Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered [crushed], all these things shall be finished. (Daniel 12:7)

According to our understanding, the “time, times, and half” refers to the second half of the week of years (seven years) that is set forth in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation.

The “two witnesses” prophesy during the first half of the week (three and one-half years) and the man of sin, the Antichrist, is revealed during the second half of the week (three and one-half years). The second half of the week will be a time of great tribulation for all the peoples of the earth, including the true people of God—the elect Jews and Gentiles (Matthew 24:16; Zechariah 13:8,9).

The rule of Antichrist will produce mammoth desolation and destruction in the earth, as the rule of man apart from God always does. In spite of the ruin on every hand the inhabitants of the earth, including the deceived Christians, will cry, “Peace and safety!”

The “holy people” of Daniel 12:7 are God’s saints, His testimony in the earth. They have just preached the Gospel of the Kingdom for a witness to all nations, as symbolized by the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter 11. That most powerful of all testimonies will be produced by the “latter rain” outpouring of God’s Spirit prophesied by Joel:

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

Again, speaking of the outpouring of glory that will make straight the way of the Lord:

The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5)

The above prophecies never have come to pass in their fullness on the earth. But they will come to pass, as we note from their contexts, in the days immediately preceding the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth.

The second lampstand of Revelation, Chapter Eleven (Christ being the first Lampstand) has been hammered into shape throughout the centuries of the Christian Era. The part of the second lampstand that is on the earth during the closing days of the Church Age will be filled with a double (Elisha) portion of God’s Spirit (symbolized by the two olive trees).

The latter-rain revival, an unprecedented downpour of God’s Spirit, the greatest revival of all history, is beginning now. It will increase in power and revelation until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached for a witness to every nation of people on the earth (Matthew 24:14).

When God’s witnesses, His saints, have “finished their testimony” (Revelation 11:7), the power of the extraordinary last-day anointing will be lifted. This marks the end of the Christian witness of the Church Age.

Then God will give Antichrist authority over all the nations of the earth. The numerous Christian believers on the earth, having been converted during the revival, and also the saints who have borne the end-time witnesses but who now do not have the enduement of power from on high to inspire and protect them, will be required to stand by faith in the written Word.

The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will remain resident in them, but they will not be anointed for ministry as had been true during the first half of the “week.” The spiritual oppression during that season will be greater than at any other time of earth’s history.

The remaining three and one-half years, the second half of the prophetic “week,” is the period of the apostasy. This will be the “hour of temptation” of which Christ spoke (Revelation 3:10) and of very great tribulation for God’s true people (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:14). Antichrist will rule during this time.

During the second half of the week the love of the majority of Christians will grow cold. They will retain a form of godliness but possess no power of the Spirit. Some of the stronger saints will be deceived and fall. The true Church, the Wife of the Lamb, will be driven into hiding. The elect Jews have been warned by Christ to flee from Judea in that day (Matthew 24:16).

We think that during this time the Christian saints will receive the elect Jews and introduce them to Christ, fulfilling the type of Joseph and his brothers. Jacob was forced into the arms of Joseph by the famine in Canaan, and Jacob again will be forced into the arms of the heavenly “Joseph” by the tribulation that will result from the reign of Antichrist.

The saints in hiding, including the elect Jews who now have received Christ, make up the godly remnant, the purified Church—the army that will be resurrected at the return of Christ to the earth (Ezekiel 37:10). The power of the Spirit, which today restrains the revealing of the man of sin, will have been scattered as to its worldwide witness; but the Spirit will remain as a “covert from storm and from rain” for the true Israel of God (Isaiah 4:6).

What means will Antichrist use to overcome the saints? How will he make war against them and overcome them? (Revelation 13:7).

Antichrist will employ three means to overcome the saints: Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

Satan already has used these three means to scatter the spiritual power of the believers. The saints of the wealthy nations of today already have been conquered by deception and sin. This is why we Christians no longer are able to effect changes in our government and environment and are anxious to escape by fleeing to Paradise in a “rapture.”

Sodom is the lack of control of bodily appetites: fornication, adultery, perversion, drunkenness, reveling, gluttony. Antichrist is providing the Christians in large segments of the world’s population with access to the pleasures of fleshly and often immoral satisfactions.

Egypt is the desire for the world. It symbolizes the lust of the eyes. Antichrist is overcoming the saints by worldly prosperity and success. Antichrist is so competent in the art of deception that a number of Christian churches are preaching that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the good news that Christian believers are to be wealthy in material gain.

The “Spirit-filled” people are preaching the message of the False Prophet. They have been deceived. Antichrist has overcome the saints with the love of money even though the Scriptures contain several examples of people who have been destroyed by the love of money. Also, we have the explicit warning of the Apostle Paul (I Timothy 6:5-11).

There is an increasing emphasis on what is not obviously sinful but results, nevertheless, in our neglecting our salvation: buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, eating and drinking, and other ordinary pursuits that are not wrong in themselves but easily can destroy the fervor necessary for the conduct of the life of victory in Christ.

The ability of the Christians in wealthy areas to pray with spiritual power has been largely destroyed. In some countries the believers are more occupied with football or soccer than they are with prayer and the Word of God.

In certain instances the “worshipers” sit in the church services with earplugs from transistor radios in their ears so they will not miss some important sports event. The leaders of the assemblies are afraid to rebuke them out of fear they will lose their congregation. The leaders and the congregations have been conquered by Antichrist. They pose little threat to the kingdom of Satan.

Jerusalem is the pride of life. It is the desire of people for preeminence, particularly spiritual preeminence. The Pharisees murdered the Lord’s Christ because of their desire to be foremost in status among the Lord’s flock.

Jesus fled from those who would have made Him the king of Jerusalem (John 6:15).

Antichrist will invite some of God’s prophets to accept positions of high rank in his government. These saints will accept, believing they can help correct the evils they see in the world. They do not understand that our Kingdom is not of this world. They surely shall lose their anointing because, as we see in the example of Samson, the saint’s strength is based on his separation to God.

True prophets walk with God, not with the rulers of the present world system.

In addition to the destruction of the witness produced by the prevalence of temptation, Antichrist with the cooperation of the babylonish (manmade, man-centered, man-directed) church organization, will persecute the true saints, driving them from the cities of the earth.

“And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering. (Daniel 11:33)

The False Prophet, whom we believe to be Christians who are working miracles but living in the wisdom and power of their own souls rather than in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, will encourage the Antichrist government to do away with all Christians who are not willing to join in the worldwide effort to bring peace and safety to mankind.

Antichrist, ruling in terms of libertarian democracy, would far rather persuade the believers to work together with him to promote the new age of prosperity that he envisions than he would destroy them. But the true saints, and the Jews as well, always will be a thorn in his side.

Then his true nature will be revealed for all to see. The mask of loving kindness and concern for people will be removed and the burning fires of Hell will flare from his countenance, just as today the benevolent attitude of the American government disappears when Christian people attempt to resist the national drift toward immorality.

The true saints will be required, through Christ, to gain personal victory over the abundance of fleshly pleasure available in the closing days of the present age. Then they will we driven from the centers of civilization, being forced to live with their children in wilderness areas of the earth. There they will dwell with the elect Jews, under the Lord’s protection, until He appears in the clouds of the heaven and calls them up to their reward.

It is written that the power of the holy people will be scattered in the last days. Let us watch and pray that we may escape being harmed spiritually by the things that come to pass and are able to stand in victory before the Son of Man when He appears.

(“The Two Witnesses: Scattering their Power”, 3449-1)