Your interpretations are vain, because they are your own, and not the traditional historical interpretations of the Church, held throughout the entire age of Christianity.
You are possessed by a rebellious Protestant spirit, which has arisen in recent centuries, and holds that each man can interpret the Bible for himself as he sees fit. This is contrary to the way Christ and his holy apostles taught that we should interpret Scripture. This is why you are lost at sea. You refuse to humble yourself and submit to the traditional orthodox teachings of Christianity, held everywhere, always, by all. You have appointed yourself as your own personal Pope, and you wish to establish your own religion to suit yourself. That is not the mark of a genuine Christian.
Your notion that the two witnesses spoken of in the Apocalypse are the Synagogue and the Church, is patently false. You are very confused.
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." (Mat 17.11)
The traditional teaching of Christianity, held throughout the many centuries of the Church, is that the two witnesses spoken of in the Apocalypse are the two prophets Enoch and Elijah, who never tasted of death. Enoch was found pleasing to God and was translated. Later, Elijah was carried up into heaven in a fiery chariot.
Read through chapter eleven of the Apocalypse again, and you will see that the two witnesses in the prophecy do not apply to the Synagogue and the Church at all--this is nonsensical.
The prophecy says that the two witnesses will prophesy for 1260 days, or 3.5 years. (Rev 11.3) That is exactly how long Elijah prophesied, or have you forgotten?
"But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;" (Luk 4.25)
Notice in the time of Elijah, the heavens were shut up and there was a great famine in the land.
Just like it says in the Apocalypse:
"These [i.e. Enoch and Elijah] have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy:" (Rev 11.6)
Notice in the prior verse (Rev 11.5), it says:
"And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies:"
Once again, just like in the time of Elijah!
"And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" (Luk 9.54)
So it is plainly obvious that Elijah is one of the two witnesses spoken of, who will preach for 1260 days prior to the Parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was clearly prophesied in the OT by the mouth of the prophet Malachi:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal 4.5-6)
How much clearer could any of this be? If you spent more time reading the writings of the holy fathers, and less time presuming to set yourself up as some great teacher and interpreter of the Scriptures, you would understand that this is a long-held tradition by the Church, testified to in every century.
Your interpretation is a private innovation, and not traditional. In fact, it is downright absurd.
For the next verse, (Rev 11.7), says:
"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."
According to the folly of your private interpretation, this means the beast (Antichrist) is going to kill the Church! What rubbish!
Christ promised that the gates of Hades would never prevail against His Church, and that He would be with her until the end of the age.
It is clearly manifest when you read Revelation chapter 11 that the two witnesses are in fact men, which is why the prophecy talks about their bodies lying in the street and not being suffered to be buried in graves, and so on. |
