As I frequently repeat to all serious Bible students, the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. What the Bible says in one place it will explain in other places. In our last issue of Piecing Together Bible Prophecy, we saw how the duration of the ministry of God’s two witnesses is to be understood figuratively rather than literally. In light of this, as well as the fact that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible, we must now ask ourselves the following question, “Where should we turn in Scripture to find illumination for a figurative interpretation of the duration of the ministry of  Revelation’s two witnesses?” What significance is ascribed elsewhere in Scripture to a period of three and a half years, a period figuratively suggested by Revelation’s  “thousand two hundred and threescore days”?

The Apostle James tells us that the Prophet “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17). These “three years and six months” marked a time of God’s miraculous protection of and provision for His witness, who we are reminded of in Revelation’s description of God’s two end-time witnesses. Elijah was hid away by God at the Brook Cherith, where he drank water from the brook and was miraculously fed by the ravens (1 Kings 17:3-6). After the brook dried up, Elijah was hid away by God in the home of a widow of Zarepath, where he, the widow, and her son were miraculously provided for by a jar of flour that was never used up and a jug of oil that never ran dry (1 Kings 17:7-16).

Interestingly, it was Jesus’ mentioning of this incident from the life of Elijah in the synagogue of Nazareth that so angered the folks of His hometown that they attempted to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:24-30). Was the reason for such agitation by this synagogue’s congregation not the fact that the Savior’s pointed sermon served as a precursor of that which is depicted by the two witnesses of Revelation? Jesus was here foretelling this hometown crowd about the impending change of God’s witnesses upon the earth. God was about to change His witnesses from His Christ-rejecting Old Covenant people—Israel—to His Christ-receiving New Covenant people—the church—with the accompanying consequence that believing Gentiles rather than unbelieving Jews would become the recipients of God’s provision and protection?

The two witnesses are miraculously protected during the “thousand two hundred and threescore days”—three and a half years—that they prophesy (Revelation 11:5-6). The church has been, is now, and will continue to be miraculously preserved during the Church Age. For instance, in Matthew 24:9-14, Jesus promises, that despite the world’s vehement opposition and persecution, the church will succeed in preaching the “gospel of the kingdom…in all the world for a witness unto all nations” before the end comes. As Tertullian once said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The more the world attempts to stamp out the Gospel-preaching church the more the Gospel spreads.

Another place where Christ promises to miraculously preserve His church is in Revelation 3:10. Here, our Lord says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Many misinterpret this verse as a reference to a secret rapture of the church by which the church is safely snatched out of this world up into Heaven in order to escape all end-time tribulation. However, there is no reason to presume that the church has to be taken out of the world to be kept by Christ “from the [coming] hour of temptation.”

Do you remember Jesus’ High Priestly prayer for us in John 17:14-20? He prayed the following for us to the Father: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil…As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world…Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” Notice, Jesus did not pray for us to be taken “out of the world,” but only for us to be kept “from evil.” Thus, His promise to keep the church “from the [coming] hour of temptation” does not necessitate our removal from this world.

Remember, God miraculously preserved His people during the plagues upon Egypt without removing them from the land. Granted, Israel was afterward delivered from their slavery in Egypt, which symbolizes the world, and made their way to a new life in Canaan, which symbolizes both the Christian’s abundant life now and eternal life hereafter. Still, Israel not only survived until the time of their deliverance from Egypt, but were also kept safe by God during the time of God’s plagues of judgment upon the Egyptians. Interestingly, the other person we are reminded of by Revelation’s description of God’s two end-time witnesses is Moses, God’s deliverer of His preserved people from Egypt.

Despite the draught in Elijah’s day, which was obviously God’s judgment on an unrepentant Israel, the “three years and six months” provided the people with time and opportunity to repent. Likewise, despite draught and the earth being smitten with “plagues” during the time of Gods two witnesses (Revelation 11:6), which is obviously God’s judgment on an unrepentant world, the three and a half years that the two witnesses “prophecy” will also provide people with a time and opportunity to repent.

The Book of Revelation makes it plain that the purpose of the “last plagues,” as well as the preaching of God’s “two  witnesses” is to bring men to repentance. Unfortunately, it makes it equally clear that men will refuse to do so (Revelation 9:20-21; 16:8-11; 19:11-21).

Despite the inevitable troubles and woes of our fallen world, as well as God’s manifold judgments upon it, the church age, within which the church—Christ’s witnesses—is preaching the Gospel to a lost and dying world, provides all men with time and opportunity to repent. It is this very thing that the Apostle Peter wrote about in 2 Peter 3:3-9.

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

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