Are The Two Olive Trees in Rev. 11 representative of the Whole Church?

The Two Witnesses are not the Church but the Seven Golden Lampstands are.

This is the main problem with allegorical interpretation of scriptures, it yields arbitrary conclusions inconsistent, if not contradictory, and without due regard to the immediate context.

Revelation has already, early on, referred to the Church as “Church” in chapters 2-3 identifying them each by name where they are based, namely, Church in Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7), Church in Smyrna (Rev. 2:8-11), Church in Pergamum (Rev. 2:12-17), Church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29), Church in Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6), Church in Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13), and Church in Philadelphia (Rev. 3:14-22).

But early on, they were seen in a vision in the Prologue, along with the vision of the Son of Man (Rev. 1:9-20), as the seven golden lampstands, while the stars in the vision signify the messengers sent to deliver the letter (aggelos, in Gk, Rev. 1:20).

The reason why lampstands are used to depict them in the Prologue is probably because they are supposed to shine their “light into the world” or to give glory to God. “Lamp” in the Book of Revelation is used for the following purposes:

In Rev. 21:23, it says, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” According to this verse the Lamb is its lamp because he is the glory of God in the city.

In Rev. 22:5, it says, “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” Indicating their glory shines in the city that it needs no luminaries.

In Rev. 18:23, it says, “and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.” Referring to Babylon’s temporal glory that will cease to be because of God’s judgment.

Thus, they are depicted as lampstands because they function to shine the glory of God where they are, in Pergamum, in Ephesus, etc. And they do so by being the Lord’s faithful witnesses, like Antipas who was killed in Pergamum “where Satan dwells”, see Rev. 2:13.

That each and everyone of them are called to be witnesses is also evident in Rev. 19:10, when an angel told John saying, “I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”

Therefore each and every member of the Church is also called to hold the testimony of Jesus or to bear witness to Jesus. And by maintaining his word of testimony will they overcome the Evil One (see Rev. 12:11).

And so, this is why their function to do so (as a lampstand) is threatened removed if they do not repent from where they have fallen. And this is what it says in Rev. 2:5 to the Church in Ephesus, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” Which is also the message of the Spirit to the other churches, see Rev. 2:7.

Being a lampstand is common to each Church because each of them is called to shine God’s glory where they are by maintaining their testimony to Jesus. And by being common, it means each and every member of the Church is also called to do the same. This brings to mind what the Lord says in the Gospels, for example in Mat. 5:15, “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (see also Mk. 4:21; Lk. 8:16 cf. Jn. 5:35).

This is also why the Two Witnesses are called “two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (Rev. 11:4) because their function is not just to shine God’s glory by maintaining their witness to Jesus in a locality but “before the Lord of the earth“. Their role is given global prominence as the witnesses of God for the End Times (Rev. 11:3). And their function will be authenticated by signs and wonders (see Rev 11:5-6) like the prophets and apostles of old.

But when they finish their testimony for 42 months (the same period the beast was empowered compare Rev. 11:2-3 with 13:5), they will be killed like their Master (Rev 11:7) and will lie dead in the same city their Master was killed (Rev. 11:8). Their prominence will make sure their death will be known globally (Rev 11:9-11) so that even in life, death, resurrection and rapture, they continue to shine God’s glory by not loving their lives unto death (Rev 11:10-12). As a result those who survive the great earthquake in the city will also give glory to God because of their faithfulness to Jesus (Rev. 11:13).

Thus, it doesn’t make sense to interpret the Two Witnesses as representative of the whole Church because not all will given the same authenticating signs and wonders as they will be when the beast comes to power. We will exactly know their identity when their time comes .

6Iaj Jamito, Edward Esquierdo and 4 others55 Comments1 ShareLikeCommentShare

Answer. Yes. There will be survivors.

Modern Amillennialism (or Now Millennialism, NowMil for short) creates a strawman by saying “all flesh” in Rev. 19:17-18 refer to “all of mankind without exception” first by (1) double standard, (2) eisegesis, (3) selective bias, (4) scripture twisting, and (5) accusing the Lord of attempting genocide.

1) Double standard because they say Revelation is full of symbols and figures yet they make self-serving exception for Rev. 19:17-18 . Why can’t it be a hyperbole? But we’re not saying it is a hyperbole, see #2, #3, & #4 below. The point is this: NowMil is guilty of double-standard which is a form of intellectual dishonesty because they do this very thing.

2) Eisegesis because they imported a foreign meaning into the text to contradict authorial intent. The author of Revelation assumes we know that there will be survivors because after 1,000 years of the reign of the people of God, there still be enemies able gather in massive number surrounding the beloved city where the saints are encamped (Rev. 20:7-10). Furthermore, in Rev. 22:2, it says the “leaves of the tree” in the beloved city is for healing the nations. Why would it say nations will need to be healed if the survivors were not in the mind of the author? Also, Rev. 19:15 tells us the “sharp sword” from the mouth of the “Word of God” is meant to strike down the nations and rule them with rod of iron, not to wipe them all out, why would he write that if there will be no more nations to rule?

3) Selective bias because they only want to pick on Rev. 19:17-18 and want us to ignore its correlation with Zechariah 14:16 which tells us that after the attack (Zec. 14:2), when the Lord fights for his people (Zec. 14:3), there would still be survivors (Zec. 14:16) who will pay tribute to the Lord. Are they assuming that the author of the book of Revelation was unaware of what Zec. 12-14 prophesied before him?

(4) Scripture twisting because not only did they add foreign meaning into the text, something that contradicts the authorial intent (eisegesis, see #2), they also twist the intent of the author in the text which tells us that only combatants are being referred to, see Rev. 19:19, “gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army”. In the narrative, they’ve been gathering as early as Rev. 16:14-16. Even the “rest” in Rev. 19:21 based on context, authorial intent, and correlation with Zec. 12-14 can only mean “the rest of the combatants”.

(5) Accusing the Lord of attempting genocide because as explained above (see #2 and #4), with their scripture twisting, led them to the conclusion that all will be killed including non-combatants. They even fail to account the survivors of the Great Earthquake in Rev. 11:13, who, after witnessing the rapture of the two witnesses, got terrified and glorified God at the end of the 3.5-year Great Tribulation. Why would the Lord mercilessly kill them too since that is the eternal gospel proclaimed by the angel in Rev. 14:6-7?

Context in the Revelation Narrative Framework

Rev. 16:14 says, “They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY.” Indicating that the deceived kings are going to gather their armies to the great day of God almighty (Compare this with Psalm 2:1-3). This gets picked up in Rev. 19:17 as the Great Supper of God, “And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, ‘Come, gather together for the GREAT SUPPER OF GOD.'” (Compare this with Ezekiel 39:17). The constitution of these armies are stated in Rev 19:18 this way, “so that you may eat the FLESH OF KINGS, GENERALS, and the MIGHTY, of HORSES and their RIDER, and the FLESH OF ALL PEOPLE, FREE and SLAVE, GREAT and SMALL.” Although “the flesh of all people are mentioned” we know that the context of these all people is already given in Rev. 16:14. On top of that, their make up is also visualized in Rev 19:19, as the gathered kings and their armies,

“Then I saw THE BEAST and THE KINGS of the earth and THEIR ARMIES gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. “
Rev. 19:19

As you can see “the flesh of all people” are qualified by all that gathered in the GREAT DAY OF GOD almighty in Rev. 16:14 which is concluded in the GREAT SUPPER OF GOD in Rev. 19:17, and their make up is given by Rev. 19:18 as “THE BEAST and THE KINGS of the earth and THEIR ARMIES” and not ALL the EARTH DWELLERS.

Analogea Scripturae

Aside from the context within the Revelation narrative framework we can also appeal to the hermeneutical principle of analogea scripturae or analogy or correlation of scriptures, the Whole Bible Biblical Context also says in many places that there will be survivors, here are some of them:

“Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.” (Ezekiel 36:36)
“I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations–to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.” (Isaiah 66:19)
“He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.” (Psalm 110:6)
“…and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. …on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 10)

And so here were are wondering are they not aware of the warnings in Revelation 22:18-19? Or maybe they just disregard the warnings because they know that these survivors poses a great threat against their eschatological framework?

Month: May 2021