Why I believe the Two Witnesses Begin in July
Or
Christmas with the Anti-Christ
Revelation 11:3 and 7-10
“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophecy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth”
“When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate (make merry); and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.”
The first time I read that verse over 45 years ago when I first became a Christian my thought was “that sounds whole lot like Christmas”. I have read that verse almost every year for 45 years. I use the Walk Through the Bible program and in late December when I am reading that verse (because Revelation is the last book in the Bible) the same thought comes to mind….”that sounds a whole lot like Christmas”------ that is the gift exchanging part of the passage.
I have come to the conclusion that the Two Witnesses are killed right before what we today would call Christmas Day. The reason is the “sending of gifts”. It takes a lot of time for an entire population to find and buy gifts. Even if the AC, after he kills the Two Witnesses, should declare a holiday and command people to exchange gifts it would take more that three days to do it. Who would you buy gifts for? How much should you spend? It takes my Wife two months to figure all that out for each Christmas season.
John the Revelator was observing the events of the last days…. he saw the ministry of the Two Witnesses, he saw their death and he saw the exchanging of gifts. He knew nothing of what we have in this time period of a day built into the calendar where a large part of the worlds population exchanges gifts with one another as a matter of tradition.
Assuming that Jesus gave us a little clue as to some of the timing of the events in the last days and the day the Two Witnesses are killed is just before Christmas Day (December 25). What does this tell us?
1. We know the Two Witnesses have a 1260 day ministry, so if they are killed December 24/25, that means they start their ministry 1260 days before their death which puts it around the middle of July, I get July 14 give or take 1 to 2 days. I believe the ministry of the Two Witnesses takes place in the first 1260 days of the tribulation.
2. If their ministry does not start until after the rapture, then the rapture has to occur sometime before they start their ministry. This would put the rapture in early summer or late spring depending on if there is a wait period after the rapture before the two witnesses begin to minister. If the rapture is July 3 of 2026 then there would be an 11 day waiting period. The two witnesses would take the place of the church in terms of evangelism and because it almost certain that Elijah is one of the witnesses this would be the motivation for the 144,000 Jewish evangelists to accept Christ and begin their ministry.
Kurt S