3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
But that is not the end of the story. The rejoicing over the death of the two witnesses is however premature (10). After three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God came into them, and they stood upon their feet. Now this may mean two things. It speaks of resurrection, and can be taken as meaning a resurrection experience of new life after death for the witness of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be finally destroyed. God buries His workmen, but carries on His work. Look for a parallel to this in the history of the Jews, God's ancient covenant people. Down the ages men and nations have sought to destroy them, but they could not be destroyed. They have risen, in our time, from the horrors of the gas chamber and concentration camp in Germany, and still maintained their identity, because God willed them to remain His people. So it is with the gospel. Christ has founded His Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Word of God can never be silenced, and if Communism obliterates the Church, the Church will rise again, aye, and in a new power and glory. But in the second place - and there is much to be said for this, in view of 12 - it may refer to resurrection in the final sense. Thus, 'Come up hither' seems certainly to refer to our Lord's Second Advent, and the calling up of the Church to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16). In such manner, then, is Satan's seeming triumph, in the final clash between the powers of darkness and of light, brought to a speedy end by the mighty intervention of the Prince of Glory Himself.