Transcript: Unlocking the Power of Two Witnesses in Revelation

The concept of two witnesses is one that is repeated in several different forms throughout the Bible. I'm going to be looking at about half a dozen of them in this video, leading up to some amazing Bible references about two very special people, often referred to as the two witnesses, who are probably alive on the earth today. It was a rule in Old Testament times that before anyone could be taken to court, there needed to be at least two witnesses to whatever that person was being charged with. It saved the courts a lot of time, even if it did allow a few bad guys to escape prosecution. The reasoning then, like the reasoning in many similarly progressive court systems today, is that it is better for a guilty person to get away with doing something wrong, than for an innocent person to be punished unfairly. An underlying assumption is that really bad people will not stop at one crime. Soon there will be another witness to another criminal action, and then the court can proceed with much greater confidence that they're not prosecuting an innocent person. There's a similar practice which has been used by many people with regard to identifying spurious religious doctrines. If the doctrine is based on one passage of Scripture which does not seem to be supported by other passages of Scripture in the Bible, or in the teachings of Jesus then, proof text or not, it should be treated with caution. There is, for example, a weird reference to people being baptized for the dead which appears in one of the letters of Paul. There's one place where Jesus appears to be saying that if you are alive now and you believe in him, you will never die. There's another place where Paul says that it's unnatural for a woman to have short hair. Matthew's Gospel contains a confusing passage which seems to be saying that Peter, not Jesus, is the cornerstone of the kingdom of heaven. Doctrines which have been built on such isolated, obscure, and apparently contradictory passages are widely regarded as being extremely unreliable, and at best not fundamental in determining our faith or defining how we should live our lives as servants of Jesus. Akin to this principle is the amazing unity that exists between not two, but three different gospel writers and what they have told us about Jesus and his teachings. To my knowledge there nothing to rival it in all history where three different biographers expressed such complete agreement on what it was that a famous person said and did during their lifetime Obviously, the three authors came from similar backgrounds, and they're all Christian apologists. They may well have been influenced by teachings which had been repeated over and over again during the gap of some 35 years between when Jesus ascended to heaven and when they wrote their accounts of what he did and said. But the word-for-word preservation, at the same time that all three books contained the usual sort of discrepancies that would result if people were not physically copying over each other's shoulders, this precise agreement for great slabs of teachings suggests that even if such passages had been memorized over the years That in itself was a powerful example of unity and reliability which other great leaders in history never experienced. It's true, for example, that followers of great philosophers like Socrates and Confucius would agree on many of their teachings. But even then, the material all traces back to a single source, unlike the three synoptic gospels. John's gospel, by the way, does not have the same unity that the other three have, and so it's viewed somewhat more loosely by Bible historians. Nevertheless, it does seem like God himself was looking out for his son by giving us at least two witnesses for most of the things that Jesus said and did. And this is consistent with the concept of us needing two witnesses before we can trust something as being reliable. Jesus promised his followers that after he ascended to heaven, he would send his spirit back to guide them but only in situations where there were at least two or three of them working together. We see Jesus himself practicing this concept when he sent his disciples out on their own, sometime before he was crucified. On one occasion, he sent 70 of them out, two by two And on another occasion, he sent out 120 of them, again, two by two. He said, wherever two or more of you are gathered together in my name, there I will be, in the midst of you. Now, what does that imply about one person on their own? There is a need for each of us to stand entirely alone at times. True characters often build through those times, when it seems like no one else sides with us. But such times might be more rare than most of us realize. Jesus seems to be looking for rugged individualism, but also he's looking for humble accountability. The kind of accountability that only comes when we submit to one another in love. In fact inner personal strength may come best when we are surrounded by others Jesus gives us a good illustration of that when it comes to prayer He tells us in one place that we should not pray publicly as the hypocrites do Instead, he says, when you pray, go into your closet and pray in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. So there we have the illustration of one person on their own standing before God. But in another place, Jesus says that if two or three of us will agree on something that we are asking for in prayer then he'll grant that request. So how can we do both of these things at the same time? Pray secretly, but also pray in unity with others. Well, we already know that he wants us to be gathered together in some way rather than living our lives largely in isolation from other believers. And when we are living together like that, he says his presence will be with us. To live together in harmony requires good communication, an ability to anticipate the needs of others, and to make our own needs known to others as well. To the extent that we are in agreement on what our purpose is for being together like that, we will be praying for the same things. We will be in agreement in our prayers, without a need for any one person to stand up and broadcast a prayer on behalf of everyone else. As we each head off into the privacy of our prayer closets, whatever that might mean, there will still be unity in what we pray for when we get there. And because of that unity, we will achieve those goals that unite us as a community. Someone has said that on the day of Pentecost, the greatest miracle was not the sound of a mighty rushing wind, nor was it the flames of fire on the heads of the people nor was it the foreign languages in which they all started speaking. The greatest miracle on the day of Pentecost was that 120 people were all together in one place and as the Bible puts it, they were in one accord. Sadly, the world is so selfish today, it's virtually impossible to get even two people to agree on what it is they really want more than anything else. So over and over, our prayers fall flat at our selfish feet. But I believe that God is drawing a few of us closer to himself, closer to his plan for his creation. We don't have it all together even now, but one day soon, he will iron out all the wrinkles and have that spotless, single-minded bride whose only purpose is to glorify her husband. And then the world is going to see the power of God unleashed in a way that it has never seen his power and his glory before. And that brings us to the final biblical example of two witnesses There are two special prophets whom God will raise up in the last few years before Jesus returns to the world Short of being the Messiah himself, there are such spectacular predictions about these two men, and about what they'll be able to do, that there are few people who would not be totally overwhelmed if they were to discover that they are one of those two witnesses. This calling is so incredible that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have convinced themselves that they are one of the two witnesses. Sadly, most of them are receiving treatment as mental patients because of it. Believing that you are one of the two witnesses is one of the most popular delusions of grandeur in the world today. But it does not eliminate the fact that there will be two such genuine witnesses eventually. And all that I've been saying in this video up to this point, relates to one very important principle for identifying those two witnesses. The primary emphasis should be on the fact that there are two of them. Just as two witnesses in a court is a protection against false accusations against an innocent person, and just as two people serving God together makes them both much more accountable and much more responsible, so does the requirement that these two people work together in unity, cancel out virtually all of the candidates who have so far put their hand up for the job. It's nearly impossible for a mental patient to work in unity with someone else, and so it isn't long before the delusion becomes evident. Even when such a candidate appears to have a partner in the form of a submissive wife or some friend, it doesn't take long to sort out whether the other person as an active participant in a larger overall vision of service to God or whether they're there for some other more selfish purpose. In conclusion, there are several different lessons you can pick up from this video today. You may not be deluded to the point where you feel that you're one of the two witnesses but there's a very strong chance that you may be one of millions of people who prefer to be unaccountable for your actions rather than working with others who are serving God. This lesser form of delusion can be robbing you of your full spiritual potential. Please consider humbling yourself enough to work with other believers like yourself in faithful service, giving and receiving correction as we each move closer to God's best for our lives. If you'd like to find other people in your country or in a nearby country who are living by faith and obedience to Jesus, please do write to the email address on the screen today. Thank you, and may God bless you as you seek to serve him faithfully and humbly in love.