by Ragnarok on Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:22 pm
Oooooh...It's that "radical", again...<br>
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IMHO, there are too many "complications" when we think of the two witnesses as two individuals. For instance ( got yer Bible ):<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rev 11:6 - " These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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The Scripture indicates that these Two Witnesses have power over the whole earth and their presence extends evidently to every continent and land. Now is such a thing possible for two single individuals? Not even the angels have such power. Only God - and He alone - is omnipresent, that is to say, capable of being everywhere at once. Even Christ, though Himself God, confined Himself to the limitations of humanity and restricted His presence during His earthly ministry to just one location at one given time, just as you or I are so restricted.<br>
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We also see:<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rev 11:7 - " 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. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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Two people yet it takes the Anti-Christ, who has decimated whole armies and has power over earth never seen before has to make WAR on two men? War would indicate he needs all his resources to take out two indviduals...That's gonna be bad for his PR campaign...<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rev 11:8-9 - " Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sedom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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Remember, we're in the tribulation now...Death disease, famine poverty, etc... I've heard all the "scholars" say that everyone will see their bodies thanks to the wonder of CNN and satellite television. However, how many people will have television when a loaf of bread costs a days wages? And of those people, how many will be able to afford cable?<br>
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You say, " But the reference to the streets of the city where their Lord was crucified is Jerusalem. " Wrong, Jesus was NOT crucified IN Jerusalem but rather OUTSIDE the city walls at Golgotha.<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Heb 13:12 - " Therefore Yeshua also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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So...Who or what could qualify as the two witnesses? Who could be seen dead in the streets around the world without television, who has the power to cause the Anti-Christ to have to wage a war against them? Who has the power to be anywhere on the globe at the same time?<br>
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The Church: <br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Act 1:8 - " But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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Israel:<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Isa 43:10 - " Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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Further confirmation?<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rev 11:3-4 - " And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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The two witnesses are reffered to as an olive tree and a candlestick? So, it should be easy to discern who the witnesses are by figuring out who is reffered by those names in the Bible...<br>
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Well, the candlestick are references for the church confirmed by Revelation 1-3. Remember the seven churches?<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rev 1:12 - " And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks..."<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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And the book of Romans uses the Olive tree to describe the nation of Israel:<br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rom 11:17 - " And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree..."<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Rom 11:24 - " For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? "<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>
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