We're going to be doing a discussion right now about the two witnesses.
The two witnesses, I think, are a fascinating subject, and so we're going to talk to Pastor
Anderson and kind of get to the bottom of a few things.
There's a lot of confusion amongst people as far as when they show up, who the two witnesses
are and everything, and are they on the first half of Daniel's seventh week or on the second
half?
So we're going to kind of talk about some of the different things with that, but first
of all, who do you think the two witnesses are?
I think that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah come back, but it's possible that they're
not.
It's possible that they're just two guys that we don't know about yet, but the reason why
I strongly believe that it's Moses and Elijah, I think the best evidence is that in Matthew
chapter 17 at the Mount of Transfiguration, when the apostles see Jesus coming in his
kingdom, he has Moses and Elijah with him, and that's a preview of Christ returning in
his kingdom, and they seem to be involved, those two guys, and obviously some of the
miracles that the two witnesses do resemble things that Moses and Elijah did as far as
stopping up heaven, that it won't rain, turning water into blood, and things like that.
So I think there's a lot of evidence to point to the two witnesses being Moses and Elijah,
but you can't really say that for certain.
Is there any reason that it could not be Enoch, as some people say, since him and Elijah never
died?
I just think that there's zero evidence for being Enoch.
The fact that he didn't die doesn't really mean anything to me in that sense.
So do you think there's any possibility that as John the Baptist came in the spirit of
Elijah that it could be two men who come in the spirit of Moses and Elijah?
Sure.
Yeah, it could be two men that are just completely unrelated, and they are just men that are
like Moses and Elijah, but like I said, my opinion is that it's going to literally be
Moses and Elijah come back, but it doesn't have to be.
It could be two men that are like them.
Okay.
Now, some people believe that Moses and Elijah come in the first half of Daniel's 70th week.
We know they come for a three and a half year period.
Some believe the second half, I know the Left Behind series has them coming at the first
half.
They show up after everyone gets raptured.
Which side do you think they end up on?
I don't think anything.
It's clear and obvious, and there's no question about it that they're in the second half of
Daniel's 70th week.
In fact, when you told me that Left Behind has them in the first half, I just found that
bizarre.
I can't even believe that.
I mean, I think that's crazy, so I don't know where they're getting that.
It doesn't really make any sense, but let's just open our Bibles to the main passage about
the two witnesses, which is Revelation 11.
In Revelation chapter 11, it says in verse 1, and there was given me a reed like unto
a rod, and the angel stood saying, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and
them that worship therein.
But the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not, for it is given
unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months,
and I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred
and three score days clothed in sackcloth.
So if you look at that, it talks about the abomination of desolation, talks about Jerusalem
being trodden underfoot of the Gentiles for forty-two months, and it's during that time,
he says, that he will give power unto his two witnesses, and they will prophesy.
Well, obviously we know that the abomination of desolation comes at the midpoint of Daniel's
seventieth week, and it's from there forward that the two witnesses prophesy, but that's
the time when they preach.
Also, if we keep reading, it says in verse 5, and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth
out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, he must in
this manner be killed.
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have
power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often
as they will.
So another thing to point out here is that during their preaching, it's not raining.
Well, that wouldn't make any sense in the first half of Daniel's seventieth week, because
that is not the time when God is destroying the landscape, and destroying the environment.
That comes in the second half, when the environment's being destroyed, so it makes sense that it's
not raining during that time, and all these other things, fire coming out of their mouth.
That all fits in with the second half of Daniel's seventieth week perfectly.
Not only that, but right after the story of the witnesses, because they finish their testimony
42 months or three and a half years later, after they're killed, and then they come back
from the dead, it says in verse 13, and the same hour was there a great earthquake, and
the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand,
and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly, and the seventh angel
sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
Notice that when the witnesses finish their testimony, and they die, and then they're
caught up into heaven after they're resurrected, well then the seventh trumpet sounds, and
we're into the millennium.
That's more proof that it's the second half of the week.
There's overwhelming proof.
There's really no question about it.
I don't know where Left Behind is even coming from.
Well, and it might seem weird to even be bringing up Left Behind, but they sold millions of
copies, and the doctrine is in the churches, and church members read it, and so what they
teach, what you'll see in there, they prophesy for the first half, but we see that the Antichrist
prevails over them and kills them, and so the way they have it, and it just so happens,
the time when they're at Jerusalem right outside the Wailing Wall, and the Antichrist does
his abomination of desolation, so he's in Jerusalem, and after he does that, he goes,
and he kills the two witnesses, and so then, of course, three and a half days later, they
rise from the dead.
They do that whole thing, and so for them, it's like it made sense to put it there because
we know the Antichrist is going to be in Jerusalem around that time, and so he's going to kill
the witnesses at that time.
He's getting all that victory, and so ... It sounds like they're just coming up with
a narrative that's going to make a movie that they want to sell, but they're not really
looking to the story to get the actual sequence of events because it's crystal clear that
they start prophesying after the abomination of desolation, and it's not for another three
and a half years that they're going to be killed and all that.
Okay, and so another thing I think it's important for you to cover that a lot of people might
not know about.
I know you covered it in your Revelation series, but where some people get thrown on this is
when you see them talking about the 42 months and then the 1260 days, okay, well, yeah,
seven year tribulation, right?
Well, we've got ... If you do that, if they get killed at the end of the seven years,
well now we've got another three and a half days after that when they rise from the dead,
so how could that be them getting killed and then rise from the dead three and a half days
after everything is over because we are seven years into it, right?
Well, everything's not over because in Daniel chapter 12, it says that from the abomination
of the desolation unto the end is 1290 days, so if the two witnesses start prophesying
at the midpoint and 1260 days later they're killed, well then there's still 30 days left
to work with at the end, so that gives time for them to be dead for three and a half days
to go up to heaven and then there's still three or four weeks left to work with.
So here's what's interesting though if you think about this, the two witnesses are going
to start preaching before the rapture takes place because if you think about the rapture
takes place after the abomination of desolation, 75 days after the abomination of desolation,
so the two witnesses will have already started their ministry two and a half months before
we're gone, so when the abomination of desolation happens, that's when the two witnesses come
on the scene and they preach ... And what's interesting about it too is that these two
witnesses, their preaching is known all over the world.
I mean everybody in the world is going to hear this preaching because of the fact that
when they're killed, it talks about the fact that the whole world's rejoicing about it
and sending gifts to one another and celebrating.
In fact, let's look at that in the scripture.
It says in verse number seven, when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that
ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and
kill them and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city which spiritually
is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified.
Obviously talking about Jerusalem is the city that's spiritually a Sodom and an Egypt and
of course we know Jerusalem is where our Lord was crucified.
It says, and they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead
bodies three days and a half and not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves and
they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry and shall send gifts
one to another because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Isn't it interesting that people on the other side of the world are feeling tormented by
Bible preaching?
People get so mad about good preaching and it just burns them up and they could just
turn off the TV, turn off the radio, turn to a different channel.
I mean I just think about my own YouTube channel where there are people who watch every sermon
that I preach who hate me and just comment on every sermon and they're not even generic
comments.
I mean they'll be like, well at minute 53 you said this.
If you hate me that much, if you hate the Lord, you hate Christianity, why do you keep
listening?
It's strange, isn't it?
But people, they can't just let it go.
They can't just say, well whatever, I don't believe in what these two witnesses are saying.
No, it's just like, oh these two witnesses, the stuff that they're preaching just makes
me so mad.
They're just tormented.
They're just burned up with it.
It's almost like on a political parallel, it's almost like the liberals feel about Donald
Trump or something where they just, you know, they can't just ignore him and just live their
life.
So these two witnesses, I mean even people that aren't even in their geographic location
just hate them, are thrilled when they die.
And you know, again we could talk about so many things, but isn't it interesting how
when the enemies of our world die, they rejoice, but we're not allowed to rejoice when the
enemies of the Lord die, right?
Like Osama bin Laden dies, it's like woo, send gifts one to another party.
Two preachers die, woo, let's party, right?
But then, you know, the Orlando nightclub, how did that work out for Brother Jimenez?
He preached that sermon, right?
Yeah, clearly double standard there and you know, you're allowed to celebrate if Fox News
tells you it's okay.
I think you told me that one time and that makes sense.
So go ahead and explain real quick, because a lot of people don't understand that too,
that extra 30 days that you see at the end.
Explain how that works.
Yeah, I mean I don't want to go too deep on that in a short discussion like this, but
the way that works is that if you just do a little basic math, you'll realize that the
1260 days that we keep hearing so much about, which is 42 months of 30 days each, that it
doesn't really quite add up to three and a half years.
And that if you doubled it, you wouldn't quite have seven years.
And this is because of the fact that a year is not 360 days.
So if you take 12 30 day months, it's not a full year.
It's only 360 days.
So the reason why they use that calendar with the 30 day months, what it is, is it's a compromise
between a lunar calendar and a solar calendar.
So a solar calendar is based on the fact that the earth takes 365 days to travel around
the sun.
It's actually a hair more than 365 and a quarter days.
So it's just a little bit different than that.
Well the moon on the other hand goes through its phases every 29 and a half days.
So if you want to take a 29 and a half day month, well how do you have a half day in
a month?
So let's say you round it up to 30.
Well still you have a problem because then after 12 of those months, it's only 360 days.
Where do you get the other five days?
So what they did is they created a calendar that's a 30 day month, so it's pretty similar
to the moon phases, 29 and a half days.
And then what they do is every six years they add an extra month because you got five extra
days every year, times six, 30 days.
You throw in an extra month every six years and it fixes everything.
And what's interesting is that this isn't just some theory.
There are actually even countries on this earth today that use that exact calendar.
For example, I'm pretty sure if memory serves, Iran uses that calendar where they have 30
day months and then every six years they have an extra, you call it elite month.
And our calendar isn't perfect.
We have a calendar that's just a strictly solar calendar and our months have nothing
to do with the phases of the moon.
The full moon could come at any day in a month.
We don't even regard that.
And that's why we have strange lengths of our months.
We've got 30 days, half September, April, June and November.
All the rest have 31, save February with 28.
And then 29 in the leap year.
So there's no calendar that will perfectly synchronize the sun and the moon and the seasons
and everything like that.
So that's where that extra 30 days comes from.
So the first half of Daniel's 70th week is 1260 days.
The second half is 1290 days because of the extra month to round out a full seven years.
So it fits perfect.
It's just, I've heard people before they kind of mock all that because trying to use math,
but it's like, you know, you're forgetting a variable there, you know, you're forgetting
that leap month, you know, that 30 days there and you got it, you got to have that in there
to be fair.
So, uh, when it comes to these two witnesses, I know, I know they're called two witnesses,
but what do you see as their purpose in being here and what they're doing?
Well, when we think of the term witnesses, we can think of acts one eight, you shall
be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Sumerian and to the other
most part of the earth.
We would all recognize that as preaching the gospel to every creature when you're being
witnesses unto him.
Now, what I believe the purpose of the two witnesses is, is basically to preach the word
of God, to preach the gospel, to preach the truth to the entire world during the time
that we're gone.
So we're going to be gone shortly after they show up.
So they're going to preach to the whole world.
But here's the thing, they're, they're not going to be able to be everywhere at once
because there are only two of them.
Now they're going to reach a lot of people through technology because of the fact that
there's TV, radio, internet, whatever, whatever new technologies will come even in the future.
And we know that the whole world knows about them.
And we know that when they die, the whole world's going to watch their dead bodies laying
in the street and so forth.
But still there are going to be people just like there are right now that are not tuned
in to the TV.
They're not tuned into the internet.
They're not tuned into the radio, right?
I mean, there are people living in remote places or people who just aren't interested
in, in tuning in.
So that's why God has another group of people on this earth during the second half of Daniel's
70th week to preach the word of God, which are the 144,000.
So what I believe is that the 144,000 are going to be spread out throughout the whole
world, preaching the gospel in the flesh, one on one, talking to people.
And just like God used the 12 apostles and he used the other Galileans and Judeans that
are there in Acts chapter two to reach people from all over the world by speaking in foreign
languages, I believe the 144,000 are going to be used to speak in a whole bunch of different
languages all over the world, reaching people in remote areas, reaching people that aren't
watching TV.
They're not watching the computer.
They're not watching the internet because we're going to be gone.
And that's the job we're doing right now, right?
Isn't it?
I mean, it's supposed to be right.
You know, so it's sort of like Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We've got the YouTube channel where we're reaching tons of people all over the world.
But is that really going to reach everybody?
No way.
There are a ton of people who are never going to see that YouTube channel.
They're never going to see YouTube in the first place.
So that's where we've got to get out of our basement and face the light of the sun and
actually go outside and actually knock some doors and drive out to the Indian reservations
and get on the plane and go to Africa and go to the Caribbean and go to all these places
in Mexico and talk to the people who aren't watching and bring them the gospel.
So I think that people who don't use the internet, they're missing out on a way to reach a lot
of people, but people who are only using the internet are missing out on all the one-on-one
soul winning that just needs to happen.
We need to do both.
So these are God's two programs.
After we're removed, who's left to preach the gospel?
Who's left to get anybody saved?
Well, you got the two witnesses with a very public ministry, and then you've got the 144,000
that are the boots on the ground, I believe, going to every town, every village.
And these guys are going to get the gospel around the world, giving people another chance.
And a lot of people are going to reject the gospel, of course, but I believe that many
people will also be saved during that time as a result of the preaching of the two witnesses
and the 144,000 Israelites.
And not to go too deep with the 144,000, but they're of the 12 tribes.
They're of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Simeon.
Those tribes don't exist today.
But the 144,000 don't come on the scene until the resurrection, until the rapture.
So basically when the rapture happens, those of us in this room, we're going to be going
up to heaven, right?
In the Father's house are many mansions, and Christ has gone to prepare a place for us.
He's going to receive us unto himself that where he is, there may we be also.
So we're going to be up in heaven during the time when God's wrath is poured out.
Most Israelites from the Old Testament, they're going to be up in heaven with us too, right?
But these 144,000, they're not going to go up to heaven.
They're going to be basically resurrected, and they're going to be leaving heaven, because
their souls are already up in heaven right now.
But they're actually, when we're going up to heaven, they're going to be leaving heaven
to come down to this earth to do their ministry of soul winning on this earth during that
time.
And so that's going to be a cool job for them.
And these guys that make up the 144,000, they missed out on some things that life has to
offer because they're virgins.
So they never got to have the joy of having a wife or having kids.
They didn't really get to experience any of that.
But they're going to get to have a special part in God's plan, that they get to be on
the earth during the time that God's pouring out his wrath.
But they're going to be immune from it because some of the judgments, it even specifically
says that when the locusts from hell come out and are tormenting everybody, they won't
touch any of these 144,000.
They won't be touched.
So that, I mean, that would be pretty cool to be on this earth while all hell's breaking
loose during all of this cataclysm and just water into blood, the stars falling, just
crazy things going on, and locusts from hell, and you're there, but you're immune from it.
So you're not worried about it, but you've got a front row seat to all that.
And you're going to be soul winning with people, and people aren't going to be like, no, I'm
kind of busy.
Can you come back another time?
I mean, you're going to be like, you better listen up, buddy.
And people are going to be listening, whether they receive it or not receive it, nobody's
just going to blow you off.
Absolutely.
So I hope that was a help to you.
When it comes to things like the two witnesses, there's not a ton of stuff in the Bible about
it, but it's interesting.
And that's the type of thing that pre-tribbles will often grab that weird little thing from
somewhere and they'll make up a whole bunch of stuff about it based on speculation, based
on some symbolism they came up with.
And you got to avoid that.
You got to go off the clear scriptures, the things that are spelled out.
And when you don't, you end up in great error.
And so thank you for that.
A lot of good stuff there.
And so I don't know about you all, but I'm hungry.
And so it's time for supper.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.