(17) TWO WITNESSES OF REVELATIONS

(REV.11:3-4)- 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./ (REV.11:7,9)- When they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. The people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves./ (REV.11:11-12)- After 3 1/2 days the spirit of life from God entered into them , and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. They heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, come up hither. and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them./ The two witnesses are not Moses & Elijah. They aren't two individuals. The two witnesses are two olive trees and they are two candlesticks/lampstands. The two witnesses are two groups of people. (REV.1:20)- a candlestick represents a church. The word church is derived the Greek word 'Ekklesia' which means 'called out', or assembly of called out ones. The two olive trees represent both Jews & Gentiles- (ROM.11:17-25).The Jews in general rejected their Messiah, Jesus. They were cut off and a wild olive branch grafted in, the gentiles. The 144,000 sealed believers in (REV.7:1-8) are made up of Jews & Gentiles. They are all Israelites, but not all Jews. In 722 BC before Assyria defeated the Northern Kingdom (Israel), only them in the tribe of Judah were known as Jews. 120 years later only the southern Kingdom (Judah, Simeon and a small part of Benjamin) existed intact. This was Judea and they were all referred to as Jews. Anyone who isn't a Jew is a Gentile. In (REV.7:1-8) all tribes are represented except the tribe of Dan (because of idolatry), but the two 1/2 tribes of Joseph, Ephraim & Manassas are each called a tribe . Ephraim, a 1/2 tribe of Joseph took the name of Joseph. The two southern tribes are Jews. The northern tribes are not Jews, so they are Gentiles. The two Witnesses are 24,000 Jews and 120,000 Gentiles, but they are all Israelites. They will be sealed with the Holy Spirit, as born-again christians are now. They are protected from God's plagues during the first 1,260 days (3 1/2 years), but after 'The Abomination of Desolation', when Antichrist claims to be God, they will be martyred and denied burial. They will lie dead in the streets for 3 1/2 days (3 1/2 years). At the end of the second 3 1/2 years they will stand on their feet and Jesus will say,"come up here". (The Trib. Rapture of the saints). (REV.6:9-11)- The 'souls under the altar' are among the first of the martyred saints. God gives them their robes of righteousness and tells them to wait until their fellow servants (fellow witnesses) and brethern (converts) should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. Con