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Who will the “ two witnesses” of Rev elation 11: 3-12 be? The Bible does not tell us definitely, and there is a difference of opinion as to who these will be. Some think they will be a group of the redeemed, wit nessing in the power of Moses and Elijah. Others think they will probably be Moses and Elijah themselves. We are inclined to believe the latter, al though we can not be dogmatic, where God has not told us definitely. Our reasons for believing the two witnesses will be Moses and Elijah are these: 1. Moses died and was buried by God upon Mount Nebo; and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day (Deut. 34:5, 6). Satan contended with Michael over the body of Moses (Jude 9). Elijah went to Heaven without dying. Did God thus preserve the bodies of these two, representing the law and the prophets, that they might be His witnesses to Israel, as well as to all the world, dur ing the darkest period of all history? Surely their message would bear weight with Israel in that dark hour! 2. The miracles which they will do, as foretold in Revelation 11:3-12, are like unto the miracles performed by God through Moses and Elijah when they were on earth. 3. Malachi 4:5 tells God’s people, Israel, some significant words: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet be fore the coming of the great and dread ful day of the Lord. Christ verified this prophecy (Matt. 17:11). Please explain Daniel 12:2: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast ing life, and some to shame and everlast ing contempt.” What resurrection is re ferred to in these verses? These words could well be applied to the two resurrections. The first resur rection, to take place before the thousand years’ reign of Christ, when the be lievers will be raised; and the second resurrection, to take place after the reign of Christ on earth, when the wicked dead shall stand before the great white throne. But my understanding is that this verse in Daniel 12:2 refers to the national resurrection of Israel; for the prophet is addressing Israel in the preceding verse, speaking of the great tribulation period, also referred to by our Lord in Matthew 24. If so, then' Daniel here refers to Israel’s national resur- Page Six
rection, not to the physical resurrection from the dead. Certainly Israel has long been buried, nationally, among the nations of the earth. God has repeatedly stated that the national idea will awaken in Israel— and this is literally true today! Some will awaken to shame and everlasting con tempt because they will become a part of the apostasy, worshiping the anti christ. Please explain why God said to Moses, concerning Pharaoh, “I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” In the first place, before God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh hardened his own heart against God. Then, in order to show to the world what comes from rebellion against Him, God made an ex ample of that wicked king, as a warning to others against similar rebellion. Read the whole story carefully, and you will see that repeatedly Pharaoh made such blasphemous statements as this: Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go (Ex. 5:2). Again, it is a matter of the sovereign ty of our all-wise and all-loving God. Read once more Romans 9:14-24. And trust Him who doeth all things well to take care of such things as our finite minds cannot comprehend. Remember also—always—that He is the God of infinite love; and as such, He cannot be unjust or unrighteous. He is the God of all holiness and truth. Did Paul teach in First Corinthians 7 that the unmarried state is better than the married? If you read the chapter carefully, you will note that Paul advocated celibacy in this chapter only for the then present distress, not for all time. And even then he did not insist upon it. In First Tim othy 4:13 he expressly warns against the teaching of those forbidding to mar ry, and declares it to be the doctrine of demons. Please explain Matthew 2U:3U, “ Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” The Greek word used for generation means race, kind, family, stock, breed. Matthew 24 and 25 refer to the end of the age, and this verse must not be taken out of its context.
Dr. Louis T. Talbot
Why are the Apocryphal Books in cluded in the Roman Catholic Bible, yet excluded from the Protestant Bible? There are a number of reasons why the Apocryphal Books are not recognized by the Protestant Church as being in spired by the Holy Spirit: 1. They do not claim divine authority. 2. Some of these books disclaim such authority, as seen in 2 Maccabees 11:23; 15:38. 3.. They contradict facts that are found in the Scriptures that we know are inspired. Compare Baruch 1:2 with Jer. 23:6, 7. 4. The Jews never received them as inspired. Orthodox Jews would rather forfeit their lives than falsify any por tion of the Old Testament of sacred Scripture. And they never accepted the Apocryphal Books as being anything more than the work of man. 5. The Lord Jesus and His apostles never quoted from them. 6. The Roman Catholic Church re jected them until 1545; therefore can not claim apostolic authority for them. These books were accepted at this late date because of a fanciful support that is found in them for the doctrine of purgatory. Some of the Apocryphal Books are his torical; some are fanciful. A careful reading of them will convince one taught by the Holy Spirit that they were not divinely inspired. The world and all it contains belongs to God. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof (Psalm 24:1). However, the devil and his people possess much of it. There is a diiference between own ership and possession. I own my um brella, but someone else possesses it. Christ will one day come and take pos session, and the uttermost parts of the earth will be included in His kingdom. “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:8). T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S Do you think this world and all it contains belongs to God?
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