Where are the Dead? The Church Bears Witness Against the Empire

Wineskins Contributor・09/10/19

On the heels of John’s prophetic commission in Revelation10:8-11, he is tasked with measuring the temple of God but not its outer court(Revelation 11:1-13). The prophetic message of Revelation 11 envisions a periodof time when God’s people will faithfullywitness before the nations. Indeed, the “two witnesses” will imitate thepattern of the Lamb–they will prophesy, they will be martyred, and they will bevindicated through resurrection and ascension. The faithful witness of thechurch follows the pattern of the Lamb, and God does not abandon the witnesses.

Just as the interlude between the sixth and seventh sealsfocused on sealed but suffering believers (Revelation 7), so this interludebetween the sixth and seventh trumpets reveals a  suffering church.The interludes address the situation of the church in the midst of a hostilebut collapsing empire. The hope of believers is victory, and their role is faithful witness.

There are some difficult problems of interpretation inRevelation 11. What is the temple? What is the outer court? Who are the “twowitnesses”? What is the “great city” that, in part, collapses? One’sgeneral approach to Revelation will, in large measure, determine the answers tothese questions. There is little need to argue this in detail here, but it isimportant to understand the flow of the drama pictured.

The first moment in the drama is the measurement of the temple.This imagery is drawn from Ezekiel 40:3 and Zechariah 2:1-5. God declaresownership; the temple belongs to the one who sits on the throne. The ownermeasures the temple. But where is this temple? The other use of “temple” in Revelation11:19 which places the temple “in heaven.” Temple imagery in Revelation isalways located “in heaven,” that is, in God’s throne room. Much like Revelation7:9-17, God’s temple and its worshippers are protected and victorious. Nothingwill assault the throne room of God. The temple, then, are–analogous to the greatmultitude in Revelation 7–the people of God gathered before the throne of God.

However, the “outer court” of the temple is unmeasured.Rather, it will be given over to the nations who will trample not only it butthe whole “holy city for 42 months.”  The adjective “holy” indicates thatwe are still talking about the people of God. In one perspective, they areprotected (sealed upon the earth in 7:1-8), but from another perspective theyare under attack.  Indeed, the beast from the Abyss kills the twowitnesses (11:7). The imagery is drawn from Daniel 7:21-25. In the secondcentury B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes waged war against the saints andtrampled the temple in Jerusalem for a “time, times, and a half” (or 3 and 1/2years; cf. Daniel 12:5-6). In Revelation 11 the beast makes war against theouter court and the holy city, including the two witnesses. This war will only lastfor a limited time (1260 days or 3 and ½ years). The powers wage war againstthe church and are able to inflict suffering (martyrdom). The beast (thenations) trample the people of God (the outer court) but the beast cannotdestroy the temple (the inner court or sanctuary).

The “two witnesses” are prophetic figures (11:10). Theirdescription draws heavily on prophetic images in the Hebrew Bible.  LikeElijah, and John the Baptist, they wear sackcloth. Like Moses, they turn waterinto blood and strike the earth with plagues. Like Elijah, they stop the rain.Like Jeremiah, they breathe fire (Jeremiah 5:14). Like Zerubbabel andJoshua the High Priest, they are God’s anointed olive trees to serve the wholeearth (Zechariah 4). They are lampstands. The two prophets represent thechurch. The Torah requires two witnesses for convicting testimony (Deuteronomy19:15). The church has a prophetic rolein the world.

Their testimony, however, comes at a cost. The two witnessesare killed by the beast and their bodies are left exposed in the “great city.”Every use of the “great city” in Revelation refers to the hostile empire thatoppresses the followers of the Lamb (16:19; 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 19, 21). This“great city” is not the “holy city.”  The “holy city” is the church whichis trampled by the nations while the “great city” is the hostile empire–empireslike Sodom, Egypt, and Rome. The reference to “where also their Lord wascrucified” does not mean the literal city in which Jesus died but rather the“great city” that killed Jesus, that is, Rome. The two witnesses will sufferthe same fate as their Lord; they will die at the hands of a cruel empire,Rome. Just as Rome crucified the Lamb in Jerusalem, so Rome will display thedeath of Christian martyrs as spectacles of its power within the empire (the“great city”).

“The inhabitants of the earth,” that is, the followers ofthe beast, who come from every “people, tribe, language, and nation” (likevictorious believers in Revelation 7 who also come from the same) rejoiceover the death of the two witnesses. They glory in the death of the martyrs. Itis part of their festive activities as they give gifts to each other. In this,one hears an allusion to the games in which Christians were martyred during theRoman empire.

But the church itself–the two witnesses who are martyred–isvindicated. The dead witnesses are raised and ascend into heaven in acloud.  The witnesses follow the pattern of the Lamb–witness, death,resurrection, and ascension. In other words, like the 144,000, as they passthrough the trials and overcome through faith, they are received into thethrone room of God as victors (cf. Revelation 7:9-17). The witnesses defeat theempire through martyrdom. The witnesses join the assembly around the throne inGod’s heavenly temple. This is their “resurrection.” This is not a picture oftheir literal bodily resurrection, but–like Revelation 7–the movement of thewitnesses from earth to heaven, from suffering to victory in the throne room ofGod (that is, the heavenly temple).

The church is God’s prophetic witness againstempires. This is part of its role in the present chaotic world. The witness isnot about predicting specific facts or imperial history about the future, but it is a witness that proclaims that thekingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God. It is a witness thatopposes violence, idolatry, and immorality. It is a witness that God will judgethe empires because of their greed, violence, and oppressive power.

But empires kill peacemakers. Rome crucified Jesus and martyred his followers. Empires still kill peacemakers. Empires still oppose the church’s witness. Unfortunately, the church often silences its own witness in the wake of imperial holidays, pledges of allegiance, and imperial benefaction (giving credit to the empire for peace and safety rather than to God). Followers of the Lamb oppose empires and bear witness against its imperial designs. Like the Lamb, they may suffer and die for that witness, but like the Lamb, God will vindicate them and receive faithful witnesses into the throne room as victors in the conflict between good and evil.

If you missed part 1: you can read that here "Where are the Dead? Before the Throne!"