Chapter Twenty-Five/Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses Are Killed - Continue

 This is the first of 37 references in Revelation to a wild beast. In due course will examine this and other beasts in detail. Suffice it to say for now that "the wild beast that ascends out of the abyss is" of Satan's design, a living political system of things." - Compare REVELATION 13:1; DANIEL 7:2, 3, 17,

From 1914 to 1918 the nations were occupied with the first world war. Nationalistic feelings ran high, and in the spring of 1918, the religious enemies of the two witnesses took advantage of the situation. They maneuvered the State's legal apparatus so that responsible ministers of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were imprisoned on false charges of sedition. Faithful coworkers were stunned. Kingdom activity almost ceased. It was as though the preaching work were dead.  In Bible times it was a terrible indignity not to be interested not to be interred in a memorial tomb. (Psalm79:1-3; 1Kings13:21, 22) Therefore, great reproach would attach to leaving the two witnesses unburied. In the hot Palestinian climate, a corpse in the open street would really smell after three and a half literal days." (Compare John 11:39.) This detail in the prophecy thus indicates the shame the two witnesses had to endure. Those mentioned above who were imprisoned were even denied bail even their cases on appeal. They were exposed publicly long enough to become a stench to the inhabitants of "the great city." But what was this "great city"?  

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Five/Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses Are Killed - Conclusion

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