October 25, 2022
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. Revelation 11:7
Though the Bible was suppressed by the institutional church during the 1260 years of the Dark Ages*, God’s faithful remnant was steadily at work (Revelation 12:6, 14), copying and sharing the Good News of salvation in Him. Even clothed in sackcloth (v.3), the power of God’s word went forth during this time. At the end of the medieval period, a prophesied turn of events reverberated throughout the globe: the French Revolution. The French, who had earlier been a friend to the papacy, had had their fill of killing by the established Roman church “in the name of God.” Napoleon’s dispatch of General Berthier to kidnap and capture Pope Pius VI in 1798 was marked in history as the end of the Dark Ages. It seemed as though the papacy had been mortally wounded (13:3). The “Age of Reason” was launched. The Bible and its Author were blamed for all the medieval evil that had occurred, and massive public burnings of it were celebrated in Paris and across France, sending the atheistic trend across the world.
Biblical writings are called “them” because of the dual supernatural power of God’s Word to convict and cleanse the heart of sinful man. The written word was called by Jesus “the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12); the two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12); the “Old and New Testaments” by modern man; the law and the testimony (Isaiah 8:20) by Isaiah.
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified (v.8).
End-time Babylon, which has spread across the globe, is the great city (18:10,16,21). Our Lord was neither crucified in Sodom, nor in Egypt. But these two places notoriously symbolize the depravity of lives that have excluded God. The point marked in history by our opening verse is a ‘repeat’ of the killing of Jesus. It was the killing of His Word (see John 1:1).
Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. (vv.9-10)
The intent was to destroy every copy of the Bible in existence, with no allowance to archive any copy in libraries, hence not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. Those who dwell on the earth is the phrase identifying those who have rejected Christ. They rejoice and make merry at their “victory” in silencing His word. It is to them a torment because of its power to prick the conscience. Their dead bodies is more accurately translated “the dead body (singular) of them” because of the divine unity of God’s word in the singular message of salvation in Jesus.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12-13
* Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 11:2; 11:3; 12:6; 12:14; 13:5