Revelation 11:3 –
And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will be clothed in burlap and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.”
This is something I find interesting that the two witnesses will basically appear to us poor. This implies they will not come from wealth or power, but carry the power of God. Now if some “bum” under a bridge started to prophesize before you, would you listen? How quickly would you dismiss this guy as a nut job? Until they started to show their given powers I think it would be difficult for anyone to take them serious! Then would it be too late?
It’s awful looking to see what happens to them in the end as they are killed and left to rot on the streets. People were not allowed to bury them and they just stared. But after three and a half days God breathes life back into them and allows them to ascend into heaven. Only Enoch and Elijah had ascended into heaven before Jesus according to scriptures. Then these two prophets are taken to heaven. One could argue that John 3:13 implies no one has ascended into heaven except Jesus. And it’s difficult to really understand the interpretation since some imply only Jesus came both ways while others imply only Jesus has ascended. Either way we have two more that ascended somewhere and this was written after Jesus spoke John 3:13.
I often wonder about that and if there is a reason we need to see the body ascend. Honestly I think it’s more just to give us warm fuzzies since most have a difficult time understanding the “spirit” within us. I believe the “human” form is just for us to understand what we are looking at and not for actual existence after death. But who knows for real, expect for those who have already died. I think this is done to help us understand the “transition” to death and that we will not just end.
This chapter ends with the seventh angel blowing his trumpet and the final terror begins. It’s appears to be massive meteorological events ending with an earthquake. It’s not clear if these are isolated or spread over the world, but either way they must be horrible if they are considered a “terror”. Then again I really don’t want to deal with natural disasters that strike terror into all.