Rev. 11:6 ~ These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
7Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
11But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
Futurist prophecy teachers see this event as occurring sometime during the "Great Tribulation," which is thought to be the final seven years of human history, ending in Armageddon and the return of Christ. The Tribulation Period, as this is known, is pulled from numerous biblical references in Bible prophecy including the apparent prophetic clue from Daniel know as "The Seventieth Week."
There have been numerous guesses put forward as to the identity of the "Two Witnesses" cited above. But the question might be asked, "How would the whole world observe these two lying in the streets of Jerusalem, thus knowing to celebrate their demise." The answer became obvious with the advent of sattelite communications, global TV networks, and, now, the Internet.
In the '90's, secular books were written about the explosion of information that was about to take place in the new millennium. The expectation was that this big bang would accelerate exponentially, growing at an increasing rate of speed until the world is engulfed in it. Daniel also seemed to foretell this by saying that in the latter times "knowledge shall increase." (Dan. 12: 4)
His prophecy seems to speak of a time of global communication and travel unparalleled in history, which is certainly true today. "Increase" does not even begin to describe what we have seen and are about to witness.
Enter Joost. In only the last two years or so, video streaming has taken off, as evidenced by a business that may be like a shooting-star called YouTube. And like all advancements in this nano-age coming, it may also be almost obsolete. In fact, obsolescence may happen as fast as the changes in daily headlines.
Joost in time, Joost, a brain-child of the two boys that brought you Skype, is supposed to, in the space of the next 3 years or so, offer you 5,000 channels of "free" TV. That's right. Plan on quitting your job, because you will need nothing more to sustain you.
If that doesn't astound you ~ or doesn't seem like enough ~ in ten years you can look forward to a choice of 50,000 channels (to go along with your iPod that will be stocked with all the music ever written, I guess). Oh, and if you're the academic type, starved for knowledge, you will be able to instantly access anything ever written.
Now, I could offer doomsday scenarios here, and, in the process, get laughed off the planet. There is, in all this, also great promise. We'll see, won't we? Let's just say a revolution to beat all revolutions is under way.
And what does this have to do with the Two Olive Trees mentioned above? Well, depending on how you view these things, perhaps not much. But our globe is shrinking like a hemhoroid under a steroidal balm of Preperation H. The "world mind" is connecting us all. And, with our natural propensity toward badness, the new Tower of Babel could be our undoing.
But, I confess, I love this thing. What promise it also holds for the communication of the Good News. Somehow, everybody needs to hear it. Your ride's here, Church.
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5 comments:
Speaking of the Two Witnesses,Alan, I was sharing in church Sunday about our 1970 journey to New York, New York. Remember the Man at the coffee counter who offered us a job? What would have happened if we took that job and stayed in the City prophesying against its sins. Maybe 911 would have been avoided. Did we correctly hear the voice of God when we headed south to Philly?
I like how your compare the entire world to a hemhorhoid.
Pat, I remember talking to David Wilkerson's brother about joining Teen Challenge. At that time, we were too obsessed with Terrell to really commit to something like that. We also would have wound up as AOG ministers or something.
I think we did what we had to do, were supposed to do. You and I had to go through that for some reason.
As Debby sometimes says, "It's been a long, strange journey." I don't think we were delusional, just very naive.
Toby, am I not the king of mixed-metaphors? Do you think this one is at all accurate? And have you ever heard of "steroidal" Prep-H?
Sounds like it would turn a hemheroid into a black hole and perhaps suck the galaxy into it.
Alan and Toby,
The Rhoid of this world maybe its sin but most likley its politicians. On the other hand Rhoid's maybe a result of sin. Some of these big mouth Politicals give me Rhoids.
The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He sets up whom He will and He takes them down. I don't worry about it any more. There's a lot of rhetoric and little change from either side of the political tracks. I've considered all the arguments and decided that all that hot air should be bottled and given to the poor so they can stay warm after their leaders screw things up.
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