In Revelation 10, John is reminded of Jesus' ascension and the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This was represented by the early rain, which came to ripen the spring harvest. John's vision of Jesus descending from Heaven robed in a cloud therefore sets the tone for Revelation 10 and 11: this is a prophecy concerning the latter rain, which will come to ripen the fall harvest. In connection with the spring harvest, Jesus declared that his two witnesses were his apostles and the Spirit of truth (John 15:26-27; Acts 1:8). The same is true of the fall harvest.

was given a reed like measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshippers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months" (Revelation 11:1-2)

Ezekiel was taken in vision to a very high mountain in the land of Israel. There, an angel took him on a tour through the temple and measured it (Ezekiel 40-42). When the measuring was finished, the glory of the Lord filled the temple (Ezekiel 43:1-5). The temple was measured as an indication that the work on it is complete. To measure something is to compare it with a standard—the measuring rod. In the same way, the law of God is the standard by which God’s people are to be measured. Those who have lived by faith in Jesus Christ have allowed God to fulfill his covenant with them by writing his law on their hearts (Hebrews 8:10). Ellen White expresses it this way:

"All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us." (DA 668:3)

John is commanded to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshippers. However, he is not to measure the Gentiles yet. We who are of the house of God are to be judged, or measured, first, because we have had the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel (1 Peter 4:17; Ezekiel 9). The Gentiles are those who have not yet had this opportunity but who will be reached through the ministry of Jesus’ two witnesses.

Having been measured, the people of God are now ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit to take the gospel to the Gentiles. The shaking has done its work, and those among the believers who are faithful to God have been sealed. Recall the second census of Israel, just before they crossed the Jordan into Canaan (Numbers 26). The counting of the worshippers here in Revelation 11:1 is parallel to that. Remember also that the census was taken immediately after the plague that came as a result of the Moabite seduction (Numbers 25), which parallels the shaking of God’s people.

Now, the servants of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit in a way that the world has never seen, will carry the gospel to the multitude in the world who have not yet heard it.

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. (Revelation 11:3-4)

It is the angel Michael, or Jesus Christ, who is speaking. Who did he say his two witnesses were?

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also [the apostles] must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27). To testify is to bear witness. Jesus’ two witnesses here are the Spirit of truth and the apostles.

On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (Matthew 10:18-20). In this passage, Jesus is speaking to his 12 disciples (Matthew 10:1) and giving them instructions preparatory to sending them out to minister. Again, it is the 12 disciples (also called apostles) who are to be Jesus’ witnesses to the Gentiles; and the words they are to speak are those of the Spirit of God.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8). Jesus spoke these words to his disciples immediately before he ascended to heaven in a cloud and shortly before the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. Remember that this was the last time, prior to the vision in Revelation, that the apostle John had seen Jesus physically on earth. At that time the angels had said, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11). The vision of Jesus descending from heaven in a cloud, therefore, was strongly associated with the experiences surrounding Jesus’ ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Jesus said his two witnesses were his apostles and the Spirit of Truth. In Revelation 11:4, they are also called "the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth." The olive tree is a continual source of oil, which symbolizes the power of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Samuel 16:13). A lampstand fittingly represents the body of Christ (see Revelation 1:20): The seven churches to whom Revelation is addressed are symbolized by seven lampstands; and in order for the oil to burn and provide light, it must be contained within a lampstand. So, we who believe in Jesus Christ are collectively the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21-22). The lampstands represent the believers, and the olive trees represent the power of the Holy Spirit.

If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 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. (Revelation 11:5-6)

Jesus' named his two witnesses as his apostles and the Spirit of truth. He then referred to them using the symbolism of lampstands (the apostles) and olive trees (source of power from the Spirit). Now, Revelation 11 presents them from another angle: the two witnesses are also like Moses and Elijah. It was Elijah who called fire down from heaven to devour his enemies (2 Kings 1), and it was Elijah who told king Ahab that it would not rain for 3.5 years—the length of the two witnesses’ ministry (1,260 days). It was Moses who turned the waters of Egypt to blood and who brought the plagues on Egypt. Further, the last prophecy of the Bible concerns the Day of the Lord. Notice what it says:

Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

Behold, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:4-6).

By drawing parallels between the two witnesses and Moses and Elijah, Revelation 11 indicates a number of things about the ministry of the two witnesses:

Elijah:	Their ministry will be one of reconciliation between God the Father and man ("he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers"; cf. 1 Kings 18:37).
	They will call mankind to make a decision to worship their Creator, just as Elijah called Israel to return to the worship of the true God (1 Kings 18:20-39; cf. Revelation 14:6-7).
Moses:	They will call mankind to see the sacred and unchangeable, and universally binding nature of God’s law (Exodus 20; cf. Revelation 14:12).
	They will call God’s people to come out of Egypt (Exodus 12; cf. Revelation 18:1-4). Babylon is the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt (Revelation 11:8; 17:18).

Earlier, John saw the seven angels beginning to sound their trumpets in warning of the approaching antitypical Day of Atonement. He saw the trumpets as a series of natural calamities that would terminally cripple the planet. During this time, God will have human agents who will call men to worship their Creator-—the one who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water (the very things affected by the first four trumpets) and warn them against allying themselves with Babylon (Revelation 14:6-11). This is the work of the two witnesses—-Jesus’ modern apostles empowered by the Spirit of Truth.

Now when they have finished their testimony [at the end of the 1,260 days], the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The 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. (Revelation 11:7-10)

The Bible indicates that the beast from the Abyss is Satan, the false prophet who deceives the world by personating the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (cf. Revelation 19:20; Revelation 13:11-14; Genesis 1:1-2; Isaiah 14:12-15). Remember the angel of the Abyss who released his hordes at the sounding of the fifth trumpet? His name is Destroyer (Revelation 9:11). It is he who will kill the two witnesses.

Given that Jesus’ two witnesses are the apostles and the Spirit of Truth, how can the two witnesses be killed? The Bible provides a very neat explanation, beginning with Genesis 2:7.

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

God formed the body from the dust of the earth, and he breathed into it his spirit, or the breath of life. This combination of body and spirit resulted in a living being. The parallel with the two witnesses is exact: the body represents the human element of the two witnesses (Ephesians 2:22-23), and the breath of life represents the Spirit of truth. Jesus empowers his two witnesses by pouring out his Spirit on his disciples for the purpose of taking the gospel to all nations.

Now it should be easy to understand how the two witnesses are killed. The Bible describes death as a separation of the breath of life from the body (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Luke 23:46). When everyone on earth has made a final decision to accept or reject God's offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Spirit of truth no longer works to turn men's hearts to God. Therefore, the Spirit leaves the body, and the two witnesses are dead.

Where will the two witnesses have been preaching most fervently? In the very heart of Babylon, the great city (Revelation 17:18). Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the will appear to be utterly at the mercy of their enemies.

But 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. Then 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. (Revelation 11:11-12)

This is not difficult to understand, but it is perhaps a little foreign to our way of thinking. In order to understand it, we need to be quite clear on who is represented by the body—or human element—of the two witnesses. The human element is the 144,000 servants who were sealed as the firstfruits of the harvest and through whom the gospel is taken to the numberless multitude. At the time of the early rain (Pentecost), Jesus chose 12 apostles; at the time of the latter rain, Revelation indicates that he will choose 144,000 (12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel). It is these 144,000 who will be taken up to heaven after the 3.5 days. This is, of course, before Jesus’ second coming—-even before the seven last plagues.

To look at it from another angle, Jesus Christ was the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20), and at his ascension he took with him some of the resurrected saints (Matthew 27:51-53; Ephesians 4:8). Now, in the time of the latter rain, the 144,000 are the firstfruits of the harvest (Revelation 14:4). It is fitting that they should be presented before the harvest itself.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Revelation 11:13)

Babylon the great is the city (Revelation 17:5,18), and it has ten segments-—one for each of the ten kings represented by the ten horns on the head of the beast (Revelation13:1; 17:3, 12). One of these segments apparently collapses during the earthquake when the two witnesses are taken up to heaven. This leaves nine segments, and during the seventh plague, we read that the city was split into three parts (Revelation 16:17-19), which works out well, since nine is divisible by three.

Now, the mystery of God has been accomplished, and it’s time for the seventh angel to sound his trumpet (Revelation 10:7). Each of the last three trumpets is called a "woe," or curse, for the inhabitants of the earth (Revelation 8:13; 9:12).

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

The curse of the seventh trumpet appears to be the completion of God's wrath in the form of the seven last plagues (Revelation 15:1).

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. (Revelation 11:15, 19)