The Testimony of Jesus

by Dene McGriff

Why is this important?

The issue is not the rapture. The issue is not escaping tribulation. The issue is not whether we live or die or whether we suffer a little or a lot. The issue is the testimony of Jesus. The issue is His people, His workmanship and their role in the end. Will they stand with Him until the end as Christians have down through history in the face of beheadings, being burned at the stake, or crucified upside down?

I'm not even going to deal with the arguments for and against the pre-trib rapture here because it is discussed in detail in other articles. The pivotal issue is the need for two witnesses because God is going to judge the world.

The world is going on trial and God must, by His own law, produce two witnesses if the world is to be guilty as charged. Those witnesses are his two peoples: Israel (at the physical earthly level) and the church (at the spiritual heavenly level).

God has an eternal plan that began in the book of Genesis to work through a people in order to bring salvation to the rest of the world. In the third chapter of the Bible after the fall of man, we see the promise to Adam that "his seed" would bruise the head of the Serpent, Satan (Genesis 3:15). These were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the people of Israel.

"I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever" (Genesis 32:13). In Genesis 22:18, we see the promise to Abraham: "And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

The Old Testament is the story of that people and the land they live in leading up to the coming of the Messiah. God's promises to the Jews are eternal and unwavering; and in Romans 11 we see that one day they will recognize the Messiah.

Once Jesus the Messiah came, a new era began as salvation and a spiritual rebirth are available to all who open their hearts to Him. This is the beginning of the church - a spiritual people born of the Spirit. Over the next nearly 2,000 years we observe two incredible things - the growth of that body of believers throughout the world, and the little remnant of Jews brought back to their promised land.

Although there are some who would say that since the Jews rejected the Messiah, they should be cut off, fortunately, God doesn't give us what we deserve. Even though Israel is called a valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 36), God will still breathe life into them when the time comes. Even though we don't deserve salvation, God loved us even when we were unlovely and enemies of God.

So we see that God has two peoples - Jews and Christians - those chosen to live in their land and birth the Messiah for the salvation of the nations; and those that are born into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The first are recipients of God's promises to his chosen people who physically inhabit the land and the latter to those people who receive a spiritual rebirth and are looking for a heavenly city.

This brings us to the focal point of prophecy - Chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. We see two witnesses called two olive trees and the two lampstands testifying on the earth. God is about to judge the earth but can only do so based on the testimony of two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6). "Two" refers to a corporate testimony. Israel is always referred to as the olive tree(s) (it is even on their national flag) and the church as lampstand(s) [Revelation 2 & 3].

These are God's two corporate peoples (physical and spiritual) testifying on the earth to His greatness and faithfulness standing together. Satan makes war against these two witnesses. The word "war" means a "worldwide conflict." You don't make war against two people as some purpose, but you do against two people groups. We have written on this subject extensively so I'm not going into more detail here.

We come back to the question. Why is this so important? God can't accomplish His job without both the church and Israel present. The apostate church comes up with reasons for getting rid of one witness or the other. One group, the dispensationalists, say that the church dispensation (age) is over, so it raptures and God turns His attention to Israel (who has to face the Tribulation alone).

Another group says Israel lost its right to any promises when it rejected the Messiah, so the church inherits all of their promises and the nation of Israel is of no prophetic importance. A subgroup will even say that the church will take dominion over the earth and set up the kingdom.

Both groups ignore the fact that there are two groups of 144,000 in Revelation: Israel in chapter 7 and the Church in chapter 14, as well as the two witnesses in Revelation 11. These are God's two witnesses.

The net effect of believing in the "cut and run" rapture doctrine is that 1) Christians do nothing to prepare for the "Tribulation"; and 2) since they don't plan on being here, the events overtake them and they don't understand what is happening; and 3) one of the two witnesses is removed. The church continues in its complacency and the clergy keeps taking care of the laity so they can go about their business undisturbed during the week.

Pastors seldom mention prophecy except in passing, and when they do, they usually get it wrong. They don't understand prophecy because 1) they were taught out-dated interpretations; 2) they don't expect to be here; 3) it is too negative, scary, and unnecessary if we are all gone anyway. So they just ignore about a third of the Bible.

We have explained in other articles why they don't understand prophecy. They were taught by well meaning Christians who interpreted prophecy based on 19th or 20th Century historical and political realities but they fail to take a fresh new look at prophecy today.