The Ultimate Showdown in the Great City: Sovereignty, Sacrifice, and the Final Lie
The Ultimate Showdown in the Great City: Sovereignty, Sacrifice, and the Final Lie
The scene encompassing the death, public display, resurrection, and ascent of the Two Witnesses (Revelation 11:7-13) serves as the ultimate visual and physical demonstration of God’s sovereignty, creating an undeniable crisis of reality for the unrepentant world. This sequence is a masterclass in prophetic precision, where the Beast's intended triumph is turned into the most powerful validation of the Dynamic God’s authority.
The narrative opens with the introduction of the Beast, an entity not previously described in the Apocalypse, who factually ascends out of the bottomless pit (Revelation 11:7). This figure is introduced just after the completion of the Witnesses' 1,260-day testimony and before the final judgment sequence begins. Although the bottomless pit had released its king, Abaddon, earlier (Revelation 9:11), this Beast is a primary political actor whose full identity and authority will be detailed later. Upon conquering the Witnesses, the Beast’s system exploits its control over global media, ensuring that the dead bodies are viewed by "the people and kindreds and tongues and nations" for three and a half days.1 This prolonged, global broadcast serves as propaganda, aiming to solidify the world’s submission and confirm the Beast’s apparent victory over God’s testimony. The global populace, which remains semi-functional and unrepentant (continuing in sins of idolatry, theft, and fornication), responds to this spectacle with intense celebration, making merry and sending gifts, a delusional attributing of the cosmic woes to the prophets themselves.
Revelation 11:7 describes the Beast as he "that ascends out of the bottomless pit to make war with the Two Witnesses and overcome them and kill them. However, this verse is expository and not sequential. The Beast and its system is already established nearly 3.5 years earlier than this dramatic moment. The common notion is the Beast arrives on the scene at this moment and the events in Chapters 12, 13, and 14 are sequential. These chapters are expository interludes providing context. I will explain my conclusion in next post.
The Witnesses’ death is factually a profound act of covenant fidelity, echoing the ultimate sacrifice of John 15:13 ("Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"). Their confrontation with the Beast is not a failed defense, but a valiant, active decision to complete their testimony, implying a knowing acceptance of martyrdom. The fact that their unique, composite power "would not prevail over the Beast" at the end confirms their death was an act of deliberate sacrifice. This sacrifice establishes the absolute covenant demand of fidelity unto death for the elect. Their fate serves as the prophetic example that those who refuse the Mark of the Beast will face death but not necessarily be martyred. Their death is immediately followed by a literal, visible, physical vindication—the resurrection.2 This factual resurrection and subsequent ascension instills a heightened sense of confidence in the elect, providing a powerful assurance that the cost of laying down one's life is temporary and will be rewarded by the Dynamic God.
The Beast's intended triumph turns into his fatal error. His system is compelled to obey the specific, scriptural constraint to keep the Witnesses' bodies unburied for the duration of the broadcast, which seals his defeat. This obedience facilitates the global spectacle that guarantees the maximum audience for the resurrection. The moment the Spirit of life from God enters the Witnesses, and they stand upon their feet, it shatters the finality of human and demonic power over life. This resurrection, a fulfillment of the "vanquished hero" narrative, is immediately followed by the Witnesses hearing a loud voice calling them up to heaven, with their enemies forced to watch their physical ascension.3 The resultant "great fear" that falls upon the survivors is a responsive terror that validates the conditional nature of the prophetic drama. The terror includes the sudden realization that the judicial debt for their persecution is still owed, and the Beast’s power over life and death is exposed as a fundamental illusion.
The terror is immediately and physically validated by a localized judgment: the ascent triggers a "great earthquake" that causes one-tenth of the city to fall and factually slays seven thousand men.4 This destructive consequence on the very city that celebrated their death solidifies the "great fear," forcing the survivors to recognize that the power belongs to the God the Witnesses serve. The survivors, the remnant, (the remaining nine-tenths of the inhabitants), are described as being terrified and giving glory to the God of heaven. This acknowledgment is not necessarily genuine repentance, but a superficial, fear-driven recognition of God's power. This mixed remnant—likely including many who had taken the Mark of the Beast—serves as the final, dramatic evidence of divine power, confirming that the ultimate power lies not with the global dictator, but with the specific, unchangeable words of the Apocalypse.
References:
https://www.gracebibleny.org/the-two-witnesses-revelation-111-13
https://doctrine.org/the-two-witnesses