TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 56: 70, The Identity of the Two Witnesses

TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 56

In our last presentation we had illustrated the fulfillment of the prophecy of the angel with the little book which is found in Revelation chapter 10. The book was open, and in the sequence of the great events of history of which the Revelation had prophesied from the fall of Rome, the open book certainly seems to represent the printing of Bibles which was facilitated by the Protestant Reformation. At no other time in history was it recorded that the Word of God was purposely withheld from the common man, but that was what the Medieval Roman Church had attempted, so that the Scriptures could only be interpreted by the priests themselves, and the common man would have forever been at the mercy of those priests.

While we cannot present a full commentary on the Revelation here, the sequence of historical events from the fall of Rome through the Reformation is very well described in Revelation chapters 8 through 11, as we shall continue to discuss here. However to see the truth of that assertion, one must start at the beginning while also having a fair understanding of history. As we have already asserted here, no other people have fulfilled these prophecies but White Europeans, among whom they were fulfilled with remarkable precision. Once that is recognized, the fact that White Europeans are the Old Testament Israelites, while Jews, Arabs and Turks are all devils, is clearly and fully elucidated.

Now we shall continue to speak of the Reformation from a different perspective, that of the Two Witnesses of Revelation chapter 11. However first we must reflect on some of the things which we had presented in our last presentation, discussing Revelation chapter 10. There we had presented several prophecies where Yahweh God had promised to plead with His people in the wilderness into which they had been sent following the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. We insist that those promises are relevant to understanding the nature of the little book, and also to the identity of the two witnesses of Revelation chapter 11, and the location of the woman who fled to the wilderness, depicted in Revelation chapter 12.

So we had explained that some time around 700 BC, in Isaiah chapter 43 Yahweh had promised to give drink to His people, where He said “19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.” There Yahweh was not speaking of literal water. Rather, He was assuring them that His Word would reach them. This is illustrated in the Gospel of John in chapter 4, where the Samaritan woman, who had identified herself as an Israelite, had seen Yahshua, not knowing He was the Christ, and as she drew water from a well He asked her “Give Me to drink.” When she expressed surprise that He spoke to her, He said “If you knew the gift of Yahweh and who it is saying to you ‘Give Me to drink’, you would have asked Him and He would have given to you living water.” Then a little further on He said “Each who is drinking from this water shall thirst again. 14 But he who should drink from the water which I shall give to him shall not thirst for eternity, but the water which I shall give to him will become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life.” That is the drink which the children of Israel would receive from Yahweh in the wilderness.

Later, writing some time after the death of Josiah in 608 BC, and perhaps even later than the fall of Jerusalem in 585 BC, both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had also received promises for the children of Israel in the wilderness. So we read in Jeremiah chapter 31 that “1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.” Then in Ezekiel chapter 34 we read in part: “6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them”, and that is a depiction of Israel in the wilderness.

Then a little further on in that same chapter, Yahweh made a promise to come and feed the flocks Himself, which was fulfilled in the ministry of Christ and the spread of the Gospel, where we read: “11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day… 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away…”

Of course this does not mean that Israel will return to Palestine, as we see in 2 Samuel 7:10 that Yahweh had informed David through the prophet Nathan that Isreal would have a permanent home elsewhere: “10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more…” In turn, this passage should be cross-referenced to Deuteronomy 32:8 where we read “8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” When the Genesis 10 nations were divided, it is evident from where they were located in Moses’ time that much of Europe was left unpopulated, and the children of Israel would come to dwell in that wilderness.

Once the sheep were fed with the Word of God in the Gospel of Christ, something which the Roman Church had endeavored to cease from doing, once it was assured that the little book would remain open, the mystery of God was completed, because the proof of the identity of the people of God lies in the historic fulfillment of those prohecies concerning His people. That is why, in verse 7 of Revelation chapter 10, we read the words: “… then the Mystery of Yahweh is completed as He had announced by His servants the prophets.”

So with that background, we shall commence with the Revelation. Once again, much of what we present from this point will be condensed from my February, 2011 commentary on Revelation chapters 10 and 11.

70) The Identity of the Two Witnesses

XI 1 And he had given to me a reed like a staff, saying “Arise, and measure the temple of Yahweh and the altar and those worshipping at it. 2 And the court outside the temple leave out that you should not measure it, because it has been given to the heathens, and the Holy City they shall trample for forty and two months.

While there are visions of future temples in the prophets and also in the Revelation, where there is also a vision of a future city of God come down from heaven, those visions should not be interpreted literally. God does not dwell in a house built with hands, as we learn from diverse New Testament Scriptures, but He dwells in us, or as Christ He dwells among us, and therefore temple of Yahweh is an allegory for His people in the world.

The 42 months is the same as the 1260 days which follow in verse 3 below. 42 times 30 days equals 1260 days, and we had seen the same measurements of time in the corresponding visions of Revelation Chapter 13 and Daniel Chapter 7 which we have also already discussed here.

The word heathens does not necessarily mean to describe aliens. It is basically nations or people, however I have translated it as heathens whenever I felt that the word was used to describe a people or nation which is in opposition to the will of God or apart from those people seeking to follow the will of God.

So we would assert that here we see a vision of the faithful of His people Israel – who are collectively the temple of God where Yahweh dwells - who would be separated from the beast church once the little book was open, while those outside would continue to be trampled. This does not mean that there are no Israelites in those nations which remained in the Roman Catholic Church after the Reformation, but rather it is only an allegorical picture so that we may look back at the history of our race and understand what it is that has happened to us. So we shall continue:

3 And I shall give to My two witnesses that they shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloaked in sackcloth. 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which are standing before the Sovereign of the earth.

Much later than Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, at the beginning of the building of the second temple, in Zechariah Chapter 4, there is a vision of two olive trees and we read: “11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? 12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Here in Revelation chapter 11, the two witnesses are the two olive trees, which are also the two lampstands. These are Israel and Judah. In Isaiah chapter 43, the Word of Yahweh addresses the children of Israel and says: “10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.” So when Israel and Judah turned to Yahweh their God in Christ, and stood up for His Word during the Reformation, rejecting the idolatry of the Church they were witnessing that God is true, even if their fulfillment of the prophecy was unwitting.

Since Yahshua Christ is the Lord of the whole earth, then the European peoples have proven themselves to be the Children of Israel by becoming the primary vessels of Christendom. In Isaiah 62:1, speaking of Zion, Yahweh had said that the salvation thereof would be as a lamp that burns. Yahshua Christ is recorded as having said in Luke chapter 8 “16 Now no one lighting a lamp [Christ Himself was lighting the lamp] conceals it in a vessel or sets it under a couch, but sets it upon a lampstand, that those entering in would see the light. 17 For there is nothing secret which shall not become evident, nor hidden which shall not be known and brought to light.” Christ said in Matthew chapter 5: “14 You are the light of the Society. A city sitting upon a mountain is not able to be hidden. 15 Neither do they ignite a lamp and set it under a basket, but upon a lampstand, and it gives light for all those in the house. 16 Thusly you must give your light before men, that they may see your good works and they may honor your Father who is in the heavens.” The European peoples are that shining city on the hill, the lamp which could not be hid, and they are the Light of the World, for only they out of all of the world's people have tried to civilize the entire globe and, for better or worse, bring it under the rule of law, laws that were based on Christian law. This all began after the Reformation took place, when the Children of God laid aside the paganism of the Roman Church and embraced the Word of God.

Although they were blind to their actual identity, Israel and Judah had been accepting and then in turn spreading the Gospel for 1260 years, or in some cases a little longer, which represents the time from the Passion of Christ and the spread of the Gospel into Europe, to the time when His people began to demand that they live by the Word of God and not the word of tyrants, and men from among them rose up to challenge the popes of Rome. By this time, all of the White tribes of Europe and the Middle and Near East had the opportunity to hear the Gospel and convert to Christ, and the vast majority of them did.

Yet as the spread of the Gospel into Europe was a process which took several centuries, so was the Reformation and the break from the Roman Church a process which took several centuries. John Wycliffe and his followers produced a translation of the Bible into English by 1384. Wycliffe opposed the pope and the clergy of Britain, and was persecuted for it, but died from apparently natural causes that same year. Wycliffe’s writings influenced Jan Huss, who was burned at the stake in 1415, and at the same time Wycliffe was also declared a heretic, his papers banned. The followers of Huss then launched a successful revolution against the Roman Catholic Church, whereafter they remained independent of Rome for 200 years until Bohemia was conquered and fell to Roman Catholic Habsburg rule during the 30 Years’ War. A hundred years after Jan Huss, the Reformation efforts of Martin Luther forced the break with the Roman Church of most of Germany and some of the surrounding nations. Continuing with Revelation chapter 11:

5 And if one wishes to harm them fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies, and if one should wish to harm them, thusly is it necessary for him to die. 6 They have the authority to shut heaven, in order that water would not rain in the days of their prophecy, and they have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood and to smite the earth with every calamity as often as they should desire.

None of this is literal, but rather the Revelation is written in symbols, all of which may be understood in the words of Christ or the prophets. So we read in Deuteronomy chapter 4: “36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.” Here the fire is the Word of God to those who resist it, and these two witnesses would prevail over all who opposed them in bringing it to light. The rain is the Word of God to those who accept it, and there would be no fruit on the earth lest it come from Israel and Judah. The little book would be open, and no one could stop it, thus we see that in spite of the enemies of God, the Reformation would succeed in getting the Word into the hands of the people and keeping it there. Continuing once again:

7 And when their testimony should be completed, the beast which ascends from out of the bottomless pit shall make war with them and shall conquer them and shall slay them. 8 And their bodies upon the streets of the great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Prince has been crucified. 9 And those from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations shall see their bodies for three and a half days and they do not allow their bodies to be buried in a tomb. 10 And those dwelling upon the earth rejoice over them and they delight and they shall send gifts to one another, because these two prophets had tormented those dwelling upon the earth.

The forces behind the popes who sought to oppress the nations are the same forces which were behind the crucifixion of the Christ. When we discussed the little horn of Daniel chapter 7 in conjunction with the two beasts of Revelation chapter 13, we identified the little horn and the second of those beasts with the Roman Catholic popes. There we read that the beast derives its power from the dragon, which we shall see in Revelation chapter 12 is associated with the Edomite Jews.

Here, the testimony of the two witnesses, Israel and Judah, was completed when it was decided that they would seek to live by the Word of God, and not by the oppressive will of the antichrist popes. Whether they knew it or not, and they certainly did not, this alone proves that the European peoples are indeed the people of God – the actual children of Israel – because it fulfills the prophecy of God concerning Israel, that they would return to Him through His Christ. This is also evident in part at Hosea 2:7 where it says of Israel “And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.”

11 And after the three and a half days a Spirit of life from Yahweh entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear had fallen upon those watching them. 12 And I heard a great voice from out of heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” And they ascended into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell and there had died in the earthquake seven thousand names of men, and those who remained became terrified and gave honor to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe has departed. Behold, the third woe comes quickly!

It must be mentioned, that prior to the beginning of the 16th century there were already great oppressions of those in Europe who disagreed with Rome on theological grounds. There were persecutions of the sects of the Albigenses, or Cathars, from 1209 to 1229 AD, and also against the Waldenses, who were persecuted from that same time and into the 17th century. These sects openly opposed the materialism of the Romans Catholics. This was long before William Tyndale and Jan Huss.

The three-and-a-half days of this prophecy represent three and a half years by the prophetic measure of a year for a day. Bertrand Comparet had related this three-and-a-half days in which the two witnesses lay dead to the space of time between the convention of the Fifth Lateran Council and the alleged date of Martin Luther's nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. I would agree with that identification, but only in part.

Before the Fifth Lateran Council, which was originally convened by Pope Julius II, there was a strong move for reform centered in France where King Louis XII had earned the name “Father of the People”, and he stood opposed to the rule of the pope. He also supported several cardinals who sought reforms and broke from the pope. The Venetians were his allies. The bishops of France sided with him. Threatening to March on Rome, he had taken Milan and Ravenna. An ecclesiastical council hostile to the Pope was called at Pisa in Italy, but being threatened with violence by the local populace it was moved several times. Eventually it failed, and it was dissolved without accomplishment. Louis then suffered a damaging military defeat at the hands of the Swiss, which put an end to his ambitions. The Fifth Lateran Council was called by Julius with an aim to further solidify the power of the papacy, and to answer the calls for reforms. Julius convened the Council but he died almost as soon as it began, on February 21, 1513.

The Council did indeed go on to change Roman Catholicism, but probably not as Julius intended. The new pope was Leo X, whose real name was actually Giovanni de' Medici. He was only thirty-seven years of age when elected, and not even ordained as a priest. He was elected March 11, 1513, and first presided at the Fifth Lateran Council in its seventh session, on April 27, 1513. Among the decrees made at the council, one Bull required that before a book could be printed, the local bishop had to give permission. Because the Church was at the same time attempting to forbid Christians from having copies of Scripture, this would help ensure the success of those restrictions. Another Bull concerned preaching, which left the Church and the Papacy free from any possibility of future criticism. Preachers were forbidden from associating current or future events with the fulfillment of prophecy, and they were forbidden to preach about the sins of other clergy, "publicly defaming the character of bishops, prelates and others in authority.”

Another Bull published by Leo X in 1515 sanctioned the Monti di pietà, which were basically pawn shops operated by the Church, supposedly to provide loans to the needy. They had attracted both support and opposition from within the church since their establishment in Italy 50 years earlier. Here the Roman Church began to officially approve usury for the first time. The bull instructed that the practice is perfectly lawful, and that such loans were not to be considered an act of usury. Anyone who would disagree was threatened with excommunication. There were many other offenses to the Scriptures, but these were the gravest as they restrict men from access to the Word of God while the edicts concerning usury are enough to demonstrate that the Church was departing further and further from obeying the Word. As a digression, four years later his great-niece was born, Catherine de’ Medici, who continually persecuted the French Protestant sect of the Huguenots.

Over the years leading up to the Fifth Lateran Council, the Church had persecuted many reformers. During this council there were many other edicts which consolidated the power of the Pope and bishops. But quite important to our interpretation of this prophecy, at this same council, the Pope had accepted the submission of two of the surviving rebel cardinals, and received them as priests as they read a prepared statement of contrition and repudiation of their acts against the papacy. It was reported that thousands of people flocked to the Vatican to witness this event and to “gloat over this spectacle of humiliation”. Surely “those dwelling upon the earth rejoice[d] over” the death of the rebellion against unbridled papal power. The idea of constructive reforms was indeed dead, and now the power of the pope was even greater than at the start. Also, since bishops would have to approve the printing of books, the people may never have seen another Bible, since Bibles were already virtually banned from the people by prior papal decrees.

Several months after the closing of the Fifth Lateran Council, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Luther’s theses were publicized in response to the church’s failure to reform. They were nailed to the door on All Saints’ Day, 1517, when pilgrims were going to Wittenberg for indulgences. An example of the importance that the Church placed on collection of indulgences is found in the preaching of men such as Johann Tetzel. He made claims such as that indulgences make the sinner “cleaner than when coming out of baptism”, that “the cross of the seller of indulgences has as much power as the cross of Christ” and that indulgences make the sinner “cleaner than Adam before the Fall”. He is quoted as having said “Listen to the voices of your dear dead relatives and friends beseeching you and saying, ‘Pity us, pity us. We are in dire torment from which you can redeem us for a pittance’” and “as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”. Tetzel became so unpopular with the people that he had to hide in the Dominican convent at Leipzig for fear of popular violence. It was in this convent, during Luther’s debate in the city with Johann Eck on the subject of indulgences, that he died. For Rome, Luther’s theses were an economic argument. For Luther they were theological. Rome was taking payments when Jesus Christ had already made the payment; Rome was charging for God’s free gift; Rome was making people feel guilty for not doing enough when Christ had already done it all for those who trust in Him.

But Leo X did not care about theology, or Scripture. The de’ Medici pope presided over the 5th Lateran Council for nearly four years, and during that time Italy and all of the supporters of the papacy rejoiced. If it were not for Martin Luther, all opposition to the papacy was stifled at this time. The Children of Israel would not have the Word of God, but would rather remain oppressed by the tyranny of the Roman Church and the Jewish money power. Here, Israel and Judah appear to lay dead in the streets while the powers of the adversary prevailed.

Now while we can agree with Comparet that this period of the 5th Lateran Council was a period where the two witnesses - Israel and Judah - lay prostrate before the beast, perhaps this is only one of those two witnesses, Judah. Perhaps the other one, for Ephraim as representing Israel, happens just forty years later. For there is another period, a little later in England, where it also looked as though the Roman Catholic Church might prevail over the true saints of God, and it certainly warrants explanation here.

It was the wantoness of Henry the 8th which brought England to break away from the Popes of Rome. Yet under his successor, Edward VI, a very young ruler who died after an illness at 15 years of age, who when he fell ill, with his regency council, which was mostly Protestant, drew up a plan for succession which was an attempt to prevent his half-sister Mary from gaining the throne, and returning the country to Roman Catholicism. The plan named his cousin Jane Grey as his heir, however the plan failed and Mary succeeded to the throne anyway, after Jane Grey ruled for a mere nine days.

Mary began her short and tumultuous reign at 37 years of age, arriving in London amid a scene of great rejoicing. Again, with a victory of Catholicism over the Reformation, “those dwelling upon the earth rejoice[d] over” the subjection of the Children of Israel to the earthly power of the Pope. Following the disarray created by Edward VI's passing of the succession to Jane Grey, Mary triumphantly entered London on August 3rd, 1553. Her first act was to repeal the Protestant legislation of her brother, Edward VI, hurling England into a phase of severe religious persecution. Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion, but by the end of September leading reforming churchmen, such as John Bradford, John Rogers, John Hooper, Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer were imprisoned. This was done in her first Parliament, in October of 1553, where she was also crowned Queen. Another of Mary's first actions as Queen was to order the release of the Roman Catholic Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London, as well as her kinsman Edward Courtenay.

Her primary goal was the re-establishment of Catholicism in England, something to which she was totally committed. While Edward was king, he repeatedly harassed her to give up Catholicism, and she steadfastly refused. Her persecutions came more from a desire for what she considered to be purity in faith than from vengeance, yet nearly 300 people, including former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer and many of the most prominent members of society, were burned at the stake for heresy, earning Mary the nickname, “Bloody Mary”. Church doctrine was restored to the form it had been in 1539.

The English Church was officially returned to Rome in 1554, under an agreement with Pope Julius III. Under the Heresy Acts, numerous Protestants were executed in the Marian Persecutions. Many rich Protestants, including John Foxe, chose exile, and around 800 of them left the country. All told 283 persons were executed, most by burning. The burnings proved so unpopular, that even one of her husband's own ecclesiastical staff condemned them. Mary persevered with the policy, which continued until her death. Queen Mary died at the age of 42, from an influenza epidemic, on November 17th, 1558. This ended three-and-a-half years of persecutions and executions of Protestants. The victims of the persecutions were honored as martyrs. During this period, it looked as if England may remain Catholic, and therefore under the rule of the Pope. Mary's husband, Prince Philip of Spain, had attempted to concoct a plan that would prevent Edward's and Mary's other half-sister, Elizabeth, from succeeding, but he failed. Elizabeth I ascended to the throne and England returned to Protestantism, this time permanently.

15 And the seventh messenger sounded the trumpet, and there were great voices in heaven saying “The Kingdom of the Society of our Prince and of His Anointed has come, and He shall rule for the eternal ages!” 16 And the twenty-four elders who are sitting on their thrones before Yahweh fell upon their faces and worshipped Yahweh, 17 saying: “We thank You, Prince Yahweh the Almighty, He who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and You have reigned. 18 And the heathens had been angry, yet Your anger has come, and the time to judge of the dead and to give the reward to Your servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Your Name, to the small ones and to the great ones, and to destroy those destroying the earth!”

While it was far from over, the success of the Protestants over the Roman Church ensured the rise to world hegemony of the truly Christian European peoples, who constitute the true kingdom of God. Now they possess the kingdom of God on earth permanently, however they are also under many other prophecies which are still being fulfilled, and their final restoration does not come until Babylon finally falls. The third woe does not come until the later chapters of the Revelation.

19 And the temple of Yahweh who is in heaven opened, and the ark of His covenant is seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunders and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

The symbolism of the Ark of the Covenant is an assurance that these people who are Christians and who bear the witness of the Gospel are those same people who were in the Exodus with Moses and wandered in the desert forty years. True Christians are small-c catholics, those who accept that both Old and New Testaments are true and apply to them.

The Children of Israel, as soon as they departed from the Catholic Church and sought the Will of God, in a few hundred years built the greatest nations that the world has ever known. However once Satan was let out of the pit, the great civilization of Protestant Christendom began to decay. The only hope that we have for salvation in this world is to reject the things of this world, and return to Yahweh our God.

We do not realize to what degree the Reformation helped to create the modern world, for better or worse. A vast number of people from England, France, Germany and Holland who had settled new lands in the colonial period had faced the wilderness in search of religious liberty. For better or worse, the so-called Age of Liberty and the introduction of parliamentary democracy were also facilitated by the Protestant Reformation. Otherwise they would not have been possible.