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March 18, 2015 - Jim Bakker Show
06:47
The Lampstands Are The Two Witnesses
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Time Text
Dealing with Revelation 00:02:35
But as we read this, you're telling us the olive tree and the lampstand may mean something different than what we've been taught.
And it's maybe not just two witnesses.
Is that right?
One of the most important principles of interpreting Scripture to me, especially when you're going to interpret the mysteries of prophecy, eschatology, is to first just deal with what the Bible says.
and stay inside the word of God to let the word of God interpret the word of God first.
Then, you know, then you can go out to other sources, look at what other people have seen, etc.
Iron sharpens iron and all of that.
So when we get to chapter 11 of Revelation, when we come to that passage in Revelation 11, you have to deal with what the Bible says when it says the two witnesses are, and then it doesn't say right there, it doesn't say two men standing in Jerusalem.
It says the two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, right?
That's what it says.
So when I saw that, I said, oh my gosh.
Now remember, John wrote this 2,000 years ago.
And he's using symbolism throughout the book of Revelation.
Number one, because he's thrust 2,000 years in the future, and a lot of what he's seeing looks like science fiction to him.
But yet he knows that this is real life.
It's real history that's coming.
But the other thing is he puts key words, code words in there that his first audience, the church, the early church, would have known.
They would have known.
So to find out what the lampstand is, we go to the same book, Revelation chapter 1, verse 20.
The lampstand, it says, is the church.
Does it not say that?
And then to the church at Ephesus and the seven letters to the seven churches, he says, now if you don't get back with your first love, I'm going to come remove your lampstand.
And theologians understand that.
I mean, I'm going to remove your witness.
I'm going to remove the witness, the power, the presence of God's spirit among you.
So the lampstand is defined in the book of Revelation.
And see, in Revelation 11, he says, one of the witnesses, and I don't want to deal with the two olive trees and two lampstands, but the lampstand.
Israel's Eternal Witness 00:04:05
Let's just talk about them singularly right now.
The lampstand.
And so it's defined, the church.
Now, the olive tree.
Go back to Romans 11.
And you remember the Apostle Paul was called up to paradise some 30 years before John was.
He says that in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
He said, I was in third heaven and in paradise, saw things that couldn't even speak of all of them.
So Paul writes the church at Rome in chapter 11, and he speaks of the olive tree and the natural branches and the grafted in branches, right?
And he speaks of Gentiles being grafted into the olive tree and the whole imagery there, and he finally says it later on in Romans 11, that the olive tree is Israel.
Now, spiritual Israel, not political Israel, but Israel, the promise of God, the geographical, spiritual Israel, which we know has always been a witness of God's glory.
All the way back in Deuteronomy chapter 4, Moses went into a spirit of prophecy, and he told the people, he said, look, before you ever enter this land, let me tell you what's going to happen.
You're going to enter a land that you didn't build and everything, and God's going to bless you, land flowing with milk and honey.
But in the day you turn your back on God, he will scatter you to the nations, but in the last days he will bring you back.
That's in Deuteronomy.
Before they ever set foot in the land, Moses opens up this whole understanding of Israel will be God's witness.
And you know what Moses says?
He says, God says, he says, has any other God ever done anything like this?
He says, when you see this, then you will know that I am God, and beside me there is no other.
So you see, Israel, the concept of the promise of Israel, has always been a witness.
The church, now in the New Testament age, if you will, we're the witness of God's glory in the gospel.
But the point of Romans 11 and Ephesians chapter 2 and 3, when Paul talks about making the two men one and that being the mystery of God, building up the church of God, Jesus as the cornerstone.
So in Romans chapter 11, he says that the two become one there.
The Gentile is grafted in to the olive tree.
We find out that the olive tree not only represents Israel, but Israel has always been God's witness to the world of his glory and who he is, that he is God and beside him there is no other.
We also know from the scriptures that in the last days, Israel would come back to the land.
Now we're living it.
We're the only generation to ever have lived it.
A 2,500-year-old prophecy.
There's the witness of God before the world.
It's in the headline news.
And in the meantime, the lampstand is the church.
Now watch this.
It says, my two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands.
Excuse me, two plus two is four.
But God says, my two witnesses.
But you see, we know that both of them are made up of two.
We go all the way back to Zachariah chapter four.
And guess what we discover in the Old Testament?
See, this is why the New Testament church knew what this meant, Pastor Jim.
I'm convinced.
Because all the way back in Zachariah chapter 4, what do we hear about?
An olive tree and a lampstand.
And the olive tree has two golden pipes coming out with the oil flows into the lampstand that gives light.
And commentators and Bible scholars for years have understood that that to be an indication of the Christ and the Holy Spirit that would come out of Israel that would flow in to birth the church.
And that's the passage where God says, not by might or not by power, but by my spirit, declares the Lord.
Two Anointed Ones 00:00:35
Amen.
You know, you have the verse in here on page 81 of your book, and you make it so clear with this verse in Zechariah 4, 11 through 14.
It says, Then I asked the angel, which are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?
Again, I asked him, what are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?
He replied, do you not know what these are?
No, my Lord, I said.
So he said, these are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.
It's right there.
The early Bible would have known that.
The Bible interprets the Bible.
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