As I was reading my Bible a few nights ago, I realized there may be a new wrinkle in how the timelines about the beast power and the Two Witnesses will unfold in the future, and I thought I’d share them with readers.
Revelation says the reign of the beast power will be 42 months (Revelation 13:5), and it foretells the ministry of the Two Witnesses will last 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3). Given our standard practice of having 30 days in a month, 42 months multiplies out very nicely to 1,260 days, inferring the timelines of the beast and the Two Witnesses would be largely concurrent as the beast power kills the Two Witnesses after their 1,260 day ministry and continues to reign for a limited time after the death of the Two Witnesses. I realized there is another possibility regarding these timelines. While God chose to reveal the ministry of the Two Witnesses in days, he chose to reveal the length of the beast’s reign in months.
It occurred to me that since the Bible is written from a Hebraic perspective, the length of the reign of the beast power may be less than I had previously anticipated. The length of a month in the biblical sacred calendar is 28 days, the length of a lunar cycle, not the 30 days on our modern calendars. 42 months multiplied by 28 days results in a reign of 1,176 days for the beast power, not the 1,260 days we would expect if 30-day months were used in the calculation. If the biblical definition of a month’s length on the Sacred Calendar is the one intended in this prophecy, then the beast will reign for 84 fewer days than the ministry of the Two Witnesses. This raises the possibility (indeed, the likelihood) that the Two Witnesses may begin their ministry before the beast power begins its reign because the beast power has to reign for a limited number of days after the ministry of the Two Witnesses, as Revelation 11:7-9 makes clear.
When Babylon the Great’s current global monetary/financial system collapses, as Revelation 17-18 prophesy, there will either be a seamless transition into the new globalist money system of the beast or there will be a period of global chaos which will eventually be “solved” by the beast system’s imposition of a new global economic system. It seems to me that the longer the period of chaos on the globe, the more willing the nations will be to yield some sovereignty to the beast system to get order restored. Revelation 17:9-18 prophesies a group of nations will yield some sovereignty to the beast power after the fall of Babylon the Great’s system. If there is a period of international chaos in financial and currency markets after the collapse of the current global financial system, the longer timeline for the ministry of the Two Witnesses allows for the possibility that their ministry may begin during the period of chaos between the fall of Babylon the Great’s system and the arrival of the beast system. Please keep this possibility in mind as we watch carefully how biblical prophecies are fulfilled in future years.
One thing is certain. The Two Witnesses are not yet on the world scene. No one is yet doing the miraculous works that Revelation 11:5-6 prophesied that they will do during their ministry. The Bible offers extensive information and clues about the Two Witnesses’ ministry in both the Old and New Testaments. For a full examination of who they might be and how their ministry will impact future world events, I invite you to read my in-depth article, The Two Witnesses, available at the articles link of this website.
