Personally I don’t see the papacy as the little horn so we are going to have differences for sure.
Obviously John is on the island of Patmos so there is no temple, altar or worshipers to measure, physically speaking. In Revelation 11:1 John is told to rise and measure. Wherever that temple is, I think it is the same location where John was in Revelation 1:10 where he was in the spirit and in verse 12 turns to see the candle sticks. I think Revelation 7 can fit with the 144,000 being measured (counted) and Gentiles not measured. There is no altar in Revelation 7 so there’s something that makes this not a perfect fit.
In Revelation 6 we have the seals and at the fifth seal we have an altar, souls under that altar and a little season where they are told to rest. You could argue that this is the temple measured, with the little season being the 42 months of Gentiles trampling the holy city.
The big problem I see with placing the fifth seal in the future is that everyone, or nearly everyone, that has the testimony and would be slain for that testimony already has read Revelation 6 and already knows how long before their blood will be avenged. There would be no need to ask that question in the future, kind of like there is no need to ask Jesus where He was born or how many disciples he had.
As far as the two witnesses themselves, I haven’t come to a complete conclusion on that. I know JtB has far too many similarities with the two witnesses to ignore but not enough to conclude that’s what the two witnesses were. I think JtB could be a type or antitype, shadow or something like that but I’m not sure, I’m still studying these things.
Well, what do we know about these witnesses? They must meet the conditions described in these verses - and not one or two of them but all of them. We have:
1) they must be witnesses,
2) they must be lampstands,
3) they must be olive trees,
4) they must preach / prophecize for 1260 days,
5) they are standing before the God of the earth,
6) they are doing this at the end / near end of time,
7) if anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies,
8) if anyone wants to harm them, they will be killed in this manner,
9) they have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of this prophecy,
10) they have powers over waters to turn them to blood,
11) they have the power to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire,
12) when they finish their testimony (1260 days), the beast that ascends to from the pit will make war with them and kill them,
13) their dead bodies will lie in the street of Jerusalem,
14) then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations (everyone) will see their bodies for 3.5 days and not allow their dead bodies to be put into the grave,
15) and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry and send gifts to one another,
16) after 3.5 days the breath of life from God will enter them and they will stand on their feet,
17) and great fear fell on all those who saw them,
18) then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Come up here,"
19) then, they ascended into heaven and their enemies saw them.
Well, that is quite a list of conditions that must be met in order to identify these 2 witnesses. It also means, although it is going to be difficult to identify them, it will be extremely easy to rule so many out of the running.
So, without even going into any mind bending exercises, does anyone disagree that we are NOT speaking about a LITERAL two individuals? Meaning of course, these two are definitely symbolic. So, I won't move forward until I hear from everyone or anyone that might want to comment on this... remember, MUST meet all 19 conditions. Thanks.
