Verses 9 and 10 tell us: 

This is also prophesied in the 79th chapter of Psalms, and tells us yet more of what will occur in Jerusalem in these last days. In that chapter we read:

Given the fact that Christ’s ministry was prophesied in the Psalms, we should not be too surprised to see similar predictions concerning his two witnesses.

We also see in verse 10 of the 11th chapter of Revelation, that the whole world is going to be giving gifts and generally partying over the fact that these two tormentors are dead. This suggests that the two witnesses will be dead in time for the world to celebrate their favorite holiday, Christmas.

The fact that, most professing Christians celebrate this holiday today, without even wanting to acknowledge that it is a pagan celebration, illustrates not only what mainstream Christianity has become, but what it will remain until the day Christ returns, and also the fact that, most professing Christians in the days of the two witnesses, will remain willfully ignorant of the spirit behind it, and will revile the true believers with the rest of humanity, in the spirit of the Antichrist.

The murder of the two witnesses during the Christmas season, is reminiscent of the time nearly 1,700 years ago, at the occasion of the first Christian martyr, to be killed on the holiday which we call Christmas, and which the pagan Romans called Saturnalia.

His name was Dasius.

Dasius, a Roman soldier, was martyred in Dorostorum in Mysia, Asia Minor, under Diocletian

The Roman soldiers at Durostorum in Lower Moesia celebrated the Saturnalia year by year in the following manner. Thirty days before the festival they chose by lot from amongst themselves a young and handsome man, who was then clothed in royal attire to resemble Saturn. Thus arrayed and attended by a multitude of soldiers he went about in public with full license to indulge his passions and to taste of every pleasure, however base and shameful. But if his reign was merry, it was short and ended tragically; for when the thirty days were up and the festival of Saturn had come, he cut his own throat on the altar of the god whom he personated.

In the year A.D. 303 the lot fell upon the Christian soldier Dasius, but he refused to play the part of the heathen god and soil his last days by debauchery. The threats and arguments of his commanding officer Bassus failed to shake his constancy, and accordingly he was beheaded, as the Christian martyrologist records with minute accuracy, at Durostorum by the soldier John on Friday the twentieth day of November, being the twenty-fourth day of the moon, at the fourth hour.  This occurred before Pope Gregory's instituted the "Gregorian calendar in 1582, moving the date ahead by 10 days. This placed the day of his death on December 30th 303A.D.

In the 11th verse we read:

Verses 7-11, when considered in the context of verse 3 give us compelling testimony as to when these great prophets will begin their 1260 days of prophecy.

Considering the indication we have in verse 10, that they will be killed around the holiday the world calls “Christmas”, we need only begin a reverse count of 1260 days from the date December 25th, to calculate when they should be expected to begin.

Given this scenario, we realize that they must be killed before December 25th in order for the world to party and give gifts at their apparent demise. Also, we know that they will be dead for 3 ½ days, before the world realizes that they are indeed God’s servants, which means that they could not possibly be resurrected before the 26th of December, and these two dates give us a window period from which we can begin the reverse count. This means that they must be killed between the 22nd and the 24th of December. Should the Jewish holiday of Hanukah (The Festival of Lights) fall near Christmas day, we would have to include it in our calculations. This last bit of information could be important in determining the year they will begin the 1260 days, as we will soon see.

Given this window period, we see that they must begin no sooner than July 11th, and no later than July 13th.

There is reason to believe that this 1260-day period might follow an attack upon the United States by Islamic terrorists , which would most likely (but not necessarily) come on Independence Day, which is held on the 4th of July. There has been a “prediction” (later proved false) by well know “bible prophecy teacher” that the major cities in the United States of America would be destroyed on that date in 1998. The whole story of that false prophecy is recounted in  “ Prophecy for $ale”.

The fact that this “prophecy” was false notwithstanding, there is a great possibility that a nuclear attack could very well come on the anniversary of American Independence. Indeed, America’s indiscriminate support of the nation of Israel, whom the radical Islamic groups see as their arch nemesis, and whom this nation has angered with aggressive military actions, combined with the Islamic radicals willingness to kill innocent Americans, amply demonstrated on September 11th, 2001, suggest that this scenario is not out of the question.

The propensity of radical Islam towards making “statements” by attacking on significant dates cannot be overlooked. July 4th would be a very opportune time to give America a nuclear “black eye”. The fact that most Americans would be “asleep” during an attack on their national holiday, only sweetens the pot for the Muslim extremists.

There is of course, a great deal of conjecture in all of this, but in light of a July date for the beginning of the two witnesses prophecy, these two scenarios seem to go together.

It is also notable that Christmas appears around the same time as the Jewish celebration Hanukah.  Hanukah is a Jewish holiday (not a Holy Day of God) also known as the Festival of Lights. It, like the pagan celebration Christmas, is celebrated by gift giving. Keeping in mind the fact that these two prophets will end their 1260 days in Jerusalem, and that it is more than likely, the Jews will continue to celebrate Hanukah, we can expect them to continue the tradition until the end. The Festival of Lights may also have significance to the group known by the name "The Illuminati" (Lit. The Enlightened Ones") who are known to control world government and banking, and who also are Luciferians (Worshipers of Lucifer, "The Light Bearer").

We see in the book of Matthew, chapter 27, verses 45-50, that Christ died “…about the ninth hour…”

We have the same description in Mark 15: 33-37.

But what hour was the ninth hour? We calculate time differently today than they did in Christ’s day, and must do some deductive reasoning. Fortunately, we have scriptures, which give us the meaning of the hours of the day.

In Matthew chapter 20, we have the parable of the labourers. We are told:

1."For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.2. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.3. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4. And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.6. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7.  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 8. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 11. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 12. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day."

This shows us that there was only one hour left in the working day at the eleventh hour.

So we can see that given a 12 hour “day”, that is the period of light where men can work, that the first hour is sunrise, at about 6:00 am, and the 12th hour, the hour of sunset is about 6:00pm. Counting from the first hour (6:00am) to the ninth hour, we arrive at 3:00pm. This is the time of day Jesus died according to  Matthew, chapter 27, verses 45-50. 

We are told in the book of Matthew, chapter 28, verses 1-3: 

We also see this repeated in Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, and John 20:1. The account in Matthew is most useful in this examination because, it mentions the fact that there was a great earthquake, which resulted from the angel of the Lord rolling the stone back from the opening of the sepulcher. Although not specifically noted, it is evident that this was done, that Christ might be allowed to leave the sepulcher. Some might suggest that this is not needed because Christ being the Son of God could simply “walk through the stone”, however, seeing that he has a “real” body like the rest of us, (albeit a glorified body) and that this “real” body left to ascend into heaven, it is difficult to imagine why the stone would be rolled away from the door until he had risen from the dead.

Although assumption should be done cautiously, it seems safe to assume that this rolling of the stone occurred  moments before he arose.

Seeing then, that he was raised from the dead either at, or just before sunrise, we can safely assume that it was around 6:00am Sunday morning. Since we know that he died at 3:00pm, was dead for 3 days, and that he did not rise at 3:00pm on the Sabbath (Saturday) but more than 12 hours later, we do see that he was dead 3 ½ days, just as the two witnesses will be. It is obvious from this evidence that he died on a Wednesday.

Of course, God is not bound by our understanding of bible prophecy, (which some "prophecy figures" would do well to take note of) and he could fulfill Revelation to the letter at another date, should the Antichrist or the false prophet move the holiday of Christmas to New Year’s day, (which would move the date they would begin to about July 19th) which is not out of the question, considering the scripture we have in Daniel 7:25, about an end times king which will “…think to change times and laws…” and which some believe speaks of the Antichrist.

Although this does not seem likely, God can do the unlikely, and surprises us with regularity, so we cannot rule such a thing out.

It is also notable that there was a darkness over the land associated with the death of Christ, which we will examine in a moment.

Before leaving the subject of the 1260 days of prophecy, which will end around Christmas time, we should tie up a loose end. At one time I was hesitant to declare that these two last day prophets would be killed immediately after their days of prophecy because of the phrase in verse 7, which states that the beast will “make war” against them, because the bible doesn’t seem to expressly state it. If there were a prolonged period of “war” against them, the date they are expected to appear would need to be pushed further back in time to accommodate that period of “war”. However, in light of the scripture in Revelation chapter 9, which indicates that darkness accompanies the beast that kills these two witnesses, and whom ascends from the bottomless pit, combined with the 7th verse of Revelation 11, which suggests crucifixion as the means of death for these two prophets of God, it would appear that their death will occur, as it did with our Lord, during that period of darkness, and that darkness will most likely have a short duration, as it did when Christ was murdered. 

We see in the book of Matthew, chapter 27, verses 45-53, that Christ died  “…about the ninth hour…”

We are given descriptions of events relating to the 5th seal, and the 5th vial that seem to be speaking of the same event.

We see similar descriptions relating to the 6th seal and the 6th vial.

We are told that at the sounding of the 5th trumpet (Revelation 9), the angel of the bottomless pit who kills the 2 ascends with smoke that darkens the light of the sun, and with locusts which sting like scorpions, which cause pain for 5 months. We also see that, at the pouring of the 5th vial, (Revelation 16:10) the kingdom of the beast was full of darkness, and men gnawed their tongues for pain.

We see a similar period of darkness during the crucifixion of Christ. Since a plague of darkness occurs during the ascension of the beast from the bottomless pit, which makes war against the two witnesses and kills them, this darkness is probably associated with the crucifixion of the two witnesses by the beast Abaddon, and probably lasts for a period of 3 hours, similar to that period when Christ himself was crucified. 

It might well be also, that the darkness which falls on the seat of the beast and his kingdom, is associated with the darkness of the smoke of the pit, from which Abaddon ascends.

It is also likely, that the pain spoken of in Revelation 16:10-11 is associated with the stings of the scorpion like locusts, which arise with the beast of the bottomless pit. These Locust-Scorpion creatures, may even have been intended to be used as a vehicle to kill the two witnesses, which goes awry.  

At the sounding of the 6th trumpet (Revelation 9:14), four angels, who were bound in the Euphrates, were loosed. At the pouring of the 6th vial (Revelation 16:12) the waters of the Euphrates river were dried up to allow the “kings of the east” to pass. As we alluded to before, this loosing of the angels bound may be associated with the Iranian city of Abadan, which is on the river Euphrates, and which is named for the destroying angel, Abaddon.

Just as it was with the death of our Savior, it will be with the two witnesses. Their ministry parallels that of Jesus Christ.

©2001-2004 Craig Portwood