Two Witnesses – Flying Scroll

15. The Two Witnesses

After the bishop of Rome exalted himself as high as Christ, the saints were given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time—rounded to 1,290 days, forty-three months of thirty days in Dan 12:11. This ended in 1471, when the followers of Jan Huss broke free from the pope’s power.

The angel concluded the book of Daniel, saying, “Blessed is he who waits and comes to 1,335 days.”^{Dan 12:12} Exactly forty-five years later, in 1516, Martin Luther began his Reformation with his first public attack on the papacy.

Revelation 11 described the two witnesses and their churches as two olive trees and two lampstands.^{Rev 11:4} Jan Huss and Martin Luther dripped the oil of the Spirit of Christ in the Moravian and Lutheran churches that they established.^{Zech 4:12}

16. After Three and a Half Days, They Stood on Their Feet

Rev 11:1-13

The apostle John described the Catholic Church as a great harlot clothed in purple and scarlet^{Rev 17:4} —the colors of bishops, cardinals, and popes. John said the harlot was “drunk with the blood of the saints.”^{Rev 17:6}

In 1415, Jan Huss was burned at the stake. In 1467, the Moravian Hussites declared their independence from the pope and asked the Waldensian Bishop Stephan to ordain the new ministers. Stephan was burned at the stake on August 19, 1467¹ and the brethren were hunted like deer for three and a half years in the forests of Bohemia.²

On February 22, 1471, Archbishop Jan Rokycana died, and King George Prodebrady died one month later. The persecution stopped, and the Moravian brethren were free.

John said that after three and a half days, they stood on their feet.^{Rev 11:11}

17. The First Resurrection

Rev 11:1-13, Rev 20:1-6

In Daniel 12, the angel prophesied that the power of the holy people would be shattered for a time, times, and half a time, which he described as forty-three lunar months, 1,290 days.^{Dan 12:11}

In Chapter 8, an angel prophesied that the sanctuary would be cleansed after 2,300 days.^{Dan 8:14} These 2,300 days, subtracting 1,290 days, are 1,010 days—described in Revelation 20 as one thousand years when the martyrs “who had not worshiped the beast, or his image, or received his mark”^{Rev 20:4} resurrected to reign with Christ.

When the Moravian Hussites broke free from the papacy in 1471, they ended the time, times, and half a time and began the first resurrection. John said, “They went straight up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them.”^{Rev 11:12}

18. In that Hour, There Was a Great Earthquake

Rev 11:1-13

The book of Revelation describes four hours of about 533 years—that is, one-twelfth of the human clock of 6,400 years. In the first hour, the ten kings of Europe reigned with the beast.^{Rev 17:12}

In the next hour, “There was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand were killed.”^{Rev 11:13}The earth represents the people, and a quake is their war. The Reformation wars climaxed with the Thirty Year’s War, in which a third of Germany’s population died. In total, one-tenth of Europe’s population was killed. The seven thousand represent the saints who did not worship the beast, from the story of Elijah.^{1 Kgs 19:18}

The third hour is now upon us: “The hour of God’s judgment.”^{Rev 14:7} The final hour is “the hour to reap the harvest.”^{Rev 14:15}

Joseph Muller, Geschichte Der Bohmischen Bruder, Vol 1, pg. 135 ↩︎
Mike Atnip, The Birth, Life and Death of the Bohemian Revival, pg 79 ↩︎