A NOTE ON THE HISTORICAL SEQUENCE AND INTERPRETATION PRESENTED HERE

The prophecy of the Two Witnesses is one of the most detailed, yet enigmatic prophecies in the Book of Revelation, and it's proper interpretation has long been a source of confusion for many expositors.

However, a study of the history of the period in question when compared to the details given in the prophecy makes it's proper understanding plain, and also stands as one of the greatest proofs of the inspiration of prophecy, and of the workings of the spirit of God throughout history.

Historicist interpreters are nearly unanimous in their interpretation of the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments which saw the rise of Islam and the devastating invasions which culminated in the extermination of the eastern Roman Empire with the fall of Constantinople in the year 1453.  It is precisely at this point where there is a break in the prophetic sequence, and it is here that we are given the prophecies of the Temple Trampled, and of the Two Witnesses, both of which are to continue 1260 prophetic years.  It is at the close of this period that the Two Witnesses are to be slain, and then raised up after three and one half prophetic years.  It is only after these events that the Sixth Trumpet comes to a close.  

Therefore it is clear that we should look for these events; the slaying of the The Two Witnesses, their resurrection, the great earthquake in which the tenth part of the city was to fall etc. within historical events shortly following those which so clearly immediately precede them within the prophetic sequence of events - namely the destruction of the eastern empire and the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

And remarkably, we find in the opening of Revelation 10 a vision which  exactly corresponds with the history of this period; an Angel having a 'little book' which the apostle is commanded to consume.  It was in the year 1454 that the invention of the printing press produced the first printed Bibles which facilitated the widespread reading of the Scriptures and which brought forth the great Protestant Reformation.

And it is in the events of this Reformation, and the bloody counter-reformation and religious wars which followed in it's aftermath that we look for, and find the historical events which correspond in every detail with those given in the prophecies concerning the Two Witnesses, the war of the beast against them, their laying slain for three and a half prophetic  years, their resurrection, and the fall one tenth of the Papal empire at the same period in which these events transpired.  Events, all of which precede the close of the sixth trumpet judgment.

I ask the reader to carefully consider the interpretation of this prophecy as presented here along with the material given in Box A to the left.  Surely history is the greatest interpreter of prophecy.