A Witness

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

A WITNESS

Rev 11:7-10

7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

NIV

Here comes the beast. This beast will be referred to again and again and in fact it or he was referred to by Daniel as well, but not in such detail as John will give us throughout the rest of the revelation given to him. Some would say this beast is the Roman Empire and the witnesses are the early church. Some would say the beast is Judaism which persecuted the early Church. Some would say this is the Papal power which is seated in Rome which certainly by their reckoning has killed true Christianity. We should leave all that conjecture to those who think of themselves as the scholarly type. What we should try to find is of what value is all this information for our lives today. It would surely seem the beast which ascends from the Abyss has in most senses a reference to the false prophet or the Anti-Christ, who by all accounts is a representation or a representative of Satan. Whoever he is, he is after the destruction of the Church, the true believers in Christ. He will kill the church, he will destroy our witness in the world. The two witnesses who were killed were left in the streets, refused burial. This is a fact of the people of the past for showing a great disrespect toward a person who died. It is factual the Catholic Church, the papal power refused burial to those who they killed because they were not of the same faith and therefor heathen not worthy of a Christian burial. But again this is history and we need to focus on the days of our lives and how it applies to us. The power of darkness, the beast will kill our witness in this world by destroying our testimony. He can do this without actually taking our lives. IF we do not live our faith out loud, if we do not show the world the power of God in our lives, of what testimony do we have? If we live in the same manner as the rest of the people, the unbelieving people, what witness are we of the saving grace of God? If we say we are Christians, believers, followers of Jesus, then should we not live like it among the unbelieving world? What good is all our good deeds if we are stuck inside the walls of the church building or only befriend and thus hang around other believers? The beast wants to kill us, kill our witness, and show us disrespect. Is this not happening in our world today? Even some of the leaders of our government have disrespected Christianity. Certainly the word hypocrite has been cast toward the church. It would seem the government has more respect for Islam then for Christianity. Others from the unbelieving have and are attempting to silence the message of Christianity in order to justify all their immoral behavior, their all-inclusive acceptance of every form of anti-scriptural behavior. If we take a stand against this sort of lifestyle we are called bigots, judgmental or closed-minded, all of which are designed to destroy our witness for Jesus. If we are not careful our witness will be killed and we will have no respect at all in the world. We can certainly see the world giving each other gifts, patting each other on the back, praising each other for their attitudes and behaviors which defy the standards of God. Just recently we observed a man given a medal of honor and hailed as a hero for becoming a women. This certainly has to be disrespecting God, and our witness for him. When our witness is killed the world celebrates its victory. We will see these two witnesses rise from the dead and that is comforting as we shall always overcome the forces of darkness, the power of the beast, the representation of Satan. God will always triumph over evil. But we have to stand tall, remain true to the word of God, speak up, being a voice, even if it is one in the wilderness of this sinful world, for God. Let the forces of evil try to kill the church, try to kill our witness for Jesus, he will fail as we will always rise again to continue on. We will never stop being a witness.