No Christian understands the depth of rebellion in his own personality until the Lord begins to bring him into submission to the Father. Often much suffering is involved as our will is broken and we learn to say, "Not my will but Yours be done."

One of the main purposes of the great tribulation, according to our understanding, is to purify the Bride through suffering. The Bride is a firstfruits of mankind and must demonstrate her obedience before she can expect to bring the nations into obedience with a rod of iron.

Christ learned obedience through suffering. He in turn judges and purifies through suffering the firstfruits of His Church. When He returns, the firstfruits, having been reconciled to God through suffering, will judge men and angels. All who are to be saved (brought forward to the new heaven and earth) must learn to submit to God's will.

The Day of Atonement (Day of Image and Union) is a period of intense conflict as the rebellious soul of man seeks to be reconciled, to be married, to the Lord. The Kingdom of God is designed to insure that God's will is done on earth as it is performed in Heaven. Heaven is the Throne of God. The Throne of God is coming to the earth in the new Jerusalem. The will of God is coming to the earth. This is the goal of the day of image and union.

The two witnesses who usher in the day of image and union are described in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation. Although these witnesses give their prophecy before Christ returns from Heaven, their testimony is accompanied by miracles different from those to which we have become accustomed. The two witnesses still are in the Church Age, the day of life, but they are performing acts of destruction—works that will characterize the Davidic-type conquests of the thousand-year period.

Some have speculated that the two witnesses are two men who have been raised from the dead—men who lived under the old covenant such as Moses and Aaron. Or perhaps they are Enoch and Elijah who have returned from Heaven.

But in view of our study of the relationship of God's witnesses to the days they heralded, it is quite unlikely God would return to the old covenant saints in order to provide examples of the coming thousand-year period or to serve as molds in which the thousand-year Kingdom Age will be developed.

The two witnesses are lampstands, and lampstands in the Book of Revelation are the Christian churches.

The Lord Jesus prophesied that the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations and then the end will come. After the witness of the coming Kingdom has been brought to every nation, the end of the present age will be here.

Does it appear likely that the Lord Jesus would remove His Church, the light of the world, from its role of witnessing of the coming Kingdom of God and bring back two saints from the old covenant to perform this momentous and essential task? Is the Church, the Body of Christ, such a wretched failure, such a blemished bride, that Christ must return to an inferior covenant in order to produce the witnesses of His coming?

To be continued.