The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

Christ and to His Gospel, these evangelical churches would also witness against the
Roman Antichrist, and his assumptions."--H. G. Guinness.
The interpretation offered by William Miller regarding the two witnesses, is of interest in
this connection. We quote from a sermon preached by him in 1842:
"The angel in his allusion to the two olive trees quotes Zechariah 4:3: 'And two olive trees
by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.' Here
the olive trees are used in a figurative sense, and properly denote the 'sons of oil' or the
two cherubim, which stood over the ark, and spread their wings over the mercy seat. The
wings of the cherubim stretched from either side of the house, and their faces turned
inwards down upon the mercy seat, and the glory of the God of Israel was above the
cherubim. These cherubim are a lively type of the Old and New Testaments. . . . These
cherubim were made of olive trees and overlaid with pure gold. Again, the angel tells
Zechariah what the two olive trees are: Zech. 4:4-6, 'So I answered and spake to the angel
that talked with me, saying, What are these, my Lord? . . . Then he answered and said unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,' etc. Here we are plainly told [?]
that the two olive trees are the Word of the Lord, and the angel tells John, that the two
witnesses are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks. Candlesticks are the means of
light as is the Word of God. And David says, 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to
my path.' Therefore, I humbly believe that I have fairly and conclusively proved that the
two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments."
While agreeing in part with Mr. Miller, we observe that he ignores two very important
things in his interpretation of this vision. One is the fact that the Savior Himself explained
that a candlestick or lampstand represents a church. (Rev. 1:20.) The other is the
interpretation of the messenger to Zechariah (Zech. 4:14), that the olive trees represent "the
two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth," which applies them to living
intelligences, human beings. He therefore bases his conclusion wholly upon his wrong
interpretation, we believe, of the two cherubim of the inner apartment of the tabernacle. A
seemingly reasonable interpretation of the cherubim as given by Mr. Russell is as follows:
"As the ark represented the Christ, so the mercy seat, glory-light, and cherubim represented
Jehovah God. . . . The two cherubim represented two other elements of Jehovah's
character, as revealed in His Word, namely Divine love and Divine power."
This last writer, while not giving a full interpretation of these witnesses, refers to them as
representing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We quote his words when
calling attention to the closing of the twelve hundred and sixty years of Papacy's
domination over the saints:
"And forth came, and are coming, the Sanctuary class, the 'holy people,' weak, and halt,
and lame, and almost naked, and blind, from the dungeon darkness and filth and misery
of Papal bondage. Poor souls! they had been trying to serve God faithfully in the very
midst of the lurid flames of persecution, clinging to the cross of Christ when almost every
truth had been swept away, and courageously endeavoring to emancipate God's two