Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James Kaddis on the power of the two witnesses of Revelation, the same power that's available to you and me.

James Kaddis: I find some great parallels between these two witnesses and us. The one thing that I think is really cool is the fact that when God puts a call upon your life to go do something, He's going to equip you to do it.

When He equips you to do it, understand that an overwhelming majority of the time, if not all of the time, that equipping will involve some type of supernatural intervention in one way or another.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome as we present Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. We've been studying the Book of Revelation. During the tribulation period, the Lord will send out two witnesses to testify of His grace, love, and forgiveness.

Though they'll have the power and authority of God, they'll be opposed at every turn. Similarly, we are called to be God's witnesses in a hostile environment. Thankfully, we have the power of the spirit to help. Here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: All right, Revelation chapter 11, let's get right into it. Revelation 11 is going to be a fantastic piece of evidence that shows why it's so important to know the Old Testament. If you know the Old Testament, you will be able to better understand the Book of Revelation because Revelation reveals everything that we've learned. It is very powerful, important, and remarkable because there is a lot of bridging of some gaps here that we see in chapter 11 that's going to help us launch through the rest of Revelation.

It says, "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood, saying, 'Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.'" It's important to note when we talk about being given a reed that is likened unto a rod, he's holding a rod in his hand. The idea behind these rods goes back to knowing the Old Testament.

When you start looking at the difference between a span and a cubit, a span would be the distance between the thumb and the pinky when you hold out the hang-loose sign. You're talking roughly about six inches, unless you're a massive Goliath or a behemoth. Then when you talk about a cubit, a cubit is going to be the distance from your middle finger all the way to the elbow, which is generally accepted to be roughly 18 inches.

When you were to grab a rod that would be handed to you, that rod would be very straight. They would go out of their way to make sure it was straight. The distance of that rod was generally accepted to be roughly six cubits. If you think about it, you have the span, which would roughly be six inches. If you were to have a rod, a rod would be six cubits, and six cubits would roughly be nine feet.

Anybody who would measure, if they would be given a rod, then that rod would be a nine-foot straight stick and would be used as a measuring tool. Keep in mind, they didn't have measuring tape back then. They didn't have the cool lasers that you can measure a whole room with, that logs and records everything. They're really expensive, but we'll see. It’s just me wanting to buy an expensive tool that I'll probably only use three times a year.

They didn't have any of that technology. He's giving him a reed that is as straight as a rod and he's saying, "Go ahead and measure." We're talking about nine feet here. If you know the Old Testament, you understand the terminology reflected in the Old Testament. It's going to be able to better help you understand what we're talking about here.

The reason why this is an important thing for me to stipulate to you is the fact that you need to know that we're talking about a massive temple. We're not talking about something that's small. If he's giving him a rod and he's saying "measure with the rod," it's a large structure that he's going to be asked to measure.

Look at what it goes on to say in verse two: "But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." This is important because I want everybody to understand what's going on here. First of all, this means that during the time of the tribulation, there will be a temple. We know that.

That evidence is everywhere. We read about that in Ezekiel. We read about it all over the place, that there is going to be a temple during the time of the tribulation and we may see that temple actually erect in our lifetime. It may happen right before the Rapture takes place. Some people believe it'll happen after we're raptured, but the reality of it is there will be a temple.

A lot of people talk about Revelation chapter 11, verse two, where it talks about an area given unto the Gentiles, the outward court. Some people will say that outward court speaks of the area that is known as the Golden Dome. In Arabic, we say Al-Haram ash-Sharif, and the area south of that, which is of course Al-Aqsa, the mosque over there.

A lot of people do believe that the area that's that little dome just north of Al-Aqsa, they call it the Dome of the Spirits. Right below there, they say, is the Ark of the Covenant, and that's where they also believe the actual new temple is going to be erect. I do not believe that, by the way. That's the view of a lot of my fellow pastors in Calvary Chapel.

I actually believe that the temple will be built on top of the area where the Al-Haram ash-Sharif is, the Golden Dome. If you listen to a lot of Arabic TV and a lot of people talking, the rising and the growing sentiment is that the only mosque that really matters to Islam is not the Golden Dome. The mosque that matters to Islam in Jerusalem specifically is Al-Aqsa.

That would make sense because if the temple is built on the same location that it was built before, which I believe is the area of the Golden Dome, then it would make sense why John is being told not to measure the outward court. It would be the area that would be downtrodden by the Gentiles, which would be Al-Aqsa Mosque. That southern area of the Temple Mount would make perfect sense.

If you think about it, the temple is going to be facing in an eastern direction. If you're standing on the Mount of Olives and you're looking down at the Temple Mount, you'd be facing the face of the temple. Of course, the Western Wall would be the retaining wall behind the temple, to give you an idea of north, south, east, and west, so you kind of have an understanding of what that actually looks like.

We know that there's going to be a temple during that time and there's a lot of debating and arguing as to what is going to be there. One of the primary arguments for the area for the temple being built north of Al-Haram ash-Sharif, the Golden Dome, centers around the idea that they believe that the Ark of the Covenant is actually located under that Dome of the Spirits, which would be the perfect place for the location of the temple to be rebuilt because they believe that the Ark of the Covenant was never taken when the Solomon temple was destroyed.

The problem with that is that when you look at the temple of the Herodian period, that's the temple that Jesus would have been around during, there was no Ark of the Covenant in that temple. We know that. The idea that you're going to base an argument of the physical geographic location on an assertion or an assumption that you're making concerning the location of the actual Ark is kind of a difficult one to be able to make because we just simply don't know.

I have no reason to believe that the temple will not be built in the same exact location. This is why the necessity for the Antichrist to do what he does is going to be an important one. If you remember, the final Antichrist will come in and he will make strong an existing agreement. We don't know what that agreement is. It could be a series of normalization agreements. It could be the existing peace agreements.

Whatever those agreements are, when he comes in to make those strong, it's very likely that the way he's going to solidify them is through the idea of this temple being rebuilt in a very specific context that will be amicable to the Jews and in many cases to the Muslims. If you stop for a second to think about this, it would make sense because there's a growing sentiment amongst the world of Saudi Arabia that says the only area we should be worried about right now is Mecca and not Jerusalem because Mecca is the city that we believe to be the most holy.

This is especially becoming a reality right now in that some of the smartest men in the world are beginning to attack the existence of Mecca as it was always understood to be during the time of the seventh century. Simply because there's a lot of people that believe that the Muhammad that is oftentimes spoken about in Islam is somewhat of a fictional character in that we can't prove that he was in Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula.

It would be virtually impossible. There was no water. There was no supply. There's so many things that go with that. A lot of people believe that the Muhammad that is oftentimes spoken about, the fictional character of Muhammad that's oftentimes spoken about, was one of the Muhammads in the north, which would have been something like Jordan or an area in that area.

Interestingly enough, those Muhammads would have actually been Christians and not Muslims because the name Muhammad is a name now, but before it was a title. Technically, in Arabic, it still is a title, which means the Blessed One. Many of the people that carried the name Muhammad oftentimes was indicative of the fact that they were followers of Christ and they were Christians.

If you want more information on this, I did a great interview with Jay Smith online where you could learn all about this. It's very interesting. But the whole point behind it is with a growing level of really smart scholarship that's beginning to shed light on all of this, you have to understand that the need by the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to preserve Mecca as being the holy site for Islam is becoming their number one priority.

They're beginning to let go of the idea of holding on to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is becoming something that they know the longer they hold on to it, the bigger problem they're going to create for the existence of Mecca, especially when you begin to create the associations between how Mecca specifically, Saudi Arabia, actually was popular and how it became popular versus what really existed during the time of the seventh century.

It's very important that we understand some of this stuff because if we don't understand it, then it's going to make it difficult for us to make the connections with respect to what we know the Bible tells us. Already as it is, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically led by Mohammed bin Salman, who is the crown prince, is beginning to throw out the sentiment within popular culture that the area of the Temple Mount should not be as significant to Muslims as it has been in the past, which is why they're beginning to let go of this idea.

Which is why the kind of skirmishing that you've been seeing on the Temple Mount with respect to position of who should be there and who should not is beginning to increase a little bit with less resistance on the Arab side because of not only what's happening in Gaza, but because of the kind of sentiment that we see beginning to be expressed by Saudi Arabia. We're watching this change.

Nonetheless, it looks like God is priming the pump to be able to facilitate a rebuilding of a temple, which would create the kind of scenario that we're beginning to read about not only in Revelation, but the things that we read about in Ezekiel, in Daniel, and some of what we read about in Isaiah. A lot of what we read about throughout all of the prophets, it makes a lot of sense.

We have to understand these associations because if we don't, then we're going to be very confused as we start to get into more and more of the narrative that we read as we get deeper and deeper and deeper into the Book of Revelation. That's why I'm here. Hopefully, to be able to bridge those connections for you so that we can really help you to understand the fact that this should be interpreted literally and not some weird metaphorical thing.

Look what it says, we're going to get into these witnesses, they are very interesting. "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth." This is interesting because we have these witnesses and they are going to be ministering for 1260 days.

This is important to note because if you take 1260 and you divide it by 360, you get three and a half. We are talking about three and a half years according to the Babylonian calendar, which is 360 days in a year, not 365 days, with an occasional leap year extra day being added. We are talking about 360 days. So according to the Babylonian calendar, we're talking about a three-and-a-half-year period.

These guys are going to be out there and they are going to be witnessing. We're going to talk about their identity in just a second because it is kind of an important discussion. Verse four says, "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth." If you know the Book of Revelation, this is where it goes from an experience where this guy's writing about a bad trip. What's he talking about? Two olive trees and two candlesticks standing before God? That's crazy.

If you actually know the Old Testament, you'll know that what he's referring to directly is the Book of Zechariah, very specifically chapter four. If you read the Book of Zechariah, you'll know this. My encouragement to you would be to go through my teaching on the Book of Zechariah, chapter four, online, to refresh your memory about this because it will make a lot of sense.

More on the Zechariah issue to come, but that's what we're talking about. We're talking about two witnesses that God is going to use to preach the gospel powerfully for three and a half years. Let's look at some of the things that these men are going to be able to do. "If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed."

"These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will." I just think about the power in this. I find some great parallels between these two witnesses and us. One thing that I think is really cool is the fact that when God puts a call upon your life to go do something, He's going to equip you to do it.

When He equips you to do it, understand that an overwhelming majority of the time, if not all of the time, that equipping will involve some type of supernatural intervention in one way or another. I think about my own life and the things that I face on a day-to-day basis with the challenges of my health, and when sickness comes my way. I can make you this promise. It is a statement of truth.

The only reason why I am here before you today and I'm able to clearly and functionally articulate these positions as taught and rendered in the Bible is because of supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit of God in my life. If God did not exist in my life, you would not be the beneficiary of any of this because it is God who supernaturally empowers me to not only remember the material, but to articulate the material.

It is God who gives me the ability to ignore the pains and the sicknesses in my body to simply go forth and do what God has asked me to do. The reality of it is I constantly deal with doctors day in and day out that tell me all kinds of weird things. All of them believe that I'm unemployed. All of them believe that I sit at home as a person who just does nothing all day because when they know the type of condition that I deal with on a day-to-day basis, they think that's the only recourse that I have.

Many of them don't realize that I am busier than most, and in reality, I just keep going and going and going. That's because of the Spirit of God that lives inside of me, who supernaturally enables me to do the things that I do on a day-to-day basis. He's the one who deserves the glory for it. He's the one who deserves the honor. It is His power that I have in my life that enables me to do the same.

For each and every single one of you that look at situations in your life and you say, "This is impossible," or "I'm not capable of this," or "There's no way this can happen," this is what you say with me. Ready? One, two, three, praise God. Why? Here's why. You praise God because that means God has opened up a door in your life where He can show Himself strong on your behalf.

The places where you are the most weak, the places where you are the most incapable, the places where you lack the most are the places that God wants to shine the greatest because He can take whatever strength that you lack and He can make it the strongest point. Supernaturally, people will look at you and say, "Yeah, God's doing that. There's no way it's him."

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. There's been a lot of talk over the years about the identity of these two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11. Pastor James will speak about that in just a moment. To hear this message again, visit lightonthehillradio.com or oneplace.com. It's also available through the Light on the Hill app.

Light on the Hill is made possible through the generosity of our listeners. If the Lord is leading you to support this ministry, please visit lightonthehillradio.com to donate or you can give through the Light on the Hill app. I also want to mention the new book written by Pastor James. It's entitled "The Last Book: A Guide to Revelation Part 1".

As the world heads toward its final chapter, the Bible has already revealed every detail. The Book of Revelation is God's message of warning, hope, and promise to prepare us for what's coming. In "The Last Book," Pastor James takes us through Revelation chapters one through ten and shows us why we must live wholeheartedly for God, anchored in truth and awake to the times. You can order a copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or Amazon.

If you hunger for more Bible prophecy, you may want to seek out Pastor James's videos live or on demand. Many of them relate to current events and Bible prophecy. You can access them at jameskaddis.com. You can also send us your questions about Revelation and Bible prophecy through the website lightonthehillradio.com. We hope to hear from you soon. Now let's get back to our study in Revelation chapter 11 and see who these two witnesses are.

James Kaddis: Now who are these two witnesses? There's a lot of fight as to who they are because there's a lot of debate. We know for sure one of the witnesses is Elijah. We know that for a fact. That is not even a disputable issue. The reason why that's not a disputable issue is we are right now in the last book of the Bible, which is Revelation. Let's go to the last book of the Old Testament.

We've got to establish this. Again, you know the Old Testament, you're going to know the Book of Revelation. Malachi chapter 4, verse four. "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

I want you to remember verse four for context, which talks about Moses. Let's stop for a second and let's just start on this right away. We know for a fact that we're talking about the prophet Elijah as being one of the witnesses because Malachi predicts this. He tells us that. It's a pretty closed and shut case.

The question is who is going to be the second person? Let's go over what a lot of people say will be the second person, and there's many arguments. One of the arguments that is very widely accepted, and one that I just completely disagree with, is that we are talking about Enoch.

The Bible says that Enoch was a prophet. We do know that, but we don't know much about Enoch, in that he walked with God, they had a close relationship, and God took him up. The reason why people say that it's Enoch is because they say that Enoch was the only other person in the Bible that did not die.

Then they misquote a verse that is terribly misunderstood, that says it is appointed once for man unto death, then the judgment. People look at that and say, "Well, since a man has to die, every man has to die, and Enoch didn't die, and Elijah didn't die, they were both taken up, then they have to be the two witnesses."

Except for one major problem: who is in heaven right now at this time that these two witnesses appear? The church. How did the church get there? They were raptured, which means they didn't die. They were taken up just like Enoch. So if you wanted to argue the fact that Enoch was taken up so it has to be him, then you can also argue that it could be any member of the church. I could say that second witness will be me.

There's a lot of cuckoos out there saying things like that. "I am the second witness of Revelation, and I have power to call down fire!" There's a lot of these guys. One guy actually told me that he was the second witness of Revelation and that he was going to call down fire on me because I'm a false prophet, one of the guys that watched me on YouTube. He doesn't watch me anymore because we've blocked him. He couldn't call fire down on that, but that's a whole other story. So we're not talking about that.

Guest (Male): So who is this second witness then? Well, you'll have to stay tuned next time to hear what Pastor James has to say. That's right here on Light on the Hill, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.