Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 171:681 (Jan 2014)
Article: Preterist Views On The Two Witnesses In Revelation 11
Author: Christine Joy Tan

BSac 171:681 (January-March 2014) p. 72

Preterist Views On The Two Witnesses In Revelation 11*

Christine Joy Tan

* This is the first article in a four-part series “A Defense of a Futurist View of the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11:3-13.”

Christine Joy Tan, Bible prophecy teacher and Christian educator, serves in Asia, America, and Europe.

According to preterists most of the book of Revelation was fulfilled in the initial centuries of the Christian era, either at Jerusalem’s fall (AD 70) or at the demise of Jerusalem (first century) and Rome (fifth century).1 With the rise of Christian reconstructionism the preterist approach to eschatology has experienced a revival of lay interest.2 The present series begins by examining preterist theories in one area of interest—the identity and era of the witnesses described in Revelation 11.

BSac 171:681 (January-March 2014) p. 73

Preterists And The Two Witnesses In Revelation 11

Preterists hold one of three views on the identity of the two witnesses in Revelation 11: (1) Christians remaining in Jerusalem during AD 67-70; (2) symbols of Jewish governmental and religious authorities during the first-century Jewish War; and (3) representatives of the entire line of Hebrew prophets, who bore witness against apostate Jerusalem, before its destruction in AD 70.

Christians At Jerusalem In AD 67-70

Table 1 lists variations within the preterist view that the witnesses represent Christians who remained in Jerusalem in AD 67-70.