The Spirit of Elijah 6 - Definition of Witness

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D efinition of Witness

The English word witness is derived from the Anglo Saxon word, gewita, which means a witness, from witan, to perceive, to know.   The Old High German word gewiznesse,  means experience.   The Icelandic, vitneskja, means intelligence, notice.   The current English usage bears the flowing connotations:   testimony;  knowledge or matter adduced in proof;  a person who sees or knows anything;  one present;  one who gives evidence;  one who see the execution of a will, a deed, or suchlike and adhibits his name to it to confirm its authenticity.  

The verb means to see or know by personal presence.

The Greek word martus, is translated in the King James Version of the Bible as  martyr, witness, record.

The purpose of the coming of the two witnesses is to hew out a people for the coming of the Lord.   Their ministry will be cantered in Jerusalem and will be directed exclusively to the nation of Israel.  

The Jewish people as a nation do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.   They do, however, believe the Law and the Prophets.   Moses represents and heads up the Law:   Elijah represents and heads up the Prophets.

God will use these two prophets to open the eyes of Jewry to see,  acknowledge and embrace, the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Hosea 6:5   Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets...

Zechariah 12:8-11   In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem;  and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David;  and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.   And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that have come against Jerusalem.   And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:   and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.   In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Meggidon.

John 19:37   And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

Romans 11:15-26   For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?   For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy:   and if the root be holy, so are the branches.   And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches.   But if thou boast, thou barest not the root, but the root thee.   Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.   Well;  because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.   Be not highminded, but fear:   For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.   Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God:   on them which fell severity;  but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness:   otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.   And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in:   for God is able to graft them in again.   For if thou wast cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree:   how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?   For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;  that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.   And so all Israel shall be saved:   as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

For these men to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the English definition of the verb, to see or know by personal experience, they must of necessity have been present at the major events of His life.    They must be able to declare with complete conviction, “I know, I was there, I saw it happen!”   Anything short of this excludes a witness from being a witness.

The number two, in the Bible speaks of witness, while three is the number representing  perfection of witness.

1 John 5:7,8   For  there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word , and the Holy Ghost:   and these three are one.   And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood:   and these three agree in  one.

Deuteronomy 17:6   At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death;  but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

Matthew 18:16   But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

1 Timothy 5:19   Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

Genesis 1:1   In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The Hebrew word for God used here is Elohiym, the uni-plural God.   If God was not triune He could never fulfill His own word!

The three heavenly witnesses are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

The three earthly witnesses are Enoch, Moses and Elijah.

God never leaves Himself without a witness.

Wise men attended the birth of the baby Jesus;  angels ministered to him in the Garden of Gethsemane;  men in white were seen at the resurrection;  angels testified that this same Jesus you have seen leaving the earth will return in like manner.

On the mount of Transfiguration the two men that accompanied the Lord Jesus are named.

Matthew 17:3   And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him.