God revealed himself to Moses in the Book of Exodus. In turn God required Moses to reveal Him to the Israelites. When Moses asked God who he should say has sent him, `God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”‘ (Exodus 3:14, ESV) After this the Israelites considered the phrase “I AM” as revealing God himself. We may say, then, that “I AM” signifies the God of the Old Testament. We could also say that the Book of Exodus reveals God as “I AM” in the Old Testament.

On the other hand, John’s gospel is the Book of I AM in the New Testament. Here also, more than in any other place, John reveals Jesus as the God of the Old Testament, the very God of Creation we see in Genesis 1:1.  John’s first chapter begins with the following profound revelation:

 ^1 (A)In the beginning was ^(B)the Word, and the Word was ^(C)with God, and ^(D)the Word was God. ^2 [a]He was in the beginning with God. ^3 (E)All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ^4 (F)In Him was life, and the life was ^(G)the Light of men. (John 1:1-4, NASB)

John reveals exactly who these first four verses speak about when he says in verse 17,  For ^(A)the Law was given through Moses; ^(B)grace and ^(C)truth ^[a]were realized through Jesus Christ.” I have spoken at length in these pages about the fact that “grace” and “truth” define the twin theme of all Scripture.  And I have shown that these two concepts are the two witnesses of Revelation 11. Synonyms which the Bible uses to define and describe them include “righteousness and justice,” “lovingkindness and faithfulness” and “mercy and law” among others. Remember, Jesus always upheld and taught obedience to God’s Law, but he chastised the Pharisees for failing to understand that God’s principle of mercy should always be used to interpret and execute that law. James describes this principle by saying, “mercy triumphs over judgment!”

For 2000 years most of Christianity has failed because it always emphasized one aspect of the two witnesses to the exclusion or destruction of the other. Thus the past saw many expressions of Christianity kill adherents to other religious expressions because those other segments did not adhere to their laws. They forgot mercy. Today the Church has largely gone in the other direction. Now it fails to judge sin at all and accepts all aberrant behavior under its mistaken idea of grace. Today’s Church is lawless, but full of grace. (Of course there still exist expressions of Christianity which would kill those with whom they disagree, either by word or guns) And so we see the two witnesses lying dead in the public square. But, both grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, not only one or the other.

To illustrate this, think of grace and truth as two rails of the same railroad track. The rails must run parallel to one another or the train will derail. If none or only one track exists the train cannot run at all. Thus are the two witnesses. The true prophetic voice teaches that both grace and truth, mercy and law, must co-exist in the Christian’s life or he will not walk according to the ways of his LORD. Today the Church calls that prophet legalistic because he teaches the holy standards of God’s way. In times past they called him a mystic because he urged us to have grace to seek God for ourselves. In all times the Church en mass silenced the prophetic voice of God’s two witnesses. Those who controlled the money and reigns of power destroyed the two witnesses, either by tortuous death or by excommunication, blacklisting, and shunning. So, today the two witnesses lie dead in the streets of mankind, just as John predicted in Revelation 11.

… to be continued.