Part of my theory is that Revelation 11 looks a lot like Daniel 12 in their similar timelines. It's possible that both passages are telling the same thing with each one filling in some of the other's gaps. I also have a theory that the overall Revelation timeline is part historical, part preterist, and part futurist. Finally, there's my theory that the desecration that causes desolation is the Muslim dome of the rock being built on the Temple Mount in 688 AD -- 1,260 years before Israel became a nation in 1948. For most of the 1,260 years it was pretty desolate. And it being on the Judaism holy site (thus Judaism being a witness) complete with it being Christian nations in the world wars that ended the Ottoman Empire's control over Jerusalem and helped the Jews return (thus Christianity being a witness), might be the fire coming out of their mouths to kill those who try to harm them (as the Ottoman Empire had done).
The two witnesses being olive trees and lampstands might be symbolic of Judaism and Christianity worshipping the one true God and also being the ones to keep science alive during the dark ages and medieval period.
I'm not a historicist (believing all of eschatology was in John's past when he wrote Revelation). I'm open to part of it being in his past, part in his near future (preterist), and part in his far future (futurist, which is perhaps our time, or perhaps our future). There's no rule that says the seals and trumpets all occur in the same era -- it's possible that collectively those events are spread out over thousands of years.
Throw in the mark of the beast sounding a lot like most Muslim nations forbidding you from buying or selling unless you adopt the Muslim creed (which may be what the mark represents, not a physical mark but the creed you confess to or abide by, as in Moses telling the Jews to write God's commandments on their heads and forearms). So if my timeline is correct then the witnesses have to fit in that timeline. And I can't think of anything else that better fits these descriptions:
Rev 11:3 -- the witnesses are dressed in sackcloth for 1,260 days (or perhaps years) -- as Judaism and Christian powers were in huge decline during the Ottoman Empire's heyday, particularly in the area of Jerusalem.
Rev 11:5 -- If anyone harms them fire comes out of their mouths. That sounds a lot like what the Christian powers did to the middle east in WW1 and WW2, which resulted in the Jews coming back to Israel.
Rev 11:6 -- The power to shut up the sky sounds an awful lot like the drought conditions in that area when the Ottoman Empire controlled that area, but not really now that the Jews are back in control.
Rev 11:7-10 -- The 3.5 years (perhaps 1,260 days or years) of the witnesses' dead bodies and the non-believers gloating might be in reference to Judaism not longer being in control there, nor the Christians (after the Byzantine Empire was run out by the Ottoman Muslims). With the planting of the flag, if you will, being the Dome of the Rock being built there in 688 AD -- lasting until Israel became a nation again 1,260 years later in 1948.
Rev 11:11-13 -- This might be about the Christians retaking the land in WW1 and WW2 with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, a lot of bloodshed in the middle east from the Ottoman Empire joining the Axis powers in WW1 and being defeated by the Allies, the victory of Beersheva (otherwise known as the Liberation of Jerusalem in 1917), and turning it over to the Jews in 1948.
Interesting take.
The bible says Jerusalem, no matter how filled with people, is a desolate house.
And it will be a spiritually desolate house until the Lion from the Tribe of Judah returns.
There is an end times Spiritual Jerusalem today, where the Lamb was slain.
It’s the church.
Is the church ready to be preached to?
Are they ready for a Moses and an Elijah to preach and maybe for a test of Carmel?
Does Jezebel finally win one?
There are 7 lampstands.
Maybe 2 of those lampstands are Smyrna and Philadelphia..
The 2 churches who weren’t told to repent.
2 witnesses?
That could mean, it’s people within those two churches, within Body of Christ and the Woman, who is fighting ultimately with the Woman and the Beast she’s riding in the end..
Maybe their end time message is to flee Babylon, flee Sodom, flee Egypt..
Or the same message the churches received- repent.
Spiritually speaking.
But that means the church doesn’t leave.
It’s here till the end.
Because it is the Woman riding a Beast.
Wandering after the end times Beast and Antichrist.
Which one Antichrist, affiliated with the church, was labeled correctly in the 1500s.
Part of a Roman Empire that’s been around for a long time.
Daniel spoke of a 4th Beast and something out of it would think to change times and law..
Antichrist Papacy and Pope.
The church may find itself as a Jerusalem, a Sodom and an Egypt.
And Riding a Beast.
And Babylon
Spiritually speaking.
It all depends on how much trust one has in Daniel’s 4th Beast and the Antichrist Papacy and Pope it has birthed..
Pope Gregory calendar is a pretty good indication that the world is trusting of the Beast and Antichrist.
Especially the church.
Maybe why the Synagogue of Satan is referenced in Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Because those two churches, those two witnesses, will be standing opposed to the Synagogues of Satan.
Since the bible would confirm Islam and Judaism is Antichrist,they are good candidates for Synagogues of Satan.
But so is the Papacy.
The world would rejoice at the demise of two witnesses.