Revelation 11:7: And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

The Two Witnesses will minister in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation¹ with tremendous priesthood power.² Nevertheless, they will be killed when they shall have finished their testimony.³ The testimony of the Two Witnesses will be finished only when: (1) The set time of their 42-month (1260-day) ministry expires,⁴ (2) they complete their testimony of Christ to the Jewish nation⁵ such that the unbelieving Jews will be left without excuse⁶ and the Lord will be justified to cut off all those⁷ whose cup of iniquity is full,⁸ and (3) they seal their testimony with their blood⁹ as a witness¹⁰ against those who support¹¹ and/or rejoice in their death.¹² The Two Witnesses will die according to God's will¹³ as the Second Woe (Physical Armageddon) comes to an end.¹⁴ Their blood will then cry to God for vengeance with other martyred saints.¹⁵ After their death, the Lord will quickly pour out his wrath upon the wicked without measure during the Third Woe of the seventh seal.¹⁶

John records that the Two Witnesses will be killed by the beast.¹⁷ This symbolic name appears for the first time in Revelation 11:7,¹⁸ but John uses it repeatedly in subsequent chapters of the Revelation.¹⁹ The beast mentioned in Revelation 11:7 is not any of the four actual beasts that John saw in heaven praising God in Revelation chapters 4 and 5.²⁰ Rather the beast in Revelation 11:7 is the embodiment of evil from Satan's kingdom on earth,²¹ that has had, and will have, power on earth to influence the earthly and mortal agents of Satan until the Second Coming.²²

Many symbols and images depict the beast throughout its history as an agent of Satan.²³ Many describe the beast as antichrist.²⁴ The beast is not the Antichrist per se because there are many antichrists in many forms.²⁵ As a composite antichrist, the beast represents evil people²⁶ and evil institutions²⁷ of both church²⁸ and state.²⁹ Institutional beasts supported by wicked people have been part of Satan's earthly kingdom³⁰ since the fall of Adam.³¹ The beast includes anyone opposed to light and truth,³² and everyone who worships Satan or aligns their lives with him.³³ The beast includes legions of evil spirits that influence wicked people on earth,³⁴ including wicked people that use their power and position to promote spiritual wickedness in earthly governments and organizations of every kind.³⁵

The book of Daniel traces the origin of the beast in Revelation 11:7 to four great beasts from the sea in ancient history.³⁶ Daniel chapter 7 symbolically describes Satan's earthly power and dominion as a lion in the Babylonian Empire,³⁷ a bear in the Medo-Persian Empire,³⁸ a leopard in the Greek Empire,³⁹ and a dreadful beast in the Roman Empire.⁴⁰ The dreadful beast of the Roman Empire embodied all the combined attributes of evil from the Babylonian lion, the Medo-Persian bear, and the Greek leopard.⁴¹

John the Revelator saw the dreadful beast of the Roman Empire from Daniel 7:7 emerge from the sea in Revelation 13:1 as it destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple during the Roman Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD.⁴² That fourth dreadful beast‒which is also the First Beast in Revelation chapter 13‒was so powerful that it overcame the ancient Christian church completely during the period of the Great Apostasy, as described by John in Revelation 13:7.⁴³ The dreadful beast of the Roman Empire also had ten horns in Daniel's vision to represent the power of Satan throughout the Great Apostasy and into the era of modern nations in all the earth.⁴⁴

In 1830, a little horn emerged from the ten horns on the dreadful Roman beast as described in Daniel 7:8.⁴⁵ That little horn was given power to take peace from the earth completely⁴⁶ and its power continues to grow⁴⁷ at an exponential rate.⁴⁸ The little horn from Daniel's vision is the Second Beast that John saw in Revelation 13:11 that had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke as a dragon.⁴⁹ Some scholars equate this Second Beast with the False Prophet mentioned by John in Revelation 16:13 and 19:20.⁵⁰ However, the Second Beast in Revelation chapter 13 has two horns which indicate, among other things, that the Second Beast is a composite of John's First Beast (Cain) that emerged from the sea in 70 AD in Revelation 13:1 and the False Prophet (Judas) that emerged from the earth in 1830 AD in Revelation 13:11.⁵¹ In other words, the symbolism of False Prophet and Second Beast are closely related, but their separate images describe different aspects of the kingdom of Satan in the modern era.

In a future day, after the seventh seal opens and the First Woe begins,⁵² the power and dominion of the composite Second Beast will increase dramatically as evil spirits are unleashed from the bottomless pit to spread spiritual darkness and evil on earth in Revelation 9:1-3.⁵³ John refers to this event, in part, in Revelation 11:7, saying that, "the beast ascendeth out of the bottomless pit."⁵⁴ After this vast army of evil spirits emerges from the bottomless pit during the First Woe, the Second Beast will reach the pinnacle of its power on earth⁵⁵ at the midpoint of Armageddon during the Second Woe.⁵⁶ The gathering of saints to Adam-ondi-Ahman will also occur at the midpoint of Armageddon⁵⁷ when Christ is coronated and finally begins to retake dominion and power away from the Second Beast on the earth.⁵⁸

After the gathering at Adam-ondi-Ahman, the Second Beast will no longer have any power in Zion (New Jerusalem).⁵⁹ However, the Second Beast will continue to have great power to make war against Jerusalem and the Two Witnesses⁶⁰ during their 3½ year ministry.⁶¹ The evil spirits from the bottomless pit will use their great power⁶² to inspire and urge the Gentiles to wage this relentless war against the Jews and Jerusalem⁶³ until God allows the Satanic agents of the Second Beast⁶⁴ to kill the Two Witnesses as described in Revelation 11:7.⁶⁵

The Two Witnesses will die in a very public display, and wicked people around the world will celebrate the event.⁶⁶ Historical precedent may suggest that the Two Witnesses will die in a public beheading,⁶⁷ although Revelation 11:5 implies their death by fire.⁶⁸ Their deaths will undoubtedly come at the hands of conspiring friends⁶⁹ that will betray them as Judas Iscariot betrayed his friend Jesus.⁷⁰ Even though the Two Witnesses will have nearly unlimited power,⁷¹ they will allow themselves to be taken, condemned, and killed when their hour comes,⁷² just as the Savior allowed himself to be taken when his hour had come.⁷³

After the Two Witnesses die, evil spirits from the bottomless pit and wicked Gentiles will have unfettered power in Jerusalem as the Second Woe comes quickly to an end.⁷⁴ There will be 3½ days of unspeakable horrors in Jerusalem as the gentile armies overrun the city.⁷⁵ By the time their evil reign comes to an end, two-thirds of the Jewish people will be dead throughout all the land of Israel and half of the Jews in Jerusalem.⁷⁶ The final seven Vial Plagues of the Third Woe will begin immediately after this 3½ day Abomination of Desolation⁷⁷ and the Vial Plagues of the Third Woe will bring an end to wickedness.

During the sixth Vial Plague of the Third Woe, all the evil spirits from the bottomless pit will be gathered to the valley of Armageddon for Spiritual Armageddon.⁷⁸ The power of the Second Beast will finally end during the seventh Vial Plague when the disembodied spirit sons of perdition are forever cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone in Revelation 19:20,⁷⁹ and the unembodied spirit sons of perdition are bound for 1000 years in the bottomless pit in Revelation 20:1-3.⁸⁰ Any wicked people still on earth that do not live at least a terrestrial law will also be destroyed during the seventh Vial Plague and consumed by the brightness of Christ's Second Coming.⁸¹