Revelation 11:8
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
The great city in whose street the dead bodies lie is France, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where Christ was crucified in His people. Egypt means atheism and open defiance of the living God as Pharaoh refused to know Jehovah, and Sodom means corrupt lawbreaking marked above all by licentiousness and sexual immorality. Near the close of their twelve hundred and sixty years of prophesying in sackcloth from A.D. 538 to 1798, the two witnesses were to be killed by a new satanic power from the bottomless pit, foretelling the suppression of the Scriptures and rejoicing over their public humiliation until the Spirit of life entered them after three days and a half. That crucifixion of Christ in His disciples was displayed in France century after century in Waldenses, Albigenses, Reformation martyrs, hunted Huguenots and the Church in the Desert, and most terribly in Paris in the St. Bartholomew Massacre when tens of thousands were murdered with the sanction of king, priests and pope. It was fulfilled in 1793 when France by national decree renounced God, burned the Bible, abolished the Sabbath and degraded marriage to a temporary civil contract to be taken and cast off at pleasure, while blasphemy exalted the basest men and declared Christ an impostor. The world is now a second Sodom under the same spiritual corruption, so the eleventh chapter with the eighteenth must be read to learn the judgments yet to fall on the cities and to make ready a people to stand in the day of God's preparation.
City, Names and Time
The great city in whose street the dead bodies lie is France, where powers working through the papacy produced moral corruption like that of Sodom and idolatry and spiritual darkness like that of Egypt, and where Christ was figuratively crucified in the persecution and murder of His faithful people. Spiritually called Egypt means atheism, open denial of the living God and defiance of His commands, because of all nations in Bible history Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands, as Pharaoh proudly refused to know Jehovah or let Israel go, so the fulfilling nation would voice the same denial of the claims of the living God with the same unbelief and defiance. Spiritually called Sodom means corrupt lawbreaking pre-eminently marked by licentiousness and sexual immorality, so that breaking the law of God especially manifested in that sin would be a pre-eminent characteristic of the fulfilling nation.
The slaying is done a little before 1798, as the witnesses approach the end of their prophesying in sackcloth ending in 1798, when they finish their testimony. It is done by the beast ascending out of the bottomless pit as a new manifestation of satanic power making open war on the Bible, distinct from papal Rome that had kept the Bible hidden.
The forty-two months and the thousand two hundred and threescore days are the same, representing the 1,260 years of oppression of the church by Rome and papal supremacy. That period begins in A.D. 538 and terminates in 1798, when a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner and he died in exile, after which the papal hierarchy never wielded its former power. The persecution of the church did not continue through the entire period, because God in mercy cut short the fiery trial, and through the Reformation persecution was brought to an end prior to 1798.
Slain Witnesses and Crucified Lord
The verse describes the killing and public humiliation of the two witnesses when they finish their testimony near the end of their 1,260-year testimony during the French Revolution. It foretold the suppression of the Scriptures during papal supremacy and the terrible results to come especially on France from the domination of the man of sin. Those dwelling on earth rejoice over them and make merry while their bodies lie unburied, until after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God enters them and they stand on their feet.
Where also our Lord was crucified means France crucified Christ in the person of His disciples. In no land was enmity against Christ more strikingly displayed and in no country did the truth meet more bitter and cruel opposition century after century. Century after century the blood of the saints was shed there in persecution of the confessors of the gospel.
That centuries-long crucifixion includes Waldenses laying down their lives upon the mountains of Piedmont for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and their brethren the Albigenses of France bearing similar witness. It includes disciples in the days of the Reformation put to death with horrible tortures while king and nobles and high-born women looked on. It includes brave Huguenots pouring out their blood battling for sacred rights as outlaws with a price on their heads hunted like wild beasts. It includes the Church in the Desert in the eighteenth century still cherishing the faith while meeting by night on mountainside or lonely moor, chased by dragoons, dragged to lifelong slavery in the galleys in horrible torture, shot down unarmed on their knees in prayer, and left dead at every four paces and hanging from trees until the country was made a vast gloomy wilderness.
In the streets of Paris Christ was crucified in His saints in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew with the king's approval and the signal from the palace bell. More than thirty thousand were killed in three days, and the pope celebrated the massacre with a jubilee. The blackest act of that persecution was that same St. Bartholomew Massacre when thousands of trusting Protestants were dragged from homes and murdered in cold blood in Paris for seven days and throughout France for two months until seventy thousand perished by sanction of the king urged on by Romish priests. As Christ had been the invisible leader of His people from Egyptian bondage, so Satan was the unseen leader of his subjects in multiplying martyrs.
Egypt was fulfilled in 1793 when the French Legislative Assembly decreed that there was no God and renounced belief and worship of a Deity. The decree was joyfully accepted by the people of Paris and elsewhere, making France the single nation to lift its hand as a nation against the Author of the universe. Sodom was fulfilled during the Revolution in licentiousness and moral debasement like that which brought destruction on the cities of the plain. It was fulfilled especially in degrading marriage from a sacred permanent union to a mere transitory civil contract to be taken and cast loose at pleasure, called the sacrament of adultery.
The word of truth lay dead in the streets of infidel France because the Bible and God's law were rejected, and those who opposed God's requirements rejoiced. The Bible was publicly burned, the Sabbath was abolished, and an atheistic power openly rejected God and His word, completing the work of suppressing biblical truth begun by Romanism. In that supreme homage to Satan the same master-spirit that multiplied martyrs led in the Revolution. Jesus Christ was declared an impostor under the rallying cry against the Wretch, heaven-daring blasphemy and abominable wickedness went hand in hand, and the basest and most cruel men were exalted. Christ in His characteristics of truth, purity, and unselfish love was crucified there in that rejection, and the bloodshed and terror that followed were the harvest of that rebellion.
Warning for Cities Today
The whole eleventh chapter must be read, every verse, together with the scenes of the eighteenth chapter, to learn the things yet to take place in the cities. It gives special indications of coming judgments upon cities and of a coming display of power because of the sins of the great cities. That display was already seen in the recent destruction of a sinful city for its sins. The destruction warns against ignoring the prophecy, making light of it, or meeting it with indifference. It warns against flattering self that greater buildings will be built, and against defiantly investing means in city enterprises, lest power be exercised to counteract such efforts. It calls men who have abused privilege and wronged their fellow men to hear the voice and to make amends.
The world now is a second Sodom, spiritually corrupt like Sodom, and the end is right upon us. Because the world is in this condition there must be a message to make ready a people to stand in the day of preparation.