Simple answer
Revelation 11 describes the temple being measured, two witnesses prophesying for 1,260 days, their apparent defeat and restoration, and the seventh trumpet announcing the kingdom of Christ and opening the heavenly temple scene.
Revelation 11:1–2 — Measuring the temple
Revelation 11:1–2 gives John a reed and tells him to measure the temple of God, the altar, and the worshipers, while the outer court is left out and the holy city is trodden for forty-two months.
The passage joins sanctuary and worship language. How the measuring should be applied historically is interpretive; the chapter itself gives the symbols and period.
Revelation 11:3–6 — The two witnesses
Revelation 11:3–6 describes two witnesses prophesying in sackcloth for 1,260 days and calls them two olive trees and two lampstands standing before God.
BPG understands the witnesses as a symbol of the Old and New Testament Scriptures because of the testimony/lamp imagery and the role of God’s word. Revelation 11, however, does not explicitly contain the equation “two witnesses = Old and New Testaments.”
Interpretive status
The Old/New Testament identification is BPG’s historicist/biblical synthesis. Other interpreters identify the witnesses differently, including two individual end-time prophets. The chapter’s direct statements should remain distinct from those applications.
Revelation 11:7–14 — Defeat and restoration
Revelation 11:7–14 describes the beast from the abyss making war on the witnesses, their bodies lying in the street of the great city figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, and their restoration after three and a half days.
The chapter itself explains the names Sodom and Egypt as figurative. Connecting the scene with one specific later political episode requires historical correlation beyond the explicit text.
Revelation 11:15–19 — The seventh trumpet
Revelation 11:15–19 announces that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ. The heavenly temple is opened, and the ark of the covenant is seen in the temple.
The chapter therefore closes the trumpet sequence with kingdom, judgment, worship, and heavenly-temple imagery rather than with a merely military climax.
The 42 months and 1,260 days
Revelation 11 places 42 months and 1,260 days side by side. Revelation 12 and 13 use parallel prophetic-time expressions. The biblical comparison is direct; converting those expressions into a later calendar chronology belongs to historicist interpretation.
Frequently asked questions
Does Revelation 11 explicitly say the two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments?
No. That identification is a biblical/historicist synthesis, not an explicit definition in the chapter.
Does Revelation 11 name France or the French Revolution?
No. Any such historical correlation must be argued from history and interpretation rather than presented as wording in Revelation 11.