As we have seen, the history of physical Israel, beginning with David, was a type and shadow of the spiritual Israel that would be fulfilled beginning with Jesus on David's throne. Thus, the history of Israel from about 1000 B.C. to about 140 B.C., when the independent kingdom of Hasmon was established, was a picture of the history that would be fulfilled beginning with Jesus and continuing to the end of the world when the kingdom of God comes.

Through Daniel, God recorded the history of Israel from the time of the liberation from Babylon, but he wrote it all in parables and sealed it until the end of the age, the end of the age to which the Bible testifies being the time of the appearance of Antiochus IV (Daniel 12:4). Therefore, when the Church of God's Kim Joo-cheol appears according to the prophecy of Antiochus IV, the end of the world is near, and the sealed prophecies will be opened at that time. Just as Antiochus IV set up several idols in the temple of God to be worshipped, so too will Kim Joo- cheol imprint two idols, Ahn Sang-hong and Jang Gil-jah, in the minds of his followers.

Around 167 BC, Antiochus IV massacred the Jews and destroyed God's temple or allowed Zeus and other idols to be worshiped in the temple. As massacres of Jews and religious persecution intensified, Judah Maccabees fled to the wilderness that spring with about nine of his followers to prepare for an uprising. They led a three-and-a-half-year uprising that drove Antiochus' army out of Jerusalem and recaptured the Temple in December 164 BC, marking the beginning of the establishment of the independent Hasmonean state. However, this history is not just physical, but is to be manifested once again as spiritual history at the end of the world.

[Below is Macabi's account of the history of that time.]

suddenly attacked the city, inflicting great damage and killing many Israelites. He plundered the city, set it on fire, and tore down the houses and the walls around it. His army also took the women and children captive and carried away the livestock. Then they rebuilt the city of David, building strong walls and strong towers, and made it their stronghold." (1 Maccabees 1:29-33)

"Antiochus sent Apollonius, tetrarch of Mysia, with twenty-two thousand men, and ordered that all the chief men be slaughtered, and the women and children sold into slavery. When Apollonius arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be a peaceful man and waited until the holy Sabbath, and when he saw that the Jews were not working on that day, he ordered his men to make an armed procession. Then he slaughtered all who came out to see the spectacle, and rushed into the city with his armed men, and slew many others. Then Judas, whose name was Maccabeus, withdrew into the wilderness with about nine men. There he and his companions lived like wild beasts, eating only what came up in the fields, so as not to defile themselves." (2 Maccabees 5:24-27)

[December 8, 167 B.C.] "On the fourteenth day of the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, Antiochus set up an abomination on the altar of burnt offering." (Maccabees 1:54) "Soon afterward, the king sent a man from the Athenian senate to urge the Jews to abandon the law of their fathers and not to live by the law of God. He also made the temple of Jerusalem unclean, and caused it to be called the temple of Zeus of Olympus, like those who lived there, and the temple of Grissim, the temple of Zeus, the protector of the stranger. Thus the reign of evil was ferocious and extremely harsh: the temple was filled with the debauchery and revelry of the immigrants; they played with prostitutes, slept with women in the temple precincts, and brought unclean things. The altars were filled with unclean things forbidden by law." (2 Maccabees 6:1~)

[December 14, 164 B.C... the origin of the Hanukkah]

"They rose early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, and offered sacrifices according to the law on the newly made altar of burnt offerings; and on the very day that the immigrants had defiled the altar, they rededicated it, and sang and played the harps and the psaltery and the zither. " (Maccabees 4:52-56) "On the very day that the immigrants had defiled the temple, they purified it, which was the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, in the same month." (Maccabees 2:10:5)
 

In Revelation 11, two witnesses empowered by God appear and fight the false churches for 1260 days (3 years and 6 months), fulfilling the prophecy of the Maccabees. Just as Maccabees fought the Syrian army to restore the Jerusalem temple, the two witnesses will fight for three and a half years to restore the heavenly temple. The opening of the heavenly temple after the resurrection of the two witnesses shows that Maccabees' prophecy is fulfilled through the two witnesses.

[Revelation 11:15~19] Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."...(19) And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

So the two witnesses are not fighting elsewhere, but are fighting the Church of God, which is fulfilling the prophecy of Antiochus IV. All the saints who fight the Church of God are fulfilling the prophecy of the Maccabees.