Jesus warned that His return would be as a thief in the night: quiet until suddenly exposed; only recognized in advance by those watching closely. But what does it mean to come as a thief when billions claim His name? And what if His first coming—humble, hidden, misunderstood by the masses—was a shadow of how His two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11 would appear much later before His return as King of kings to reveal the mystery of God—the time of the second coming of Jesus? In this article, we will explore the stealth of Christ’s return, the subtle, yet unprecedented signs of the two witnesses, and how we can be among the few who recognize them and their testimony of the time of the return of Christ before the night is over.

The Pattern: Discerned By Few

When Jesus came the first time, He didn’t arrive with trumpets or a crown. His humble birth among the animals in a Bethlehem stable was void of the earthly honor given to princes. But it was not unnoticed by all. Angels of heaven announced it to a few shepherds in a nearby field with praise to God and singing, and a few wise men in a distant land saw a new star appear and understood it to be of the King that the Hebrew scriptures foretold would be born.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:1-2)

Jesus’ first coming was quiet and hidden, slipping past the proud but revealed to those watching with humble hearts. This pattern of quiet arrival, unrecognized by the masses, is a blueprint for the two witnesses of Revelation 11, who are like the wise men and the shepherds to whom was given the blessed privilege of being witnesses to the Savior’s Advent and announcing it to all who would hear:

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. (Luke 2:16-18)

Have you heard the testimony that the modern shepherds at the White Cloud Farm have given regarding the two witnesses and the testimony of the cometary angels of heaven, who speak of the return of Jesus and the sealing of the last generation? Will you believe the report from a distant land of those who have understood the message of the stars?

Coming Like Thieves

Jesus warned His people that He would come on them as a thief if they did not repent and watch:

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. (Revelation 3:3)

But Jesus is not alone in coming as a thief! Peter (and Paul) use the same language in reference to the day of the Lord:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)

The day (year) comes silently, despite the terrible ordeal that Peter says will come within that year, being suggestive of a nuclear holocaust, since that is the only technology that can “melt” the elements (with fission). We witnessed this silent coming of the day of the Lord as it arrived quietly in March with few taking notice or understanding that this is the great 70th Jubilee—the year of God’s redeemed and the day of vengeance, when He comes with blood-dipped garments to tread the winepress:

I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. (Isaiah 63:3-4)

Jesus said that there are twelve hours in a day, so if the day of the Lord represents a year, then the hour when Jesus returns during that day corresponds to the month. This is how the Father’s clock—the Mazzaroth—reports the time using the sun for the year and the moon for the hour. That fateful hour is fast approaching, wherein no flesh would survive if Jesus did not rescue His people. Already we see that Trump has given an ultimatum to Putin. When he did that with Iran, Israel moved immediately with their surprise decapitation strike in coordination with Trump. Putin will surely not wait for that to happen to him, so one can only imagine what he may do in advance. Furthermore, late on July 21, the news broke that Trump may attack Iran again.

Still, the vast majority of Christianity is expecting years of tribulation to commence, and only afterward, do they expect Jesus to return. Therefore, because the day of the Lord came as a thief to them, He comes also in an hour they don’t expect Him.

Jesus’ admonition is to “remember therefore how thou hast received and heard”. How did the early church receive and hear of His first coming? It was at the mouths of a small number of apostles and followers who told the little-known story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and shared the details of His death and resurrection.

Jesus continued and said that the church must watch, lest He come on them as a thief. What were they to watch? This expression is used frequently in connection with the missing knowledge of the day and hour of His return. They were to watch the heavenly clock; to look up and learn the time, just as the wise men knew that the Messiah was born, because they saw His star.

The knowledge of time is the only way that one may be expectant when He returns. Watching the news doesn’t correct wrong doctrine! If you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, you will be disappointed. If you believe in years of tribulation after World War III begins, you will be surprised. But a knowledge of time will show that the great tribulation prophesied in Matthew 24 was spiritual—a defilement of one’s physical genes by injecting the abomination of desolation into your cells . Only with God’s clock, will you understand that the final Jubilee of the day of the Lord has arrived, which sets an upper bound to the Lord’s return in the Spring of 2026, but the hour is already about to commence.

God calls for faith, and Jesus taught His disciples to see things spiritually, but still His people just look for nukes and great disaster. He speaks with a still, small voice, but how many are waiting for Him to shake the earth terribly, before giving Him the time of day —incorrectly?

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7-8)

The Two Witnesses and Elijah

If the prophecies in Revelation were to be as literally fulfilled as most people understand them to be, how would Jesus come as a thief? Everyone could see with their eyes and clearly track the progress of the Revelation until Jesus’ return. But Jesus seeks faith, not sight. He said to watch—to look up at His clock in the heavens—because that is the only way to accurately discern where we are in the process of the Revelation of Jesus Christ until the blessed time of His second coming.

This is no different with the story of the two witnesses. Let’s take a closer look at them and then consider how this has fully come to pass. Some wait for two men appearing in Jerusalem wearing sackcloth and preaching for three and a half years before they will recognize them, but it is not so!

The story of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 combines subtle references to both Moses and Elijah. Elijah prophesied, and for three and a half years it didn’t rain, just as the two witnesses “have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.”^[1] Moses turned the waters of Egypt to blood and smote that nation with plagues—just like the two witnesses “have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”

Moses and Elijah, of course, point to the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah), which is how Jesus referred to the word of God. As the Law and the Prophets gave us God’s word of old, so today, the modern two witnesses give you God’s word of time from heaven. Thus, they are an end-time reflection of Jesus’ ministry, who was Himself the Word of God incarnate.

However, even though both Moses and Elijah are reflected in the two witnesses, only the latter is prophesied to return before the dreadful day of the Lord.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6)

What we see is that Elijah alone was prophesied to be sent, while two witnesses appear in Revelation. We will soon see why that is. It is part of God’s illustration, because He is using Elijah as a forerunner to testify of the Lord by his life.

Reflecting Jesus

In the biblical record, there is no mention of Elijah before he showed his boldness as a prophet. He was an unmarried man and served God with all his heart, which earned him a death threat until he was taken to heaven in the end.

His life parallels that of Jesus. Our Savior came to earth, lived an unmarried life dedicated to God, and ascended to His Father after submitting to a sacrificial death at the cross. Elijah, however, made a different sacrifice, because he was sent back to earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord to do the reformation work prophesied in Malachi 4.

The man who was taken to heaven in a whirlwind made a sacrifice and left that paradise to return to earth as a baby, recognizing that he would suffer again in the spiritual battle on this earth. Nevertheless, he trusted that Jesus would rescue him from it as He did 28 centuries earlier. This was the nature of Elijah’s sacrifice. His captivating testimony is shared in detail in the article The Last Elijah.

As Jesus gave up His exalted position in heaven and submitted to a physical death, so Elijah gave up his heavenly place and came back to earth. In doing so, he laid his eternal life—while already dwelling in his heavenly home—on the altar. Some who have been blessed with visions of the heavenly land are so enraptured with it that they would not choose to leave if they didn’t have to. Consider how Ellen White felt, for example, to whom Jesus spoke at the conclusion of an early vision of the new earth:

And He said, “You must go back to the earth again and relate to others what I have revealed to you.” Then an angel bore me gently down to this dark world. Sometimes I think I can stay here no longer; all things of earth look so dreary. I feel very lonely here, for I have seen a better land. Oh, that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest!

Why then would Elijah choose to come back? This is a fascinating question that we will explore shortly, but first we should establish more parallels between Elijah and Jesus, because he is still Christ’s forerunner, and as Jesus will come again to receive His bride, so Elijah came again, and found a bride as well. This leads us to specific evidence for who Elijah is on earth.

We understand that there are the heavenly witnesses—the constellations described as the two olive trees and also the two lampstands,^[2] but the description of the two witnesses strongly suggests two literal, earthly representatives—though not as most would imagine. We have already identified two who seem to fit the pattern. However, because only one man was sent (Elijah), it follows that the two witnesses would naturally be two who are one flesh through marriage. Indeed, Brother John is Elijah , who was sent back to earth, and his wife is the other witness who joined him and walked with him in his journey of faith.

Since their marriage in 2008, they have been serving together to share the heavenly message with the church. “Coincidentally,” well before they met, he was baptized (i.e. reborn) on her birthday, which is July 12.^[3] Considering that Jesus, who was born on the 24th day of the 7th Hebrew month , is the head of a Christian marriage, these dates carry a representative symbolic significance as well with respect to His covenant with man, represented by the number 12. Again, the reflection of Jesus, born in the seventh month of the divine calendar can be seen in the marriage of the two witnesses, born or reborn in the seventh month of the human calendar. Jesus, who is all-sufficient unites the two covenants in Himself, just as 12 + 12 of the husband and his wife equal 24 of Jesus.

Elijah, a Fellow Servant

God reveals things at the time of His choosing. We had the first hints years ago, that Brother John may have a special identity as the “angel” who came down from heaven in Revelation 18. Was he a literal angel in human flesh? We came to that provisional conclusion^[4] based on those verses where an unnamed angel showing Revelation’s vision forbade John from worshipping him:

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. (Revelation 22:8-9)

We recognized that by identifying as John’s “fellowservant”, who keeps the sayings of Revelation, he seems to be hinting that this angel himself would also come down and be born as a human and keep the sayings of Revelation. While it does suggest this, our logic was not entirely correct, because while angels desire to look into the things of Salvation, it is not given them to share the same experiences. Furthermore, no angel was directly a prophet, but this angel spoke in the present tense to John, that he already was of the prophets.

Not every idea we’ve written about holds equal weight! This was one that Brother John was never completely confident in. In fact, in lighter moments, he sometimes shared a thought like, “What if, when we get to heaven, we are introduced to the angel I claim to be?!” Gulp!

We ever realized that we are just simple people who love God as our Father. The process of deciphering the heavenly language has been full of twists and turns, but driven by an undying desire to know the truth from God. We had guidance and correction from the Holy Spirit from His word or through dreams from members of our ministry that led us to search the Scriptures.

Malachi said that Elijah the prophet, who went to heaven, would be sent again to earth, and only in that light can we understand the angel’s statement in Revelation perfectly! Elijah was indeed of the prophets before John, and would come again and be of them who keep the sayings of the book John was writing! The word “angel” simply means “messenger” as Elijah was also called by Malachi.

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1)

The unnamed messenger who showed John the visions of Revelation must have been Elijah, not Gabriel or any of God’s unfallen angels. Elijah made the sacrifice to return because God’s judgment church needed help. Note that he wasn’t sent to Netanyahu, but to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The church that kept the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus. Nevertheless, they had backslidden to the spiritual condition of Laodicea and the remnant needed a little strength to look up and get back to the condition of Philadelphia.

The terms “Look up” and “watch” are not mere synonyms for “being expectant”, as most presume. Jesus often told us to watch, almost always in reference to time, yet we never ask what we should watch! Elijah was sent to teach God’s people to watch and pray, to look up, to watch God’s signs in heaven on His clock that gives the time, so that we are not left in darkness that Jesus should come upon us as a thief. Elijah was sent to lead us to pray for more time, so that everyone could be sealed who would be.

That is the specific message that Elijah returned to earth to give: a knowledge of God’s heavenly witnesses of the time that would transition Laodicea to Philadelphia through a prayer of sacrifice. And by the heavenly testimony, we could discern that Brother John was the very Elijah whom God had sent! Having made a great sacrifice himself, it was in Elijah’s spirit to lead the little remnant who accepted God’s help, to make a sacrifice of their own in 2016 by praying for more time. This was when the Orion clock indicated Jesus’ second coming would arrive, so to make such a prayer was to ask for our death as a ministry, as indeed it turned out to be. The Last Countdown had reached its end, and most of our followers abandoned the ministry, being convinced we had taught falsehood.

Eventually, something remarkable happened, from which the memory is indelibly recorded: Elijah called us one evening in the following months, and as we studied, he suddenly realized that our prayer for more time was directly recorded in the pages of Holy Scripture! It was a deeply solemn and humbling moment to realize that mere mortals dependent on their Savior had participated in God’s prophetic plan in such a profound way:

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (Revelation 7:2-3)

Being Philadelphia, on whom the time was written, we understood God’s seal prior to that delay,^[5] and we knew that there were some who could still be sealed but needed more time. Our small size meant we didn’t have the human resources to make God’s voice from heaven heard loudly throughout the earth, as was needed. The prayer for more time was therefore necessary for others, but it meant death to all we had prepared under God’s guidance in seven years of ministry.

We could not know at that time that this prayer would become the central, sacrificial theme of Elijah’s legacy. It demonstrated the corporate sacrifice that the Adventist church failed to exhibit. Instead of sacrifice, the “not for profit” Church resorted to deception, willfully misleading and harming their sheep to maintain their spiritually illicit government funding^[6] rather than sacrificing for the truth and leaving the consequences with God.

On July 12, 2025—the special date for the two witnesses—the church organization presented its closing ceremony for their 62nd General Conference Session. It is the highest administrative authority of the church and the last one to convene in earthly history as we understand it. As there is no further opportunity for the church to repent, it was found wanting. The church persisted in their treachery and compromise with the state.^[7] Their chosen theme was “Jesus is Coming, I Will Go”. Some even wryly remarked at a double meaning reminiscent of Adam and Eve hiding themselves in the garden when God approached after they ate the forbidden fruit.

The contrast couldn’t be greater between Laodicea—rich and in need of nothing, yet naked before God—and the weak remnant of Philadelphia who bought the Lord’s eyesalve to look up and understand the revelation using biblical astronomy . Indeed, looking up distinguished the wise men of Jesus’ day, and it distinguishes Philadelphia today.

We Have Seen His Star

When good tidings of great joy came to this world at the birth of Jesus, a star was seen. It was not a dramatic affair that attracted the attention of the masses, but it didn’t escape the notice of a few wise men in a distant land who studied the heavens with the Hebrew scriptures that prophesied the Messiah’s unique birth. The principle of astronomical study of Revelation for the time of biblical events is therefore no strange, new age teaching, but has the very story of Jesus’ birth as a precedent!

And just as that star guided the travelers to the Savior at His joyous arrival on earth, so has it been at the joyous arrival of the two witnesses of Revelation in heaven—that is, at their ascension.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Revelation 11:12)

The wise men of Jesus’ day first saw His star that led them to understand that the Messiah was born. But then, when they went to visit, they lost sight of it and inquired of Herod where exactly the baby King should be born. Similarly, a few men who studied the stars in light of the Scriptures, discovered the star of Elijah—a comet—in 2020, but then lost sight of its significance until they saw it again in a new light!

In 2020, we only considered that significant part of the comet of Elijah where it was then passing through: Orion. In fact that is what first caught our attention about it! Now the comet is long gone, but its path is forever recorded in the annals of heavenly history:

What was it that brought our attention back to this comet, which has been slowly spiraling into Centaur? First, God gave a dream to one of our members on June 6, 2025, which used the imagery of an airplane seat specifically numbered “F3”. If you are familiar with our writings, you know that we often abbreviate the cumbersome scientific comet names with the most unique part of their names, which is just such a code that represents a window of time within which the comet was discovered. We didn’t use that convention with the comet of Elijah, being the first comet we studied with the Mazzaroth, but it’s full name is C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).

On the seventh day from the dream date, June 12, 2025, the significance of this old comet began to become clear with another remarkable heavenly event: not far from the spiraling comet F3!

Already we were led to see this as a star representing the two witnesses, because every nova, as they are called, is a two-star system. But within two weeks, another nova appeared in the same month on June 25, 2025, to the great surprise of astronomers because these are rare events!

Just days after a nova appeared in the night sky, another joined it. V572 Velorum, in the constellation Vela, joins V462 Lupi in Lupus. Both are now visible to the naked eye to observers in the Southern Hemisphere and are currently shining millions of times brighter than usual. The remarkable coincidence — judged to be extremely rare by astronomers — has occurred as astronomers await the explosion of T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) in Corona Borealis, which is known to explode and shine brightly every 80 years or so.^[8] 

The same article notes that “For two [novae] to appear at once is unprecedented.” The brightness of their outburst only persists for a matter of weeks, so two that are bright enough to be naked-eye visible (both in the southern hemisphere) is attention-getting! But more than this, when you see the location of the second, it becomes clear that God is using these novae as a sign from heaven:

Not only were they both visible to the naked eye at once, but they are located near the two spiraling ends of the same cometary path—the comet of Elijah! These are no doubt the stars of the two witnesses, which are now seen in heaven, connected by the path of the comet of Elijah just as the two witnesses represent Elijah’s ministry after God sent him back to earth before the great day of the Lord. This signifies that they have completed their ascent! When the sun reached the path of the comet of Elijah (F3) on June 20, the two witnesses heard the “great voice” calling them to come up.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Revelation 11:12)

The second nova appeared at the sail of the heavenly ship on June 25, 2025, as though setting sail, so this is when “they” (that is, more than one) had ascended. That date is brimming with significance, being among other things, the concluding day of the year-long Great and Marvelous Sign, when Jesus stood up and swore that there should be time no longer.

In The Heart of Time, we pointed out that the Centaur, standing on the crucifix, has taken his cross and follows Jesus. Both novae stand left and right of that cross pointing to the sacrificial character of the two witnesses, which reflects Jesus. The comet F3 has long since disappeared, now about 16 times the distance between earth and the sun, so this hardly qualifies as the cloud in which the two witnesses ascend. Rather, it shows the path of their ascent.

But the arrival of the moon, which stands on the path of comet F3 on that very day, may certainly represent the cloud in which they ascend!

The enemies are encountered on the path, when it touches the snake-bearer, the scorpion, and the wolf, stripped of his sheep’s clothing, like many false pastors have already become. From their contact with the comet’s path in heaven that connects the two novae, the enemies “behold” the two witnesses ascending. They are the same enemies^[9] as were described in The Heart of Time as especially relevant to this period, when Jesus returns on the white horse, Sagittarius.

The sun has entered the constellation of Gemini—the twins as the two witnesses —and shows that they are the ones ascending up the path to the new stars.

A Great Deception

Are you beginning to understand that the Revelation is to be understood through the eyes of faith? The loud voices are “heard” with the eyes that perceive the brightest lights of heaven. The two witnesses appear in heaven as stars that you would not even see if you didn’t follow space news regularly. The Lord speaks from heaven through His luminaries, so that only those who are watching His celestial clock and seeking understanding from Him will receive the precious treasure. This is how Jesus comes as a thief to all who do not watch.

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6)

Where are you looking? In what do you place your faith? Are you watching God’s clock and inquiring the time from Him? Sadly, the rapture doctrine and other influences have led many to make a terrible mistake. They only look at earthly events. People presume that they will be raptured away before any trouble occurs, and do not realize that the trouble is falling all around them.^[10] Being largely of a spiritual nature, it doesn’t meet their expectations, so they fail to recognize it.

Jesus spent His entire ministry teaching people to see things spiritually. He saw the death of the faithful as a sleep, while the living who were unbelieving, He said were dead. Men were expecting a physical deliverer, but He came as a spiritual Deliverer. Have we learned the lessons of the Gospels? Have we understood yet that He is searching for people who will believe and hear the still, small voice of His Spirit by faith instead of waiting for loud, violent, and destructive events before they believe He could be speaking and announcing the time of His second coming and the end of all things?

How often did Jesus repeat the phrase:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:22)

The time is well-advanced through the pages of Revelation, but unless you’ve been watching the heavenly clock, you will not understand that. This is the deception that Satan has brought over the Christian world to prevent them from detecting his subtle working, and cause them to fall into his traps, though they were warned about them in His word.

There is more to be clarified in relation to the story of the two witnesses, like what the earthquake is that takes place in the same hour, and how that is connected with the third interstellar object 3I/ATLAS that signifies the second woe upon the world.^[11] This and much more will be presented in upcoming publications. Be watchful and join the Alnitak Newsletter and Chat groups where others are gathered who also look up.

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. (Revelation 2:26-27)