The prophet Daniel saw and described two unidentified angels in Daniel 12:5.¹ The angels stood on either side of the Tigris river,² and Christ stood between them above the water.³ The angels were probably the premortal spirits of the two men foreordained⁴ to be the Two Witnesses who will stand before the God of the earth during the Great Tribulation as described in Revelation chapter 11.⁵ This conclusion is based on the subject matter of Daniel's vision and the role of the Two Witnesses in that vision.⁶ The communications of the two angels indicate that they were personally interested in, if not directly connected to, the subject matter of the vision in Daniel chapter 12.⁷ In other words, the premortal spirits of the Two Witnesses appeared in Daniel's vision of the latter-day Jews because they will, during their mortal lives, preserve the Jews for 3½ years in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation just before the Second Coming.⁸

The context for Daniel chapter 12 begins in Daniel chapter 11, where the Lord revealed many details about the rise and demise of the Roman Empire.⁹ In Daniel 12:6, one of the two angels asked the Savior: "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?"¹⁰ The wonders refer to the Roman desolations upon the Jews described in Daniel chapter 11, which foreshadow the further desolations upon the Jews until the Second Coming.¹¹ Daniel 12:7 indicates in symbolic terms that the Jewish desolations shall continue¹² until a time, times, and an half,¹³ which equates to 3½.

Daniel 7:25 used this same definition of prophetic time, times, and an half to identify the 3½-year midpoint of Armageddon when the gathering of saints will occur at Adam-ondi-Ahman,¹⁴ and which also begins the last 3½ years of Armageddon¹⁵ called the Great Tribulation.¹⁶ These last 3½ years also correspond to the last half of the 70th week of 7 years in Daniel's Seventy Weeks Prophecy.¹⁷ Finally, the 3½ years‒which are also 42 months or 1260 days‒also coincide in time with the mortal ministry of the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem as predicted in Revelation chapter 11.¹⁸ The ministry of the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem defines the time when Satan shall have accomplished his purpose in Daniel 12:7,¹⁹ to "scatter the power of the holy people."²⁰ To be more precise, until the consummation²¹ at the Second Coming,²² Satan will have power to desolate the Jewish people as he had power to desolate them during the time of the Roman Empire.²³

Daniel didn't understand the meaning of time, times and an half revealed in Daniel 12:7.²⁴ Therefore, in Daniel 12:8, he asked a different question of what rather than when, saying: "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?"²⁵ The Lord's responded in Daniel 12:10, saying: "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried."²⁶ This prophecy is specific to the Jews, but it coincides with John's vision of the great multitude of redeemed saints that John saw more generally in Revelation 7:14. In that verse John saw a great multitude that "came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."²⁷ The trials of the Great Tribulation will purify many saints,²⁸ including a remnant of the Jews that gather to Jerusalem in unbelief before the Second Coming.²⁹ This remnant will include those Jews that repent during the Great Tribulation when they hear the warning voice of the Two Witnesses called at Adam-ondi-Ahman to minister among them in Jerusalem during the last 3½ years before the Second Coming.³⁰ Based on Zechariah 14:2, it appears that half the Jews in Jerusalem will survive the final Abomination of Desolation in Jerusalem, which suggests that they will repent in the face of significant trials during the Great Tribulation.³¹

In Revelation 12:10, Daniel saw the purified Jews of the Great Tribulation symbolically clothed in white.³² John also saw many saints similarly clothed in his visions found in the Book of Revelation.³³ Righteous people, including the Jews, will be purified by their trials during the Great Tribulation, while the wicked shall do wickedly as recorded in Daniel 12:10.³⁴ Those that do wickedly shall be ripe for destruction when the Great Tribulation ends with the 3½-day Abomination of Desolation against the Jews at the Second Coming.³⁵