And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth.’”​—Revelation 11:1-4.

This was during World War I of the years 1914-1918. During that time these symbolic “two witnesses” prophesied in sackcloth, in the sense that the message they publicly proclaimed was a mournful one. It foretold the coming destruction, the violent death, of all the Gentile nations now that the “times of the Gentiles” had ended in early fall of the year 1914. (Luke 21:24) Like gloomy-looking prophets, dressed in the mournful garb of sackcloth, they prophesied for one thousand two hundred and sixty days during the first world war. (Revelation 11:1-3)