12. 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. At the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty years the scene changes. The prophecy of the witnesses in their sackcloth state, hidden away from sight in the wilderness, ends, and they are now brought out into public view--but only to be killed. Their slaughter takes place at the hands of the beast. When we come to consider chapter XIII, we shall see that the Papacy is described as a beast reigning for forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years, after which time another beast possessing great power and authority appears on the scene. This second beast is Protestantism, and through it the murder of the two witnesses at the close of the Papal supremacy in the vision before us was effected. It would seem, by the similarity of statement that the beast "ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," that the slaughter of the witnesses was effected by the Papal beast (chap. 17:7, 8); but the Mohammedan delusion also is said to have proceeded from "the bottomless pit." Chap. 9:1, 2. The expression _bottomless pit_ is doubtless used merely to signify the source of certain powers in contradistinction to the heavenly source from which others proceeded. Although the Papal beast is said to have originated in the bottomless pit, the second beast also doubtless proceeded from the same source, for he possessed many of the characteristics of the former, and caused the earth to worship the first beast, as explained in chapter 13. That he was not of heavenly origin is shown by the statement that he came up "out of the earth." Chap. 13:11. But the direct proof that it was the Protestant beast, and not the Papal beast--although the same expression as to its origin is used concerning it--that slew the two witnesses, is found in the fact that the reign of the first, or Papal, beast was limited to forty two months (chap. 13:5), corresponding to the twelve hundred and sixty years in which the witnesses prophesied in the vision before us; while it was after the _close_ of this period, at the time when the second, or Protestant, beast arose (chap. 13:11), that the witnesses were slain.