The Two Witnesses of Revelation
David J. Nixon
While the world begins to fall apart during the first half of Daniel's 70th Week and potentially there is no Church present (if you subscribe to believe in the Pre-Tribulation timing of the Rapture) the Lord provides two witnesses to be the great evangelists of the last days. They will be important characters who will ultimately be confronted by the Antichrist as Satan's man turns against God's men. We can only tell so much from the scripture passages that we have been given on them and so will briefly consider them here.
In Revelation 11:3-14 we are introduced to these two characters. They are described as "two olive trees and the two lampstands" and when we consider each of these images we can learn a few things. The olive tree is used in other prophetic passages by Jesus (Matthew 24:32-35) and Paul (Romans 11:17-27) to describe the nation of Israel and these passages in particular are describing the future rebirth of the nation in the land prior to the commencement of the 70th Week when Antichrist will form a 7 year covenant with national Israel. It therefore is reasonable to presume that the two witnesses will be Jewish - as to their actually identity will be turn shortly. The image of the lampstands harkens back to the description of the seven churches in Revelation 1:20 as being seven lampstands. There is then clearly a connection between the ministry of the Church and the ministry of the witnesses. Just what that connection is is unclear from the passage. There is a warning to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:6 that she must repent or else her lampstand will be removed. Just what the lampstand represents in the Church's ministry is unclear, but will be somehow present in the ministry of the witnesses. Certainly they will be preaching the gospel through prophesying (Revelation 11:3) and their testimony (Revelation 11:7).
Their ministry will afford them divine protection against those who would rise up against them - especially in Israel where the religious Jews may attempt to stone them for preaching Jesus Christ as the Messiah. It is said that fire will come from their mouths and kill their foes (Revelation 11:5). I do not see why this should not be taken literally, because it is not just mere defeating arguments by powerful words being described but the actual death of the enemies. They will have the power to cause plagues and drought in the world and even turn water into blood (Revelation 11:6) and these descriptions of their powers will be important when we look at the potential candidates for the two witnesses now.
There are three main candidates although two are widely accepted as the best interpretation of the passage. When we were introduced to the witnesses they were "the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth" (Revelation 11:4). Some take this to mean that the witnesses are already in Heaven before their commissioning on Earth because they are standing before the Lord. There is a potential for this being not the best interpretation because Jesus is described as walking among the seven lampstands of the churches in Revelation 2:1, which we wouldn't take to mean that they are already in Heaven. Arguably though this is describing Jesus' relationship with the churches while on Earth and there is no claim that they are standing before Him in Heaven, so there is no difficult to reconcile. This does form the basis though that these two witnesses are not just two people providentially elected to fulfil this End Time role; instead that they are two characters from Israel's history who return to point the people to Jesus as Messiah.
The plagues and turning water into blood are associated with Moses in Egypt; while the causing of drought is associated with Elijah during the time of the conflict with King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. Elijah never died, instead he was taken up into Heaven in a sort of Old Testament rapture experience (2 Kings 2). Elijah was also prophesied to come again in the future and make way for the Messiah, which was fulfilled by John the Baptist as Jesus admits that he has already come (Matthew 17:12). Does this mean that Elijah cannot still come again in the Tribulation? Arguably no, for John the Baptist came in the "spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17) and also was miraculously (but not immaculately) conceived in his mother Elizabeth's womb to father Zechariah. We do not believe in reincarnation as Christians and so the Elijah bodily caught up into Heaven in the Old Testament still has the potential to return to the Earth in that body, at least as far as I can see from the scriptures.
Moses died on top of Mount Nebo overlooking the Jordan River into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34:7) and there is even the very strange description of a dispute between the Archangel Michael and Satan over Moses' bones (Jude 1:9). He was the greatest prophet in the whole history of the nation of Israel because he spoke directly with God. As a result many believe that he will be the second witness. However, there is also the often forgotten Antediluvian prophet Enoch who I believe is another possibility. We are told very little about Enoch in scripture other than that he was a faithful man of God who walked with Him and one day was found no more because he was taken by Him into Heaven (Genesis 5:24). He stands with Elijah as the only two people to be taken into Heaven without having bodily died on Earth, unlike Moses, and as the witnesses are destined to die on Earth and be resurrected (Revelation 11:8-11) this would all fit nicely together. However, we will only find out whenever the time comes, so should not get too obsessed with this topic when we just do not know!
Whatever their identity the time given over to the witnesses is said to be 1260 days (Revelation 11:3) which by now readers of my articles will know is the equivalent of 3.5 years in the Hebrew calendar and is often described in the prophets as a "time, times and half a time". This period is exactly half of the 70th Week of Daniel and we are told that their time will end when they are confronted by the Antichrist in the city of Jerusalem (Revelation 11:7-8). I would suggest that their time of witnessing will likely run throughout most of the first half of the 70th Week because we read in Revelation 13 that the Antichrist's satanic empowerment will commence at the half way point and he will then attack the temple in the Abomination of Desolation by declaring himself to be god (Daniel 9:27, 2 Thessalonians 2:4). It seems given the description of the Antichrist's war against Israel and then the Believing Saints which begins at this time (Revelation 13:7) that he will turn against the Witnesses at this moment rather than allow them to preach and cause problems around the world any longer. The scriptures indicate that there will be great rejoicing by the peoples' of the world for 3.5 days while they lie dead in the streets but that they will simply get up after this time and be bodily resurrected as they are caught up into Heaven (Revelation 11:12). The description here is very interesting because it mirrors John's experience in Revelation 3 when he too is called up into Heaven by a loud voice that sounds like a trumpet - an event that many interpret as being the same as 1 Thessalonians 4:16 when there is a clear description of the Rapture. In the aftermath of this event there is a great earthquake which damages much of Jerusalem and causes alarm and fear of God in the people.
The role of the Two Witnesses in conjunction with the sealed 144,000 Jewish evangelists (Revelation 7; 14:1-5) is a fascinating one during the Tribulation and I suspect that their need in the world is due to an absence of the Church due to the Rapture and so they are needed to be able to communicate the Gospel to people, so that as God's judgements descend and people do in fact repent from their hardened sinful ways that they can hear the Gospel message. Their operation in Israel will be one of the crucial factors in bringing her back to the Lord to declare "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:39).
Third Temple
