In today's passage we are going to meet a couple of the most mysterious characters in the book of Revelation. The Lord refers to them as "My two witnesses".
Yesterday John was told that the holy city (Jerusalem) would be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles for 1260 days. In John's day, the calendar he would have used counted 360 days as a year, so if we divide 1260 days we come up with 3.5 years. These years most likely correspond to the last half of the seven years of the Great Tribulation. So far in Revelation we've seen several major disasters along with war, famine, and disease. Some supernatural plagues have befallen the earth. But we've been told that many people of the world are still refusing to acknowledge the living God, because at the end of Chapter 9 the Bible says that still the people did not repent of the work of their hands---of their idolatry, their cruelty, their association with occult practices, and their sexual immorality.
Even so, God is going to give the world one more chance during the last 3.5 years. While the world is going mad, while unbelievers are doing whatever they please in the city of Jerusalem and at the now-desecrated third temple, while the Antichrist is reigning as the most evil dictator of all time---God is going to appoint two witnesses to preach the truth to the world. The Lord says, "And I will appoint My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth. They are 'the two olive trees' and the two lampstands, and 'they stand before the Lord of the earth.'" (Revelation 11:3-4) The Biblical definition of "to prophesy" doesn't include only predictions about the future. It also means "to proclaim". I think they will do a combination of both: they will proclaim the gospel and they will warn of the dire future ahead for those who continue to reject the gospel.
The word that has been translated as "witnesses" in English is the Greek "martuj". It is pronounced "martoos" and you will see the similarity between this word and the word "martyrs". While martuj is defined as "one who gives testimony in court or one who is a spectator at an event", the word came to be closely associated with losing one's life after so many early Christians lost their lives for giving their testimonies about the Lord Jesus Christ. This Greek word is a masculine noun, so we know these witnesses are men even though the Bible never refers to them as "him" or "he".
The Lord quotes from the book of Zechariah when He refers to the witnesses as "the two olive trees" and says that "they stand before the Lord of the earth". Zechariah had a vision of a solid gold lampstand with seven bowls on it, and instead of the bowls having to be replenished with olive oil, they were fed directly with oil by an olive tree on each side of the lampstand. A lampstand that never runs dry of oil is going to produce a perpetual flame. Since oil is used as a symbol for the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, we can deduce that the two witnesses are going to be filled with the Holy Spirit during the days of their ministry. This is where their power comes from, the same power that filled the prophets of old. They will be invincible during the 1260 days of their appointed ministry. Their invincibility won't come from their own strength, but as the Lord said in the book of Zechariah, they will live "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit." (Zechariah 4:6)
People will want to put them to death, but the Lord won't allow it while they fulfill their calling. "If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want." (Revelation 11:5-6)
So who are these men? We're going to take a look at the top three theories regarding their identities.
Throughout the centuries many scholars have taught that they are Moses and Elijah. They've taught this as though it is fact, so it has become the most well-known theory. But the main connection the witnesses have with Moses and Elijah is their connection with fire and drought and plagues. Elijah called fire down from heaven during his showdown on Mount Carmel with the wicked prophets of Baal. Elijah prayed for the Lord to prevent rain from coming on the earth for 3.5 years and no rain came. Moses called down plagues on Egypt when Pharaoh was refusing to let the Hebrew people go. One other reason these men could be Moses and Elijah is because the Jewish people regarded them, in combination, to represent the entire law and all the prophets. That may be why Moses and Elijah met with Jesus on a mountain to discuss His impending death. (See Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-4, Luke 9:28-31) These men had long been in heaven, but they met with Jesus and "spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31) So it's not impossible for the two witnesses to be Moses and Elijah since they've already made an appearance in the New Testament.
But there are some problems with these men being Moses and Elijah. When John saw Moses and Elijah with Jesus on the mountain, he immediately knew who they were even though he'd never seen them before. Many people have taken this to mean that when we get to heaven we will automatically know who everyone is, and that may be true. But if John saw Moses and Elijah before and knew who they were, wouldn't he recognize them as the two witnesses? If these men are Moses and Elijah, I tend to think John would tell us. Another problem I have with this theory is that Moses has been dead and buried for thousands of years. The two witnesses will eventually be martyred for their faith, and I find it hard to believe that the Lord would bring His faithful servant Moses back to life in order to cause him to die again.
A better argument can be made for one of these men being Elijah because Elijah never died. In 2 Kings 2 we learn that the Lord took him up to heaven in a whirlwind. Since Elijah never died, he would not be dying again here in Revelation. This is why some scholars believe one of the witnesses is Elijah and that the other is another man who never died. Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, was taken by God without experiencing death. The Bible gives us very little information about him; it only says, "Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (Genesis 5:23-24) The book of Hebrews gives us a few more details: "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: 'He could not be found, because God had taken him away.' For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." (Hebrews 11:5) Elijah and Enoch were granted the special privilege of being taken to heaven without experiencing death because they walked so closely with the Lord. I have trouble imagining that the Lord would bring them back to the earth and cause them to die for their faith---the faith which so pleased Him that He bestowed a special blessing upon them.
The third theory is the theory I feel is the most satisfying, but we are all free to come to our own conclusions on this matter. I'm not going to be dogmatic about what I think. I respect the opinion of anyone who disagrees with me. But they may just be two believers who are living on the earth in the end times and who are given power like the great men of the Bible. God will anoint and appoint them to preach the gospel to the world with all the fiery passion of an Old Testament prophet. I think they will probably be Jewish Christians because here in Chapter 11 John has been speaking about Jerusalem and about the temple, and these men seem to be closely connected with that passage. They will perform signs and wonders not only like an Old Testament prophet such as Elijah, but like the New Testament apostles such as Peter and Paul. In the New Testament, the preaching of the apostles was accompanied by miracles in order to lend authority to their teaching. People could argue with what the apostles said, but it was difficult for them to argue that they hadn't just witnessed a miracle. Having miracles accompany the gospel message was intended to prove to the world that the gospel is true.
John doesn't appear to know the identity of the two witnesses. Since he recognized Elijah and Moses on the mountain without ever having met them, I feel that he would automatically recognize any other Old Testament character. He would recognize them if they were any great apostle of his own day. I think he doesn't recognize them because they haven't yet been born when he receives the information included in the book of Revelation. They are probably going to be two human beings who are on the earth in the last days, who come to Christ during the Great Tribulation, and who live so closely to the Lord after their conversion that they are called by Him to be the greatest evangelists of the end times. We don't really need to think the two witnesses are reincarnated Biblical characters just because we don't know who they are. We don't know who the Antichrist is either, but most modern mainstream scholars believe he is going to be an actual human being who is alive on the earth during the end times. He will be so wicked at heart and so willing to "sell his soul to the devil" that he will be possessed by Satan himself. Scholars don't suggest he is a reincarnated evil man from the past just because John doesn't recognize us or tell us his name. John doesn't tell us his name because he doesn't know his name, any more than he knows the names of the two witnesses.
Since John doesn't seem very concerned about the identity of these two men, we don't want to get hung up on the subject for too long. What they do is more important than who they are. In tomorrow's study we are going to learn some amazing things about these men and about what happens to them---things that will shock the world population of the end times.
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