7/18/00


The Two Witnesses of Revelation: Mysterious Personages



Revelation 11:1-13:
I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 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. 6 These men have power to shut up the sky 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.
7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.



The identity of these two witnesses has been a subject of much interest among the eschatological community. Who are these two, who will work miracles in plain sight of modern man? Calling down fire from heaven, and refusing to allow the rain to fall, inflicting plagues upon the people of the earth, and turning the water to blood, all the while preaching and witnessing to the world that the Lord is God, and His anger blazes as a holy flame against the wickedness of man.
Most people have agreed with each other that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah. But there are always what I call the "off-the-wall" theories by those who seem to have escaped from a padded cell somewhere. You never know exactly how they arrive at these ideas, nor do their explanations exactly drip with logic (let alone scripture), but they will eagerly muddy up the waters of truth with brainstorms that appeared to them in a vision after visiting Wally's Wiener World.
Examples of these theories as to the identity of the two witnesses include, but are not limited to:
Mary Magdalene and John the Revelator
The Law and the Prophets
The Law and the Gospel
The Old Testament and the New Testament
The Bible
Peter and Paul
Peter and John
Israel and the Church

Somehow, these "theologians" have completely missed the fact that the bible says these witnesses are killed and then raised from the dead. They send plagues into the earth and bring down fire from heaven on anyone who tries to harm them. They ascend into heaven, and they hear a voice from heaven.
How can "ideas" (such as law, bible, the gospel, Israel, etc) preach, live, die, stand on their feet, bring down fire from heaven, hear voices, and ascend into the clouds? They can't. The two witnesses are obviously men, just as the bible says they are in Rev. 11:6. (These men have power to shut up the sky 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. - NIV)
The biggest problem with these kinds of ideas is that they're just not scriptural. The bible calls them "men". (NIV). The bible also refers to their "dead bodies".
The word "men" used here is "houtos" which means "the masculine plural form of 'these'".
Here at Dark Savant Ministries, we believe that the bible is the infallible Word of God. When the bible says something, it is not our place to interpret it, or attempt to explain what it "really" meant. If the bible says something in a symbolic manner, it tells us so, and even then it usually provides the explanation for us.
Our position is to allow the bible to speak for itself. The bible should be taken literally unless it tells us to do otherwise. So when it says the two witnesses are men, we don't need to go looking for answers in the cosmos.
They are men. Not women (sorry, Mary). They are two men (sorry, prophets, Israel, and the church). They are humans, not intangible ideas (sorry, law and gospel).
Once we understand what the bible is saying to us (and let's face it, folks, this isn't brain surgery or rocket science) we can begin to investigate the specific identities of these two men.

Popular belief holds that these two men are Moses and Elijah. There are three main reasons for this.

1) First of all, they point out that the type of miracles they are performing are the same kinds of miracles that Moses and Elijah performed.
- Fire devours anyone who tries to destroy them. This is the same type of miracle performed by Elijah in 2nd Kings Chapter 1, when he called down fire upon 100 soldiers of King Ahaziah who had been sent to take him to the King.
- They will shut up the sky so that it will not rain. Again, this is reminiscent of Elijah (1st Kings 17) when he told King Ahab that he would allow no rain to fall. This drought was in effect until Elijah destroyed the 450 prophets of Baal.
- They have the power to turn the water to blood. This is something Moses did (Exodus 7:14-24) while trying to convince the Pharoh to let the Israelites go.
- They have the power to strike the earth with plagues. Moses had this power, as evidenced by the ten plagues he visited upon Egypt in Exodus chapters 7 through 11.

Before we go on to consider the next arguments, let's allow the bible to comment on this one:

Matthew 28:18: And Jesus coming up spoke to them, saying, All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth.

John 10:25: Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me,

John 14:10,11: Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you," Jesus said to his disciples, "do not come from me. The Father, who remains in me, does his own works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of these works. (Today's English Version)

Acts 4:5-10: The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

Jesus said that "all power" was given to him. Who was it that gave him this power? Jesus said that the miracles he did were done in the name of his Father, and further explained himself by saying that the words he spoke were not his own, but came from his Father. He said that the Father in him, He did the works. The Father did the miracles.
So Jesus was given the power to work miracles; in fact he was given all power, in heaven and in earth. This power was given to him by his Father, the Lord God.

The power did not come from Jesus himself. It came from God, who performed these miracles through him. Peter and John confirmed this in Acts chapter 4. The teachers of the law asked them point-blank: "By what power or name did you do this?" (They had healed a crippled man) Peter responded by saying that it was done by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He didn't claim credit for himself. He didn't say that he worked miracles through his own power. The power he had came from Jesus Christ, and Jesus was given his power by God the Father.

The point to be made here, is that all power comes from God. The power does not come from ourselves. It therefore should not define us. In other words, if the Lord chooses to raise the dead through me, and heal the sick through me, I should not be viewed as one who has the power to heal and to raise from the dead. The power comes from God, not me. The Lord can choose to manifest His power through anyone he wishes. The power itself is not ours.

To get back to Revelation, we should not jump to the conclusion that the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses simply because the miracles performed are the same type of miracles that they did. In truth, Elijah and Moses performed no miracles, but God did the works through them. These are not the powers of Elijah and Moses that we see manifest here in Revelation, but the power of Almighty God, who can work those same miracles through anyone He chooses.

If the two witnesses were described as spiderweb-spewing, shield-throwing men who walked up walls and wore red and blue clothing, we might be able to identify them as Spiderman and Captain America, due to the powers that they are described as having.
Spiderman shoots webs and climbs walls, while Captain America throws his shield. These are their powers, and they originate within themselves.

The same cannot be said for the two witnesses. Their power does not originate within them, but comes from Almighty God. God can give this power to anyone He chooses, and that means the witnesses could be someone other than Elijah and Moses.
Consider the following:

Elijah was given the power to call fire down from heaven. He did this to the 100 soldiers, and also to consume the sacrifice in the display of power before the 450 prophets of Baal. Was this Elijah's power? Did it originate in him? Of course not. It was God's power, and God bestows His power on whomever He wishes. The calling down of fire from heaven is not an "Elijah Power".
1st Chronicles 21:26 shows us that David also called down fire from heaven. (David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.)
2nd Chronicles 7:1 shows that Solomon did likewise. (When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.)
In Luke 9:54, James and John asked the Lord if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans. They didn't go through with it, but they did not question that they had the ability. They probably could have done so. (When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?")
So it wasn't only Elijah that had the power to call fire down from heaven. So did David, Solomon, James, and John.
Where did their power come from? Genesis 19:24, and Revelation 20:9 show where their power came from. It came from God. (Gen.19:24: Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah-from the LORD out of the heavens.); (Rev. 20:9: They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.)

We are all familiar with Moses parting the Red Sea. But it wasn't Moses who parted the sea, it was God. Should we consider this to be a power belonging only to Moses?
No. Elijah also parted the waters and walked across, in 2nd Kings 2:8. (Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.)
So did Elisha in 2nd Kings 2:14. (Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over)
These were miracles of God, manifested through different people. The power is God's. The people are just the vessels he uses.

What about the power of raising people from the dead? Who had this power? 2nd Kings 4:18-35 shows us that Elisha had this power. (The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 "My head! My head!" he said to his father. His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. 22 She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return." 23 "Why go to him today?" he asked. "It's not the New Moon or the Sabbath."
"It's all right," she said. 24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead on; don't slow down for me unless I tell you." 25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, 'Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?'" "Everything is all right," she said. 27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why." 28 "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?" 29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face." 30 But the child's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her. 31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened." 32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.)
Acts 20:7-12 reveals that Paul had this power. (On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.)
John 11:43,44 and Luke 8:53-55 show that Jesus also had this power. (Jn. 11:43,44: When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.) ; (Lk. 8:53-55: They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!" 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.)

Remember when Jesus fed the multitudes? Luke 9:10-17 describes the account of Jesus. (When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. 12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 13 He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish-unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14 (About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." 15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.)
2nd Kings 4:42-44 describes Elisha doing the same thing. (A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said. 43 "How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.'" 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.)
Where does the power come from? Elisha answered in 2nd Kings 2:19-22 when he healed some bad water, that it was the Lord who healed it. (The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive." 20 "Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
21 Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'" 22 And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.)

Therefore, why say that the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses, based on the miracles that are performed? Don't you understand that Elijah and Moses are nothing and that all power comes from the God of Heaven? Just as surely as He gave a donkey the power of speech, so also can He give His power to anyone He pleases.
We've seen that He has performed the same type of miracles through different people. It is not the people who are anything, it is the God who works through them, and He is everything.
To say that the witnesses are Elijah and Moses, is to say that God can only perform those types of miracles through them. That implies that the people are important, that there is something about them that God can only manifest these specific types of works through them. It raises man to a pinnacle that is higher than God, causing Him to conform to man.
That is foolishness. The Lord is not constrained by men, nor anything else in this world or out of it.
He has chosen to send down fire from His heaven through the vessels of Elijah, David, and Solomon.
He elected to divide the waters of the sea through Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.
Jesus was given all power, and raised the dead, but God also worked in the same manner through Elisha and Paul.
To claim that any one man has a monopoly on the power of God is ignorance. Even the gift of speech is not given only unto man, for Jesus stated in Luke 19:40 that if man refused to worship God, the very stones would cry out. ("I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.")
All power comes from God, and it is His to do with as He sees fit. Sure, He could choose to work through Moses and Elijah again, in the last days. But the miracles are in no way proofs of the identity of the two witnesses. God could just as easily use a donkey and a giraffe. Now how's that for "off-the-wall"?

Let's move on to reason number two.

2) The second reason it is thought that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah, is due to the two of them appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. (Matthew 17:1-8) This is said to be a pattern, that they were conferring with Jesus about his coming death, and that their turn will also come.

This is a complete fabrication. Let's look at what the bible says:

Matthew 17:1-8: After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

What does the bible say here? Are we told that this is a pattern of any kind? No, we are not. Are we told what the three of them are talking about? No, we are not.
What kind of basis in scripture do we have for making these kinds of statements? We don't have any.
What, then, were Moses, Elijah, and Jesus discussing? We can speculate until the two witnesses arrive, but the bottom line is that the bible does not tell us what they were discussing.
To say that they were discussing plans for the impending crucifixion, or that they were talking over their roles as witnesses in the endtimes, is pure conjecture. They just as easily could have simply been giving praise to God, or a hundred other things.

These ideas are fine, as long as they are presented as ideas, but to try to form facts from them, and then make statements based upon these "facts" is just irresponsible.

It is also insulting to those who have come for assistance in understanding scriptural events. Scripture was not used here in these "explanations", nor was there any logic employed. This conclusion of Moses and Elijah being the two witnesses, based on the "evidence" of the Mount of Transfiguration, has simply been fabricated.

The "evidence" is nonexistent. This was a pure guess, made with a half-hearted attempt to make it appear as though the idea had some basis in scripture. It doesn't.

Some have made other unsupportable claims, such as the transfiguration event proves, or is "obvious" or "evident" that Moses is the partner of Elijah.

Again, the bible proves, "makes obvious", or "evidently shows" no such thing. If Elijah ever had a partner, it was Elisha. Now there's bible for making that statement.
This is all just wishful thinking on the part of those campaigning for the Moses and Elijah Team. Sure, Moses and Elijah make good candidates for being the two witnesses, but this is only a theory, and needs to be presented as such. The "proofs" that are being given in support of this "theory" aren't much better than the "proofs" for the theory of evolution.

The third reason commonly given for the case of Moses and Elijah:

3) Hebrews 9:25-28: Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
- Since scripture indicates that it is man's destiny that he will die once, it follows that all men who have ever lived will die.
- Seeing as how Moses and Elijah never died, it follows that they must at some point return and receive their allotment of death at some time.

Finally, some scripture! Now we have something to discuss, and most interestingly, now that scripture has been looked at and cited as a reference, we are the closest to the truth of the two witnesses that we have ever been.

(Incidentally, this is the method of study that we here at Dark Savant Ministries believe to be the most accurate: allow the bible to explain itself. Even in matters that are dark and cloudy, where it doesn't seem that the bible could shed any light at all, we are still better off searching the scriptures for truth, rather than going off on our own and fabricating theories and ideas which are nothing more than guesses, and then trying to twist scripture into backing up our wild rationalizations.)

We cannot find any fault with this passage, or its interpretation. As a matter of fact, we will be using this same scripture to help identify these two witnesses shortly.
What we do want to examine, however, is the statement that Moses and Elijah have not died. If it can be shown that this is indeed the case, then we would be forced to agree that there is a very high probability that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah. The problem lies in showing that this is so.
Let's start with Elijah.

2nd Kings 2:11 shows that Elijah did not die, but was taken up to heaven. (As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.)

That doesn't leave any doubt. Elijah did not die, but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. So Elijah is definitely a candidate for one of the two witnesses.
If he never died, and if it is appointed unto all men that they must die, then Elijah must return to the earth at some point and die.

Now let's entertain some off-the-wall ideas. Some say that Elijah died as he ascended! The bible doesn't say that. There is no basis for saying that.
Some say that he appeared with Moses as a transfigured form, and that he therefore must have gone through a death-like process as he was caught up by the whirlwind, just as believers will do when they are raptured.
Well, if transfiguration is a sign that one has died, then how do they explain that it was the countenance of Jesus that was transfigured? (His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.)
Did Jesus "die" here? No, not according to the passage in Hebrews that was cited in point number three. It says that Jesus did not enter heaven as a sacrifice for sin again and again, as did the high priest, but that just as man is appointed to die one time, so did Christ die one time.

If Jesus died once, he did so on the cross, not on the Mount of Transfiguration. If this transfiguration is not a proof of death, then neither can it be used to prove that Elijah must have gone through a death-like experience at some time.

The bible never says that Elijah died. The reason it never says that, is because it is the truth. Elijah never died.

Others say that to every rule there is an exception, and that Elijah is an exception. He didn't die on earth, and he never will. This is a difficult stand to argue against.

Does God grant exceptions? Of course he does. The thief on the cross had his sins forgiven and was promised that when he died he would arrive in paradise with Jesus. (Luke 23:42,43: Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.")

Had he received the gift of the Holy Spirit? No, since the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. Could he go and offer a sacrifice for his sin at the temple? No, he was tied to a cross and wasn't going anywhere. Did he deserve salvation? No one does. We are all sinners and what we deserve is hell. (Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,); (Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.)

The only way that thief could be forgiven was for God to reach across the dispensation and apportion unto him the grace and the mercy that would soon be available through the Holy Spirit.
God made an exception. Can he make an exception to his rule that all men are destined to die? Yes He can. He makes the rules, and He can make the exceptions.

However, if we are to make any sense of this at all, in fact if we are to understand any part of the bible, we must understand the rules of God, and abide by them.
If you say there are exceptions to everything, then there are no truths anymore, there are no rules. We become a people of God who are not sure of anything anymore.
God can make exceptions to His rules if He wants to, but we should not be hoping to become saved through an exception. In this way, your future is uncertain. Rather, we should live after the way of His commands, and then our destiny is sure.

If we begin sprinkling exceptions in here and there, then nothing is absolute, and nothing can be proven or even understood beyond a reasonable doubt.
A "study" is an examining of all of the facts, putting them together in an effort to recreate the big picture.

If a murder has been committed, a study must take place, an investigation which takes a look at all of the facts and attempts to put together the big picture. If there are no facts, then an investigation can not take place. What we are reduced to are guesses.
If a study of scripture is undertaken, all of the component truths, or evidences, or facts must be looked at and put together in order to understand the big picture. If you throw exceptions in all through the bible, then you no longer have any facts, or rules. Nothing is for certain, because there might be an exception. Understanding cannot take place without some cold, hard facts to build with.

So let's not sabotage our effort to understand the word of God by the use of exceptions. We have His rules to go by. We have His commandments, and we have His Words. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.) He never changes. Neither do His words. And He says all men are destined to die.
Can we know for a surety the identities of the two witnesses? No. But if we use the rules that God has set down in His Word, we can collate a large enough abundance of scripture to justify a probable answer.

Exceptions are an easy way of getting around scriptural barriers to ideas. For the purpose of this study, we will not avail ourselves of the luxury of exceptions.

Elijah never died. It is appointed unto him that he will.
We can agree, then, on Elijah as being one of the two witnesses.

Let us now examine the possibility of Moses.

We are told that Moses never died, but that God buried him. We are expected to believe that the phrase "God buried him" and the fact that his body was never found, indicates that Moses was also taken by God, and that his body never really died.

Let's see what scripture has to say concerning this.

Deuteronomy 34:1-8: Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land-from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it." 5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

The bible says here that Moses died.

Joshua 1:1,2: After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites.

The bible says here that Moses died. Who was it that said Moses was dead? The Lord said so, unto Joshua. Now unless you're prepared to argue that the Lord lied, or did not know what He was saying, or that He really meant something other than what He said, you have to conclude that Moses really died.

When the bible says that the Lord buried him, it means just what it said. God buried Moses.
You can look at a few other scriptures that will continue to bear this out. For example, you can look at the passage that describes the death of Aaron. The original Hebrew words used for "death" in the case of Aaron, are the exact same words used to describe the death of Moses.
If you hold that Moses did not really die, then you have to believe that Aaron did not die, either, based on the original language. The same words for "death" were used for both of them. Therefore, they either both died, or they both were "taken by God".

The bible makes it clear that they both died.
This disqualifies Moses as being one of the two witnesses.

Who else could possibly be this second witness? Has there been anyone else in the history of the bible who has not died, but was "taken" by God?
There is. His name is Enoch.

Genesis 5:18-24: When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Hebrews 11:5: 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.

The bible says that Enoch "was no more, because God took him away." It also says, in case that isn't plain enough, that he "was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death".
Enoch did not die. If it is appointed unto man that he must die, then Enoch still must die. This can be accomplished if he is one of the two witnesses who return and are killed by the beast of the pit.

These are the only two men of whom it is said that they did not die. Elijah and Enoch. They must still receive their appointment of death. This can be fulfilled if they are the two witnesses, and these are the ones we believe the evidence of the bible most strongly supports.

Now what about the fact that scripture says that man is appointed once to die? There are those who point out that there have been exceptions to this. People were raised from the dead. They obviously died again at some point, or they would still be with us, unless God took them.

So some people died twice. Does this negate the Word of God, when it says that all men are destined to die once?
Not at all. All men are destined to die once. All men are not destined to die twice, even though some of them may. That's a doctrine of reincarnation.

God may see fit to make exceptions to His rules, but this does not change the fact that all men will die once. Those who were raised from the dead and died again may have died twice, but they still died once. They still fulfilled scripture. They did not, by being raised from the dead, cause scripture to become false.
Careful examination of scripture shows that this objection based on the number of times a man will die, is not an obstacle to truth, but merely a clever smokescreen designed to discredit and confuse.

And finally, what of the raptured believers? Isn't it true that they will never taste of death?
The bible says in 1st Corinthians 15:51-55: Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

Paul says here that he has a mystery to tell us. The mystery is that we will not all sleep. In other words, we will not all die. All of us will be changed, however, both those who are dead, and those who are not. Mortal man cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and so our mortality will be clothed with immortality.
How can this happen? This is the mystery, for we are all destined to die, and yet some of us will not die, but will be changed in the twinkling of an eye into immortal beings.
Is this an exception to the rule, then? It is, indeed. But it is not an exception that has originated with Man. It has originated with God. The bible tells us of this exception when it says that Death has been defeated.
It tells us of this exception when it says that for some people, at a very specific period of time (at the last trumpet) they will put on immortality and Death will have no hold on them.
This is the rapture, and it is the only time in the bible that God ever tells of an exception to His rule of death for all Man.
This is the exception that we all want to be a part of.

Consider if you would, one final point:

There have been many people who have found favor with the Lord. There was Elisha, who had a double portion of Elijah's spirit. There was Daniel, there was Joseph, there was Joshua, there was Moses, there was David, and there was Peter.

Of all of these people, as well as Gideon, Esther, Paul, John the Baptist, Cornelius, Priscilla and Aquilla, what was it about Enoch and Elijah that God saw fit to take them to heaven?

Were Enoch and Elijah more righteous than everyone else? No. (Isaiah 64:6: All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.)

Did God love them more than anyone else? No. (Acts 10:34: Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism)

Then why would God spare them, when He did not spare any other?

Could it be, that He has a purpose for them? Could it be, that there was a reason that they not yet taste of death? Could it be, that their work is not yet finished?
Could it be, that they are the two witnesses appointed to testify to the world of Him?

Isn't it odd, that only two men were spared the destiny of death, and that His witnesses will be two men? Not three or four, or one man and one woman?

Coincidence?

We choose to believe that it is the will and the plan of God.


In conclusion, we agree with the third point of those who believe the two witnesses to be Moses and Elijah (in that all men are destined to die once), but we believe that the scripture cited does not support the inclusion of Moses. Rather, the correct identification should be Enoch and Elijah.

In Christ,

Chad J. McCoy
Dark Savant Ministries


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