Having painstakingly gathered clues to the identity of the two witnesses from the scriptural significance of their number and various passages of Scripture, we are now ready to turn our attention to the two witnesses themselves. Let’s begin by looking at the different interpretations to their identity that are being proffered today.

Many people insist that the two witnesses are to be interpreted literally. They are actual and identifiable figures who will appear upon the earth at the end of time. Some say that they are biblical characters who will return to the earth in the last days. Others say that though they are specific individuals, they are not returning biblical prophets, but merely reminiscent of a couple of them.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are manifold problems with a literal interpretation of the two witnesses of Revelation. Consider the following:

❶ The Book of Revelation tells us from the get-go that it is a book of symbols, necessitating a symbolic rather than literal interpretation (Revelation 1:1).

❷ If these are the two witnesses required to condemn “without mercy” all who reject the New Covenant in which God has given His grace and truth through His Son Jesus Christ, then, they would have to live and testify during the entire Church Age (Hebrews 10:28-31).

❸ The Greek word for “war” in Revelation 11:7 implies a major conflict, such as one fought between masses of people, not an interpersonal conflict, such as would exist between two individual witnesses and “the beast.”

In addition to these general problems with a literal interpretation of the two witnesses, there are also more specific and troubling problems. For instance, today’s most popular literal interpretation identifies the two witnesses as Moses and Elijah. At first glance this seems to be a reasonable interpretation, since the two witnesses “devour their enemies” with fire and “have power to shut heaven” like Elijah, as well as “have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth will all plagues” like Moses. Upon closer scrutiny, however, this seemingly reasonable interpretation quickly becomes untenable.

If Moses is to literally return to the earth at the end of time, then, much to the delight of Hindus and Buddhists everywhere, the false doctrine of incarnation has been inserted into the Bible. Although some try to get around this by arguing that Moses was one of the Old Testament saints resurrected at Christ’s resurrection and seen afterward in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53), such an argument opens up a whole new can of worms, since Moses is supposedly killed by “the beast”—dies a second time—and afterward is raised from the dead—resurrected a second time.

In addition to the above, there is another problem with this argument. How does Moses’ incorruptible, resurrected body succumb to death at the hands of “the beast”? Are we to assume, contrary to Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 15:12-49, that Moses was resurrected at Christ’s resurrection with another mortal body? If so, was this true of all the Old Testament saints resurrected at Christ’s resurrection? Before answering in the affirmative to keep your end-time theory intact, consider that such an answer may well necessitate the return and second death of all of them in order to shed their second earth-suits.

When it comes to identifying one of the two witnesses as Elijah, many argue that this must be the case since Elijah never died (2 Kings 2:11). They insist that he must come back to die, since Hebrews 9:27 says: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Interestingly, the majority of those making this argument don’t identity the other witness as Enoch, the other man in the Bible who never died (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5), but as Moses. Apparently, it’s okay by them if Enoch skirts his appointment with death, just as long as Elijah doesn’t. In addition, they seem to have no problem scheduling Moses with dual appointments with the “Death Angel.” At any rate, this argument is found scripturally unsupportable by the fact that a whole generation of believers will shed their earth-suits and don glorified bodies without ever tasting death at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

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