Another reason many literally interpret and mistakenly identify one of the two witnesses as Elijah is because the two witnesses are said to “have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy…” (Revelation 11:6).

Like Elijah, whose effectual prayer “shut heaven” so that it “rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months,” the church also has the power of effectual prayer. This power is specifically attributed to the church in James 5:13-20.

“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

Contrary to popular opinion, this passage of Scripture is actually speaking of a wayward and unrepentant Christian who has been expelled from the church and fallen ill under the chastening of the Lord. When and if he comes to repentance on his sickbed, he is to “call for the elders of the church” to “pray” for him and “anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.” As a result of the confession of his “faults” and the elders’ “prayer of faith,” the repentant Christian will be “healed” and his “sins forgiven.”

As Elijah’s prayers to shut heaven and to open heaven, as well as to call the fire down from heaven on top of Mount Carmel, were effectual in turning the wayward people of God back to God, so also the church’s prayers to heal a repentant and chastened church member, will prove effectual in turning the wayward Christian back to Christ.

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