Who Are The Two Witnesses?


Some vaguely interpret the two witnesses as Israel and the church as one of their lame arguments in trying to establish that the church will go through the tribulation.

This a very bizarre assertion and grossly contrary to what prophetic scriptures teach about the two last witnesses.

If they are Israel and the church, how then do we explain the prophecy of Malachi 4:4-6 concerning their ministry before the great and terrible day of the Lord?👇🏽

"Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

Now this is a clear prophecy that speaks of the ministries that will be embodied by the two last witnesses, that of Moses & Elijah representing the law & the prophets.

If they are Israel and the Church, then when God speaks of the law of Moses his servant he is referring to the nation of Israel, and when he speaks of sending Elijah the prophet, he's talking of the church. 

This would be the most bizarre interpretation of prophetic scriptures.

Who is God speaking to in this prophecy of Malachi 4?

Of course Israel, the book of this prophecy begins with "The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi." (Chapter 1:1)

God cannot be speaking of sending the nation of Israel as a messenger to the nation of Israel, to prepare them for his coming, let alone sending the church to prepare Israel.

Earlier in Malachi 3:1 God had spoken through his prophet Malachi, of his last messenger whom he would send to Israel as a forerunner before the coming of the Lord 👇🏽

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts."

John the Baptist was a fulfillment of this prophecy as a messenger God sent to prepare the way of the Lord - Mark 1:2-4.

However, in Malachi 4:4-5, God went further to speak of the two/double fold ministry of this messenger, this time as a corporate and not a singular messenger, to bear two fold witness representing the law and the prophets before the day of the Lord👇🏽

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD"

Moses & Elijah mentioned as clearly representing the law & the prophets which will be embodied in & by the ministry of the two witnesses.

Concerning the ministry of John the Baptist Jesus said "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias(Elijah), which was for to come."(Matthew 11:13-14). 

In other words, John was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi 3:1 which speaks of the last messenger God will send to Israel, and Malachi 4:4-5 which in connection to that, speaks of the sending of Elijah the prophet.

Speaking of the birth of John, the angel Gabriel said he will go in the spirit & power of Elias(Luke 1:17).

Jesus however, said something that reveals the dual nature of these prophecies in Malachi; following the transfiguration encounter on the mount, in which Moses & Elijah appeared unto him, his three disciples whom he had taken up to the mount with him asked him thus: "Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?"

He answered and said to them: "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist" Matthew 17:1-13.

Elias had come already as fulfilled in John the Baptist and Elias truly shall yet come, and that will be before the coming of the great & dreadful day of the Lord, and as revealed on the mount of transfiguration, he will come with Moses: a two fold witness representing the law & the prophets, which the prophecy in Malachi 4:4-5 clearly speaks of..."the law of Moses" & "Elijah the prophet". 

The two witnesses undoubtedly will be individual messengers like John the Baptist, who will be an embodiment of the ministries of Moses & Elijah, going in the spirit & power of the ministries of Moses & Elijah.

No where in the prophecy of scripture are they figuratively presented as representing two corporate bodies: Israel & the church, they will rather be literal persons who, as forerunners like John the Baptist, will fulfill a significant ministry in the preparation of Israel for the millennial coming of Christ. 

Just as John was a man/messenger sent from God as the last prophet to Israel & as a witness, to prepare the way of the Lord before his revelation to Israel at his first coming, the two witnesses will be the two last prophets sent of God to Israel in the end of the Jewish age of the law(the last week of Daniel's 70 weeks), to prepare the way of the Lord before his second coming. John 1:6-7.

The prophecy in Zechariah 4:14 concerning these witnesses clearly says they are the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord. On the mount of transfiguration, Moses & Elijah stood with the Lord.

How then can one interpret that to be Israel and the church?

The church which was a mystery hidden in God from other ages and generations, is nowhere captured in old testament prophecy, so it's bizarre for anyone to want to turn one of the two witnesses into the church.

Further x-raying such a bizarre interpretation of the two witnesses in the light of new testament prophecy in the book of Revelation 11:1-11, shows it doesn't fit in at all.

If the two witnesses are Israel and the church, then it means that after they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit(the false prophet) will make make war against Israel and the church, overcome them, and kill them, such that the dead bodies of everyone who is of the nation of Israel and every church saint will lie on the streets of Jerusalem, only to be raised and caught up to heaven after 3 & half days. 

This means there won't be any living saint whether of Israel or of the church, when the catching up takes place, all will be killed by the false prophet and raised from the dead to be caught up after 3 & half days.

This is clearly a very bizarre & unscriptural interpretation.

Concerning the two witnesses, the prophecy of scripture in Revelation 11:5-6 says "And if any man desire to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed. These have power to shut the heaven that it rain not during the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they will." 

Here is certainly not the grace of Christianity, but the ministry of power after the manner of Elijah and of Moses, judgment which must come because grace has been rejected, the church clearly has no place in such times, especially when we consider that the prophecy of this eleventh chapter of Revelation begins with the measurement of the temple of God, the altar, them that worship in it & the outer court(Revelation 11:1-2).

This is clearly a time when the temple in Jerusalem would have been rebuilt with the daily sacrifices reinstituted, a time in which the grace of christianity is gone from the earth with the wheat harvest of the church taken out of the field which is the world, into the heavenly granary. The focus of heaven will be thus to prepare Israel for the second coming of their Messiah, who at his coming will ride out from heaven with his heavenly bride/church saints to judge the world & set up his millennial kingdom - See 1st Corinthians 6:2; Jude 1:14-15 & Revelation 19:7-8, 11-14.

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