WHO ARE THE TWO WITNESSES OF REVELATION?

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will be clothed in burlap and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.” These two prophets are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die. They have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. And they have the power to turn the rivers and oceans into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish. When they complete their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will declare war against them, and he will conquer them and kill them. And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified. And for three and a half days, all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will stare at their bodies. No one will be allowed to bury them. All the people who belong to this world will gloat over them and give presents to each other to celebrate the death of the two prophets who had tormented them. But after three and a half days, God breathed life into them, and they stood up! Terror struck all who were staring at them. Then a loud voice from heaven called to the two prophets, “Come up here!” And they rose to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched." --Revelation 11:3-12, New Living Translation 

Folks in the now defunct Worldwide Church of God used to love to speculate about the identity of the two witnesses discussed in the eleventh chapter of the book of Revelation. Before their falling out, Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong were the most popular contenders for the "honor." Since their deaths, speculation has run amok among their successors and their followers.

Unfortunately, most of these folks are completely oblivious to the fact that not everyone believes these two witnesses are synonymous with two literal church leaders in the end time. In fact, there are a number of other notions extant about these two witnesses in the Christian world. Don't take my word for it, just Google "The Two Witnesses" and see for yourself just how many different interpretations pop up!

Herbert Armstrong's literalist perspective got him into trouble in many areas, but its inadequacies are probably no where more glaringly apparent than in the realm of prophecy (his numerous prophetic failures are well-documented on Banned by HWA and elsewhere). Think about it, the book of Revelation is wall to wall symbolism, and it is just plain common sense that this wouldn't mesh well with literalism!

Moses told the people of Israel that the Lord would some day "raise up for you a prophet like me." (Deuteronomy 18:15) What if the two witnesses referenced in the book of Revelation were Moses and Christ? What if their testimony constituted their messages recorded in the Old and New Testaments? Is it implausible to think of them as "two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth"? Is it hard to imagine them and their messages being figuratively killed by modern biblical critics and later reanimated by Divine intervention? Did the messages from their mouths have the power to slay their enemies? Did they have the power to manipulate weather, turn rivers into blood and strike the earth with plagues? Is it possible that this scripture is not referring to 1,260 literal 24 hour days? I'm not saying that I've figured this thing out, but isn't it at least possible that this message has absolutely NOTHING to do with Gerald Flurry, David Pack, Bob Thiel or ANY of their followers? What do you think?