With these facts before us, can we wonder any longer that Anti-Christ shall be so successful? The very occasion and peculiar times and incidents of the reign of Anti-Christ will call for some special manifestations on the part of the Divine One that shall soberly and clearly confront the hollow and hypocritical pretensions of that age. Hence the appearance of the two witnesses—Moses the Ancient of Days, and Elijah the Tishbite, who will look like the Son of God.
Allow us to submit further evidence in proof that the two witnesses of John in Rev. xi. are none other than Moses and Elijah: for many passages of Holy Writ are sealed to the understanding till we comprehend who the two witnesses are, their mission and work. We will notice the attributive features of these witnesses as they are related by John in this chapter—that is, Rev. xi.
In the first place, there are two persons or individualities; this appears plainly from the tenor of the whole record. They are spoken of as “they, them, their mouth, their feet, as dying and being resurrected.” But, strange to say, after all this plainness of speech, men have become so accustomed to spiritualise and generalise that Anti-Christ stood for Rome, and naturally enough, having generalised Anti-Christ, they must do the same with the two witnesses; hence they found them in the Churches of the Waldenses and Albigenses. In such an interpretation nearly all the attributive features of these witnesses are ignored. Such as that they had power to work miracles, to lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem for three days and a half. Some have laboured to prove that the Old and New Testaments were these witnesses, others that they were symbolised by the law and Gospel. Again, some that the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s supper, were these two witnesses, and so on almost without end. These instances will suffice for our present purpose; for surely any of you reading God’s own Word need not so blunder.
In the second place, Jesus calls them His two witnesses. Now, in what sense were they His? for such they are now. Not that they will be His when they appear, but they will appear to oppose Anti-Christ at Jerusalem because they are sent. The prophets are all witnesses; for, as Peter says, “To Him give all the prophets witness.” The apostles were witnesses, and all believers are witnesses for Jesus; yet these two are so in a special and pre-eminent sense. Let any one read
the account of the transfiguration of Jesus and the circumstances attendant thereon, and all will be plain. Moses and Elias (another spelling for Elijah) we find were present, as well as Peter, James, and John. When Christ was transfigured, “Behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias” (Matt, xvii. 3). These two persons talked with Jesus, “and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” Thus, then, they were special witnesses for Christ, and so they will come again and witness for Him in the time appointed.
The number of days we must take in a literal sense; here the 1,260 days and 3½ days are the days appointed for their work and death. It is well to remember that many of the prophetic numbers contain a double prophecy. Thus 1,260 here may be coincident with the treading down of Jerusalem by Mahommedanism. But whether it is or not, does not vitiate the literal quantity when applied to these two witnesses. In the third place, they are called two olive trees and two candlesticks standing before the God of the whole earth. The figurative meaning will be found by finding some passage where two trees are mentioned in the interpretation given—such a passage by Zechariah iv. Here the prophet saw two olive trees and asked of the angel the meaning; and the angel said, “Knowest thou not what these be?” And I said, “No, my Lord.” Then said he, “These are two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” The simple meaning is, that the two olive trees mean two persons, who are in heaven at present, but are anointed—that is, set apart, selected for some distinct work for God.
Moses and Elijah evidently were anointed and specially selected, for it is probable they both escaped death. The wonder connected with the disappearance of Moses and the translation of Elijah now finds some measure of explanation. None doubt the translation of Elijah. John the Baptist was not Elias, except he was to go before Christ in the spirit
and power of Elias; in this sense John stood for Elias. John the Baptist prepared the way of Christ the first time, so will Elias for Christ’s second coming. The record of Moses’s departure from this world is as mysterious as it is dramatic. But, certainly, neither the mysterious nor the dramatic have any meaning excepting we allow something Divinely special. To die as other people, would mean nothing on the line of specialities; but he did not so die. He went from the people alive; no one saw him die or dead. He went up into Mount Horeb and never returned. So, so far as the people were concerned, he was to them a dead man, for he went from them no more to return. The word death in Hebrew has not less than six meanings, one of which is simply to disappear. This is the meaning that we must attach to the death of Moses. Neither his grave nor body have ever been found.
There is a peculiar passage in the book of Jude where “Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Now, Satan then had power over death in some way Divinely permitted. Paul says (Heb. ii. 14), speaking of Christ, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death—that is, the devil.” When God was translating Moses, passing him by death, Satan fought with Michael, who was God’s messenger, to inflict the sting of death on Moses, and although Michael carried Moses on by death into the presence of God, Satan durst not bring a railing accusation against him.
Jude, in his epistle, probably quoted from one of the now lost books of Revelation, which was entitled, “The Ascension or Assumption of Moses the servant of God.” The Church father, Origen, makes mention of this work, but, like the book and prophecies of Enoch, from which Jude makes a quotation,