The Unveiled Identity: The Two Witnesses Can Be Anyone
The Book of Revelation presents the "two witnesses" (Revelation 11:3), also identified as the "two olive trees, and the two candlesticks" (Revelation 11:4), as figures of immense prophetic significance. While their mission is clearly defined by extraordinary power and a precise timeline, their individual identities remain a subject of persistent inquiry. However, a rigorous adherence to the textua lingua (definition below) , combined with an Open Theism framework, reveals the profound absolute fact that these two individuals can be anyone whom the Dynamic God chooses to empower for this unique, final ministry.
The notion that the Two Witnesses are specifically a resurrected Moses and Elijah is, at best, speculative. While these figures undeniably possessed powers that parallel those attributed to the Witnesses in Revelation 11:5-6 (consuming enemies with fire, shutting heaven, turning water to blood), the text itself never explicitly names them. The granting of composite powers is not an undeniable identification, but rather a thematic echo designed to highlight the nature of their authority – as figures of law and prophetic power – rather than their specific, pre-known individual identities. To fix their identity to Moses and Elijah is to introduce an inference that the text itself withholds.
The verifiable facts about the Two Witnesses are their function and the precise, time-bound nature of their mission. They are commissioned by God to prophesy for exactly 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3), and their dramatic death, resurrection, and ascension are all foretold (Revelation 11:7-12). These are not random acts but part of a divinely orchestrated sequence. Yet, the text remains silent on who these individuals were before their commissioning. This silence is not an oversight; it is an affirmation of the Dynamic God’s absolute freedom in selection.
Under the Open Theism framework, God, in His dynamic engagement with creation, does not meticulously fix the precise identity of every future agent, especially where human free will is involved. The Two Witnesses, though called to a predetermined function, are not necessarily pre-known individuals whose lives are exhaustively predetermined from eternity past. Instead, they are two individuals who, through a confluence of their own choices and God's sovereign call, will meet the conditions for this unique prophetic ministry. They can be the most obscure person on Earth, a well-known public figure, or anyone in between. Their prior status or notoriety is irrelevant to God’s ability to empower them.
The profound absolute fact is that the Two Witnesses can be anyone. The emphasis is not on who they are, but on the power God grants them and the message they deliver. To insist on specific historical figures like Moses and Elijah is to impose a rigid, predetermined expectation onto the text that diminishes the dynamic sovereignty of God in choosing His instruments. It suggests a meticulous, fixed future rather than a dynamic, responsive God who can call anyone at any time to fulfill His purposes. The Two Witnesses will be those individuals who are faithful to the call when it comes, regardless of what their lives entailed before that moment. They can be anyone, and that truth powerfully underscores God's absolute freedom to choose.