The Two Witnesses & the AntiChrist

By William Riley
Olive Tree Ministries

Q. Do you believe the two witnesses and the false messiah are alive right now?

A. I’m going to answer in two ways, one in a spiritual sense and the other literally. Spiritually, the two witnesses are “alive” in that the Torah and the prophets are witnessing to us everyday. It doesn’t even depend on whether a person reads them or even believes them. They are a witness today (Psalm 40.7, John 5.39-47, Luke 24.27, Rom 3.21) and are personified in Moses (Law) and Elijah (prophets). These two appeared with Yeshua at the transfiguration because they testify of Him, and still do. That is why the doctrine that the Law has been “done away with” is so dangerous because to say that means the prophets have bee done away with also, and that is just as false as can be. But, let’s say the Law has been done away with.

That leaves only the prophets and one witness, and that is not enough to establish anything according to the Lord, so again there are problems. Now, let’s take the literal aspect of this. In prophecy, there will be two witnesses. God has always had two witnesses in earthly events, especially significant ones. You had Moses and Aaron, Zerubbabel and Joshua (Yeshua), Yeshua and John and so on. When the world enters the Birth-pains of the Messiah (Mt 24.8) there will be two witnesses (Rev 11). People have tried to identify them as Moses and Elijah but they won’t literally be them, having come back from the dead. They will be two individuals who will come in the spirit and power of Moses and Elijah, but they don’t have to be them literally.

For example, when Yeshua came the first time he said that John the Baptist “was Elijah” (Mt 11.14). Well, we know he really wasn’t Elijah and John said so himself (John 1.21). In Luke 1.17 John’s father Zechariah was told that his son will come in the “spirit and power of Elijah” and Yeshua confirmed that. So, the two witnesses during the birth-pains will be two individuals God will anoint in the same way he did Moses and Elijah, who personify the Law and the Prophets.

In other words, the two witnesses will be teaching the Law and the Prophets and saying the same thing the Scriptures say. Those that believe the Law has been done away with will never listen to them because they don’t believe Moses or the Prophets (John 5.46-47). Now to your original question. I personally believe we are approaching the Tribulation period (birth-pains) and we are very close. It is very possible that the two witnesses are alive right now, and the false messiah as well. There is no point in trying to identify them because nobody knows so everything is just pointless speculation. However, the teachings of the two witnesses are already in the world through the Torah (law) and the prophets and the teaching of the false messiah is in the world also through the doctrine of “we are free from the Law” and “the Law has been done away with” and so on. This is called lawlessness and the man of lawlessness (no Torah) will persecute those who keep the commandments of God (Rev 12.17).