Zech 4:11-12 & 13-14 describes two mysterious olive trees. They are described again in Revelation Chapter 11, which says.:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth.

And if any man desireth 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 the 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 shall desire.

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry; and they shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.

And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Understanding the Two Witnesses…
THEIR MESSAGE and Who They Are

The Two Witnesses are faithful Christians who have oil in their lamps Matt 25:4 and are proclaiming the gospel message, which is a light Exo 27:20, + 2Co 4:4 that burns continually Lev 24:2, or everlastingly Rev 14:6.

Please check all Scripture references to see why I’m linking these concepts together.

They also witness against those who are enemies of God.

No one can be condemned without at least 2 witnesses.

Deut 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin … at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

Also see Matt 18:16

Heb 10:28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under TWO OR THREE witnesses.

These multiple witnesses speak against corrupt, so-called Christian leaders (Ezek 34:2 onwards), and the apostasy of many in the churches today, as expressed in my poem below:

This is a song version:

The Message they bring, In More Detail

In every era, God has a message for His covenant keeping people to give to the world. Noah had a special message for his time with a dire warning. The old testament prophets had a message for the children of Israel with warnings of captivity if they hardened their hearts toward God and His principles and worshipped pagan gods.

Jesus and His disciples had a similar message of warning and Salvation – Repent, be baptised and believe on Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life.

The Everlasting Gospel

Mark 1:14-15 … Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, … the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

The gospel of the Kingdom of God is actually a more profound message than most people realise, and is explained more fully on my page explaining the meaning and purpose of life here.

Acts 2:38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

The same message of salvation (the everlasting gospel and three angels message, beginning Rev 14:6), and the same warnings, have been given by God’s faithful prophets down through the ages because God’s ways are absolutely constant and never change.

Mal 3:16 For I am the LORD, I change not…

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Multiple Warnings

Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

Before Jesus comes in the clouds at the second coming, another message is given:

• Fear God – this means to reverence God as your Lord and Master and DO NOT serve ‘sin.’
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Confronting Apostate Christianity –
The Elijah message is also included . . . https://nicetiming.com/2023/09/02/intolerance-can-be-a-good-thing/

• Give glory to Him – This is done by trusting His Spirit to guide us in our daily life, by growing up to be like Jesus and reflecting, like a light, His character, through how we live our life.

Matt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

• For the hour of his judgment is come – There will come a time when Jesus will take to heaven all the overcomers as promised in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. (A few teach that people will never go to heaven, but cannot Jesus visit heaven? We will be wherever Christ is. In addition the church is the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21, which comes down like a bride from heaven after the first earth is passed away.)

• Worship the Creator, not the creation – Don’t trust your life to the powerless, dead, pagan idols, but the Omnipotent God who created the universe and cares for you. Trust the One who gives you power to overcome!

Heb 11:6 For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Plus a Final Message… a Call to Repentance and Truth:

Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen … because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The great churches of this world, who claim to represent God and hold His truth, are corrupt and speak deception.

Rev 17:4-5 explains that there is a woman – a harlot mother church – who is riding a beast called Babylon the Great. This is not a good thing because Babylon ‘is fallen’ completely – The number 7 symbolises completeness in the Bible. Modern software allows you to easily count the number of times throughout the Bible it says ‘fallen’ in relation to Babylon.
Isa 21:9 = 2 times
Jer 51:8 = 1 time
Rev 14:8 = 2 times
Rev 18:2 = 2 times
The total is 7 times, God’s number for completeness!

(As an aside, who but God could orchestrate all the matching hidden 7’s in the Bible?)

This message is continued in Rev 18:3 with an additional command in Rev 18:4-5 to: Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

• Receive the Seal of God’s approval, not the mark of the beast. Rev 14:9-10. Rev 15:2 Rev 20:4 (I have written more about the mark of the beast here.)

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

Unworkable Explanations for the Two Witnesses

There are several popular explanations for the identity of the two witnesses. Theories include the idea that they could be resurrected characters from the Bible, such as Enoch and Elijah, Moses and Elijah, or any two Bible characters. These ideas are simply wrong because they are inconsistent with the way God works, and God doesn’t change – Mal 3:6.

Although Jesus spoke to Elijah in the New Testament (Matt 17:2-3) God never resurrected Old Testament characters to do New Testament jobs, that is, to play any part in current affairs of the day. Instead, God used people who were living at the time to fill whatever rolls were needed at the time. For example, God didn’t resurrect Elijah to do what John the Baptist was able to do, even though he was a type of Elijah (Matt 17:12-13).

God didn’t work like that then, He doesn’t work like that now, and He won’t work that way in the future.

Another idea is that the two witnesses will be angels. But God has no need to send angels to die for three and a half days, as the two witnesses do. In addition, angels are ministering spirits, Heb 1:14. A spirit does not have flesh and bones (see Luke 24:39), and therefore would not suffer death in this manner. It is not a viable theory.

Other theories are that the two witnesses symbolize the Old and New Testaments (John 5:39), and another is that they symbolize Israel (Isa 43:10) and the New Testament Church (Acts 1:8). These are not bad theories. I believe they are partially true, but incomplete. In Part 1 of this series I linked a number of Scriptures that indicate the two witnesses may be the last two churches described in Revelation chapter 3. However, so far as I know, that speculation is 100% unique to me!

Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) prophet, Ellen G. White, said the two witnesses were symbolic of the Old and New Testaments as they related to the French revolution, and when you study it, you can see how that history did match the two witnesses prophecy, and her interpretation IS workable.

Here’s a summary:

Ellen G. White - SDA Apostasy - the Two Witnesses - & 1260 Days

Ellen White was the founder of the SDA church. That church has drifted away from a number of her teachings and like every modern church, basically lost the plot. (Isaiah 28:8 - there is vomit on every table.) But she is worth reading on a number of issues. 

She wrote that the Rev 11:3 period of 1260 prophetic days (or years) directly tied to the period of papal supremacy, which she interprets as lasting from A.D. 538 to 1798 — and she teaches that the French Revolution marks the closing events of that prophetic period.

Here’s a clear breakdown of how she explains it:

🕰 1. The 1260 days = 1260 years of Papal dominion.
Ellen White follows the historic Protestant interpretation that in prophetic symbolism, a day equals a year (Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34).

1260 days → 1260 years.
This period represents the “time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:6, 14; 13:5), which she says refers to the era when the papacy ruled over Europe and persecuted dissenters.
It began in A.D. 538, when the papacy gained political power under Emperor Justinian’s decree, and ended in A.D. 1798, when General Berthier, under orders from Napoleon, took Pope Pius VI prisoner, ending papal dominance.

🕰 2. The French Revolution as the closing event of the prophecy
In her book The Great Controversy, especially chapters 15–17, Ellen White explains that the French Revolution fulfilled prophecy and signaled the end of the 1260 years:

“The forty and two months are the same as the ‘time and times and the dividing of time,’ three years and a half, or twelve hundred and sixty days... This period... ended in 1798. At that time a French army entered Rome and made the pope prisoner, and he died in exile.”
— The Great Controversy, p. 439 (1888 edition)

She notes that the Revolution itself, which erupted in 1789 and reached its climax in the 1790s, exposed the moral and spiritual corruption of the papacy and fulfilled the symbolic “wounding” of the beast (Revelation 13:3).

🕰 3. France’s atheism as the "beast from the bottomless pit"
Ellen White also interprets Revelation 11 — where the “two witnesses” (the Old and New Testaments) are slain — as a description of France during the Revolution:

“When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long desired—a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God.”
— The Great Controversy, p. 276

She identifies revolutionary France as the “beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit” (Revelation 11:7), representing open atheism and rebellion against God, which arose just before 1798, showing the final phase of the 1260-year prophecy.

In saying what she did, Ellen White was not wrong, and history did match this, but Ellen White herself emphasized that the truth of God is progressive, with more light continually unfolding as God’s people are able to receive it.

The 1260 days (or 42 months / 3½ years) in Revelation 11 has a well-established historicist fulfillment in the SDA understanding as 1260 literal years of papal dominance and persecution from 538 to 1798 AD, during which the two witnesses (in her view, the Scriptures) prophesied in sackcloth.

So the historic perspective is valid, but is there more to it? Because the prophecy sits between the woes and includes elements such as the measuring of God’s people (Rev 11:1-2) and the short “three and a half days” before the witnesses’ resurrection near the time of Jesus’ return, I believe the 1260 can also carry a broader symbolic meaning of intense opposition and faithful witness of God’s people affirming the Scriptures toward the end of the church age.

If I use the same day-year principle as an illustrative parallel, counting 1260 years back from a point such as 2028 lands in 768 AD—the year Charlemagne became King of the Franks. This marked a significant rise in Western church-state alliance, with strengthened papal ties, enforcement of Christian practices (including Sunday observance), and the foundations of medieval Catholic dominance that later influenced Protestant developments as well.

This allows room for additional typological lessons from other eras and a final, complete fulfillment at Christ’s return.

This means there may yet be additional  future fulfillment, not so much with the time period, but for the completion of all prophecy and Jesus return.

Quoting in advance from Part 3, in this Two Witnesses series: “The witnesses are yet living and they must continue like their Lord, till they shall have finished their work; and that will not come to a close till the devil’s two witnesses—the ten-horned and two-horned beasts—are destroyed. Rev 19:20″

WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW WHO THE TWO WITNESSES ARE NOT

In the future there will be ‘false prophets’ bringing fire down from heaven in the sight of men. Rev 13:13-14, Rev 19:20. That’s already happening with modern weapons. ‘False prophets’ can also be false teachers, perhaps even political teachers or preachers. Don’t follow any false teachers!

The two witnesses will breathe fire from their mouths, but this is symbolic of their words only (Jer 5:14). Much else may be symbolic. For example, the waters mentioned may be nations (Rev 17:15). Don’t jump to conclusions too easily, or you may be deceived.

The two witnesses will die in symbolic Sodom and Egypt “where also their Lord was crucified” which seems to be Jerusalem because of Luke 13:33. But technically, Jesus was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem. See Hebrews 13:11-14. Does this allow for the witnesses to be killed inside or outside Jerusalem? I cannot say for sure, but Rev 18:24 states ALL the blood of the prophets slain anywhere on earth symbolically is found in Babylon. Yet Matt 23:37 says essentially the same thing of the earthly Jerusalem. There is no contradiction because it is mainly symbolic. Like Babylon, the witnesses death is in a great city Rev 18:10, and the location (Rev 11:8) shows a meaning largely hidden beneath the surface, which may not be literally Jerusalem, but symbolic in meaning.

Rev 21:9 & 10 says the church IS Jerusalem. So whatever their location at the time of death, martyrs, when they die, die in Jerusalem.

Be careful you don’t jump to conclusions about the witness’s identity.

I may be just plain wrong, but it seems to me that the two witnesses are a symbolic representation of groups of people who witness for God, and finish as martyrs, proclaiming the message of the Old and New Testament Bible. The number 2 might be a symbolic number, and NOT literal. For example ‘2’ represents humility (with the shape of 2 being bent knee and bowed head) and the first thing the Bible says about the two witnesses is that they prophecy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. That’s not literal, it’s symbolic, just as the white raiment in Rev 3:18 is also symbolic.

“Clothed in sackcloth” is a metaphorical way of saying they prophecy in sorrow, with humility.

They prophecy in a time period of great mental and physical distress. The time period revolves around Isaiah Chapter 24, which includes nuclear war, where the earth is burned and few men are left.

The True Witness

Another point worth making is that Revelation 3:14 (with Rev 22:13) says that Jesus Christ is “the faithful and TRUE WITNESS.” In the next few verses after this, Jesus is pictured as knocking on the door of the Laodicean church asking to be let in. This is the very last church mentioned before Revelation chapter 11.

Therefore, if the two witnesses message in chapter 11 is proclaimed by groups of people witnessing for God, they will be the people from chapter 3 who have let Christ come into them (John 14:20), and are now witnessing by Christ’s authority (Rev 2:26, 11:3, 6) and power, and spirit, not their own (as Jesus said HE is the True Witness). A more detailed explanation of this was covered in Part 1 here.

If I’m misunderstanding all this, no doubt, in due course it will become more obvious!

I believe Jesus IS coming soon. Jesus said in Luke 21:25 that his second coming would preceded by worldwide distress of nations, which when you study the original Greek strongly indicates lockdowns, as shown in this link. 

Surely we are near that time now!