MOSES AND ELIJAH, NOT ENOCH AND ELIJAH
For the past three decades I've been hearing folks claim that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 have to be Enoch and Elijah because these two men never experienced death and must do so (Rev. 11:7), according to the demands of Hebrews 9:27: "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
Not that it really matters in your day-to-day life and ministry, but since the Enoch theory keeps floating around out there, I felt it necessary to put it to rest for at least a few people, if possible. There is no way that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 can be anyone other than Moses and Elijah. Please consider . . .
(1) Hebrews 9:27 doesn't read the way that it's usually quoted and the way that I quoted it above. Hebrews 9:27 begins with two words that are almost always omitted, and it is connected with verse 28 by a colon, which is seldom mentioned. The whole passage says, "And AS it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: SO Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The author of Hebrews never intended for PART of verse 27 to be used as an absolute rule for every person to ever live. The main context is the DEATH OF CHRIST (verses 1-28), not the required death of every human being.
(2) The notion that the death of Enoch and Elijah would fulfill the demands of Hebrews 9:27 just won't work, even if Hebrews 9:27 WAS an absolute rule requiring the death of every person, because there will be MILLIONS of believers to be caught up in the first resurrection to never die (I Ths. 4:13-18; I Cor. 15:51-52; John 11:26).
(3) SO! Rather than honoring the Scriptures by making Enoch one of the two witnesses, many of the brethren DISHONOR the Scriptures by destroying God's typology! Enoch CANNOT die because, since the last days are "as the days of Noah" (Luke 17:26), there must be someone from the days of Noah to picture the saints of the last days who are taken to heaven without dying before God's judgment falls, and that someone is Enoch: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." (Gen. 5:24) Hebrews 11:5 further stresses this by saying, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." What's the point in stressing the fact that Enoch didn't see death, if he has to return and see it in the Great Tribulation? He does NOT return to see death, just as raptured Christians do not return to see death. He lives forever without dying.
(4) Claiming that Hebrews 9:27 is an absolute rule would also mean that every word in the verse is absolute, not just the ones you like. That would mean that the phrase "ONCE to die" is also absolute. That won't work because some people die MORE than once, such as Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, Tabitha, the son of the Shunammite woman, and even Moses (Rev. 11). Hebrews 9:27 is in your Bible to stress the fact that CHRIST died once to take away sin (since the wages of sin is DEATH); it is NOT in your Bible to establish an absolute rule on the death of every human being.
(5) The descriptions of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 clearly match the works of Moses and Elijah, not Enoch and Elijah.
(6) Moses and Elijah, not Enoch and Elijah, are the proper representatives of the LAW and the PROPHETS, and these are the words that Jesus used to sum up the Old Testament (Luke 16:16).
(7) Moses and Elijah, not Enoch and Elijah, appeared with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:3: ". . . there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him."
(8.) The last chapter of the Old Testament gives the names of Moses and Elijah in connection with the Second Coming of Christ (Mal. 4). Enoch isn't mentioned in ANY of the prophetic books. In fact, he's mentioned only four times in the New Testament while Moses is mentioned seventy-seven times.
(9) Jesus said that two men will sit beside Him in the coming kingdom (Mat. 20:21-23), and all indications are that these two men will be Moses and Elijah, the proper representatives of "the law and the prophets," which find their fulfillment in Christ, thus making up a three-fold cord of witnesses (Deu. 19:15; Mat. 18:16; Ecc. 4:12).
Enoch doesn't fit into any of this. It is true that Enoch WALKED with God (Gen. 5:24), but both Moses and Elijah STAND WITH GOD (I Kgs. 17:1; Exo. 34:5) as two prophetic witnesses and probably as the two prophetic anointed ones of Zechariah 4:14.
I've heard and read other views, but no view holds a stronger witness of the scriptures than Moses and Elijah.
-James L Melton
