I first posted this as a comment but as njb4725 has posted further on the two witnesses of Revelation 11 I have posted it as a topic giving an alternate view.

 In – Revelation 5:10 we read what God will make the saints / overcoming believers to be:

  “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth”.

 Peter tells us that we believers are already a nation of ‘kings and priest’ and I believe this kingly priestly ministry, available to all believers but exercised by ‘overcoming believers’ is precisely what is figuratively represented by the two witnesses of Revelation 11.

 The speculation on who these two are (as if they will be the actual return of former Old Testament saints) has varied. Along this literal line of interpretation has been suggested Enoch and Elijah as neither died so could return to earth or Moses and Elijah as the signs performed by these two recall the signs of these Old Testament prophets.

 However the specific identification of the two witnesses given to us in Revelation 11:4

 “These are the two olive trees and the two lamp-stands that stand before the Lord of all the earth.”

  “The ‘two lamp-stands’ seem to have an obvious interpretation. In Revelation chapters 1-3 we are introduced to seven lamp-stands representing seven churches and just two of these churches receive no rebuke from the Lord. Surly the ‘two lamp-stands’ represents a significant remnant minority of believers/churches that ‘overcome’ (as all are exhorted to do in these early chapters).

 While ‘the two olive trees’ are identified in Zechariah 4:3, 11-14 as: “These are the ‘two sons of oil’ (or ‘anointed ones) that serve the Lord of all the earth”.  

 In the context of the book we find that they are Zerubbabel (the one in kingly succession to the throne of Judah) and Joshua the High Priest. So they again represent the kingly / priestly ministry of the ‘overcoming’ believers represented in several images in Revelation.

 I believe these two represent a corporate people of God rising to complete the ministry of the church as ‘Kings and Priest to God’. They are those who know how to pray with authority and convey heaven’s answers to earth bound men.

  These images provide us with a fundamental understanding of the believer’s authority.

 In New Testament times who had more authority than a king? Here this verse declares ‘kings’ is what the Lord will make ‘overcoming believers’ to be. The verse goes on to explain the purpose of this imparted ‘kingship’. That we might reign on earth. However this emphasis MUST be balanced by the fact that we are made to be kings and ‘PRIESTS’. If we do not understand our kingly authority in terms of its priestly function we go astray.

 The priest is an intercessor, speaking to God on behalf of others and representing God to others; coming from God’s presence with His word and His Spirit for others. So the kingdom authority expressed and demonstrated is a mediated authority, it is not latent in the kingly office but mediated through the priestly office; these roles are the privilege of all believers to explore and exercise through intercessory prayer, prophetic words, deeds and actions.

 All this we are told is: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Zech 4:6

 Would that the total church throughout this age had understood and ministered in the Spirit’s power rather than the means it often turned to. But we have the promise that the mission of the church will be completed in the Holy Spirit’s power. I believe this will largely have been accomplished by the remnant that overcomes throughout history and will be completed by a future remnant of anointed believers.

As njb4725 says time will tell! 

I found this  Mennonite Confession of Faith on another site I sometimes comment on and have been thinking of explaining the different position of some Charismatics to sacraments or ordinances. The Mennonite statement provided a good launchpad for something I had been wondering how to offer, so here goes.

The Catholic contingent here comments on Protestant views that sacraments are just symbols and do not convey grace. The 1963 Mennonite Confession of Faith says something different about Ceremonies and Practices that is perhaps not Catholic or Protestant but somewhere between the two:-

“The Lord Jesus and His apostles instituted ordinances for the church to observe permanently as symbols of Christian truths. The apostolic church literally observed them. Among these are baptism with water, the communion of the Lord’s Supper, the washing of the saints’ feet, the holy kiss, the laying-on of hands, and the veiling of Christian women, the anointing of the sick with oil, and the institution of Christian marriage. When the church observes ordinances as expressions of a heart of faith, divine blessings are received, and a Christian witness is given.”

I found this while reading a post about foot washing and the question posed was “Is foot washing a NT ordinance for the church”

I have posted here what I posted there to illustrate the understanding that the outward symbol practiced in faith becomes a touch point that enables faith and releases grace which can be extremely tangible. We have seen evidence of the exorcism of demons without any attempt along that line but just as subjects were baptized. But let me return to my experience of foot washing.

Foot washing is practiced in the ‘Church of God’ or the ‘Church of God of Prophecy’ I cannot remember which it was that I visited, now living in Barbados. It was very meaningful for me to have my feet washed as a white man by a black man from a nation previously enslaved by whites; particularly as there is still a pronounced racial segregation here and my wife and I are usually the only whites visiting a black church.

I also had an interesting experience on a mission trip I took to South Africa to help a man I had got to know through my son’s time at a Bible school there. Let me first paint the picture.

The man had been a JW for 35 years and the main foundational member/pioneer worker opening the Kingdom Hall in the township. He had become a Christian through his son 2 years previous to me meeting him. He had been preaching Christ to a community living in shacks made of rubbish and won a whole group of converts to Christ. He built out of meager income a meeting place in his garden.

Subsequently I spent 2 periods of 6 weeks teaching and evangelizing among the community as the only white man who had ever lived among them. Things seemed to be ordained by God in our meeting from the start. The first time I met him (Ronny) on visiting my son at end of term I asked how he understood the Trinity now that he was a Christian – he said he did not understand it but just believed it – fair enough I thought. But I just happened to have in my computer case a print out of my studies on the Trinity that I had been expanding the Lord is great at coinciding incidents like this.

Well that paints the picture now back to feet and eventually sacraments.

At the end of one meeting I appealed for anyone who needed prayer for healing to come forward. I think very few of them could have afforded to visit a Dr and I’m unsure if medical services are provided by the state there. About 10 people came forward.

When I got to my friend Ronny he explained that he had a lot of pain in his feet. He was paralyzed down one side from childhood and had to walk with a very awkward motion dragging one leg. In this condition he worked visiting homes for a few hours every day apart from Sunday when he was occupied with the converts he had won to Christ already. He would visit these homes (or shacks to be more accurate worse than what we would keep our dog in) and get permission at some house he called on to hold a meeting there and preach the gospel the next night gathering the neighbors.

He had done door to door work as a JW for 35 years doing a considerable number of hours unpaid every week dragging his lame leg. Perhaps we have some things to learn even from Arians.

So now he faces me with feet in pain hindering him but not preventing his now more enlightened work for Christ. I immediately sensed what I thought the Lord wanted me to do. I said “Ronny take off your shoes”. He did so and when he was finished I said “Ronny take off your socks” and he did so.

Then I knelt down in the dirt floor of the meeting room and kissed both of his feet. He said the pain immediately left his feet. The pain did not return in the weeks I was there and I never had any report of a re-occurrence of the pain.

Each place we visited Ronny told people this white man kissed my bare feet. He did not remember in most cases to tell them that his feet were also healed through the foot kissing sacrament; the greater miracle for him was that the white man he had recently met had been kissing his black South African feet.

It’s fun when you work with the Lord not just for the Lord and sacraments work well then I wish I could get it right more often.