Many Bible scholars contend the two witnesses of God that prophesy in Jerusalem during the first 42 months of the tribulation are the prophets Moses and Elijah. Everyone thinks this because those are the two prophets seen during the Transfiguration on a high mountain talking to a glorified Christ by the disciples Peter, James and John. The two situations are totally different. The Transfiguration was a revelation, a composite, of the future rapture of the church when the Lord in all His glory meets in the air with the raptured saints alive at that time represented by Elijah, who is alive. The resurrected dead in Christ are supposedly represented by Moses, who died.
Elijah is alive in heaven today in his natural body because he was transported to heaven by God’s own chariot in the presence of Elisha the prophet, who replaced Elijah. The consensus is Elijah is one of the two witnesses during the tribulation, not only because he is currently living in heaven, but also because God tells us so in the following Scripture:
Malachi 4:5 – Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
Revelation 11:3 – And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
Hebrews 9:27 – It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement.
The only controversy is the identity of the second witness and God doesn’t tell us who he is. During the Transfiguration we’ve been assuming Moses was already in his immortal glorified body but what if he wasn’t? Could it really be Moses with Elijah? Moses died before the Israelites entered the promised land I’m thinking Moses can’t die twice, that is unless God brought him back to life. There is another possibility. I’ve always been puzzled why Satan and the archangel Michael were fighting over the body of Moses. What benefit was there in that? Could it be Michael was retrieving the body of Moses to take it to heaven so Moses could be brought back to life in his natural body in anticipation of his call to be one of the two witnesses in Jerusalem during the great tribulation?
I’ve always thought the second witness is the prophet Enoch, seventh from Adam, whose righteousness pleased God so much he was translated to heaven and never suffered death. The Bible only mentions two prophets who were translated to heaven in their natural bodies, Enoch and Elijah. According to biblical accounts, only these two people meet the qualifications of being both a prophet and alive in heaven. Could it be that from the beginning God intended that these two men of faith would glorify His name by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem during the tribulation? One thing is certain, the second witness is either Moses or Enoch.