A simpler way to say and understand the two witnesses prophecy, is that they are the flesh and the spirit, all as one man in Adam, and all as one man in Christ.
Dear ScottA,
The number "two" in the spiritual language of Christ means the
witness of God. It does
not mean a literal number. In this age, the Elect are Christ's witnesses. So in this sense, the two witnesses represent one Elect person.
In the prophecy, the Elect person will begin the pathway to salvation by receiving the Early Rain. This small measure of the Spirit will give them "faith" and certain spiritual gifts - but it will not convert them. It will leave them carnally minded and spiritually blind. This is why the two witnesses (as spiritual gentiles) will trample under foot the outer court of the temple for 42 months (time in between them receiving the Early and Latter Rains). Only after an Elect person is converted will they become
spiritual Jews who can enter the inner court.
After a person receives the Early Rain of the Spirit, the Spirit within them will engage in a spiritual war with their flesh (carnal spirit). The war is being fought for which one will govern the person (their mind). During this war, Satan will come to the aid of the flesh and strengthen it by indwelling the person with the spirit of anti-Christ. This makes the person's carnal spirit "worse than the first" (Mat 12:43-45). The worsen carnality of the person is what the number
forty two represents. It is understood as 6 x 7. The number six represents carnal mankind and the number 7 represents perfection. This worsened person is called a "man of sin". In this condition, the person is now ready for the end to come (if they are one of the Elect). This is what Christ is teaching in the verse below:
Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
The phrase "this gospel of the kingdom" is not referring to Christ's true gospel. It is referring to Satan's "another gospel" which has witnessed to all the beliefs (nations) of the apostate believer. After the believer has been fully made into this "worse than the first" spiritual condition (a man of sin), they are now ready for the end to come (conversion). The "end" occurs when Christ comes to the person a second time and pours out the Latter Rain of the Spirit. After the apostate Elect believer receives the Latter Rain of the Spirit, their spiritual blindness will be healed. That is when they will "see" the Abomination of Desolation" and realize that they had been following Satan all along instead of following the true Christ.
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
After they have received this truth, Christ will
spiritually appear and commence His judgment within the believer. This judgment was "typed" by Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot fleeing into the mountains represents the newly born child of God being gathered up to heaven (Mat 24:29-3). That is why Christ mentions the story of Lot in the next verse of Matthew and in Luke 17:28-30 which is teaching the same thing.
Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Luke 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
Sodom represents the worsened carnal spirit of the person (same as the terms earthly Jerusalem/natural earth/Great Harlot do). Gomorrah represents the spirit of anti-Christ.
Later in Matthew 24, Christ gives a more detailed account of His judgment, but this time He switches over to the story of Noah and the ark. Noah and His family (8 in all) are a "type" for one Elect person. When they were commissioned to build the ark, it represented an Elect person receiving the Early Rain. When they entered the ark, it represented an Elect person receiving the Latter Rain. After they are in the ark (Christ), judgment falls (the flood/time of great tribulation) destroying all the things that has made the person carnally minded (represented by the destruction of the world).
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
The "two" who are in the field represent one Elect believer who has the Holy Spirit and the spirit of anti-Christ indwelling them. The spirit of anti-Christ is "taken" and destroyed. Likewise, the "two" women who are at the mill represent one Elect believer who has the Holy Spirit and their own carnal spirit. The carnal spirit is called the Great Harlot and is the one who is "taken" and destroyed. After this judgment is complete, the believer will be converted and at peace (no more spiritual war within them). This is when a believer enters into the rest of Christ.
Paul refers to this time of judgment in the scripture below:
1Thes 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child (birth of the new child of God); and they shall not escape.
When the verse says "peace and safety", it means the same thing as what Christ said in Matthew 24:38: "they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage". And likewise in Luke 17:28 when Christ said: "they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded".
Peter also refers to this time of judgment here:
2Pet 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
The heavens which pass away represents the carnal mind. The earth that is destroyed represents the carnal spirit. They are both replaced with a New Heaven (mind of Christ) and a New Earth (the Holy Spirit).
Judgment is what completes a person's conversion from being a child of the Devil into being a child of God. This is salvation and is what it means to be "born again".
Joe