Using the Revised Standard Version (RSV), we read of them in Revelation 11:3-13:

"And I will grant My two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."

"These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before The Lord of the earth. And if any one would harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed."

"They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire."

"And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth."

"But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up hither!" And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven."

So, what do we know about God's two witnesses?

• They will be God's two witnesses - God will select and empower them. They won't be volunteers or self-appointed (see Are The Two Witnesses Here Now?).

• They will have great miraculous powers, that God will have given them for their time of service - as a sign of their authority, and for their own self defense.

• Their ministry will last 1,260 days, nearly 3½ years - they will be around for a long time.

• They will be clothed in "sackcloth" - they will present themselves in a humble manner, no expensive business suits. "Sackcloth" was a strong cotton or other basic utility fabric, which in our modern time could even mean denim - "Levis" would be ironic. Apart from the symbolic humility, such clothing would also be an obvious practical choice for the difficult conditions under which they will be living day to day.

• Some people will attempt to injure them during their time of service, but the two witnesses will be given the use of miraculous powers, and will be authorized by God to use such deadly force in self defense. In effect, God decreed the death penalty, specifically by fire, to anyone who attempts to harm the two witnesses.

• Since they will eventually be martyred, God's two witnesses will be two humans, not two angels.

• They will have the God-given power to control the weather, and to inflict plagues on their enemies, at times of their own choosing.

• At the end of their mission, God will withdraw His miraculous protection from His two witnesses, and Satan will have them killed in a fierce (miraculous) fire fight (see Down Without A Fight?). More proof that they will be two humans - angels cannot be killed.

• God's two witnesses will be killed in Jerusalem and there their bodies will be left in the street.

• For three and a half days their bodies will be seen by people in all countries around the world - an easy matter with modern television, and now the Internet. Out of contempt for them, or perhaps even out of fear because of the miraculous powers that they had before, their bodies will not be given burial.

• They clearly will have been sent by God, and will speak what He sent them to say, but their message will be fiercely rejected - they will be hated by millions (see Butch and Sundance).

• After three and a half days, they will be resurrected right on the street, and will ascend into the heavens.

Perhaps the most amazing fact about the two witnesses is, despite their clearly and without doubt being sent directly by God, their message, and they themselves, will not be well received. One can only imagine the reason for this being that the end-time world will have sunk so low into deception and depravity that anything good and true will be widely rejected by the overwhelming majority. True Christian people on the other hand will recognize them for who they are, and welcome both them and their message.

As for the identity of the two witnesses, we need not be too concerned about how to know who they are when the time comes. When they begin their very powerful ministry, they will be "headline news" every day, all around the world, for 3½ years - and as the Scriptures make very plain, those who don't want to get barbecued will do very well not to try to harm or interfere with them.

Fact Finder: What two humans during Bible History, who were also given various miraculous powers, including over plagues and the weather, were the Old Testament's version of the "two witnesses"?
Exodus 7:1-5
See also Moses, Aaron and The Ten Plagues

Plus much, much more on the same CD! Bible Maps Over 70 detailed full-color Bible study maps. Christian Music Enjoy the magnificent sound of over 1,900 hymns (midi computer format) Biblical Clipart Over 200 beautiful Biblical graphics (.jpg and .gif) Classic Works of Biblical History The Works of Philo, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (.txt format) Hebrew and Greek Alphabets The Hebrew alphabet of the Old Testament, and the Greek alphabet of the New Testament, with equivalent sounds in English.

How To Receive Your Daily Bible Study CD
(Please read carefully to understand how and why the CDs are available)

This ministry web site, with thousands of Bible studies (including a new study added every day, 365 days a year) is always freely available for everyone. As such, this Daily Bible Study has become a very expensive time and financial commitment for the author and the publisher. Every study, that takes you only minutes to read, takes many hours of work to write, format and technically make available and maintain on the web server. Without help, it would be impossible for this Daily Bible Study web site to continue. That is the simple reality of the situation.

We are not "selling" CDs. The CD is our humble thank you gift to the faithful who realize the importance of making Bible-based Christian teaching available to "all the world" as Christ commanded His servants to do. The map is an actual Daily Bible Study server statistics "snap shot" of visitors to Daily Bible Study at 7 am local time recently. The green bars represent the percentage of visitors to the web site (where on the planet requested pages were being sent to) at that moment in the entire time zone directly above the green bar. The graphic constantly changes through the day like a rolling wave across the world's time zones.

The Daily Bible Study Library CD is not for sale. The Daily Bible Study Library CD is produced as our thank-you gift to each person who actually makes a minimum $10 donation (in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or 5 UK Pounds, or 5 Euros) to help this ministry to survive. The $10 / 5 Pound / 5 Euro minimum is required because it is the "break-even" cost of producing, handling and mailing the CD - amounts less than $10 / 5 Pounds / 5 Euros are therefore not a donation to this ministry but actually cause an unaffordable financial loss to the author.

The Daily Bible Study CD functions with Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP. The directly-readable CD is designed to be easily and instantly portable from computer to computer. The contents are formatted to appear the same as the online Daily Bible Study web site and will automatically open by means of your computer's standard browser. Complete instructions are included with the CD.

Making a donation to Daily Bible Study is simple and easy
Donations are accepted in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or British Pounds, or Euros, payable by personal check from your local bank - the easiest and preferred method of most people. We are able to accept regular personal checks payable from any bank in the US (in US dollars), Canada (in Canadian dollars), the United Kingdom (in Pounds or Euros), Australia (in Australian dollars), New Zealand (in New Zealand dollars) or Europe (in Euros) - write the check exactly same as if it were to someone local.
Donations may also be made by means of an International postal money order (e.g. US domestic postal money orders marked "Negotiable Only In The US and Possessions" are void in Canada).

Send your donation payable to "Key-Way Publishing" (not Daily Bible Study):

Key-Way Publishing
PO Box 520
Burford, Ontario N0E1A0
Canada

Your thank you CD will be mailed in the very next day's mail after your donation arrives. The CDs are packaged in paper CD sleeves and mailed by regular First Class Mail in order to keep the minimum donation affordable for everyone.

Your CD should arrive in about 2 weeks after the day that you mailed your donation i.e. 1 week for your donation to arrive after you mailed it, then 1 week for your thank you CD to travel to you.

If you wish to receive a confirmation email that your donation has arrived and that your CD has been sent, simply indicate a contact email address with your donation. If you have any questions, write to Donor Inquiry (pathfinder@keyway2.ca) and your email will be answered immediately.

God bless you!