The video above will help us read biblical prophecy humbly, open to literal or symbolic interpretation.
Clearly God is capable of either.
And one reason that we would never reject a literal approach (to Bible prophecy) is because of our rational constraints.
We would never say, “Well, I’m not going to take a literal approach because I can’t believe that these guys would be resurrected (Revelation 11:11). I can’t believe that there would be fire (Revelation 11:5). I can’t believe that they could stop rain and turn water into blood (Revelation 11:6).”
If we’re going to dismiss that then we gotta dismiss a whole slew of things in Scripture.
For there’s nothing, nothing, nothing in Revelation chapter 11 that is new.
Nothing that God hasn’t already done before. Already resurrected people (1 Kings 17:17-24), already caught him up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11), already turned water to blood (Exodus 7:20), already stopped the rain (1 Kings 17:1-7).
He’s done it all before. So we wouldn’t reject it out of disbelief, that would be silly. At that point we esteem Scripture nearly not at all. But symbolism is prevalent in prophecy and is prevalent most in the book of Revelation.
So, both of those takes are plausible and we take a humble tact.