Revelation 11:5

And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed.

This verse never pertained to any mere individual in the history of the world. How then does it symbolize the truth regarding the Word and the Church? "One should not think of the witnesses being able to perform such miracles literally."[39] Cox explained it as the witnesses' consumption of their enemies "by the fire of truth which they proclaim";[40] and there is surely an element of profound truth in this as indicated by Heb. 11:17,2 Corinthians 2:16; but we believe that something else is indicated, namely, the providential protection of both the Word and the Church by Almighty God through Christ. God will, in the last analysis, permit no man to destroy either! Look at what happened to Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12th chapter); and there have been many other historical examples of the interposition of the heavenly will against the purposes of wicked men who would have destroyed either the Bible or the Church of God. We do not believe that it is possible for any wicked authority, no matter how powerful, to "hurt" in any meaningful sense, either of God's faithful witnesses, both of whom are commissioned to testify throughout the entire Christian dispensation, and who will most certainly be protected in the discharge of that commission until it is accomplished. This verse is therefore the apocalyptic presentation of the divine promises recurring throughout the New Testament to the effect that God's word endures forever, and that the Lord will be "with" his church even to the end of the world.

If any man desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed ... God still rules over his creation; and wicked men who actually desire to thwart God's will are scheduled to receive swift and terrible punishment now, in this present time. Read Luke 18:6-8. "Shall not God avenge his elect? I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily." Dummelow's comment on this passage in Luke is thus: "Jesus' words here were literally fulfilled in the calamities which overtook the Jews and the chief heathen persecutors of the Christians."[41] Lactantius has twenty pages regarding this phenomenon.[42] See my Commentary on Luke, pp. 387,388 for further comment on this. Roberson agreed with Cox that, "The witnesses slay their enemies by the fire of the word which they utter."[43] We noted above the great element of truth in such views; but it appears to be some power which is above the witnesses themselves which thus destroys their enemies. Note that the witnesses here are not actually depicted as doing the slaying. The use of the passive voice emphasizes this.

[39] J. W. Roberts, The Revelation of John (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1974), p. 90.

[40] Frank L. Cox, op. cit., p. 74.

[41] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 763.

[42] Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, from The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1951), Vol. VIII, pp. 301-322.

[43] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 71.