God is a Consuming Fire Start to Finish
Light up or be LIT UP
Let's face it, Atheists advocate and practice every porn business promoting, reckless wanton promiscuous, AIDS spreading, baby killing, drunken drugging selfish, young girl and boy exploiting, animal torturing, sex trafficking, shallow narcissistic hedonism with nary a nod to the incalculable sea of lives destroyed. It follows they have extremely guilty fearful consciences and an unquenchable thirst for justification - this is what drives their militant persecution of Christians and feeble attempts to deny and obfuscate Jesus' inimitable force for good.
Nothing troubles the atheist psyche like Christ's reminder that there is an eternal price to pay for their barbarity. And so
Atheists continually invent increasingly macabre ways of torturing animals and people because above all things - ATHEISTS ARE cruel COWARDS AFRAID TO DIE and if TORTURING and then killing BILLIONS OF FEELING CREATURES might gain them a year, atheist bastards will certainly and cavalierly throw every living creature they can into the iron maiden. Atheists help me to understand the need for HELL.
Christians familiar with the nature of love know life is short and that torturing animals for a squirt more is an epic selfish cruelty worthy of condemnation.
If you want to be King of the Atheist Religion, there is but one criterion: with a straight face, tell atheists it's going to be okay, God doesn't exist and never mind Jesus' words that commend themselves and his blindingly conspicuous force for good epitomized by abolishing slavery and stoning as anyone can read in John 8, and at TheAngel.com
In strict accordance with the rules of demagoguery and to make the dead and the damned feel better, Christopher employs a classic bait and switch by riling up the crowd with horrific snapshots of human perpetrated evil and when the cowards are ready to lynch someone, anyone, Christopher slips in Jesus Christ.
A frequent refrain of Christopher Hitchen's entertaining atheist propaganda is: "It's not until Jesus Meek and Mild comes along that we hear of everlasting punishment which is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament." 39:22
He could not be more wrong - and he knows it.
But before we launch into A FLOOD OF GOD'S FIERY ESCHATOLOGICAL PUNISHMENTS LIBERALLY EXPATIATED ALL THROUGOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT, let's first make it clear that Hell is not God's only choice in insuring the wicked love fighting atheists and other ne'er do wells receive their appropriate comeuppance.
For the record, punishments GREATLY VARY in the Scriptural demesne. We've all sinned and all will be salted with fire (Mar 9:42-46, Mar 9:47-50), some will indeed enter Hell, some will be destroyed, while others will win the lottery and become subjects of the new rulers of the next age: Christ, the Apostles and every teeny tiny Christian. There is a good chance Christopher will be his little brother's slave - forever.
What about those who never heard of Jesus? Read Romans 2:6-16. What about those people in the Old Testament in the days of the flood? Read Acts 17:30. What about the people who do what is right? Read 1John 4:7-9, 1John 2:29, Rom 2:15. Is anyone good but God? (Mk 10:18; Lk. 18:19, Rom 3:9-12)
Some condemn me for inferring I advocate salvation outside of Christ: I CERTAINLY DO NOT. Christ has paid for EVERY SIN and has authority to forgive as he sees fit. (James 2:13, Matt 20:15, 9:6 1st John 2:2)
Two things are certain: Everyone who receives and obeys Jesus will never die. And everyone who rejects Jesus (John 3:35-36) will not see eternal life. There is no room for negotiations on these two extremes.
An excellent summary of God's judgments of various classes of people can be found here
And now:
DEPICTIONS OF HELL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Dan 12:2 "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. "
Isaiah 13:8 (Show me Isaiah 13)
Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
Isaiah 47:14 (Show me Isaiah 47)
Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
Isaiah 66:24 "And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be loathsome to all mankind."
Job 31:12 (Show me Job 31)
"If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,
10 then let my wife grind for another,
and let others bow down on her.
11 For that would be a heinous crime;
that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
12 for that would be
a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon
and it would burn to the root all my increase.
Psalm 21:9 (Show me Psalm 21)
You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
Jeremiah 4:4 (Show me Jeremiah 4)
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
Jeremiah 7:20 (Show me Jeremiah 7)
Therefore thus says the Lord God: behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”
Jeremiah 21:12 (Show me Jeremiah 21)
O house of David! Thus says the Lord: “‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.’”
Matthew 3:12 (Show me Matthew 3)
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
--Do Some say Jesus introduced Hell with a straight face?--
Isaiah 33:10 Now I will rise and be exalted, says the Lord.
You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
--Did Jesus invent Hell or is God's consuming fiery wrath profusely found in the OT?--
Isaiah 33
The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites;
"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burning?"
Psalm 106 They grew envious of Moses & Aaron. The earth opened up & swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram. 18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.
--Can you Believe Some say Jesus invented Hell unfound in the OT?--
Isaiah 1:31 "The strong shall be as tinder,
And the work of it as a spark;
Both will burn together,
And no one shall quench them."
Psalm 21:8- 9 "Your hand will find all Your enemies;
Your right hand will find those who hate You.
9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger;
The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath,
And the fire shall devour them.
--OT Hell: Where the worm won't die & fire is not quenched---
Isaiah 66:23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD. 24 "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind."
--Sodomy & Hell--
Jude 1 I want to remind you: the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt but later destroyed those who didn't believe & angels who abandoned their own home and positions of authority, he has kept these in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
In a similar way, Sodom & Gomorrah & the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality & perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Jer 7:20 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out in this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched."
God's Wrath in Fiery OT Terms Part Two
Leviticus 9:24 (Show me Leviticus 9)
And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Leviticus 10:2 (Show me Leviticus 10)
And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Numbers 11:1 (Show me Numbers 11)
The People Complain
And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
Numbers 16:35 (Show me Numbers 16)
And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.
Deuteronomy 4:24 (Show me Deuteronomy 4)
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 5:25 (Show me Deuteronomy 5)
Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die.
Deuteronomy 9:3 (Show me Deuteronomy 9)
Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
2 Samuel 23:7 (Show me 2 Samuel 23)
6 But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away,
for they cannot be taken with the hand;
7 but the man who touches them
arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,
and they are utterly consumed with fire."
2 Kings 1:10 (Show me 2 Kings 1)
But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
2 Kings 1:12 (Show me 2 Kings 1)
But Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
2 Kings 1:14 (Show me 2 Kings 1)
Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight."
Job 1:16 (Show me Job 1)
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Job 15:34 (Show me Job 15)
For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
Job 20:26 (Show me Job 20)
Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
Psalm 83:14 (Show me Psalm 83)
O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so may you pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane!
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace,
18 that they may know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Isaiah 26:11 (Show me Isaiah 26)
O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
Isaiah 33:11 (Show me Isaiah 33)
You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you.
Isaiah 43:2 (Show me Isaiah 43)
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 47:14 (Show me Isaiah 47)
Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
Jeremiah 5:14 (Show me Jeremiah 5)
The Lord Proclaims Judgment
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: "Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
Jeremiah 6:29 (Show me Jeremiah 6)
The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
Jeremiah 11:16 (Show me Jeremiah 11)
The Lord once called you 'a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.' But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed.
Lamentations 2:3 (Show me Lamentations 2)
He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.
Ezekiel 15:4 (Show me Ezekiel 15)
Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything?
Ezekiel 15:7 (Show me Ezekiel 15)
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. 8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God."
Ezekiel 19:12 (Show me Ezekiel 19)
But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; they were stripped off and withered. As for its strong stem, fire consumed it.
Ezekiel 19:14 (Show me Ezekiel 19)
And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots, has consumed its fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling. This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation.
Ezekiel 22:31 (Show me Ezekiel 22)
Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God."
Ezekiel 28:18 (Show me Ezekiel 28)
By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you.
Obadiah 1:18 (Show me Obadiah 1)
The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.
Zephaniah 1:18 (Show me Zephaniah 1)
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Zephaniah 3:8 (Show me Zephaniah 3)
"Therefore wait for me," declares the Lord, "for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.
Hebrews 10:27 (Show me Hebrews 10)
but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Hebrews 12:29 (Show me Hebrews 12)
for our God is a consuming fire.
Matthew 25:41 (Show me Matthew 25)
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Jude 1:7 (Show me Jude 1)
just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,[1] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
[1]Greek other flesh
Matthew 8:12 (Show me Matthew 8)
while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 13:42 (Show me Matthew 13)
and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:50 (Show me Matthew 13)
and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 22:13 (Show me Matthew 22)
Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 24:51 (Show me Matthew 24)
and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:30 (Show me Matthew 25)
And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Luke 13:28 (Show me Luke 13)
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
Matthew 5:29 (Show me Matthew 5)
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
Matthew 5:30 (Show me Matthew 5)
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 10:28 (Show me Matthew 10)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.[1]
[1]Greek Gehenna
Matthew 18:9 (Show me Matthew 18)
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell[1] of fire.
[1]Greek Gehenna
Matthew 23:15 (Show me Matthew 23)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell[1] as yourselves.
[1]Greek Gehenna; also verse 33
Matthew 23:33 (Show me Matthew 23)
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Mark 9:43 (Show me Mark 9)
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[1] to the unquenchable fire.[2]
[1]Greek Gehenna; also verse 47 [2]Some manuscripts add verses 44 and 46 (which are identical with verse 48)
Mark 9:45 (Show me Mark 9)
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
Mark 9:47 (Show me Mark 9)
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
Luke 12:5 (Show me Luke 12)
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.[1] Yes, I tell you, fear him!
[1]Greek Gehenna
James 3:6 (Show me James 3)
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[1] and set on fire by hell.[2]
[1]Or wheel of birth [2]Greek Gehenna
2 Peter 2:4 (Show me 2 Peter 2)
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell[1] and committed them to chains[2] of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
[1]Greek Tartarus [2]Some manuscripts pits
Jeremiah 7:19-20 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Ezekiel 20:47-49 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. 49 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?