Will God Slay the Wicked?

Objective Number Eleven

Whatever may be the mechanism of destruction before the end of the world,

the final destruction will be personally inflicted by a direct act of God

because the Bible says that fire will come down from God out of heaven and

burn up Satan, his angels and all unrepentant sinners.

Answer

The state ment in Revelation 20:9 reads

"and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."

To conclude that this statement means a direct and personal act of God to

send fire from heaven, is to ignore correct principles of exegesis or analytical

interpretation.

The term "the fire of God fallen from heaven" is also found in Job 1:16 and

the mechanism by which God "sent" that fire from "heaven" was the removal

of His protective hedge and allowing the sin-perverted forces of nature to

breakout into a destructive holocaust. That fire was obviously a massive

storm of thunder and lightning which struck when God's restraint was

removed. In fact the Today's English Version translates it as "lightning"

Job 1:16 (TEV).

Now what about the final fires of Revelation. 20:9?

When the final fires "come down from God out of heaven" at the end of the

millennial 1000-year reign, God will be in the Holy City New Jerusalem on

earth. And no fire will come out of the Holy City. As a matter of fact the

Holy City with the Godhead, the angels and all the saints will be untouched

by the fire and will neither be the source nor the victim of the fiery

destruction!

According to Peter and Ezekiel the fire will have three (3) sources. Fire from

the skies (called heaven); fire from within the earth; and fire from within

Satan.

Not only will God's protection and restraint be withdrawn, His life sustaining

grace will also be withdrawn.

That will be the ultimate and total separation from God which sin, whenever

it is finished, causes and it will produce the irreversible destruction of sinners

in the second death.

"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water,

perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same

word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment

and perdition of ungodly men... 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 th at are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then

that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons

ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." 2Peter

3:6,7,10,11

"Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine

iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a

fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee

to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."

Ezekiel 28:18

"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when

it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the

proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day

that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall

leave them neither root nor branch." Malachi 4:1

There are other passages in the Bible which describe the final destruction.

"Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be

desolate." Psalm 34:21

"And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them

off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them

off." Psalm 94:23

"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that

hate me love death." Proverbs 8:36

(See also chapter 21).

By rejecting the righteousness of God in Christ, the unsaved will cut

themselves off from God Who is the only Source of Life.

(Dr. Elliot Douglin)