Eternal Fire Exists!

Shocking Biblical Truth
 

The truths of Scripture are vast, profound and harmonious.  At times, certain texts can appear to contradict other texts because of incorrect understanding or insufficient knowledge.  One area of widespread confusion concerns the reward of the wicked.  Scripture teaches, “The dead know not anything.”  (See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6.)  However, it also teaches eternally burning fire that never goes out.  The truth that harmonizes these two, seemingly contradictory points is beautiful and faith affirming.

Isaiah holds the key to solving this riddle.  It asks a question: “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”  (Isaiah 33:14, KJV)  It is, in a sense, a rhetorical question for who can live in fire?  The very next verses, however, contain the answer:

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:

He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure.

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.  (Isaiah 33:15-17, NKJV)

It is the righteous who will live and rejoice in everlasting burnings.  Only a holy people can live with a holy Eloah, “For our Eloah is a consuming fire.”  (Hebrews 12:29)

Yahuwah is the source of all life.  “In Him we live and move and have our being.”  (Acts 17:28)  Pure energy flows from Him in an uninterrupted torrent.  There are very few times in Scripture in which the presence of Yahuwah Himself is described.  Each time, the appearance of this holy source of light, and life and energy is described as “fire.” 

Before his fall, Lucifer was the covering cherub.  The ceaseless beams of light and energy flowing from the Creator bathed him in the perpetual light of sunless day.  As the covering cherub, Lucifer dwelt in the eternal fires of the Omnipotent’s immediate presence.  He walked unscathed in its flames.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of Elohim; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.  (Ezekiel 28: 14 and 15.)

In vision, the prophet Daniel was honored with a glimpse into the Heavenly throne room where the glory streaming from Yahuwah looked like a river of fire:

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.  (Daniel 7:9 and 10, KJV.)

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim.  And the Angel of Yahuwah appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  (Exodus 3:1, 2)

Later, when Yahuwah Himself came down to Mt. Sinai for the proclamation of His law, He came in such brilliant fire it appeared to the on-looking multitudes as though the entire mountain were on fire: “Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because Yahuwah descended upon it in fire.  Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.”  (Exodus 19:18)

Since Yahuwah Himself is a consuming fire, the closer one gets to Him, the closer he comes to the eternal burnings.  After spending 40 days in the divine presence on Mount Sinai, Moses’ face reflected the divine glory he had beheld to such an extent that the people were frightened by it.

Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai . . . that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.  So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 

Then Moses called to them, and . . . he put a veil on his face. 

But whenever Moses went in before Yahuwah to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded.  And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.  (Exodus 34:29-31, 33-35)

The very presence of Yahuwah is eternal fire in which only the righteous and holy can survive.  Wherever sin exists in the presence of Yahuwah, the eternally burning fires of a holy Eloah consumes.  People with unsanctified hearts are terrified in the presence of eternal burning.  When Yahuwah spoke from Mt. Sinai, the people were panic-stricken.

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die.  (Exodus 20:18, 19)

The only thing that Yahuwah’s fire consumes is sin – and sinners, if they choose to cling to sin.  This is graphically demonstrated in the experience of Nadab and Abihu.  “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before Yahuwah, which He had not commanded them.  So fire went out from Yahuwah and devoured them, and they died before Yahuwah.”  (Leviticus 10:1, 2)

Nadab and Abihu had been honored before all Israel.  They had been selected, with their father and their father’s house, to serve Yahuwah directly as priests.  But the high honor paid them did not fill them with reverence, love and awe.  For flagrantly violating Yahuwah’s holy law, they were killed by fire which came out from Yahuwah.  But Scripture contains a fascinating detail that reveals a great deal about the fires of eternal burning.  “Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, ‘Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.’  So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.”  (Leviticus 10:4, 5)

How interesting!  These two men who had been “devoured” by “fire” that came out from Yahuwah still had their clothes intact!  If someone were to point a flame-thrower at you long enough to kill you, how do you think your clothes would fare?  They would burn up faster than your body, which is largely water!

This little, frequently overlooked detail, provides a fascinating insight into the eternally burning fires of Yahuwah’s presence.  Yah’s fire is not a fire of combustion. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, Daniel’s three friends, sentenced to be burned to death in a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down and worship the idol King Nebuchadnezzar had erected on the plain of Dura, they were cast in fully clothed: “Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.”  (Daniel 3:21, KJV)

Something was consumed: the ropes that had bound them.  The men themselves were unharmed.  Even their clothes were not damaged! 

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.  And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.  (Daniel 3:26 and 27, KJV)

The secret of how these brave men, heroes of Heaven, were delivered is simple: they were ‘walking righteously--- etc’. – see earlier reference - (Isaiah 33:15-17, NKJV)

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”

They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”

“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of El.”  (Daniel 3:23-25)

All who have surrendered their wills to the divine will and live in harmony with the divine law can live, unhurt, in the consuming fires of the Almighty’s presence.  By being obedient to the Law of Yah, the three worthies could live in the presence of eternal holy burnings and the fires of combustion had no power over them.

The eternal burnings of Yah's presence consume away all sin and selfishness. Sin consists of 1) Falsehood and often 2) Force (on the part of Satan).  Satan is the father of lies, but truth, the eternal truth that proceeds from the One who dwells in consuming fire, destroys Falsehood.  Force is conquered by divine love.  The Holy Spirit is Truth and Love.  At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the assembled believers.  “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues likes as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”  (Acts 2:3, 4, KJV)  These early believers were not consumed by the divine fire. Thereafter, they were united in love and spread the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven to all the world.

The doctrine of an eternally burning hell is based on a false premise: that Adam and Eve were given eternal life at Creation.  Thus, so the reasoning goes, when they sinned and had to be punished, Yahuwah had no choice but to consign them to eternal life in the fires of hell.  Such a belief is not based on Scripture.  In referring to Yahuwah, 1 Timothy 6:16 states unequivocally: “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting.”

“Yahuwah is love.”  (1 John 4:8)  He also delights in justice.

Thus says Yahuwah, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Yahuwah, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says Yahuwah.  (Jeremiah 9:23 and 24.)

As an Eloah of love and justice, Yahuwah did not want to give eternal life to anyone while they were still under probation, making their choice to serve Him or to join Satan in his rebellion.  Yahuwah did not want even the worst sinner to suffer an eternity in agony.  This would not be loving or just!

Eternal life is a gift.  It is given only to those who overcome through faith in the merits of Yahushua.  The punishment of those who choose to cling to sin is not eternal life in torment.  It is death.

Eternal life is a gift.  It is given only to those who overcome through faith in the merits of Yahushua.  “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of Yahuwah is eternal life through Yahushua the Annointed our Master.”  (Romans 6:23)  The punishment of those who choose to cling to sin is not eternal life in torment.  It is death.  Eternal life is granted those only who choose to submit to the divine, benevolent Law of Love. 

Scripture reveals how this is done:

Submit yourselves therefore to Yahuwah.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to Yahuwah, and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.  Humble yourselves in the sight of Yahuwah, and He shall lift you up.  (James 4:7, 8 and 10)

All who allow the eternal fires to consume away their sin and dross will be given a life that measures with the life of Yahuwah.  The fires of Yahuwah's presence will burn throughout all eternity.  It is a promise!  “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of Yahuwah did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”  (Revelation 21:23)  The redeemed will walk in the sunless light of eternal day, rejoicing in Yahuwah’s presence.  They can live in the midst of eternal burnings because they have surrendered their wills, allowing their sin to be consumed in the refining fire.

A ladies’ Bible study group was reading through the book of Malachi.  When the group studied the third chapter, the women were intrigued by a promise discussing this very issue:

But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears?  For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver . . . and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto Yahuwah an offering in righteousness.  (Malachi 3:2, 3)

Not understanding the process by which silver is refined, the women wanted to learn more so that they could fully understand the process being described in Scripture.  One woman, who knew of a silversmith, offered to go and observe and report back to the group what she learned.  After making arrangements with the silversmith to watch him work, she arrived at the agreed upon time. 

Holding a piece of silver over an open flame, the silversmith explained that, when refining silver, it was necessary to hold it in the middle of the fire where the flames are hottest in order to burn away all the impurities.  The woman asked the silversmith if it were true that he had to stay there, by the fire, the entire time the silver was being refined in the flames. 

The man replied, “Yes.  Not only do I have to stay here holding the silver, but I have to keep my eyes on it the entire time.  If the silver is left in a moment too long, it will be destroyed.”

The woman watched in silence a little longer, then asked: “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”

“That’s simple,” he smiled, as he carefully rotated the piece.  “I know it is fully refined when I see my image in it.”

Yahuwah is waiting with earnest longing for the day when His image will be perfectly reflected in His children and they can be brought home to live with Him.  His gracious invitation is still extended to all who will take heed:

Seek ye Yahuwah while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near:  let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto Yahuwah, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our Master for He will abundantly pardon.  (Isaiah 55:6 and 7.)

All who submit to the Refiner’s fire will rejoice eternally in the fires of Yahuwah’s presence.  “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life . . . And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.”  (Daniel 12:2 and 3.)

Note carefully the main point of emphasis is that while the immortal righteous will dwell and flourish forever in the eternal burnings of the presence of Yahuwah, this same fire will be the devouring fire of "hell" for mortal sinners who can exist in its presence only for a very short time.

Kindly consider also the following verses, which clearly indicate that Yahuwah's very presence is an eternal and consuming fire:

"Now will I rise, saith Yahuwah; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.  Ye [the wicked] shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.  And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.  Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;   He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure."  (Isaiah 33 :10-16)
 

Moses asked to see Yahuwah:

"And he [Moses] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." (Exodus 33:18)

Yahuwah answers plainly, and tells Moses that no man can look upon Him and live.

"And He [Yahuwah] said, Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:20)
 

"For I am Yahuwah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." (Malachi 3:6)
 

Yahushua shares the same glorified fiery presence with His Father, which will destroy the wicked when He returns to set up Yahuwah’s kingdom on earth.

"For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom Yahushua shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

It is the brightness which blinded Saul: "At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me." (Acts 26:13)

The righteous are able to survive His Return only because they are glorified/given immortality in an instant: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:52)

See also –

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests ofYahuwah and Yahushua, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Revelation 20:6

For Yahuwah is a sun and shield: Yahuwah will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11

The destruction of the wicked at Yahushua's Return will be but a foretaste of the eternal burning presence of Yahuwah which will ultimately cleanse the whole earth of unconverted, unrepentant sinners and all semblance of sin forever.

Satan started the controversy in Heaven and his opposition was directed at Yahuwah Whose fiery presence will do the final destruction depicted in the book of Revelation.