The Fiery Wrath of God

                                  I Peter 4:12-14 (KJB)

On a day called Pentecost approximately 50 days after Jesus' ascension, the Holy Spirit fell on the Church who were assembled together in one place. The Holy Spirit fell on them to give them the supernatural power that they needed to begin to spread the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem ultimately to the whole world. Acts 1:8 (KJB). These Christians were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit like "a mighty rushing wind." They began to be able to speak in the languages of the many different people who were in Jerusalem, and there appeared to them "cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." Acts 2:3 (KJB). One can understand why these ordinary people were given this supernatural power to spread the gospel to all languages, but why were they given the cloven tongues of fire?

Later, in one of the Apostle Peter's epistles, the Holy Spirit gave him the reason for the appearance of the tongues of fire. I Peter 4:12-14 (KJB). The tongues of fire endowed the Church with the strength and endurance that they would need to be able to suffer the persecution that would happen to them. Peter told the Church that they should rejoice when they were persecuted because that would provide further evidence to them that they were saved by God's grace. The tongues of fire represented God's fiery wrath against anyone who persecuted His Church.

But Christians are not saved by a fiery trial but by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Revelation 1:5 (KJB). But all unbelievers will be saved with a lesser form of salvation by a fiery trial sent from God to burn up their dead and evil deeds and natures so that God can raise their good and living natures back to life. This event will happen in the end of the world when Jesus appears to all unbelievers, and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Luke 3:16-17; John 5:28-29; II Peter 3:9-13 (KJB). One of the promises of God is that He wills that all humans become saved. What can thwart the Will of God? God cannot lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB). God has Almighty Power, and His Will cannot be thwarted. I Peter 3:9 (KJB).