The Fiery Wrath of God

                                  Isaiah 1:7 KJB

Except for a small remnant that worshipped God alone, the whole land of Judah had turned to idol worship and evil. God used His fiery wrath and war to cleanse His land and restore it to the worship of Him alone. God allowed Judah's enemies to burn their cities to punish Judah for its sins and evil. God had to let His people know that sin and evil causes pain and destruction. God had also protected His chosen people from also turning to evil and idol worship because if they submitted to the darkness of evil, then the whole human race would be in danger of becoming utterly destroyed by evil. When the Babylonians finally captured Jerusalem, God had them to deport to Babylon mostly the evil, idol worshippers, but also some of His remnant who worshipped Him alone. Most of the remnant kept the faith in Babylon, and when God caused them to return to Jerusalem after 70 years, they rebuilt the Temple and the walls. If God's remnant had been persuaded by their fellow countrymen to turn to idol worship, they would have been more likely to do so, but if they had been forced by foreigners to worship idols, then in defiance, they would have been inclined to remain faithful.

God's use of His fiery wrath as one of His methods He uses to purify His people indicates God's reason for His punishment of His people. God punishes His people for their sins and evil to cause them to suffer so that He can correct them and return them to faith in Him which will eventually free them from all suffering. But they must return to faith in Him as their Savior who sacrificed Himself for them to save them from all sins, evil, eternal death, and the Devil from whom they are too weak to save themselves. Habakkuk 2:4; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Romans 5:6-8 (KJB). 

God creates humans in His image to be good and creative. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27 (KJB). God loves His entire creation. I John 4:8-10 (KJB). God's Love can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB). Because God's Love can never fail, He will save His entire creation from all evil. Revelation 21:1-5; I Timothy 4:10; Matthew 15:13 (KJB). Jesus referred to Psalm 82:6 when He taught that all humans are little gods. John 10:34-35 (KJB). God creates all humans to be little gods which can only mean that all living humans are the children of God. Psalm 100:1-5 (KJB). All living humans are forever alive in God's sight. Luke 20:38 (KJB). Just as all living parents would do anything within their power, including sacrificing themselves, to save their children from destruction, so God has done everything in His power, including sacrificing Himself, to save all of His living children from the utter destruction that the Devil plans for them. Since God loves all of His living humans, then how could God do less than that which He has put into the hearts of loving parents to do. 

When Adam and Eve sinned, God told the Devil that He would utterly crush his head and destroy him forever, but God gave only temporary punishments to Adam and Eve because God knew that His Son would save the entire human race from the eternal death that had been planted into their beings by the Devil. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:14-19 (KJB). God cursed the Devil, but He did not curse Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:14 (KJB). God made Eve the mother of all living humans, and all humans live forever in God's sight. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38 (KJB). All humans saved by God's grace suffer only a temporary punishment for their sins when they die because their souls and spirits go directly to Heaven. John 5:24; John 17:24 (KJB). All living humans who die in their sins whom God must consign to one of the three regions of death will suffer only a temporary punishment for their sins and evil because Christ will visit them in the end of the world, and He will cause them all "on the earth, and under the earth," to repent and return to faith in Him as their Savior so that He can use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their beings to separate their repentant, living natures for Him to recreate with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth, and He will cast their dead and evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Matthew 15:13; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:16-17; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 75:3; Philippians 2:9-11; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). The first death is always only temporary, but the second death is the utter destruction of eternal death and all evil itself. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12 (KJB).  

The Fiery Wrath of God

                             Song of Solomon 8:6 KJB

This verse, like all the whole book of Solomon, is not about eternal Love, but it is about the love between a husband and wife. In the eternal power of Love, death is not as strong as love. God proved that His Love happens to be much stronger than death when Christ conquered death. II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26 (KJB). The love of a husband and wife for each other only lasts until death parts them. In that sense, death is as strong as love. 

Many of the ideas and emotions that God creates can be used in good ways or bad ways. The Devil cannot create anything. He can only misuse God's good ideas and emotions by putting them into false combinations that are lies or can be used as lies. The emotion called "jealousy" can be used in a good way or a bad way. One of God's names is Jealous because He knows exactly how to guard His people, and sacrifice Himself for them, to save them from all sins and evil that will utterly destroy them. Exodus 34:14 (KJB). But the Devil can misuse jealousy by adding the good and useful idea to it called "excessive." Excessive jealousy can cause a husband or a wife to constantly accuse their spouse of unfaithfulness without any real evidence. This is a sin because it can cause such misery in a family that it breaks up a home. Excessive jealousy "is cruel as the grave" because it can cause the death of finite love.

Excessive jealousy, like all sins and evil, is like "coals of fire" that is very destructive. This happens to be the Devil's misuse of God's fiery power. 

But God's fiery power is much stronger than the Devil's fiery power. In the end of the world, God will use His fiery power against evil to thoroughly purge His entire creation of all sins, evil, eternal death, and the Devil. II Peter 3:9-13 (KJB). God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." II Peter 3:9 (KJB). Since God's Will cannot be thwarted, then God will save His entire, living human race that He has created in His image. Genesis 1:26-27 (KJB). This universal salvation is a promise from God. I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 21:5; Hebrews 2:9-18; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I Corinthians 4:5; Revelation 22:11-12 (KJB). God has two forms of salvation. God can save by His grace those who come to faith in Christ's sacrifice for them while they are still alive in the flesh. Matthew 26:28; John 5:24 (KJB). God can also use His fiery wrath against evil to save the rest of humanity with a lesser form of salvation when Christ comes to visit them in the end of the world. Revelation 5:11-14; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:16-17; Luke 3:6; John 5:28-29 (KJB). God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB).   

The Fiery Wrath of God

                             Proverbs 30:16 KJB

A fire will burn as long as it is fed something that will burn. The fires of Hell will burn forever because God will merge it with the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:14 (KJB). God created the earth with a fire in it. Hell is the spiritual aspect of that fire. When God cast Satan to earth, he gained control of Hell, and he uses it to torture the souls and spirits of humans who die in their sins. Luke 16:23 (KJB). God also created the earth with vast, dark caves and huge seas of water underneath. For this reason, Hell has three regions of death which are called outer darkness or Death, the Sea, and a burning Hell. Revelation 20:13 (KJB). Hell is often used as a generic term for all three regions. When humans die in their sins, Christ must consign their dirty souls and spirits to one of these three regions of death according to how they lived their lives on the earth. Hebrews 9:27 (KJB). 

Satan tortures these dirty souls and spirits because He hates God and anything God creates. Satan also aims to inflict so much pain and horror on these living souls and spirits created by God that he causes them to become totally evil and demonic and lost from God's Love forever. Job 2:9 (KJB). But all of God's living souls and spirits are forever alive in His sight. Luke 20:38 (KJB). In the end of the world, Christ will visit His living souls and spirits that belong to Him, and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). He will then use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their beings to separate their repentant, living souls and spirits from their dead and evil natures so that He can save their living natures for Him to recreate with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth, and He will cast their dead and evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 5:11-14; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). 

When Christ rose from the dead, He abolished eternal death itself, not any of His living humans who are forever alive in His sight. Luke 20:38; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26 (KJB). Christ tasted death for every human which means He turned the eternal death of every human into only a temporary death. Hebrews 2:9 (KJB). Jesus satisfied His Father that He had successfully borne the sins, evil, and eternal deaths of every human on the cross. I John 2:2 (KJB). When He resurrected, Jesus gained control over the keys to Hell and death. This fact gives Him the right to enter Hell in the end of the world and liberate all of His living souls and spirits that are trapped there. Revelation 1:17-18 (KJB). 

When God casts Hell and death into the eternal lake of fire, that will be the formal ending of that which Jesus has already accomplished. Revelation 20:14 (KJB). The first death is only temporary, but the second death is the eternal death of all sins, evil, death, and the Devil. Revelation 21:8 (KJB). 

The lake of fire happens to be an objective creation of God's eternal, fiery wrath against evil which is a part of His eternal Being. Deuteronomy 32:22; Hebrews 12:29; II Peter 3:9-13 (KJB). Everything that God creates begins in Him, goes out from Him, and eventually comes back to Him. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36 (KJB). God can forever feed the lake of fire because He has Infinite Power. Psalm 147:5 (KJB).  

The Fiery Wrath of God

                          Proverbs 26:20-21 KJB

In these verses, the word "fire" is used as symbolic of the destructive effects of sin and evil. In order for sin and evil to continue to be destructive, it must be continuously fed with sinful and evil acts. The Devil feeds this fire. The Devil plants spiritual death into the inner beings of all humans because all humans, except for infants who die before they can sin, possess a weak free will that causes them to sin. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:15; Matthew 15:13 (KJB). God creates all humans to be good and creative. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27 (KJB). The Devil aims to cause spiritual death to so utterly corrupt the good and living natures of humans to the extent that they become totally evil. The Devil can then claim them for his own and torture them forever. The Devil believes that if he can completely destroy a part of God's creation, then he can weaken God to the point that he will finally be able to murder God. Isaiah 14:12-17; John 8:44 (KJB). The Devil revealed his plan in the book of Job when he told God that if He allowed everything that God had blessed Job with to be taken from him, then Job would "curse God, and die." Job 2:9 (KJB). The Devil meant that the good nature of Job would become so evil that he would become lost from God in eternal death. Job 1:11-12; Job 2:4-6 (KJB). God knew that the Devil really wanted to destroy Job's life. But God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Matthew 15:13; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB). When God told the Devil that he could not take Job's life, God meant that the Devil would never be able to take the good life of Job or any other human.  

God gives humans free will when He creates them. God already knew that free will can cause rebellion because Lucifer had chosen to rebel. Ezekiel 28:15 (KJB). Satan believed that God had made a mistake when He gave free will to Adam and Eve. Satan thought that he could use what he thought was a mistake to cause humans to sin to the extent that it would so weaken them that he could inject spiritual death into every one of them which would eventually cause them to become totally evil and lost from God's Love forever. God knew all that when He created Adam and Eve and all of humanity. But God has a plan to prove that His gift of free will was not a mistake because He is able to cause every human that He would ever create to choose of their own free will to return to the faith in Him that He creates them to possess. Romans 12:3; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God has proven and will prove that His Love for humanity, and all humans love for Him, can only be true and genuine. God will prove that His gift of free will is stronger than any scheme of the Devil. I Corinthians 1:25 (KJB). 

But before God could return all of humanity to faith in Him, He had to do something about the spiritual death that the Devil injects into every human who sins because humans happen to be far too weak to save themselves from its utter destruction. God's Love caused Him to come to earth and sacrifice Himself by taking the spiritual deaths of all mankind on Himself on a cruel cross and suffer it Himself so that He could rise from the dead with complete and absolute victory over the Devil and all evil. Christ turned eternal death into only a temporary death, and He also suffered all of the sins and evil that causes it in order to completely eradicate all evil from His creation. Revelation 1:17-18; Hebrews 2:9-18; I Timothy 4:10; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26; I John 3:8; I John 2:2; John 5:28-29; John 11:25-26 (KJB). 

All humans saved by God's grace suffer only physical death because they go directly to Heaven when they die. All humans who die in their sins, God must send their dirty souls and spirits to one of the three regions of death. Revelation 20:13 (KJB). But all of these deaths are only temporary. Christ will visit all humans "on the earth, and under the earth," and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as their Savior of their own free will so that He can use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their beings to separate their repentant, good and living natures from their dead and evil natures so that He can save and recreate their living natures with everlasting life on His recreated earth, and He will cast their dead and evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12 (KJB). 

The Fiery Wrath of God

                           Proverbs 25:21-22 KJB

Since God commands that His people feed their enemies, then God feeds His enemies. Proverbs 25:21; Matthew 5:34 (KJB). When Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand, He surely must have fed some of His enemies. God provides food for the just and for the unjust. Matthew 5:45 (KJB). Yet God hates evil, and He expects His people to hate evil. Hebrews 1:9; Psalm 5:5; Psalm 45:7; Psalm 97:10 (KJB). But there is no contradiction in this. God meets the physical needs of all humans because He creates them, and He loves them. Genesis 1:26-27 (KJB). However, God might send a famine into a land where most of the people practice evil in order to punish them. When humans practice evil, God hates the evil that they practice. God does not hate their physical bodies that He creates and loves, even though evil may have caused their bodies to practice evil. 

God creates humans with a body, soul, and spirit. Genesis 1:26-27; I Thessalonians 5:23 (KJB). God loves His creations. When humans sin, the Devil injects spiritual death into them, and it is evil, and it causes all humans to commit sins, and it causes some humans to turn to the practice of evil. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:15 (KJB). God hates spiritual death, sins, evil, and the Devil, not any of His living humans whom He loves. Humans happen to be far too weak to overcome that spiritual death which will utterly destroy them all. Romans 5:6 (KJB). But God's Love caused Him to come to the rescue of humans when He took all of their spiritual deaths, and the sins and evil that causes it, on Himself on a cruel cross and turned permanent death into only a temporary death when He rose from the dead with a complete and absolute victory over all spiritual death, sins, evil, and the Devil. Romans 5:8; Revelation 1:17-18; Hebrews 2:9-18; I John 3:8; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). 

God commands His people to feed their enemies because that "will heap coals of fire on his head." Proverbs 25:22 (KJB). That kindness shown will remind their enemies that God is good, that He loves them, and that they need to repent and be reconciled with God. God has two ways to purge spiritual death, sins, and evil from the inner beings of all His living humans. God uses the shed blood of Christ to cleanse and save by His grace all humans who repent and believe in Christ while still alive in the flesh. Matthew 26:28; John 5:24 (KJB). The Old Testament sin offerings symbolized this form of salvation. Leviticus 5:5-10 (KJB). But the Holy Spirit made a burnt offering sacrifice for the rest of humanity when He descended into Hell to leave behind there all of the sins and evil of the rest of humanity that Jesus bore on the cross. I John 2:2; Psalm 16:9-11; Acts 2:25-31 (KJB). Because of the sacrifice of the Holy Spirit, Christ can use His fiery wrath against evil to purge the rest of humanity of all their spiritual deaths, sins, and evil so that He can save them all with a lesser form of salvation. But in order to save them, Christ must return them to the faith He put into them when He created them. Habakkuk 2:4 (KJB). Christ will cause them all to repent when He visits them in the end of the world. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God will save all humans whom He does not save by His grace. Genesis 8:20-21; Luke 3:16-17; Matthew 13:36-43; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Philippians 2:9-11; II Timothy 1:10; I Timothy 4:10 (KJB). The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this form of salvation. Leviticus 5:5-10 (KJB). God purged Isaiah's sins with a coal of fire. Isaiah 6:6-7 (KJB). God's Love purges all sins. The word "all" in Proverbs 10:12 can only mean the entire set of sins that has ever been committed. The word "the" in I Peter 4:8 can only mean all sins that will ever be committed. 

The Fiery Wrath of God

                               Proverbs 16:27 KJB

The ungodly man deliberately looks for ways to be evil and cruel. He seeks to be destructive, like a burning fire. God uses His fiery wrath against evil to purge all evil from His creation so that He can recreate it all to be righteous. II Peter 3:9-13 (KJB). The Devil always tries to copy whatever God does, but his motive is to utterly destroy God's creation, particularly His living humans, and subject it all to his cruel control. Isaiah 14:12-17 (KJB). The ungodly man gets his destroying fire from the Devil. 

The Devil is greedy for power and cruel control of God's creation. The Devil has his own kingdom in this world, and some of the subjects of his kingdom become greedy for cruel control of others just like their master. Luke 4:5-6 (KJB). Jesus taught that one of the main weaknesses of the Devil's kingdom is that it will cause conflict and wars among evil rulers. Luke 11:17-18 (KJB). Much of the history of the world has been about evil armies fighting other evil armies. God is pleased with this condition because it weakens the Devil's ability to gain control of the entire earth, and it saves the lives of many of His faithful people. Luke 11:19-23 (KJB). Despite all of the cruelty and evil in the world, God has always had His faithful people who have loved Him, and they have loved kindness, liberty, and creativity. I Peter 2:9-10; Exodus 19:5-6 (KJB). 

Despite the fact that many humans have deliberately chosen to be cruel and evil, God still loves them because He created them in His image, and that light of faith in Him and love for Him within them can be greatly dimmed by evil, but it can never be put out. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 12:3; John 1:9 (KJB). If God wills that all humans come to repentance, then one can be sure that God has made a way for all of His living humans to repent and return to faith in Him because no one can thwart His Will. II Peter 3:9 (KJB). Since all humans are alive in God's sight, then no living human can ever become permanently dead. Luke 20:38 (KJB). Since God has given all power to His Son in Heaven and on earth, then one can be sure that He will utterly destroy Satan's kingdom, and He will recover and recreate His entire creation that has been soiled by sin and evil. Matthew 28:18; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). Since Christ has all power, then He will certainly use it. Revelation 1:17-18 (KJB). 

A Conversation about Universes

A believer preaching on the street is confronted by an atheist.

Atheist: Why do you preach that silly stuff? There is no evidence that God exists. 

Believer: Look around you. How could all of this come into being without a Creator? 

Atheist: It all came into being from the big bang of the universe.

Believer: And what caused the big bang?

Atheist: Nobody knows, but it wasn't God.

Believer: How do you know that?

Atheist: Real scientists believe it wasn't God. 

Believer: So, you have faith that it wasn't God.

Atheist: I believe the real scientists.

Believer: But what if the real scientists are wrong, and God really created the universe? 

Atheist: I just believe the real scientists. 

Believer: But you just admitted that no one knows how the big bang started. So, the real scientists could be wrong. 

Atheist: But we do know that from the big bang, the universe evolved into stars and galaxies, and the stars produced the chemical elements that on a planet with a lot of water life evolved. This all took billions of years. 

Believer: Intelligent life too?

Atheist: Yes.

Believer: Life evolved in a nonconscious universe?

Atheist: Over billions of years, yes. 

Believer: Science works by observation and experimentation, right?

Atheist: Right.

Believer: Has anyone ever observed a nonconscious object produce anything?

Atheist: A corpse produces fertilizer. 

Believer: But that is a natural process. Nonconscious objects never produce complex, creative systems. 

Atheist: But it could over billions of years. 

Believer: But if no one ever observes a nonconscious object produce any complex, creative system, would it not be safe to conclude, by inductive reasoning, that nonconscious objects never produce complex, creative systems. 

Atheist: But anything can happen in billions of years.

Believer: But is that not just your faith?

Atheist: Well, I believe that God does not exist all right.

Believer: Did you know that science has discovered that our universe happens to be extremely fine-tuned to certain mathematical constants that makes life, and intelligent life, possible. Without that exact tuning, life could not exist. 

Atheist: Yes, but that simply means that out of an infinite number of possible universes, ours just happened to be the one that was fine-tuned so that life could evolve into existence. 

Believer: But isn't that all just a matter of your faith?

Atheist: Well, I certainly don't believe in God.

Believer: But you do believe that a nonconscious process produced an infinite number of possible universes out of which one was selected to be fine-tuned to the extent that it could evolve life. Isn't that nonconscious process really your God? 

Atheist: But our universe was nonconscious before life came into being. 

Believer: How do you know that?

Atheist: Because I can look into the past of our universe, and I can see that it evolved until it produced life. 

Believer: But how do you know that that process was nonconscious? 

Atheist: Because I can see that that process took place in the past. 

Believer: You used the word quote "see." That means you had to use your imagination, which is a product of your consciousness, to overcome the supposed nonconsciousness of our universe in order to trace the processes in our universe that you believe evolved life. 

Atheist: But can't I imagine a nonconscious universe?

Believer: No, you cannot because as soon as you imagine it, you annul its nonconsciousness.

Atheist: But I believe I can.

Believer: You used the word "see." That word was necessary for the universe that you imagined. That proves that no universe can exist without the creation of an intelligent consciousness, even if only in the imagination. 

Atheist: Well, I am determined to disbelieve. 

Believer: Our universe had to have had an Infinite Intelligent Consciousness to create it, but with more than just imagination. God objectified His goodness to create our universe, including all living humans. Read Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27; Hebrews 11:3, and Romans 11:36. (KJB).