I Kings 18:23-25,38
At times when the darkness of sin and evil threaten to overwhelm the earth, and the light of God's Word seems about to be put out, then God moves in miraculous ways to strengthen His people. In Elijah's day, most of the people of Israel had turned to the worship of the god Baal, so God sent His prophet Elijah to do a miracle that would show that He was the real God. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel had murdered many of God's prophets to the extent that his governor, Obadiah, who was a secret servant of God, had hid 100 of God's prophets in a cave to protect them. I Kings 18:3-4 (KJB). Elijah's first miracle was that when he confronted king Ahab, Ahab did not order him to be killed because God had put a great fear of Elijah into king Ahab. Ahab even obeyed Elijah's command that he gather the people of Israel and the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel for a reason that Elijah did not tell Ahab. I Kings 18:17-20 (KJB).
When the king and the people and 450 prophets of Baal were gathered to the top of Mount Carmel, Elijah proposed a contest between their god and his true and living God. Elijah instructed that two altars of stone be built, and two bullocks cut up and their pieces laid on both altars, but they should put no fire under them. Elijah then challenged the people, and they agreed, that they should pray to their gods for fire to fall on their altar, and Elijah would pray to God for fire to fall on his altar, and the God that answered would be the true God. The people prayed to their gods and cut themselves with knives from morning until evening, but no fire fell on Baal's altar. Elijah was brave enough to mock their gods. Elijah then told the people to gather close to him. He then repaired an altar of God that evidently was already there, and he added twelve stones to it, and he ordered a trench to be dug around it, and he put the pieces of the bullock on the wood on the altar, and he had four barrels of water poured three times on the altar so that the water filled the trench. Elijah then made a short prayer to God that He would show the people that He is the only true God and fire fell from God and consumed the bullock, the wood, and even the stones and dust, and evaporated all of the water in the trench. And the Lord said that it was a "burnt sacrifice." Then all the people, who had been worshippers of Baal, fell on their faces and worshipped God except for the 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah had those 450 prophets of Baal executed. I Kings 18:21-40 (KJB).
God gave the burnt offering to Noah and the Israelites for a specific purpose. God promised Noah, and all who read the Bible, that He would never again "smite;" that is, kill all of His living humans whom He creates in His image, and whom He loves, as He had done with the worldwide flood. God often kills people who allow evil to dominate their lives, but He never permanently kills their subdued good natures that He has created in His image. Genesis 8:20-21 (KJB). God knows exactly how to cause all of the good natures of all humans to repent and return to faith in Him of their own free will. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB).
God caused Elijah to use a burnt sacrifice to divide the people between the believers and the unbelievers. God will do the same with His fiery wrath against evil and unbelief in the end of the world. Christ will appear to all living 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 so that He can use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their beings to separate their good and living natures from their dead and unbelieving natures. God will then recreate their believing natures with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth, and He will cast their dead and unbelieving natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 5:11-14; II Peter 3:9-13; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:16-17; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).
Jesus promised that He would not judge believers and unbelievers until the end of the world. John 12:46-48; II Timothy 4:1 (KJB). Every human is a believer and an unbeliever in their inner beings. God will reawaken the faith of all of His living humans so that He can save them from eternal death. He will be able to do that because of His death, burial, and resurrection. John 12:31-32 (KJB). Unbelief is totally evil and can never repent. So, God will utterly destroy the dead and evil natures of all humans. Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB).
The people who returned to faith in God because of Elijah's burnt sacrifice represent the entire, living human race that God will save. I Timothy 4:10 (KJB). Baal's 450 prophets that Elijah had killed represent the evil unbelief of all dead humans that God will cast into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15; Matthew 12:31-32 (KJB).
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