{"id":1781,"date":"2012-07-15T20:14:59","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T03:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/?page_id=1781"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:14:59","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T03:14:59","slug":"gods-fire-by-peter-hiett","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/peter-hiett\/gods-fire-by-peter-hiett\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Fire by Peter Hiett"},"content":{"rendered":"

God’s Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

I suspect that \u201cThe Fire\u201d (including: the lake of fire, the pillar of fire, the fire on\u00a0Sodom, the burning bush, the fire in the temple, the fire that ignites Gehenna, the\u00a0fire in Daniel\u2019s fiery furnace, and the fire of Pentecost) is Eternal and in some way\u00a0divinity Himself. By Eternal I mean beyond temporality and without End, because\u00a0It\/He is the End.\u00a0In Old Testament theophanies, God often appears as fire. \u201cGod IS a consuming fire\u201d\u00a0(Deuteronomy 4:24).<\/p>\n

In Scripture fire seems to belong to God in a special way. In\u00a0Numbers 3 the sons of Aaron offer \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d before the Lord and suffer\u00a0punishment. In Rev. 13, the false prophet must be \u201callowed\u201d to bring fire down from\u00a0heaven. God \u201canswers by fire\u201d (1 Kings 18:24). Fire comes from heaven to consume the\u00a0sacrifices. In 2 Chronicles 7 fire comes down and consumes the sacrifices in the temple\u00a0and fills the temple with glory. The fire was to be kept burning in the temple at all times.\u00a0The sinners in Zion wonder, \u201cWho can dwell with the consuming fire?\u201d (Isaiah 33:14).<\/p>\n

Yet in Acts 2, the fire descends and fills the new temple\u2014the Church\u2014and instead of\u00a0\u201cconsuming\u201d the sacrifices in pain, the fire fills the living sacrifices with joy\u2014in fact the\u00a0very Spirit of God.\u00a0God is a consuming fire. His Word is \u201clike fire\u201d (Jeremiah 23:29). The Angel of\u00a0Yahweh, Son of Man appears as fire. Yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not\u00a0burned by this fire as are the Babylonians. The whole earth will be consumed with God\u2019s\u00a0fire (Zephaniah 3:8). Yet one day the Lord himself will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem\u00a03\u00a0and \u201cthe glory\u201d in her midst (Zechariah 2:5).<\/p>\n

Glory is closely associated with fire. In\u00a0biblical times, light was also closely associated with fire. God is light and \u201ca fire.\u201d\u00a0Jesus came to baptize with fire. He transfigures into one who looks like he\u2019s on fire. In\u00a0the Revelation his eyes are like a \u201cflame of fire.\u201d In Luke 12 Jesus states that he came to\u00a0cast fire on the earth and that he wished it were already kindled. In Acts 2 the fire falls\u00a0and is experienced ecstatically. Paul tells us that in being kind we heap \u201cburning coals\u201d\u00a0on the heads of our enemies, as if Love is Fire (Song of Solomon 8:6). He also speaks of\u00a0persons being saved, \u201cas through fire.\u201d Peter teaches that our faith is refined like gold as\u00a0through fire. In Mark 9:49, Jesus states that we will all be salted with fire.<\/p>\n

It seems that\u00a0the same fire can consume some, purify others, and even fill some with ecstatic joy.\u00a0In Matthew 25 Jesus speaks of \u201ceternal fire\u201d and \u201ceternal punishment\u201d that is\u00a0analogous to \u201ceternal life.\u201d The life is God\u2019s and the fire is God\u2019s. I think these five\u00a0statements are true: God is Light. God is Holy. God is Fire. God is Love. God is one. I\u00a0don\u2019t think God changes. However, our experience of him does. I don\u2019t think He\u2019s 25%\u00a0light, 25% holy, 25% fire and 25% steadfast love. I don\u2019t think He\u2019s \u201cmerciful to a point\u201d\u00a0and then is no longer \u201csteadfast love.\u201d He is 100% Light, 100% Holy, 100% Fire, and\u00a0100% Steadfast Love, Mercy, Grace, …Hesed.<\/p>\n

Jesus himself is our Judgment.\u00a0In the Revelation the Lake of Fire is often referred to as the Lake of Fire and\u00a0Brimstone. In the Old Testament \u201cbrimstone\u201d falls from the heavens and the breath of\u00a0Yahweh is like brimstone (Isaiah 30:33). In the Revelation the Greek word for\u00a0\u201cbrimstone\u201d is \u201ctheion.\u201d I am NO language scholar but it is my understanding that\u00a0\u201ctheion\u201d can also be translated as \u201cdivine being\u201d (Dictionary of Biblical Languages with\u00a0Semantic Domains). Perhaps this lake is the \u201cLake of Fire and Divinity\u201d or \u201cLake of Fire\u00a0that is Divinity\u201d (if the \u201ckai\u201d is epexegetical), or \u201cLake of Fire that burns with Divinity\u201d\u00a0(Rev. 19:20). Some would certainly disagree, but whatever the case, it seems that\u00a0\u201ctheion\u201d is closely tied to \u201cTheos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course the fire is eternal if the fire is in some sense\u00a0divinity. The fire has no end because it is the End.\u00a0Torment for darkness is to be exposed to the Light. Torment for lies is to be exposed\u00a0to Truth. Torment for death is to be exposed to Life. Torment for any impurity is to be\u00a0exposed to the Consuming Fire. Because the agent of torment is eternal, it does not mean\u00a0the experience of torment is unending. Sodom and Gomorrah underwent \u201cthe punishment\u00a0of Eternal Fire\u201d (Jude 7). This does not mean that Sodom and Gomorrah continually and\u00a0without end experience the torment of Eternal Fire.<\/p>\n

Peter Hiett<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God’s Fire I suspect that \u201cThe Fire\u201d (including: the lake of fire, the pillar of fire, the fire on\u00a0Sodom, the burning bush, the fire in the temple, the fire that…<\/p>\n

Read MoreGod’s Fire by Peter Hiett<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1066,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1781","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1781\/revisions\/1784"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}