- Mar 5, 2024
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Everlasting Fire: God's Punishment For Seducing The Righteous Into Sin
Much like demonic spirits do, the Gnostics seduced the faithful into sin, causing them to "burn" with lust, especially after working witchcraft on the spiritually unprotected. Those with spouses, daughters or sons who were seduced away from the faith likewise sometimes "burned" with anger towards them. But the punishment from God was that these seducers would literally burn in everlasting flames, since that is what they took joy in. They were proving by their earthly lives what they would be in eternity.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into Tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment (2 Peter 2:4-9)
As Peter stated here, God made the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah examples of those who would suffer in everlasting fire for seducing others into sexual sin. Jude said the same thing, stating that "Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities round about them are (in the present tense) set forth as an example, undergoing the judgment of everlasting fire" (Jude 1:7), even though the judgment on these cities had taken place 1,600 years before Peter and Jude wrote their letters.
It is important to understand that both men were using present tense verbs here, meaning the fires were still smoldering. Numerous authors both Pagan and Jewish made reference to active geological phenomenon still taking place in and around the Dead Sea during New Testament times, as it appears to have been common knowledge. Strabo, a first century Greek geographer and historian, stated, "The lake was formed by earthquakes and boiling outbursts of fire, and hot water impregnated with bitumen and brimstone... In the midst of the lake is the source of the fire, and also there are great quantities of asphalt in the middle. The eruption is uncertain, because the movements of fire have no order known to us." (Strabo, Book XVI, 764). Diodorus Siculus also stated, "The fire which burns (present tense) beneath the ground, and the stench, render the inhabitants of the neighboring country sickly and very short lived." (Diodorus Siculus, Book II, 48). Philo wrote, "The fire is most difficult to extinguish, and creeps on pervading everything and smoldering. And a most evident proof of this is to be found in what is seen to this day: the smoke which is still emitted, and the brimstone (i.e. a substance created out of burning sulfur) that men dig up there." (On AbrahamXXVII). Likewise, another ancient Jewish text from this time entitled the Wisdom of Solomon states, "Wisdom saved a man [named Lot] from the destruction of the godless, and he escaped the fire that came upon the five cities, cities whose wickedness is still attested by a smoking waste" (Wisdom of Solomon, 10:7).
It was likely massive volcanic earthquakes which actually caused the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for if the massive fault line that runs through it had opened up, great fissures in the Jordan Valley Rift would have hurtled millions of tons of molten, burning sulfur and salt dozens of miles into the air above the entire surrounding region. All this material would have eventually fallen back to the earth, very similar to what takes place when a volcanic eruption occurs, and it is why Lot and his family would have been told to flee. They had only a matter of time before the fallout began falling back to earth, and Lot's wife did not listen, so she ended up being covered over in salt and ash. As an older version of the Encyclopedia Britannica reads, "That in this bituminous region a violent earth tremor - to which, indeed, the Ghor and its borders are particularly liable - should have brought into play eruptive forces whose catastrophic effects are indicated in the Bible narrative is more than probable" (Encyclopedia Britannica, V.7, P.100, 1958). Lot and his family were warned by the angels, "Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the surrounding country. Flee to the mountains, lest perhaps you be overtaken ..." (Genesis 19:17, LXX).
Interestingly enough, there is also a Jewish tradition which states that the Lord warned Sodom and Gomorrah for years in advance that He would bring judgment against them, and these warnings came in the form of earthquakes. As one commentary on the Midrash states, "The overthrow of Sodom did not occur suddenly without previous warning. Twenty-five years prior to its annihilation, Hashem caused earthquakes to send tremors throughout that region in order to awaken its inhabitants to do teshuva (i.e. penance), but they took no notice of these divine warnings." (Midrash Says, V.1, P.169-170)
It also seems probable that the fires of this region were "everlasting" during Peter's time to warn that it would one day become the Lake of Fire. The Dead Sea region is rich in sulphur, which is the primary element contained in brimstone, and it is likely no coincidence the Lake of Fire will be high in sulphur as well:
But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet ... [and] the two of them were thrown alive into the Fiery Lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the Rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves upon their flesh. (Revelations 19:20a-21. See also 20:10)
There's also a suggestion in the Book of Revelation that the same fault line which runs beneath the Dead Sea will one day suffer the greatest quake in human history, specifically because God will be preparing the Lake of Fire so that the dead bodies of the Antichrist's armies - hundreds of thousands of them - can be thrown into it:
16 And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, "It is done." 18 And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. (Revelation 16:16-18)
Mass Judgments
The common themes for all three groups Peter mentioned in this passage were that 1. they were all sexual seducers, and 2. they all suffered mass destruction from God. That Lot was "oppressed by the filthy conduct" of the Sodomites, and it "tormented his righteous soul seeing their lawless deeds" points out how he had to endure witnessing their sexual immorality. But what about the other two groups?
Jude was written from 2nd Peter, Chapter 2 point for point, with a few major differences. The things Peter mentions here come from the Jewish tradition in the Book of 1 Enoch, though he does not mention the book by name. But Jude does, and actually quotes 1 Enoch directly, and it had this to say regarding the angels who sinned:
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children"... 1 They took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms 2 and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants... 1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all 2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they 3 were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semyaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments. (1 Enoch 6:1-3, 7:1-2, 8:1-3).
Much like demonic spirits do, the Gnostics seduced the faithful into sin, causing them to "burn" with lust, especially after working witchcraft on the spiritually unprotected. Those with spouses, daughters or sons who were seduced away from the faith likewise sometimes "burned" with anger towards them. But the punishment from God was that these seducers would literally burn in everlasting flames, since that is what they took joy in. They were proving by their earthly lives what they would be in eternity.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into Tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment (2 Peter 2:4-9)
As Peter stated here, God made the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah examples of those who would suffer in everlasting fire for seducing others into sexual sin. Jude said the same thing, stating that "Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities round about them are (in the present tense) set forth as an example, undergoing the judgment of everlasting fire" (Jude 1:7), even though the judgment on these cities had taken place 1,600 years before Peter and Jude wrote their letters.
It is important to understand that both men were using present tense verbs here, meaning the fires were still smoldering. Numerous authors both Pagan and Jewish made reference to active geological phenomenon still taking place in and around the Dead Sea during New Testament times, as it appears to have been common knowledge. Strabo, a first century Greek geographer and historian, stated, "The lake was formed by earthquakes and boiling outbursts of fire, and hot water impregnated with bitumen and brimstone... In the midst of the lake is the source of the fire, and also there are great quantities of asphalt in the middle. The eruption is uncertain, because the movements of fire have no order known to us." (Strabo, Book XVI, 764). Diodorus Siculus also stated, "The fire which burns (present tense) beneath the ground, and the stench, render the inhabitants of the neighboring country sickly and very short lived." (Diodorus Siculus, Book II, 48). Philo wrote, "The fire is most difficult to extinguish, and creeps on pervading everything and smoldering. And a most evident proof of this is to be found in what is seen to this day: the smoke which is still emitted, and the brimstone (i.e. a substance created out of burning sulfur) that men dig up there." (On AbrahamXXVII). Likewise, another ancient Jewish text from this time entitled the Wisdom of Solomon states, "Wisdom saved a man [named Lot] from the destruction of the godless, and he escaped the fire that came upon the five cities, cities whose wickedness is still attested by a smoking waste" (Wisdom of Solomon, 10:7).
It was likely massive volcanic earthquakes which actually caused the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for if the massive fault line that runs through it had opened up, great fissures in the Jordan Valley Rift would have hurtled millions of tons of molten, burning sulfur and salt dozens of miles into the air above the entire surrounding region. All this material would have eventually fallen back to the earth, very similar to what takes place when a volcanic eruption occurs, and it is why Lot and his family would have been told to flee. They had only a matter of time before the fallout began falling back to earth, and Lot's wife did not listen, so she ended up being covered over in salt and ash. As an older version of the Encyclopedia Britannica reads, "That in this bituminous region a violent earth tremor - to which, indeed, the Ghor and its borders are particularly liable - should have brought into play eruptive forces whose catastrophic effects are indicated in the Bible narrative is more than probable" (Encyclopedia Britannica, V.7, P.100, 1958). Lot and his family were warned by the angels, "Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the surrounding country. Flee to the mountains, lest perhaps you be overtaken ..." (Genesis 19:17, LXX).
Interestingly enough, there is also a Jewish tradition which states that the Lord warned Sodom and Gomorrah for years in advance that He would bring judgment against them, and these warnings came in the form of earthquakes. As one commentary on the Midrash states, "The overthrow of Sodom did not occur suddenly without previous warning. Twenty-five years prior to its annihilation, Hashem caused earthquakes to send tremors throughout that region in order to awaken its inhabitants to do teshuva (i.e. penance), but they took no notice of these divine warnings." (Midrash Says, V.1, P.169-170)
It also seems probable that the fires of this region were "everlasting" during Peter's time to warn that it would one day become the Lake of Fire. The Dead Sea region is rich in sulphur, which is the primary element contained in brimstone, and it is likely no coincidence the Lake of Fire will be high in sulphur as well:
But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet ... [and] the two of them were thrown alive into the Fiery Lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the Rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves upon their flesh. (Revelations 19:20a-21. See also 20:10)
There's also a suggestion in the Book of Revelation that the same fault line which runs beneath the Dead Sea will one day suffer the greatest quake in human history, specifically because God will be preparing the Lake of Fire so that the dead bodies of the Antichrist's armies - hundreds of thousands of them - can be thrown into it:
16 And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, "It is done." 18 And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. (Revelation 16:16-18)
Mass Judgments
The common themes for all three groups Peter mentioned in this passage were that 1. they were all sexual seducers, and 2. they all suffered mass destruction from God. That Lot was "oppressed by the filthy conduct" of the Sodomites, and it "tormented his righteous soul seeing their lawless deeds" points out how he had to endure witnessing their sexual immorality. But what about the other two groups?
Jude was written from 2nd Peter, Chapter 2 point for point, with a few major differences. The things Peter mentions here come from the Jewish tradition in the Book of 1 Enoch, though he does not mention the book by name. But Jude does, and actually quotes 1 Enoch directly, and it had this to say regarding the angels who sinned:
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children"... 1 They took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms 2 and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants... 1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all 2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they 3 were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semyaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments. (1 Enoch 6:1-3, 7:1-2, 8:1-3).
