Fire or Fire - Part Two

A festive exploration of fire and brimstone in the Bible

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by John Martin, circa 1852

NOTE: As the title suggests, this is the second installment in a series. You may read the first article here.

In my previous article, I shared the stories of four locations where fire wrought destruction in the Second World War, each with increasingly high death tolls: London, Hamburg, Hiroshima, and Auschwitz. For those who braved it, I am certain it was a tough read, but I think a necessary one to make my point about the degree of evil that exists in this world and the potential problem this creates for understanding God’s character. But the fire itself is critical to my consideration.

I have long been fascinated by fire, not in the sense of being a pyromaniac, but in the sense of appreciating its symbolic power. Thus, I chose my words carefully when I wrote, “God himself must answer for the flames he allowed to burn.”

I will now continue my exploration of this topic by asking, “What is the significance of fire from the perspective of the Christian God?” For we have considered how things look from our perspective, and it now seems fitting that we should give a hearing to the other main player in this drama.

As I considered the length and breadth of the Christian Scriptures in preparation for this article, I discovered what I believe are four different ways fire is described. We might even call them four different types of fire.

CONSUMING FIRE

Likely the most frequent type of fire described in the Bible is consuming fire. It is also the one people tend to think of when you mention “fire in the Bible.” If there is one thing even those who have never picked up the book know, it is that Scripture speaks often of fire and brimstone: humans getting consumed, towns getting consumed, the whole world getting consumed at the end of time…you get the picture.

Beyond this, people might also think of biblical fire as consuming fire because that is the way we think of fire in general. Fire may benefit us through its provision of heat, but we tend to think of it as inherently dangerous because of the way it provides that heat: through consumption. For unlike water, earth, and air, fire does not have a standard atomic state. It exists in the material world but is in a sense immaterial. Fire is a reaction that eats through nearly everything it touches, often producing the visible sign of flame. Like a ravenously hungry animal, it devours and consumes.

Where things get particularly interesting in Scripture is that God himself is described as a consuming fire. God does not simply use fire: he is fire. This is what the ancient people of Israel learned when they saw God’s presence descend on Mount Sinai. “And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.” (Exodus 24:17)¹ Their eyes did not deceive them, for a bit later in the story, the Israelites are told, “The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:24)

How should we understand this pronouncement? Orthodox Jews and Christians have always confessed that their God has no body or other physical existence. He is spirit only. The Scriptures also identifies God with other things that he could not be at the same time as being a consuming fire, e.g. a mother bird in Psalm 91:4. The language is therefore analogical. God is a consuming fire in that sinful humans are consumed by his wrath. As paper placed too close to a flame will burn, so sinners who come too close to a holy God will burn. This explains the biblical claim that no man can see God and live. (Exodus 33:20)

We read in the Book of Isaiah, “Sinners in Zion are terrified; / Trembling has seized the godless. / ‘Who among us can live with the consuming fire? / Who among us can live with continual burning?’” (Isaiah 33:14) Who indeed? Nadab and Abihu are consumed by fire from heaven when they worship God improperly. (Leviticus 10:1-2) A God of consuming fire is rightly to be feared by human beings who cannot avoid sin.

The Christian Scriptures declare that “the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:7) The earth that is full of sin will therefore be consumed by God’s wrath, as will anyone who is not joined to Christ in faith. “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15)

We may not like the consuming fire of God, but it at least makes sense. It matches how we know that fire operates. But the Bible also draws upon another aspect of fire.

REFINING FIRE

Fire produces numerous chemical reactions. Among these is its ability to destroy impurities in various kinds of metal. Scripture speaks of fire’s refining capacity in terms of our spiritual development, as in the Book of Zechariah, where God says he will preserve a minority of the nation of Israel though the majority is destroyed.

“‘It will come about in all the land,’

Declares the Lord,

‘That two parts in it will be cut off and perish;

But the third will be left in it.

And I will bring the third part through the fire,

Refine them as silver is refined,

And test them as gold is tested.

They will call on My name,

And I will answer them;

I will say, “They are My people,”

And they will say, “The Lord is my God.”’” (Zechariah 13:8-9)

What is important to note here is that God does not simply declare that some people will be killed by this metaphorical fire, i.e. consumed. Rather, he says that those who survive will be refined or tested. The result is that they will call upon the name of the Lord and seek him as God. So, we see that this fire differentiates. It does not affect all people the same way. Some perish from its heat, while others merely have their impurities removed.

Perhaps this is why Scripture uses refining fire as a metaphor for the Lord’s return at the end of time, as is written in the Book of Malachi. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.” (Malachi 3:2) Unlike many other references to fire at the end of time, this fire does not bring exceptionless condemnation, but a judgment of spiritual character. We are given some insight as to what kind of things can survive this refinement process in the book of 1 Corinthians.

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

Here we see that even if a person has done works which do not count for righteousness, he or she may still be saved “as through fire.” What is most important is having the correct foundation: Jesus Christ. This is a foundation that “no man can lay.” It is God providing to man that which is necessary to survive the refining fire. This type of fire is closely connected to the next one.

ENLIVENING FIRE

There is a kind of fire in Scripture that, rather than causing a person to perish, grants them life. This is the fire of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 104 says, “He makes the winds His messengers, / Flaming fire His ministers.” (v. 4) The messengers and ministers of God are angels and humans, but the Spirit of God is also described in this way: as a revealer of God’s message (John 14:26, 2 Peter 1:21), a minister to the faithful (Acts 9:31), a wind (Acts 2:2), and a fire. (Acts 2:3) For the latter, see John the Baptist’s declaration that the one who would come after him would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

This fire is the Holy Spirit who descends on the faithful at Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Passover. “And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.” (Acts 2:3) Note that the fire here is in some sense metaphorical or symbolic. They see tongues “as of fire.” We cannot know exactly what they saw, but it is clear from the surrounding context that they are being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the apparent fire is a symbol of this fact. Immediately, the believers receive the supernatural ability to speak in languages they have never learned. They are brought alive spiritually in a way they had not been before.

In the Old Testament (the Tanakh of the Jews), we see the Holy Spirit coming upon people and granting them the ability to prophesy, but this empowerment comes and goes. The difference in the New Testament is that the Spirit is poured out “on all mankind,” (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17) which is to say on every person who is a follower of Jesus Christ, regardless of ethnicity, sex, or status. It also remains, dwelling in them throughout the remainder of their lives.

The Holy Spirit essentially brings people to life spiritually. (Titus 3:5) It quickens the hearts of the faithful. But how should we separate the enlivening fire of the Holy Spirit from the refining power of the Holy Spirit? For the Scriptures also say that the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, a task akin to refinement. (Romans 15:16) It is therefore difficult to determine if these should be considered two different types/aspects of fire or a single one.

The chief difference between refining and enlivening fire from a human perspective is that we often think of literal fire doing the former, but seldom the latter. Sure, we can speak metaphorically of fire being “reawakened” in someone or something, but apart from a volcano (which is not a living thing), there are few things on earth that come to life through fire. Indeed, I can think of none. Fire may be necessary for life in cold parts of the world or where meat must be eaten, and it may be part of the natural life cycle of an ecosystem, but it does not literally bring things to life. Thus, there is something inherently supernatural about enlivening fire.

UNCONSUMING FIRE

If enlivening fire is not weird enough for you, this final type is positively absurd. For there are parts of scripture which emphasize the fact that consuming fire has no true power over the one who is in Christ. How can this be? Because of the presence of the Lord.

Long before the consuming fire came upon Mount Sinai, Moses encountered an unconsuming fire. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.” (Exodus 3:2) There is good reason to believe that the “angel of the Lord” in this case is God himself, but either way, the bush is possessed. When fire and wood come into contact, the latter is consumed by the former. This is a fact of life on planet earth. Yet here we see wood and fire coexisting in contact, but no consumption is occurring.

If the fire here truly is God’s presence even as God is consuming fire, then we have further confirmation that the consuming nature of consuming fire is not universal. Thus, God prophesied through Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; / And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. / When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, / Nor will the flame burn you.” (Isaiah 43:2) This too is unconsuming fire, and as in the previous unconsuming fire, it is the presence of God that makes the difference when a sinner comes into contact with a fire that normally consumes.

Undoubtedly the most famous case of biblical characters contacting fire without being burned is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Due to their faithfulness to the God of Israel and refusal to bow before idols, they are thrown into an exceedingly hot furnace to perish. Instead, they end up walking among the flames unharmed with a fourth person in their midst.

“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, ‘Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?’ They replied to the king, ‘Certainly, O king.’ He said, ‘Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!’ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!’ Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.” (Daniel 3:24-27)

Christian interpretation has typically held that the fourth man who appears to be a “son of the gods” is a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. If so, we again see that the presence of God causes consuming fire to become unconsuming fire.

Is it strange that a God who is himself consuming fire should cause human fire to become unconsuming? I think not. Indeed, I believe it is a central lesson of Scripture. Recall from earlier in this article that the consuming fire of God is associated with his wrath. Anything which offends God’s holiness will be consumed by the fire that he is, but that which is holy is not consumed.

Here we see the refining element at work. It is not truly separate from the consuming fire of God, but essential to its functioning. For refinement is judgment, and the fire judges all, separating righteousness from sin. Thus, the same presence of God which consumes those under wrath preserves those under grace.

How can this be? If all human beings are guilty before God, how could Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego be preserved by his presence? How can the Scriptures speak of people surviving fire and escaping through it, though they had certainly committed deeds that provoked a holy God to wrath? What made them holy, sparing them wrath?

THE SECOND CONUNDRUM

At the end of my previous article, I presented the paradox known as “the problem of evil” or “theodicy”: If God is sovereign over everything that happens, and evil happens, how can he be good?

Now I present a second paradox: How can God justify sinners? Or to put it more plainly, how can the God who is consuming fire come into contact with sinners without consuming them?

In a way, both paradoxes are questions about the nature of God. One questions if God is good and the other if he is just, but they are really two sides of the same question. For if God is not just, then he is not good, and if he is not good, then he is not just.

What we want to know is how all these aspects of God’s character can be held together in his person without contradicting one another. Whether we phrase that as, “Why do so many suffer in this life and the next?” or “Why are so many spared in this life and the next?”, it is the same basic issue.

Rather than continuing with the examination of Scripture alone, I will now turn to a beloved poem to guide my thoughts on this matter. When I am done, I do not expect to have solved this conundrum, but I might be a bit closer to the truth. Do return for the final article.

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1. All Scripture quotations in this article are taken from the 1995 New American Standard Bible, copyright The Lockman Foundation.