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Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." (Revelation 14:9-10)
tormented with fire and sulfur
On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. (Psalms 11:6)
I plan to spend more time for a much deeper dive to examine further the symbols of the cup and the wine that we opened up last time. But before doing that, I want us to go ahead and unpack the meanings and implications of these next symbols that can appear so intimidating and that often darkens our feelings about God's disposition and His treatment of those who reject His love for them.
We may examine the word torment further in another study as it is repeated in the next verse and we need to thoroughly look understand. What we will start with here is a look at the words fire and sulfur or as rendered in some translations, brimstone. Many of you may have heard me tell how some years ago God strongly impressed me to read the Bible through while seeking instruction and direction from the Holy Spirit concerning this very topic, including the issue of hell. I had no idea what I was looking for or what to expect, so I simply read and kept my spirit open to whatever might come to me.
The outcome of that two-year journey was a radical altering of the way I perceive God. It also seriously challenged many of the assumptions I have been taught my whole life and forced me to revisit nearly everything I believed. Yet the outcome of that experience opened my mind and more importantly began to unlock my heart so I could actually begin to receive love for the very first time. This was quite a surprise for me, yet until one becomes aware of something that is blinding you or blocking your capacity to live from a larger perspective, you can't know what you are missing except that you can feel a constant sense of frustrated desires that never find fulfillment or even explanation without the larger perspective in place.
The Holy Spirit led me through that two-year Bible study without any outside input. I saw from a new perspective nearly every passage related to God's fire and the symbols such as what we are looking at here. I knew what I believed did not make a lot of logical sense, yet I had also been trained not to question lest I become deceived and lose my soul. But by this time God had already dealt with that problem by convincing me He has no problem with honest questions, and in fact He loves for us to challenge Him in order to learn and grow, so long as we are willing to be open to His responses.
This was actually God's answer to many years of prayer by me for God to show me how to experience love that I could never find. What I didn't realize until the end of this study, was what was blocking my perceptions and locking my heart from receiving love from anyone, was my skewed, dark beliefs about God's use of fire and the whole issue of punishment that I was taught was central to an appreciation of truth. What I came to realize after I finally caught sight of what God was bringing to me in Scripture, was that the reason I could not receive or give love was because it is impossible to love so long as one believes that God uses His power to manipulate us with enticements of reward coupled with threats of punishment to gain our compliance to His will. That sort of relationship precludes any possibility of a healthy response to love, for so long as threats of torture and punishment for non-compliance are present, it is impossible for the heart to respond in love.
The key to unlock a proper awareness of this is appreciating the central principle of freedom and how it intersects with true love. The presence of threats and fear in a relationship violates the core principle of freedom of choice, and that freedom must be consistently honored in order for anyone to be able to choose to enter into a healthy relationship involving mutual love and intimacy with another. This is why you may notice I can be quite keen on emasculating the lies that poison our thinking and feelings about these intense words, for it was lies like these that robbed me for many years of peace and at times still attempt to hamper my ability to move deeper into joy, the default experience for which we are all designed to live in the abundant life Jesus offers us.
We won't go through all the passages of Scripture that were brought to my attention relating to this issue of fire, but we will look at a number of them. If you want to read the outcome of what I learned during that two-year private Bible study, you can visit the blog page where I copied my notes and references there so anyone who wants to examine what God brought to my attention during that study can look at it themselves. You will find it here on a site called Surprise Ending.
As we dig deeper into the meaning of fire, I want to share a surprising discovery I found years ago when I looked up the word translated as brimstone. Here is the definition of the Greek word that provides a link to unmask the nature of what is being described here in contrast with what most assume.
Brimstone/sulfur - Greek theion = (in its original sense of flashing)
The root of this word comes from theios = godlike, divine, godhead - from theos = supreme Divinity.
What caught my attention was how this word references God. Yet as I thought more about this it all began to make more sense.
The reason sulfur is used here is because that is what brimstone refers to. Burning sulfur produces very intense heat and very bright light. Sulfur burns with a blue flame while forming sulfur dioxide which has a suffocating and irritating odor. This symbol actually relates to the inevitable reaction when rejectors of God's mercy and kindness are brought into an inescapable awareness of the intensity of God's love that defines the entire atmosphere of heaven. This selfless love permeates the unfallen universe but is felt most intensely in the presence of unfallen angels, and the Lamb who is the initial channel for that love. When a person continues to resist love until the character they form around dark views of God becomes permanent, that disposition of resistance to love reacts like an allergy to produce intense internal dissonance and even terror.
This is key to understanding why this takes place in the presence of the angels and the Lamb, for in their presence is relentless love. Yet hearts resistant to love find it to be torture instead of joy.
For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. (Isaiah 30:33)
The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-- he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. (Isaiah 33:14-17)
Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yahweh. Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)
This sulfurous fire is employing an illustration of the intensity of God's passionate love. This is not a physical forced punishment by God on His enemies. Such dark views of God seen as lashing out to torture people who spurn His love is nothing short of demonic and reprehensible. Yet many, including modern Christians, promote this as the God who is in control and who relies on threats to intimidate people to hand over control of their lives to Him. This is a major cause of unbelief and can push people toward atheism as a more appealing option than trying to trust and love a God who is worse than the most hardened psychopath on earth. Yet in pushed as only being justice.
This symbol of sulfur is counterfeited by the enemy in his masterful scheme of deception to blind us from catching sight of the true glory of our Father's love for each of us. We find a description of this in the symbols that describe the events of the 6th trumpet. What is important is that this trumpet comes as a violent reaction to events described under the 5th trumpet. (Personally I believe we are living in the time of the 5th trumpet, while the 6th trumpet describes a violent backlash involving enforced 'morality' through abusive control that is imposed on the whole world, likely in the name of saving God's reputation as well as saving the planet from imminent demise.)
The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had one trumpet, "Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!" The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.
Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm. (Revelation 9:13-19)
Both the 5th trumpet and the 6th trumpet highlight the centrality of power originating in the heads and the tails. The meaning of these symbols is explained in this passage from Isaiah.
The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. (Isaiah 9:15)
This first phrase could be translated more accurately as the older face that is lifted up. It infers a look of pride, haughtiness, authoritarian power or abusive control. This is actually reinforced when we look at the description God gives of another symbol of Satan as Leviathan in the book of Job.
His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath kindles coals. A flame goes forth from his mouth. There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.
On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride. (Job 41:18-22, 33-34)
Satan represented here as Leviathan, is the originator of all the lies that attack the truth about God's heart of love and that undermine His reputation. By using the symbols of fire and sulfur, the father of lies makes God out to be like him, leading many to assume this is undeniable because of common teachings about these descriptions in prophecy. This is why it is important to carefully exegete these passages and process every detail through the filter that God is only like His Son reveals Him to be and nothing else. The hijacked symbols that make so many terrified of His wrath must be recovered from the mouth of the dragon and restored back to the truths these angels seek to convey for us.
There are more references involving this symbol of sulfur that we need to visit as well.
The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. (Revelation 19:20)
The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:7-8)
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. (Genesis 19:24)
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)
Related to this last story, I have found strong archeological evidence that this destruction involved literal fire and sulfur. Yet the way in which it is described as directly from heaven does not prove that God was the direct agent. Evidence strongly suggests it involved a natural disaster that God knew was coming and could have prevented had the inhabitants of those cities repented.
Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side. His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory. (Psalms 97:2-6)
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink: for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. (Isaiah 30:33)
When we appreciate that the fire that consumes those who resist love is caused by their resistance itself when coming into the presence of intense love, our understanding of these passages can align with the character that the slaughtered Lamb reveals Him to have consistently. Even the demise of Satan is described as being caused by an internal reaction rather than imposed externally.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you. All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you are become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being. (Ezekiel 28:17-19)
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains, says the Lord Yahweh: every man's sword shall be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. (Ezekiel 38:19-23)
in the presence of the holy angels
For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26)
in the presence of the Lamb
When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way. Behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:28-29)
Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don't torment me." For he said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" He asked him, "What is your name?" He said to him, "My name is Legion, for we are many." He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. (Mark 5:5-10)
Then he will say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; (Matthew 25:41)
What do these passages tell us about the cause of the torment that happens to those who resist God?
It is vital that we keep in mind the truth that Jesus reveals about God's passions and His actions associated with His emotions lest we get seduced back into old habits of thinking and reacting and we project our ways of reacting onto God thinking He is altogether like us.
You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that the 'I AM' was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. (Psalms 50:19-21)
What might it mean that the eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels?
Take into account what demons said when they experienced the close presence of Jesus. Their reactions say a lot about how anyone will feel if they have formed a character out of harmony with God's agape love.
Will God force anyone to suffer torment? This cuts deep to our embedded preconceptions about the meaning of justice and can affect nearly every other belief about what we think God must do in order to overcome evil in the universe.
Is this torment as described in this third angel's message, forced on those who have the mark of the beast, or is this simply describing a natural principle of reaction that is unavoidable?
When water is poured on burning sulfur, it reacts like fuel to intensify the burning rather than quenching it. Song of Solomon 8:7 says many waters cannot quench love. The flood of lies pouring out of the mouth of the dragon that fuels persecution against those reflecting God's passionate love for their enemies, react to persecution, shame and abuse just like the Lamb did that they follow. In this way the burning flashes of divinity represented as sulfur can never be extinguished but only intensified, because evil is only overcome by good as God's goodness is freely received and freely given away.
