What is hellfire?
The expression “burn in hell” comes from multiple places in the Bible. There are references to the “Lake of fire” in the book of Revelation, the “fire of Gehenna” which is translated “fire of hell” in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), and “eternal fire” in Matthew, Mark, and Jude. It is fairly natural to conclude that hell is a place of fire and I think most of us agree that the fire is symbolic. We aren’t talking about people literally burning in flames. We aren’t even talking about hot temperatures and parched throats. These are all symbols. Metaphors. Similes. Hell is like fire. Hell is like burning. Hell is like weeping, gnashing of teeth, parched throats and thirst. Hell is like turning up the heat, which we sometimes refer to as torture.
Fire actually does a lot more than simply burn things up. Gold is refined and purified by fire. Impurities are burned off in fire. Trees are regenerated by fire. Think of forest fires (USA) and bushfires (AUS).
The Bible reveals Godself to be a consuming fire in Deuteronomy 4:24, quoted in Hebrews 12:29. The Holy Spirit descends like tongues of fire in Acts 2:3-4.
We also know God to be love (1 John 4:8 & 16).
And—get this!—love is also depicted as fire. Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. (Song of Songs 8:7). I had my dad read from Song of Songs/Solomon 8 at my wedding.
God. Is Fire. Is love.
Elvis Presley sings a song called “Burning love,” and one of the most famous singers in Australia, John Farnham, wrote a song I love called “Burn for you,” which is about burning for love, metaphorically. People talk about being in love as a kind of heat because it can literally increase heartrate and blood flow.
But, for arguments sake, let’s return to the Bible and look at what fire actually does.
God appeared to Moses in flames of fire from within a bush, to promise that he would deliver the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land, Exodus 3.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by burning sulfur in the book of Genesis. Then God promised to restore this dead nation in the afterlife, Ezekiel 16:53. God’s establishes an everlasting covenant, or a covenant that endures in the age to come, Ezekiel 16:60.
Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming [the day of judgment / salvation]?… For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.
Zechariah 13:9 This third I will put into the fire, I will refine them like silver and test the like gold. 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 our God.’
In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah worried about his guilt as he stood before God. He called himself a man of unclean lips. The angel of God took a live coal—symbols of fire and burning—and said, See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for, Isaiah 6:6-7.
Isaiah 48:10 See I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction… For my own sake, I do this… I will not yield my glory to another. Mere verses later we read (49:6) I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. And (49:8) In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation [AKA judgment day] I will help you.
Zephaniah 3:9-10 The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger. Then I will purify the lips of the peoples that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder.
This is not just an Old Testament theme, of course.
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day [judgment/salvation] will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. It if is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
1 Peter 1:7&9 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed… for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Jesus preaches a sermon about cutting off our hand and throwing it in the fire of Gehenna, rather than throwing the whole body into Gehenna. Then he makes this remarkable statement, Everyone will be salted with fire, Mark 9:49.
In this life or the next we will be burned by the fire of God’s love. And the burning will hurt, hence the references to weeping and gnashing of teeth. It hurts because we resist it. We go against the flow of love and we dirty our hands all the time. When we stop resisting love, we will no longer perceive our experience as being “hellish” and will, instead, experience the heavenliness of God’s love.
I would like to assert that hell is the passionate fire of God’s love.
It is the refiner’s fire.
Hellfire won’t just cause suffering and torture for all eternity. It may feel like suffering and torture to begin with, sure. But hellfire will burn away the lies that people believe. It will destroy self-righteousness or in other words a lack of trust in God’s ability to save singlehandedly. It will burn away injustice and inequality, placing all of humanity on equal footing for once and for all. It will refine us until we are one unified body.
God. Is love. Is fire.
Hell is just another place (or state of being, or afterlife realm) where this is aptly demonstrated. Hell is not outside of God or separate from God. I’m not even sure it’s outside of heaven. Revelation describes that lake of fire as being outside. But the concept of being salted by fire sounds like it applies as much to our earthly lives as it does to the afterlife. The torment in Mark 9 is very much relational torment, or learning how to get along, as implied by Mark 9:42 If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble…
The fire of God’s love is everywhere. On earth. In hell. In heaven. The fire is for everyone. The fire does its job.
This is the kind of hellfire that I believe in.
God. Is love. Is hellfire.
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