What is The Lake of Fire?

I preached another message from the book of Revelation today. I tackled “The Lake of Fire” and tracked the Biblical Design Pattern throughout Scripture. Here’s a few take aways from my research that I found interesting…

1. The imagery of Fire and Brimstone and The Lake of Fire are traced back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 19)

2. Writers in the early Centuries equated the Sodom and Gomorrah story with the Dead Sea due to these cities being on the South-East corner of the Dead Sea, and the characteristics of the salt, death and smell. (See Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and the Wisdom of Solomon.)

3. Over time the Sodom and Gomorrah story served as a “shorthand” way of saying judgment of God. At different times the prophets (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Deuterononmy) declare Israel and her enemies will be punished, thrown into the lake of fire so forth just like Sodom and Gomorrah.

4. In these passages it links the story of Sodom and Gomorrah with punishment involving the “Lake of Fire” and “Blazing Fire” etc.

5. Once we get to The New Testament Peter and Jude both say that Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of eternal fire. (2 Peter 2:6, Jude 7)

6. Although the prophesied punishment is called “The Lake of Fire” this never eventuates literally. Instead the punishment looks like an Earthly consequence of their sin. For example a foreign army invading etc.

7. In Ezekiel there is a prophetic word that Sodom and Gomorrah will be Restored and Returned to how they were meant to be. (Ezekiel 16:53-55)

8. Then we get to Revelation… John sees a river flowing from the throne of God and bringing healing to the nations. (Rev 22:1-5) This is directly from Ezekiel’s prophecy. (Ezekiel 47:1-12) This states that the living water flowing from God flows into the Dead Sea and brings everything back to life.

9. Bringing it all together we see that Death, Hades, and those who do not live for Jesus are thrown into the lake of fire, (Revelation 20:13-15) only for the river of life to bring it all back to life! As Jesus says in Revelation 21:5, “I make all things new!”

10. Therefore - I do not believe the lake of fire is not a place of eternal conscious torment. Rather it is a picture of the judgment of God (and consequences of and for sin) coming upon people keeping them in the “sea of death” or the “lake of fire” until the river of life flows into them and brings everything to life!

I’m reminded that when we do study like this it can challenge long held beliefs that we have been taught. However, let us trust Holy Spirit to bring us into a revelation of the truth and no be deterred by the uncomfortable reality that we don’t always get it right.

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A few resources I’ve been using are:

Jersak, Brad. Her Gates Will Never be Shut. 2009. Wipf & Stock. Eugene Oregon.

Gorman, Michael. Reading Revelation Responsibly. Cascade Books. Oregon. 2011.

Wright, NT. Revelation For Everyone. Westminster John Knox Press. 2011.

Richard Bauckham. The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Cambridge University Press.Uk. 2008. 

Steve Moyice. The Old Testament in the Book of Revelation. Sheffield Academic Press. 1995.

Welton, Jonathan. The Art of Revelation. Welton Academy. USA. 2017.

Mcknight, Scot. Revelation for the Rest of Us. 2023

Bible Project Resources

Overview of the Book of Revelation.

Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nvVVcYD-0w

Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnIrbq2bKo

How to Read the Bible: Apocalyptic Literature

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNDX4tUdj1Y

Bible Project Podcast Series: Apocalyptic Literature

https://bibleproject.com/podcast/series/apocalyptic-literature/