Hell In All Its Fury

I visited the picturesque hamlet of Marysville in Australia's Victoria last September with my sisters. It was a pretty place with a little brook and lovely flowers in bloom then. We had enjoyed eating delicious home-baked meat pies in the restaurant and browsing through the little stores there.

I was shocked when I heard that Marysville was razed to the ground, on 7 February, in the deadliest wildfire that was described as "hell in all its fury". So many lives lost, so many homes down in flames, so horrific a catastrophe.

The fires raging in Victoria present a foretaste of what Christians call "the end-days" when the Lord Jesus comes again to judge the earth. The Apostle Peter foretold that everything on earth will be destroyed by fire. The recent media descriptions of the skin being burned off the fire survivors in Victoria give me the shivers. Great is the tragedy in such a localised area. But how much more horrific it would be when the whole earth is consumed by fire!

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. "
(2 Peter 3 : 10)

Even more chilling is the vision of the Apostle John of the last days. With Jesus' second coming and his defeat of the evil one, the devil and all who follow him will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. This lake is described as a "fiery lake of burning sulfur", never-quenching (for the devil and all with him will be "tormented day and night for ever and ever"), and the "second death".

"10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.....
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. "
(Revelation 20 20 : 10, 14 - 15)

What hope do we have then, when all will be destroyed by fire? The Apostle Peter gives the assurance of the promise of the Lord Jesus, that there will be "a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" (2 Peter 3: 13). This new heaven and new earth is desribed in the Apostle John's vision as "the Holy City", the dwelling of God with men (Revelation 21 : 1 - 4).

This Holy City will shine with all the glory of God -
its wall is made of jasper;
the foundations of the city walls are decorated with every kind of precious stone;
each of the twelve gates is made of a single pearl;
the great street is paved in pure gold;
the whole city is of "pure gold, as pure as glass".
(Revelation 21 : 11, 18 - 21)

Burning lake or city of pure gold and pearly gates? My prayer is for all to make the right choice. Amen.