The Righteous Dwell in Everlasting Fire

Notes from Stephen Bohr’s “The Genesis Code” #16 Lessons from Sodom & Gomorrah

Eternal fire is a description of God:

Jude 1:7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

2 Peter 2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
(See Deuteronomy 4 for multiple references to fire)

The righteous survive in the fire only with reverence and respect, those who are pure and practice righteousness:

Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

1 John 3:1-3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

2 Peter 3:10-11 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

The fire is the glorious presence of God:

Exodus 24:15-18 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. 16 Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18 So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Reflected glory of God:
Revelation 15:2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

Malachi 4:1-3
The Great Day of God
1 “For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the LORD of hosts,
“ That will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
3 You shall trample the wicked,
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
On the day that I do this,”
. Says the LORD of hosts.

Not the wicked but the righteous are to dwell in everlasting fire, story of Nebuchadnezzar and the furnace:

Isaiah 33:12-15 And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:

“ Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
. And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:

How can we be cleansed? The words of Jesus, the words of God/Bible in the heart, seeking God cleanses through the Holy Spirit:

Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
. That I might not sin against You.

John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Four types of people exist in the world:

• Abraham, who never entered the cities
• Lot, who lived in the cities but was bothered by them, and whose heart was never in them.
• Lot’s wife, who left the cities in the excitement of the warning but whose heart never actually left and was destroyed.
• Those who did not come out and were destroyed.