Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, starts in chapter 4 with, [1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
[2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow
up as calves of the stall.
[3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,
saith the LORD of hosts.
“When something burns as an oven it burns very hot and the
Lord’s going to burn them up as stubble,” explains Richard Jordan. “Notice
these people are physically burned up. This is not hell and the lake of fire; this
is Jesus Christ’s coming at the end of the tribulation period when He pours His
wrath out on those fighting against Israel.
“Sometime people use these verses and say, ‘Well, this is a
description of hell and in hell people burn up.’ But this is not hell; this is
the Second Coming of Christ, literally, back to the earth to destroy His
enemies and to ‘recompence tribulation on them that trouble you,’ and He’s
going to do it with a physical burning that just leaves ashes where they were.
“As an unsaved person you get cast out of your body and your
soul goes to hell and stays there until it faces the Great White Throne Judgment.
After that it’s cast into the lake of fire, so this verse isn’t talking about
that, but you see people take this and say, ‘Ashes will be all that’s left so there’s
no soul; you’re sleeping in the dust of the earth.’
“That thing in II Thessalonians 2 about the Antichrist, who
will ‘destroy with the brightness of His coming and with the breath of his
mouth’ is a direct allusion back to the passage in Isaiah 30:
[27] Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far,
burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of
indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
[28] And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall
reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity:
and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
[29] Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a
holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to
come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
[30] And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to
be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of
his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and
tempest, and hailstones.
[31] For through the voice of the LORD shall the
Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
[32] And in every place where the grounded staff
shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and
harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
[33] For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king
it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and
much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
“You talk about earthquakes. This is going to be the Lord
Himself ‘treading the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty
God.’
“In verse 33, when it says it’s prepared, that means it’s
prepared for the Antichrist. Actually it’s prepared for the devil and his
angels.
“Revelation 19: [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth,
and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the
horse, and against his army.
[20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false
prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had
received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both
were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
“When Christ comes back at the end of that tribulation to
personally destroy Satan and his host, Satan’s revealed with his angels in
flaming fire. That’s the personal pouring out of God’s wrath and indignation at
the end of the 70th week, and that’s what Paul’s alluding to when he
talks about God ‘recompencing tribulation.’
“What God’s going to place upon them is ultimately going to
lead them through their following of the Antichrist right here to the place
where He destroys the Antichrist and all those who’ve joined with him.
“He’s going to put that hook into their bridal (their jaws)
and cause them to believe the Lie—send them a strong delusion that they might
believe it. Why? Because they received not the love of the truth.
“Deuteronomy 32:
[22] For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall
burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and
set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
[23] I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend
mine arrows upon them.
[24] They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured
with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of
beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
[25] The sword without, and terror within, shall
destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of
gray hairs.
[26] I said, I would scatter them into corners, I
would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
“Look at verse 22 and take a dare for a minute to believe
that verse means what it says. It’s not symbolic or a metaphor; it just means
what it says. In the center of the earth is hell. That verse says God is going
to light a fire in His anger. He does that right there.
“Isaiah 30 tells you that the breath of the Lord, like a
stream of brimstone, is going to come out of His mouth, right there when He
comes and it’s going to LIGHT Tophet.
“Deuteronomy 32:22 reminds you of Jonah, who said the bars
of the mountains compassed him about and when he died and went to hell it was
like going down to the bottom of the mountains.
“Well, hell, if it’s in the center of the earth, would be
down at the foundation of all that. If you’re up here, and you set a fire and
consume the earth, you would burn out this opening that would take you right
down into hell.”
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