بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Following from Part 1, where I refuted Sam Shamoun’s errant claim, we now look to the Bible where it pronounces that all Christians will be  punished by the fire. The final judgement as recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy states [1]:

New International Version (©1984)
For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

New Living Translation (©2007)
For my anger blazes forth like fire and burns to the depths of the grave. It devours the earth and all its crops and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

English Standard Version (©2001)
For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
For fire has been kindled because of My anger and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the land and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.”

International Standard Version (©2012)
For a fire breaks out in my anger— burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
My anger has started a fire that will burn to the depths of hell. It will consume the earth and its crops and set the foundations of the mountains on fire.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with its increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

American King James Version
For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

American Standard Version
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol, And devoureth the earth with its increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Douay-Rheims Bible
A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains.

Darby Bible Translation
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And it shall burn into the lowest Sheol, And shall consume the earth and its produce, And set fire to the foundations of the mountains.

English Revised Version
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest pit, And devoureth the earth with her increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Webster’s Bible Translation
For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

World English Bible
For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

Young’s Literal Translation
For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, And it burneth unto Sheol — the lowest, And consumeth earth and its increase, And setteth on fire foundations of mountains.

From this we, gather the following:

• In the final judgement when the nations are gathered, God will unleash his fury.
• His fury/ wrath/ anger will cause a fire.
• This fire will burn so intensely that it would set fire to the foundations of mountains.
• This fire will burn so intensely that it would extend unto the lowest level of hell (Sheol).
• This devastating fire, kindled by God’s anger/ wrath/ fury will consume the entire earth.

The commentaries on this verse claim that it is to be on the day when all nations will be gathered for judgement:

The fire of God’s anger shall consume them, Deuteronomy 32:22. Are they proud of their plenty? It shall burn up the increase of the earth. Are they confident of their strength? It shall destroy the very foundations of their mountains: there is no fence against the judgments of God when they come with commission to lay all waste. It shall burn to the lowest hell, that is, it shall bring them to the very depth of misery in this world, which yet would be but a faint resemblance of the complete and endless misery of sinners in the other world. The damnation of hell (as our Saviour calls it) is the fire of God’s anger, fastening upon the guilty conscience of a sinner, to its inexpressible and everlasting torment, Isaiah 30:33. – [2]

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol, And devoureth the earth with its increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains. We are disappointed that none of the commentaries we have consulted gets the point of these words at all. Here is a glimpse of the eschatological conclusion that shall at the last day terminate God’s toleration of the rebellious race of Adam. See Zeph. 1:2-3. Keil agreed that we do not have hyperbole here and that the judgment foretold cannot be restricted To the Israelite nation only, but he then limited the fire which is here said to extend even to the foundations of the mountains, stating that, The fire signifies really nothing else than God’s jealousy. To us it appears impossible to accept such an understanding of this passage. The mention of Sheol here, the place of the dead, indicates that the living and the dead alike shall participate in that final judgment. – [3]

and shall burn unto the lowest hell; which denotes an entire destruction, like that of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone from heaven; which issued in a sulphurous lake, and which sulphureous matter sunk to the bottom of the Dead Sea; and to that destruction is this of the land of Judea compared, Deuteronomy 29:23. – [4]

A fire is kindled – Great and grievous judgments shall be inflicted, which often come under the name of fire. Are they proud of their plenty? It shall burn up the increase of the earth. Are they confident of their strength? It shall destroy the very foundations of the mountains. It shall burn unto the lowest hell: it shall bring them to the very depth of misery in this world, which yet will he but a faint resemblance of their endless misery in the next. – [5]

As the above commentaries demonstrate, everyone on earth will face this fury of God’s wrath [2a][6].There are many other verses which explicitly mention what will happen in correlation to the verse in Deuteronomy thus establishing this as a worldwide literal punishment, we read in Zephaniah 3 [6], something similar:

 Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, “for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them— all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.

The commentaries say of this verse:

Despite the fact of Deane and other respected commentators understanding this verse as a prophecy of the nations “being converted” unto God, it appears to us that the verse must refer to the eternal judgment. “All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy” could hardly apply to anything else. See chapter introduction for the manner in which this verse actually ties the preceding and succeeding paragraphs together. The great theme of Zephaniah is the judgment; and the doom of Jerusalem for their sins soon to executed upon them by the power of Assyria prompted this reference to the final judgment, of which Jerusalem’s judgment, like all similar judgments, was a pledge and token….The gathering of this passage is a harvesting of the earth, the execution of the final judgment upon all men….This is parallel with the gathering of the nations, the purpose for which is stated in the next clause, that I may pour upon them my indignation….It is noteworthy that John D. W. Watts unequivocally assigned this verse eight to the final judgment. “The scene returns to the universal judgment with which the book began.”  – [7]

Then all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy; both Jews and Gentiles shall be reckoned with for their enmity to the gospel. Principalities and powers shall be spoiled, and made a show of openly,and the victorious Redeemer shall triumph over them. – [8]

The outpouring of all God’s wrath, the devouring of the whole earth, in the fullest sense of the words, belongs to the end of the world, when He shall say to the wicked, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” In lesser degrees, and less fully, the substance of the prophecy has again and again been fulfilled to the Jewish Church before Christ, at Babylon and under the Maccabees; and to the Christian, as when the Muslims hemmed in Christendom on all sides, and the waves of their conquests on the east and west threatened to meet, overwhelming Christendom. The Church, having sinned, had to “wait” for a while “for God” who by His Providence withdrew Himself, yet at last delivered it. – [9]

Devoured – Consumed as if burnt up. – [10]

The New Testament itself also explicitly mentions that Christians will be burnt as a test of their faith, we read in the Pastorial of Peter [11]:

“These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

This is something which the New Testament scholars also confirm [12]:

“though-“which perisheth, YET is tried with fire.” If gold, though perishing (1Pe 1:18), is yet tried with fire in order to remove dross and test its genuineness, how much more does your faith, which shall never perish, need to pass through a fiery trial to remove whatever is defective, and to test its genuineness and full value?”

We’re not done there, Paul himself continues this trend of a fiery punishment for Christians as a test of their faith, we read in 1st Corinthians the following [13]:

“his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.”

Barne’s Notes on the Bible says of this verse [14]:

“Because it shall be revealed by fire – The work, the edifice which shall be built on the true foundation shall be made known amidst the fire of the great Day. The “fire” which is here referred to, is doubtless that which shall attend the consummation of all things – the close of the world. That the world shall be destroyed by fire, and that the solemnities of the Judgment shall be ushered in by a universal conflagration, is fully and frequently revealed. See Isaiah 66:15; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 2 Peter 3:7, 2 Peter 3:10-11. The burning fires of that Day, Paul says, shall reveal the character of every man’s work, as fire sheds light on all around, and discloses the true nature of things. It may be observed, however, that many critics suppose this to refer to the fire of persecution, etc. Macknight. Whitby supposes that the apostle refers to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. Others, as Grotius, Rosenmuller, etc. suppose that the reference is to “time” in general; it shall be declared ere long; it shall be seen whether those things which are built on the true foundation, are true by the test of time, etc. But the most natural interpretation is that which refers it to the Day of Judgment.”

“It is not to be supposed here that the material fire of the last Day shall have any tendency to purify the soul, or to remove that which is unsound; but that the investigations and trials of the Judgment shall remove all that is evil, as fire acts with reference to gold and silver. As they are not burned but purified; as they pass unhurt through the intense heat of the furnace, so shall all that is genuine pass through the trials of the last great Day, of which trials the burning world shall be the antecedent and the emblem. That great Day shall show what is genuine and what is not.”

Similarly, the People’s New Testament says [15]:

“Because it shall be revealed by fire. As fire destroys wood, hay, stubble, but leaves gold, silver, precious stones (see 1Co 3:12), so the work of some builders, when tested, will vanish. They do not do solid work.”

Wesley’s Notes on this passage says [16]:

“And therefore it is added, he who builds wood, hay, or stubble, shall be saved as through the fire – Or, as narrowly as a man escapes through the fire, when his house is all in flames about him. This text, then, is so far from establishing the Romish purgatory, that it utterly overthrows it. For the fire here mentioned does not exist till the day of judgment: therefore, if this be the fire of purgatory, it follows that purgatory does not exist before the day of judgment.”

Unfortunately for the Christians who claim that the Qur’aan states that all Muslims will be burned by the fires of hell, the New Testament and Old Testament jointly claim that Christians and non-Christians would be tested by fire, purified by the fire, enter into the fire of purgatory, will be judged by the fire of the Last Day also known as Judgement day. Thus the Christians at Answering Islam, particularly the joker titled Sam Shamoun is a clear Biblical apostate as he denies these verses and their clear meanings as countless Christian theologians have stated throughout the centuries. Thus in conclusion, it is a Biblical belief – which no Bible believing Christian can deny that all Christians will be purified and judged by the fires of the Last Day/ Judgement Day/ Purgatory.

wa Allaahu ‘Alam.

 

Notes:

[1] – Deuteronomy 32:22, Bible.
[2] – “Deuteronomy 32:22“, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible. See note 2a.

[2 – a] Some commentators believe that the place of final gathering is Jerusalem in Judea, they reference Zechariah 12:3 for this when all the nations of the earth will be gathered. Some commentators also believe it to be figurative, however as Coffman and others indicate, see [7], it is impossible to have a proper understanding with such an interpretation, he does not consider it to be a hyperbole (figure of speech), but as being a literal final judgement, see [3]. Some like Wesley see it as an example of what they will face in the afterlife, see [5]. The fact that this is literal is given in Zephaniah 3, see [6].

[3] – “Deuteronomy 32:22“, John Burton Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament. See note 2a.
[4] – “Deuteronomy 32:22“, John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible. See note 2a.
[5] – “Deuteronomy 32:22“, Wesley’s Notes. See note 2a.
[6] – Zephaniah 3:8, Bible.
[7] – “Zephaniah 3:8“, John Burton Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament.
[8] – “Zephaniah 3:8“, Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible.
[9] – “Zephaniah 3:8“, Barne’s Notes on the New Testament.
[10] – “Zephaniah 3:8“, John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible.
[11] – 1 Peter 1:7, Bible.
[12] – “1 Peter 1:7“, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary.
[13] – 1 Corinthians 3:13, Bible.
[14] – “1 Corinthians 3:13“, Barne’s Notes on the New Testament.
[15] – “1 Corinthians 3:13“, People’s New Testament.
[16] – “1 Corinthians 3:13“, Wesley’s Notes.