As we walk through the wilderness of the world
there are two entities that we meet — two adversaries
that confront us on every hand — the beast and the
false prophet. We first meet them in chapter thirteen of
the Revelation. Individually and inwardly, the beast is
the bestial nature of the natural man of flesh.
Corporately, the beast is the monster out of the sea of
humanity with its ten horns and seven heads — the
whole bestial world system of man, invented and
produced out of the bestial nature of man. This
includes all human governments and institutions of
every kind, commercial, educational, philosophical,
medical, social, military, etc. It is the dragon in man
who gives the beast out of the sea of humanity his seat
and great authority
The false prophet is the same as the second beast in
chapter thirteen of the Revelation, who comes up out of
the earth and deceives them that dwell in the earth-realm. Therefore we understand that the second beast
is also called — the false prophet! The first beast
comes out of the sea of all humanity, whereas the
second beast comes up out of the earth of man’s
soulical powers, who has two horns as a lamb, but
speaks like a dragon — the innate soulical religious
nature of man expressed through the carnal church
systems of man. Individually and inwardly, the false
prophet is man’s own soulical powers which usurp the
place, life, and voice of the spirit. Corporately, it is the
soulish man-made church system which has the
appearance of the Lamb of God, but speaks with the
worldly voice, methods, and ways of the dragon.
What is a prophet? We must banish from our
minds the popular conception that a prophet is chiefly a
person who foretells the future. True, a prophet may
also foretell the future, but the prophetic ministry is
much broader than that. A prophet is, according to
scripture, one who speaks for someone else. Aaron is
called the “prophet” of Moses when they two go
together before Pharaoh, and Aaron delivers the
message to Pharaoh on behalf of Moses the stutterer.
And that is why all the prophets of God have prefaced
their prophecies with the phrase, “Thus saith the Lord!”
They are men who speak for God, delivering His
message to the people, appealing to the minds and
hearts of men on behalf of God and His purposes.
They speak and teach and reveal the will of God and
draw men to embrace that which is the mind of the
Lord.
So this second beast is also a prophet! He speaks
for someone else. His purpose is to influence the
minds of men, to persuade them, to rally them to the
cause on behalf of which he speaks. But he is a false
prophet! That does not mean that everything he says is
a lie — not all that the serpent told mother Eve in the
garden was a lie — but it was truth laced with just
enough error to deceive, and that deception was deadly!
That is the purpose of the words of a false prophet —
deception! And if we consider this in relation to this
second beast, we shall find that this in reality is his
character. In the first place, his very appearance is
deceiving. He has two horns like a lamb; He looks like
a lamb; and one would receive the impression,
therefore, that every word he speaks is the word of the
only lamb that appears in the book of Revelation, the
Lamb of God! But when he opens his mouth, lo, and
behold, he speaks like the dragon, that is, the message
he bears has some truth in it, but it is not in the final
analysis the gospel, the good news of the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world; who has
reconciled the world unto Himself; who is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance; who has promised to draw all men unto
Himself; who came not to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved, and who is in
very fact THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD! But
this beautiful gospel, this good news, is laced with the
continual drumbeat of bad news of threats,
intimidation, fear, condemnation, coercion, judgment,
hell, and eternal damnation of the vast majority of
mankind!
What beast is this that appears as a lamb, but
speaks like a dragon? Ah, this refers to the false
church, one that outwardly looks like the church of
Christ, but His voice is not the voice of the Lamb, but
that of the dragon. Today, in the church systems of
man the dragon’s voice can be heard out of the mouths
of multitudes of pastors, evangelists, and church leaders
of all kinds! They carry Bibles, they have pictures of
Jesus, they sing songs of worship, they speak of Jesus
and the gospel, they have “church” written on their
signs and their buildings, they perform religious forms,
rituals, ceremonies, and sacraments, and they do good
works — it looks just like the Lamb! Yet as one listens
there is discernible another sound, it is “another voice,”
the dragon’s voice, and it is scary, frightening, filling
men’s hearts with consternation, condemnation, dread,
and gloom. It makes men afraid of the God of all
grace, mercy, and love. It fills their hearts with fear
and condemnation. It leads millions into obedience to
man-made rules and regulations, and subservience to
the domination and control of the religious system, out
of fear of God’s displeasure, judgment, or eternal hell-fire and damnation. It is much more difficult for most
Christians to trust God’s love, mercy, grace, and His
longing to bless, than it is for them to fear His
condemnation, wrath, judgment, and damnation! The
people are possessed by false ideas about God,
distorted understandings of God’s will, His ways, and
His word, sinking them into apprehension, anxiety,
condemnation, and horrible religious bondage and
slavery. Oh, yes! This beast purports to speak for
Christ, but because of its worldly means, vain
traditions, empty forms and rituals, powerless
ceremonies and sacraments, and multiplied false
doctrines — it is a false prophet!
I am certain that by now my reader will have made
the connection between the false prophet and Mystery
Babylon the Great. It should be obvious to every
thinking mind that they are one and the same, presented
under different symbols with different significations.
Mystery Babylon, on the one hand, represents the
carnal church system as a city — an organized,
powerful and influential political institution. The false
prophet, on the other hand, represents the false church
system as a religious organism — a voice speaking for
God. The system is to be brought to its end in both
respects! The destruction of Mystery Babylon, the city,
is accomplished under the figures of utterly burning her
with fire and casting her into the depths of the sea,
never to be seen again. It denotes nothing more than
her complete and eternal ruin — absolute, irreversible
destruction!
The end of the false prophet, however, comes about
in a little different manner. He is cast into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone. The terminology is very
precise, of which we will speak more later. But these
two prophetic pictures reveal the great truth that the
church system will be destroyed, it will no longer exist
as a religious organism nor appear in the earth as the
mouthpiece of God — from that role it will vanish
from the face of the earth! But the living people, the
ministries of those who truly loved God and sought to
serve Him with a pure heart, the spiritual voice that did
in some measure speak within the system will be cast
into the refining fires of God to be PURGED,
PURIFIED, and REFINED! That is the difference. As
a worldly political institution in league with the human
governments of man the church system will be utterly
burned with fire and cast into the depths of the sea,
never to rise any more. But as a living organism it will
cleansed, corrected, delivered, purified, and refined as
gold is refined in the furnace!
Let us consider with care the order of events we see
in this portion of the Revelation. This is all so very
vital to our understanding of the purpose and working
of God in these days! In chapters seventeen and
eighteen of the Revelation we are shown the
destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.
Immediately following that, in the first verses of
chapter nineteen, we see the virgin bride of the Lamb
displayed at her wedding, entering into her ultimate
union and glory with Christ the Lord. Babylon is gone,
and the true bride is joined fully to the Lord. But the
beast of world government still exists as well as the
false prophet — the spiritual ministries that previously
were in Babylon. In the chapters before us God deals
with the nations and the nations are saved and made to
walk in the light of the city of God — which is the
bride of the Lamb and the sons of God as GOD’S
GOVERNMENT REVEALED ON EARTH. Before
the New Jerusalem can be revealed in all its glory, and
before the nations can be saved to walk in the light of
it, something wonderful must happen! God must deal
with both human government and the false prophet!
So, what does He do? The answer is not far to be
found! It’s right here in our text. “And the beast (of
human government) was taken, and with him the false
prophet (the church as a religious organism) 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.” Oh, the mystery of it! Can
you not see by these words that God will judge, purge,
refine, purify, and transform both the governments of
the world and the church which dwelt in Babylon!
Neither of these are “burnt up” in the fire as Babylon
was — rather, they are cast alive into the fire until the
work of elimination of all the dross — the impurities,
the contamination, the pollution, the adulteration, the
uncleanness, the unchasteness, the worldliness, and the
deception — is complete and an entirely new order is
brought forth! What a plan!
Thus we come to consider that awe-inspiring term
— “the lake of fire.” It will prove helpful to our
understanding of this great truth for us to look again for
a moment at the work of fire throughout the book of
Revelation. In the very first chapter we find the
glorious Christ standing in the midst of the churches
and “His eyes are as a flame of fire” (Rev. 1:14). The
Christ’s eyes of fire, and the eyes of fire of every son of
God who shares His glory, are eyes of the very same
fire that is revealed throughout the Revelation. There
are not two or five or ten different fires! There are His
eyes of fire, and there is gold that is tried (refined) in
the fire (Rev. 3:18), and it is the same fire, the fire of
God! The fire of the golden altar which is cast into the
earth is the same holy, refining fire of God and when it
is cast into the earth mighty commotions take place!
The fire of the golden altar is, of course, taken from
the fire on the brazen altar, and this is the fire that was
kindled by God Himself — it is His divine fire, the
consuming fire which He is! By that fire all carnality is
consumed from the sons of men, that God may be
glorified in the earth-realm even as He is in the
heavenlies! There are seven lamps of fire burning
before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God
(Rev. 4:5), so we know that this is the same divine fire.
These seven spirits (lamps of fire) of God are also “sent
forth into all the earth.” Is it not clear that the work of
the seven lamps of fire sent into “all the earth” is but
another picture of the fire from the altar that is “cast
into the earth”? It is the same fire! And as a lamp of
fire, on this occasion it brings spiritual illumination by
consuming the veil that lies over men’s minds and
hearts. The Lamb has seven eyes and the seven eyes
are the seven-fold spirit of God, thus they are likewise
the eyes of fire which are also the seven lamps burning
before the throne! (Rev. 5:6).
You see, it is all the same fire of God in different
administrations! There is a sea of glass mingled with
fire (Rev.15:12), a people who have become within
themselves an untroubled sea of tranquility, peace, and
transparency, made so by the processing fire of God.
All the restlessness and agitation of the carnal mind and
the flesh have been burned out of them! There is fire
that is cast out of the heavens of God’s Spirit upon the
earth and burns up the trees that grow out of the earth
(Rev. 8:7), consuming the carnal manifestations and
works that grow out of the earthly, fleshly nature.
There is a fire that destroys the worldly organization
and sham of Mystery Babylon (Rev. 18:8), not
consuming the people or any true ministry, but
destroying the apostate system that enslaves them.
Then we are shown a great lake of fire for all the
adversaries of God — death, hell, the beastly fleshly
nature, and the world system it creates; the soulical
powers of man, and the religious systems (false
prophet) it spawns; and all who are incorrigible in
iniquity (Rev. 14:9-11; 20:10-15). What are we meant
to understand by this lake which burns with fire and
brimstone? We know only too well the use the church
systems have made of this conception through the ages!
It has been given some horrific connotations and has
been employed to create a distorted view of the
character and purpose of God. The crude idea that an
all-wise, all-knowing, all-righteous, and all-loving
Creator would create men whom He knew before hand
would follow the paths of sin and death, and before
hand decree endless torture in unending flames for all
of His creatures who are deceived and become captives
of sin and self, does dishonor to the name and glory of
our precious Lord Jesus Christ; and it is incredible that
the compassionate Saviour of mankind could ever have
intended for us to read into His words the macabre
notion that He will use that wonderful Holy Ghost fire
of His glorious Person to torture billions of souls
throughout endless eternity!
The consuming fire of God is as eternal as God
Himself — it is, because He is! “Our God IS a
consuming fire.” It is that which was from the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without
end. Our Father dwells in the light that no man can
approach unto. No man! That is, no carnal, fleshly,
Adamic nature or being! Who shall stand when He
appeareth, for He is like a refiner’s fire! Oh, if there be
one thing for which we ought to rejoice and praise God
without ceasing, it is that eternal fire which will burn
up all the foulness and rottenness, all the wickedness
and cruelty, all the deception, shame, and wrong from
which our souls have ever suffered. It is not evil which
will have the last word, but righteousness; not sorrow,
but joy; not hate, but love; not death, but life; not
damnation, but salvation! When the love of God is
shed abroad in the heart, heaven is there. When any
other spirit is dominant, hell is there. It is not God who
changes when we pass from one to the other, it is we
who are changed by the eternal fire! When all that has
held us captive in chains of darkness is consumed by
the fire of His love and holiness, we see Him as He is
and reality breaks forth!
God has created everything with which our senses
make us familiar with a far deeper purpose than merely
their recognition by those senses. These are but the
external court; for their real meaning one must enter the
Sanctuary itself; let the divine light that shines there
teach us. All nature is a book of parables! From sun,
moon, and stars, down to the smallest creeping thing,
all have a voice to an ear that is opened to hear, and all
witness to invisible, spiritual, eternal verities. Our
blessed Saviour, in the days of His sojourn here, dealt
much with this book of nature, and taught most
precious lessons from it.
So here in our text the figure is used of a Lake of
Fire. Why a Lake? The idea in the word is repression,
confinement; and, like that Dead Sea, that seems so
strangely, yet perfectly to figure it, there is no outlet!
What flows in there is brought to the end of its journey,
it cannot go any further. Whatever is going to happen
to it, happens there. It cannot happen any place else or
by any other operation. Only one thing can happen to
it! As the water of that great Sea evaporates, is lifted
into the heavens, kissed and drawn by the eternal rays
of the fiery, blazing sun which alone has the power to
lift it, it leaves behind in the Sea of Death every
impurity and contaminant it possessed. What comes
forth from that mystical process is pure, distilled water.
It is a similar process to the refining of silver and gold
and other precious metals. It signifies in its symbolism
the process of PURIFICATION. And that, my
beloved, is the Lake!
Away back in the 1600’s John Everard, an anointed
vessel of the Lord in London, England, spoke the
following beautiful and instructive words of truth:
“My beloved, now that you are here gathered
together in this place, I beseech you hearken diligently
to what shall now be spoken. I will use no other
preface than a word or two from that saying of our
Saviour in the parallel place to this, Luke 14:35, from
which He makes this conclusion: he that has ears to
hear, let him hear! Let him now hear the word of Him
by whom he shall be judged in that great day. Let him
now hearken to that word which shall certainly one
day, either sooner or later, rise up in judgment against
him. Let him hearken to the word of Him who spoke
as never man spoke; for His words are like the wine He
made at Cana — there are no words like His words —
for the best words that ever man spoke had somewhat
of self and carnal ends in them. But in His words there
is no tincture, no concourse of the creature, no allays of
human weakness, but they are all words of grace, and
peace, the words of spirit and life; insomuch that all
who heard Him wondered at the gracious words that
proceeded from His lips; who, in all His words never
sought Himself, nor His own glory (as men do), but the
glory of Him that sent Him.
“No, hearken I pray you, to His word that could
have spoken far beyond all that ever He has spoken,
had He but had auditors fit to have heard and
understood Him. I beseech you therefore, silence
yourselves for a while, I mean your own wit and
reason, and your own blind religious understandings,
and let there be silence in heaven for half an hour, that
all things may be still and quiet within you, that you
may learn to know what it is to have salt in yourselves,
that you may have salt in you, that you be not spit out
of God’s mouth as unsavory and loathsome to His
stomach. It were far better you never heard, than that
those words should be unprofitable to you.
“‘And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: for it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with
one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and
every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good:
but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith shall ye
season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace
one with another’” (Mk. 9:47-50)
“The things that I intend to open to you and answer,
are these three questions: (1) What is salt? (2) What is
it to have salt? (3) What is it to have salt in ourselves?
“What is salt? Christ says in my text, that
everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt. We must first find out what
fire is, and then we shall know what salt is. This fire
without any doubt is Christ Himself and that very
properly, as you may see He is so called, ‘The light of
Israel shall be for a fire, and His holy one for a flame:
and it shall burn and devour His thorns and His briars
in one day’ (Isa. 10:17). In these words He, the holy
one of Israel, is fire in three regards: (1) of burning (2)
of heat (3) of light
“First, the nature of fire is to burn. Fire cannot
burn itself — take note of that — fire cannot burn fire,
but all things else it will burn and consume. So does
Christ! He is that fire that burns up all our works, all
whatsoever that is of man’s building, and whatsoever is
not of Himself and His own work in us. All else He
consumes and annihilates. ‘The light of Israel shall be
for a fire, and His holy one for a flame: and it shall
burn and devour His thorns and His briars in one
day.’ Know this, the more sin and carnality, the more
fire, the greater the burning; the more sin and carnality
the more fuel, the more matter for this fire; the more sin
and carnality the more treasuring up of wrath against
that day, when the wrath of God shall be revealed by
fire. ‘Who may abide the day of His coming? and who
shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a
refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap’ (Mal. 3:2). Then
Christ is this fire! And let me tell you, this burning and
consuming is for your good; it is, that out of the ashes
of the old man, which must be burnt up, you may have
a new life, a divine resurrection!
“Examine yourself, has this fire burnt up all your
works, not only gross and external wickedness, but has
it burnt up all your secret sins, all your beloved and
darling desires? Has it cut off your hands and feet, and
plucked out your eye? Has it consumed your young
men, your own strength and zeal, as the prophet
speaks? Ah, has it burnt up the old heavens and the old
earth, so that you may enjoy a new heaven and a new
earth? (II Pet. 3:10-13). Nay, further, let me ask you,
have you thrown out all your gods into the fire? Has it
burnt up all your idols? If it has, I tell you, this burning
is not unto death, but unto life. But be sure, that as the
Lord Jesus Christ burns up and destroys, so He
remakes and raises up again; and as He wounds, so He
heals and makes alive again!
“Secondly, the work of fire is to heat. So Christ,
after he has destroyed and burnt up all our actions, as
they are ours and not His, then He breathes into us a
gentle warmth and heat of His own Spirit to cherish
and revive us again, so that we may no longer live our
own lives, or live to ourselves, but live the life of
Christ, to raise up His grace and glory in us.
“Thirdly, the nature of fire is to give light. When
that day once dawns to us, that Christ comes into the
soul, we shall find that He brings light with Him, and
this in scripture is called Christ’s Day, and this is a
wonderful day indeed, a day of rejoicing even unto
eternity. Our first day is our own day, man’s day, and
when Christ comes to burn up our day it seems to us as
a day of darkness, a day of gloominess and thick clouds
(Joel 2:11). Indeed to flesh and blood the Day of the
Lord is a terrible day, our flesh trembles for fear of
Him; for who shall abide the day of His coming, or
stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s
fire! When Christ comes into the soul, He comes not
only with light to discover, but like fire to burn up all
that building that we have made to ourselves, that
which we have raised by our own power, and then
breathes warmly and gently by His Spirit His own life,
until by degrees He brings a glorious light into the soul.
He then turns us from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:10).
“Yes, He shines such a light of grace and glory, as
makes ‘the light of the moon as the light of the sun, and
the light of the sun seven times brighter’ (Isa. 30:26).
As our own lives extinguish, so Christ’s life increases,
just as the prophet Elisha did when he raised the
Shunammite’s child. ‘He lay upon the child, and put
his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and
his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself
upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed
warm…and the child sneezed seven times, and the
child opened his eyes…’ (II Kings 4:34-35). In the
same manner we receive warmeth from Christ, and are
raised to life again, and are made partakers of His
divine nature, even as a graft in a crab tree stock
changes the whole nature of the old tree, both sap,
leaves, bark, and fruit; so does Christ in union with our
soul change our nature — He changes them into His
own!
“And thus you see in brief what fire is! ‘Our God
is a consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:29). Christ is the fire!
But now, what is the salt? I know it is taken and
expounded in divers ways. Some take it be wisdom
and discretion in speech, and for proof they cite that
place of the apostle where he says, ‘Let your speech be
always seasoned with salt’ (Col. 4:6). For so Solomon
says, ‘A wise man may hold up his head before princes’
(Prov. 16:13; Eccl. 8:1). They give this reason, as salt
preserves and keeps things from stinking, so does
wisdom so salt, and season a man’s words, that they
may not be unsavory to wise men, so that he is not
laughed to scorn. We cannot deny that.
“Others take salt to mean holiness and sincerity in
life as our Saviour says, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth’
(Mat. 5:13). That is, they say, when by their living, and
their speaking the truth in their words, and dealing
justly and uprightly with men, and expressing holiness
in all their actions towards God, this seasons their lives,
this makes them savory before God and men, the salt of
the earth seasoning all. So they interpret the words of
our Saviour, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt
has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is
henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and
trodden under the feet of men’ (Mat. 5:13). When men
live not as they profess, they are unsavory, and men
tread and trample such men’s profession as dirty and
loathsome. To make a show of that which is not, is
hateful to God and men, but sincerity and integrity are
savory to both; and therefore, say they, He admonishes
them to strive for sound doctrine, integrity of life,
constancy in suffering; for these things honor their
profession, and this seasons them with salt, and makes
them savory to God and men. Their interpretation is
good, I reject it not.
“But to be short, that we may come to the matter at
hand, the fire and the salt are both one, ‘…for
everyone shall be SALTED WITH FIRE.’ Christ
Himself is the fire, as we have shown already, so
therefore He is also the salt. Since every man shall be
salted with fire Christ has to be both the salt and the
fire! So Jesus Christ is the fire that salts every man;
yea, HE IS BOTH!
“Yet I confess that the apostles were also called
salt, as Christ also said, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’
Not that they were salt within themselves or the salt
indeed, but were those who lived the Christ-life, the life
of Him who is salt. They were those which uttered the
salt and lived the salt, which is Christ. Therefore they
were not themselves the salt, but they were the
instruments or ministers which Christ used to convey
and impart to us the true salt which is Christ, and in no
other regard were they the salt of the earth.
“And again, Christ says (in the same sense), ‘Ye are
the light of the world’ (Mat. 5:14). Yet John tells us
plainly that ‘HE is the true light, which lightens every
man that cometh into the world,’ and Jesus Himself
says, ‘I am the light of the world’ (Jn. 8:12). So we are
the light of the world only because He is the one who
has lighted us and now shines through us as our light.
So it is with Christ and us, we are only what He is in us
and through us! He it was also who was typified in all
the oblations and sacrifices under the law, and by all
the relations, histories, and representations throughout
the Old Testament; ‘tis HE that is set forth and
intended, that He might be made known unto the sons
of men. He was the true Paschal Lamb, He was the
true sacrifice, He was that fire that always burned upon
the altar (Lev. 6:13). He also was that salt commanded
for the sacrifice, for the salt was never to be wanting
just as the fire must always burn upon the altar of
sacrifice. And so our Lord says, ‘For everyone shall
be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted
with salt.’ HE was that salt which must never be
wanting; HE seasons every oblation (Lev. 2:13). HE
is the salt of the everlasting covenant unto you and
your seed for ever’ (Num. 18:19). HE was that salt that
Elisha threw into the waters; and those many waters
are many people, as it is expressed in the book of
Revelation. In sum, HE is the substance, the mind, and
the meaning of the whole scriptures!
“As He is the fire, by reason of burning, and
because of heat and light; so also He is the salt that
sweetens and savors everything. As He is the light that
enlightens, so He is the salt that salts every man. So
when His fire purifies you and His salt sweetens and
savors you, your sacrifice is salted with fire and salted
with salt. So apart from Christ men’s lives are
unsavory, the Adamic man is unsavory as Job says,
‘Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?’
(Job 6:6). It is not your salt, not the best duties you can
perform will make you savory, except they be salted
and seasoned by the Christ within” — end quote.
If you think the kingdom of God is rosewater, or
eau-de-cologne, you are mistaken. You cannot war on
the devil with that! You cannot war on the carnal mind
with that! You cannot war on the flesh with that! You
cannot war on the world with that! You cannot war on
religion with that! You have to make war with
weapons that are mighty through God! You have to
make war on the carnal mind and on the flesh nature
and on all their offspring with fire, divine fire, that will
burn up every inherent altar of Baal, and consume even
the stones and lick up the very dust about. OUR GOD
IS A CONSUMING FIRE! CHRIST IS A REFINING
FIRE! He is man’s “horse breaker” and He will break
you, precious friend of mine, and bring you to the foot
of the cross of Jesus no matter how hot He has to build
the fire around you! He will cast you into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone. Even if long ages of fiery
judgment and burning processing and tormenting
darkness fall upon you, they will last no longer than till
the Great Fire of God has melted all arrogance into
humility, and all that is of self has died and been
reduced to ashes in the bloody sweat and all-conquering cross of the Christ, which will never give
up its redeeming and transforming power until sin and
sinners and self and carnality and man-made religiosity
have no more a name among the creatures of God.
Who cast the beast and the false prophet into the
Lake of Fire? John doesn’t say. His description of the
action simply states that “the beast was taken, and with
him the false prophet…and they were cast alive into a
lake of fire burning with brimstone.” The battle was
between the beast and the false prophet against Christ
and all the holy sons of God riding upon the white
horses; therefore, we may conclude that the sons of
God, the armies out of heaven, are the ones who do the
casting.
To the saints is given authority to baptize men with
the Holy Ghost, but also to baptize them with fire, to
cast them into the great lake of fire and brimstone
which our God is and which in Him we are, to burn out
of their minds, souls, and bodies the thoughts and ways
and passions and wills that are contrary and hostile to
the will of God. “In righteousness He doth judge and
make war.” An act of that judgment is the casting of
men into the lake of fire! The fire of God is His all-consuming LOVE. Out of His burning love the sons of
God shall send decrees and commands coming from
the Most High God and the Lamb out of Zion. The
sons of God will send decrees to individuals, to rulers,
to authorities, to institutions, to armies, to church
systems, to governments, to nations — we will even
send commands to the elements as our Lord did when
He spoke to the winds and the waves, hushing the gale
and calming the waters with His word. Men rose up
out of death and the grave, and even the demons cried
out with loud voices and came out of many that were
possessed of them. It is by THE LIVING WORD OF
GOD, the One riding the lead horse, that all these
things and many more shall be seen in the earth with
great power and great glory!
THE REMNANT SLAIN
“And the remnant were slain with the sword of
Him that sat upon the white horse, which sword
proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were
filled with their flesh” (Rev. 19:21).
We have arrived once more at the end of a chapter.
I will not comment on our text, but feel to share the
words of Stephen Jones who has beautifully confirmed
my own thoughts and convictions in regard to the
“slaying” of the remnant, that is, the rest, the remaining
ones, or those people or those things of flesh within any
of us which had not been fully dealt with by God. He
writes:
“In ancient times, God sent a literal sword upon
Babylon by the hand of Medo-Persia toward the end of
Daniel’s life. However, the sword that is used in the
book of Revelation is ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God’ (Eph. 6:17). This is made plain in
Revelation 1:16, which says, ‘out of His mouth came a
sharp two-edged sword.’ This is confirmed later in
Revelation 19:5, which says, ‘And from His mouth
comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the
nations…’ It is the same ‘sword’ that God used
through His prophets in the Old Testament. ‘Therefore
have I hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have
slain them by the words of my mouth; and the
judgments on you are like the light (understanding)
that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than
sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than
burnt offerings’ (Hos. 6:5-6.
"In other words, God ‘slew’ them and cut them in
pieces with WORDS. Why? Because He preferred
loyalty to Him rather than sacrifice. In other words, He
did not want to literally kill them, so He did NOT use a
physical sword. The sword He used was the spiritual
sword described elsewhere in the New Testament. And
this is the ‘sword’ by which He will slay the nations, as
described in the book of Revelation. This tells us that
His intent is NOT to shed blood, but to cause people to
repent by the word of His mouth. And so, while the
description is in physical terms of warfare, blood, and
destruction, this is not really what God intends for the
nations at all. The nations are God’s inheritance —
and ours (Ps. 2; Rev. 2:26-27) — so it would make no
sense to destroy them! The only thing that God intends
to destroy is oppressive government and false religion
(the beast and the false prophet) that burdens the people
today and deceives them into doing violence to others.
"Once again, let us not think of God as a torturer.
The law does not specify torture as a proper judgment
of divine law. The law, however, is pictured as a fire in
Deuteronomy 33:2-3, saying, ‘from His right hand
went a fiery law for them…all His saints are in Thy
hand.’ In other words, the ‘fiery law’ in God’s hand is
identified with the ‘saints’ in His hand. When the law
is written on the hearts of the overcomers, they become
His fiery law, and they become the administrators of
divine justice and rulership in the earth. The fire of
God comes from His right hand, the place of rulership,
and all of His saints are in His hand. It pictures the
overcomers as the manifested sons of God
administering the divine law to the world according to
the mind of Christ. This is the meaning of the ‘fire’ as
God intended it from the beginning.
"I write these things in order to show the divine
plan in the mind of God from the beginning. Only by
knowing the divine plan from the beginning can we
understand the end of the story in the book of
Revelation, because that book tells us how God’s plan
succeeds after a long detour. Revelation 14:9-11 tells
us that those who continue to worship the beast and his
image will drink of the wine of God’s judicial wrath,
'and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in
the presence (Greek: before the ‘face’) of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb.' Men have
long interpreted this literally, as if God plans to torture
sinners in front of Him like the kings of the beast
systems have done to their opponents over the
centuries. But God is not like them! In fact, it is
because of their injustice and torture that God will
remove them from their positions of authority over the
earth. God will not have unjust tyrants ruling in His
kingdom — not even Christian tyrants like King Saul
or the Popes! The verse simply means that with the
holy angels and the Lamb (and those with Him)
present, these unrepentant people will be tormented by their very presence!" — end quote.
What a word that is!
