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. ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. "…when our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in blazing fire. (1) upon those who refuse to acknowledge God and upon those who will not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal ruin, cut off from the presence of the Lord and the splendour of his might, when on that great day he comes to be glorified among his own (2) and adored among all believers; for you did indeed believe the testimony we brought you." (From 2 Thess 1:7-10 NEB). "He will take his stand
on the summit of Mount Zion, and Zion will come into sight before all men,
complete and fully built… Then My son will convict
of their Godless deeds the nations that confront him… He will
taunt them with their evil plottings and the tortures (3)
they are soon to endure… And he will destroy them without effort by means of the
Law "Those who have misused My Law will be taken by
surprise; their contempt for it will bring them continual torment.
All who in their lifetime failed to acknowledge Me
in spite of all the good things I had given them, all who
disdained My Law while freedom still was theirs, who
scornfully dismissed the thought of penitence (4)
while the way was still open "For see, the Lord is coming in fire, with His chariots like a whirlwind, to strike home with his furious anger and with the flaming fire of His reproof. The Lord will judge by fire, with fire he will test* all living men, and many will be slain by the Lord". (Isaiah 66:15,16 NEB). "Because you have kept my command and stood fast, I will also keep you from the ordeal (5) that is to fall upon the whole world and test* its inhabitants. I am coming soon". (Rev 3:10 NEB). "In Zion sinners quake with terror, the Godless are seized with trembling and ask, Can any of us live with a devouring fire? Can any live in endless burning?" (Isaiah 33:14 NEB). "The instrument of final destruction, justice in full flood; (6) for the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, will bring final destruction upon all the earth." (From Isaiah 10:22,23 NEB). "The earth is emptied clean away and stripped clean bare. For this is the word that the Lord has spoken. The earth dries up and withers, the whole world withers and grows sick; the earth's high places sicken". (Isaiah 24:3,4 NEB). "The Lord will strike down all the nations who warred against Jerusalem, and the plague shall be this: their flesh shall rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths." (Zech 14:12 NEB). "The Lord's anger has overflowed in fire to scorch the earth to its foundations and consume sinners like burning straw. Alas for sinners who flout My commands! says the Lord; I will show them no mercy. Away from Me, you rebels! Do not bring your pollution near My holiness. The Lord well knows all who sin against Him, and has consigned them to death and destruction. Already disaster has fallen upon the world, and you will never escape it; God will refuse to rescue you, because you have sinned against Him." (2 Esdras 15:23-27 NEB). "For the Lord has a day of vengeance, the champion of Zion has a year when He will requite. (7) Edom's (8) torrents shall be turned into pitch and its soil into brimstone, and the land shall become blazing pitch… From generation to generation it shall lie waste, and no man shall pass through it ever again." (From Isaiah 34:8-10 NEB). "The day comes, glowing like a furnace; all the arrogant and the evildoers shall be chaff, and that day when it comes shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of Hosts, it will leave them neither root nor branch." (Mal 4:1 NEB). "…a wind like fire shall devour you. (9) Whole nations shall be heaps of white ash, or like thorns cut down and set on fire." (From Isaiah 33:11,12 NEB). "Hark, the day of the Lord is bitter, there the warrior cries aloud. (10) That day is a day of wrath, a day of anguish and affliction, a day of destruction and devastation, a day of murk and gloom, a day of cloud and dense fog, a day of trumpet and battle-cry over fortified cities and lofty battlements. I will bring dire distress upon men; they shall walk like blind men for their sin against the Lord." (From Zeph 1:14-17 NEB). "There will be vast desolation everywhere. A man will long to see a human face or hear a human voice. For out of a whole city, only ten will survive; in the country-side, only two will be left, hiding in the forest or in holes in the rocks… in those days three or four will be overlooked by those who search the houses to kill. The earth will be left a desert, and the fields will be overrun with briers; thorns will grow over all the roads and paths..." (From 2 Esdras 16:26-32 NEB). "The city of chaos is a
broken city, every house barred, that no one may enter. Men call for wine in the
streets; all revelry is darkened, and mirth is banished from the land.
Desolation (11) alone is left in the city and the gate is broken into
pieces. So shall it be in all the world, in every nation, as when an
olive-tree is beaten and stripped, as when the vintage is ended."
(Isaiah 24:10 "I will sweep the earth clean of all that is on it, says the Lord. I will sweep away both man and beast… and I will bring the wicked to their knees and wipe out mankind from the earth." (From Zeph 1:2,3 NEB).
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