And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
— Revelation 9:17-18
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
— Genesis 19:24
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
— Psalm 11:6
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.
— Isaiah 30:33
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
— Matthew 25:41
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
— Jude 1:6-7
It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
— Job 18:15
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
— Luke 16:24
Eternity in the Lake of Fire, by Jonathan Edwards.
The misery of the damned is represented as unmixed. The wine of the wrath of God is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation that they may be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment shall ascend forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night (Rev 14:10-11). They are tormented in a flame that burns within them, as well as round about them, and they shall be denied so much as a drop of water to cool their tongues. And God’s wrath shall be inflicted in such a manner as to show His wrath and make His strength known on the vessels of wrath, and which shall be punished with everlasting destruction, answerable to that glory of Christ’s power in which He shall appear at the Day of Judgment. (And) He shall come in the glory of His Father, with power and great glory, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Th 1:8)…
There is great evidence that the devil is not the subject of any dispensation of divine mercy and kindness, that God is prosecuting no design of infinite goodness towards him, and that his pains are not purifying pains. It is manifest that, instead of any influence of his torments to bring him nearer to repentance, he has been from the beginning of his damnation constantly exerting himself with all his might in prosecuting his wickedness; his violent, most haughty, and malignant opposition to God and man; fighting especially with peculiar virulence against Christ and His church; opposing with all his might everything that is good. (And he has been) seeking the destruction and misery of all mankind with boundless and insatiable cruelty. On (this) account, he is called Satan the adversary, Abaddon, and Apollyon the destroyer. He is represented “as a roaring lion…seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8), a viper, the old serpent, the great red dragon—red on account of his bloody cruel nature. He is said to be “a murderer from the beginning” (Joh 8:44). He has murdered all mankind, has murdered their souls as well as their bodies. He was the murderer of Jesus Christ by instigating Judas and His crucifiers. He has most cruelly shed the blood of an innumerable multitude of the children of God. He is emphatically called the evil one, that wicked one, etc. He is a liar and the father of lies, the father of all the sin and wickedness that is or ever has been in the world. He is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience (2Co 4:3-4). It is said that “he that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1Jo 3:8). And all wicked men are spoken of as his children. He has set himself up as “god of this world” (2Co 4:4), in opposition to the true God, and has erected a vast kingdom over the nations. He is constantly carrying on a war with the utmost earnestness, subtlety, malice, and venom against Jesus Christ and all His holy and gracious designs; maintaining a kingdom of darkness, wickedness, and misery in opposition to Christ’s kingdom of light, holiness, and peace; and thus will he continue to do until the end of the world, as appears by scripture prophecies.
And God’s dealings with him are infinitely far from being those of a friend, kindly seeking his infinite good and designing nothing else in the end but to make him eternally happy in love, favor, and blessed union with Him. God is represented everywhere as acting the part of an enemy to him that seeks and designs nothing in the final event but his destruction. The grand work of God’s providence, which He is prosecuting from the beginning to the end of the world, viz., the work of redemption, is against him to bruise or break his head in pieces, to cast him like lightning from heaven, from that height of power and dominion to which he has exalted himself—to tread him underfoot, and to cause His people to trample and bruise or crush him underfoot, and gloriously to triumph over him. Christ, when He conquered him, made a show of him openly, triumphing over him. And it is evident, that, as it will be with the devil in this respect, so it will be with the wicked. This is reasonable to suppose from what the Scripture represents of the relation wicked men stand in to the devil as his children, servants, subjects, instruments, and his property and possession. They are all ranked together with him in one kingdom, one interest, and one company. And many of them are the great ministers of his kingdom to whom he has committed authority, such as the beast and false prophet that we read of in the Revelation.
Now, how reasonable and natural is it to suppose that those who are thus united should have their portion and lot together! As Christ’s disciples, subjects, followers, soldiers, children, instruments, and faithful ministers shall have their part with Him in His eternal glory, so we may reasonably believe that the devil’s disciples, followers, subjects, soldiers in his army, children, instruments, and ministers of his kingdom should have their part with him…As the devil’s ministers, servants, and instruments of the angelic nature, (who) are called the devil’s angels, shall have their part with him, we may well suppose for the like reason (that) his servants and instruments of the human nature will share with him. And not only is this reasonable, but the Scripture plainly teaches us that it shall be so. In Revelation 19:20, it is said, “The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him…(were both) cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” So it is said (in) chapter 20:10: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” thus expressing both the kind of misery and the duration. Just in the same manner it is said concerning the followers of the beast. It is said (in) chapter 14:9-11, “Saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone…the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.” And (in) chapter 21:8, it is said of wicked men in general, “(They) shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
So, we find in Christ’s description of the Day of Judgment (that) the wicked are sentenced to “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mat 25:41). By which it appears most plainly that they share with the devil in suffering misery of the same kind and share with him in suffering misery of the same everlasting continuance.
Oftentimes (Christians) are unaware that it is “the devil” who is attacking them and needs to be resisted. Many suppose that Satan’s assaults are confined unto tempting us to sin. Not so! In many cases, his object is to oppose and hinder us in the doing of that which is good. Frequently he makes use of human beings to annoy and harass us. For example, he will send a caller to the door or someone to ring on the telephone when we are engaged in prayer. He will move worldly relatives to visit us on the (Lord’s) Day and thus prevent our spending the time quietly with the Lord. Or he will shape our “circumstances” to hinder our spiritual good, multiplying our duties and tasks so that we have no leisure or are too weary for study.
Few of God’s children appear to know that it is their privilege and right to be victorious over Satan’s attacks. The Lord has not left His people here at the mercy of their great enemy, helpless to overcome him.—A. W. Pink
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