Daily Devotional, Year 2 – SEPTEMBER 25 (Eternal Torment? Part 13: “Tophet NOW!”)
By admin On January 16th, 2021.
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Daily Devotional, Year 2 – SEPTEMBER 25
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Eternal Torment?
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Part 13
“Tophet NOW!”
To read Part 1, click here… “September 8th (Eternal Torment?)”
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“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
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There are many who read this above passage and assume that it is speaking of the church doctrine known as “Eternal Torment”.
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But such misunderstanding of Scripture and ignorance of God’s character can be corrected by doing a more thorough investigation of the Bible.
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Brooklyn Museum – The Rich Man In Hell – James Tissot – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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FIRE AND MUCH WOOD?!
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Listen… “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
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Here is a verse concerning the judgment of the last days. And yet, when God speaks here of the “pile thereof is fire and much wood”, this is a tip-off that God is speaking metaphorically, and not literally.
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After all, this verse says that Tophet will burn because of all the wood.
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Thus, if we would take this literally, it would be totally ridiculous! And this is confirmed by the next words, “the breath of the LORD, like a steam of brimstone, doth kindle it.”
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Now obviously these metaphors, speaking of piles of wood and the breath of the LORD and the fires of Tophet are presenting an allegorical description of the great Day of God’s wrath.
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Firewood – Tres Tombs in Igualada – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-alike License
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“the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning”
Isaiah 4:4
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Here is another passage which further confirms the metaphorical nature of fire & brimstone… “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming (devouring) fire.” Hebrews 12:28, 29
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Here it says that our God is a consuming or devouring fire. Now obviously, God is a Spirit, and not an actual fire! Isaiah 4:4, even speaks of “the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.”
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Notice it says here, “the SPIRIT of burning”.
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Gérôme, Jean-Léon – Moses on Mount Sinai – Jean-Léon Gérôme – 1895-1900 – Wikimedia – Pub. Dom.
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DWELLING WITH THE DEVOURING FIRE
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Listen to this rather lengthy passage… “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh right
eously, and speaketh uprightly…” Isaiah 33:14-17
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As this above passage reveals, only the righteous will be able to dwell with the devouring fire and everlasting burnings. And here is veiled, allegorical language to describe the LORD! It is God who is that devouring fire and everlasting burnings. And only righteousness can dwell with Him. And all our dross will be burned away by “the spirit of burning”.
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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THE DEAD-WOOD OF SIN
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And so, for further confirmation, let’s examine a passage from 1st Corinthians…“Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” 1st Corinthians 3:12-15
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Now here we have a big clue as to what God is speaking of, concerning the fire which will burn up the wicked.
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It is a spiritual fire which will burn up our vain fleshly deeds… “wood, hay, stubble”. And so, when Isaiah speaks of the fires of Tophet being kindled by a large pile of wood, He is speaking of the dead wood of our unsanctified character. But praise the Lord, God will not completely destroy us…“If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” 1st Corinthians 3:15
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Gold smelting – Public Domain – wn.com
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MANY BANKRUPT ON THAT DAY
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Now it may be true that there will be many who did not build upon the foundation of Christ.
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Oh yes, they attended church each week. But their heart was not at all focused upon spiritual things beyond church attendance. When they left their church building, they returned to serving their weekday gods: their careers, their pleasures, their sports, their worldly friends and clubs, their amusements, and their seeking for more of the Mammon, so abundant in this modern-day cornucopia society.
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These may indeed find themselves totally bankrupt on that Day of Fiery Judgment! Let none of us become presumptuous!
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DON’T WAIT! BEGIN NOW!
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Now we don’t have to wait for the fires of tribulation to burn away our, “wood, hay and stubble!” (even though those fires are now already beginning to burn)! Yes, we can get rid of the fuel for God’s fire right now, first, by putting away all vain and ungodly influences, as far as possible!
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And then, in these final moments before the fires of Judgment Day begin, we must be busily hiding God’s purifying Word in our heart!
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And then, through our day we can pray for the ability to meditate (contemplate) upon God’s Word, and how we might, “walk, even as He (Jesus) walked.” 1st John 2:6
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This is how we eliminate the “wood, hay, stubble” from our lives!
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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TO READ PART 14, CLICK HERE…
SEPTEMBER 27 (Eternal Torment? Part 14: An Eternal Torment Story)
Brooklyn Museum – The Rich Man In Hell – James Tissot – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Give me an understanding into the spiritual nature of the Bible. Help me to compare scripture with scripture and spiritual things with spiritual to rightly divide Thy Word…
Morning Prayers – Ebenezer Newman – Downard – 1860 – Wikipedia – Public Domain
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… Planet of Rest: Doctrine of Eternal Torment, or you can also read this shorter article…AUGUST 19 (Apocalypse Now! Part 6: Fire & Brimstone!)
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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THE END
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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
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“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
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And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
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Matthew 25:1-4
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FIVE WISE VIRGINS STARS
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This constellation was identified on May 22nd, 2014. It is simply five stars, two from the Serpens Constellation, and three from the Hercules Constellation.
Wikipedia Star-Chart – Corona Borealis
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What gives this constellation impetus and significance is that it appears as five evenly positioned stars, in a slight oval pattern, as if they were sitting in a meeting, listening, or perhaps watching someone.
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Second, they appear to be gathered in front of The Crown of Revelation 12 Constellation. (just below Corona Borealis in this Wikipedia star-chart, in which the editor of this site sketched in these two constellations)
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GATHERED AROUND THE GLORIOUS CROWN!
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The position of these stars is significant in a number of ways. The first, being that these Five Wise Virgins are gathered around the 12-star Crown of Revelation 12. And the obvious message here is, that these wise virgins represent the faithful portion of God’s Church. And as wise virgins, they understand the importance of winning the glorious crown of victory, which Jesus promised.
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… Woman of Revelation 12, (“The Woman on the Altar”)
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TOMORROW…
SEPTEMBER 26 (Come Out of Her, My People! Part 18: Quench Not The Spirit!)
ABOVE PICTURE: Unfunny Judgment Day Cartoon – a party tonight – signsofheaven.org
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20+ MINUTE AUDIO JEREMIAH STUDY
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ALL ‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.
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THIS IS STUDY #633 PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING…
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Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.com – Public Domain
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Those using photos on this page may click on the image credit link below each photo, to get to Wikimedia Commons for various licensing names, details, and tags, etc….