Ever-Ascending Smoke

One hundred days. 

That’s how long the fires burned and the smoke rose after 911, the British daily The Guardian reported: “One hundred days after the suicide attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and killed nearly 3,000 people, the final fires have stopped burning at Ground Zero.”  

The smoke billowed for months and drifted for miles: “For months, acrid clouds of smoke from the site could be smelled several miles away in Brooklyn and upper Manhattan.” But even after one hundred days, isolated fires could have still flared: “Small hot pockets continue to be discovered and a fire engine remains on standby at the site. Though the flames are out, the New York fire department still considers Ground Zero an active fire scene.”

Smoke is evidence of consumption, and smoke that rises for a long time is confirmation of a catastrophic conflagration - a massive inferno that destroys a vast amount. So much had burned and continued to burn at Ground Zero that the carbon dust (“soot”) mixed with tar, oils, and ash persisted to rise and roll. That’s what we all observed day after day during the months following the attack. The ever-rising smoke was not an indication of unceasing affliction of the victims, but rather a mournful memorial of their tragic deaths. And that’s what it communicates in Scripture.

The apocalyptic picture book of Revelation presents the curious case of the ever ascending "smoke of their torment" of those “tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:11). There are solid reasons why this figurative passage should not be interpreted in support of endless torment. It appears to take place in heaven where the holy angels and the Lamb are present. The torment is exacted upon those who “worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (14:11), whoever that is. It is six chapters before the Great White Throne judgment. “For ever” is two words, a prepositional phrase expressing an indefinite length of time (see chapter ?). And, of course, it is the metaphorical language of the allegorical Revelation and shouldn't be understood as contradicting the simplicity of John 3:16. All of the above are formidable factors, but our focus now is on how Scripture uses smoke to picture a final destruction, not perpetual pain.

As millions of us watched the hellacious scenes of 911 from our televisions, we witnessed with wide eyes as the towers came down, the smoke went up, and thousands lost their lives. Of the 2753 confirmed dead in and around the World Trade Center, most died instantly (from the impact of the planes, the collapse of the towers, or jumping to their death); others passed after a limited period of suffering; and remarkably but a few in hospitals afterward. Only twenty were rescued from the rubble, the last after twenty-seven hours. Each tower only took about ten seconds to crumble to the ground once they began to collapse. Death and destruction came swiftly, yet a shroud of smoke from the smoldering ruins lingered for at least one hundred days.  

In the Bible, smoke speaks of consumption:

Psalm 18:8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured.  

Psalm 37:20. The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

Psalm 68:2: As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

Psalm 102:3. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.  

Isaiah 9:18. For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

To say “burn up” is scientifically accurate and visibly apparent. Flames and smoke rise from combustible material being consumed. Scripture chronicles episodes resembling the terrorist strikes of 911. In the Ambush of Ai, "they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven” (Joshua 8:19, 20). 

 Likewise in the booby trap of Baaltamar “when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven” (Judges 20:40). In both cases, flames and smoke went up as the cities burned down. The "up" alerted of the "down." 

It was a similar scene at Sinai: “And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (Exodus 19:18). “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17). Smoke ascends from a fire that devours- that's plain to see.

But even more compelling are three very specific accounts of ever-ascending smoke that reveal the complete destruction of the people thus punished by fire. These examples establish without question that smoke that goes up for ever and ever does not give testimony to torture that goes on and on without end. We enter as evidence the exhibits of the extinct cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Idumea, and Babylon.

In the most notorious case of the three, after “it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:29), “Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:27, 28). “Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7) the twin cities were turned "into ashes” (2 Peter 2:6). “The punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her” (Lamentations 4:6) was a final and complete destruction, not ongoing and endless torment.  

What took place “in a moment” produced a spiraling news flash, and the smoke Abraham saw ascending over the plain advertised annihilation- consumption by fire, not torture in it- resulting in “a perpetual desolation” (Zephaniah 2:9) that "shall never be inhabited" (Isaiah 13:20). As in 911, the smoke rose on, but the people were gone.

Likewise, the obliteration of Idumea was accomplished by unquenchable fire made manifest by ever-ascending smoke: “It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever” (Isaiah 34:10).  

The context is of a judgment of utter destruction: “the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter… For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment” (Isaiah 34:2, 5). 

 Notice the everlasting result: “it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever” and “they shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there” (vv. 10, 12). 

 Idumea was to become a palace of thorns and fortress of brambles; a court for owls and gathering of vultures (vv. 13-15). Ever-ascending smoke spoke of a miserable end, not misery without end.

The judgment of “Babylon the great” is of particular significance relative to the “smoke of their torment” (Revelation 14:11) because it is also in the book of Revelation and speaks both of “her torment” and “her smoke.” Because “her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” Babylon, “the great whore” (19:2) was worthy of a double portion of “torment and sorrow” (18:5-7). 

 But was it to be endless? No, double is not infinite and times-two does not equal time-less. 

 “Her smoke rose up for ever and ever” (19:3), but did her torment go on for that long? No, the same passage that depicts Babylon’s brutal doom also describes the nature and defines the limits of that doom.  

“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (18:8). Note that once again an “ever and ever” of smoke is produced by an “utterly” of fire. “Death and mourning” and “utterly burned” represent the fierce nature of this judgment.   

“One hour” and “no more” delineate its limits. In what sounds eerily prophetic of 911 “the kings of the earth... shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come” (18:9, 10). “For in one hour so great riches is come to nought... for in one hour is she made desolate” (18:17, 19). Three times it says "one hour."   

Babylon’s demise was accomplished in an hour, and that sixty-minutes produced a multitude of “no more”: “all things dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all” (18:14). No more musicians, no more craftsmen, no more millers, no more candlelight, no more weddings (18:22, 23). Everyone and everything- gone! “Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (18:21). Much like the twin towers, Babylon itself would be no more but "her smoke"- the smoke from her limited torment but utter extermination- would rise for a long indefinite length of time.

Sodom, Idumea, and Babylon are three evident examples that ever-ascending smoke pictures complete destruction. You will search in vain through the rubble of the myth of endless torment to find any evidence of smoke ever expressing ongoing agony. The “smoke of their torment” is not some kind of aberrant smoke from an abnormal fire that tortures but doesn't consume. The "smoke of their torment" is the carbon dust of their consumption, the sooty remains of their retribution, the smoldering evidence of a punishment already past.  

On the great and dreadful judgment day, “there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Cf. Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). This is the horrified response to the terrifying torment of stark realization, the panic-stricken pain of the awful awareness of ultimate loss. Jesus says it happens “when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:28; Cf. Psalm 112:10). It is at that incomprehensible harrowing "Depart from me" moment that the “wicked perish... and the enemies of the Lord... into smoke… consume away” (Psalm 37:20). 

Endless torment is wholly smoke. Ever-ascending smoke makes that clear.