The Threefold Cord - The Example of Sodom and Gomorrah

Not only do the words in the Word and pictures in the Scriptures consistently teach a final end, and not endless torment, but a most unmistakable example is given to make it overwhelmingly clear.  

Sodom and Gomorrah are inextricably identified with degenerate wickedness. As Judas is synonymous with betrayal, Einstein with genius, and Colonel Sanders with fried chicken, the twin cities of the plains are a byword for depravity. Odious locations of obscene activities are still so labeled.

Notorious for “filthy conversation… and unlawful deeds” (2 Peter 2:7, 8), Sodom and Gomorrah are also evilly iconic because of their swift atom-bomb-like destruction. Fire and brimstone, an idiomatic expression of God’s wrath, originated with and is forever fused to the infamy of these incinerated cities.

The startling story with Abraham’s nephew Lot as the principal character was embedded in the Hebrew psyche. Jesus could simply say “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32) without elaboration because of his listener’s familiarity with the salty scene. It is akin to Remember the Alamo, an evocative catchphrase immediately understood.

Jews remembered. How could they forget? Sodom and Gomorrah was a momentous drama in their formative history. Moses and Jesus cited it as common cultural currency. Old Testament prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Zephaniah) and New Testament apostles (Paul, Peter, Jude, and John) summoned the vivid account to provoke and prod. They reminded in order to warn. This unforgettable annihilation from the past is cited as the signature example of judgment in the future.

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 17:29, 30.

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. 2 Peter 2:6.

 

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, 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 1:5-7.

“Even thus” and “even as” communicates a clear comparison. “Making them an ensample” and “set forth for an example” is a plain way of saying that pictures this. That, the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, pictures this, judgment to come. Jesus, Peter, and Jude all agree.

Consider. Does the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah picture perpetual torture? No, rather a perpetual desolation (a state of complete emptiness or destruction): “Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation” (Zephaniah 2:9).

But what about “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire?” some may fairly question. First, “eternal” is an adjective modifying “fire.” Neither the cities nor their inhabitants were eternal. It is “eternal fire”, not eternal Sodom. It is the same with “he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). The fire is unquenchable, not the chaff. Chaff, the combustible dry casing and debris separated from grain seed, in a fire that can’t be put out will certainly burn up.   

It is eternal fire because it “rained... from the LORD out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). It was not a man made fire- it was the fire of God. It was already burning when it fell from heaven and needed no earthly fuel. God is “eternal” (Deuteronomy 33:27; 1 Timothy 1:17), and “God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29), and when the fire of God falls it always consumes its prey (Leviticus 9:24; Numbers 11:1; 16:35; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10-14; 2 Chronicles 7:1; Psalm 106:17, 18; Revelation 20:9). The eternal fire of the eternal God consumes: “Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath” (Ezekiel 22:31).

Second, we are expressly told the result of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire: “turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes” (2 Peter 2:6). Genesis tells us “the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants” (Genesis 19:24, 25). Jesus affirms, “it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:29). “Destroyed” is used at least four times in describing the fiery consumption (Genesis 13:10; 19:29; Luke 17:29; Jude 1:5); and some form of “overthrow” is employed in eight texts (Genesis 19:25, 29; Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40; Lamentations 4:6; Amos 4:11; 2 Peter 2:6). 

How could the sudden and utter destruction of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah picture endless torment? It couldn’t. It is this very “example” that depicts the future final judgment. Peter doesn’t end his sentence with a period until definitively tying it all together: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9). Again, this past judgment pictures the future one- this will be like that. The punishment was and will be completed on the day of judgment. And both are destruction by fire, not torment in fire.

If there is to be torment in fire after destruction by fire (a contradictory concept on its own), Jesus, Peter, and Jude astonishingly left out that major detail. Jeremiah points out, to the contrary, the merciful limit of God’s extreme retribution: “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her” (Lamentations 4:6). “As in a moment”, not endless; no ongoing torment for “no hands stayed on her.” This is “set forth for an example” of when the unjust are “punished” at “the day of judgment.”

And a recurring theme in the Biblical references to the aftermath of the conflagration is the utter desolation left behind. “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in” (Isaiah 13:20); “no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it” (Jeremiah 49:18); “It shall be no more inhabited for ever” (Jeremiah 50:39); “a perpetual desolation” (Zephaniah 2:9). Paul quotes Isaiah, “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Romans 9:29; Isaiah 1:9).  

“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good” (Ezekiel 16:49, 50). It is inconceivable to me that if God meant to communicate ongoing agony that He missed so many perfect opportunities to do so. And He continually spoke of Sodom and Gomorrah in terms of total destruction.

Ever ascending smoke gave sober testimony to the complete consumption of Sodom and Gomorrah: “the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:28). Moses declared that grass would no longer grow in this fruitless land destroyed by “the heat of this great anger” (Deuteronomy 29:23, 24). Jesus rebuked Capernaum, “If the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day” (Matthew 11:23). Not remaining is consistent with a final perishing, not ceaseless agony. “They shall perish; but thou remainest” (Hebrews 1:11; Cf. Psalm 102:26). Grassless and peopleless, “a perpetual desolation” is compatible with “to whom the midst of darkness is reserved for ever” (2 Peter 2:17), not burning forever.

Peter vividly portrayed “the day of the Lord... in the which… the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up… wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:10-12). Peter is speaking of the future “day of judgment and perdition (utter destruction) of ungodly men” (2 Peter 2:7), but this could have just as accurately described the fiery obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is because the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah is what God chose as the landmark illustration of the judgment to come. This punishment transpired “as in a moment” and “no hands stayed on her.” Everyone and everything was destroyed and turned to ashes. The Author of Scripture used plain words and clear pictures to describe complete consumption, not eternal torment; a miserable end, not endless misery. And the Creator of Language used his creation to clearly communicate, not to confuse. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a prime example.