Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance for the Holy Ones - Continue

 Was Edom hurled into some mythical hellfire to burn forever? Of course not. Rather, the nation completely disappeared from the world scene as if she had been totally consumed with fire and sulphur. The final result from the punishment was not everlasting torment but "emptiness . . . wasteness . . . nothing." (Isaiah 34:11. 12) The smoke ascending to time indefinity' vividly illustrates this. When a house burns down, smoke comes from the ashes for some times after the flames have died down, providing onlookers with evidence that has been destructive conflageration. Even today God's people remember the lesson to be learned from the destruction of Edom. In this way 'the smoke of her burning' is still ascending in a symbolic way. 

Those who have the mark of the wild beast will also be destroyed completely, as if by fire.  As the prophecy later reveals, their dead bodies will be left unburied for animals and birds to eat. (Revelation 19:17, 18) So, clearly, they are not being literally tortured forever! How are they "tormented with fire and sulphur"? In that the proclamation of truth exposes thema and warns them of God's coming judgment. Therefore they vilify God's people and, where possible, slyly persuade the political wild beast to persecute and even kill Jehovah's Witnesses. as a climax, these opposers will be destroyed as with fire and brimstone. Then "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever" in that God's judgment of them will serve as a touchtstone if ever again Jehovah's rightful sovereignty is challenged. That issue will have been settled for all eternity. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance for the Holy Ones - Continue

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