Fire and brimstone

Fire and brimstone is a motif in Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of hell and damnation to encourage the listeners to fear divine wrath and punishment.

Biblical references

Several Biblical passages use the image of burning sulfur, or brimstone, to represent divine wrath. The King James translation often renders such imagery with the phrase "fire and brimstone". In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah via a rain of fire and brimstone, and in Deuteronomy 29, the Israelites are threatened with the same punishment should they abandon their covenant with God. Elsewhere, divine judgments involving fire and sulfur are prophesied against Assyria (Isaiah 30), Edom (Isaiah 34), Gog (Ezekiel 38), and all the wicked (Psalm 11).

Fire and brimstone frequently appear as agents of divine wrath throughout the Book of Revelation, culminating in chapters 19–21, wherein the devil and the ungodly are cast into a lake of fire and brimstone as an eternal punishment:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20, KJV)

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. (Revelation 20:10, KJV)

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8, KJV)

The descriptions of fire and brimstone are not to be taken literally, but there is disagreement over the interpretation. A common view is that they are supposed to show how sinfulness and rejection of God's love can result in serious problems. Others suggest that they represent an active inflicting of punishment by God. It is also suggested that they do not refer to anything; rather the image is intended to simply produce fear and so compel belief.

History

During the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, revivalist preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield used fire and brimstone preaching to elicit fear of divine wrath in their hearers, sometimes to great effect. Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" remains among the best-known sermons from this period; when Edwards first preached it, many in his audience burst out weeping; some reports indicate that other attendees cried out in anguish or even fainted.

Since that time, fire and brimstone sermons have been an occasional feature of Christian preaching, chiefly among more conservative preachers in the United States.

In more recent times, fire and brimstone preaching has declined in popularity, as many Christian churches prefer to present a more positive message. Fire and brimstone is now characteristic only of the more conservative branches of Christianity; the fundamentalist cartoonist Jack Chick of Chick Publications keeps the tradition alive in print. Many Baptist, Pentacostal, and Church of Christ preachers, especially older ones, do still deliver sermons in the fire and brimstone tradition.

Some denominations, such as the Society of Friends (or Quakers) have few, if any, members who support such notions; indeed many mainline churches have a significant number of followers who would deny the existence of hell in any literal sense. In more recent times, the term "fire and brimstone" is used more often to stereotype conservative preachers; Few preachers, even conservative ones, would label themselves that way.

External link

The Straight Dope on Fire and Brimstone

Christian fundamentalism | Christian eschatology

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Fire and brimstone

Biblical references

History

See also

External link