Growing up in the Western churchianity I always associated fire with judgement and knew it was a big part of the punishment in the bad place. But I was raised in the Liberal part of the Episcopal church where they just kind of pushed all that hellfire and damnation stuff back on the mean Old Testament God because Jesus was much nicer. So, where I grew up, in the enlightened church, it was pretty much glossed over as opposed to the frequent turn or burn messages of evangelicalism. However down deep I “knew” I was bad from my Catholic neighbors and when presented with the standard Romans Road I saw the light of how bad I was and on my way to the bad place for sure.
Historically, as a whole, western Christianity (catholic & protestant alike) was heavily influenced by Augustine and his platonic views of eternal damnation for the sinful. Hell in the Greek mind was a place of eternal conscious torment by “the gods” who were totally justified in their delight while punishing their rebellious creatures forever. Dante’s Inferno was a detailed catalog of all the levels of hell descending into worse and worse punishments the deeper one went. That image of hell is burned, pun intended, into our psyche by our very western culture.
So for me, fire, In the physical world, is generally associated with destruction more so than blessing. Events like wildfires and the destruction they brought reinforced this thought pattern over the years. Yes, fire also provides warmth and the ability to cook, but that is ONLY when it is contained or controlled. Controlling it is a serious battle as fire will consume all the fuel it can get to and doesn’t give up till everything is burnt to a crisp.
Yet here’s the paradox of fire, it is also the refiners tool of choice, it purifies whatever metal is subjected to its intense heat, It is this refining aspect of fire which is a good thing. This is the real purpose of “the bad place”. It’s not about punishment but refinement till we are changed into a perfect reflection of Jesus. We are to be the mirror reflecting Him just like pure silver and gold are reflective. So the “bad” place is not necessarily the horrible eternal torture chamber we’ve been told about for so long. I believe it is a place where the glorious fire of God’s love refines us into who we were meant to be in the first place. As we get closer and closer to Him, the glory of His presence is the very fire which cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
So it’s up to us how we respond to the fire, cringe in fear or welcome the cleansing power.
