237 Geocide Caused by God Part 2

We continue in this episode to look at the other major event that gets attributed to God. The destruction of the world at the end of the age. Is this actually caused by God? Does God in the end find it necessary to use force to concur the evil that has plagued this planet for so many years.

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SHOW NOTES

The Apocalyptic End of the World (Revelation 20:9)

The end of the world is usually pictured as God violently punishing sinners for their rebellion with literal fire. Here is the Biblical evidence.

2 Peter 3:7, 10 NLT And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been

stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will

be destroyed. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

Thus Peter predicts the apocalypse but does not overtly attribute its causation to God. The argument from the covert implication of God is strong.

Revelation 19:20 NLT And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who

did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles that deceived all who had accepted

the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet

were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The cause or agency for the fiery lake is not specified.

Revelation 20:9 NLT And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and

surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the

attacking armies and consumed them.

Analysis of the Apocalypse

1. Being burnt alive is one of the most painful deaths possible. One might expect God to be more merciful and selective if he is the source of this catastrophe. There was no need to kill the animals or destroy the planet.

2. Some Christian groups claim this fire is ever burning conscious torment to add insult to injury. This belief characterises God as a harsh, vindictive, cruel being. To punish mortal beings forever means they are given immortality so that God can work his vicious vindictiveness on them.

3. The punishment does not fit the crime. It is impossible to justify eternal punishment for 70 to 100 years of life.

4. Jesus ends some of his parables with an apocalyptic fire (Matthew 13:30, 50), but other

parables end in darkness or torture (Matthew 21:41; 22:13; 24:51). Using parables to justify this fire is not exegetically supported.5. While literal fire might be involved this “fire” destroys death and the grave which a literal fire cannot accomplish.

Revelation 20:14 NLT Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire.

This means the fire is symbolic of the destruction of death and ushers in immortality for the survivors. This is a huge paradigm shift for this earth and its surviving inhabitants.

6. The origin if the destroying fire is vague.

Revelation 20:9 NLT And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and

surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the

attacking armies and consumed them. The source of the fire is translation dependent. Most translations use heaven but a few use “from God out of heaven.” This is not warranted as the Greek does not have the “God” addition. In the book of Job the messenger attributes the fire to God but from the rest of the chapter we know it is

Satan.

Job 1:16 NLT While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news:

“The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds.

I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

“fire from heaven” probably means lightening caused by Satan. This disposition to blame God for a universal destruction which parallels the Noachian flood is

taken even though:

Jesus, the only eyewitness of God (John 1:18; 6:46), who is himself God (John 1:1-3) taught and lived a life free from revenge (Matthew 5:38-39). He prayed forgiveness and mercy for his executioners (Luke 23:34) and achieved forgiveness for every person at his resurrection (Colossians 2:13-14).

Furthermore, Love/God does not demand its/his own way (1 Corinthians 13:5). This is an

astonishing claim by Paul. It implies God will not use violence to achieve his desires. It means that victory over sin is achieved by a slaughtered lamb (Revelation 5) not by a slaughtering lamb (Revelation 19). All this evidence must be disregarded to attribute a violent, fiery end to sinners at the hand of God.

To believe God is the agent we must discount Jesus’ comment to James and John that they did not discern the spirit which motived their desire to call down fire on the inhospitable Samaritans Luke 9:52-56 NLT He (Jesus) sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. 53 But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. 54 When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up as Elijah did?” 55 But Jesus turned andrebuked them. And he said, “You don’t realize what your hearts are like. 56 For the Son of Man has not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.” So they went on to another village. (Italics indicate marginal readings.)

Because God, to respect our freedom, has had to give us up to the consequences of rebellion (Romans 1:24, 26, 28) which includes coming under the influence of the cruellest of all foes, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). He has had to watch us suffer under the curse of sin time and time again.

1 Peter 5:8 NLT Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around

like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

War had resulted in exposing the evil mankind is capable of. Mustard gas, mechanized war machinery, bombs, machine guns, the abuse and death of women and children. Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the rape of Nanking, the nazi holocaust, agent orange in Vietnam, germ warfare, chemical warfare and carpet bombing. Often God is invoked to help commit these atrocities on so called enemies. God actions in the Old Testament are also used as justification for the evil perpetrated during war in current times.

In his genius, using misinformation, propaganda and deceit, the devil has managed to get most of the world to blame their sufferings on God. What a triumph for him. This perhaps explains the meaning of

Hosea 11:9 I will not let lose my fury, I will not turn around and destroy Ephraim; For I

am God and not a man, the Holy One is in your midst.

God is not harsh, arbitrary and vindictive. He is God. He is love (1 John 4:8). Trust this witness by the one changed from “a son of thunder” to the “beloved.” God does not respond to evil with evil (Matthew 5:38-42). He is God, the God of mercy and compassion and His response will be one of love and kindness (1 Corinthians 13:5).

This desire to blame God for our problems is not new. Adam blamed God for Eve, and Eve blamed God for the serpent (Genesis 3:12-13). The tragedy is that so few of us take

responsibility for our own wickedness and its consequences.

In Job chapters one and two the Shattan is clearly identified as able to bring natural and human disasters on Job and by implication on anyone he wants to. When this happens, it is no wonder that the good news of God's love is rejected as being a travesty of justice, legal fiction or the expression of a fearful heart. This ability of the devil to cause suffering which is attributed to God is fiendish. The population could have been annihilated but for God’s protection (Job 1-2; Luke 13:1-5; Revelation 7:1-3).

Understand now the following Old Testament passages which tell of men killing each other at crisis moments in history, which is predicted in Revelation 17:15 as occurring at the Second Coming and the Apocalypse.

Judges 7:22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.

2 Chronicles 7:23 The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount

Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir,

they helped to destroy one another.

2 Chronicles 20:22-24 NLT At the very moment they began to sing and give praise,

the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among

themselves. 23 The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount

Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began

attacking each other. 24 So when the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the

wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see.

Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.

Ezekiel 30:21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the

Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother.

Zechariah 14:13 On that day men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. Each

man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.

Revelation 17:16-17 NLT The scarlet beast and his ten horns all hate the prostitute

(popular religion based on deceit and violence). They will strip her naked, eat her flesh,

and burn her remains with fire. 17 For God has put a plan into their minds, a plan that will

carry out his purposes. They will agree to give their authority to the scarlet beast (the

devil), and so the words of God will be fulfilled.

The words of Genesis 2:17 are fulfilled in these passages: “If you eat of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil you will die.”

When God removes His friends from earth to heaven at the Second Coming there will be no restraining agencies left on the planet (Revelation 7:1-3, 9:14). The "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14) are gone, those who remain will be controlled by evil. The consequences are too horrible to imagine. Belsen, Auschwitz, Bosnia and Rwanda are warnings of the awful terror to come after the Second Coming and at the end of the Millennium. God has no need to execute sinners who are bent on evil, including exterminating each other.

The geocide at the end of the millennium could be the consequence of devil inspired humans attacking the Holy City with nuclear weapons which starts a nuclear chain reaction which destroys the planet and its atmosphere.\

Conclusions

This closer examination of the detail of the geocides and the character of God make it impossible for God to cause such monumental catastrophes. We must conclude with Jesus that “the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy . . .” (John 10:10).

Ian Hartley, December 2025