When God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, “he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24). Notice that this flaming sword, which turned every way, was to “keep the way of the tree of life.” Not keep out, but keep the way. To the now fallen and corrupt and mortal Adam and Eve, the way of the tree of life would have been like a flame of fire. The burning intensity of God’s glory would have consumed them if they had tried to enter again into the Garden of Eden in their corrupt and fallen state. Malachi asks, “who may abide the day” of the Lord? “He is like a refiner’s fire.” (Malachi 3:2). This notion of the Lord being like fire is not purely metaphorical or symbolic. We are told that we must be baptized by fire in order to be saved. So many of the great prophets had to pass through fire to commune with the Lord. Moses first encountered God in the burning bush, and then again was at the top of Mount Sinai when it burned with the glory of the Lord. Elijah ascended into heaven on a chariot of fire. Isaiah had a flaming coal placed upon his tongue. All of these prophets were briefly permitted to commune with God face to face by entering into the way of the tree of life which was kept by the flames which turned every way. At the day of Judgment, when it is said that the wicked will be burned, it is not so much that God is singling out the wicked to be burned because they are finally receiving their just deserts. Rather, the Earth is returning to the presence and the glory of God, which has been compared to the glory of the sun, and all those who have not become purified will burn. The fire is not a temporary conflagration that sweeps through the Earth to burn up the stubble and the chaff. When Christ comes again, He and His burning, blazing glory are here to stay. “Looking unto, and preparing for the day of the coming of the Lord wherein the corruptible things of the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the mountains shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, if we shall endure, we shall be kept according to his promise. And we look for a new heavens, and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3: 12-13). Anything that has not been sufficiently converted and purged and purified will be on fire and dissolve away. Those that can abide the day of the Lord and endure His burning glory will dwell in the new heaven and the new earth, which John describes as a “sea of glass mingled with fire” (Revelation 15:2). Only those of us who have sought to abide the Celestial law can also abide the Celestial Glory. The righteous are not burned at the day of the coming of the Lord not because they are whisked away and spared the heat, but because through the Atonement of Jesus Christ they have been transformed into beings of fire and light and glory and thus feel perfectly at home amongst the flames. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly;” (Isaiah 33:14-15). Everlasting burnings await us all, but it is up to us to decide if they will be a lake of fire and brimstone and everlasting agony and torment, or a sea of glass mingled with fire blazing with everlasting glory and joy.
