Perhaps the only text that clearly and unambiguously states that the world will end in fire is 2 Pet 3.7: “Now, by the same word, the heavens and the earth are stored up for fire, kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” Although some commentators argue that Peter must base this understanding in ideas current in Hellenic culture or Stoic teaching, the fact that he appeals to creation and the flood (2 Pet 3.5-6) and, moreover, to “the same word” of God must mean that the apostle sees his argument as being Scriptural, rather than cultural. In the light of this, the aim of this paper is to unfold the biblical theology underlying God’s final destruction of the world in fire, namely, the notion that the Scriptures portray God’s presence and holiness as a “consuming fire” (Deut 4.24).
In order to demonstrate this, the paper will be divided into four main sections. The first will briefly exegete 2 Pet 3.7 in its context, which will serve as a launching point for the investigation. The second section will explore the destruction of the world through fire in the prophetic literature (Isa 30.30, 66.15-17; Zeph 1.18, 3.8). The third section returns to the Pentateuch to answer the question “how far back?”, concluding that God’s self-description as a “consuming fire” makes the world’s end in fire a necessary consequence of the irruption on the Last Day of the Holy God into a world contaminated by sin. In the conclusion of the paper, a few suggestions will be made in how to understand the symbol and metaphor of fire in the gospels and epistles of the New Testament.