example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. The present tense is
used throughout the verse. It occurs twice in speaking of the sin of Sodom, and
twice with reference to its punishment. This text does not teach that the men of
Sodom are now engaged in the sinful acts referred to; why should it be
understood to teach that they are now receiving their retribution? Does the
apostle mean to say that the Sodomites are now in the flames of eternal fire?
The clause, "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," is modified by the words,
"set forth for an example," which immediately precede it. In fact, the real meaning
of the apostle in what he says of the sufferings of the Sodomites can only be
determined by giving this phrase, "set forth for an example," its proper bearing.
To be "set for an example," to wicked men, "suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire," one of two things must be true: 1. They must now be in a state of suffering
in plain view of the inhabitants of the earth; or,
3
2. They must be somewhere in the Scriptures set forth in the very act of suffering
the vengeance of fire from heaven. If the first of these views be correct, then the
Sodomites are indeed now in torment. But that view is not correct; for the very
place where Sodom was burned is now covered by the Dead Sea.
That the second view is correct, is manifest from Gen. 19:24-28: "Then the
Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the
inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his [Lot's] wife
looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham got
up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he
looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and
beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace."
Here the Sodomites are set forth for an example in the very act of suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire. Are they to this day in that fire? Peter bears
testimony, and it is the more valuable in this case because the chapter containing
it is almost an exact parallel to the epistle of Jude. Thus he says: "Turning the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah INTO ASHES condemned them with an
overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." 2
Pet. 2:6. Peter thus shows that the fire did its proper office upon the men of
Sodom, and that they were not in his day alive in its flames. Their case is an
example of what God will do to all the wicked after the resurrection to damnation,
when fire shall descend out of heaven upon them, and the whole earth become a
lake of fire. Rev. 20; 2 Pet. 3; Mal. 4.
The testimony of Jeremiah, which represents the punishment of Sodom as
comparatively brief, must complete this evidence: "For the punishment of the
iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of
Sodom, that was overthrown
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as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." Lam. 4:6.
4. The language of Jude concerning the Sodomites has, therefore, no relation