How do you know you're saved?

If you liked my last comment then you will definently like the quote below, which further elaborates on the Eastern Orthodox concept of heaven/hell and gives it far more scriptural support:

"There's a river that flows through Scripture, a river the brings health and healing wherever it goes. Ezekiel beheld it as it flowed from the temple to the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:1, 7-9, 12). Zechariah prophesied the appearance of this river at the day of Christ's return (Zechariah 14:3-4,8). John saw the same river flowing from the throne of God in the new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:1-2). He also saw the waters before the throne of God as a sea (Revelation 4:6). God declared to Jeremiah that He is the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13). God's indwelling in the life of the believer is like a endless fountain of living water that flows from them and brings eternal life (John 4:13-14, John 7:37-39).

But look again! Daniel saw a river of fire flowing from the throne at the day of judgment (Daniel 7:9-10). It is the same river, the same sea (Revelation 15:2). The crystal sea before the throne of God is also the lake of fire before the throne of God (Revelation 20:10-15). And returning to Zechariah's vision, the return of Christ and the flowing of the river on earth is also the coming of judgment (Zechariah 14:12-13).

How can this be? How can a river or sea be like both water and fire? It is because this river of water and sea of fire is the presence of God. God is Himself unchanging, but is experienced differently: to some His presence is cool and refreshing, healing and restoring like water; but to others, His presence is tormenting and oppressive, a fire that cannot be quenched. God declares Himself to be not only the fountain of living water, but a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29). God has appeared as fire many times: to Abraham, as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch (Genesis 15:17); to Moses, as a burning bush (Exodus 3:4); to the Israelites, as a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21); John the Baptist said that Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16) and Jesus said that He had come to cast fire on the earth (Luke 12:49); and the Holy Spirit appeared as flames of fire on the heads of the apostles (Acts 2:3).

The Psalms describes who can abide in the presence of the Holy One (Psalm 15:1-3, Psalm 24:3-5). Isaiah describes the same answer, but asked from a different perspective (Isaiah 33:14-16, 21). The righteous are the ones who may abide in the consuming fire of God, because for them He is a river of water, rather than an everlasting burning.

Ezekiel, in his lament for the King of Tyre (a metaphor for Satan), describes the place from which he was cast out from as a place with "stones of fire" (Ezekiel 28:14-16). The presence of God is inescapable and unchanging, and even in darkness and death His light is present (Psalm 139:7-8, 11-12).

How is it that paradise is described as a place of stones and fire and the pit described as a place of light? In the same way as the aroma of Christ can be of life to life to one person and of death to death for another (2 Corinthians 2:15-16), our perception, our experience of God depends on whether we desire to be freed from our bondage to sin and our captivity to death, released from the deceit of the devil and the enslavement to his will, and liberated from the tyranny of the passions of the flesh that we might becomes slaves to Christ; it depends on whether we desire God's life and light and love to mold us and shape us, to heal us from the ravages of sin and restore us into the glory of the likeness of Christ, and to participate in His divine nature by submitting to His will, rather than exalting our own desires.

For those who desire Christ and long for His coming, for those who seek above all to be found in Him, united with Him, for those who trust and rely upon His grace to overcome and conquer, for those who persevere in doing good, seeking His glory and honor and life, His presence will bring them immortality. The unmitigated presence of God will be for them the fullness of joy and an everlasting pleasure.

But for those who turn their love inward and worship themselves, for those who reject the freedom Christ offers and embrace their slavery to sin, for those who feed their appetites with desire, who nurture their compulsions with abandon, and gratify their obsessions at every opportunity, the life and healing that flows from God's love and mercy will not be cool and refreshing like water, but a burning fire. Like cockroaches suddenly caught in a bright room with no place to hide, those who prefer the darkness of sin will, upon encountering God's inescapable light and holiness, find that there is no place to escape.


So that's an overview of what in Orthodox circles is called "The River of Fire". Again, it's not dogma, just theologoumenon (personal opinion). Incidentally, Annihilationism can also work with it (God is a consuming fire). Now, to get to your verses: honestly, if you take "fire and brimstone" as metaphorical descriptions of what it is like to be an unrepentant sinner in the presence of a holy God, there is nothing contradictory about them. In fact, notice that Revelation 14:10 explicitly mentions that the wicked will be punished in the presence of Christ ("the Lamb"), which is an echo of Luke 19:27."

This quote comes from u/oilyhead

Here's another link that may be of interest: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/the-river-of-fire-kalomiros/

/r/Christianity Thread