Fire and brimstone


Fire and brimstone is an idiomatic expression referring to God's wrath found in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. In the Bible, it often appears in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. Brimstone, an archaic term synonymous with sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of sulphur dioxide given off by lightning strikes. Lightning was understood as divine punishment by many ancient religions; the association of sulfur with divine retribution is common in the Bible.
The idiomatic English translation of "fire and brimstone" is found in the Christian King James Version translation of the Hebrew Bible and was also later used in the 1917 translation of the Jewish Publication Society. The 1857 Leeser translation of the Tanakh inconsistently uses both "sulfur" and "brimstone" to translate גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ. The translation used by the 1985 New JPS is "sulfurous fire" while the 1978 Christian New International Version translation uses "burning sulfur."
Used as an adjective, fire-and-brimstone often refers to a style of Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of judgment and eternal damnation to encourage repentance especially popular during historical periods of Great Awakening.

In Christianity

Fire and brimstone frequently appear as agents of divine wrath throughout the Christian Book of Revelation culminating in chapters 19-21, wherein Satan and the ungodly are cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone as an eternal punishment.

Islamic reference

The story of prophet Lot finds mention in several Qur'anic passages, especially Chapter 26 :160-175 which reads: "The people of Lut rejected the apostles. Behold, their brother Lut said to them: "Will ye not fear ? "I am to you an apostle worthy of all trust. "So fear God and obey me. "No reward do I ask of you for it: my reward is only from the lord of the Worlds. "Of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males, "And leave those whom God has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing !" They said: "If thou desist not, O Lut! thou wilt assuredly be cast out!" He said: "I do detest your doings." "O my Lord! deliver me and my family from such things as they do!" So We delivered him and his family,- all Except an old woman who lingered behind. But the rest We destroyed utterly. We rained down on them a shower : and evil was the shower on those who were admonished ! Verily in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe. And verily thy Lord is He, the Exalted in Might Most Merciful."

History

According to Jewish historian Josephus, "Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares to come at it;... It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. It is related how for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that divine fire; and the traces of the five cities are still to be seen,..."
Puritan preacher Thomas Vincent authored a book called "Fire and Brimstone in Hell", first published in 1670. In it he quotes from Psalm 11:6 "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their cup."
Preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were referred to as "fire-and-brimstone preachers" during the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s. Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" remains among the best-known sermons from this period. Reports of one occasion when Edwards preached it said that many of the audience burst out weeping, and others cried out in anguish or even fainted.
Two archeologists believed that they found brimstone in the ancient cities of the Holy Land reported to have suffered from the disaster. William Albright and Melvin Kyle set out to find the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in 1924, and found brimstone at Southern end of the Dead Sea.