And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and encircled the camp of the saints, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Read Chapter 20
Andreas of Caesarea
AD 637
fire coming down from heaven, either a visible fire as happened to the two commanders of fifty men in the présence of Elijah (2Kgs 1) or the coming of Christ in glory will destroy them by the breath of his mouth.
It is not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire; Matthew 25:41 for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. It is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is heaven, by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is from God; for it is by God's grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, The zeal of Your house has consumed me, so in a bad sense it is said, Zeal has possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies. Isaiah 26:11 And now, that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. ; Or if by this fire coming down out ...
fire: It must not be supposed that this is the final punishment. But it is rather the fire of envy, with which the adversary will be tormented through the firmness of the saints. For " heaven " is the firmament. This is the fire which went forth from the mouth of the witnesses of God, and it will devour their enemies. For in the last day He will not rain fire upon them, but when they have been gathered together before Him and judged, He will send them into eternal fire, concerning which it is here added, as follows. <a
breadth: They certainly are not represented as having come, or as about to come, to one place, as if the beloved city, that is, the Church, were to be confined within some one place. For much rather wished he to intimate by "the breadth of the earth," that it would be persecuted in all nations; and by the term "camp", that not even then would it forsake its warfare.
It must not be supposed that this is the final punishment. But it is rather the fire of envy, with which the adversary will be tormented through the firmness of the saints. For " heaven " is the firmament. This is the fire which went forth from the mouth of the witnesses of God, and it will devour their enemies. For in the last day He will not rain fire upon them, but when they have been gathered together before Him and judged, He will send them into eternal fire.
For the reader should recognize that the present Revelation has already told us of three adversaries, one was the dragon, the originator of evil , shown in heaven; the second was the beast coming up out of the sea, which we considered to be the second Satan, but superior to the rest of the demons; But it is said shortly before about the second one, the Devil, and the Antichrist, that ;the two of them were thrown into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.' But now he is talking about Satan, or the Devil, whom earlier he called serpent.
