Salvation and Destruction

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.
GENESIS 19:23-24
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Salvation and Destruction
Let us comfort ourselves, for this account points out both truths: that the enemies of the Church are to be punished and that the righteous are to be eternally saved, provided that we are like Lot and Abraham, that is, provided that we hold fast to the Word and to faith. The Lord knows, says Peter (2 Peter 2:9), both how to rescue the righteous and how to reserve the ungodly for destruction. Yet the ungodly do not believe this, and when they hear such examples applied to themselves, they laugh very pleasantly in a situation that is not at all funny—a situation that cannot be wept over enough and cannot be adequately lamented or expressed in words. Consider what a terrible disaster it was when in a single storm five cities, together with the men, the women, the children, the servants, the maids, the beasts of burden, and the cattle, were swallowed up at the same time, so that not even a straw remained from that entire region. What clearer example can one point out to show that God is sternly angry with the ungodly? Yet Christ and Peter say that this is a small punishment if you compare it with the punishment that awaits [those] who are not only impenitent but are also stubborn.

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