“Folks, the Bible's the most fascinating book you'll ever put in your hands the way it can paint a picture for you,” says Darryl Mefford, a popular Tennessee preacher who died a few years ago, in an old study I have on tape.

Mefford’s message was about the Second Coming of Christ.

“When Jesus Christ comes this world's going to experience a flame and a fire so hot the likes of which nobody’s every experienced before,” said Mefford. “And He's going to kindle it. He's getting the coals hot. Over in Daniel 3, it talks about that ‘burning fiery furnace. . . being seven times more than it was wont to be heated.’ It's going to be hotter than any fire the world's ever known, or ever seen, or ever experienced.”

The way Psalms 13:18 describes it, “The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

“Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

“Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.”

Likewise, “the great day of the Lord” is further detailed in Zephaniah 1:15-18: “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

“And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”

Mefford explained, “He's going to make a speedy riddance and you know fire is a very destructive power. He will devour the land with the fire of his jealousy. Nahum 1:2 says, ‘God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.’

“I want tell you something, God has got wrath reserved and built up. When we go to war with Iraq, we're going to call on our reserves. Stuff we've got stockpiled. That verse there tells me God's got wrath stockpiled. He's got a treasure house, and a storehouse, of wrath and He's got it reserved for His enemies.

“And, folks, the course of that Tribulation; it begins and it intensifies as it goes through, and when you get to the end of that 70^th week, when Jesus Christ comes in His Second Coming, it's going to be the great culmination of His wrath and His judgment and, folks, the world’s going to experience the wrath of God.

“The verse in Revelations says it will be ‘poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation,’ and that’s just another way of saying what Nahum’s talking about when he says ‘He reserveth wrath.’ He's got wrath built up, laid up, reserved and held back for His enemies—wrath such as like the world has never experienced before.”

As the passage in Nahum 1 continues, “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.”

Mefford explained, “When He comes there's going to be flaming fire that engulfs and surrounds Him, and wherever He goes the intensity of that flame will be so hot that the hills are going melt and the earth is going to be burnt at His presence. I tell you, folks, you’ve never known a fire that hot!”

Nahum 1:10 says, “For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.”

Mefford said, “I mean, you talk about naked vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’! For those who reject the gospel, Jesus is coming back in flaming fire and he's going to take vengeance, and those that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with everlasting destruction.”

“Men like to ask the question, ‘How could a God of love send men to hell for eternity?’ That God of love, He loved this world, and He sent His Son into this world to die on a cross and, folks, if He sent His Son into this world to die at Calvary, and to die for man's sin, and to give Himself and die in their place, and pay fully their sin debt. . . If He gave His dearest, precious Son; the only one He could look at and say, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased; hear ye Him’. . .

“If He gave His Son to die at Calvary, don't you think for a minute that He won't send men into the second death for eternity if they reject the wonderful, gracious, loving thing that He did for them on that Cross. He will, and the verses say that He will!

“God is going to take vengeance, and He's going to punish with everlasting destruction ‘from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.’ That's what the second death is—it's eternal separation from God in the ‘lake of fire’ forever and ever.”