IBC member Andrew Simsky has written a fascinating and comprehensive paper on this subject. Here he describes how he came to write it:

“The topic of the Fire of God was central in one of the IBC sermons, delivered by our pastor Roger Roberts in spring 2011. In this sermon he asked us to take off our shoes, because we were all standing on God’s Holy Ground, as Moses had stood before the burning bush. In the same sermon we were also told about Pascal’s vision of the Fire of God.

“Though I failed to take my shoes off, the sermon nevertheless had a deep impression on me. Later on I heard from my friend, Russian iconographer A. M. Lidov, about a symposium entitled “Fire and Light in the Sacral Space”, which he was planning to organize. I saw in this the hand of Providence directing me to write on this topic.

“The topic of the Fire of God really took hold of me and would not let me go until the paper was finished. I published it in Russian in the proceedings of the above-mentioned symposium, which took place in September 2011. I was happy and proud to contribute a paper with a Bible-based approach to a collection of scientific work.

“What I present here is an English version of this paper, though I have slightly modified the text both to fit some extra material I have discovered as my understanding of the subject has evolved, and to address it to a different audience.”

Andrew’s paper can be downloaded as a PDF here: FireInTheBibleIBC_08dec2011