The Meaning of the Fire from the Altar in Revelation 14

In the text of Revelation 14, we find a specific description of a heavenly messenger: “Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, ‘Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe’” (vv. 18, 19 NIV84). This passage often raises important questions: Does the angel use the fire to inflict punishment? Is fire used at all? If you allow the text to influence your conclusion about this fire, what fire would you say it is?

The Source and Nature of the Fire

From where is the angel coming? He is coming from the altar of God. When it says that the angel is in charge of the fire, the text suggests that the fire is the fire associated with the altar in God’s temple. Is it likely that this “fire” is literal, a fire of combustion, or is it symbolic of something else? In fact, the meaning of the text is exactly the opposite of what many allege.

So let’s now examine this text in Revelation 14 and allow the Bible to lead us to a better understanding. The fact is—we don’t have to infer this conclusion; the Bible elsewhere explicitly describes the fire coming from the altar and what it does. In the heavenly temple, where the altar that the angel of Revelation 14 comes from is located, a creature flew down carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar. “He touched my lips with the burning coal and said, ‘This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven’” (Isaiah 6:1–7 GNT).

The Purifying Power of God

The fire from this altar cleansed Isaiah—burning away his guilt and bringing healing and forgiveness from sin. So, the angel in Revelation 14, who is God’s agent, is in charge of this cleansing fire! He is the one who is represented in the prophecy as administering the purifying power of God to cleanse the saints from sin. God’s fires are not the source of pain, suffering, and death—they are the cleansing fires of truth and love that originate in His infinite being.

Summary of the Fire's Biblical Function

• Location: The altar of God in the heavenly temple.
• Primary Action: Touching the lips to remove guilt (Isaiah 6:7).
• Result: Sins are forgiven and the person is healed.
• Symbolism: The cleansing fires of truth and love.

The Choice of the Harvest

This angel then leaves his cleansing work and tells the other angel with a sharp sickle to harvest the wicked. Why? Because there are no more people who are willing to be cleansed by the fires of truth and love that flow from the temple of God. Every person has already either been cleansed by the fire from the altar and, therefore, are settled, sealed, solidified into loyal love to God—or they have hardened themselves into rebellion, sinfulness, and selfishness and destroyed within themselves the faculties that respond to truth and love so that they are beyond healing.

Therefore, the angel from the altar, the one who is in charge of the cleansing fire, goes to the harvesting angel and says: “There is no one left for me to heal; the harvest is ripe; it is time to reap.” For all those who trust Him, God will burn away all their guilt, shame, sin, fear, and selfishness and they will become His representatives on this earth—His lights, burning brightly with the eternal fires of love and truth. We must stop interpreting the Bible through the false human imposed-law lens, which makes God out to be the source of inflicted punishment for sin, and return to worshiping Him as our Creator, Savior, and Healer.