The Spirit and the Lake of Fire: Pneumatology and Judgment

What does the Spirit have to do with God's final judgment? The Holy Spirit and God's judgment upon sin are not two topics that are often connected, but to understand the full work of the Spirit, they need to be. It is not enough to view judgment as the work of just the Father and the Son, but in full Trinitarian fashion, it must be understood as the work of all three persons of the Trinity.

In The Spirit and the Lake of Fire, Rustin Umstattd establishes the Spirit's role in judgment by connecting several symbols that are used for both the Spirit and judgment, such as fire, God's breath, and God's arm. Furthermore, by examining Augustine's position that the Spirit is the mutual-love of the Father and the Son, and Luther's position that God's wrath is the underside of his love, Umstattd demonstrates how one comes to the conclusion that the Spirit is operative in God's judgment upon sin.