Claim. When II Peter speaks of the elements melting with fire and Malachi prophesies “a day burning with the fire of judgment,” “fire” is a symbol for the Word of God. Jesus came to bring this fire — and never literally burned the world. Judgment in the Last Days is judgment by truth, not by physical conflagration.
Elaboration. Per 3.2. Bible Verses Concerning the Signs of the Last Days: Jesus said “I came to cast fire upon the earth” and “for judgment I came into this world,” yet “there is no record that in his time Jesus judged the world with literal fire. The verses referring to fire must be symbolic.”
The biblical warrant DP cites: 29 (“Is not my word like fire, says the Lord?”); 48 (“the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day”); II Thessalonians 2:8 (“the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth”); 4 (“He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth”). Each renders “fire” as the Word.
Behind this is a deeper providential logic: “Human beings are created through the Word. God’s ideal of creation was that the first human ancestors fulfill the purpose of the Word by incarnating the Word.” Restoration must therefore proceed by recreating fallen humanity through the Word. Judgment by Word is not destructive — it is the standard against which the providence’s completion is measured.
See also. dp-bible-eschatological-imagery-read-symbolically, dp-new-truth-must-emerge-to-reconcile-religion-and-science