re eternity of hell was re hell in article apr athos rutgers edu dlecoint garnet acns fsu edu darius lecointe writes insert deletion of unnecessary quote why is it that we have this notion that god takes some sort of pleasure from punishing people the purpose of hell is to destroy the devil and his angels first of all god does not take any sort of pleasure from punishing people he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and compassion on whom he will have compassion ex however if he enjoyed punishing people and sending them to hell then why would he send jesus to seek and save that which was lost luke to the earlier poster who tried to support the eternal hell theory with the fact that the fallen angels were not destroyed remember the bible teaches that god has reserved them until the day of judgement their judgement is soon to come let me suggest this maybe those who believe in the eternal hell theory should provide all the biblical evidence they can find for it stay away from human theories and only take into account references in the bible you asked for it peter ff talks about how those who are ungodly are punished matthew is also very clear that those who do not righteous in god s eyes will be sent to hell for eternity thessalonians states that those who cause trouble for the disciples will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the lord thessalonians talks about those who refuse to love the truth being condemned revelation talks about the difference between those who overcomes and those who do not those who do not listed in verse will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur revelation gives the indication that those who follow the beast will be tormented with burning sulfur and there being no rest day or night for them because of it psalm the wicked return to the grave all the nations that forget god i think those should be sufficient to prove the point darius joe fisher in the following i m mostly playing devil s advocate i m not advocating either position my concern is that people understand that it s possible to see these passages in different ways it s possible to see eternal destruction as just that destruction rev often uses the term second death the most obvious understanding of that would seem to be final extinction the problem is that the nt speaks both of eternal punishment and of second death i e it uses terms that can be understood either way my concern here is not to convince you of one view or the other but to help people understand that there s a wide enough variety of images that it s possible to understand them either way as tom albrecht commented the primary point is to do our best to keep people out of the eternal fire whatever the details to make things more interesting luke implies that the damned don t get resurrected at all presumably they just stay dead yes i m aware that it s possible to understand this passage in a non literal way peter ff is talking about angels and talks about holding them in hell until the final judgement this isn t eternal punishement matthew talks about sending the cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels the fact that the fire is eternal doesn t mean that people will last in its flames forever particularly interesting is the comment about the fire having been prepared for the devil and his angels rev and talk about the eternal fire as well they say that the beast and the false prophet will be tormented forever in it when talking about people being thrown into it it is referred to as the second death this sounds more like extinction than eternal torment is is possible that the fire has different effects on supernatural entities such as the devil and humans thessalonians similarly what is everlasting destruction this is not necessarily eternal torment this one can clearly be understood either way but i think it s at least possible to think that everlasting is being used to contrast the kind of destruction that can occur in this life with the final destruction that occurs in eternity thessalonians again talks about destruction revelation see comment above revelation is probably the best of the quotes even there it doesn t explicitly say that the people suffer forever it says that the smoke and presumably the fire is eternal and that there is no respite from it but it doesn t say that the people are tormented forever psalm i don t see that it says anything relevant to this issue clh
