Says who? Who are you to judge God's character?
God gives reprobates exactly what they want -- His absence. How is that not "loving"?
but also better fits the description of the eternity experience of non-Christians as described in the bible.
The Bible makes no general claim about "the eternity experience of non-Christians". But as for the reprobate souls, Jesus says they go to a place "where the fire is not quenched, and the worm dieth not". Doesn't sound like annihilation to me.
—Says who? Who are you to judge God’s character?—
I’m not judging God’s character. I’m interpreting His character as described in His word as well as my personal relationship with Him.
—God gives reprobates exactly what they want — His absence. How is that not “loving”?—
I’m not saying it isn’t. It’s called “following through”, which a loving “person” that doesn’t lie will do.
—The Bible makes no general claim about “the eternity experience of non-Christians”.—
It’s rife with them. It says Christians go to “eternal life” and the rest go to “death and destruction”. See the difference? One is “life” and eternally so. The other is “death” and “destruction”. One lives and continues to live and the other dies and is destroyed. Sound’s like annihilation to me.
—But as for the reprobate souls, Jesus says they go to a place “where the fire is not quenched, and the worm dieth not”. Doesn’t sound like annihilation to me.—
Yes. And that is a great way of saying they are NOT coming back. And if you will notice, the FIRE is what is not quenched and the WORM is what does not die. I send my steers to be slaughtered at a slaughter house. Just because it has been there for a long time and probably will continue to be, the steers I send there are slaughtered only once. They “die” and are “destroyed”, but the slaughterhouse continues on.
IOW, I interpret that scripture to mean their death is final. There will be no second or third chance.
Also, in interpreting scripture, context is important. the scripture you are quoting occurs three times in the same chapter of Mark. What proceeds each occurence is the “cut off your hand” and “gouge out your eye” scriptures. If I were an honest man and took that scripture to mean exactly what it is saying, I would be blind and have no hands or feet.