But nobody in their right mind would want that one, Alamo-Girl! You are speaking wryly, "tongue-in-cheek" here (I gather). For you well know that which makes us uniquely, personally self survives the destruction of the body in the first death -- which is the natural death. The second death utterly destroys the self itself (so to speak). It is the death of the spirit. In its essence, it is the utter and irreversible separation from God, the privation of light and grace; that is, it is absolute oblivion -- in the sense of God "forgetting us".... (Such is the nature of Hell....)
Well, look at me, ranting about theology -- to this audience! Of course, not a word I've said is amenable to experimental test. But mind, heart, and soul, I know it to be the truth. Oddly, it seems I was created in such a way as to be able to know this truth...and I further gather, so have all other human beings likewise. The question is, are people willing to search out this truth in the only place that it can be found -- in the depth of the soul, as mediated by consciousness?
The question is, are people willing to search out this truth in the only place that it can be found -- in the depth of the soul, as mediated by consciousness?
Absolutely! That is what it is all about.
But nobody in their right mind would want that one, Alamo-Girl!
I really wasn't speaking tongue-in-check because anyone who truly rejects the free gift of God in Christ, or fails to diligently seek Him, is wanting to be erased. The second death, as I understand it, is not eternal torment for non-believing ordinary beings but it is eternal torment for the rebellious spiritual principalities, Satan and his fallen angels, watchers, etc.
A friend of mine has a son who is a long time resident of a mental institution. The son hears things that no one else hears, sees things that no one else sees, and, because he believes his senses, acts on the "information content" to the detriment of anyone in his vicinity.
Do you have any way of demonstrating to an objective observer that what you "know" is any different than what he "knows"?
Without history the game is over.