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To: Diamond

Yes, correct.

By the way, thanks for taking the time to discuss all this with me. I appreciate it.


69 posted on 06/09/2008 9:48:15 AM PDT by Overwatcher
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To: Overwatcher
No problem. I think you are incorrect about soul sleep or annhilationism, though. You are assuming what cannot be proved from the Bible, and what the Bible explicitly contradicts; namely that deaths mean absolute extinction of personal being and existence.

The eternal punishment that will be visited upon the wicked is not nonexistence. They will be punished with the same torment that is reserved for the devil and his angels:

Matthew 25:41
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Unless you can find some Biblical passage that says that angels or spirits die or cease to exist, you have no warrant for saying that the spirits of the wicked will cease to exist, for their punishment and their torment is alike eternal.

The idea of punishment itself implies consciousness. So does the word, "torment". Moreover, in the Bible there are degrees of punishment, which would make no sense if the "punishment" was mere nonexistence or personal extinction. The notion of degrees of nonexistence is absurd.

Cordially,

70 posted on 06/09/2008 10:33:50 AM PDT by Diamond
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