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It's hard not to imagine that being thrown into a lake of fire (LOF) would not be tormenting.

The LOF doesn't annihilate Satan (and the deceivers), because they experience continuous ("day and night") and unending ("forever and ever") torment beginning at the point they are cast into the lake and continuing into the endless future ("will be tormented").

There is nothing to suggest that those whose names were not found in the book of life and who were also thrown into the lake of fire, did not experience the same fate as Satan and his followers. There could be qualitatively difference experiences, but that would venture into speculation. I think we can say none of them will be anything less than tormenting.

I don't get hung up on the phrase "day and night" because it doesn't matter if it is figurative (using an expression in a context where there is no literal day or night), approximate (parallel periods which might constitute day and night) or literal. It could simply mean "without break". However, "forever and ever" implies and unending, timeless quality to the experience. There is no end to the torment.

It's a strain to arrive at annihilation when the straightforward meaning is natural and obvious. On the other hand, if the author had intended to express annihilation, he could have used many, unambigious expressions which do not strongly imply just the opposite.

It's hard not to imagine that being thrown into a lake of fire (LOF) would not be tormenting.

I'm sure it would be agonizing, but unless you are the devil, the beast, or the false prophet, the Bible doesn't say that your agony will go on forever and ever.

The LOF doesn't annihilate Satan (and the deceivers), because they experience continuous ("day and night") and unending ("forever and ever") torment beginning at the point they are cast into the lake and continuing into the endless future ("will be tormented").

The Bible only says that the LOF doesn't annihilate Satan. The verse that talks about the "smoke of their torment" going on forever and no "rest" day and night has already been explained. I understand you don't accept the explanations, but your response hardly convinces me that your context is correct.

There is nothing to suggest that those whose names were not found in the book of life and who were also thrown into the lake of fire, did not experience the same fate as Satan and his followers.

Revelations ends with a very specific warning...

Rev. 22:18-19 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.

So let's not add to what the verse says....

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The ONLY ones mentioned being tormented for ever and ever is ...
The Devil, The Beast, and the False Prophet.

It's a strain to arrive at annihilation when the straightforward meaning is natural and obvious.

I completely disagree with you there. If it was so straightforward and obvious, there would not be so much discussion and debate on this topic.

You can be a Christian and believe in a tormenting of human souls forever (I was for over 20 years), but that doesn't make it a correct understanding of God's Just punishment. This issue wont be settled here on Earth or FR, but we will find out after we die. I can rest easy and preach God's Justice with more conviction, though, now that I better understand what the Bible actually says and means.

>>However, “forever and ever” implies and unending, timeless quality to the experience.<<

I guess a lot of this depends on what the bible means when it says “death” and what it means when it says “forever and ever”.

One thing that is interesting is that when we are not discussing this issue, everyone knows what death means. It is an ending. Complete and total. Yet when we discuss the bible, people want to make it mean something else. Why is that?

And what does “forever and eve” really mean. That one is not so simple. Most would call it “eternity” (as strongs does). If one sees it simply from the perspective of this human existance, it means time never ending. For someone who sees linear time as merely one of the attributes of this “part” of creation, then “eternity” means something else.

I like to say that time is a current flowing in an ocean called eternity. When the bible says “forever and ever, I a, thinkingof what happened to Han Solo at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back”. He will be forever and ever in that position of torment, yet time does not “flow” for him.

Either that, or the bible seriously contradicts itself on this whole issue.

Seriously.

>>It’s a strain to arrive at annihilation when the straightforward meaning is natural and obvious.<<

Yes it is. If someone, today, created a 100 foot diameter lake of fire 20 feet deep and then threw me into it I know what would happen to me: I would suffer immense pain for a few seconds and then I would die. All done.

I did not have to strain the meaning of words at all to come to that conclusion.