Replies

Actually, you are wrong about what you think Jesus has said about Hell and about what the Bible overall teaches about Hell and eternity. I don't have a lot of time tonight to go into all of this but here are a few quick keys.

One: Hell is not eternal. Hell is real and is the place where the lost will go UNTIL the great white throne Judgement. At that point they will be judged and then destroyed in the Lake of Fire along with death and Hell. This is what is called the second death or the death (ellimination or ending) of the soul.

Rev. 20:13-14 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Second, in order to be tortured forever you would have to be alive in some form forever which requires one to be immortal. We ONLY recieve or "put on" immortality when we accept Christ.

1Cr 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality.

When John 3:16 says that whoever accepts Jesus will recieve everlasting life, it is prefaced against the backdrop that those who don't die. Everlasting torture is not death. Death is and has always been an ending. The first death is the death of our earthly body. The second death, which only the unsaved will see, is the death or ending of their soul.

One more thing to think about...if the wages of sin is actually being tortured forever, then Jesus did not pay the price for sin because Jesus wasn't tortured forever. However, if the penalty for sin is the death of our physical bodies, then Jesus did indeed suffer that. There is much more in this article which examines all the verses dealing with hell and the eternity of the unbeliever. I encourage all to read it. It opened my eyes to what the plain truth of what Scripture actually says and not what some people have been told that it says.

http://jeremyandchristine.com/articles/eternal.php