—Maybe that’s your problem, you are trying to understand God!—
Well, thats not really the case here. I am trying to understand what he is communicating to us in His Word. And since He made the effort, I figure there is something He is trying to tell me.
Also, I am a VERY black and white thinker. I believe that issues are like black and white newspaper photographs. EVERYTHING is black and white. Even the “gray areas”, for if you look at them through a magnifying glass you will see that they are made up of individual black and white dots (actually black dots on white). So if I see an area as “gray”, it means I need to break it down further to its black and white components.
And likewise with the slaughterhouse analogy. I am saying that people infer things from God’s Word that are really not there. If I say I paint a fence blue for all eternity do I mean I spend eternity painting it blue, or that I paint it once and it “stays blue” for all eternity. I think that is actually what is being said about Hell and the lake of fire. People (in whatever post “first ressurection” form they take) are thrown into the lake of fire, to be destroyed and they stay destroyed, never to be heard from again.
But those who accept Jesus death and resurrection as the complete and perfect sacrifice as a covering for their sins will enjoy eternal LIFE in the presence of the Lord for all eternity.
One is called death and the other is called life. Those words have very “black and white” meaning. Death is an ending. A ceasing to exist. It is not “eternal life” in suffering. It is the opposite of life. And I don’t get into Pat Robertson’s twisting of the meaning of words by calling something a “form of death”. Death is death, within the context of the subject.
For mankind, post this life, there are two possibilities. It is black and white: 1. Eternal life in the presence of the Lord. 2. Eternal punishment - death. Ceasing to exist in any form whatsoever. The body dies when you go to the grave, whether Christian or not. What is left dies in the lake of fire if your sins are not covered via the blood of Christ.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to get so wordy. It just sort of flowed...
And to clarify, everything above is offered in the spirit of “opinion”. With further study, it is possible that some of that opinion could change. It is where I am now, though.
I read 3 things here:
(1)The beast (Anti Christ) and the false prophet have been in the Lake of Fire since Rev. 19:21, one thousand years earlier. They have not burned yet!
(2) They will be tormented forever and ever. This is the same Greek word used to describe the eternal blessings of the redeemed and the eternal nature of God. If it means eternal, and forever and ever in one case, it sure means the same in the other.
(3)Those who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior will be cast in the same lake of fire. Since Anti Christ and the false prophet are men, I must assume that it is possible for all men to be tormented forever and ever.
You sound like one who spiritualizes Revelation, e.g. "tormented" doesn't really mean tormented, and the flames of hell are just a symbol. Let's assume that's right. All symbols are poor representations of a larger reality, so if the flames/eternity of hell are symbolic, you know the "real thing" would be much worse.
Worst case, join a Seven Day Adventist Church. You'll be surrounded by people who think like you do. But I hope you never have a reason to remember this discussion!