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You keep using those carnal humanistic understandings which are not consistent with the meaning of the Greek words I’ve referenced. “Never ending torment” means “it will not end”. Trying to force some meaning into that which causes someone to believe that the torment will at some point end is contrary to the meaning of the Greek words.

>>Then you use Thess 1:9, to point out the meanings of the word “destruction” as ruin, doom or destruction. Yet you suggest that does not mean annihilation.<<

I don’t suggest anything. I gave you the definition and intent of the word that Greek scholars have written. Here it is again and where it can be found.

3639 /ólethros ("ruination") however does not imply "extinction" (annihilation). Rather it emphasizes the consequent loss that goes with the complete "undoing." [http://biblehub.com/greek/3639.htm]

>>I also believe the fire will be everlasting.<<

Once again, it means “never ending”. Neither the fire nor the torment will end.

I also see we have fallen into mincing words ad-nausium. I am left to fall back on all the other words the bible uses to describe the fate of the lost and interpret which of the many meanings apply based on his personality as a loving AND just God illustrated by the entirety of the bible.

I’m left with this:

Adam and Eve were to spend time with God in the Garden but they sinned. They were banished from the garden and destined to live out the days of their life and then die. They could not spend eternity with Him because He hates sin and it can’t exist in His presence. Think of it as a nausiating smell to Him.

But God knew this would happen before he created them and had a plan already in place.

The plan was that the blood required as a disinfectant removing the odor would be spilled. The blood of His Son. All any human being has to do to get this freshening bath is to accept it as a free gift. In the process the human would begin a relationship with Jesus which would cause him to stop wallowing in the muck so much - but Jesus knew that, all of us occupying a human body, we would be constantly falling away even due to our best efforts. But as long as we accepted His blood, we would be good to one degree or another (1 Corinthians 3:15).

So, to leave out a lot of detail and cut to the quick...

So here’s the deal. There are three kinds of people:
1. Those that hear the word and accept it.
2. Those that hear the word and reject it.
3. Those that never heard the word.

Group number one is the one discussed in John 3:16 that will receive eternal life. Groups 2 and three fall into the “perish” part of the same verse. They did not avail themselves to God’s plan and will be destroyed, as animals are. Funny thing is that this week I was listening to the NT and it actually called fate of some the same as the animals.

That is God’s justice. And he is a God of his word. And what I just described is peppered throughout the bible, both testaments. And both fates are eternal. We are given a brief mist in this body and then the judgement. Group 1 chooses wisely. Group two chooses poorly. Group 3 never gets a choice.

None of what I say above about the fate of the non-believer is cast in stone in my brain, but that description gives you a feel for where I come from.