Replies

RE: No rest until they are consumed.

Let’s get back to the verse again...

” torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, “

There is not indication in that verse in Revelations 14 that says UNTIL such and such a time.

It says forever and ever.

RE: And to be frank, I’ve noticed something about human nature in my 60 years: The more nonsensical a threatened outcome seems to a person, the less seriously they take it.

Be careful that you don’t call something nonsensical simply because it doesn’t comport to your preconceived notion of how God views justice.

I am in sympathy to your point of view, but the verses I read IN TOTO do not support the view that the punishment is of limited duration. If any, the tenor of the words push towards the opposite ( as in Revelations 14 and Matthew 25 ).

Also, we do a non-believer any favors by presenting to him a teaching that does not do justice to what God’s word teaches. A doctor’s job is to tell his patient the truth and to tell him the remedy REGARDLESS of whether the patient likes the truth or not.

RE: What the english bible’s call “eternal punishment” I call “eternal banishment”.

Now, if you want to discuss the NATURE of the punishment, we can discuss it in a separate thread. But to say that the words “forever and ever” and torment do not mean what they mean is pushing it. I want to be convinced, but the Bible does not permit me to.

” torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, “

Yes. You are trying too hard to parse words, translated into english. Nothing wrong with that unless you base important doctrine on it. In which case, there better be plenty of other scriptures to back it up.

I was reading Romans again this morning and noticed how much Paul uses figures of speech. We are told very clearly not to fear and that fear is the opposite of faith, yet paul admonishes us to be afraid. That is contradictory if you parse words as a computer would. But if you understand the language, you understand the message.

This is why it is so difficult for computers to translate languages, though they are getting better at it all the time.

RE: I am in sympathy to your point of view, but the verses I read IN TOTO do not support the view that the punishment is of limited duration.

I actually feel the same way, but the reverse. I think the pain of punishment is of VERY short duration, as the duration of the pain of being eaten by a great white shark is of limited duration. But the “punishment” itself is eternal: You are dead and you are not coming back.