Why did Jesus bother to go down to Hell, if those souls there were already annihilated?
Why did Jesus warn us about the One who can throw us into Hell, if it isn’t a big deal to go to Hell? (i.e. because you will cease to exist?)
Everlasting = eternal
You are preaching damnable nonsense. Start your own thread on the subject.
Hell Bible Verses
Revelation 21:8
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liarsthey will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
Matthew 25:46
46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
Psalm 9:17
2 Thessalonians 1:9
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
Mark 9:43
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
Jude 1:7
7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Matthew 25:41
41 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Revelation 19:20
20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Revelation 21:8
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liarsthey will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
However, all make a clear point. In the case of the latter, everyone knows what happens to something flamable when you throw it into a lake of fire. It gets burned up. It is where you throw something to destroy it.
Traditionalists argue that since eternal (αἰώνιος, aionios) is used in both clauses, the duration of the punishment for the damned must endure as long as the duration of the life for the redeemed. And most conditionalists do not disagree! If the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), such that the damned will die and never live again, then the duration of the punishment surely is every bit as eternal. It is not the punishing itself that is eternal, a process that never ends. It is the punishment that is eternal, the final death sentence which is permanent (i.e., forever).
When eternal describes a so-called noun of action in the New Testamentthat is, the noun corresponding to a verb (punishment versus punish)it frequently is the verbs outcome, not its process, whose duration is everlasting. Eternal judgment refers to the everlasting outcome of a finite process of judging (Hebrews 6:2). Eternal salvation and eternal redemption refer to the everlasting outcome of a finite process of saving and redeeming (Hebrews 5:9, 9:12). Eternal sin refers to a sin the consequences of which are eternal (Mark 3:29, unless its original reading is eternal judgment, in which case it is once again the everlasting outcome of a finite process of judging). Likewise eternal punishment may refer to the everlasting outcome of a finite process of punishing.
Of course, some conditionalists argue that αἰώνιος is not properly translated "eternal" in the first place. Rather, they make a case for understanding it as having a qualitative meaning, rather than a quantitative one. In their view, αἰώνιος life does not inherently communicate everlasting life in the sense of forever ongoingalthough they believe that that teaching can be found elsewherebut rather a kind of life, one corresponding to the age to come. In other words, eternal might refer to the quality of the age in which the life is lived, that is in the age of, and with the qualities of, eternitynot merely a temporal quantity. This explanation would also track with the idea that the eternal fire of Jude did not continue to burn in Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, but was of an eternal nature and origin. Likewise αἰώνιος punishment may refer to the punishment corresponding to the age to come, not one of unending duration.
From here: http://rethinkinghell.com/explore/
According to the traditional view, this eternal destruction Paul speaks of militates against conditionalism. At best there would be no point, it is argued, in calling annihilation eternal; the word destruction would be sufficient, making the qualifier superfluous. At worst the presence of the qualifier means the destruction must last forever, an eternal destroying. The wicked are also said to experience this away from (ESV) or while shut out from (NIV) the presence of the Lord.
As a matter of fact, it makes perfect sense for Paul to call the destruction awaiting the resurrected wicked eternal. Although in this life they die only to face resurrection to judgment, thereafter they are destroyed forever, sentenced to the second death which is eternal. And the phrase shut out from (NIV) does not appear in the original Greek; even the translation away from (ESV) is dubious. But if we were to accept that meaning, all it would mean is that the destruction takes place away from the presence of God. The unsaved will be sent away from Gods presence, thrown into a furnace of fire where they will be burned up (Matthew 13:40-42).
Paul said in the preceding verses that Jesus will be revealed in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance"a combination of terms found elsewhere only in Isaiah 66:15. This chapter of Isaiah, and the book as a whole, ends with the wicked having been reduced to lifeless, smoldering, maggot-ridden corpses. This is then the eternal destruction of which Paul speaks, being destroyed, rendered lifeless, never to live again.
From Here: http://rethinkinghell.com/explore/
Mark 9:43
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
FWIW, that is a poor translation. The strongs words there are 762 and 4442. The problem is that 762 is translated in strongs as unquenchable/unquenched, and 4442 is tranlated as fire.
So whoever translated your quote into english translated “unquenchable/unquenched fire” into “fire never goes out.”
An unquenchable fire may or may not go out, but it can not be “put out”. Kinda like a nuclear reaction or a sun. It is “unquenchable” but eventualy goes out on its own. The point being that you can do nothing about it and its effect. And anyone reading that book or listening to His words knows what throwing something into an unquenchable fire like the sun will do to it. That is why the words were used.
The phrase eternal fire evokes in the mind of the traditionalist a picture of the unsaved burning and suffering in flames for all eternity. And it is assumed that this eternal fire, prepared for the demons, is the same lake of tormenting fire found in the symbolic imagery of Revelation 20. But the text indicates that it is the fire which is eternal, not those thrown into it. And the use of the phrase elsewhere indicates that eternal fire utterly destroys and reduces to lifeless remains.
Jesus uses the phrase elsewhere, in Matthew 18:8, and his admonition there, also recorded in Matthew 5:30 and Mark 9:43, likens final punishment to Gehenna, a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew valley of [the sons of] Hinnom, which was once a place where idol worshippers burned up children as sacrifices to their gods. But Jeremiah 7:32-33 says that Gehenna would become the Valley of Slaughter . . . And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. Isaiah 30 speaks of Gods fiery vengeance upon Gehenna, likening it to a funeral pyre, which is a pile of wood for burning up corpses.
Another place the phrase eternal fire is used is in Jude 7, where Jude writes that Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Jude explicitly states that the cities suffered the punishment of eternal fire, as many theologians admit. No wonder the parallel in 2 Peter 2:6 refers to their having been reduced to ashes.
The punishment of eternal fire is therefore not suffering for eternity as everlasting fuel for its flames. Rather, it is the punishment of being utterly destroyed, completely burned up, reduced to nothing but lifeless corpses and ashes by a fire that is eternal insofar as it cannot be quenchedno mere earthly fire but an eternal fire from God.
From here: http://rethinkinghell.com/explore/
Revelation 19:20
20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
This one actually supports annihilation. Notice it clearly points out that whoever it is talking about (Personally, I believe it is God) can destroy both the body and soul, which is exactly what I think will happen to those who have not received eternal life.
This one is actually used as a proof text for Conditional Immortality, not eternal conscious torment.