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I have a question and am no Bible scholar, so forgive me.
It just seems so obvious to me, but again, not knowing the Bible well enough, I could be missing something.
When people reference "eternal fire," "eternal flames," "the fire that is never quenched," etc...why couldn't this literally be referencing the fire itself, not "punishment" eternally? I mean...why wouldn't it mean that the fire one is being thrown into for being such a baddie/not accepting Christ/etc. is what's eternal, that that fire never goes out and the threat is that you can never outlive the possibility of ending up there and instantly burning up...in other words, dying, going unconscious right then?
Why does "eternal fire" mean you're eternally in agony in it? You go into the fire, you poof, that's probably the end...right? Or am I taking this all too literally? Not literally enough? I know there are references to people in hell being in torment (i.e. Lazarus crying out) but where does it say that this punishment was forever...v. just the fire pit itself being forever available for sinners?
ETA: Also, wouldn't "forever" mean the person's forever? All the days a person is conscious of until he dies/is no longer conscious/can't feel pain/punishment?
I hope this question makes sense.
There are biblical references to some people's punishment being "more than others." If hell is the place you get tossed into forever and ever, how could your forever and ever be...more than someone else's? (Unless as I suggested above, "forever" just means until the person's physical death.) You know? That doesn't make any sense. Or is it saying the actual pain itself, which goes on forever and ever, is less for some/double for others, etc.? Like for instance, for some people whose sins were only kind of meh, the devil comes up to them once a day and gives them a paper cut or something v. eating the person's eyeballs or disembowling the person or what-have-you-gross-torment?
I have a question and am no Bible scholar, so forgive me.
It just seems so obvious to me, but again, not knowing the Bible well enough, I could be missing something.
When people reference "eternal fire," "eternal flames," "the fire that is never quenched," etc...why couldn't this literally be referencing the fire itself, not "punishment" eternally? I mean...why wouldn't it mean that the fire one is being thrown into for being such a baddie/not accepting Christ/etc. is what's eternal, that that fire never goes out and the threat is that you can never outlive the possibility of ending up there and instantly burning up...in other words, dying, going unconscious right then?
Why does "eternal fire" mean you're eternally in agony in it? You go into the fire, you poof, that's probably the end...right? Or am I taking this all too literally? Not literally enough? I know there are references to people in hell being in torment (i.e. Lazarus crying out) but where does it say that this punishment was forever...v. just the fire pit itself being forever available for sinners?
ETA: Also, wouldn't "forever" mean the person's forever? All the days a person is conscious of until he dies/is no longer conscious/can't feel pain/punishment?
I hope this question makes sense.
When Hell is mentioned in the bible, it has 4 different meanings. But most hardcore church goers will not even consider that. They will tell you it mean a lake where people will burn. Here are the 4: shoel, hades, gehenna, and tartarus. Neither of them mean the " lake of fire". But hardcore churchgoers will make it mean that no matter what you say. A good example is jonah, it say that he was in hell. i am sure most never heard that, so here it is : Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice.
so hell has a belly? jonah was in hell? to church goers that was not literal. most people of religion choose wehre it is literal and where it is not. That is the problem. This thread is gonna be all over the place. Go ahead a do a study on the word "forever", you will be suprized at what you find.
No one is ever tormented in hell/Gehenna. The last verse of Isaiah 66 says that their dead bodies are cast into Gehenna where the worm is not ceasing or the fires not quenched.
But the fires eventually will go out because this old earth will be replaced with a new heavens and new earth.
Even all the people who go into the lake of fire WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH (not life in flames), will come forth out of that death later on as 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 reveal to us.
Go ahead a do a study on the word "forever", you will be suprized at what you find.
Well yeah, that's another thing. I just edited my question above to include this. If people get "more" or "less" (or "double") others' post-death punishment, how can that be? How can one person's forever be longer than another person's forever?
To me the only answer is that no post-death punishment is meant to automatically be forever or even equal to another person's punishment, if punishment is in fact part of the equation.
Oh boy, here we go again. I've read enough threads on this forum to know where this is going to go by evening time, lol.
But you do bring up a good point about levels of punishment. What about the people who are (supposedly, if take this view) in hell now vs the ones who have yet to go there? How is it fair they are suffering longer than others who have yet to go there on probably different offenses of sin, some less some worse? And sin has to have certain levels if there are corresponding levels of punishment which is clearly shown in the NT, or else it wouldn't make sense.
But anywho, back to the main point, I always wanted to have your view of hell, that it is temporal and all. But then this thought always stops me: if the punishment is temporal but if the fire and punishment can be relegated to one another, then why add the extra description of it being eternal? Why would anyone care to say the punishment is not eternal, yet they stress again and again and verse after verse of the fires being eternal if it won't relate to anything?
It means either vain talking in descriptive language, or....it may actually mean something to the person going in....I dunno.
Oh boy, here we go again. I've read enough threads on this forum to know where this is going to go by evening time, lol.
But you do bring up a good point about levels of punishment. What about the people who are (supposedly, if take this view) in hell now vs the ones who have yet to go there? How is it fair they are suffering longer than others who have yet to go there on probably different offenses of sin, some less some worse? And sin has to have certain levels if there are corresponding levels of punishment which is clearly shown in the NT, or else it wouldn't make sense.
But anywho, back to the main point, I always wanted to have your view of hell, that it is temporal and all. But then this thought always stops me: if the punishment is temporal but if the fire and punishment can be relegated to one another, then why add the extra description of it being eternal? Why would anyone care to say the punishment is not eternal, yet they stress again and again and verse after verse of the fires being eternal if it won't relate to anything?
It means either vain talking in descriptive language, or....it may actually mean something to the person going in....I dunno.
The ones showing up now in hell they turn up the oven on them so they are roasted through the same, there's a glass front too so all those who believe in such a scenario can watch with the lamb . Can you believe it ?. You will end up there if you don't
The ones showing up now in hell they turn up the oven on them so they are roasted through the same, there's a glass front too so all those who believe in such a scenario can watch with the lamb . Can you believe it ?. You will end up there if you don't
But there's no glass ceiling for all the cute chicks in Hell!
But there's no glass ceiling for all the cute chicks in Hell!
Right . They do have huge disco mirror balls hanging off the ceiling, but unfortunately for them its reflecting the heat right back on them.
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