What purpose does it truly serve? Is there anything one person can do that is so horrible that they deserve an eternity of indefinite torture? No bible quotes please just opinions. The bible can be interpreted every which way and there are verses supporting both sides of either arguments. What purpose does an eternal hell serve? Or an afterlife for that matter. What do we accomplish by being alive after death, or more importantly what does god? Supposedly only humans are allowed this divine privilege. Perhaps other creations are considered inferior? Just curious what anyone thinks on the matter.
Speaking as someone who leans towards universalist thought. Hell serves as a place of temporary remedial purification of the soul for the benefit of said soul. It is not eternal. God's love and wisdom won't allow for it and all things will eventually be returned to Him. I don't know what eternal life looks like. Your guess is as good as mine. Guess of the Night: I think we'll all return to God and cease to exist at an individual level.
Speaking as someone who doesn't want to presume to be arrogant enough to know God's will. I don't know if it(hell) is eternal, thats up to God.
Speaking as a sarcastic jerk; Hell is eternal because the all knowing God, knowing His creation would rebel; created them anyway. Because a divine ego needed to be satisfied through worship by disposable peons. Who will be thrown into eternal torture if they mess up on their only go through life for finite actions that are about as significant to God; as a fly farting on the Rocky Mountains.
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As I'm sure you're aware, the Bible is unequivocal about hell being both destruction and eternal. It is both.
Eternal: perpetual, endless, ceaseless.
Destruction: the act of putting an end to something.
Thus, if something is "eternally destroyed" it is in a perpetual or ceaseless state of non-existence. I would agree that the Bible teaches that hell is both destruction and eternal, but I would disagree with what most Christians today seem to think that means. Those who are eternally destroyed will die and will never be resurrected. Those who are redeemed will be resurrected unto eternal life.
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Originally Posted by dies-l
Eternal: perpetual, endless, ceaseless.
Destruction: the act of putting an end to something.
Thus, if something is "eternally destroyed" it is in a perpetual or ceaseless state of non-existence. I would agree that the Bible teaches that hell is both destruction and eternal, but I would disagree with what most Christians today seem to think that means. Those who are eternally destroyed will die and will never be resurrected. Those who are redeemed will be resurrected unto eternal life.
And have you not heard that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways greater than ours? Ask Him to explain it, I cannot. But there is no doubt that He refers to hell as both eternal and destruction. You can't argue out of that fact.
I'm not going to explain this to you. I don't have the time. However, I suggest you study the separation of the soul and the body, and discover what happens to them after physical death.
And have you not heard that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways greater than ours? Ask Him to explain it, I cannot. But there is no doubt that He refers to hell as both eternal and destruction. You can't argue out of that fact.
I'm not going to explain this to you. I don't have the time. However, I suggest you study the separation of the soul and the body, and discover what happens to them after physical death.
The problem with that analysis is that we are not talking about God's thoughts vs. my thoughts. We are talking about your interpretation of what God said (your thoughts) vs. my interpretation of what God said (my thoughts). And, after having thoroughly studied the matter in Scripture, I am convinced that mine is more consistent with the entirety of biblical teaching on the matter. The hell of eternal conscious torment for unsaved man appears nowhere in Scripture; however, the idea of permanent death for the unsaved and physical resurrection only for the redeemed appears throughout the New Testament. I will not try to argue out of any opinion that you might present on the matter; I will let Scripture speak for itself. And, when you show me where in Scripture the concept of eternal conscious torment or anything of the like is described in Scripture, I will discuss.
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It serves no purpose. Hell as a place of eternal torment is not a biblical idea and was only added on to "christianity" many years after the apostles. Now believers of eternal torment twist themselves around backwards trying to defend the doctrine, but unless the words perish, death, destroy and destruction are radically redefined they can't defend the doctrine. According to the bible, the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment is hell. The penalty is eteranl destruction, not eternal torment in hell.
You will see the redefining of death, destruction, perish and destroy a few posts down from this one.
Last edited by Timothew; 9th July 2012 at 03:27 PM.
Reason: lots of typos
It serves no purpose. Hell as a place of eternal torment is not a biblical idea and was only added on to "christianity" many years after the apostles. Now believers of eternal torment twist themselves around backwards trying to defend the doctrine, but unless the words perish, death, destroy and destruction are radically redefined they can't defend the doctrine. According to the bible, the wagtesof sin is death, not eternal torment is hell. Teh penalty is eteranl destruction, not eternal torment in hell.
You will see the redefining of death, destruction, perish and destroy a few posts down from this one.
What about verses dealing with fire and "weeping and gnashing of teeth"?
What about verses dealing with fire and "weeping and gnashing of teeth"?
What about them? They say nothing that contradicts or undermines what he said.
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Why an eternal hell? 
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