.....You are misreading or misrepresenting your Sodom proof text.
Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
The adjective "eternal" does not modify "suffering" or "vengeance." "Eternal" only modifies "fire."
? said:
Yes, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are still in hell, because they never repented of their sin and turned to God.
Neither Jude 1:7 nor any other passage of Sacred Scripture supports that statement.
The proper translation is important. Compare the "Interlinear" for Jude 7 via this site:
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/jude/1.htm
The Interlinear there says it is not "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire", as your posted version says, but the cities are "set forth as an example", "undergoing the penalty of fire aioniou".
Similarly, a literal version reads:
7 As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner to these committing ultra-prostitution, and coming away after other flesh, are lying before us, a specimen, experiencing the justice of fire eonian." (Jude 7, CLNT)
"We likewise subscribe to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, who "are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7). This occurred many centuries ago. How poor a passage to apply to that which is thousands of years hence!"
"The word "set forth" is, literally, "lying before." The term "example" or specimen, is from the word show. These are readily comprehended if we apply them to the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah today. Their destruction was so complete that their exact location is in dispute. Now the preponderance of opinion places them under the shallow end of the Dead Sea. No one can visit this terrible desolation without fully appreciating the force of these words."
"But we are asked to forget this solemn and forceful scene for an "example" which no one can see, and which is not at all "set forth" or "lying before" us. We are asked to forget the fire (Gen.19:24) which destroyed these cities so that the smoke of the plain went up like the smoke of a furnace. The justice or "vengeance" of this fire is all too evident to this very day. It is a powerful reminder of God's judgment which should deter those who are tempted to follow a similar path. This fire is called "eternal." Just now the plain is covered by water, not fire. It was an eonian fire, as is witnessed by its effect for the eon."
"Speaking of Jerusalem, Ezekiel gives us God's thoughts concerning Sodom. "As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters." And again, "When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters...then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them...when thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate" (Ezek.16:48,53,55)."
"2 Peter 2:6 gives a parallel passage, where we read that God condemns the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to cinders by an overthrow, having placed them for an example. This is perfectly plain, unless we try to distinguish between the cities and the people, and make conscious cinders suffer from flames beneath the waters of the Dead Sea."
"If the Sodomites were on public exhibition where all could see them suffering in the flames of a medieval hell, we might consider them as set forth as an example, but as no one has ever seen them, and no one can see them, they are no example at all. The cities, however, are lying before us as a specimen of God's eonian justice. The effects of the fire endure for the eon. When Jerusalem is restored, they will be restored."
http://concordant.org/expositions/h...efuted/reply-universalism-refuted-part-seven/
Do you believe that the city of Sodom in Israel today is still burning from the fire that destroyed it? Will the burning be "eternal" or has the "eternal fire" already ended? In which case "eternal" is a deceptive translation & the fire was temporary, not "eternal".
Do you think the city of Sodom in Israel is still burning by that "eternal fire" today? Or has it long ago been extinguished & was not "eternal" but eonian & finite? BTW, the same phrase, "eonian fire" also appears twice in Matthew (25:41; 18:8). If the eonian fire of Jude 1:7 was finite, then why can't the same in Matthew's account be finite?
Were the bodies of the people of Sodom destroyed (killed) by that fire destroyed forever, i.e. endlessly annihilated. No, it is a temporary destruction until their resurrection. Their resurrection will reverse that destruction. IOW the resurrection will destroy that destruction. Love Omnipotent destroys and then He makes alive again what He destroyed:
"See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." (Dt.32:39)
Jude doesn't refer to the fire burning in some "hell" somewhere. Rather he refers to a punishment whose effects were observable to the human eye.
Obviously fire & brimstone "destroyed" Sodom & the other cities:
Gen.19:24 Then the LORD rained down brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah— from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus He DESTROYED these CITIES and the entire plain, including all the INHABITANTS of the cities and everything that grew on the ground
Both the "cities" & the "inhabitants" received that destroying fire (Gen.19:24). Likewise Jude 1:7 refers to both the "cities" & the inhabitants who sinned:
7 As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner to these committing ultra-prostitution, and coming away after other flesh, are lying before us, a specimen, experiencing the justice of fire eonian.(CLV)
7 As, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having in like manner to these given themselves over to fornication, and gone away after other kind of flesh, lie exposed as an example, a penalty of age-abiding fire, undergoing. (Ro)
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in like manner to these, having given themselves to whoredom, and gone after other flesh, have been set before—an example, of fire age-during, justice suffering. (YLT)
The "example" is translated as "specimen" in the CLV above. Thayer's Greek lexicon says the Greek word (Strongs #1164, DEIGMA) for such translations means "a. properly, thing shown" & "b. a specimen of anything, example, pattern".
The CLV above says "lying before us". This is a translation of Strongs Greek word # 4295 (prokeimai). Thayer gives the meanings of it as "1. properly, to lie or be placed before (a person or thing), or in front" & "2. to be set before, i. e., a. to be placed before the eyes, to lie in sight; to stand forth".
So, therefore, as i've previously said:
Jude 1:7 refers to the "cities", which housed the populations. Obviously both were destroyed by the aioniou fire. You can go to Israel today & see the brimstone. So Jude 1:7 says they "are lying before us, a specimen, experiencing the justice of fire eonian". Jude doesn't say they are in the unseen underworld where no living human being can see them. Instead, he says, they are lying right here in front of our eyes, where anyone can see them, undergoing the justice of the eonian fire. But only until Sodom is restored (Ezek. 16).
