I didn't say that you are the only person wrong about eternal punishment. Our English Bibles are quite clear and consistent. Eternal punishment is indeed eternal, NEVER ending.
This is an assumption. The same Greek term is used in the Septuagent for the covenant of circumcision:
Genesis 17:13
He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an
everlasting covenant.
Paul clearly illustrates how this was fulfilled in Jesus Christ in Galatians and is no longer applicable.
Also, the functioning of the Levitical priesthood was to be "everlasting":
Leviticus 16:34 (KJV)
34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses.
And what about Jonah's prayer?
Jonah 2:1-6
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jonah's Prayer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
I don't know about your Bible... but my Bible states that Jonah was in the belly of a whale for 3 days and three nights.
The point is... the term is often a figure of speech, a euphanism denoting an indefinite or extensively long period of time. Just like we might say that we, "Stood in line forever."
The term is also used to denote the nature of a thing as opposed to duration. The "everlasting covenats" or "eternal covenants" were everlasting or eternal in that they were provided by God... yet they came to an end in Christ's fulfillment of them.
Therefore, "eternal punishement" can be interpreted as being a form of punishment that is "eternal" in nature... and not duration.
We see that "everlasting" doesn't always mean "forever" in several verses. Consider Habakkuk 3:6
Habakkuk 3:6
King James Version (KJV)
6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
Are the mountains "everlasting" in the sense of lasting forever??? No. The very same verse describes their destruction. Then God's attribute of "everlasting" is assailed above the temporal interpretation of "everlasting".
So... one can believe that God will torture countless numbers of souls FOREVER in a fiery torture chamber if such a horror motivates them to love Him (or else)... or... one can believe that Hell serves a greater purpose in God's plan of redemption. Yes, Hell's flame is "eternal" in nature. But that doesn't mean that a soul's stay there must be forever in duration. Regardless of what one might say about Hell, there is one thing we can be assured of. One day
EVERY KNEE shall bow and
EVERY TONGUE shall confess that Jesus is Lord... to the
GLORY of God the Father:
Philippians 2:9-11
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Is God "glorified" in torture? Or is God "glorified" in the reconciliation of the lost soul unto salvation?
Huh, like what?
