Seems like forever!
Then you only partly disagree with me... on the punishment
You partly disagree with Timothew who denies it's forever.
I disagree with the concept of 'scriptures teaching'. They say something but often the 'teaching' comes from peopel's reading of them and interpreting what they think scripture says.
Your interpretation is similar to Islam's - that we simply pass through a fire. I'm always amazed how many doctrines from Islam have crept into some Protestant groups.
However for my understanding the punishment is forever in direct parallel to heaven being forever.
However like with Timothew you theory doesn't account for scripture that says the opposite.
And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power," (2 Thess. 1:9).
"Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 7).
These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever," (Jude12-13).
Is Hell Eternal? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
Adventists, however, believe that each wicked person will burn in length, intensity, and duration according to their works. In proportion to the light rejected, they will suffer accordingly.
Annihilationism within Christinaity never came from Islam. It was simply "coincidence" that they developed a view very similar to ancient Christianity. But no evidence suggests that "Islamic thinking" on the punishment of man was "infiltrated" into Christian thinking. Dr. LeRoy Froom's "Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers" (the largest volume set on death and hell and the punishment of man ever created on the history of this planet...close to 2,500 pages), shows thousands and thousands of ancient sources showing that there indeed was the belief of conditionalism associated with the Jews and the early Protestants.
However, what can be proven, is that ceaseless burning came not from the Bible, but from the Pagan Plato. It is Platonic thinking, and Tertulian was the one that pushed this perfidious pagan mythology.
There is the heinous doctrine of eternally burning flames of hell licking on the souls of men as long as God shall last, where the wicked suffer endlessly throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity (an impossibility knowing full well that the lake of fire must be removed off the earth in order for it to be recreated—Hell-Fire and the Lake of Fire are one and the same place based on thorough exegesis of scripture—the same fire that burns up all the elements of the earth) -- According to Froom,
"it was Tertullian who first affirmed that torments of the lost will be co-equal and co-exist with the happiness of the saved." (Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers., vol. 1, p. 950.) Tertullian's propositions needed other modifications:
"He [Tertullian] confessedly altered the sense of Scripture and the meaning of words, so as to interpret 'death' as eternal misery and 'destruction' and 'consume' as pain and anguish. 'Hell' became perpetually dying, but never dead" (Ibid., vol. 1, p. 951). Without hesitation, Tertullian referred directly to Plato (a Greek philosopher) in his writings. Plato's primary theme,
"every soul is immortal," became Tertullian's unwavering platform (Tertullian, On the Resurrection, chap.3, quoted in ANF, vol.3, p. 547). These church fathers followed suit by including Tertullian's propositions in their public preaching and writing: Minucius Felix, Cyprian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, John Chryosostom and Jerome (translator of the Bible into the Latin Vulgate).
– Articles:
Hell Truth.com –
Exegesis on the Greek word “aionios” [“forever”] employed in Revelation 14:11; 19:3; & 20:10 – What do these phrases “everlasting fire” and “tormented day and night forever and ever” mean? –
The Truth About Hell.org –
Is HELL for Eternity? – (
Remember, if the Soul is not “immortal”, then the Soul cannot live endlessly amidst the burning flames of fire)
The very thought that the wicked will burn ceaselessly throughout the ages of eternity for the life of only 60-90 years of apostasy is a disgrace to the character of God. It is a horrendous doctrine that has defaced the name of Christianity, and has inspired atheism and unbelief. It is a Roman doctrine; a pagan doctrine—and not built upon “precept upon precept, line upon line” inspiration (Isa 28:9-13). The scriptures are clear, hell-fire is not burning right now, rather takes place at the “end of the age” (2 Pet 2:9; Matthew 13:40-42, 49, 50; John 12:48; John 5:29; Job 21:30-32). The wicked shall sleep in their tombs until the resurrection of damnation at the end of the millennium.
The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is CLEARLY a parable for which Jesus took the common preconceived story of the Pharisees and gave it an unexpected twist.
“In this parable Christ was meeting the people on their own ground. The doctrine of a conscious state of existence between death and the resurrection was held by many of those who were listening to Christ's words. The Saviour knew of their ideas, and He framed His parable so as to inculcate important truths through these preconceived opinions.” (Christ Object Lessons, pg. 263) This fact is affirmed by the words of Josephus in his “Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades” that the Pharisees believed that there was a “great gulf fixed” between the wicked and the righteous under the earth where the wicked were tormented in
hades on the left while the righteous were in the bosom of Abraham on the right—clearly pagan ideology stemming from the Greeks revealing itself in Hellenized Judaism.
We have no basis to question as to whether this story of Jesus was truly a parable or not. Cross referencing the phrase
“There was a certain rich man” in Luke 16:19 with the phrase
“There was a certain man” (15:11) and
“There was a certain rich man” (16:1) gives it away, as we know that 1. Christ was notorious for starting out his parables with this introductory formula (“There was a certain…”
, 2. The stories told in chapters 15 and first half of 16 were clearly parables, and 3. It becomes obvious that embedded in Christ’s parable was also a prophecy foretelling the resurrection of a real man named Lazarus (16:31). The conclusive evidence that this is a parable lies in the fact that the parable is describing actual “body parts” – a “bosom” (v22), “eyes” (v23), a “finger” (v24) and a “tongue” (v24). Yet we know the body will not be thrown into the fire until “the end of the age” (Matt 5:29, 30; 13:38-42; 49, 50) Scripture does not and cannot contradict itself (if we are going to treat it justly). It does not tell you that fire will burn the wicked only at the end of the age in the majority of the texts, then suddenly turn around and contradict itself and say that the rich man burning in hell means the wicked are presently in torment. This raises a serious problem, and should cause us to address this issue head on. This is what atheists love. Atheist laugh at traditional Protestant theology that garbles up this mythology and it makes Christianity out to look
absolutely despicable! I say that if we are going to have more success in spreading the gospel, we will be
consistent in our theology. We will not give way for the atheist to find inconsistency in our theology. God can and will help us rightly divide the word of truth if we are faithful and have a desire to know what is truth, and the truth shall set us free!
It's time for Christianity to come back to pure, unadulterated Christian thinking, and clean out all pagan philosophy from our mental perceptions in our scriptural reading.
I'm not sure how you get NON-destruction from this verse.
