If the word "eternal" means forever and ever and ever, you are right, but if the word "olam" OT and the word "aion" NT (words translated "eternal" in English bibles) actually mean "the age" or "pertaining to the age" or "age-long" then there are letigimate questions that need to be asked about the doctrine of eternal damnation. Also, if judgement is educative rather than just "payback" and the lake of fire is refining and pertaining to the age to come - death and hades destroyed in it but souls perhaps refined (these arguments can be gleaned from fair reading of scripture and understanding of the original words) THEN there are questions that need to be answered if we are to hld on to "eternal torture" as a doctrine. Nobody who is blogging or posting seems to be answering these fundamental questions.
Also an understanding of the word "gehenna" (translated as hell in the NT, especially Jesus' references) and its reference to the judgement on Israel in both Jeremiah and Jesus's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. In both cases the bodies of the Jews killed by the conquering armies were thrown into gehenna (the Valley of Hinnom - a very real historical place where it was said that the fire never went out and the worm did not die.
I'm open to being taught but no one seems to be answering the crucial questions!!!
Friend, there are points that, if brought into a conversion conversation, just bring the effectiveness down to near zero. In the same manor, if we question the translators we are, through disobedience, making God fit an image that has, for centuries, been conjured up in the minds of disobedient men to rationalize their actions.
Furthermore, we are commanded, by God, to believe as little children! Now, I have no idea what that means to you but when I grew up, my Dad was the toughest and smartest man the US Air Force ever had the good fortune to serve with them and when he said something, it was fact and unquestionable. In like manor, my sons and daughters believed every word I said to them and I was and still am one of the greatest men to ever pin a few medals on his chest.
So, in the Old and the New Testaments, God has given us a revelation of Himself that we are to believe, without question. In the Bible, God has revealed, to us, that He is the single, truly, Awesome, being in the universe, to include the Spirit Realm, also! He is the God that spoke and everything came into being. He is the God that breathed and a lump of clay lived. To question His revelation of Himself is tantamount to putting God in your pocket. If You believe that He is not the God that is able to preserve His Word then you can do as you wish with all of creation because you must be, at least, His equal and perhaps His better.
You tread, rather, without regard for you eternal destiny and that is a very dangerous path to explore. I wish you well but your faith is very weak.
