Sheol: is it a place or a state of being?

[HSong]

Christian Universalism is true, that is, Christ will save all people. Because everyone will believe in Christ Jesus with faith alone. You also mention repentance. Repentance means when a person acknowledges that they have sin, that is, they understand that they are sinners and the wages of sin is death, thus realizing their need for a saviour.



ISAIAH 54:7-8 "For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the Lord your Redeemer.



Their graves, Sheol, the Lake of Fire, is the temporary mental anguish people feel when they realize that they have these sins. It's like the guilt of finding out you did something bad. From God's perspective, imagine you're a father and you find your son was playing outside and jumped into a big puddle of mud, even when you told them not too, and now they're all dirty. Well, they can't go inside the house and track up all that mud, they have to go out to the bath house outside and clean themselves up!



The Lake of Fire is a metaphor for when a blacksmith heats up iron ingots in a furnace (of affliction) so it can be molded into a desired shape. A metaphor of course, since it's really our spirits that get heated up by these flames of guilt.



ISAIAH 48:10 See, I have refined you ... I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.



A person can only change and be purified by sin by believing in Christ by faith alone, not of any good works, not by following the commandments, or upholding the law. Because we can only gain glorified bodies like Christ if we first believe in Christ, otherwise our good works are like filthy rags to the Lord.



ISAIAH 45:22-24 "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, `In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.'"

 

[Der Alte]

Eternal "conscious" torment? How is it possible if humans don't have an immortal soul? Just look at this thread as an example. If the presupposition for eternal life (immortality) is to believe in God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit - and we don't have spiritual life without God, then how are non-believers going to be given immortality in order to suffer for eternity? think about it.

Do you honestly think God can't do it? If there ain't no hell what would it matter if a person had both his hands or not?

Matthew 5:29-30
(29) And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
(30) And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.​

 

[Der Alte]

God describes Sheol with "sleep" and "bed" imagery, so whether you see it as a place or state of being depends on if you take these verses literally or metaphorically.
Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to olam life, others to shame and olam contempt.
Daniel 12:2 - Michael's Deliverance and the End Times
עוֹלָ֔ם (?ō?w?lām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5769:
The original Hebrew word for "everlasting" is correctly translated as "age lasting".
who sleep
מִיְּשֵׁנֵ֥י (m??yə????n?)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 3463: Sleeping
in Sheol,
שְּׁא֣וֹל (?ə??ō?wl)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 7585: Underworld (place to which people descend at death)
PSALM 139:8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
if I make my bed
וְאַצִּ֖יעָה (wə??aṣ?ṣ?āh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive imperfect Cohortative - first person common singular
Strong's 3331: To strew as a, surface
Why do people make a bed? To sleep on
1 Samuel 2:6 The Lord kills and he gives life, he sends down to Sheol, he can bring the dead up again.
The dead meaning all the dead brought up again.
Psalm 16:10 You will not leave my soul in Sheol.
The Lord will never leave anyone's soul in Sheol, everyone will enter into New Jerusalem!

"עוֹלָ֔ם (ōwlām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5769:
The original Hebrew word for 'everlasting' is correctly translated as 'age lasting'."
This statement is patently false. In the 1906 Jewish Publication Society [JPS] translation the Hebrew word "עוֹלָ֔ם (ōwlām) is translated "everlasting" 300+ times. It is never translated "age lasting!"
Link to JPS online: Online Bible
Daniel 12:2 from the JPS

2And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.​

 

[Der Alte]

Christian Universalism is true, that is, Christ will save all people. Because everyone will believe in Christ Jesus with faith alone. You also mention repentance. Repentance means when a person acknowledges that they have sin, that is, they understand that they are sinners and the wages of sin is death, thus realizing their need for a saviour.
***

If this is true why would Christ have to forcibly drag people to Himself?

John 12:32
(32) And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.​