And what can be said for the discernment being seen here? We see scripture that says words for lake of fire or hell, and passages referring to people's ruin and it being better to enter heaven with limbs cut off than hell with all of them intact. How can that be interpreted or discerned into saying there's a universal reconciliation? I've seen those who support an idea like that get railed for that, but in all fairness it seems like you're misinterpreting the meaning of all when you references the phrases that supposedly speak for all mankind, when it's made quite clear not everyone will be saved because not all have faith.
Romans 1 NIV
18-31:
"18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. "
Romans 2 NIV
"1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? 4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God "will give to each person according to what he has done."[
a] 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11For God does not show favoritism.
12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares."
So we have no excuse to say even though God is loving and merciful he wouldn't ever do such a thing as condemn someone eternally, where it's clear he has in store wrath and anger and judgment for the sinner. Do you not know the price of inequity? Do you not know the wage of sin is death? Do you not know the only atonement is Christ? If hell is indeed Gehenna, or a trash heap, would God send away the ragged and wretched to a burning fire suited for garbage? If you send your filth to a landfill for a week, does it come back as gold? Of course not, it is still garbage and even filthier! This is such the nature of a sinner. Their unrepentant sin is their filth, a stain and blackness that God cannot tolerate, and such it is tossed away with those who carry it. And being higher beings than garbage, than how much worse the punishment! Sentient minds committing atrocities full aware of the warning given but ignoring because they believe in another so called god, or disbelief in one all together, when they had Christ to forgive them? There is no excuse, there is no escape. God's punishment will be just, and it will be eternal. There is no side stepping this issue. If you think otherwise, you are mistaken. If you say otherwise, you are misleading.
Romans 3 NIV
"21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[
i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law."
Only by Faith are we saved. No one can earn it, no one can be so glorious to attain salvation of their own works for we are all sinners by birth, all deserving destruction for our inequity. So stop misguiding yourself and others to the conclusion that Hell is not eternal or the grave or whatever you want to call it. Stop selling the message short.
We are all born in peril. We are all born in danger of eternal damnation by our sins. So therefore, the news that we can be spared this fate, it is your duty to warn those who you can of Christ's sacrifice, acceptance of him through Faith to spare others of that so we can reconcile with the dear Lord above who loves us so to do such a thing! For even though he loves us, he must still uphold the laws he has set down if he is to truly be just! Do not think he cannot be both a judge and a loving father! Believe or do not believe, but do not spread false gospel!
Hell is both real, and furthermore, it is justified by God himself! You cannot speak of things pertaining to the hereafter without including God into the equation. It is not a place set aside by man for men, or a thing invented in translation, it is a place to come, a fate yet to be assigned. The Final Judgment when death and the grave are handed into the lake of fire to come, that is the fate of both the unrepentant and the devil and his angels. They were deceived by the devil, rejected truth in Christ, and will be judged accordingly for their trespasses. So warn people of this danger, bring them forth Christ, help them be freed from their sins and bondage and let them to rejoice in the Lord instead of sitting contently, dreaming that hell will only purge them of their sin, for it is not so.
