JacobMartinMertens wrote:jaydam wrote:JacobMartinMertens wrote:Whether the word everlasting or eternal is used, it is talking about punishment.
You're not getting it. The word everlasting or eternal is the English word a person has chosen in place of the Greek word aionios. The Greek word can mean many things. Interpreters have decided to lock it into one meaning that is not necessarily founded.
They could have also interpreted it into "go off to
an age of punishment" or "go off into
a period of punishment." Look at the Greek like you did with hades.
I think you are saying you are not against punishment but you don't know if either of the words eternal or everlasting should be used.
You do believe in the lake of fire, presumably because it is spoken of in Revelation.
Is there a difference between death and hades?
Revelation 20:7-15 NASB - 7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. 9 And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Death is obviously not an object which can be thrown, but the idea is that death is to no longer exist, therefore it is done away with in the lake of fire. If death no longer exists, then the grave is unnecessary as well, so it is done away with by being thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire is seen in this way as an incinerator which eradicates what is thrown into it. Therefore, why would we not also see that the human souls tossed into the lake are likewise done away with like death and the grave?
This solution would keep you happy with being punished eternally because if you are annihilated through incineration, then you have been punished with eternal consequences.
Not to confuse the matter more, but the problem with the lake of fire is that so much is symbolic in the book of Revelation, why should we take it literally that there is an actual lake of fire? My understanding is that it is symbolic and not literal.
So, what is the symbolic meaning? I think it is like the other places fire is seen symbolically. It consumes what is of straw/chaff and allows what is precious to survive. This is how fire is used in other prophetic passages in the Bible.
This would allow death and the grave to be entirely consumed and eradicated. As for the souls, it would either mean they are likewise eradicated or they go through a painful process where what little that is precious about them survives and the rest of them is destroyed.