Is eternal suffering literal?

Ps82

Well-known member
everyone is raised john 5.29
Yes all raised where ever they exist at this time and ultimately case into the Lake of Fire. At that event ALL death and ALL Hell will be no more.
Joh 5:29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Yes. Those who have done well to follow Christ will experience the joys of eternal life in the kingdom of our Lord.
Those who have not grasped onto the Savior nor received merciful salvation will see their final ... eternal ... judgment called the Lake of Fire.
its everlasting for everyone Dan 12:2 , Mat 25:46

I believe only Christ has the gift of eternal life. Those in that place currently called hell will suffer with their lives sustained until God is ready to end things as we know them.
Dan 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Yes. I agree with this. They awake to shame and will be an everlasting contempt. They will never be considered to have been anything good.

Mat 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Yes. Their punishment will be eternal for they will never live again to receive their next measure of life.
"the Dead " are called dead before they die and called dead after they are resurrected from the dead
dead doesn't mean cessation of existence

I agree. God has a different perspective of death ... Scripture reveals there is a first death and then a second death. Most people grasp the meaning of the first death. It is of our bodies. Yet, there are people already destined for hell and then the Lake of Fire while they are walking around in mortal bodies. An all knowing God sees the truth even before they die physically. He has a place ready for storing their living spirits until he is ready to make everything new. That place is called hell where they live even though they died the first death ... but the Second Death is something different. Hell and the first death will be no more... the contemptable eternally judged and meeting their final judgement... what ever spiritual life they had went back to God from which it came. God is omni-present and nothing of him is ever lost. God is not diminished because lost individuals are no more.

Mat_8:22 And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

Agree. God knows the hearts of men and the fate to which they are determined to go.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, the small and the great, stand before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

I agree. All are raised and face the final judgment ... no matter their status in life. Books were opened which tell of their sins and their destiny. Only those who are in The Book of LIFE will receive that additional measure of LIFE from God to take them into eternity. The names of the LOST are NOT THAT BOOK. They do not receive that LIFE Jesus has to give his followers.

How can the lost live eternally when they are not given that measure of eternal life from Jesus?
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Yes. Most certainly they will. Now The Lake of Fire was first planned for the angels who had been given eternal life. They will suffer forever in the Lake of Fire. The angels' first death is the same as mankind's Second Death except I believe Angels live in torment and mankind is finally obliterated.

I see things this way. God created mankind as a bodiless spirit and then gave him a body formed from the ground [elements of creation]. God then cursed the ground for man's sake. How? So he could rid the spirit of an individual from the cursed body of the ground and give individuals a new eternal body in heaven. The spirits of lost humanity will not receive that new body having eternal life ... and life will return to God but no longer as those humans found contemptable.
 

Ps82

Well-known member
when one gets away from God's word and into their own words, Hell is a little closer
Are you saying that interpretation, understanding, and comprehension can't take place when reading the Bible? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit can reveal truth to the Holy Spirit filled believers? Without these possibilities there would be no language translations, no studies to do, no commentaries to write, no reasons for discussions on TOL.
 

SwordOfTruth

Active member
Now The Lake of Fire was first planned for the angels who had been given eternal life. They will suffer forever in the Lake of Fire. The angels' first death is the same as mankind's Second Death except I believe Angels live in torment and mankind is finally obliterated.

It beggars belief that anyone could regard an entity that sets up such a Lake of fire and plans for it to be used, as being in any way all-loving or benevolent. That's just madness, blind stupidity.


I see things this way. God created mankind as a bodiless spirit and then gave him a body formed from the ground [elements of creation].

It was the other way round (if you're intent on taking the text literally instead of allegorically).

First the body was formed from the clay. Then the life/spirit was breathed into him thus animating the body.


God then cursed the ground for man's sake. How? So he could rid the spirit of an individual from the cursed body of the ground and give individuals a new eternal body in heaven.

If God wanted humans to be spirit beings then why did he put them in physical clay bodies in the first place? That makes no sense.


The spirits of lost humanity will not receive that new body having eternal life ... and life will return to God but no longer as those humans found contemptable.

Your life force, the spirit/quintessence is immortal. It is the universal source of all living things. It is already God if you want to insist on giving it that name (whatever makes you comfortable!). God is already in all of us and always has been. That's why we live. God is that universal life force of all things. The self, the "I", the ego is an illusiory construction caused by the mind and the senses. We are living spirit beings trapped in mortal bodies and will be freed when those mortal bodies perish. That is our true self.

TEMET NOSCE
 
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