Proclaimer replied to the topic Is Hell eternal? in the forum Truth or Tradition 3 years, 11 months ago
This is my understanding. Yes, hell is eternal.
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
The question is the Lake of Fire. But scripture says that only the righteous inherit eternal life. So the idea that the wicked will have eternal life too albeit in a burning lake seems not only cruel but contradicts that life comes from God’s spirit / breath and that it is given back to God. Scripture nowhere teaches us that God fills the wicked with his breath for all eternity.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Not saying you disagree with this. Just clarifying my position on this.
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Scripture says that when we’re dead we know nothing. The torment and suffering will be being eternally separated from God. “the lake of fire” mentioned in the Bible book of Revelation? It has a meaning similar to that of Gehenna. It means not conscious torment but everlasting death, or destruction. Notice how the Bible itself says this at Revelation 20:14: “And death and Hades [hell, King James Version and Douay Version] were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.” Yes, the lake of fire means “second death,” the death from which there is no resurrection. It is evident that this “lake” is a symbol, because death and hell (Hades) are thrown into it. Death and hell cannot literally be burned. But they can, and will, be done away with, or destroyed.
What does it mean that the Devil will be tormented forever in “the lake of fire”? ‘Yet the Bible says that the Devil will be tormented forever in the lake of fire,’ someone may point out. (Revelation 20:10) What does this mean? When Jesus was on earth jailers were at times called “tormentors.” As Jesus said of a certain man in one of his illustrations: “And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.” (Matthew 18:34, King James Version) Since those who are thrown into “the lake of fire” go into “second death” from which there is no resurrection, they are, so to speak, jailed forever in death. They remain in death as though in the custody of jailers for all eternity.
The wicked, of course, are not literally tormented because, as we have seen, when a person is dead he is completely out of existence. He is not conscious of anything.