Hi Randy, It sounds to me like the wicked/unrighteous will be suffering eternally because if they were instantly burned up and removed forever, they wouldn't have the time to, weep/cry or be knashing their teeth, which also implies to be in the flesh from these two descriptions, in order to weep and knash teeth, so I think you're right in the last line that Hell will be like living a "death" sentence in unhappy conditions like the sufferings in this world, various and different kinds of suffering in this world, and they will also have a spiritual thirst or feeling of being deprived because of their lost state (having been given a chance to repent of sin in the past but not anymore) since it will be meaningless and there will be no blessings in Hell apart from God. I also think that Hell will be like a suffering that is enough to make one weep and knash their teeth. That's the extent that I know. I believe in that death still exists but it is under Jesus' feet because I believe God has a pattern: day and night; light and darkness; death and life; eternal death vs eternal life; good and evil; righteous and unrighteous; God and Satan (if there's a "good" God then there has to be an "evil/bad" Satan) like the Law of Opposites, like the even you can say Yin/Yang balance/forces.You're not getting very clear thoughts from me because I'm clear on some things but not on other things. As I said, I don't believe God has given us much information on the eternal future of the ungodly precisely because it extends beyond our own personal business and is unpleasant. Those who make such choices should have to meditate on it.
From my experience of God's love, and from reading God's laws of compassion in the Bible I'm pretty sure that God will not "torture" people for all eternity. I use that word "torture" very carefully because it implies there is a sadistic interest in seeing others suffer.
But God is not like that, I'm sure.
But that doesn't mean that justice cannot impose a measure of unhappiness, implied in the words "stripes," and gnashing of teeth, and weeping. "Stripes" suggest an initial whipping, preceding a final sentencing. Gnashing of teeth suggests unhappiness about a hopeless condition. Weeping implies resignation in the fact of irretrievable loss. None of these things implies "torture."
"Eternal Death" suggests "death" continues to exist, but it is unlike the kind we now have in our physical bodies, which will be undone at the resurrection. Eternal Death suggests the same thing that the Lake of Fire suggests, that people will be permanently removed--not that they will be burning forever. The fire removes them one time. The fact they get thrown in there forever suggests they are removed forever--not that they are imprisoned there.
When I throw trash into a bonfire, it's burned up instantly. It doesn't just burn and burn and burn for an eternity. It is gone forever, but it doesn't burn forever.
That's what I believe about Eternal Death and the Lake of Fire. People are thrown in there and they are burned up immediately. They are thrown in forever because they are "burned up" and removed, and cannot come back.
But it is not an actual furnace where they must remain forever. They remain forever in a "burned up state," but they don't keep burning forever. They are forever cast out into Outer Darkness, which doesn't suggest they are still burning, as in being tortured.
This may be as clear as mud, but I'm not claiming to be sure about all of it--only that God is not sadistic. I believe He has a place for all of the Lost. Maybe they will work on a planet like this one in unhappy conditions--that would be "Hell" to me! But we will be in a place where we will be happy forever. It isn't our business to go too deep into such sadness.
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