I don't want to be a bother, but I really expected that someone would have an answer for my post, but it got ignored. So I'm thinking I didn't make myself clear enough and no one understood my thought.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus - does anyone see that it shouldn't be used to prop up the argument for eternal torture IF an insistence is made that its a true life story of 2 actual men rather than a parable?
Because if its true life, the time to repent on earth is not over, (because the man asks that someone be sent to talk to his 5 brothers on earth so they might repent) so what is being described cannot be the lake of fire. Hence, the true life story has to take place before anyone is thrown in the lake of fire.
Once again, I'm not attempting to prove annihilation over eternal torture. I'm just saying if the parable is a true life story, you can't use it in defense of eternal torture, unless someone has something I haven't seen.