Claudia_T said:
well are you listening to what you are saying? infinite punishment of death in hell???
DEATH...
How can you have everlasting or eternal destruction and eternal torment at the same time? any ideas on that?
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." 2 Thess. 1:9 (Acts 3:23) (Matt. 10:28).
Here you have exposed an assumption. You ASSUME that death is a finite and singular occurence. However, death has many meanings and properties. You can be 'dying' but not be dead. Additionally, because your body dies, doesn't mean your spirit dies. This is the basis for christianity. So what is death? How do you define death? One definition could be 'the opposite of life'. Well, we know that God is life, so death could be separation from God. However, death has many other associations. Death could mean poverty, or suffering, or pain.
Think of this -- Jesus died. WHILE HE WAS DEAD and in hell, he preached to the saints there, and lead captivity captive. Pretty active for a dead guy, eh? He also took the keys of hell from Satan. All this while dead. Even when he appeared to Mary Magdalane days later, he had not yet gone to the Father.
Death is not a finite ceasing of existance. Death is a separation from life. God is life. Therefore death is a separation from God. Just because we define death medically as the crossing of a specific threshhold, doesn't mean this is God's definition of death. In fact, God told Adam that "in the day he eats of the fruit" he would die. In fact, Adam lived another 900+ years after death came. So we see that death is a process. Decay is another form of death. Organisms do not instantly decay, the decaying process takes time.
But think of the life we have in christ. Think of the life given to Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo. They stood in the hottest fire and were not consumed. THIS is the life possible when God sustains everything at 100%. Think of the Israelites when they marched in the desert for 40 years without their shoes or clothing wearing out. THIS is an example of God sustaining life. Your shoes wearing out is an example of death... decay. Without the sustaining power of God, there is death. Because God designed us as eternal beings with a spirit there can be "everlasting punishment". Meaning, a punishment that never ends.
The semantecs between punishING and punishMENT is a matter of judgement in an eternal state. Punishing would mean that God could choose to end the punishing becuse it was not 'complete'. However, punishment means that all the judgement that is going to happen has been completed, and the recompense decided with finality. Basically, an "everlasting punishment" is the execution of punitive action for all eternity with no opportunity for parole, reprieve, or appeal. This describes the finality of the sentence, not whether or not the restitution afforded by the sentence is finite. For example, if I said "your punishment is that you be thrown in prison". Then I described the length of that sentence as "life, with no possiblity for parole". This is what is meant by "everlasting punishment". Punishment is Hell... term of sentence is eternal.
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But lets take a look also at the element of choice. Would God be just if He eternally imprisoned us? Lets say we have two prisons.... one is called Hell and the other is called Heaven. Now God tells us that the 'cells' in Heaven are much nicer than the cells in Hell, but what if some chose hell instead? Would it be just for God to send those who believed in him and wanted to go to heaven to hell? No. So how can it be just for God to send those who refuse to believe in him and want to go to hell to heaven? It would be unjust for God to give us a choice, and then go against that choice.
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: