i'm not arguing with you, T, i'm clarifying those passages for my own reasons. i was careful to not make any claim regarding what you were or were not personally claiming.
Believe it or not, I don't want to be exasperating. I enjoy the analysis much more than anything else...
That is cool Damir and thanks for the clarification. I understand how both you and Shoe almost reflexively defend against the "burn forever" position since MOST christians believe that it is biblical. I happen to be one of the few (though now non christian) that believe with you and Shoe that "eternal torture" is not necessarily biblical. JB
Now hopefully this won't be inflammatory, but here is what I sse as the core of your argument. And if I'm wrong, that's fine - just let me know. I'm not trying to force feed you. What I think you're saying is that you interpret the word "fire" in the "hell" passages as meaning a fire that is like this earth, i.e. it is torturous. That's fine. I can respect your position. I'm simply saying that imo this is far from obvious and does not make sense to me in light of all the verses that say that the "fire" of "hell" is consumptive in nature. And that's pretty much all I was trying to get at. Every person has to decide for themselves and that's tough because so little is written descriptively about the subject...
not true in my case. i'm jewish, not c'ian - eternal suffering is what family is for, no hell needed!
As I have watched the latest in this debate(and really appreciate its civility and mutual respect) I would like to pose a question. You all are talking about the second death or destruction of the spirit are you not? If so then the nature of the fire would need to be able to destroy a spirit which may or may not be what we normally see as a temporal fire. A normal fire would burn up the earthly body(as in cremation) but the spirit might need its own type of fire to be destroyed.