Well, it is right, praise the Lord. To Him -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- alone be the glory.
Checkpoint wrote:
God has, apparently, opted to destroy death, not by ending it, but by continuing on those judged worthy of it, in endless misery and discomfort, when He could opt for their total extinction, and thus end their misery and discomfort, just as we do for a damaged animal.
Yes, I suppose He could have done anything He wanted; He is God after all... But people are not animals. But no, if extinction, or annihilation, cessation of existence -- or however you want to put it -- had been His choice, He would have never mentioned eternal punishment, instead calling it instantaneous, momentary, fleeting (or something of the sort) punishment.
Hey let me present it to you this way, Checkpoint. I mean, I feel certain you won't buy it, but here goes anyway:
In this life, God disciplines us. He disciplines everybody, actually, believer or not (at least to some extent and in different ways). And sometimes, He places us under judgment; sometimes it is necessary for God to place judgments upon us rather than blessing. I would suggest to you that this is also love. Love is not always warm and fuzzy, so to speak; sometimes He expresses His love by allowing us to go through
heavy trials and
tribulation, even
great suffering. We believe it's all for our good, don't we (Romans 8:28)? And because of this, we are to count all our trials and tribulations as joy, (James 1:2-4), right? Yes, that's right. Sometimes it's really hard to believe, for sure, but it's true. I would argue this is just as much His love as, well, giving us what we would consider to be really good things, or causing really great things to happen for us.
With that in mind, let's switch to the age to come, eternity. I would argue that, as hard as it is to get into our heads (because it's really impossible to grasp things from God's perspective; His thoughts are higher than ours, His ways not our ways -- Isaiah 55:8-9), that placing people under His judgment for eternity and punishing them in this manner -- even eternally -- is love. Just as much as what He will do for us, glorifying us, placing the wicked under eternal judgment in this place of "outer darkness" is a full manifestation -- to them as well as to us -- of His love. It's just a different manifestation of His love than the one we will experience. It is. Believe it or not. For sure, you can go the "not" route if you want, and I fully expect that to be the case, but I would recommend otherwise.
Checkpoint wrote:
But no, this is not how the last enemy is destroyed and everything is put "under his feet".
1 Corinthians 15:
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 For he “has put everything under his feet.�
The unrepentant are not in view, here, Checkpoint (much less the place to which they will be sent). This whole passage is about what will happen on Christ's return
to those who are repentant and who believe in Him. When believers are finally resurrected from the dead, the destruction of death -- for them -- will be complete; death will no longer be possible for us when we are glorified and our faith finally made to be sight.
Conversely, there will be nothing but death in hell. That's most certainly
not to say that those who are sent there will somehow die over and over and over again, but they will be conscious and very aware that they are totally separated from His marvelous light and the One who is life, Christ Jesus. That's what death in the Bible is, Checkpoint, a separation. And in the case of the second death, it's a permanent Separation (capital 'S'). The tares from the wheat. The goats from the sheep.
But again, death -- for us -- will be swallowed up in victory. God be praised for this wonderful promise.
Checkpoint wrote:
May you have the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Thank you. I pray the same for you. Grace and peace to you.
