BavarianWheel's This was discussed on this thread line:
http://discussions.godandscience.org/vi ... &start=135
Below is quote from my last post there as it also applies here:
jenna wrote:"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Romans 6:23
BavarianWheels wrote:I was looking for B.W. and/or others to give me the answer to this...but jenna's will do. IF the price of sin is eternal fire/torment/death...did Jesus really pay the price of sin for us? If so...explain Him (Jesus) not burning and in torment still? NIV-Jude 1:7 - In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Are the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah still burning? If not, the writer is a liar! NIV-2 Peter 2:6 - if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; An example of what is going to happen to the ungodly...??
BavarianWheels, please do not confuse God justly wiping out Sodom and Gomorrah, and the ancient world of Noah's time as a proof text that God annihilates into non-existence. These happened on finite terms — mortality was extinguished so God's good plans prevail.
Those that perished where not eternally annihilated for reasons cited in my prior postings but were removed from the land of the living so they no-longer can cause harm.
This is God's right to do, to mortally kill and make alive. Those that perished, their souls/corrupted spirits, were turned into Sheol where the fiery wrath of God burns. They are still there and will be so till the second death when hell and its inhabitants are tossed into the lake of fire as the bible teaches.
Note what Jude 7 really states: “
They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
These are antitypes — examples that God repays in judgment. The fire remains nevertheless eternal, not temporal, and has nothing to do with fire and brimstone raining down destroying these cities way back when or they not existing today. Yes, the cities were laid waste because God judged these people and as it is written in Psalms, they were turned into hell — eternal fire in the afterlife.
To say otherwise creates the logical fallacy of contradiction. As
Psalms 9:15-17 states the wicked are turned into hell — not soul sleep: “
Jehovah is known. He has executed judgment; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. 17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.” MKJV
Also note that God's wrath is given as an example of fire:
Deuteronomy 32:22, "
For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol..." ESV
Again note that before the resurrection of Christ, Jesus gives this description of hell as a conscious afterlife:
Luke 16:23-24, "...
and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'" ESV
The eternal fire is in Hell, not remaining on Sodom and Gomorrah physical earthly locations. The populace was not eternally annihilated but judged as rejecters of God and turned into Hell, right after death, where the eternal fire of God's judgment, wrath, and just recompense burns eternally.
These finite cities and people were mortally annihilated which means removed and cut off from the land of the mortal living to be judge as rejecters of God and turned into hell, forever alive as Psalms 9:15-17 declares as do other scriptures we already amply reviewed. God has the right to judge the wicked to cut them off and remove them from the land of the mortal living and turn them over to his everlasting retribution proving his justice and mercy absolute and way beyond the scope of mortal finite reasoning.
In fact, Jude tells of false brethren [Jude 4] who crept into the Church bringing false doctrine and denying Jesus Christ will one day die in judgment and then turned into hell's everlastingness. This passage is warning that these need to repent or face the consequence of joining other inhabitants in hell.
Confusion comes from finite people who can empirically annihilate mortal physical life and make mortal life cease. From this comes the notion of annihilation-ism. However people cannot kill, annihilate the soul/spirit of man just as Jesus said in
Luke 12:4-5: "
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” And in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” ESV
The word
destroy does not mean annihilate, or kill causing ceasing of existence. It means a state of
ruin, perishing, lostness, and when Jesus means
eternal destruction he means everlasting ruin — punishment just as the force of
Revelation 20:10-15 states: “…
and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever….15, And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Yes, thrown into the same lake of eternal fire to suffer the same fate -
tormented day and night forever and ever without end — not extinction. The force of the words defies such non-existent extinction and the word eternal destruction does mean everlasting ruin, lostness, perishing banished from God forever: proving God's justice and mercy absolute and way beyond the scope of human mortal finite reasoning.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, “…
in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…” ESV
Jude 4-25, 2 Peter2:1-22 message is not an example for the annihilationist point of view but rather a warning to false brethren that as certain as God's fiery judgment fell on the ancient world, judgment will come to them without warning, and they will join other rejecters and defilers in hell's eternal flames — that is the example used within those pages.
Lastly:
The doctrine of Annihilation in reality denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ as even being remotely possible. I can hear the Annihilationist scream —'
What you say — no we do not do what you claim here!'
However if we are to follow the annihilationist line of logic tree to its conclusion then whenever the word 'death' is used for 'mortal death,' absolute annihilation must be read into its meaning to remain true to the doctrine.
Hebrew 2:9, “
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
If Jesus tasted death for everyone and by his death he paid the penalty for sin, which by the way the bible does teach is the death penalty [
Gen 2:17]. Then Jesus would have to been annihilated into non-existence in order to taste death for everyone and pay the price for humanity's sin.
This did not happen. Instead, if Jesus tasted death for everyone by going to the underworld for three days and nights preaching to the spirits in prison and then leading those righteous held captive by death to his heavenly domain. This then would prove God does not annihilate into non-existence for he did rise from the dead. [
Ephesians 4:8-10, 1 Peter 3:18-19]
If the annihilation says of
1 Peter 3:18-19 that Jesus was put to death in the flesh, how could that happen since
Daniel 12-1-3 has not yet occurred and even then for Jesus to taste death for all, in the flesh, he would have to be annihilated into non-existence as that is where the logic of annihilation has to ultimately lead.
How can Jesus be put to death in the flesh if the flesh did not taste annihilation? How can Jesus taste death for everyone, and not be annihilated to make propitiation for sins and still pay the penalty for sin if death's sentence means annihilation? How could Jesus be made alive from annihilations state and alive in the spirit?
1 Peter 3:18-19, “
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison…”ESV
Of course you can wiggle out of this dilemma by proclaiming Christ sinlessness and divinity but according to the annihilationist view — mortal death can only lead to annihilation to satisfy the death penalty God declared. For Christ to die for sins means he would have to been made extinct in order to satisfy the just requirements of God.
Would God be just making a sinless one extinct? Or maybe there is life after death after all, either eternal life with God or everlasting fire, punishment, deep darkness, a place of everlasting ruin where just recompense forever burns darkly for those choosing rebellion.
As Stated Before:
You who defend absolute extinction —makes God's mercy not everlasting to everlasting as His word says it is but again in your doctrine, everlasting is not everlasting and therefore God cannot be either.
What proves mercy true — a life sentence or extinction? What demonstrates love's reality - a life sentence or extinction? What express honest goodness - a life sentence or extinction? What do you deserve - a life sentence or extinction?
Extinction for finite sins??? That defies mercy! love! and God's goodness! Who should God serve? - man because men find God's absolute justice repugnant because God does not make one absolutely extinct on man's terms and justification? Or rather because of God's justice, He gives those that reject Him what they want — a place without God forever as He does will that these be served just recompense to prove He is God true to himself and no one else.
Deny it all you like. You are more interested in appealing to men rather than knowing God. Eternal absolute extinction does not even make the devil tremble or the worst serial killer care. They would have gotten away with all their crimes as well as proved to God himself is a liar by proving that God has no absolute mercy, no justice, a God of the dead [absolute extinct] and not the living, taking his gift of life away....
End of Quote from Prior Post....
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