Annihilatioinism vs. Eternal Suffering

Revelation 20:9 says fire came down from heaven and devoured them, but this doesn"t explain the meaning of "for ever and ever" in verse 10. If John meant to tell us that they would be suffering forever, how else would he have said it except the way he did say it " "tormented FOREVER AND EVER"? Just because their physical bodies are burnt up in verse 9 doesn"t mean their souls no longer exist. Jesus said: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but CANNOT KILL THE SOUL. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy BOTH soul and body in hell." (Matt 10:28) Here Jesus contrasts the soul with the body, one they can kill, the other they cannot. Now, you say the souls of the wicked are not in hell, so where then are the souls of the wicked who died yesterday? Where was the soul of the rich man in Luke 16:19-31? "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of THOSE WHO HAD BEEN SLAIN because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been." (Rev 6:9-11) If their souls continued to exist after they had been killed, why can"t the souls of the wicked continue to be "tormented forever and ever" after their bodies are devoured by fire? When the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4) ends up in hell, the people there tell him that "maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you." His physical body was decomposing with worms and maggots, while his soul in was in hell listening to those who died before him; so you can"t use the death of the body in Revelation 19:19-21 to disprove the continued life of the soul. In Matthew 25:46 Pro claims what is "eternal" in those verses is God"s decision, but that is not what the text says. It says "eternal PUNISHMENT" and "eternal LIFE," these are the things said to be eternal, the PUNISHMENT and the LIFE. You cannot punish a person who no longer exists. Someone who is unconscious cannot experience punishment. In this verse, the duration of punishment for the wicked forms a parallel with the duration of life for the righteous: the Greek word "aionios" is used to describe BOTH the length of punishment for the wicked and the length of eternal life for the righteous. This same word is used to in 1Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 9:14, and 13:8 where we know it means FOREVER. You can"t limit the duration of punishment for the wicked without at the same time limiting the duration of eternal life for the righteous. Pro, you would be violating the parallel to give it an unlimited signification in one case, but a limited one in the other, just to uphold your own interpretation. Because 2 Peter 2:9 says that God know how to hold the wicked for the day of judgment, Pro assumes they can"t be in hell yet but must await judgment day. But in that same context Peter says that hell is where the angels who sinned are kept until judgment day: "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them TO HELL, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment." (2 Peter 2:4) The judgment won"t be sending anyone back to hell, but to the lake of fire, which is a different place of torment from which there will be no resurrection. Revelation 20:14 shows the distinction when it says hell will be cast into the lake of fire. So if angels are kept in hell until the judgment, so can the souls of humans. "And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be NO REST DAY OR NIGHT for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name." (Rev 14:11) But if they will cease to exit, they will be rest for them. This mitigates against your view. Pro gave Luke 10:12-14 but this has no bearing on our discussion, I think he means Luke 12:47-48. But Pro has given us absolutely no evidence, not one shred, that Luke 12:47-48 was referring to the judgment. The final judgment isn"t mentioned in the immediate context of these verses, nor does it use the Greek terms associated with hell such as Hades and Gehenna. Masters under the law of Moses used to beat slaves, and Jesus was coining an illustration from this Jewish practice. (Deu 25:2) But its Pro"s burden to prove this was talking about hell; he is yet to do so. Luke 12:48 also says "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded," which is a principle that applies here and now, even when he made the statement. This isn"t a discussion about judgment day. In fact, verse 52 begins with the phrase "From now on," showing that Jesus was discussing events that were current, and that"s why he says to the crowd: "How it that you don"t know how to interpret THIS PRESENT TIME?" (Luke 12:56) Jesus then explains in verses 57-59 that his listeners should reconcile with whom they owe before it"s too late, or else they will be in prison until they pay the last penny. Nothing in this context compares this debt to our debt of sin before God. That was Pro"s application, but Jesus never gave this interpretation. In fact, I would ask Pro, since he applies this to the judgment, to explain to us (1) In the judgment, who are these adversaries and who will they be dragging before God to judge them? (2) If God is the judge, who is the officer God will hand us over to? Luke 12:59 says that after you have paid the last penny, you will "GET OUT." But Pro says you will be destroyed. "Getting out" is a promise of freedom, not further punishment in the form of extinction. Psalm 1:6, Psalm 92:7, Philippians 3:19, Malachi 4:3 and Psalm 37:20 all refer to the destruction of physical bodies. This doesn"t show their souls or spirits won"t continue to exist. "The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit RETURNS to God who gave it." (Ecc 12:7) Other passages that show the soul leaving the body are 1 Kings 17:19-22 and Genesis 35:18, where the Hebrew text speaks of the nephesh, the soul, coming into and going out of the body. (KJV) Matthew 10:28 says that God CAN destroy the soul, not that he WILL. The same is true of James 4:12. Pro"s use of verses that say "destroy" don"t prove his case either because the Greek word for destroy doesn"t mean the extinction of being. "Apollumi"signifies "to destroy utterly"" "to perish." The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of well-being. This is clear from its use, as, e.g., of the marring of wine skins, Luke 5:37; of lost sheep, i.e., lost to the shepherd, metaphorical of spiritual destruction, Luke 15:4, 6, etc.; the lost son, 15:24"of the loss of well-being in the case of the unsaved hereafter, Matt. 10:28; Luke 13:3, 5; John 3:16" (W. E. Vine"s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, p.164) So the same Greek word for "destroy" is applied to people who are just lost, but still in existence, and to wine skins that still exist but are ruined. People in hell are ruined, they can"t serve the purpose for which they were made. But they still exist. As for Romans 6:23, just as Christians already have eternal life, showing it has nothing to do with the physical body but is a spiritual state of being (1 John 5:13; John 6:47, 54), so too unbelievers are in a state of death because of their sin (Eph 2:1, 5). People can pass from death to life, by accepting Jesus. (Col 2:13; John 5:24) So Romans 6:23 has nothing to do with annihilation, but the spiritual death that comes by sin, and the life that comes from faith. Matthew 3:12 says "BURNING [continuous tense] up the chaff." This doesn"t say the burning of the chaff will stop. Jeremiah 17:27 and Ezekiel 20:47 don"t describe those earthly fires as being "eternal," so this isn"t a parallel to most of the verses I used, especially Revelation 20:10.