In article <May.11.02.36.38.1993.28081@athos.rutgers.edu>, wytten@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Dale Wyttenbach) writes: |> What is the basis of the idea of hell being a place of eternal |> suffering?  If it is Biblical, please reference. |>  |> Here's my train of thought: If God is using the Earth to manufacture |> heavenly beings, then it is logical that there would be a certain |> yield, and a certain amount of waste.  The yield goes to Heaven, and |> the waste is burned (destroyed) in Hell.  Why is it necessary to |> punish the waste, rather than just destroy it?   Luke 16 talks about the rich man and Lazarus. Matthew 25 talks about  the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Revelations 20 and 21 reference this fire as the place where unbelievers are thrown. Matthew 18 talks about being thrown into the eternal fire and the fire of hell. It seems quite clear that there is this place where a fire burns forever. From the Revelations passages it is clear that the devil and his angels will be tormented there forever. From the Matthew 25 passage it doesn't seem abundantly clear whether the punishment of unbelievers is everlasting in the sense of final or in the sense of continual.    From Dale's question, I come away with the suggestion that hell, if it were short, might be an acceptable alternative to living forever with the Source of Life, Peace and Joy i.e. the  unbeliever ceases to exist. Whereas, if punishment goes on continually, then one should have a greater motivation to avoid it. It definately seems to me that hell is something we want to avoid regardless of its exact nature.   There seem to be two main questions in Dale's thought: What is God's main plan on earth? Why is continual punishment a necessary part of hell as opposed to simply destroying completely those who refuse God?  I believe that God's main plan is to have a genuine relationship with people.  The nature of hell and the reasons for its nature seem a lot more difficult to ascertain. It does seem clear that hell is something to avoid. At a minimum, hell is the state one is in when one has nothing to do with God.  In the Bible, I am not aware of any discussion about the specifics of hell beyond the general of hot, unpleasant and torment. For instance, it is not discussed how (if at all) the rich man can continually stay in the fire and still feel discomfort or pain or whether there is some point at which the pain sensing ability is burned up. If you can forgive the graphicalness, if you throw a physical body into a fire, assuming the person starts out alive, at some fairly quick point, the nerves are destroyed and pain is no longer sensed. It is not stated what occurs when at the judgement, the unbelievers, (who are already physically dead) are cast into hell i.e. they no longer have a physical body so they can't feel physical pain. What could be sensed continually is that those in hell are to be forever without God.    The Lazarus/rich man parable is told with the idea of having the listener think in physical terms in order to get the point that some people won't listen to God even after he rises from the dead. The point of the parable is to reach the hard-hearted here who are not listening to the fact of the resurrection nor the Gospel about Jesus Christ. It seems reasonable to also draw from the parable that hell is not even remotely pleasant.