I am sure others struggle with this.. Thanks
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Jesus' words in Mark 9:47-48: "And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ "
Jesus in Matthew 13:40-43: "Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
How can people be "weeping and wailing" in a "fiery furnace" where the fire is never quenched if they cease to exist?
Revelation 14:11: "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
The Bible says that at the end of the age (end of time) there will be people burning forever (thus smoking forever) with no rest from their torment thus they are consciously experiencing this.
In Mark, Jesus is talking about Gehenna, one of the words translated into hell. The commentary below describes it perfectly for me. Another thing of importance is that “quenched” here means “extinguish”, not “satiated”. In other words, the punishment of the unbeliever will always exist, not that the unbeliever will always be punished.
The scriptures in Matthew is in reference to the end of days(see also Matthew 13:48-50), not a person dying ona typical Tuesday and going to hell so it isn’t a good comparison. Note how Jesus doesn’t call it “hell”. Why wouldn’t he just say they are thrown into hell, they didn’t know what hell was? It wasn’t common knowledge then? In Matthew, Jesus is speaking in parable, not meant to be taken literally but figuratively. And when there isn’t other scriptures to compare it with, it requires big inferences to interpret. But the idea of eternal pain and suffering does not reconcile with the other things Jesus said about eternal life.
I need to do a deeper dive on revelations