Because we are created in the image of God, He gave us an eternal spirit. We have to exist somewhere forever. What kind of judgment is it that God would resurrect a sinner - merely to annihilate him? What is the difference? Why should a sinner greatly fear such a God - or such a judgment? Moreover, the Bible teaches a different truth. A good place to start is Revelation 20, where the Bible says that the Devil, Beast and the False Prophet are" tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). Further down it says that All of those whose names are not in the Book of Life will go into the Lake of Fire as well (Rev. 20:15). Please notice these whose names are not written in the book all go to the very same place those first three, the Devil, the Beast and False Prophet, go to. That Lake of fire cannot be eternal torment for one group and annihilation for the other, larger group.

Look especially at Rev 14: 11. All the worshippers of the Beast will be tormented forever. "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest, day and night...".

"For ever and ever" is the strongest possible way to express eternal state. The same phrase is used many places in Rev of the never-ending worship of God (1:6, 4:9, 5:3). If one is eternal, the other is too. If the torment is not eternal, then neither is the worship of God. Well, we know that isn't true.

Here is another verse:

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28 )

This verse shows that though man is able to kill the body, but that God is able to kill the soul ("psuche", not "pneuma" - "spirit"). The soul is that part of us that lives on after we die the first time, that part that is resurrected to face judgment. So this verse says nothing about our being totally destroyed.

Something that is overlooked in this discussion is the meaning of the word that we translate as "destroy" ("apollumi"). This does not always refer to a loss of being, necessarily, but of functionality, or usefulness. The same word is used of the wineskins in Luke 5:37 and of lost sheep in Luke 15:4 etc. That one sheep was not killed, certainly not annihilated, it was "lost" ("apollumi"). The wineskins were still in existence, but they were useless. Likewise, the lost soul will not cease to exist, but he will be lost, away from the Shepherd eternally. Like the wineskin, he will not cease to be, but he will cease to have any use. He will also be in continual agony.

Eternal torment is Biblical truth. I get no pleasure in believing that some will be damned forever to this torment, but far be it from us to deny something so clearly taught in God's Word. We cannot pick and choose which parts of God's revelation we are going to accept.

As I hopefully demonstrate, we have to let context and the weight of other verses decide what terms mean. Hopefully I have proven that "destroyed' does Not always mean what we understand by the word.

We have a mental (or spiritual) block about this, I believe, because the Holy Spirit has to teach these things. Man's teaching is by analogy and experience; the teaching of God's Spirit is by revelation, into truth that has no analogy and for which we have no comparable experience.

The eternal bliss of heaven and the unspeakable never-ending horror of the Lake of Fire are both true.