Hi Kristina,
You bring up the following Scriptures that are presented by many as proof for "eternal torment in Hell." Is that what God is saying? Let's take a look:
"And if your right eye offends you, pluck it out and throw it from you. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be thrown into hell. And if your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29-30 MKJV).
Mark 9:43-49 MKJV
(43) And if your hand offends you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than to have two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched
(44) where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
(45) And if your foot offends you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched
(46) where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
(47) And if your eye offends you, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes to be cast into hell fire
(48) where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
(49) For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Consider: If you become aware that you are sinning in any way and don't cut off that sin, do you think that death doesn't follow presently in this life? Does death only come after death? That is a silly and non-Scriptural idea. Here is what God said to Adam about what would happen if he disobeyed:
"But you shall not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. For
in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17 MKJV).
Didn't Adam begin to taste death the same day he ate of the fruit? Sure he did, and here is how that death (and the hell that accompanied it), is described:
Genesis 3:9-11 HNV
(9) The LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
(10) The man said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
(11) God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
Here's another Scripture you mention:
"And do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him Who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28 MKJV).
As we have just shown, the soul doesn't suffer death only after the complete death of the body, but the soul that sins reaps death
here and now! As Paul wrote to the Colossians about our present deliverance from that death:
"And you,
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13 MKJV).
Another Scripture:
"Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?"
(Matthew 23:33 MKJV)
And didn't that happen to them even there and then? Did they not choose darkness and death? Were they not separated from the Light of all men, Who is the Way, the Truth,
and the Life? They didn't escape, as did so many others when they believed, like Zacchaeus, for example - "Salvation has come to this house," Jesus said of him when he believed (Luke 19:9). Were the Jews not destroyed as a people and nation in 70 AD and thereafter, because they didn't recognize the Day of their visitation? Isn't that the condemnation/judgment of hell?
Finally, you offer these verses:
2 Peter 2:4-6 MKJV
(4) For if God did not spare sinning angels, but thrust them down into Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, being reserved to judgment.
(5) And He did not spare the old world, but saved Noah the eighth one, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
(6) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, He condemned them with an overthrow, setting an example to men intending to live ungodly.
Those who sinned were reserved to judgment, which means "correction." Judgment
begins at the House of God. It continues there until all are corrected.
And of those very ones spoken of here, who according to men are supposed to be tormented forever in the vengeful fires of God, we hear a very different conclusion as Peter continues:
1 Peter 3:18-20 MKJV
(18) For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;
(19) in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
(20) to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water);
So what is Christ doing preaching to the disobedient if they can never be redeemed? Is God a fool, or are men liars teaching diabolical doctrines in His Name?
So, Kristina, unbelievers
are in death and not only "go" to hell, they
are already there and cannot escape it without receiving the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ. Those who shed their bodies without having known Him will go on in death and hell, and will be brought through a judgment (correction) process, even as those who have believed on earth go, even as we have gone through that process of deliverance, until God has brought all into the fold of salvation, all glory and praise to His Wonderful Name.
Paul Cohen
Victor Hafichuk
www.ThePathofTruth.com