(May 28, 2016 at 2:48 am)purplepurpose Wrote: Indeed word eternal is used in the bible.
SECOND QUESTION. Is it just to doom a person for eternal agony because they experienced certain amount of pleasant moments? Or grand eternal happiness for a dozen years of work for the common good? Is there justice in those things?
You seem to be of the opinion that sin is all pleasant stuff and doing God's will is all unpleasant stuff. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that. Since christians and non-christians alike sin, nobody goes to heaven because they lived a good life. People go to heaven because they believe in and have faith in Jesus. They are absolved from their sins because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
As far as heaven and hell being eternal, the word that has been translated from the original Greek into English is "aeonios" which literally means "of an age". The length of the age is unknown since it is yet to come. The verses people use to determine an eternal heaven or hell translate that word as "eternal", but that's not a literal, or not even necessarily the best interpretation. One would have to use other evidence in the bible to reinforce that concept and the supporting evidence seems to better support a limited duration of one's time in hell. Since the time of the early church fathers, many have held the view that an unsaved person will spend an appropriate in hell and then be annihilated. Others believe that hell is a place of purification where a person will spend an appropriate time and then be taken to heaven. The catholic church, which was pretty much the only christian church at the time, adopted the "everlasting punishment" concept and it has been the most influential position to this day, although many evangelical christians still hold one of the other two views. I happen to lean toward the view that since God is loving and Jesus died for the sins of all, along with other ample evidence from the bible, that all will eventually be saved although some will have to suffer in hell for a time. I disagree with my christian brother Drich here, but that's OK because it's not an issue that effects our salvation. Lot's of christians disagree on many issues, but we're all christians.
As far as heaven goes, it appears to me that there has always been pretty much universal agreement among christains that the bible supports the concept of an everlasting heaven.
