Never compromise! / Christian persecution!

[Lek]

Firstly, I'm not sure that hell is eternal, but whether it is or isn't, I don't hate people who I think might be going there. You're saying things about people that you don't know are true. I might know more about that than you do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I probably spend more time with fundamentalist christians than you.

Matthew 25:46
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

2 Thessalonians 1:9
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.

Jude 1:7
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Matthew 25:41
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Mark 9:43 - 9:48
43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The Greek word for eternal which has been translated here can also refer to an age or an indiscriminate period of time. Most of the other verses quoted refer to the fires of hell being eternal or everlasting, but not an individual's time there being everlasting. The final verse which you quoted says that the devil and the false prophet will be tormented forever, not everyone who goes there. There are two others views of hell which have also been held by the church. One is referred to as "christian universal reconciliation" and the other as "conditional immortality". Both views have as much or more biblical support as the "eternal torment' view and were held by early church fathers. The conditional immortality view says that unbelievers suffer in hell for an appropriate time and then are annihilated. The universal reconciliation view says that unbelievers suffer in hell for a time and eventually come to faith and are taken into heaven. In order to come to a conclusion on biblical doctrines it is necessary to take what is said in the bible as a whole before making a determination. That there is a hell is clearly stated, but length of time isn't as easy to determine.