I’ve never come across any Bible passage that says unrepentant souls suffer for only a limited time. If you know of one, please share.
I do not think of it that way. I am of the belief that one can repent after death, and that the process cures that part of us that leads us to sin.
On the other hand, I’ve found quite a few where God’s final judgment (whether it’s eternal life or eternal death) is described as lasting forever. Some of these were even spoken by Jesus Himself.
In translation ... that's my point.
For example, in Matthew 25:46, here’s the original Greek from the New Testament along with a literal translation I found:
Matthew 25:46
Greek:
Καὶ ἀπελεύσονται οὗτοι εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον, οἱ δὲ δίκαιοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
Literal English:
And will go away these into punishment eternal, but the righteous into life eternal.
That's not quite the correct 'literal' translation – a more concise translation is:
"And these will go to the chastening of that Age, but the just to the life of that Age.”
The word punishment/chastening is κόλασιν (
kolasis), which originally meant 'pruning' or 'docking' of trees and plants, and then came to mean 'punishment,' or 'chastisement,' chiefly with the connotation of 'correction.' The term
timéria, for example, is used in the sense to mean a
retributive punishment (revenge or justice), whereas
kolasis means
corrective punishment or confinement.
Whether this distinction applies here we cannot say, since by the time the Gospel was written
kolasis seems to have been used to describe punishment of
any kind; so then we look to other uses of the word in scripture –
1 John 4:18:
φόβος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἀλλ᾽ ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη ἔξω βάλλει τὸν φόβον ὅτι ὁ φόβος
κόλασιν ἔχει ὁ δὲ φοβούμενος οὐ τετελείωται ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ
"In love there is no fear; rather, the love that is perfect casts out fear, because fear carries chastisement (
kolasis), and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."
So the term here means a fear derived from man imperfect sense of love, whereas the love of Christ casts out all fear, because it casts out the sense of chastisement – so
kolasis here does not mean retributive punishment, but the suffering experienced by someone who is subject to fear because not yet perfected in charity.
The verb form,
kolazé, appears twice, in Acts 4:21:
οἱ δὲ προσαπειλησάμενοι ἀπέλυσαν αὐτούς μηδὲν εὑρίσκοντες τὸ πῶς
κολάσωνται αὐτούς διὰ τὸν λαόν ὅτι πάντες ἐδόξαζον τὸν θεὸν ἐπὶ τῷ γεγονότι·
"And they, having made additional threats, released them, finding that – on account of the people – they had no way to punish (
kolazo) them; for everyone gave God the glory for what had happened;"
where it clearly refers only to disciplinary punishment, and in 2 Peter 2:9:
οἶδεν κύριος εὐσεβεῖς ἐκ πειρασμοῦ ῥύεσθαι ἀδίκους δὲ εἰς ἡμέραν κρίσεως
κολαζομένους τηρεῖν
"the Lord knows how to rescue the pious from trials and to keep the unrighteous guarded in confinement for a day of judgment"
in reference to fallen angels and unrighteous men, where it probably means “being held in check" or “penned in” until the day of judgment.
κολαζομένους τηρεῖν (
kolazomenous térein): usually translated as “to hold them while they are being tormented” or “to hold them while still chastising them” or something equally awkward. But the most proper meaning of
kolazé – even though it is also typically used to mean “chasten” or “punish” – is “dock” or “hold in check,” while that of
téred is “keep under guard,” and in this construction the meaning is
clear: God knows both how to rescue the pious from their trials and also how to prevent the unrighteous from escaping the judgement that awaits them which, in the language of the rest of the chapter, suggest annihilation for those beyond redeption.
There’s also a passage (Daniel 12 : 2, in the Old Testament) that makes a similar point. Here’s the original Hebrew and a literal translation:
Hebrew:
וְרַבִּ֨ים מִֽיְשֵׁנֵ֤י אַדְמַת־עָפָר֙ יָקִ֔יצוּ אֵ֚לֶּה לְחֵיֵ֣י עוֹלָ֔ם וְאֵ֖לֶּה לַחֲרָפ֥וֹת לְדִרְא֖וֹן עוֹלָֽם׃
Literal English:
And many from the sleepers of the dust of the ground shall awake—these to life everlasting, and these to reproaches, to abhorrence everlasting.
And again, the Hebrew term עוֹלָם
olam, commonly traslated as everlasting, does not necessarily mean that, but rather refers to an age, an unspecified period of time that could be a day, or could be of considerable duration.
So from what I’ve seen, the Bible presents these final outcomes as eternal rather than temporary. But again, if you have any passages, please share.!
The English translations do, the original Greek does not necessarily infer that, and in most cases, does not.
I have discussed this extensively, with references, in the
What the Hell? thread.
