I've heard arguments from several Christians that Hell is not mentioned as an actual place of torment in the Bible, and that it is merely symbolic of the grave. Whoever believes this has clearly not read the Bible.
In Luke 16, a greedy rich man is sent to Hell, and the chapter explicitly describes it as a place of eternal torment. No amount of symbolism arguments can disprove this.
I have heard a horrifying testimony of Hell from one of my friends, who used to be an atheist. He nearly died from a bacterial infection in the brain in 1997. He had a near-death experience in which he experienced massive agony, unquenchable thirst, and the desire to scream for help. But he could not scream, for his mouth has been melted shut by the intense heat. After he recovered from the infection, he became a Christian. It could have been a hallucination, but you never know.
Who else has had testimonies of experiences like these?
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Added by edit by Adminnemooseus:
Luke 16:22-24 -
quote:
22 The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
Source
quote:
Annihilationism (also known as extinctionism or destructionism[1]) is a Christian belief that apart from salvation the final punishment of human beings results in their total destruction (annihilation) rather than their everlasting torment. It is directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life. Annihilationism asserts that God will eventually destroy or annihilate the wicked, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality.
Source
End of added by edit.
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Added by edit: 2 quotations from outside sources.
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