Can you elaborate on this?
Sure…
There is a grief or regretfulness that can lead forward into repentance and life; there is a grief or regretfulness that leaves one wallowing in death.
2Cor 7:9-10 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Anytime someone begs for God’s mercy it shows repentance. Only those with hardened hearts hate and blaspheme God after the fires of wrath burn them:
Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ~~ Rev. 16:9
The rich man in hades was begging for mercy not blaspheming and hating God showing his heart had softened in repentance.
There is zero evidence that Gehenna is the LAKE OF FIRE AND SULPHUR. Nowhere is the lake called Gehenna in the Bible.
Heb 12:17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
The text says nothing about begging for God’s mercy. Anytime someone asks God to have mercy on them they have repented.
Neither does Lk16… the original basis of the arguments above.
The rich man begs for mercy
And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame
AND was his plea dutifully heeded and he mercifully alayed of his anguish of flame… what saith the Scripture? 
The scripture says those with hardened hearts hate and blaspheme God and won’t repent after the flame of wrath:
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ~~ Rev. 16:9
The rich man in hades was begging for mercy not blaspheming and hating God showing his heart had softened in repentance.
There is zero evidence that Gehenna is the LAKE OF FIRE AND SULPHUR. Nowhere is the lake called Gehenna in the Bible. Gehenna was outside the earthly Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a completely different context.
Did you ever hear that catchphrase from that kids movie ‘TOY STORY’… “it’s a toy!” — well this is similar with Jesus’ presentation of Lk 16… IT’S A STORY!
A story in which the rich man begs for mercy showing that his heart had softened in the flame. His heart wasn’t hardened anymore. This is the result of a hardened heart:
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ~~ Rev. 16:9
But you don’t know this because when you apply your PU method you can just as conveniently say… “The account of Luke 16:19-31 may only be describing the rich man’s first few minutes in Hades after dieing [sic]” Thus thereafter when his tongue wasn’t quenched he turned and made all manner of blasphemous curses… See how flexibly like jelly your PU is.
Your adding to the word of God.
There you have it… THAT’S what PU allows you to do!
Really? That’s your response?
Scripture reveals all will be saved. The wicked are conscious in the lake of fire being tormented “into the eons of the eons” until they enter the New Jerusalem & are saved. If there is no corrective salvific purpose to them being there tormented, then why are they being tormented? Are their torments for God’s sadistic pleasure?
Are the “torments” of people in the lake of fire (LOF) for the purpose of (1) “to end the old covenant” (2) Love Omnipotent’s sadistic delights or (3) correction? The answer to this multiple choice question seems quite obvious to me.
Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)
I don’t know what the lake of fire has to do with Matthew 7:21 or this thread, but it’s often equated with Gehenna which is referred to earlier in Jesus’ teaching in chapters 5-7.
The context of Matthew 5:25-26, both before & after those 2 verses, is making references to Gehenna. Verses 21-26 have to do with anger & being reconciled & v.22 warns of Gehenna. In verses 27-30 the subject is adultery & v.30 warns regarding Gehenna.
Matt 5:25-26 Come to terms quickly with your adversary before it is too late and you are dragged into court, handed over to an officer, and thrown in jail. I assure you that you won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.
“They must pay (as GMac says) the uttermost farthing – which is to say, they must tender the forgiveness of their brethren that is owed, the repentance and sorrow for sin that is owed, etc. Otherwise they do stay in prison with the tormenters. (their guilt? their hate? their own filthiness?) At last resort, if they still refuse to let go that nasty pet they’ve been stroking, they must even suffer the outer darkness. God will remove Himself from them to the extent that He can do so without causing their existence to cease. As Tom Talbot points out so well, no sane person of free will (and the child must be sane and informed to have freedom) could possibly choose ultimate horror over ultimate delight throughout the unending ages.”
Mt.18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon…
34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Compare the torment of Mt.18:34 with torment in LOF passages in Rev.14:9-11 & 20:10.
Also compare the Matthew 5 Gehenna contexts, 1 Cor.6:9-11 & similar Pauline remarks with:
Rev.21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and having become abominable and murderers and the sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their portion is in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
1 Cor.6: 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous ones will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor coveters, not drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And some of you were such. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Davo,
I think I see your point. This scripture came to mind:
When that day comes, you will beg for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you on that day." ~~ Proverbs 1:28
It still doesn’t change my view that God destroys in His judgment but then resurrects. I don’t hold to the PU you describe. But a different one.
It also doesn’t change the fact that Gehenna is a valley outside the earthly Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is a different context and therefore the lake of fire and sulfur isn’t Gehenna. Nowhere is it called Gehenna. Just as the Kings and nations were killed in battle under the wrath of the lamb and then purified in the lake of fire and sulfur as we see them entering the gates of the city.
I agree indeed it was… Jesus however uses this, i.e., its destructive nature, as a figurative picture of the fiery ordeal that lay on their horizon. In the biblical parlance of Israel’s old covenant story EXILE was DEATH. Israel’s first death came with the Babylonian conflagrations and destruction of 586BC — from this there was a prophesied and promised resurrection; not so with Israel’s second death.
Israel’s “second death” i.e., the LoF came with the Roman conflagrations and destruction of AD70 — from this there was NO prophesied nor promised resurrection; the LoF was the terminus of the old covenant world encapsulated in the end-time rout and ruin of Jerusalem and Temple.
The second death is the lake of fire. The lake of fire is in the context of the new Jerusalem. Gehenna is located outside the earthly Jerusalem. It’s still there today. This is clearly two different contexts. Nowhere does the Bible say the lake of fire is Gehenna. It’s called the lake of fire and sulfur. Not the new Gehenna. The Bible would have said this if the lake of fire was Gehenna. There’s an earthly Jerusalem and a new Jerusalem. Gehenna is located outside the earthly Jerusalem that is still there today. Two different contexts. The Lake of Fire and sulfur in not the Gehenna of 70 A.D. The resurrection comes from the fact that Christ was our substitutionary atonement.
The penalty for sin cannot be eternal death for Christ was resurrected
The penalty for sin cannot be eternal suffering for Christ didn’t suffer forever.