The Greek word “aionios” describes the duration of the punishment in hell. We know for absolute certain that the punishment in hell is “aionios”. This is a word that can be translated as being a long period of time or in other instances an eternal period of time, so the Greek language allows hell to be eternal or temporary. What scriptures about God give you the impression that God punishes disobedient people forever? What scriptures tell you that aionios should be translated “eternal” rather than “lasting” (for an age)
If I may. The same scriptures that tell you different
I would think knowing the purpose of hell and the lake of fire would help for starters. The NE and NH exist for the opposite reason the lake of fire exists.
ok, that’s a fair answer.
so all the punishment in the Bible is remedial. always it is given with the promise that only a loving Father disciplines his children (Hebrews, Proverbs), and always with the hope of restoration afterwards. that God would use this discipline to train us in the way we should go, so that when we are old we will not depart from it.
suddenly we’re being asked, not by Scripture, but by church tradition, to accept the idea that God suddenly changes His mind and makes punishment eternal. this in spite of the fact that many OT promises of restoration of fortunes to both Jews and their neighbouring countries remain unfulfilled to this day. if those nations are going to be restored (and they have to be restored post mortem, as almost all are dead now), then the punishment they endured was remedial. why suddenly is it no longer remedial but vengeful? it cannot be just, unless you subscribe to the debatable idea that every sin is infinite because it is an affront to God’s honour.
sorry oxymoron, again i’m not really getting how that is an answer. 
i’m sure it’s obvious but can you expand please?
It’s simple my friend. You actually believe your response to Revival was biblical as with many others who agree with you. I don’t as with many others who agree with me. You look at the bible and God one way and others look at the bible and God another way. You believe the God we show is unloving because of how you see God’s love in scripture. We all start with a presupposition and our presuppositions influence the way we read scripture.
There are those in your camp who don’t believe in any kind of hell and don’t see it anywhere in scripture. Hell is a horrible place for our loved ones to go, whether it is eternal or not.
thanks oxy.
i do understand what you’re getting at now… we can all read the same Bible and come to different conclusions based on different starting points. this is a troublesome thing, as it makes it hard to know what the truth really is…
though in my case i came with presuppositions programmed in since youth that favoured ECT and had to unlearn them…
so in my case presuppositions are not the reason i read Scripture this way…it’s more due to the ECT preconceptions not making sense to me.
Hi Oxymoron
Why do you think hell is horrible? If god is for his glory, and he chooses who will go there, and he chooses the vast majority to go there according to your theology, he must be more glorified in his anger and wrath than in his love and mercy, no?
Good question.
I may have Christ in me and taken on His righteousness, but I am yet to receive the full manifestation of His righteousness till I am given a new body therefore my flesh still remains and cringes at the ways of God. Hell is a horrible because Jesus describes it as such. It is the place of God’s wrath and we don’t want anyone to go there which is why we spread the gospel.
God will be glorified if none went to hell or if everyone went to hell. No one or nothing can diminish His getting the glory.
I pray I answered your question.
i think i agree with you at first…whatever form it takes, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God.
i guess where we differ is that we see God being angry for a moment, but after the discipline comes restoration, and though the punishment is still awful to endure, the favour is for life, and we are healed and our tears whiped away after.
but i personally feel God is glorious, but He is glorified by us when we know that He is God. this sometimes comes through judgement, but that judgement ends once we know that He is God, and glorify Him. so it would seem that (in my estimation) God gets glory from us…and the more He has to deliver us from, the more glory we will want to give Him on the other side of that.
this doesn’t diminish from His glory as it stands, but we will be there to glorify Him, whereas if everyone went to hell nobody would glorify Him. creation itself would seem fairly pointless then.
God would shine on in glory…alone.
My friend. This is where we differ. God is glorified in Himself-He doesn’t need us. The church (true believers) are the bride for His Son and in turn Christ will give us as a gift to the Father.
if He didn’t need us, why did He make us?
Good question.
Some say, He wanted a family; others say, He is always working out ways in order for Him to get the glory. One way or another God will get the glory. Us giving Him the glory does not equate with Him needing us. Our salvation glorifies Him but our salvation is not contingent on that He be glorified. Our salvation is a bi-product of God’s glory. Jesus died for our sins but ultimately He died on the cross to glorify God.
i suppose if He wanted a family, and all or most of that family end up being destroyed or tormented forever, it does seem like an experiment gone wrong. i don’t see how He gets glory from that.
it makes sense that He gets glory from our salvation, but it would seem odd if our damnation was also glorifying, as the audience to the glory would be destroyed or stopped from appreciating that glory.
that’s what i’m trying to get my head round.
i’m sure i remember reading scriptures that lend support to what you’re saying, but what if glory is the bi-product of salvific love?
it seems to me that the God who could step down off His thrown, as per Hebrews, and not consider equality with that status something to be grasped, that He actually embodies humility and is not self seeking in the slightest. if He was doing that just to be glorified, it would seem self-seeking. that seems odd to me.
maybe i’m misunderstanding what you mean by God’s glory. what does God’s glory mean to you? how do you define it? i personally find the concept hard to understand except as praise received by God, or the way He shines out (God is light as John says).
Another good question.
God getting the glory is God’s nature; no different than it’s a lion’s nature to kill and eat. God must always get the glory or He ceases being God because God would be sinning.
i.e. if God did not keep His promise like punishing sin then God would not be just, and His glory could not be manifested in His attributes. If God is good and we are not and if God didn’t give us what we deserve, then God wouldn’t be good. Does that make sense?
What is the greatest miracle of all time? God smooshed Himself down in the form of a defenseless human infant brought into the world. Is this the ultimate act of humility and is this why He did it? maybe…I don’t know; or do you think if God could have done it another way that He would have? There couldn’t have been another way or else He would have done it to be glorified. Why did God choose the Jews?
In short God’s glory is the beauty of His spirit-His character. His glory can be found everywhere:- in nature, in us, in music, in our creativity etc…
ok we are off topic now. Out of respect to the OP. 
Let me rephrase: why is God’s final punishment eternal? What scriptures lead you to believe this? Please read my original reasoning. What scripture leads you to believe that final punishment, which is “aionios” should be translated eternal. Oxy, you said “The same scriptures that tell you different”. Well the scriptures I was thinking of are these:
Lamentations 3:31
31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
Psalm 103:9
9He will not always accuse us of wrong
or be angry with us forever.
Jeremiah 3:5
5He won’t hold a grudge forever.
He won’t always be angry.’
Isaiah 57:16 ff
16I will not accuse you forever.
I will not be angry with you forever.
Otherwise, the spirits, the lives of those I’ve made,
would grow faint in my presence.
17I was angry because of their sinful greed,
so I punished them, hid from them, and remained angry.
But they continued to be sinful.
18I’ve seen their sinful ways, but I’ll heal them.
I’ll guide them and give them rest.
I’ll comfort them and their mourners.
19I’ll create praise on their lips:
“Perfect peace to those both far and near.”
**“I’ll heal them,” says the LORD.
**
Psalms 30:5
5His anger lasts only a moment.
His favor lasts a lifetime.
Weeping may last for the night,
but there is a song of joy in the morning.
Micah 7:18,19
18 Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
**You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy. **
19 You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
There are many scriptures that describe God as being one who is not eternal in his anger. It’s one thing to take a scripture and conclude from it that God might be a certain way, but it’s another thing entirely when God’s word says explicitly “God is this way” or “God is NOT this way”. The Bible teaches repeatedly that God is not one who remains angry forever, but delights in showing mercy. If hell is eternal, and a great majority of people go there, which is the traditional interpretation of scripture, then God truly is one whose love lasts only but a moment, but his anger is forever. You can theorize all you want about this, but the scriptural teaching is plain. Scripture says that punishment is “aionios”, which is traditionally interpreted as “eternal” or “forever”. In light of the broader scriptural context AND the fact that “aionios” can be interpreted as lasting for a period of time that is not eternal, it should be clear that God’s punishment would not last forever.
Oxy, are you saying those scriptures make you think God punishes forever? Why do you think it is forever? Why should the Greek word “aionios”, which can be translated in an eternal and NON eternal way, be translated as eternal when it comes to God’s final punishment?
By the way, here is aionios being translated in a non-eternal way in the King James Version:
Romans 16:25
King James Version (KJV)
25Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began (aionios),
This encompasses a period of time from when the world began up until the time of Christ, definitely NOT an eternal period of time. So once again, what, in the bible makes you think that aionios should be translated “eternal”? Especially in light of the fact that an interpretation of “eternal” contradicts the clear teaching of scripture that God does not cast out people forever based on the above several verses.
Those verses are from the Old Testament. It pertains mostly to the covenant between God and the Jews.
So you are saying that the Old Testament statements about God can only be applied to Jews? Which parts of the Old Testament can be applied to Gentiles? Also, are you saying that all Jews will be saved then, since “no one is cast off forever” and it supposedly only applies to Jews?
Micah, at least, is not celebrating the Covenant in itself; he is celebrating the kind of God behind the Covenant. It isn’t, “What a wonderful covenant we have, that God doesn’t stay angry at us Israelites forever!” but, “What a wonderful God, who doesn’t stay angry forever!”
Thank you! When the scriptures tell us what our God is like, it is telling us what our God is like! When it says that God is patient, it is not describing God as he is to one person only, but what God is like. A famous Calvinist tried to do this with “God is Love” in 1 John. He basically said that to the believer, God is love and the believer experiences the best that God is, but to the unbeliever, God is hate and he receives the worst that God can give. It’s funny, I don’t think they would do that with “God is Holy”
P.S. to my last reply oxy, you say that it is only to the Jews. The O.T. says in many places that God is compassionate and slow to anger:
Joel 2:13
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
You would say that he is that way to the Jews of the covenant, but look at Jonah’s complaint to God when he was extending his same character to the Gentiles in Nineveh in Jonah chapter 1:
1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.** I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.**
Did you see that? Jonah takes the character of God, like the verses that I showed you that say what God is like and he applies it to the Gentiles!!
So, why do you think that those verses apply only to the Jews? The ones about God not casting off forever and being angry forever, etc.?