Grace gives us eternal life. Being judged, remakes us into spiritual images of Jesus. Because of God's application of grace and judgment in our past, we don't normally see ourselves of being guilty of sins that were worthy of the death penalty, which is where grace came into play. but when God began judging us, we were similar to the useless pieces of human vermin that are now found in the Muslim faith. Most of them are human rejects, who if they don't soon get the idea of compassion and forgiveness, are going to experience the "second death." Where God refuses to save them for another chance at the kingdom when they die, and their souls will be allowed to just dissipate and vanish, not being worthy of even returning as pigs or monkeys, something that Muhammad warned them of, but it fell on the ears of a stiff necked people.
That is the reason we have both. Grace gives us eternal life, when we don't deserve it. Judgment slowly makes us into better people who will deserve eternal life.
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Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God
I assume you are referring to this scripture:
Isaiah 10:18 (ESV)
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18 [/SUP] The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy,
both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
BUT OUR LORD gives us more details where this will take place:
Matthew 10:28 (NKJV)
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28 [/SUP]
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
NOW that word in Math. 10:28 that we translate "destroy", does mean to be totally consumed as if by FIRE.
ONE MORE POINT, you missed. HELL is forever, and nowhere in Either of those verses does it say that the unbeliever's human spirit will be destroyed too, IT WILL BE IN HELL IN TORMENT FOREVER:
Matthew 25:41 (ASV)
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41 [/SUP]
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels:
Isaiah 33:14 (NIV)
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14 [/SUP] The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: "Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can
dwell with everlasting burning?"
Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
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8 [/SUP] But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars,
shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 14:9-11 (NKJV)
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9 [/SUP] Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives
his mark on his forehead or on his hand,
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10 [/SUP] he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
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11 [/SUP] And
the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
THERE is NO such thing as completely going into NOTHINGNESS. I was saved after three attempts at suicide. If you had come to me during any one of those attempts, and told me that unsaved sinners,
"their souls will be allowed to just dissipate and vanish", YOU WOULD HAVE PUSHED ME OVER THE EDGE, and You would have heard the gunshot before you got to your car, and you would have found my brains splattered all over the wall.
PLEASE do not ever tell that theory to ANYONE, especially one who is thinking about suicide.
MY WHOLE DESIRE WHILE I HAD THAT PISTOL AGAINST MY HEAD, WAS TO CEASE TO EXIST. It was the SHEAR TERROR of
KNOWING that Hell was for real, and that it would last FOREVER, that stopped me from finishing pulling that trigger, both times that I had that pistol against my head. Body and Soul (psyche' in the GreeK), may be consumed by the Fires of Hell, but the unsaved human spirit will be there in torment FOREVER.