This is a case of trying to base a whole theology on one scripture or so.
Not for me personally. I base this "theology" on a prayer that I finally got tired of being scared to make.
It went something like "Father, I have struggled with this hell concept all of my life, and I do not understand how people were created with a foreknowledge of their doom. Won't you fix
everyone, seeing that you are able? I will give my life in service of such a will."
Make of it what you will, but the indescribable "voice" from "heaven" that replied was "Fear nothing! I will do this!"
With such authority and peace, that I dare questioned no more on the matter, as I had just been properly baptized with fire (a witness to my own wrongs), water (relief), and the Set Apart Spirit, in the name, the cause, the essence, the very "witness" of Yeshua ("Salvation!").
I then began to read the entire bible as if God wants to destroy the evil part of each man, starting with me, rather than to destroy the evil man himself and somehow deem me good.
In effect, I am reading a different story than I was taught, one that turns otherwise forgotten and "fluffy" stories in the bible into hardcore mirrors of what the "bigger" stories and the prophets say.
The story continues to repeat to this day.
And some of them get pretty precise and hard hitting, when compared to modern times.
People are searching symbols for enemies, when the symbols represent their enemies within.
An example I used earlier today with someone:
Making and worshiping a golden calf, is to single out the sacrifice and burden aspect of YHWH and worship that single aspect as an idol or false god, instead of the entire YHWH. This was their response to Him saving them and leading them out of Egypt (slavery). And that sounds undeniably familiar to what's happening today. "Non-prophetic" stories are indeed also prophetic.
Sure, by all means, we must praise Him because of what He did, but is he a lifeguard or a daddy that I can talk to in my normal, trying to grow up, childlike voice?
It would be like having a best friend who only liked you because you were an awesome lifeguard, instead of liking you because you love each other and have true communion.
Making children to pass through the fire to Moloch (going by historical detailed account), perfectly matches the description of heaven and hell that my great-grandma gave me when I was a child.
Parents required to put their children in a fire in order to please a god who required that loud praise music be played to conceal the cries of the burning children, while the parents were forbidden to shed a tear.
If the parent's cried, the sacrifice was nullified. And we're talking about an abomination that God's chosen people took part in, that He said never even would have came to His mind.
When this was revealed to me, I instantly had a flashback to that moment when she told me about heaven and hell, that the bad people burn forever in hell, and the good people live forever with God and play music and never feel sad. And I felt the shudder in my current time and body as though I were back in my body feeling it again at that very moment as a previously innocent child that thought God's entirety is that he brings babies to our pet rabbits in the night and takes dead people to a better place. A fearful and shocking memory that was almost bodily. A deadly memory with nothing but death at the end of it's fantasy. Myself, required to be happy, while my uncle Johnny and others burned forever.
As far as the "goat and sheep", "left and right", separation issue...
Being simply the separation between those who were changed by following Jesus, vs. those who were changed by the punishment. Those who weren't exposed to Jesus, or exposed improperly, being judged based on the works of their heart and making the best out of their particular circumstances, in order to determine if they actually did follow Jesus without even knowing about Him. Because their sins were forgiven.
You see, I have this very serious problem with the descriptions of the punishment contradicting
themselves when interpreted with tradition. Is it fire or is it worms? Is it destruction or is it shame? Is punishment without correction still considered punishment, if evil is destroyed, how will the people in eternal torment be able to continue to blaspheme, Etc.
The only way out of such a thing with tradition is to lump it all into the word hell and then say that it's too "high" to really understand and brush it off as "well, it's as bad as you can imagine and goes on forever."
To make such things coexist takes more imagination I believe, than to imagine that it simply applies to my "bad side" instead of my enemies, who I am instructed by YHWH Himself, to love, in the name of "Salvation."
Which is exactly what I was doing, to the point of soaking my pillow, when I made that prayer, my friend.
KJV did a terrible job with the words "eternity" and "forever."
Seeing this quickly trampled many other graven images.
Love them all.
The messenger of YHWH goes before us.
Peace.