@ TTWSYF
Regardless of loads of scripture...if they don't say people will be tormented forever, then that meaning is added to the text. Loads do not impress me. Give me one scripture; that's all I need.
You brought out a passage which you feel speaks of eternal torment.
Mark 9:43-44 And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into GEHENNA, INTO THE FIRE THAT SHALL NEVER BE QUENCHED. (44) Where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched.
GEHENNA: Does the term Gehenna denote or suggest eternal torment?
Gehenna was a 600 ft deep gorge, called the valley of (GE)Hinnom, that in Jesus day, was being used as a garbage dump. It was situated just outside Jerusalem. Garbage, carcasses of animals and even the dead bodies of criminals were cast into Gehenna, without burial, to be utterly destroyed by the unquenchable fires that burned night and day and the seemingly endless supply of scavenging worms and other natural elements.
Nothing was thrown into Gehenna alive or in a conscious state, and nothing was tormented in the literal Gehenna. Jesus employed Gehenna figuratively to depict the unlimited destruction associated with the "second death".
Gehenna, had a bad history. God judged Israel for her sins (Jeremiah.7:31-33; 19:2-13) and prophesied to fill this valley full of bodies. Josephus informs us that countless bodies were heaped there following the Roman siege in 69/70 AD. By Jesus' day, the term "Gehenna" was commonplace imagery in Jewish literature. Gehenna evoked a sense of total dishonor and disgust; it suggested judgment, death, decay and destruction, not eternal torment.
FIRE: Does fire in scripture tend to denote torment?
Fire is commonly used as a symbol for destruction, rather than conscious torment. God's fiery judgments burn till all is consumed (See Mal. 4:1 and Ez. 28:18-19). Fire is said to consume sinners and cities.
ETERNAL FIRE:
Does eternal fire denote or necessitate ongoing conscious suffering?
The destruction of Sodom was notably quick and merciful, but its desolation perpetual. (Is. 13:19-22, Jer. 50:40) This sudden destruction, resulted in total desolation that would never be reversed. This is an example of the eternal fire associated with God's final fiery judgment. (Jude 7, 2 Peter 3:10)
UNQUENCHABLE FIRE:
Does unquenchable fire denote conscious perpetual pain?
God's prediction of Jerusalem's destruction with unquenchable fire was fulfilled when enemy armies burned Jerusalem in 586 BC. (Jeremiah 17:27) Did the unquenchable fire of Jerusalem's judgment ever go out? Unquenchable fire symbolizes destruction which nothing will prevent.
UNQUENCHABLE FIRE AND UNDYING WORMS:
Do Fire and worms, the twin elements of destruction in literal Gehenna, denote eternal torment? This same imagery is used in Isaiah 66:24 to describe the righteous looking over the "dead corpses" (pegerim). The righteous viewed their destruction, not their misery or torment. They were not looking at eternal worms or fires that never went out through eternity.
It is equally important to note that Jesus' use of Gehenna as a figure of eternal destruction did not demand or even imply immortal worms or flames that would never go out throughout history, much less human suffering and torment. The unquenchable fire and the undying worm in literal Gehenna, points to the completion of the work of destruction. In literal Gehenna, the worms did not die off or the fires abate until the corpses were destroyed completely. The purpose of Gehenna was destruction, not torment. To sum up, the literal place of Gehenna was not a place of torment; rather than conveying torment, literal Gehenna conveyed death and decay. It evoked feelings of disgust, revulsion and contempt or loathing from onlookers, not torment and pain of indwellers.