Bart Goddard wrote:
> paul4deb@hawknet.com.au wrote:
>
>
>>I take "destruction" to mean what it's plainest meaning is--the ACT of
>>destroying or the PROCESS of being destroyed. Whether it is the act or
>>the process would depend on context. Either way, destruction in itself
>>implies an outcome:
>
>
> And here we're talking about _eternal destruction_, so the ACT or the
> PROCESS must be an eternal ACT or PROCESS. You can't have point
> events in eternity.
>

But it does not say the destruction is "in eternity". "everlasting" in
this verse is the adjective, not the noun.

Take the expression "everlasting consolation" (AV) in the same book:

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has
loved us and given [us] _everlasting consolation_ and good hope by
grace" (2 Thess 2:16 AV).

The NIV has this as "eternal encouragment".

We don't understand the expression to mean that the consoling is a
process that is going on continually, but rather, that by His grace, God
has consoled us through His love; and that state of having been consoled
will endure forever.

>
>>If we say "everlasting destruction" means a process that inflicts
>>conscious pain upon someone forever--ie without end, then we turn
>>"everlasting destruction" into a kind of oxymoron i.e. indestructible
>>destruction. I find this unscriptural.
>
>
> You haven't explained how, in eternity, someone can be punished
> for a while and then ceased to be punished. There is no concept
> of "ceasing" without time, because for something to "cease", it
> has to happen at one time and then stop happening at another.
>
> You're not being logical.

I am being scriptural. I read in Malachi 4:1-3, that their will be a
"day" that shall burn as an oven. This event does not happen in
eternity but in "time"--"the day(yowm)cometh":

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave
them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you that fear my name shall
the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall
go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3 And ye shall tread
down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
in the day that I shall do [this], saith the LORD of hosts." (Mal 4:1-3 AV)

'Ashes under the soles of your feet' implies utter destruction.

For "Dust thou art, unto dust shalt thou return."

There is a point event when "fire comes down from God out of heaven"
(Rev 20:9) and there is a point event when they will be consumed, burnt
up and left "neither root nor branch".