Eternity is timelessness, where Father God dwells in unchangeable perfection with no possibility of growth or learning or maturing. All the ages of time can never reach eternity where the Father dwells, but within time, eternity is always right here, right now, if only we will pause and take a whiff of it.

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” (Eccl 3:11)

 So talking about “eternal torment” or “eternal punishment” in the sense of “unending, forever and ever” is nonsense right off the bat. Jesus’ famous parable of the sheep and the goats ending, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt 25:46) is not talking about a length of time at all. It is talking about a quality of life or death - a new life form, if you will. “This is eternal Life, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” (Jn 17:3) It has nothing to do with a length of time.

And similarly for the goats, “And death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the ‘Second Death,’ the Lake of Fire. And if anyone’s name was not found in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” (Rev 20:14-15) This ‘Second Death’ is not eternal torment, it is a new kind of death, far worse than the form of death which the wicked experience every day of their lives.

Everyone who does not know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent” is dead in trespasses and sins. (Eph 2:1) He remains dead until the Holy Spirit quickens him, for no one can receive the Gospel without the quickening of the Holy Spirit. But any torment he may receive in this sad condition is only by his own choice. Anyone, good or evil, can choose to do what is right and receive the blessings, or choose to do what is evil and reap the consequences. He can even choose to dedicate his life to Satan, spend all his life-energy serving Satan, and wind up in torment in hell, for Satan loves to torment his own. But none of that is the Second Death, nor is it “eternal punishment.”

Any torment he got was by his own choice. He lived by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, making his own choices according to his own knowledge. That is iniquity, but it was all he had, for his spirit was dead – blind and deaf to the things of God. One can only live according to one’s nature. All of that will be forgiven, according to Jesus. “Any sin and blasphemy [even against Jesus Himself] shall be forgiven men, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven… either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matt 12:31-32)

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