Originally posted by paladin
View Post
These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction [olethros aionios] from the Lord’s presence and from His glorious strength in that day when He comes to be glorified by His saints and to be admired by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:9,10 HCSB)
If we wish to get creative, we may read the aforementioned text to mean the wicked will undergo an unending process of destruction which never actually culminates in destruction. Besides the strangeness (or rather, unlikelihood) of such an interpretation, this reading is driven primarily by the presupposition of universal immortality. A more natural reading of the text is simply that the wicked will be permanently destroyed at Christ's return. So no, the idea is not that the unrighteous will endure endless conscious "ruin" or some other fanciful notion along these lines.
Comment