Eternal = Forever

I truly wish as Christians we could all be of one mind.  I don't like confrontation and I do want us to agree and get along.  I have differing views from my brothers and sisters in Christ and it grieves me.  Calvinism, Arminianism, theistic evolution, Bible versions, tribulation/end times etc.  There are people smarter than me who I do not share in their beliefs because I cannot reconcile what I read in the Bible with what they are telling me or simply looking at in a logical way.  Eg if A is true then B can not be true.  There ARE absolutes.  Only one view is going to be the truth.

One subject along these lines that grieves me lately is eternal separation from God.  Universal redemption, it's not new (Ecc 1:9).  In fact George MacDonald believed in it and it came out in his literature, especially, Lilith, which is such a tragedy because it is so good.  To me, the best part is when Lilith comes to Adam and truly desires to be good and change.  He tells her first she has to open her hand that has been holding onto something for so long that her hand has basically grown together and won't open, even when she wants it to, so she tells him to cut it off, which reminds me of Matthew 18:6-9.

Anyway, I can't agree with universal redemption.  If it's true that God will let everyone in heaven regardless of whether they choose to believe in Him and ask for forgiveness, then what was the point of the cross?  Everything that lead up to Christ's birth, everything that went on in His ministry, everything that lead up to His death, burial and resurrection would have been for nothing because it doesn't matter anyway whether He died or even came to earth to begin with. It's like a parent who makes empty threats. It makes light of Jesus' sacrifice and His sacrifice is WAY to serious a thing.  To think, he broke fellowship with the God head for it!  How blasphemous to think of all He went through for Him not to mean business about eternal separation being real; for Him to just say after 10,000 years of eternity "ok, you can all come out of torment now".  I'll say it again, it makes light of Jesus' sacrifice.  It proves how dire the need is for people to come to His saving grace. Besides, If God reneges on that, what else can we NOT trust about Him?

Eternal = Forever

If eternal life means we are forever with God after time ceases (and a bit before) then eternal separation means forever away from Him.  One can not pick and choose the meaning of eternal to mean one thing in one instance and not in another.

Here is a good list of scriptures to support eternal separation being for forever.