If hell is eternal, then so is evil

[makesends]

The Second death is not though ceasing to exist, its being eternally ruined state due to being apart from presence of God

That's one way to put it.

 

[Bruiser]

Those who hold to the traditional doctrine of hell usually describe it as the final state of the wicked in eternal conscious torment; they are the reprobate, raised for judgment, justly condemned, and forever subjected to God’s punitive wrath. If there is no zone outside God’s sovereign control nor any kingdom that rivals his realm and rule, then some small corner of the renewed creation will be forever marred by sin where divine wrath is forever poured out. The wicked subsist forever; they remain in conscious rebellion, anguish, and hatred of God, excluded from the blessedness of the redeemed, their enmity not healed but set forever. Evil is never entirely eradicated; it is isolated and preserved.

That is one of my difficulties with the traditional view. It seems to require that, ultimately, evil is never actually abolished. Sin is not eradicated; it is quarantined. Hatred of God, misery, and rebellion remain forever as an everlasting pocket of anti-shalom within the new heavens and new earth.

But if that is so, in what sense are “all things” reconciled to him through Christ (Col. 1:20)? Redemptive history is, at the deepest level, the unfolding of God’s eternal purpose “to unite all things in him” (Eph 1:10), so that God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). Judgment is the consummating act in that drama.

I understand the appeal to justice, but I struggle to see how the eschaton is truly consummated if a region of unending sinful resistance remains forever. That seems less like the complete triumph of redemption than the eternal preservation of a defeated-but-never-eradicated evil. But the language of Scripture seems clear in testifying that every last enemy is destroyed, not quarantined somewhere, describing an unopposed, healed, consummated order in which no rival principle continues to assert itself.

Question: How does the traditional view avoid the conclusion that evil is never finally abolished but eternally preserved under judgment, and in what sense, on that view, are all things united in Christ so that God is truly all in all?

Even if Hell were Finite, Sinners are Eternal. They aren't Atoned for, and they will Eternally generate Evil which needs Punishment...

 

[John Bauer]

Even if Hell were Finite, Sinners are Eternal. They aren't Atoned for, and they will Eternally generate Evil which needs Punishment...

That did not answer the question asked. Even that narrower scope incurs the same question.

 

[JesusFan]

That did not answer the question asked. Even that narrower scope incurs the same question.

The death and resurrection of jesus provided for physical resurrection even for the lost as they need those bodies for the eternal state

 

[John Bauer]

The death and resurrection of jesus provided for physical resurrection even for the lost as they need those bodies for the eternal state

That also doesn't answer the question.

It's at the bottom of the OP.

 

[Hobie]

Why did Jesus spend so much time warning about hell and damnation, speaking in terms that would indicate eternal consequences, not just get burnt away and ceasing to ever exist?

Well, sin has consequences even though the devil tells you the opposite...