I must admit that I have some inclination to believe that those who go to hell will, at some point, simply cease to exist, going into utter oblivion. I base this on what is assuredly human view that it is one thing to burn for 10 minutes, 10 days, 10 years, even 10,000 years. But when we truly think about eternity, that means that someone who did not believe on Jesus will be in hell for more than 1,000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 CENTURIES!, I have to believe that, as has always been the case, God will temper his judgment with mercy.But here is the thing! Even if hell is for 30 seconds, and then you are gone forever, Jesus said that it was better to cut off your hand, cut off your feet, pluck out your eye, etc. to AVOID going to hell! Consider that for a moment…. EVEN if we believe in eventual annihilation, hell is so horrific that Jesus is telling us to DO ANYTHING to avoid it!If “hell†is just death and ceasing to exist, then as bad as it would be to know that friends and family would go on forever in the presence of the Lord, and you would cease to exist, that still is something most people could likely manage. That is, you are horror-stricken for a few moments…and then it’s all over. No, whatever hell is, whatever it is like, however long it lasts, whether a split-second or a trillion centuries, it is so bad that we are admonished to avoid it at all costs.So, that lets us know that hell is more than just dying and going away forever. It is a level of horror that is unparalleled in the entire universe. If it didn’t exist, or if it was just a blinding flash that blasted us into oblivion, there would not have been any reason to warn so strongly of avoiding it.