I had always thought that if you accepted Jesus as your savior you were saved and went to Heaven to be with Him for Eternity, and if you rejected Him you would spend eternity In Hell ( Lake of Fire). But a lot of preachers today say that if you are not saved you will be separated from God forever which is true but not complete in my opinion and some of the young people I am talking with say, “So what? I am separated from Him now and it is no big deal.” Other pastors say you will suffer eternal death and again they say, “So what? A little pain and then oblivion.” Will you help and once again I request that you tell me if I am wrong.
You’re right, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun as the old saying goes. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the story of Lazarus and the rich man to describe what it’s like to be in hell. And in Mark 9:43-48 Jesus made reference to the fire that is never quenched where the worm never dies. This clearly shows that hell is not just a place of isolation. Nor is it a matter of being destroyed and that’s the end of it. It is a place of torment, and it lasts forever.
The current trend of of trying to diminish the consequences of refusing the pardon Jesus paid for with His life can not be supported by Scripture, and has the unintended consequence of persuading non-believers that rejecting God is not as catastrophic as they might have thought.