Hi Rainboy.

I accept the fact of eternal punishment simply because its so clearly laid out in Scripture, even though my fallen nature finds it repugnant. The best analogy I've been able to muster to understand it is to compare sin (not 'a sin' but 'sin') to sexual assault, perhaps of a child. Imagine a person who was sexually assaulted but no physical damage was done. Imagine the assault lasted 10 minutes. "Reason" would say that a 10-minute repayment would suffice, but we all know that the damage done was a lifetime of damage, and no repayment would ever suffice. The damage done is irreparable. Imagine saying to the victim, "Just get over it". We all understand that this offense is unlike any other possible offense, and it violates our soul in a grotesquely unique way. It's the same with sin. Adam and Eve "just" ate a piece of fruit, but we simply cannot comprehend what they did to God when they violated Him in the garden. We can only embrace in faith the truth of eternal punishment because we do not even know what we have done to God. Only He in His perfect child-like holy innocence has experienced the unique violence done to Him by our willful sin.