Focusing specifically on verse 11, but using other verses as necessary, how can "and they have no rest day or night" be reconciled to our belief on the punishment of the wicked?

9Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

Well, if I were to stay awake for 72 hours, that could be called having no rest day or night. It doesn't have to mean "day or night for eternity."

I've had lots of trouble with choice verses in the bible seemingly conflicting with our belief, but everything works in the end.

I'll have a look into the loop hole in that verse... though I'm sure either someone already has/will answer it for you

Very nice thoughts, Cheri.

Admittedly, there are some difficult verses in Revelation and elsewhere for the Adventist belief on this subject. However, if we understand those difficult verses in as literal sense as non-Adventists do, we’d have even more difficulty with the many clearer verses elsewhere that support destruction of the wicked.

There’s really two main choices a Christian has to decide on how to understand those verses. Either we can believe the wicked are destroyed as the Bible clearly says, or we can believe that unsaved people’s torment never ceases through endless ages of agony, which the Bible only says in symbolic language (with the help of some historic interpretation).

When you ask someone who believes in eternal torment, how they reconcile eternal, conscious, torment, with the Bible’s theme of destruction of the unsaved, they’ll tell you that THOSE verses must be taken figuratively, while the more obscure verses in a SYMBOLIC book should be taken literally!

I think Adventists’ understanding of the subject is more consistent with Scripture. We understand the clearest verses in the most literal sense, that the wicked are destroyed. We understand the more obscure, symbolic verses in Revelation in a more figurative sense (as Cheri expressed in her explanation).

Jeff

When I was studying SDAism, it seemed to me that there were a lot of verses on both sides of the question regarding whether the soul is immortal or not. An important thought to me was what each view said about God's character. I had a lot of trouble with the idea that God would torture the wicked for all eternity. That didn't seem much like Him to me.