Exactly.
He knows that. He's just trying really hard to skirt around it and avoid it.
It has already been shown to him that
apollumi (verb form) and
apolleia (noun form) in scripture, which are translated destroy, perish, lost, lose, die, etc., do not mean "cease to exist".
In fact, in ancient Greek literature even outside of scripture, these Greek words were not used to mean "cease to exist".
Homer, the ancient Greek poet that wrote the Iliad and the Odyseey used the words for the slain and the perished.
But these slain and perished ones still existed (and were still conscious) in Hades.
The word meaning at that time did not carry the modern connotation of annihilation, as in ceased to exist.
They carried the connotation of going from existing in one state of being to existing in another state of being, but not as "ceased to exist".
It would be wise to familiarize yourself with the actual use of the ancient words at the time they were used instead of trying to force a modern meaning to them just to satisfy your own agenda of what
you perceive that God's divine justice ought to be.
And example would be:
2 Thessalonians 2 KJV
(7) For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
Our modern use of the word "
letteth/
let" has the connotation of "allow/loosen".
But in the day it was written, it meant "restrain/retain".
So, to use our modern definition, instead of the definition of that time, would cause one to have a completely unbiblical understanding of the message of scripture.
