Alright, I'll do my best, though I still recommend you listen to it.
Hell is a place of punishment, a prison of sorts. It's where "some will be beaten with many stripes, and some with few." (
kgov.com/equal) However, God is not a sadist. He's not sick, but He has to do something with those who reject Him, who don't want to be with Him for all of eternity. Here's an analogy I use all the time when talking about this subject:
A man kidnaps a woman and builds her a dream home, but places her inside and cements up the windows, and locks the doors to the outside. He then demands that she love him, because he loves her, but because she was never given the choice, she hates him, despises him, and resists his every move toward her.
Is this man's love sick or healthy?
Another man approaches a woman, woos her, but always tells her that if she wants to leave him, he will not keep her. But she always chooses to stay, and eventually they get married, and he builds her a dream home, and brings her into it, and asks that she loves him, but again points out that if she wants out, there's the door.
Is this man's love sick or healthy?
The first man's love is sick. It's extremely unhealthy, even perverse. It represents the kind of god who loves everyone and doesn't send anyone to Hell. God is not like this man. God does not force those who hate Him to live with Him forever.
The second man's love is beautiful and very healthy. It represents the God of the Bible, who is loving and merciful, but also righteous and just. His love is a healthy love, it is not perverse. God's need for justice requires that there be a punishment for sin. Those who reject Him their entire lives even to the point of death are not forgiven of their sins, and MUST pay the penalty. So those who die rejecting God are sent to Hell, where they will receive the punishment for their sins.
This brings me back to my point that God is not a sadist. He is not unhealthy. God will not punish people forever. However, He will not force someone to live with Him for all eternity, so He can't allow them into Heaven after they have been punished, because they would turn Heaven into Hell because of their hatred for God, so He sends them to the Lake of Fire, where the soul-spirits of those who reject him will spend thee rest of eternity.
The "Fire" in the Lake is not literal fire. There is nothing 'physical' about the Lake, nor will those who are cast into it have a physical body, so they will not be able to feel physical pain, such as burning. No, the 'fire' is a description of the emotional pain that will be experienced, that is self-caused by those who reject God.
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