The most popular verse in the Christian world is John 3:16...yet very few "get it":
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The choices are "perish"...and the greek means to destroy fully. To die. And everlasting life.
Paul makes the same point:
Rom_6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death..or eternal life. Not ETERNAL LIFE and then torture.
Man, by default, without Christ, does not have eternal life. We are not immortal. That way was blocked:
Gen_3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
It is a Satanic lie that we have, or can have life, without Christ. That we are immortal without our Lord and Savior:
Gen 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
Gen 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
You will be mortal. You will die. You will not have eternal life. But what is the lie of Satan?
Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
It's a lie that we have eternal lie already. It's a lie that we are immortal without Christ. It's a Satanic lie that goes against what God expressly said.
Who is hellfire prepared for?
Mat 25:41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
The eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels...demons. People thrown into it, people who reject Christ, people who don't have eternal life...SURELY DIE.
re: People thrown into it, people who reject Christ, people who don’t have eternal life...SURELY DIE.
So, why is the rich man conscious and in torment, needing Lazarus to come and cool his tongue?
I think you may be conflating the physical with the spiritual. Our bodies are mortal, but our souls and spirits are not. “It is appointed unto man once to die; and after this, the judgment.” So while believers may have true eternal life, in glorified bodies, the bodies of the unsaved will not be resurrected - but their spirits will still suffer the torments of hell.