“There is no hell where the souls of sinners suffer in eternity”, Pope Francis he told Eugenio Scalfari, a 93-year-old atheist philosopher, today, during a conversation in the Vatican.
Francis said: “after death, the souls of people who repent are pardoned by God and join in his contemplation, “but those who do not repent, and therefore cannot be pardoned, disappear.”
“Hell does not exist – what exists is the disappearance of sinful souls,” he added.
Source – Newshelm
God said that eternal life is a GIFT from Him.
Since it is a ‘gift’, then an unrepentant person will definitely not be given the ‘gift of eternal life’ …even in a hell.
So what does the eternal fire refer to?
….knowing, at resurrection from physical death & facing judgement, that eternal existence is possible….but being denied it forever…symbolized as a fire consuming that hope forever….the torment of the last words of a dying man “I do not want to die, I want FREEDOM to live, FREEDOM to exist!”
….but FREEDOM no more.