I can tell you exactly how we read the same Bible and come to such different conclusions. It's the same way a creation scientist and an evolutionary scientist look at the same evidence and come to completely different conclusions. The answer is Presuppositions. It's the things we presupposed are true when we come to the text. You presuppose that a person can live apart form the body. I don't. These presuppositions alone set us on vastly different courses. That is why I've brought up the question of what a man is and what happens to him when he dies. If my presupposition is correct and a man cannot live apart from the body then he doesn't continue to exist after he dies. I have shown this from Scripture. Your presupposition is that man lives on after after the body dies. I've yet to see anyone make this case from Scripture.
People claim that man has an immortal soul. Scripture refutes this. Paul said that the Father alone has immortality. That means that no one apart from God lives forever. Paul also tells us that God gives life, or is going life, to all things. Job tells us that if God retrieved His breath all flesh would die. So, that means that everything that is alive is being kept alive by God. Since no one is immortal and can only live if God gives them life the only way a person could suffer eternally is if God kept them alive. We have to question any doctrine that would impugn God's character and the Eternal Conscious Torment doctrien certainly impugns God's character.
Getting back to the subject of presuppositions. These are the filters through which we interpret the texts. These are what guide us to our understanding. When I held the same presuppositions that you do, and I did, I came to the same conclusions that you have. However, those conclusions had problems. For instance, if eternity in hell was the end of the wicked, why did Jesus give the contrast of eternal life and perishing? Why did Paul say the wages of sin is death rather than saying the wages of sin is eternal conscious torment? Why did God say through Ezekiel, 'the soul that sins shall die' instead of saying the soul that sins would suffer eternal conscious torment? These are the serious questions we have to ask. If we accept that the Scriptures are without error, I do, then maybe we need to reconsider our presuppositions because they are leading us to a conclusion that runs counter to what the Scriptures say.
You see, the reason our perspectives are different is because I changed my presuppositions to align with what I found in Scripture and let go of what I was taught the Bible said. When the Bible says that man is dust, I beleive that man is dust, not a ghost or spirit, but dust. I don't make man. Into something he's not. God told Adam if he ate from the Tree of Knowledge he would die. I believe that. God didn't tell Adam if he ate from the tree his body would die but he'd continue on. After Adam ate, God said to him that he would die. He said to Adam you are dust and to dust you shall return. He didn't say your body is dust and to dust it shall return, but you will continue on. You see, whether people realize it or not. Those who hold the immortal soul position have to read those verses to say that Adam's body died but Adam didnt. However, God said that Adam would die.
So our presuppositions affect how we read the Scriptures. If a person believes in the immortal soul doctrine they cannot take those passages at face value. I can because I changed my presuppositions to match what God said to Adam.
