@FMF brings us two new questions:
"Why fire?"
"Why torture?"
The answer: God manifests Himself as fire -- this blip is perhaps recognizable from other times when we have discussed this topic:
Here is a description of heaven/hell that is very much from within the Eastern Christian concept. This does not fit quite exactly, but it is very illuminating and is tangentially related.
"The uncreated glory, which Christ has by nature from the Father, is paradise for those who self-centered and selfish love has been cured and transformed into unselfish love. However, the same glory is uncreated eternal fire and hell for those who have chosen to remain uncured in their selfishness."
http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/4/17/paradise-and-hell-according-to-the-orthodox-church
Herein is also the other important aspect: the fire is uncreated and is a natural byproduct of the choice of the rejection of God. One enters hell that exists beyond God's creation.
Hell is the byproduct of someone rejecting God's love, and the love, which manifests as fire and acts to purify and is sensed as love by those who loved God, is now a burning fire to others.
This is interesting analysis from the above link as well:
From this point of view, therefore, we Orthodox Christians agree with the most liberal people in the world. No message can be more liberal than that of the Holy Fathers of the Church, who not only stress that, 'Son, we'll all go to the same place', as an old lady told me, but also emphasize that God loves everyone equally: the damned and the saved, the glorified and the saints, Angels and devils, good and bad, prostitutes and chaste...God loves all human beings equally, He loves everyone without distinction. From God's point of view, God saves everyone. He wants the salvation of all human beings, and he has preordained salvation for all.
How do we know this? Because even Hell is salvation (the human being is preserved) and Hell is a way of making perfect, but it is Hell and not Paradise. Because the one who is damned is incapable of progress, he is unable to accept progress towards perfection. Why? Because his conscience has been hardened, his heart has grown hard. He remains so egoistic and self-centered that his personality cannot develop from selfishness to unselfishness. Since he cannot develop anymore, he is perfected in his selfishness. Even Hell is evil for him. Although it is not punishment from God's point of view, it is punishment from the human point of view.
I can't write as well, nor can I speak with the authority, found at that link, so I hope that that can answer some of yoru questions or provide you with more discussion fodder.
As for why eternity, I have already tried my hand at answering that.
But here, again, is something better, again from the above link:
In our own Holy Tradition, the human being is eternally advancing to higher stages of perfection. For us history never stops There is the history of the saints and there is also the eternal history of man. The fact that Christ was Resurrected with His Body and that Christ is fully human until now and for ever and ever means that Christ, His Body and His human nature, is part of history. Has His Body not acted continually until this day? There has been a succession of actions; the energies of the Body of Christ have not ceased. So the Body of Christ is an inseparable part of history, which is a guarantee that history is eternal. History will not come to a halt; although a number of theologians who believe in Plato say nowadays that history will cease. No, history will not come to a halt. Why will history not cease? Because the Body with which Christ was resurrected will exist for ever, and we shall be resurrected with bodies. We shall not be merely souls in paradise. We shall be complete human beings.
Then Westerners speak about Paradise and Hell from the standpoint of justice. This is sociological interpretation of eternal life...
"...Holy Scripture uses the words 'light' and 'dark cloud' to describe the state of the just, and the words 'fire' and 'darkness' to describe the state of sinners. We know, however, that the light is different from the dark cloud that covers the light. And fire is the opposite of darkness, because fire chases away darkness and illuminates the surroundings.
This shows that there are not created words to express uncreated reality absolutely. The Eternal Divine Light and the Eternal Life are uncreated. They are the energy of God that is experienced by human beings as illuminating or burning energy, depending on their spiritual state.
"All human beings will see the glory of God, and from this point of view they have the same end. Everyone will certainly see the glory of God, the difference being that, whereas the saved will see the glory of God as sweetest light without evening, the damned will see the same glory of God as consuming fire, as fire that will burn them. It is a true and predictable fact that we shall all see the glory of God. Seeing God, that is to say, His glory and His Light, is something that will happen whether we want it or not. The experience of this Light, however, will be different for the two categories.
If my feeble words can't get through, maybe somethign more powerful like this can have an impact. IDK. Just throwing it out there. ^^
-Removed-You're right in the sense that works are only half the answer. But I believe that consistently doing good and doing right involves right thought, and actions like prayer, which are indicative of the mental life. So, it is perhaps more encompassing.
You know, in Korean, "think" is a "do" verb, and thus conceptualized as an action. I think we should also consider our thoughts to be actions. Of course, in English, it is less common to think of our thought as works.
Would you think of prayer as works?
There's a thought.
I would.
-Removed-First: you are wrong. Revelation talks about a specific group of people, doesn't it?
Second: Even if Revelation is symbolic...
What do you make of the Hell mentioned in Mark 9?
Matthew 25?
Matthew 13?
Matthew 16?
Matthew 10?
Or is the book of Matthew also purely symbolic?
What do you make of entering the Kingdom of God?
Is there really no life after death, and no God... Are the Gospels just a complex symbol from a human being on how we should live well?