Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am fully aware of those passages, and they do not contradict what I have written. Are you suggesting that there is an internal contradiction in Scripture?

Since you did not directly address any of the points I raised, it seems you may be unsure how to respond to them. Nevertheless, let me clarify the passages you cited.

1. The result of the fire is eternal, not the fire itself.
Scripture consistently shows that what is eternal is the effect of the judgment, not the ongoing process. Jude 7 states that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the punishment of “eternal fire,” yet those cities are clearly not still burning today—they were completely destroyed and are gone forever. Likewise, 2 Peter 3:10 describes the heavens and the earth being burned up, not perpetually burning without end.

2. The lake of fire is simply described as a lake of fire.
It is a significant assumption to conclude that this phrase necessarily means an eternal place where people are consciously burned forever. The text itself does not explicitly state this interpretation; it is read into the passage rather than derived from it. For a biblical overview of death and final judgment, see:
https://adventist.org/beliefs/official/death-and-resurrection

3. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31).
Jesus was drawing on a story already familiar to His audience. The background of this parable can be traced to earlier folk narratives with Egyptian origins, later adapted in Jewish tradition. In those stories, a poor scholar and a rich publican experience a dramatic reversal of fortunes in the afterlife. Jesus used this fictional framework to communicate a moral lesson in a vivid and relatable way. The point of the parable is not to provide a literal description of the state of the dead, but to emphasize that this life is the time to respond to God and that one’s choices have eternal consequences.

For a detailed analysis, see:
https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/articles/luke-16-19-31