The idea of human consciousness continuing to exist after the body dies does not necessarily entail an afterlife that does not feature matter. Consciousness is nonphysical (even if does not exist without the body), but it does not follow that a realm like hell, if it exists, is devoid of matter. Indeed, Biblical details about the Christian conception of the afterlife completely exclude the notion of a matterless hell.
The Biblical hell is not a realm of immaterial fire--such a place could not even exist! Fire is a distinctly material thing, meaning that if the particular aspects of hell mentioned in the gospels are described literally, hell is a dimension or realm in which physical flames (Matthew 18:8) and worms (Mark 9:47-48) reside. Hell, at the very least, involves explicitly physical punishment and is said to be reserved for every component of unsaved humans.
Regardless of the hypothetical extent to which descriptions of hell might be metaphorical, the fact that Jesus refers to the body being destroyed in hell along with the spirit (Matthew 10:28) establishes that hell is not divorced from physical substance. Hell is more than a purely immaterial plane of existence, or else it would be impossible for the unsaved to have their bodies annihilated in hell along with their consciousnesses/souls.
Even a superficial reading of the Genesis creation account should alert the reader that God did not create humans to be only spiritual/mental beings: God created humans to be spirits housed within physical bodies. Humans are neither purely physical nor purely spiritual (in the sense that humans do not exist only as spirits). If a person sins, they have earned death (Romans 6:23), not only of the soul (Ezekiel 18:4), but also of the body (again, see Matthew 10:28).
As such, hell cannot exclude the presence of the body, or else it could never be reduced to ashes in hell (2 Peter 2:4). The Biblical details about both hell itself and the corporeal nature of the punishment therein affirm that hell is indeed at least partially a physical place. When someone says otherwise, they either have not read the Bible very closely or they have merely accepted the false assumptions of others.
Even a superficial reading of the Genesis creation account should alert the reader that God did not create humans to be only spiritual/mental beings: God created humans to be spirits housed within physical bodies. Humans are neither purely physical nor purely spiritual (in the sense that humans do not exist only as spirits). If a person sins, they have earned death (Romans 6:23), not only of the soul (Ezekiel 18:4), but also of the body (again, see Matthew 10:28).
As such, hell cannot exclude the presence of the body, or else it could never be reduced to ashes in hell (2 Peter 2:4). The Biblical details about both hell itself and the corporeal nature of the punishment therein affirm that hell is indeed at least partially a physical place. When someone says otherwise, they either have not read the Bible very closely or they have merely accepted the false assumptions of others.
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