Reply #6: Everlasting Punishment is a metaphor?

[Motown_Johnny]

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025&version=KJV

^snip^

4Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.




It sounds to me as if this was meant to be literal. Not that some of those quotes were not meant metaphorically, but to say that all of them were is a bit of a stretch.