Regarding your questions whether "God [CAN]relinquish "HIS will" to that of an unrepentant sinner," I was speaking figuratively, in the sense that in eternal punishment God gives the unrepentant sinner over to the desires of his heart of stone, without restraint, limitation, or end. The sinner is released to the full effect of sin and its consequences. God ceases to have a will to restrain the consequences of the sinner's sin, and the consequences of judgment flow from the unrepentant sinner's depravity, and its ensuing consequences.<br><br>Regarding separation, I agree with you that Hell is more than mere separation from God, but it is not less. Isn't the historical position is that Scripture's darkness metaphor refers to separation? In another sense, as you point out, the dreadfulness of Hell is related to God's presence, not in grace and blessing, but in holy wrath. Per Luther: "Not as though the ungodly see God and His appearance as the godly will see Him; but they will feel the power of His presence, which they will not be able to bear, and yet will be forced to bear. . . .This chief and unbearable punishment God will inflict with His mere appearance, that is with the revelation of His wrath."<br><br>As for the scriptures and how literally we should take the Bible's graphic descriptions of Hell's eternal torment, I am undecided. Even Berkhof excercises caution on this point. Also consider Calvin:<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]Now, because no description can deal adequately with the gravity of God's vengance against the wicked, their torments and tortures are figuratively expressed to us by physical things, that is by darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth [Matt. 8:12; 22:13], unquenchable fire [Matt 3:12; Mark 9:43; Isa. 66:24], and undying worm gnawing at the heart [Isa. 66:24]. By such expressions the Holy Spirit certainly intended to confound all our senses with dread . . . . As by such details we should be enabled in some degree to conceive the lot of the wicked, so we ought especially to fix our thoughts upon this: how wretched it is to be cut off from all fellowship with God.<br><br>Institutes 3.25.12.</font><hr></blockquote><p>When I think of the hell that my unbelieving friends and acquaintances will have to endure if they remain unrepentant, it is the separation from the fellowship with God that most moves me in my desires for them and the in little I know of the joy of that fellowship as a believer until the day that we see Him as He is.<br><br>Clay