Do you really think everybody should be punished for their 'sins' after they die?

Jesus in Matt 10 teaches about the second death.

Matt 10:28 Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Jesus in Matt 10:28 teaches about the death of both the body (first death) and the soul (second death) 

Matt 10:28
Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Rev tells us who will experience the second death

Rev 21:8 
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

TY my2cents

Rev is a vision. It is not Jesus walking and talking among his followers as he teaches them during his earthly mission.

Matt 10:28 are the words of Jesus. However, he doesn't split "the body (first death) and the soul (second death)" as you have done. He talks about a single destruction of "both soul and body in hell."

Then what do you determine the second death to be?
I am aware that Rev is John's vision. But none the less important it is still scripture. 

Somewhere in Ecclesiastes I remember reading something to the effect that 'the dead are better off than the living '.

I can't wait..

Sounds familiar but in light of other scriptures, I would have to see the context.
(Ecclesiastes 9:4, 5) There is hope for whoever is among the living, because a live dog is better off than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten.

Found it: Ecclesiastes 4:2 NEV.

Thanks Kittigate. I found the following:
11 Wise counsel for those who fear God (4:1–7:29). Solomon congratulates the dead, for they are free of “all the acts of oppression that are being done under the sun.” Then he continues to describe vain and calamitous works. He also wisely counsels that “two are better than one” and that “a threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two.” (4:1, 2, 9, 12) He gives fine advice on the congregating of God’s people: “Guard your feet whenever you go to the house of the true God; and let there be a drawing near to hear.” Do not be hasty in speaking before God; let ‘your words prove to be few,’ and pay what you vow to God. “Fear the true God himself.” When the poor are oppressed, remember that “one that is higher than the high one is watching, and there are those who are high above them.” The mere servant, he observes, will have sweet sleep, but the rich man is too worried to sleep. Yet, he has come naked into the world, and for all his hard work, he can carry nothing out of the world.—5:1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 15.


and 

Greater Need for Deliverance Now
6 When Satan, Adam, and Eve rebelled against God, wanting to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong, the human family was set on a disastrous course. Before the global Flood, over 1,600 years later, “the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time.” (Gen. 6:5) About 1,300 years thereafter, Solomon found conditions to be so bad that he wrote: “I congratulated the dead who had already died rather than the living who were still alive. So better than both of them is the one who has not yet come to be, who has not seen the calamitous work that is being done under the sun.” (Eccl. 4:2, 3) Some 3,000 years more brings us to our day, when badness continues to flourish.
7 While it is true that badness has been around for a long time, there is a greater need for deliverance by God’s Kingdom now than at any other time. Conditions in the past 100 years have been worse than ever, and they continue to deteriorate. For example, the Worldwatch Institute reports: “Three times as many people fell victim to war in [the 20th] century as in all the wars from the first century AD to 1899.” Since 1914 more than 100 million lives have been lost in wars! One encyclopedia estimates that up to 60 million people died in World War II. With some nations now even being armed with nuclear weapons, humans have the capacity to wipe out huge segments of the world’s population. And even with advances in science and medicine, every year hunger still claims the lives of some five million children.—See chapter 9 of the book What Does the Bible Really Teach?

Ok. All right. 

I left many churches/religions in my life because when I asked, wanting to know something, I never had anybody give me an answer.  I always believed 'we cannot learn if we don't question.' 

Exactly SA, if you can't ask questions and get the answers you need, it is best to move on.

I still remember getting hit on my knuckles for asking why we were supposed to call priests "Father"...by a nun in grade school!! arg

It's a good thing that you didn't ask about the priests and the alter boys or they would have hung you lol.

  lol

Just nod your head yes and be a good little robot and you will be fine.

I'm too inquisitive to just 'nod my head darn it!  I want answers!  This post was edited by SA (SuperA) at December 15, 2016 12:38 PM MST

No religion has the total truth you seek. They all interpret the bible to their way of thinking. And they can't answer questions if it differs from what they believe.
That is why there is no true religion.
The only real truth is the relationship you have with God and whatever that may be.
And whatever people do no matter if they believe or not, it should make them happy. 

I came to realize that!  I quit relying on religions.  I'm happier now with my relationship. I now have peace, which I didn't before. 

Finding that peace is what matters no matter how you find it.

Man is not capable of knowing the "total truth."  GK Chesterton once observed that the poet is satisfied with putting his head inside the universe, the insane man is the one who tries to put the universe inside his head.

Truth exists and is the proper object of study.  And much can be understood.  But the supernatural is essential beyond our full comprehension.

And a case can be made that God established a religion for the benefit of mankind.  If that is correct, then religion is part of God's plan for all of us humans.

"there is no true religion." mus be a very difficult claim to substantiate. I suppose, a bit like the claim there is no God.

I did not say that there was not truth in religion because all have an element of it.
I said no religion has the total truth.
People make that judgement call on what that truth is to them and how it works in their lives.
People can believe whatever they want, I really don't care one way or the other. And that is all I have to say about that.