What does eternal or everlasting mean for the State of the Dead?

"Because when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Romans 5:12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so people die, animals die, leaves die, you name it. Birds die, fish die, death cursed the entire creation. 

Anything cursed by sin cannot continue forever.

That's why God will one day destroy this earth, destroy the galaxy connected to this earth.

That is why it is wrong to teach people will burn in hell forever.

--Because if you're burning in hell forever, you're still alive. 

And the Bible teaches in the beginning that it is not God's will that anything tainted by sin shall live forever.

*That's why God has to make a new heaven and a new earth. But He also has to make new people because in our condition that cannot last forever.

The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Notice the contrast.
*The Bible does not say the wages of sin is eternal life and torment. 

*It simply says the wages of sin is death.

Throughout scripture, the fate of the wicked is described using words such as perish, destroy, consume, devour, burn up, and become ashes.

Jesus Himself said in Matthew 10:28, Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Notice that Christ uses the word destroy.
Malachi chapter 4 declares that the coming day shall burn the wicked like stubble, leaving them neither root nor branch, and that they shall become ashes under the feet of the righteous.

Q:"What about the verses that speak of everlasting fire or eternal punishment?" 

A: The word eternal or everlasting used in those passages does not mean the fire will burn forever. It means it will not go off until it

consumes everything it's meant to consume and the result will be eternal.

Let me give you an example. The Bible says in Jude 1:7 that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire.
Yet those cities are not still burning today.

--The fire was eternal in its result because the destruction was permanent. 

--Likewise, the punishment of the wicked has eternal consequences because there will never be another resurrection after the second death."

Randy Skeete