What does it mean to say God shall destroy?

In 1 Corinthians 3:17 it speaks of God destroying a man for defiling the temple.


Now the question to be considered is whether this destruction is eternal or what not? We often read such verses as such, and not to say that there are no verses that mean eternal destruction, but context should be considered.

1 Corinthians 8:11

"A much better attempt is to examine the verb apollumi and determine whether in every case it means destruction in hell. We have seen that it often does, but let us look at some of the other ninety-two instances. In Matthew 10:42 and Luke 15:4, 8, 9, 24, 32 and 33, it means 'lose': to lose a coin, to lose a son. Luke 15:17 refers to perishing of hunger. Compare Matthew 5:29, 30; 9:17; John 6:12; 2 John 8; and others.
The conclusion is that since the lost coin was later found, there is no linguistic reason to suppose that apollumi has to mean final, irretrievable destruction in hell. Therefore, only those who want to invent a contradiction in the Bible will so understand it." - Gordon H. Clark, 1 Corinthians