I resolved my own issue here by reinstalling Java Runtime Environment version 7 (JRE 7) and placing the entire JRE 7 folder in the location where Minecraft was looking for it, which was inside the Java folder in Program File (x86). Oddly I still had the newest version of Java (1.8.0_31) installed and there were no conflict issues when installing the older JRE 7. So far so good.
I'm no code geek but I think it might be something with java that's causing the problem.
I resolved my own issue here by reinstalling Java Runtime Environment version 7 (JRE 7) and placing the entire JRE 7 folder in the location where Minecraft was looking for it, which was inside the Java folder in Program File (x86). Oddly I still had the newest version of Java (1.8.0_31) installed and there were no conflict issues when installing the older JRE 7. So far so good.