Many people ask
that if God is good,
why should He punish sinners
for all eternity in hell?
Isn’t this so much
and already unjust
in comparison
to the length of time
one has sinned on earth?
I believe that the eternity of hell
does not really depend on the weight of one’s sins
for no matter what the weight,
God can forgive us with His unfathomable Mercy.
No matter what the weight,
God can make us pay for it
and we can be released
after we have rendered what has been due.
But hell, as it is hell which is eternal
is not based on the weight
or in the multitude of one’s sins
but on the condition of one’s heart
when one has already received
all that is needed to be received
in order for the heart to make a choice
When the mortal man realizes
he is no longer mortal,
when the veil of time and space
had been lifted up and he sees,
when he becomes such a spirit
as the angels are,
he will render a judgment upon himself
and he will render an eternal decision
as the angels have made
Will he approach God’s Divine Mercy
and accept whatever punishment is due his sins?
Or will he despise all that is God’s
and turn to the light which is not Light
with those fallen stars
who will never
ever
bow down again
unto Him
who is just
and who is Love.
Check Jocelyn's books:
"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.
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11 replies on “Why is there eternal punishment in hell?”
he will render an eternal decision
as the angels have made
Wow! Man has that much power? One decision (not be Christian) is enough to render him miserable for endless trillions of years? If that’s true, then free will is the most ghastly curse humanity could ever have.
Please take note that this is not a matter of technicality. The person is free to change his decision anytime. The only problem is if he will. We only change our minds when we lack information to base our decision on. But when our knowledge is complete, I don’t know what else could change our mind.
This is also not about being a Christian in such a way as being a member of an elite club. This is about approaching love, as God is love. We can choose love, but we can also choose to ignore love. Now if ignoring love is something that qualifies as being miserable, then we can indeed be miserable for as long as we wish. But if we can be happy without love, then this is not misery to us, and we get what we desire.
You wrote, “The person is free to change his decision anytime. The only problem is if he will.”
Do you think people can get out of hell by changing their minds? That would be a welcome departure from orthodoxy, I have to admit.
Yeah, it is the person’s decision. Orthodoxy is just sometimes so perceived as a box that the Truth is no longer seen as it should be. Even Catholics have Purgatory as a place where a person is neither in heaven nor in hell. I believe purgatory is such a place (or state), a place where a person has not made a decision yet. But as to what state of happiness or misery the people there have, I could not discuss in detail. Maybe its sufficient to compare it to people who find a real hard time deciding which path they should take, and for as long as they do not choose, they cannot avail of the happiness of the path they have not chosen yet.
This heaven, hell or purgatory, in my opinion is not more of a specific place, but more of the state of one’s heart and mind, and one’s intimacy with his true desires that can really make him happy. As such, there is really very little difference between purgatory and hell, for it all redounds to one’s choice, those in the hell of their own as those who choose to persist to be miserable, while those in purgatory as those who do not know where to find their heart’s true bliss.
Even in this life, there are people who are already in hell, those who choose to be imprisoned by their anger, by revenge, or by fear. Any person who decides to help them will indeed find a hard time trying to convince them that there is hope, that they can turn away from their misery and find happiness and freedom. I believe the same is true in the afterlife. There will be people who will continue to choose a hell of their own.
I agree with you that its realy hard to answer the question why people would literally cast themselves into hell. I admit that I do not understand this as well. As in this life, it is hard to understand why people would choose to be miserable, to be full of hatred, of lies or of insecurity, but that is exactly what’s happening right now. I have also yet to ponder the question that given heaven or hell, why would people choose hell? Given misery and love, why would people refuse love? But there are people who do. People who cannot accept love even if we want to give it to them. I don’t know why. Some people, they refuse this all because of pride, a pride that could not make them happy in the end.
As to the more technical issues on punishment and sin, here is my view.
People are not perfect, we fail to hit the mark (sin), and this causes most of our miseries.
Only God is perfect, more specifically, perfect in love, a love that can truly make us happy, perfectly happy.
We can choose to remain in our imperfection or approach God’s love and mercy which He freely gives to all.
If we don’t choose it, He does not force us to. But we suffer the consequences, the natural consequences of our imperfections and the imperfections of other people who cannot love us the way we deserve to be loved.
On punishment, there is also such a thing as a natural law and a positive law. I think the orthodox view of God is based on positive law e.g. if you do not do as God commands, God will send you to torment for all eternity.
What I believe in however is more on the natural law. God knows that if we do not approach his mercy, we will suffer the natural consequences of our actions. One example of a natural consequence is if we just off a high building even if we’re told we shouldn’t. The natural result is that we would die, of course. But this is not because of the punishment of the one who told us not to jump. It is but a natural consequence of our action.
God is just so good to tell us ahead what will be good for us
As regards what you wrote-
“the gospels don’t portray people as “choosing” to jump into the lake of fire. They are “cast” in. In Matthew 25, Jesus sends the “goats” into “eternal punishment” because they didn’t respond charitably to others in need. That’s a far cry from someone saying, “Gee, I think I’ll pick hell as my eternal destiny.”
I stand by my view that God is love, we can only be saved from eternal wretchedness and emptiness by love. In this gospel, we are told that those who did not exercise charity (love), are cast in to hell.
These are the people who refused love, those who refused to get to know love. If they have known love, they would have felt it in their hearts and would have been so enveloped by it, manifesting it in what they do , such as being charitable to others.
This is a symbolic way of picturing how people can be so bereft of love that they would fail to get in the kingdom (happiness through love).
It was not Jesus who chose to condemn them first. Jesus merely announced what they have firstly decided for themselves, a life without love.
Perhaps like me, you are greatly concerned of the eternity of the “punishment” of hell. Yet when we come to think of it, people are rarely concerned how they are to live the lifetime given them. We must admit that even if there is no afterlife, there are people who would choose to live a life without love here on earth. And if that is the way they choose to live this life, why would they choose differently in the afterlife?
Perhaps some would say that living a life without love as an equivalent of hell is a euphemism of the real torments people in hell experience. This should not be the case however, for the most terrible pains one can ever experience are not those in the traditional picture of hell where there are literal worms, where there is a fire that burns the person to the bone. Perhaps the real euphemism is this picture, for it only gives us a small glimpse of the real suffering a soul without love experiences.
In this life, there are many who live life without meaning and love, a life that is empty, bitter, dark, without hope or any purpose. This pain is so terrible that many even resort to suicide as a last desperate attempt to escape their present hell.
There is hope however, and it is in the merciful and forgiving hands of God where even the most wretched sinner can find salvation instead of condemnation. Let us approach this fountain of life while we are in this world. God is only a prayer away.
It would not be long before we leave the many blessings of this world, not long before we can no longer distract ourselves with the many pleasures this world offers us. In time, we can no longer be numb, and we would clearly see our emptiness, our nakedness, our hell.
Dear Jocelyn;
I appreciate your thoughts on everlasting punishment in hell,but I would ask you to give some thought to what follows.
First.Consider what Jesus in the book of Revelation brings to our attention. Rev. 1:1 and Rev.20:13-14
“The sea gave up the dead that were in it;and death and HELL delivered up the DEAD that were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and HELL were cast into the lake of fire.”
Questions.If as many people feel God judges and then sends some people to HELL for eternity why do we now read in Revelation of their being RELEASED from HELL along with those who died at sea and then judged by God.?
Also,how can HELL be the same as the
LAKE OF FIRE if Hell is “CAST INTO the LAKE OF FIRE”.
The Bible actually says the lake of fire is symbolic of a different kind of DEATH. Rev.20:14
Also think about the description of death at Ecclesiastes 9:5 “the dead are CONSCIOUS OF NOTHING AT ALL”. So if the dead are conscious of nothing how could they feel any kind of pain or suffering in HELL.
Another point of reason, How does it magnify God’s justice to sentence wicked people to spend ETERNITY in
EXCRUCIATING PUNISHMENT for a few short years of rebellion against his laws here on earth.
The bible says that God made man in his image. He gave man a conscience
to know right from wrong. So as an example in a court of law how would you judge a wilful murderer. Would YOU, if you could,sentence him to an eternity of unbearable pain or to death? True some people,we might call them sadistic, would make the murderer suffer horrible pain forever. I think most rational people would prefer they be executed rather than tortured. Why would a GOD of justice do any less.
What does the Bible say is the destiny of those who sin? “the wages of sin is DEATH”. not torture. Romans 6:23
What sentence did God pronounce on Adam whose sin brought suffering and death to ALL mankind. “YOU (Adam) will positively DIE” Genesis 2:17.
And what did that DEATH mean. Did it mean only his body would die but his
thoughts would live on in some form? Perhaps something called a soul? NO. Ezekiel 18:4 says that “the SOUL that is sinning-it itself WILL DIE”. NOT BE TORTURED. SOULS CAN DIE!
GOD also told Adam “for dust YOU(Adam)are and to dust YOU will return” Gen. 2:19 God did not sentence Adam to EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT.
Why is there confusion as to what the Bible says about Hell? “Much confusion and misunderstanding has been caused through the early translators of the Bible persistently rendering the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek words Hades and Gehenna
by the English word Hell. The simple transliteration of these words by the translators of the revised editions of the Bible has not sufficed to appreciably clear up this confusion and misconception”.
-The Encyclopedia Americana (1942),Vol.XIV, p.81
As this reference notes there is much confusion about Hell.
The simple truth is that the word hell come from an old English word Hel meaning to hide, conceal,cover.
Its basically what we do when we bury some one in the grave. And our word for grave is what old Hebrew called She’ohl and the Greeks called hai’des. Also the early Bible translators translated the Greek word Ge’en na (a location symbolizing everlasting DEATH) by the word Hell.
So what wicked people really have to fear is EVERLASTING DEATH without any hope of a resurrection thru all eternity. However those who love God will experience what revelation 21:3 says….
“Look! The tent of God is with mankind and he will reside with them and they will be his peoples. And god himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away”.
Jerry J.
Thank you very much for your substantial contribution and writeup, Jerry! Indeed, there is still much to learn about the Bible, God, and the essence of heaven and/or hell. I am also continuing to learn from people like you. My knowledge continues to grow from reading things like these and from insights within, personal experiences that challenge and mould my beliefs closer to the Truth.
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