"Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God' (Rev. 6:15-16, NKJV).
"When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence... To fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination."--John Donne
"I believe in God and if I woke up in hell I would still believe in him."--Robert Louis Stevenson
"When you take away the doctrine of hell, society loses an important anchor."--Paul Johnson
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman is famous for these words ("war is hell") during the Civil War and his name is synonymous with them. People often say they went through hell on earth or similar metaphoric language to be hyperbolic. We should never trivialize hell and think it's nothing but a jolly boys' club or where bad people can get together and have a good time. Hell is a solitary venture for the most part because part of the punishment is facing up to who a person is without God and fellowship--learning to admit one's own evil nature. We don't hear of hell, fire, and brimstone preachers anymore like Jonathan Edwards, who facilitated the Great Awakening in the 1740s. Actually, Christ mentioned hell twice as much as He did heaven, so it must be real--its duration is for as long as heaven (everlasting).
People do suffer in hell but not unduly--there are degrees according to one's sins and responsibility or opportunities. God metes out justice with nothing more nor less--punishment is not beyond that which strict justice requires. God cannot be cruel nor unjust and He doesn't torture souls, but in their own misery, they might wish they would be annihilated rather than stay in hell. The symbols of fire and sulfur are to highlight the misery factor. God is everywhere by nature, even in hell, but He's not there except in His wrath and justice, not His love and mercy. All vestiges of love and mercy are erased and the time has slipped by for them with no more chance for salvation--the worst torture that will cause gnashing of teeth and weeping will be one's own regrets and self-inflicted misery of a conscience accusing them. No one suffers unjustly and people will know God as a consuming fire, not as their Father. It is evidently a place of torment, but mostly psychological and not what one would make out to be a torture chamber of cruelty.
God is certainly there, but in judgment.--but God isn't cruel! There is no praise of God and no place for repentance, for these come by the grace of God, not man's effort. Yet, what is sad, is this is what the impenitent want--to be separated from God's love and to be by themselves. God is the source of all goodness and love, and imagine a place without any of that! Hell is just that--separation from God's goodness, just as Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" We can be assured though that the Judge of all the earth will do right (cf. Gen. 18:25). Jesus did say that there are degrees of punishment, for Sodom and Gomorrah will suffer less than Capernaum! Jesus said that some sins will warrant only a few stripes!
When we picture hell as outer darkness, we must realize that God is light and in Him is no darkness! These people have rejected God and don't want anything to do with His light! Part of the misery of hell will be that its purpose is punitive, not correctional or for sanctification and there can be no escape--there's no hope of reform and what's worse they will be haunted by the reason they are there and will realize it's all their fault, not being able to blame anyone! No one repents or gives God praise in hell! But the people there are those that wanted justice, not mercy and they're getting it! If there were no hell, there would be no justice!
Remember the words from Dante Alighieri's Inferno (Part 1 of Divine Comedy): "Those who enter here, abandon all hope!" Never equate hell with cruelty (God has no mean-spirited bone in His body), but a place of perfect justice, being unjust to no one! Soli Deo Gloria!
"When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence... To fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination."--John Donne
"I believe in God and if I woke up in hell I would still believe in him."--Robert Louis Stevenson
"When you take away the doctrine of hell, society loses an important anchor."--Paul Johnson
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman is famous for these words ("war is hell") during the Civil War and his name is synonymous with them. People often say they went through hell on earth or similar metaphoric language to be hyperbolic. We should never trivialize hell and think it's nothing but a jolly boys' club or where bad people can get together and have a good time. Hell is a solitary venture for the most part because part of the punishment is facing up to who a person is without God and fellowship--learning to admit one's own evil nature. We don't hear of hell, fire, and brimstone preachers anymore like Jonathan Edwards, who facilitated the Great Awakening in the 1740s. Actually, Christ mentioned hell twice as much as He did heaven, so it must be real--its duration is for as long as heaven (everlasting).
People do suffer in hell but not unduly--there are degrees according to one's sins and responsibility or opportunities. God metes out justice with nothing more nor less--punishment is not beyond that which strict justice requires. God cannot be cruel nor unjust and He doesn't torture souls, but in their own misery, they might wish they would be annihilated rather than stay in hell. The symbols of fire and sulfur are to highlight the misery factor. God is everywhere by nature, even in hell, but He's not there except in His wrath and justice, not His love and mercy. All vestiges of love and mercy are erased and the time has slipped by for them with no more chance for salvation--the worst torture that will cause gnashing of teeth and weeping will be one's own regrets and self-inflicted misery of a conscience accusing them. No one suffers unjustly and people will know God as a consuming fire, not as their Father. It is evidently a place of torment, but mostly psychological and not what one would make out to be a torture chamber of cruelty.
God is certainly there, but in judgment.--but God isn't cruel! There is no praise of God and no place for repentance, for these come by the grace of God, not man's effort. Yet, what is sad, is this is what the impenitent want--to be separated from God's love and to be by themselves. God is the source of all goodness and love, and imagine a place without any of that! Hell is just that--separation from God's goodness, just as Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" We can be assured though that the Judge of all the earth will do right (cf. Gen. 18:25). Jesus did say that there are degrees of punishment, for Sodom and Gomorrah will suffer less than Capernaum! Jesus said that some sins will warrant only a few stripes!
When we picture hell as outer darkness, we must realize that God is light and in Him is no darkness! These people have rejected God and don't want anything to do with His light! Part of the misery of hell will be that its purpose is punitive, not correctional or for sanctification and there can be no escape--there's no hope of reform and what's worse they will be haunted by the reason they are there and will realize it's all their fault, not being able to blame anyone! No one repents or gives God praise in hell! But the people there are those that wanted justice, not mercy and they're getting it! If there were no hell, there would be no justice!
Remember the words from Dante Alighieri's Inferno (Part 1 of Divine Comedy): "Those who enter here, abandon all hope!" Never equate hell with cruelty (God has no mean-spirited bone in His body), but a place of perfect justice, being unjust to no one! Soli Deo Gloria!
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