Why would an all-knowing, all-powerful, benevolent, loving God torture a soul for an eternity in Hell?

Question

I am not a caring individual but I wouldn't send anyone to burn for eternity in Hell. If I thought it would do them good to be punished I would punish them to whatever extent was needed and then give them another chance. An endless punishment is certainly not beneficial to anyone. Endless torment is more evil than good.

I am not a Jehovah's Witness but I have some friends who are that I highly respect.

If you send yourself to Hell, I would choose not to. He would have to force me.

Answer 1

In islam, a soul is only tortured for a small period of time, and it is then sent to heaven.A sould gets sent to hell for bad things it did in its lifetime, i.e. murder, theft, etc. However, Allah(arabic word for God), forgives every thing if one completes the three steps of Tawbah(making fogiveness), wich is to ask God for forgiveness, to make sunnah prayer, and to never do the wrong action again/to lead a righteous life. However, the only thing God will not forgive is shirk(associating another entity with god). However, everyone eventually goes to heaven. I dont know about any other religions, but thats how islam is.

Answer 2

You are absolutely correct. No loving God would ever submit anyone to endless years of torture for sins that we aren't even aware of half the time. Even those who commit terrible crimes will never burn in hell. The scriptures clearly say in Ecclesiastics that the "dead are concious of nothing at all." Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death.

Adam was even told that from dust he came and to dust he would return, nothing was ever said to him or Eve about their sould being punished for eternity.

Besides, on a more logical thought..... A burning hell would be run by Satan. If God sent people to hell, he would have Satan as an employee. The Bible clearly says that Satan will be destoyed, so hell cannot be a place of literal torment.

The Hebrew word for Hell is Sheol, which literally translates to grave. Unfortunately, "Christians" instituted the pagan teaching of hell to scare members into submission.

Answer 3

False religious teachings about hellfire were inspired by Satan in order to foster distrust and hatred toward Almighty God.

The Bible actually teaches that there is no suffering in "hell", or the grave. Sometime after the resurrection, death and "hell" will themselves be destroyed.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol ["hell"]
(Revelation 20:14) And death and Hades ["hell"] were hurled into the lake of fire

The vast majority (literally more than 99.9%) of Jehovah's Witnesses expect that themselves will be resurrected to EARTH if they should die. Where were Adam and Eve to spend eternity?
(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]

Interestingly, the Scriptures are full of references to this earthly hope.
(Psalms 37:11) 'the meek will possess the earth'
(Proverbs 2:21) 'upright will reside in the earth'
(Isaiah 45:18) 'God formed the earth to be inhabited'
(Matthew 5:5) 'the mild will inherit the earth'
(Revelation 21:3) The tent of God is with mankind

* The 99.9% of Jehovah's Witnesses professing an Earthly hope is a literal figure

Jehovah's Witnesses' official website:
http://watchtower.org

Answer 4

God is also a jealous God. You probably have more questions than just this one. Go get an original King James version Bible. Read it all the way through. If you actually take the time to understand it, you will have a lot more questions. Write them down as they come up. If you read the whole book and all of your questions are not answered, find someone to help you understand. Go to a church. If you don't like that one, go to another one. When you feel you have learned all you can there, go to another one. Keep going,even if you have to go to a different church for the next 30 years till you find one you wouldn't mind going to for a long time. Keep reading, you will come up with new questions every time you read. If you are not willing to do this, then you really don't care to know the answer bad enough. Don't be lazy, do the homework!

Answer 5

In the Bible, there are three words that are translated "Hell": the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades, which mean the grave. And in the Hebrew Scriptures, Gehenna is “the valley of Hinnom.” Hinnom was the name of the valley just outside the walls of Jerusalem where the Israelites sacrificed their children in the fire. In time, good King Josiah had this valley made unfit to be used for such a horrible practice. (2 Kings 23:10) It was turned into a huge garbage, or rubbish, dump. During the time Jesus was on earth Gehenna was Jerusalem’s garbage dump. Fires were kept burning there by the adding of brimstone (sulfur) to burn up the garbage. “The lake of fire” mentioned in the Bible book of Revelation? It has a meaning similar to that of Gehenna. It means not conscious torment but everlasting death, or destruction.

Eccl 9:5 “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

Jesus Christ said: “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Falsehood cannot make one free. But because of the desire for social approval, the desire to please the crowd, people accept many doctrines without testing them for truthfulness. Because it is easier to go along with the crowd than to explain to the crowd why one cannot go along with it, many persons will believe whatever the crowd believes; but popularity has never proved a reliable means for judging the quality of a belief. As one writer has put it: “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

Jesus never accepted a doctrine or belief because the crowd did; Jesus did not found a please-the-crowd religion. The Christian should please God.

Answer 6

There is no eternal torment in hell.
Hai'des (Greek)/She'ohl(Hebrew), which are the original terms used in the Bible, simply mean common grave.

Hell is also used to refer to the Greek word Gehenna which meant the place where they burn everything (carcasses, trash etc.) to destroy them completely.

These words were transliterated by many religions as hell. But the word hell never existed in the original translation of the Bible. They decided to use this horrible name to scare people but, as you pointed out, gave a false witness to the true God.

Ecclesiastes 9:5,10 says: "The living are conscious that they will die, but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all... there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going."

Psalm 146:4 "His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground, in that day, his thoughts do perish."
That means that if the dead are conscious of nothing, they obviously feel no pain.

Consider also the account of Job. He was suffering from the trials of Satan's attempts make him disown God. Wanting to end his suffering, he said: (Job 14:13) "O that in Sheol you would conceal me, that you would keep me secret until your anger turns back, that you would set a time limit for me and remember me!"

Would it be reasonable for Job to want to go to a fiery-hot place for protection? Job acknowledged that "hell" was simply the grave, where his suffering would end.

Revelation 20:13,14 "The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire."
So the dead will be delivered from hell. Notice also that hell is not the same as the lake of fire but will be cast into the lake of fire.


If you really wish to seek satisfying answers to more questions like this, you should contact Jehovah's Witnesses in your area. They did answer my questions and they still do until now. It's the only religion that explains questions very logically using the Bible and not according to their own opinion. Most religions, on the other hand, always say that God is mysterious when they cannot answer my questions.

I hope this enlightened you in a way.

Answer 7

He wouldnt. The idea is absurd, contradictory, and utterly false.

All you fools who think otherwise need to become aware of something: If hell exists, then god created it. If god created such a horrible place, then god is not benevolent and loving; he is instead a tyrrant who delights in the eternal persecution of his unlearned children.

Jesus was outspoken for his hate of the SIN, and a love for the SINNER. Sending the SINNER to hell is USELESS and serves no purpose whatsoever.

Hell is a human concept and contrivance used to scare people into believing the gospel, rather than coaxing them. Hell doen not exist, and never could in the presence of a loving, understanding and forgiving father. The two are incompatible. To even suggest that hell is outside the domain and control of god is a BLASPHEMY. You christians need to get your head screwed on right and stop trying to save everyone.

If hell was a real place where people could actually go if they utter one to many swear words, then God is a cruel bastard for not educating us properly and instead relying on raving evangelical fanatics to "save" the sinning population, a population which cannot possibly have any hope of overcomming their own selfish misdeeds without the touch of christ, or a self-directed decision to leave a life of sin.

Answer 8

Yes, but people know better. A lot of people just htink "Hell? theres no Hell, and even if there is one, a loving God would never send anyone there! but they forget thant, not only is God all Holy, He is also all just. Nothing unperfect can go to heaven, so anything that is must be purified through Purgatory. Everyone has one last chance, but some souls have come to hate God, thus choose to sperate themselves from Him. God judges those who know better. And everyone has a choice to turn to Him, some turn away.

:)

Answer 9

The Bible is a totally immoral fable

People deserve endless punishment in hell because Adam & Eve were tricked into eating ...
God murdered his son so the guilty could go unpunished ...

Realize this god is not real and toss the fables ...

Answer 10

I believe that what you are referring to is mans manipulation of the bible. If you research this a bit you'll find this to be very true. the easiest way to see this is to compare the king james version to the new international version.
agreed it is a complete contradictory of His nature, all powerful all loving but happy to let you go to hell for eternity, ETERNITY.
don't worry it's just a scare tactic.