I often hear Christians say that everybody deserves to go to hell. But is it true that everyone deserves eternal torture for the things we do on Earth? Are a person's actions on Earth a good reason to subject someone to the most excruciating pain until the end of time? I wouldn't recommend eternal punishment for anybody, and neither would an all-loving God.
Nothing a human can ever do justifies eternal punishment. The punishment does not fit the crime. What is your opinion on this?
2007-01-10 08:19:24 · 33 answers · asked by Incoherent Fool 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sorry for lumping all Christians into a group. This is just what I believed when I was a Christian and I thought most Christians believed it. I hear it a lot.
2007-01-10 08:29:37 · update #1
Most people don't seem to be getting my point. My point is not whether hell itself is just, but whether eternal torment in hell is just.
If you had the right to punish someone for something they did (doesn't matter what it was), and you could punish them however you wish, would you torture them for eternity?
2007-01-10 08:33:02 · update #2
It just goes to show that Christianity is misanthropic at its roots.
"We're not absulutely perfect, therefore God cannot tolerate our existencce! Yet he loves us despite it all!"
And if that makes sense, I have a state to sell you.
2007-01-10 08:26:46 · answer #1 · answered by Scott M 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If you kill an Ant, what happens? Nothing.
If you kick a dog around, needlessly you pay a penalty of animal cruelty.
If you hurt a human being you go to jail for a time.
If you Kill a human you go to prison for a LONG time.
By mans law (which foundations are God inspired) the crime is suitable to the value of the victim sinned against. Thus killing an ant is not the same as a human.
Sin is an act of direct disobedience to the most valuable, infinite being in the universe! How much should direct disobedience to an infinite being cost?
God is not only loving (I get a kick out of people that don't know much about God assign to him as being loving and not anything else, is it because with that thought they think they can do anything they want and God will let it slide?)
God is also terribly jealous for his glory, he is Holy, perfect. Sin is in a basic sense saying to God, I want to be God and will do as I wish without regards to who you are! How much should a HOLY God punish someone for that?
The reason you think eternal punishment isn't justifiable is because you have much to high regard for man and a WAY to diminutive understanding of the Holiness of God.
God is not like man, though you suppose him to be.
2007-01-10 08:58:57 · answer #2 · answered by ἡ ἐκλογὴ 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
NEW ANSWER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry I missed the point...This part is in responce to your clarification.
The main reason that I believe that everybody deserves to go to hell, and that eternal judgement is just, is we are sinners who have sinned against an infinate God. So because we have sinned against an infinte God, we deserve infinate punishment. Also because the Bible says that hell will be eternal, and that every sinner deserves the wrath and curse of God. I believe that the Bible is the infalible word of God, and therefore is always correct. Since I believe that God is perfectly Just and Holy, and He says that Hell is eternal, then I know that eternal punishment must be perfectly just. I'm not even sure the question of whether eternal torment in hell is just, (Even though it is.) The fact of the matter is that the eternal punishment is real, even supposing that it wasn't just. (Which of course, can not be the case, since God is perfect, and if He was not perfectly just then He would cease to be God.) Anyway, to summerize, the Bible says that Hell is eternal, God is the one who decrees that it will be eternal, God has written His decrees in the Bible, God is perfect, the Bible is infalible, therefore what is in the Bible is true, and that is why I believe that the eternity of Hell is just. Because God said it is. Matt 25:40-46 says, "And the King will answer and say to them,'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." "Then He will say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angles:...And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Anyway, this a Christians position on this.
Old anwer~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody deserves to go do hell because we have all sinned against a perfectly Holy and Just God. For this reason we all deserve the wrath and curse of God. Let's try a hypothetical. It's not going to be a perfect one, but oh well. Suppose that somebody robbed a bank, and killed 6 people in the process. Afterwards, he was caught and brought to court. Even if the judge was a perfectly loving judge, would he be perfectly just if he let this persons offence slide? Would he be perfectly just in not punishing him, or even worse, in rewarding him for what he did? No, he wouldn't. God is a perfect judge, and although perfectly loving, He is also perfectly just. He is also perfectly Holy, as I have already said, and because of this, does not sin, nor can He stand the sight of sin. For these reasons, every sin deserves judgment. The Bible says that even our rightousness is as filthy rages before him, and if this is the case, how much worse is our unrightousness? The point is, we all do deserve hell for these reasons. But here comes the good part! God IS an all-loving God! Knowing that we could not live up to His Holy standards ever, and that we were all sinnful, He sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to live a perfect life for us, and take the punishment for our sins! Christ's rightousness is imputed to us, (basicly, given to us) so that we might be rightous in God's sight. This is why Christians call Christ their savior. If this interests you, then I suggest that you start reading the Bible, starting with the gosple of John.
Hope this was helpful! I bet i'll get lots of thumbs down though for actually answering the question. lol :-D
p.s. Just to answer some other people's answers here, some people seem to think that Hell is the lack of God's preasence. This is not correct, instead it is the preasence of God's wrath and judgment poured out upon sinners.
2007-01-10 08:38:04 · answer #3 · answered by Mandrake 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You had to pick a complicated one, didn't you?
Well, for the first part of that, go back to the book of Genesis, in which God and man were in perfect harmony. God warned man that disobedience (don't eat that fruit) would result in death. However, God did not prevent man from acting, but gave him free will and the choice to obey or not.
When man did not, that perfect relationship was broken (spiritual death) and since the perfect balance was broken, God did not want man living in an eternal body to perpetual suffering; hence physical death.
From that point forward, all humanity has inherited the seperation from God by that first transgression - "original sin", and Christians practice baptism as a symbolic washing away of original sin.
Conscious sin comes later, when a person is capable of deliberate conscious thought.
Although God did not "erase" sin, He made provisions to mend the broken relationship through Christ Jesus. God himself took on flesh to live without sin (though He suffered every earthly inconvenience of human frailty and was tempted just as we all are), and then died under judgement in our stead so that those who choose to accept His sacrifice may once again rejoin Him after this world's physical death.
His resurrection of the body is a promise to us that we, too shall also have a flawless physical form when we are reunited with Him. Because of Christ's sacrifice, we are no longer "unclean" in God's sight, and can expect a mended relationship in both body and spirit.
Although Revelation is the only real mention that I am aware of regarding the Puritanical concept of "Hell" as fire and brimstone, it should also be noted that Revelation is widely accepted as an intentionally cryptic allegory.
However, Christians also believe that those who are unwilling to accept God's offer for reconciliation through Jesus Christ, will spend eternity forever seperated from God, just as on this earth, with no future hope of ever changing that. (I think that's a pretty hideous consequence, considering the evil rampant on earth now - think war, famine, rape, murder, torture, etc. and all the other revolting, hateful acts humanty practices against one another even now. Does this qualify as eternal punishment? I think it does.)
So does the punishment fit the crime? From the human standpoint, that's hard to say, but humans are forever presuming to question God.
It's basically a one-time deal though, and again, God is not forcing anyone to accept Him.
I hope that helps.
2007-01-10 09:14:26 · answer #4 · answered by Plesso 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A Christian response would be that it is just if someone denies God and/or Jesus and that it is God's righteous and perfect decision to send whoever he wants to Hell because his judgment is sovereign. However, I feel as you do in that I can't reconcile the fact that Jesus or God would condemn his creations to eternal torment. I believe the Bible is actually reserving that torment for Satan and the fallen angels and that the "New Heaven" and the "New Earth" are a separate subject entirely.
2007-01-10 08:26:47 · answer #5 · answered by mommyloveseva 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Depends how you define a Christian. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian....his teaching never stated that everyone deserves to go to hell, he merely sacrificed himself for mankind. It is up to us and how we live our lives that determines in the end whether we are condemned/damned like the destiny of the fallen angels or are we acquitted of our "sins" thru baptism and stand a chance at The Final Judgement" to stand before him and be judged. "Christians" are the most judgemental people on the earth.....the true teaching is that you do not need the church, Jesus is the mediator between mankind and God, you will find that in the Dead Sea Scrolls....amongst other books that were kept out of the Bible
2007-01-10 08:27:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
you're assuming that each physique Christians have faith the comparable issues approximately hell. The view of hell maximum usually held and probable the only one properly-known with the aid of the non-believing public is that hell is a place of never-ending actual torture. whether, many Christians certainly view Hell as separation from God. If we reject God in our lifetime, then our immortal souls can not be in His presence while we die. Did you ever see the action picture Ice Age (2, i think of)? there replaced into this scene the place the squirrel is in squirrel heaven and there is that huge, sparkling acorn? this is absolute perfection, all he ever needed in his existence. in simple terms formerly he can attain it, he's delivered back to earth. properly, that's what hell could be like. The language used interior the Bible to describe the torments of hell is metaphorical. Being interior the presence of your appropriate, eternal, writer is heaven, and the darkness of being denied the easy of God is hell. whether, you may maximum in all probability be between pals, and there could easily be no Christians there, so perhaps you may prefer that. Then, there are those Christians - which includes seventh Day Adventists - who have faith that hell is ceasing to exist. Believers will take delivery of eternal existence in Heaven, and non-believers will in simple terms die. so which you spot, there are techniques to the classic concept of hell. this is achieveable to be a Christian and not have faith in a God who tortures His infants with burning hearth for eternity.
2016-10-30 13:41:28 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you ever noticed the first words of a child? mine. Our Human minds are selfish. We are born sinful. We have sinful desires.
Earth was created to glorify God. Yes a person's actions on earth are subject to eternal condemntion.
God is an all-loving God but he is also a Just God. Have u ever noticed that even though your parents loved you, they also punished you when you did wrong? If you love your kid, and you see your kid hitting another kid with a shovel, when they are in pre-school and playing out side with his friend, you wouldn't just let him do it. If you allow him to see that that is ok, then you're showing him its fine to do that, and that he can do that as long as he wants, but if you want to protect him from further punishment from others, then you would punish him yourself. God is like that. He loves us so much that when we are young spiritually, he tells us what is wrong and right, He gives us suffering to make us stronger spiritually. God gives us trials that are hard to imagine but it gives us a stronger will to be with God. The more the devil throws at us, the more we will be able to protect ourselves. Anyway the point is you dont have to go to hell, everyone doesn't have to go to hell, its almost a choice, they're given the opportunity to go to heaven, but they reject it.
2007-01-10 08:38:31 · answer #8 · answered by catchingfreak51 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Think of hell as a default.
God WANTS you in heaven with Him ..forever. Those who DON'T want to be with God...will NOT be with God for eternity.
Most of what the scripture of God says is that "hell" is separation from God. That's just what many people want! They don't want God in their lives...or even in their world. They don't believe that He loves them and wants what's best for them and will even give them a great life.
Instead, they believe the devil ...who said God was trying to hold them back from their full potential:
Gen 3:3-5
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
(from New International Version)
The "eternal punishment" is finally knowing how good God really is and never being to be with Him and those who are enjoying His blessings.
Rev 21:22-27
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
(from New International Version)
The time to know God and His love is NOW.
2007-01-10 09:39:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I believe we Christians and the bible teach that God is very polite. He doesn't force himself on anyone. And if someone does not want to go to heaven and be with him he won't make them. God is sinless and won't allow sin in his heaven. If we accept Jesus and follow his teaching then our sin is covered, there's been a price payed for it. But if we don't want this then we don't enter into heaven.
So he made a place where he isn't.
What is God like. What will and won't be in a place where God isn't?
No love
No light
no hope
no comfort
no safety
no delight
no singing
no joy
etc etc. Not just place of punishment per se but a place where God isn't.
2007-01-10 08:27:29 · answer #10 · answered by Jeanmarie 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
No it's admonition.
Hell is separation from God and not eternal torture.
Hell is done away with in Revelation.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
The second death is what you want to avoid, I would think.
Because it is death of YOU, blotted out, and no memory of you.
Like you never existed.
But, it's your choice.
Choose life, life eternal.
2007-01-10 08:22:10 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋