What is the point of eternal hell?

Question

What would be the point ot torturing someone forever, if there is no hope for redemtion?

Wouldn't it just be better or more "merciful" to just have them disappear or something? The whole hell forever thing just seems pointless and sadistic

It is just not logical or reasonable

royal racer makes sense...He may be getting 10 points ;)

Answer 1

I agree with you jp. The whole concept of all-mercifull God, who is described to be a loving father to all living entities, is totally contradictary to the idea of Him watching His beloved children "burning in Hell forever". Even putting scriptures aside (and there is plenty of explanations in timeless Vedas how the living entities end up in Hell, what happens to them there and what happens after their punishment is finished), it would be rather illogical to assume that the Supreme Perfect Being lacks in the quality of forgiveness, which He expects even us, imperfect minute parts and parcels of Himself, prone to commit so many mistakes, to display. According to Vedas, illusioned and suffering living beings get not only second chance to turn their face to the Lord, but also third, and fourth, and fifth etc. Actually as many as it takes for us to understand there is no lasting happiness in this material world and to be really happy we have to assume our original position in relationship with the Lord. Now, the term "forever" in relation to the time spent by a sinful living being in Hell most certainly means "very long", so long that in comparison with our fleeting life of earthly 100 years it seems to be an eternity.

It is actually very nice for us, religious people to try and deepen our understanding of certain religious and philosofical truths, because if we don't do it and sound like fanatics, intelligent people won't take us seriously...

Answer 2

Dialectical thinking. If there is Heaven for good people, then there must be hell for bad people. I agree with you though, I cannot believe anyone could be tortured for ETERNITY, which is time that is hard to even imagine. The most primitive way to train anything (a human or animal) is through reward and punishment. For some people, only the prospect of eternity is convincing enough to get you to behave a certain way.

I like the idea of purgatory where you are tortured in a way that clenses your soul and makes you realize the bad in yours and others' lives, and then you get to enter Heaven. Souls going to Hell seems like God is defeated because his creations will never fulfill his purpose, unless his purpose involves our eternal pain of his absence. And that does not seem to make sense. How can God be completely defeated,

Answer 3

Well i dont believe in hell, but if im going at least ill have good company
If i did believe - why would the devil torture you? Surely thats not good PR. Go to heaven and its all good and pure (and ok a bit dull - and do you have timeshare arrangements with any dead exes??) Hell - well surely thats all drinkers and fornicators - when u get there does the devil go "sorry, that was bad, you sinned, that was wrong, so now ill torture you"? In that case is God running Hell too? In that case is he a spiteful little guy going "ahhh see the Devil was just a PR stunt, its me anyway, and sorry but you didnt worship me so sufffeerrrr forever ahahahahaha!"
If there is a god I'd hope he didnt have the mentality of a spoilt 5yr old girl, smugly watching those in hell suffer, while the righteous all sip non-caffinated tea and sing Kum-by-ahhh and hug in a non sexual fashion

Answer 4

Hell is the grave, all who die go to hell, the grave.
The doctrine of an everlasting hell fire is a false doctrine of the Catholic church and has done more harm to the cause of Christ than anything else.
True at the second death the wicked will be destroyed and that means DESTROYED forever, never to exist any more.
Depending on their conduct in this life, some will suffer a little longer than others but all will eventually be destroyed.
"The wagers of sin is death" not eternal torment in everlasting hell fire.

Answer 5

The point of an eternal hell is to bring justice. Hell is a place of punishment where people suffer for the crimes they have committed.

A person or angel is sentenced to Hell for sinning against God's throne. It is important that God remains supreme over all things. He is like a loving Father who provides sustenance to all things. When a person sins against the Father, then they have sinned against all creation. It would be like someone urinating in the well that all village people drink from. They have defiled the source of life for the whole village, thus causing death and illness to all.

Justice seeks to be fair. It says, "An eye for an eye." If you should steal my car, then your punishment should be of equal value. If you sin against God who is an infinite being, then your punishment will also be of equal value. Hell is eternal because the crime is an offense of infinite proportions.

So, the whole point of Hell is to bring justice to all of God's creation (because obviously, it doesn't benefit God any as He needs nothing). In addition, by bringing justice, God upholds His sovereignty.

Answer 6

It is scare tactic. It works on some not so intelligent people. When you die, supposedly you are left with only the soul. How can you torture a soul? In the universe, stars like our own sun can reach high temperature. Are they the infernos mentioned in the bible? Does it mean there are many, many hells out there?

Answer 7

Yes, I know, Hell takes a lot of getting your head round, even for a Christian. However, I have some thoughts on the matter. It's like this: - We all sin and God hates sin, so it is him, God - primarily - we are offending. - Since all sin has to be paid for (like, a miscreant must 'serve time' in prison) then our sins too have to be paid for. There is no getting out of it, no 'passing over' the matter, for God is a God of justice and he cannot deny himself. - However, since God is also a God of love, he has made provision, whereby all our sins can be paid for - by the sacrifice of Jesus, by the payment of his blood, for every one who will believe in him. Simple, yes? - But, man being man, and not liking God's simple solution to the problem, habitually refuses God's gracious offer of free forgiveness. In which case, that man still has his sins on him, when he dies. - Therefore, such a person, who stands before the Judge with his sins still on him and not covered by the blood of Jesus - that person will have to pay for his sins himself. Okay, you follow my reasoning? We have got this far, but, as you say, the problem is that sinners never get 'out of jail' as they say. Well, think about it, if you had a child molester, or a mass murderer, or just a very wicked and unrepentant person, would you want that person ever to get out of jail? Wouldn't you be permanently angry with him? It is like that with God, for all who will not believe in him, and continue in their wicked and rebellious ways, are to him a grievous affront, and his wrath remains on them and, when they die, it's the time of their reckoning. What you are in eternity (ie. after death) you are forever. There is no possibility of change. It is only here, on earth and in this life, that a person can repent and change towards God. It is only here that a person can find eternal life and forgiveness from God, but if that hasn't happened by the time he dies, then it is sadly too late. And, when a person reaches the place of being eternally punished for his sins against the living God, the sad fact is that, no matter how much 'time' he serves, he can never wipe away or atone for, his sins by his own efforts. The case against him endures forever and therefore so does his punishment. It is too late to cry out for the blood of Jesus. Now he must suffer throughout eternity and never be able, as it were, to 'wipe the slate clean'. God is not at fault for this sad matter. He has done everything he can to warn us, and he has sent his Son Jesus to deliver us from judgment and hell. He, honestly, could not do anything more. So, if we fall into condemnation, we cannot blame him - for he has worked (and does work) tirelessly for us - but the condemnation is that we have refused him. And so, we deserve to have the penalty come upon us, having refused all help from God. And God never said it was a light penalty - indeed, it is a shocking penalty - but we cannot say we have not been warned. Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, (but) men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Answer 8

Scripture says that the things which we see help us understand the things we don't see. In ancient times the word of the Kings of Medes and Persian was irreversible. Since God created us and His Word never returns to Him void then we can never be completely destroyed. Of course if we went to heaven without the Blood Jesus having atoned for our sins it would be worse than hell.

Answer 9

hell, or eternal hell is something that many people believe, but is not logical
even if a person has comitted countless of sins in his finite lifetime, paying those sins via eternal hell is not the kind of judgement that god gives
therefore hell must not be unlimited or infinite

being in hell could be the life that one person is living in right now, if one is full of sorrow, diseases, thats hell and its not infinite, when one dies his suffering is over, and thats hell

Answer 10

There is no hell. This is a primitive idea to make people fear God and respect Him. Nowadays we are enlightened enough to know that we can love God for Him being lovable, that means He is good and He will give us another chance to correct what was wrong through several lives. I see fairness in this idea and that's what I believe.

Peace!