Why did God impose an infinite punishment for finite transgressions?

Question

jonjon418, my handle, his4life, refers to my husband of 27 years.

Answer 1

Because the punishment had to fit the crime. A crime against an eternal God carries with it an eternal sentence to be carried out by one's eternal soul.

Answer 2

First of all, the infinite punishment is not for our finite transgressions but rather the infinite condition of mankind. We have this hereditary disease called sin nature that entered the human bloodstream and mentality when Adam and Eve chose to listen to the serphant rather than obey God. There is no cure for it but the blood of Christ. There are those who mock the cure and those who refuse to believe it even exists. The infinate punishment is merely a consequence and the cure is God's grace and mercy.

Answer 3

If you're referring to hell, the concept of a special place where sinners are sent to burn for eternity for earthly sins--I don't believe in it.
Personally, the God I believe in doesn't punish people--that's the pastime of Devils. Hell as it's posited in the Bible is man made created to scare ppl, I believe that the suffering that we endure or see others endure on earth best describes hell, therefore the current state of life here on earth is hellish but hell can also be a state of mind. So if you're miserable and unhappy that can also describe hell.

My belief is when the earth is renewed after Christ's return then true heaven can be experienced on earth, right now we have to deal with the experience of heavenly things and hellish things here on earth.

Answer 4

God has not imposed any punishments. That to which you refer is hearsay. God does not exact retribution. That and many other qualities of the Old Testament God are human qualities imposed upon the divine by humans.

Answer 5

Only an almighty God can answer that. However, He did offer us an alternative to punishment, and you will find that in the Bible: John's Gospel, chapter 3, verse 16. Look it up. Mind you, we'll all be judged, but we can escape condemnation. A related joke is about a man painting a Church, using thinned-down paint. A violent storm washed away all his paint, and he heard a stern voice saying, "Repaint, repaint, and thin no more!"

Answer 6

THIS IS BY FAR far one of the most INTELLIGENT questions of religion I've ever heard! For such a force of good & guidance that is said to be, so much of him is contradictory, confusing and/or down-right insane! For a force of good, he sure does cause an awful lot of bad! And why are we as a people reluctant to do without him? I mean if a salesman came to me with a product he could not be properly explained to me, stood in stark contradiction to itself and came with a question mark price...what do you think I would say to this person? What would you say to this person? So why do we let religion do this to us? Your question touches on so very much, but I believe most importantly it reveals a fault in something that should have no faults at all! This question should be asked on national TV...GOD/no GOD, right/wrong, ready or not...mankind should learn to think on it's own!

Answer 7

The God of the Tanakh (OT) doesn't! Eternal torment was introduced by Christianity, probably borrowed from Zoroastrianism.

Why is there so much obsession over something we cannot know? No one has ever died and come back to tell us about it. Don't we have enough *faith* to know that He will take care of us? A fetus doesn't know what's in it's future -- why should we?
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Answer 8

Wow! Good question! In my finite mind I can only say that they would choose to go on trangressing eternally if given the choice, so that is why they recieve it and deserve it. BUT, all transgressions can be forgiven, through the blood of the Lamb. Peace

Answer 9

We don't know that he does,in terms of Church theology. It is held that salvation is by his grace alone; so you might be a sinner and for reasons unknown to us still go on to a heavenly
state. Similarly,you might be a constant church-goer who believes his/her path to heaven is guaranteed,only to find yourself rudely surprised. The Christian view - essentially the Catholic view - is that only God decides,and for reasons that are known only to him. It's not like state law,where you have specific penalties for specific offenses. I think fundamentalists may view it that way,but they are crudely literalist in all such matters and in any event an insignificant fringe element.

Answer 10

Hell is not punishment for transgressions.

Hell is the state of complete and final self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives

I like to think of it this way. The only way a person will go to hell is if they want to.

God in His (or Her) unlimited love has given us free will to choose. Our most important choice is to freely decide to accept or reject God's constant offer of spending eternity with Him in heaven. God will respect the choice to reject Him.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1033-1037: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art12.htm#1033

With love in Christ.

Answer 11

It's a made up story to scare people. Imagine a Jew being punished for eating a cheeseburger or a Catholic for eating meat on Friday ? Sheeshhhhh ...