If Hell Exists, How Much Punishment Is Enough?

Question

My belief is that you get equal repercussions for your actions either in this life or the next. Its fair and it is balanced in every way. To me, it reflects a just and wise Creator of the universe.

Christians believe you get an eternity in hell and I try hard to understand this concept but I cannot. Even the worst person I can think of-HITLER for example, after 1000,000 years in hellish torment and suffering, would have experienced 1000fold the suffering of all the victims of the Holocaust and their families. Isn't that enough? Shouldn't SOME kind of recompensation have taken place? Why does it have to be eternal? What purpose does that serve? To me its such a waste of an eternal soul capable of growing, learning, improving.

Let's say my daughter disobeyed me and ended up with some horrid disease. How long do I let her suffer before extending loving kindess and forgiveness to her? Why would a Diety less merciful towards his children inspire any kind of love an devotion in me?

Paul Cyp, no one can freely and knowingly decide ANYTHING like that "forever" as you put it.

People like Hitler live their lives as they fit with no thought about such things or no real belief in them. They never made any conscious choice. Do you REALLY think if Hitler believed hell was REAL and he would end up there if he did what he did, he would have done what he did?

Your arguement is flawed.

Paul Cyp, no one can freely and knowingly decide ANYTHING like that "forever" as you put it.

People like Hitler live their lives as they fit with no thought about such things or no real belief in them. They never made any conscious choice. Do you REALLY think if Hitler believed hell was REAL and he would end up there if he did what he did, he would have done what he did?

Your arguement is flawed.

Paul Cyp, no one can freely and knowingly decide ANYTHING like that "forever" as you put it.

People like Hitler live their lives as they fit with no thought about such things or no real belief in them. They never made any conscious choice. Do you REALLY think if Hitler believed hell was REAL and he would end up there if he did what he did, he would have done what he did?

Your arguement is flawed.

Answer 1

The problem is, you are trying to use logic here. Let's stick with your example of hitler...we have NO idea if he went to heaven or hell....he could have recanted just before he died...and he could have been saved. Imagine that?

The idea of eternal damnation is an odd one. The concept is even more confusing if you remember how it was determined and who it was sold to....meaning, you take people who had an average lifespan of say 40-50 years, most of that in extreme conditions by comparison to our world today, and tell them, if you misbehave during this 40-50 year period, you will, in return, receive an ETERNITY of suffering. Oh, and by the way, all those human drives that I designed into you? Most of them are sins...good luck!

Hardly seems caring, let alone fair.

This is an item that I can't reconcile. The bible says that humans, being evil, still will do right by their sons...and so how much more so will God be, since he is only good? If my son did something I was angry over, against my rules, I would not want him to have a lifetime of sorrow over it, let alone an eternity, no matter what it was. Seems that this description of God leaves him kind of insecure and weak...demanding, and picky. That's not what I would expect, actually.

Answer 2

The idea that hell is a place of eternal suffering and torment is a human interpretation that isn't strongly supported by the teachings in the bible. I'm not suggesting that hell doesn't exist...I'm not even suggesting that it isn't the place so frequently described by Christians. However, trying to put hell in some kind of box doesn't work any more than it works to put God in a box.

Personally, I have no idea what hell would be like. I can cherry-pick different words and verses from the bible and weave them into all sorts of nightmares but nowhere in the bible does it specifically describe a place called hell where all non-believers will spend eternity. In fact, in my reading of the scriptures, I'm more inclined to believe that hell isn't eternal. Revelation described a time when death and Hades (hell) are thrown into the lake of fire. If you throw something into a fire, it doesn't exists in that fire for eternity...it burns until it is consumed and ceases to exist...the hotter the fire, the faster it transforms from something into nothing.

Heck, it is even possible that hell is just a glass ceiling...that people are ranked in the next life according to their ability to follow God's instructions in this life. Hitler would be close to the bottom of the resulting hierarchy and someone that wasn't as "bad" would be higher up the ladder...but at some point, people on the ladder would hit a wall that separates them from the higher levels...perhaps Jesus has the key to the gate in that wall and will only let in people that he knows.

I don't know and though it is interesting to speculate, I believe that anything we (humans) could possibly "know" about hell is mere foolishness in the eyes of God. There is no way for me to know what heaven OR hell is really like. I just accept God's promises that there is a difference between existence with him and existence without him and that with him is better than I can imagine (and by process of elimination, that without him is beyond my imagination too!). Anything else is speculation and will invariably contain errors.

Answer 3

Hell isn't "punishment". It is God respecting the will of those persons who freely decide they want God out of their lives forever. That is the purpose of hell - to provide a place where those who make such a choice can have what they have freely chosen. What would you suggest? Take people who have chosen to reject God, many of whom vehemently hate God, allow them to live apart from Him for a while, but then force them to spend eternity in the intimate presence of the one they hate? Where is the love in that?

To use your analogy, if your daughter decided she hated you and never wanted to see you again, and moved far away, would you let her stay there a while, then go kidnap her and drag her home?

Answer 4

It is easy for me to see why you cannot understand what has been presented to you as the Christian concept of hell. You are trying to understand it as though it were a place where people pay for their wrong-doing. Such thinking comes from the prevalent view that we have an eternal soul, which is not the case, and from the idea that we can pay for our wrong-doing, which is flawed.

According to the Bible, humanity was created with conditional immortality. In other words, we would continue to enjoy life as long as we walked in union with our Creator. Since He is the source of all life, the consequence of turning away from Him is death.

The term "hell" is used in many translations of the Bible to render words that refer to the state of death. Sometimes fire is used as part of the description of hell because fire consumes what it burns. But many people have mistakenly understood terms like "eternal fire" and "everlasting fire" to be descriptions of a state of torment that continues as an experience for all time. These terms are actually used in Scripture to underscore the complete and unreversible nature of dying apart from the Savior. The final outcome is oblivion.

The reason that Jesus' death is so important to our salvation is because death is the specified penalty for sin. Critically thinking Christians will come to realize that if the penalty for sin is an eternal existence of torment in fire, and if Jesus paid the penalty for me, then He would have to be suffering in hell-fire today. Certainly we don't believe that!

The truth is that, while we can pay for our own wrong-doing, since the payment demanded is death, once we have paid the debt, we are dead! Thus the idea that we can pay for our sin is flawed. Many people will actually follow this path. They will reject the gift of God's Son and will determine to walk their own way. They will die apart from their Savior, and thus pay for their own wrong-doing by being eternally destroyed.

Those who do not reject God's gift, but respond favorably to God's wooing will escape death.

"Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: 'Death is destroyed; victory is complete!'"
(1Co 15:51-54)

Fred

Answer 5

Another interesting question, Pixie.

Your question is (to re-state so I understand): assuming Hell exists, when (or if, even) is the debt paid?

Well, based on my understanding, its never paid and if one enters it, you stay there.

In my mind, Hell is reserved for those who are evil in the purest sense of the word.

And since I believe God is just and that all things are possible with God, he can take whomever he choses, the sacrifice of Christ not withstanding. I know this to be true in my heart.

A bit of side bar: I believe that Judas Iscariot (Jesus's betrayer) is in Heaven. He was repentent before he hung himself (if you believe the Gospel version of his death) or tripped and disembowled himself on a sharp stone or stick (if you believe the version in Acts). I find enormous comfort in that belief.

With Regards

Answer 6

Your question is moot: there's no such thing as 'sin'. It's a term created by people who belong to sadomasochistic religions who believe that fear, pain, self-doubt and self-loathing are 'normal' behaviors..... always trying to seek forgiveness, but never receiving enough of it.... odd, huh?

These people abhor the thought that one should be enlightened and live with happiness or conversely, should suffer for the ill-treatment of others.

In their religion, the opposite holds true: we should always be ashamed of ourselves for 'sinning' (which basically is anything they themselves have deemed is not in accordance with their made-up beliefs) and looking outward for guidance (no responsibility for their own actions); never punish, nor believe in the punishment of evil people (ie: hitler) for, again, 'god' will take of things.

Wow, I've never encountered a more powerless bunch of suckers.

Answer 7

It's not supposed to be punishment. It's supposed to be purification (fire and brimstone were used to purify metals in ancient times, like coins). That was just lost in translation.
Besides, why would an all loving being want to punish. It should have unlimited compassion for all it's creation. If it doesn't then the afterlife looks pretty bleak and I know plenty of people that would welcome a second death.

Answer 8

I believe God will never give us more than we can handle, and I believe this echoes in hell as well. But no one has ever gone through eternity in hell and came back and wrote a book or a blog about it.

Answer 9

That is why people need to take what God says seriously,he is not joking around,you reap what you sow,God gives us a choice its up to us to choose him or hell is the punishment for eternity,that is just how it is.And you can not compare your own life to God and what God does,God is God.God loves everyone even the sinners,but he is not going to let someone go to heaven that denies him.There is a reason for the bible,that is to live by it and if you don't you go to hell,what is so hard to understand about that?God does not say we have to be perfect but to strive toward the things of God,and if not you go to hell,its that simple.

Answer 10

this past week I was in wal mart while traveling and bought a book called 23 minutes in hell by bill weise

I also checked and it is sold on the interent very interesting

It answered a lot of questions for me