If the soul is like a spirit, how can it be tortured by material fire? I.E. Hell?

Question

If we were to believe that Hell is actually a consuming fire, how can a spirit like soul feel pain? Spirits don't have nerve endings like material humans do.

If you say that there is a material component to the soul, then why haven't scientists found this?

Clearly, the churches definition of the soul is un-material (like a spirit). If the spirit were material, then it would not be immortal (like the churches say so). A spirit does not have senses like material humans do......

......So how can they be physically tortured in hell fire?

I think we need to get a definition of hell, because there are two groups, one that beleives hell is a symbolic sense of being away from God, the other group actually beleive that Hell is a literal place of fire....

Answer 1

It can't, because hell was invented. Here is a previous post I made on the topic.
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The Christian view of a fiery Hell is based off of the Judaic belief of Gehenna.

Originally it was believed that when someone died they would go to a place called Sheol, and there they'd remain until judgement day. Everyone went there regardless of who they were or what they had done in their lifetime.

At some point after the Jewish people were living in Jerusalem, they changed their belief in Sheol so that it was split into having 2 halves. One side (Abraham's Bosom) was a place of comfort, the other (Gehenna) was a place of fiery torment. Depending on your life you would go to one of these places and await judgement day.

Christianity then came along and changed the idea once again. Rather than people going to Sheol, now they simply went to Heaven or Hell (evolution of the Gehenna/Abraham's Bosom concepts). It's believed that when Jesus came. he did away with the judgement day requirement, and people went straight to where they're supposed to. There's no real Biblical basis for that, however.

But the problem is, Gehenna itself has no apparent religious basis for it's creation. By all accounts it seems to have been inspired directly by Jerusalem's immediate surroundings. There was a valley called the Valley of Hinnom close to Jerusalem, and it was here that the Canaanites used to conduct human (child) sacrifices to one of their gods.

When the Jewish people were living in Jerusalem, they used that valley as basically a garbage dump. Criminals and people who were either not worthy of, or never received, a proper burial were taken to the Valley of Hinnom along with the garbage. They constantly burned the valley to control the stench, disease etc that would have occurred otherwise.

It's easy to see from that how the idea of Gehenna was formed - a fiery place where the evil went after they died.
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There are a number of Christians who are beginning to believe that hell is simply the disconnection from God, not a place of fiery torment. So you'd go someplace where God would basically be dead to you. I don't know exactly where they're getting all that information from, however.

Answer 2

Hell is the worst place to be in, whether the fire is material or not. The soul is the essence of a human being. Your soul is you, so when your soul separates from your body upon physical death, you cease to exist physically.However, your soul still exists.
Hell is a place of eternal separation from God.That's why it's the worst place to be in. There, the soul will feel the pain of being separated from everything that is good. The torture in hell comes from the knowledge that everything is too late for one to believe and trust in God, not from the physical pain of burning. When you are separated from God, that's called spiritual death. You can no longer experience God's presence,His grace, His goodness, His love.
Unfortunately, science is based on imperical evidence and therefore is unable to explain or prove the existence of the soul or the possibility of hell.

Answer 3

If you feel hurt because your spouse betrayed you, isn’t it your soul that’s feeling the pain (as opposed to the body, although the body could also be affected)? This proves that the soul does not need nerve endings to feel pain.

Also, if there is a heaven and hell that are not in the physical but spiritual realm, then there could also be fire that is not physical but existent in the spiritual realm.
The soul is certainly able to feel literal and even torturous pain, especially in the realm of its kind as a result of its kind as well (i.e., in the spiritual realm by a non-physical but sure inferno).

Answer 4

What you state is a false [ faulty] teaching.
Hell is associated with death. In the bible it has a Greek name, Hades.
When death is eliminated, so will Hades
(Revelation 20:14) And death and Ha′des were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.

anything into a fire is destroyed.
no more death- no more GRAVES.
Hell is just our grave.

As to anything surviving death, anything spiritual, the Bible say this.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5-6) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun.

Nothing left over to DO any haunting.

When we die, we simply remain in God's memory. And from that memory, he can resurrect us. Rev. 20; 12,13

Answer 5

A lot of the teachings in the church are inaccurate! They actually have no basis for their beliefs since the Bible is the authority and many in the churches claim to adhere to it's teachings.

When asked simple questions about the trinity, which many churchgoers strongly believe in, they are unable to explain or even show it in the Bible........same with the dogma of hellfire.

When this cannot be intelligently explained by them, they chalk it up as " a mystery!" I've heard this from my brother-in-law many times over.....he's a minister, by the way!

Answer 6

1. I am an atheist

2. A careful study of scripture will show you that there is no torture in hell fire for humans. There is death in hell fire for humans. It is the second death. The ashes of the wicked shall be trod under foot by the righteous.

3. How many thumbs down will I get on this answer?

Answer 7

God is the creator of heaven and earth. He also created us. He formed us out of mud. When this body which is made out of mud , have feelings then why not the spirit have, after our death(coz even this very spirit was given to us by god). God intended this very thing , thats why we have heaven and hell. God has the the power to do things which are beyond all human imagination. That is why we have his grace which is free for all of us and we just need to accept his grace.

Answer 8

Yes it can be tortured. For God said all will be resurrected; Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Dan 12:3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

So, there is life after death for all of us, either you chose to be with the LORD GOD even Lord Jesus or you chose to be separated with God forever and ever and be tormented day and night in the Hell of Fire;

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And 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.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Therefore, there are two deaths for those who follow their own way not the way of the LORD GOD;

First death: Physical death a separation of soul from our corrupted body.
Second death: Spiritual death a separation from the Mighty Creator God and be tormented forever and ever in the Hell of Fire with the new body given, Daniel 12:3-4; Revelation 20:14.

This explains also thesse Holy Words from God;
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

So a follower of God even Lord Jesus will experienced to set of Birth:
Physical birth and Spiritual birth,

Thanks and Praises and Blessed be the Holy Name of the LORD GOD, for they die only physically (separation of soul from the corrupted body). AMEN.

Answer 9

You have made a lot of assumptions!!
First of all, when believers get to heaven they will have resurrected bodies (not spirits), just like Jesus had when He was resurrected.

Just because scientists aren't able to find a material component to the soul it does not mean that it is not there. In fact humans finite mind should not serve as an excuse in order to dismiss spiritual matters.

Answer 10

Have you never "burned" inside out of regret or shame or similar? That was not physical fire and the the hurt was not physical but spiritual.

That is the type of eternal spiritual burning that the unsaved will experience.

See this:

Eze 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; **therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee**, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.