What is your emotional reaction to the Christian concept of Hell (eternal punishment)?

Question

Please explain your reaction to help me (and others) make sense of it.

ALSO: Please include your own faith or non-faith tradition.

Answer 1

It makes me laugh....

Hardly the place an all loving entity would send anyone...

Answer 2

No, because there's no such thing like hell. We all go to the same place, where we will have the chance to learn from our very past life, and be prepared to be born again, until we all reach a higher level of Spirituality. However, God had to reach men's hearts by fear through old testament and old rules. Jesus and the New Testament changed the concept quite a bit by His example of love and forgiveness. Nowadays, as we have progressed through our several lives, we can understand even better about universal and unconditional love, Divine Laws like reincarnation, several lives, the connection with the spiritual world, so on. Unfortunately, some people are still stuck to the old idea of loving God through fear, but that's OK. Those people will learn more through several lives too. Nobody is better than anybody. We were there before. Doesn't it sound like God has better morals than us? It does to me. Peace!

Answer 3

I am a believer of Jesus and the Bible but I am nothing like most other Christians and I think their concept of hell is totally misunderstood. The Bible states over and over how loving God is and how is Love itself and there is no way that he would allow hell to be permanent. The Bible says God is even kind to evil ones so he is not so cruel as to make an eternal prison. Humans are even more lenient than that when giving prison sentences for the most awful crimes.

I believe that people do go to a hell of their choosing and can get out as soon as they call on God or when they change their way of thinking. It is the darkness inside people's hearts that takes them to hell after death. God has just as much mercy and forgiveness in the afterlife as he does while we are alive. He does not change and the Bible says all his spirit children will be saved and will not be left in hell.

Answer 4

as someone who believes in Christ my first reaction was fear and a little terror. of course i have come to realize that hell is not the literal place most Christians believe it to be. Basically it means not dwelling in the presence of God. I do know this...that all of us will end up in a far better place than this. but not all glories are the same. as Christ said in my father's house are many mansions. Paul compared the different glories to that of the sun moon and stars. but to many people not being able to dwell with God for eternity will be hell. even if it is a better place than here.

Answer 5

Hell really is not designed as Punishment, although that is what it ends up being.

You could think of Earth as school and God as a principle. If you do your school work and follow the rules you graduate. If you don't follow the rules and get your work done you are not being punished, you just don't get to graduate.

Just like in this life you end up with a pretty difficult life if you try and get things done without graduating.

I call myself a Zen Christian. I belong to a specific denomination and attend a Church.

Answer 6

God said he is a just God so that means God has to deal with sin. If God was willing to save those who want to be saved by allowing his very own son to come to earth, be tortured and crucified so that all people won't go to hell then why are we surprise? Our original destination was hell for disobeying God and now that God has made a way to avoid hell and people still reject his offer, then we have made that decision ourselves.

Ask yourself this question how would I like people living in my house who doesn' t care one little bit about anything I say or do?

Answer 7

WHICH "Christian concept of Hell"? For the Orthodox Church, Hell is not a distinct place, nor is anyone "sent" there. Instead, it is the result of experiencing the Presence of God directly while simultaneously being full of voluntary rejection of this Presence. All will be before God in the end, but those who have chosen to reject Him will find it very unpleasant. In a way, their own inflated egos will torture them. Nobody is "sent" to Hell. Hell is a way of being, a mode of experience.

Answer 8

Emotional: "What kind of rational being would come up with that?? Are you kidding me?"

It definitely seems that the concept of hell has evolved over time and that evolution has been "enhanced" for the church's use in the middle ages.

Atheist.

Answer 9

Dismayed, revolted, emotional pain... An all loving and just God would not condemn his "children" to an eternal torment.

Eclectic Christian-Pagan, best description beyond "spiritual" that I've found so far.

Answer 10

I admit to finding the concept of eternal torment rather fascinating. I have sadomasochistic tenancies, so do many religious types. I get mildly aroused at the thought of being placed in hell and made to submit.

I'm a Pantheist.

Answer 11

I am a Christian and a member of my baptist church.

I believe that Hell is a place where unforgiven, unrepented sinners go...those who did not receive Christ as their Savior. It is a place of punishment because no matter what at that point there is no place for you in heaven, you have to spend the rest of eternity without God.

I feel that spending eternity without God is very lonely and painful!

Our loving God does not send us there. He specifically warns us about the consequences of our actions. He begs us to follow Him and to trust in Him. It is us who send ourselves there by not trusting in the son he sent to die for our sins and who conquered death. I hope you guys can understand that WE put ourselves there by not following....like a parent who warns their child of a time out for not obeying...they know what is coming but choose to not listen. Does that mean that you do not love your kid? No...it means they did not obey you and you have to follow through with the consequence you warned them about!