Christians, how did you ultimately come to terms with the idea that God will torture the unsaved for eternity?

Question

It's a difficult pill to swallow, one that eventually made me lose my faith. This is not to pick on you or to be inflammatory. I sincerely would like to know how you overcame your personal struggle.

How did you manage to learn to love God despite his form of justice?

Thanks for your sincere answers.

(btw, I couldn't fit in "send the unsaved out of his presence and thus into eternal torment" into my question, so I have to settle for the standard "torture for eternity" phrase. Sorry if this makes it more difficult to answer, but I meant the former quote more than the latter)

Answer 1

It's definitely something I'm struggling with. I mean, the thought of anyone in hell, never mind close friends/family is just..terrible. And, to be honest, I don't understand why God created hell. But then I don't have God's wisdom..I choose to believe in His loving mercy. It all comes down to faith. I know that sounds cliched but it's honestly how I'm getting through it.
I really hope you can come to terms with it too.
God bless

Answer 2

Once I got married and had children, I grasped the concept much easier.

I have multiple children and they all have the same rules to follow. One day, one child disobeyed the rules. He was punished while his brothers and sisters were not. He was upset that he was "singled" out. Though it hurt to punish him, he had to be punished for this wrongdoing. The other children were allowed to partake in the plans that we made. Now my punishment may have lasted only a week (which seemed like an eternity to him), God does the same for all people.
We have a choice whether to obey God or not. If we don't obey then we are punished.

Side note:
What it seems to me, those that ask this question it's not based on a feeling of compassion for others, but a sincere look at themselves. Generally speaking, those that ask how someone can support a God who believes in eternal punishment, are questioning their own eternal existence.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

Answer 3

Please re-read John 3:16 and other verses. God does not want anyone to go to Hell, and Jesus said as much in Matthew 25:41 when He said Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels--not for mankind! There is an Old Testament verse (Isaiah?) where God says He takes no delight in the death of the wicked.

Now, to be honest, "torture" isn't the word found in the Scriptures to describe what's going to happen to those who die without God's forgiveness. "Torment" does appear, and Jesus said, in a couple of places, "there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth". I overcame the struggle, as you describe, by realizing my sins were going to separate me from God forever, if I had died before trusting Christ as my Savior. This is available to anyone who truly wants to settle the question once and for all--why doubt when you can believe? Why risk losing your soul when Christ can deliver you from all the punishment of Hell? After all, that's one of the reasons He came and died on this earth!

Finally, I think you're asking a loaded question when you talk about learning to love God despite His form of justice. Let us remember that God, and God alone, is perfect and that all of us have come short of His glory and His standards. Someone may have better morals than I do, and I may be better than someone else at something else, but none of us measure up to God's absolute perfection. Justice? We have all walked away from Him by choice, and when we do our own thing, and refuse His offer of forgiveness, what other choice does He have? Think about it, read your Bible, and I sincerely hope you will be able to decide the best course for you.

Answer 4

I don't often come into this section, mainly because of the diversity of answers to a simple question, not only from 'Christians' . But from all religious groups.
I haven't read an answer to your question yet, I've read a lot of waffle, and your answer from the guy that calls himself 'The Pope' is typical of that! He certainly knows his subject, but to me it is meaningless drivel!
Why cant we have a simple answer, like 'Purgatory, is not a place for ever, it is a place where the sinners of this world go for a period of 12 months to be cleansed of their sins, so they are fit to face God'???
That is of course a load of rubbish!
How about 'If one truly repents then you will be forgiven, for Christ died to pay for all our sins'?
Another load of rubbish of course . But it would at least show unbelievers (such as my self) that there was some sort of unity among Christians, Roman catholic or whatever! As it stands the whole religious scene is a shambles, not only Christian but Muslim, Jewish the lot are divided not only against each other but within their own ranks.
Yet again I am sorry I wandered into this section, I have been asking this sort of question for ages, asking for clarifiction on many contradictions, what do I get?
Quotes from variations of the 'bible' and a few violations (Oh no)!!!!
Hope you can eventually get a reply to your question that will satisfy you, but I wouldnt bet on it!

Answer 5

Well, I never saw a passage about Satan and the only torturing part is in the book of Revelations. Although there are many crazy things in that book, like Jesus as a lamb, turning into a lion then Jesus. And 1/3rd of the sun, sea and fish being destroyed and all the 7s and 1/3rds. Some people think that the writer was insane then.

Answer 6

The idea of a loving God sending people to hell for eternity is not easy to accept. Why would God, who is full of mercy and grace, send people to a place of torment for ever and ever for not trusting in Jesus even though they are nice people, or never heard of Jesus, or were sincerely trying to find God? Is that fair? Is that right?

Answer 7

From further study. A big misconception about hell is that it is a place of physical torment and torture. Rather, most Christians have understood these descriptions to capture symbolically that hell is final and utter separation from God's saving grace. Some Christians, like C. S. Lewis, take hell to be a real place where sinful people make themselves miserable. Similarly, thinking of heaven as a place of hedonistic pleasures is wrongheaded as well. In fact, those who choose hell would not enjoy the pleasures of heaven since those pleasures essentially flow from a right relationship with God.

Answer 8

I can't understand a person being enraged against a court for sentencing his to life in prison after rightly being convicted of a terrible crime. Yet still the evil in man still will drive the convicted to hate the judge.. Is this right?

In the case you are speaking of a crime was committed. One of such severity as to call for the death of the offender. Yet in this case the judge come off the bench assumes the place of the offender as takes his punishment.. All the Judge asked in return is that you trust His action and except that action as a complete forgivness of your offence..

What do so many do instead of excepting the offer.. They march up to the Judge spit in His eye and demand to be help responsible for their own crimes.. Because of this demand judgment is handed down and you stand back accusing the Judge of being unfair, uncaring , without the love He promised to give all of His creation.. And you wonder why I can still hold faith in such a judge.... I wonder why you can't! IHS Jim

Answer 9

Well for me I had to realize another thing. I see and realize that everyone around me is a sinner. Not just because the Bible says so, but because you see a lot of evil people. By evil people I dont mean just murderers. I mean people who are angry all the time, greedy people, uncaring people, selfish people, violent people. Even the people who may show acts of kindness are not perfect in one way or another.
What I mean to say is that there are no perfect people, there is no such thing as a truly "good" person.

God requires perfection and purity to be accepted into his kingdom. This means that by God's standard all people deserve to die really.
If Jesus saves me then I see that as a privelege because I dont think God owes anything to me, because I have done a lot of evil things in my life too.

So bascially those who are "unsaved" aren't simply people who are not saved' They are sinners and law breakers. Anyone who steals, anyone who lusts after people all the time, anyone who lied to their mother or father. Anyone who has hurt an innocent person they're all bad people.

And unless they repent of all of their misdeeds how can God take them to him if they are so unlike him? The only place for them is Hell.

Answer 10

Good question. And not everybody believes that people will go to hell. I believe in universal election. Everyone who wants to go to heaven, goes to heaven. God will ask each person to chose heaven or hell. If they chose hell, they'll go there. But of course no one will choose it. So everyone goes to heaven.
I know there's lots of threats of burning and gnashing of teeth but those are just threats. Like when a parent tells a kid the boogey man will get you if you don't pick up your room.
Some people only respond to threats. It doesn't mean the parents have the boogey man on speed dial.
You just need to find a loving group of Christians. Don't worry if it's an organized church or not. Just good people. People who love God, love people.