God clearly gives us free will to accept him or not to accept him. Christ said to be saved you must accept him. To be saved means to be with Christ and God in the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ said that not all would be saved. Christ said their would be a judgment day when the wheat will be separated from the chaff. It is pretty crystal clear that Christ said we are not all going to be saved, and it is up to us to choose it.
Like you pointed out, it doesn’t mean we necessarily have to choose Christ’s saving grace in the physical world. He could give some people some chance for redemption after they die in the physical world and pass on to the spiritual world.
I just can’t reconcile the existence of a place of infinite suffering for infinite duration with the idea of an all loving, all merciful God.
What would he gain by sending 10 or 20 billion souls to hell to suffer forever?
It can’t make him happy. He is the Good Shepherd who grieves over the loss of a single sheep. Knowing every moment of his existence that 20 billion spirits are being flayed, roasted, boiled, lanced, impaled, gouged, rent, torn, minced and mutilated, and that he will know this for all eternity as they experience it for all eternity, makes no sense to me.
I tend to believe the eternal souls who are condemned just cease to exist. You said that eternal means eternal which means it can’t end. But God at his will could end your spirit, since all things come from him.
We don’t know if the condemned go to a place of infinite suffering for all time, or if they simply are extinguished in the fires of hell.
And what of Satan and the fallen angels? Do they get to have their fun torturing people in hell for all eternity.
So I tend to believe that the condemned, the fallen angels, the demons and Satan will all cease to exist as some point after Christ’s 2nd coming, and Heaven with the Trinity and the saved spirits will exist while all else ceases to exist.
I can’t know, but I tend to believe that the unsaved are not granted eternal life but are extinguished and lose their immortal souls and become nothing. I don’t tend to believe in a hell where the unsaved remain immortal and suffer interminably for all time.
The reason I tend not to believe the unsaved suffer in a hell for all time, is because it strikes me as evil to allow those who reject God to suffer such a terrible fate. And God is not evil, so he could not allow this, in my way of thinking.
It is a paradox I can’t accept. I can’t accept that an all loving, all merciful God would allow such an evil act to befall his children, even those who reject him. The Good Shepherd doesn’t take the lost sheep and bring them back and smash their kneecaps over and over again so they stay on the plantation. He just doesn’t. He doesn’t bring suffering on his sheep.
I do not see it as an evil act for God to simply extinguish the formerly immortal souls of those who reject him. If they want nothing to do with him, then he can easily grant their wish by having them removed from existence. They don’t suffer, and it is merciful of him to simply end them. They are gone and don’t know any better or worse so their is no everlasting grieve or remorse.
I see this as a merciful end to those who reject Christ’s saving Grace and God’s love.
I see hell with interminable suffering as an evil act, and God is not evil, so I can’t reconcile his tolerating billions of souls being tormented in unspeakable horror for time immemorial.
I can’t accept it. God is too good and too loving to allow it, despite these stories of people being rent and strewn flayed and roasted in hell, and coming back from the dead to warn us about it.
I can’t believe it because God is too good to allow it.
Now as a temporary measure, that is certainly possible. But not for all time. I can’t believe it.
If you will back up for a second on that 'can't make Him happen that billions are suffering thing, aren't you positing in that assertion that it can't make God happen that one would chose to reject His Grace? And isn't that what the Bible actually teaches, thus the nautre extension to the thought is that indeed our choosing to reject His Grace is hurtful to God and on par with the suffering that those rejecting His Grace have chosen in the alternative. Without a flip side to a coin, the thing is not a coin.
If a thing has an end and xeases to exist in any state, then it is not an eternal thing, at leat the way my mind works it out.
So you do not believe Jesus or the Bible where we are taught that Hell is prepared for satan and his angels? ... and one last thought: who is to say that satan has the ability to enjoy anything? Evil cannot fathom pleasure or joy or fun else it would burst in self loathing, or so I think.
If you will back up for a second on that 'can't make Him happen that billions are suffering thing, aren't you positing in that assertion that it can't make God happen that one would chose to reject His Grace? And isn't that what the Bible actually teaches, thus the nautre extension to the thought is that indeed our choosing to reject His Grace is hurtful to God and on par with the suffering that those rejecting His Grace have chosen in the alternative. Without a flip side to a coin, the thing is not a coin.
If a thing has an end and ceases to exist in any state, then it is not an eternal thing, at least the way my mind works it out.
So you do not believe Jesus or the Bible where we are taught that Hell is prepared for satan and his angels? ... and one last thought: who is to say that satan has the ability to enjoy anything? Evil cannot fathom pleasure or joy or fun else it would burst in self loathing, or so I think.
Humans are born sinners and approaching God requires a humble and contrite heart. Contrition in theology is defined as the hatred of sin with an intent to not sin in the future. Imperfect contrition leads a person to God out of fear of punishment, perfect contrition leads a person to God out of love of God.
You postings have indicated your strong desire to be with God and your inability to imagine being seperated from Him forever.
However, to deny the existence of Hell is to deny the teaching of Jesus.
Mercy is a gift not an entitlement. Do not harden your heart to His voice. Repent and believe in the gospel.