I was a minister for a short time after I graduated from seminary. But then I quit temporarily. I had been talking to people about Jesus for years and there were so many questions that I felt deserved answered. I believe that if you ask you will recieve and if you seek you will find. Maybe not a car or that girl you like or stuff like that, but truth and understanding and wisdom. Those are things I knew God wanted me to have and I prayed and I studied to aquire them.
But I wasn't getting answers to hard questions that I believed I needed answered, so, for a time, I decided to postpone ministry. I was only in my early 20s anyway I thought. I wasn't ready to counsel people about life when I had barely begun to live myself.
That was over a 12 years ago. Since that time I've been married, returned to school for computer science, worked, started my own business. And I've prayed and studied and searched for answers.
For one answer really. One question. Above all of the others. Why does God torture people in hell for eternity if they are not saved?
I know the standard answers of course. People sin. God is just. God wants to save them. They have free will. They have to choose to be saved. I know all of that.
But why torture in hell forever? Why torture forever? Why torture at all?
If God is just, how is eternal torture for a lifetime of sin that is a relative blink of time fair?
If God is kind, why torture with fire? Why torture at all?
How does the same God who is punishing sins like murder torture people?
God knew before he created us that most of us wouldn't be saved. About 99% of humanity will not be saved. From the beginging to the end.
But most of all... how I am supposed to enjoy living in heaven in paradise in happiness while God is torturing my friends and family who weren't saved?
Someone once told me that God doesn't torture anyone in hell. Which I just couldn't believe they would even think let alone argue. Everything that exists is created by God and exists because God keeps it existing. God is infinite and nothing in existance exists apart from him. Hell exists by the will of God... by his thoughts and his actions. For ever and ever.
Not like you or I who build something and it seperate from us. Everything exists in God.
So, how, can God, who created all of existance, who cleary loves humanity, who loves justice, who loves mercy and kindness... how can God torture people in hell in fire forever?
And how can I enjoy myself in heaven with a God who tortures people I love in firey hell forever?
I can't. I won't. I can't love someone who tortures people for eternity. I can't be happy knowing my loved ones are suffering forever and ever.
And... after all that I've studied and all that I've prayed... I can't believe that the God who created this wonderful beautiful world and made humans in his image to experience the joys of love and of creation and of being creative... I can't believe that this God will torture 99% of humanity in fire forever and ever just for not accepting salvation.
To think that Hitler could have repented before he died and is in heaven happy as can be while all the Jews he killed are in hell burning for eternity?
I don't know what happened. I don't know how this eternal torture was attached to believing in God and in Jesus. But I can't believe in a God who is like this. Who can create the universe, but damns nearly all of his most treasured creation. No. It can't be true.
And even if it is. I would rather burn in hell with my loved ones then sell my soul to live in heaven with the one torturing my loved ones in hell.
That's my conclusion after over a decade of study and prayer.
I think that I have asked and I have recieved an answer. I don't know for sure. But I have faith that God is good and man screwed something of the message up along the last 2000 years.
The convolutions in assertions and contradictions in your reasoning are not unusual for a liberal lost in the cares of the world.
What did you study, your navel? Chicken guts?
I don't think you studied very much Christian apologetics, or you would have come across C. S. Lewis' Great Divorce, among others, which answers your questions very completely.
Open your eyes. The Bible is very clear that God desires that all come to repentance, but the reprobate man chooses his own fate. He prefers separation from God to intimacy with God, so God gives him what he wants.
Chris is that you?
I’ve been a Christian my entire life.
_______________________________________
No, you havent...
Does not understand that the separation from God IS the torture.
For the happy hour after work is done.
What seminary did you go to? I’m planning on taking courses in seminary, and already know more than you — and I am a Computer Scientist.
Geesh.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
I'm sure you'll get your wish, right after you burn from being zotted.
Trust me on this one, dude.
“That’s my conclusion after over a decade of study and prayer.”
My dad called epople like you educated idiots. He was correct.
Get a LIFE, ejit!
You need to go back and do more prayer and study fool.
Ummm.... Did your parents learn about Christianity at the Salvation Army’s psych ward?
Our dear troll is quite correct that God is love, and we must start there. He loves every person, even the sinners, which is just all of us. Ultimately, He loves us so much that He grants us our wish, if we insist, to live apart from Him and His heaven permanently. But that choice, once granted, has a serious consequence.
He will no longer be present, in hell, to protect those who insist on being apart from Him. Without that protection, they are vulnerable to the evil people around them. What is to keep Hitler, or Jack the Ripper, or the devil himself from attacking them? For that matter, what is to keep them from attacking others? And, in God's loving economy, such attacks are undeserved.
Even though God is not present, He does not leave them defenseless. If he puts a hedge of fire around each, then that fire prevents them from attacking others. Depending on how evil that person is, then that is how big and hot their hedge is--presumably, Hitler's is a roaring inferno, and Satan's a whole lake of fire. Because they are evil, they do lunge at others, thus encountering the torturous flames, in direct and just proportion to what they deserve.
Now, I assume God's true plan is much better than my poor proposal--perhaps yours is, too. I present this only to demonstrate that there does exist a satisfactory answer for our troll. It is only an answer, not the answer. You do better, if you can.
Your frustration is understandable, but this comment bugs me:
I would rather burn in hell with my loved ones then sell my soul to live in heaven with the one torturing my loved ones in hell.
If that is how you really feel, than what does that say about you? What favor have you done your loved ones? Instead of joining them in hell, why not do everything you can to make sure they join you in heaven? What have you done for them lately???
This will sound rude, but I don't mean it to: I'm glad I'm not counting on someone like you to guide me toward salvation. Think about it...