Hell:

A Loving God and Eternal Punishment?

The problem                                                                                               

Christianity teaches that our final destination will be either heaven or hell. These are places or states far beyond our human capacity to understand, and anything we say about them is mostly speculative. Nevertheless, the prevalent perception of hell is that it is a place where the damned will burn and be in physical and spiritual torment for all eternity.

And that is the problem. How could a loving God consign most, many, some, or merely a few of us to a place or state of eternal torment? If Jesus is love and came to save the world and not condemn it, how can this be? Even assuming a justification for the existence of hell and eternal punishment, why should a single act or an honest belief that Christianity is false, land a person in hell for all eternity? How does one balance the equities – 70 years of disbelief or wrongdoing versus 100,000,000+ years of intense suffering. That equation makes no sense.

No single concept of hell

To address this issue, we need to correct a pervasive misconception. The popular characterization of hell as a fire that burns and torments the damned for all eternity is not a universal Christian belief. While all Christians accept the concept of hell (Jesus was quite clear on this subject), the description of what hell means varies across the various Christian sub-faiths. This tells us that no one knows for sure. Here are some theological opinions – and that’s all they are — opinions:

1.  The damned will burn and be in physical and spiritual torment for all eternity.

2.  After a period of suffering, the damned will suffer eternal separation from God by being extinguished. They will suffer eternal death.

3.  God is present in both hell and heaven. In heaven he is experienced as pure love and paradise; in hell the lost soul cannot withstand the fire of God’s presence and love, and experiences eternal and unspeakable anguish.

There are other variations as well, but the common element is that while we may not understand the details of eternity, we do know that Christianity teaches that hell will be a place or state of eternal punishment, and that this punishment will, at a minimum, be eternal separation from God or an inability to experience the love of God.

Rejecting God because of hell

Consider carefully the wisdom of rejecting Christ’s Passion and Resurrection because you don’t like the concept of hell. To shut down belief because you think God would never establish a plan of eternal punishment for those who reject him or a plan contrary to what you think that plan should be is vacuous, silly and a poor excuse (and that’s all it is; it’s not a reason) to ignore Fatima, Lourdes, Turin, miraculous cures, and the numerous other proofs of God’s love.

First, your opinion of eternity is almost certainly wrong. Second, stop trying to prove that you are smarter and more merciful than Jesus by asserting that your concept of the eternal right is better than his. Third, you display no honor and achieve nothing by joining those on the wrong side of the great chasm separating heaven from hell (I’m speaking both literally and figuratively, depending on your view as to whether heaven and hell are places or states). Wouldn’t it make more sense to stay on the side Jesus died for and try and bring others over?

Free will and eternal consequences

God created us in his own image, giving us intelligence, will, and the freedom of choice. He offered his love, first to and through the ancient Israelites and then through Jesus. But since his love included the gift of free choice, we can either accept that love, disbelieve, resist, or simply refuse it. We push him aside when we disbelieve or reject his love.

When we accept God’s love, however, we have accepted his continuing offer to live in his presence. When we die, our existence will then be elevated to an infinitely higher plane when we come into his celestial presence. We call this ‘heaven.’ When we say ‘no,’ God respects our choice because he gave us freedom of choice, and a necessary element of freedom is the ability to choose wrongly. Hell is the final and definitive ‘no’ to God’s love, and the wrong choice.

In other words, God doesn’t send people to eternal punishment; they send themselves. Free will includes a key to the doors of hell. We may be tempted to conclude that God is a cruel God (and, therefore, non-existent) because he allows this eternal separation from him, but in all honesty if we couldn’t make that decision we would be mere animals, not made in the image of God. If one knowingly turns from Christ in this life, they are really telling God that their preference is to continue that non-relationship for all eternity.

Why choose hell?

But why would anyone choose hell? How about this quote from a person who was outraged that a film critic actually gave a positive review of Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of Christ:

You accept all of this Biblical brutality and bloodshed as “normal” only because you want to believe your life to be sooo important and special, that you will be granted immortality. Do you really want to spend the next million years on bended knee, in constant adoration? Is that why you were created, for eternal appeasement and glorification?

It is hard to see anything but hate in the heart of this writer, and it looks like hate directs his beliefs and actions. I’m not judging, but only reporting what appears to be the case. Contrition and conversion may be in his future, and if he reverses course we know that Jesus will welcome him to paradise.

Here is another answer: Look at our daily lives and the people around us. They choose to ignore God and pursue their own self-involved agenda. While many of us wonder what awaits when our earthly journey is over, many don’t seem to care. In fact, a 2014 poll said that 47% of Americans (arguably the most Christian nation in the world) never think about their eternal destination. God became man and assumed human nature in the body of a poor Palestinian carpenter. He knows our story, our temptations, our lives, our uncertainties, insecurities, pains, anger, love, hurt – everything about each of us. His life and Passion tell us of the enormity of his love. Our lethargy tells him of our disdain for what he did. If we deliberately ignore our Creator during this life, does it seem unreasonable for our decision to continue throughout all eternity? Should we expect God to overrule our decision, much like the Supreme Court would reverse a lower court’s ruling?

The Old Testament tells us that when the law was given and the Israelites rejected or ignored it they suffered terrible consequences. If that was the case at a time when much less revelation was given, then think of the consequences of our rejecting or neglecting the great salvation offered by Christ.

Trusting Jesus

Who does Christianity say will spend eternity in hell? I think it is fair to say that virtually all of Christianity believes that those who with full knowledge reject Christ and attack him to the end of their days are doomed. After these cases of extreme hate there is disagreement so there is no point speculating about this subject. The fact is that it is Jesus who judges and so we are led once again to the nexus of all Christianity. Trust Jesus.

The wages of sin are death

Still, there is a deep gnawing within us that keeps saying that no one in control of his senses would deliberately reject God, knowing that an eternity of torment and pain awaited him. Similarly, it seems hard to accept the notion that God would condemn him to eternal torment for some wrong choices made during our fleeting lives.

On the other hand, anyone who deliberately rejects God clearly believes that when he dies, his life is snuffed out forever. That is his expectation and choice. Does it seem unfair for Jesus to honor that decision? I wonder, then, if the eternal punishment that Jesus referred to is the complete annihilation and extinction of the person – an eternal separation from God. Their eternal fate would be exactly what they anticipated; they would disappear into non-existence and thereby eternally removed from the presence of God. There is certainly scriptural basis for this position (as there are for other more traditional positions), but it is interesting that the Bible generally tells us that those who are not saved suffer eternal death. For example:

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Perhaps, then, ‘hell’ as referred to by Jesus does not mean a place of eternal torment and suffering, but rather punishment until the close when the existence of the individual, body and soul, is extinguished. This position is not inconsistent with Christianity in general, or Catholicism in particular. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

1056 Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the “sad and lamentable reality of eternal death” (GCD 69), also called “hell.”

1057 Hell’s principal punishment consists of eternal separation from God in whom alone man can have the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

One interpretation, then, is that the fires of hell burn the body and soul so that the person and the disobedience he carries with him is removed from God’s creation, and because the flame never dies, they are extinguished for all time and eternity.

It is interesting that the one place in the New Testament that specifically speaks of an eternal torment is found in Revelation 14:9-11.

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If any one worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

If someone worships the beast with full knowledge [as evidenced by the fact that he receives a mark on the forehead or hand] he shall be tormented forever. This seems quite different from the fate of those who have rejected Christ or the evildoers that are separated out at the last judgment. While we don’t know who or what the beast is (a pretty good guess is Satan or his derivatives), the action of the individual is the same: worshiping a creature with full knowledge of their actions and an attempt to undermine God and substitute a mere creature for him.

There is no need for speculation, however, as to what hell is like or is. We know from the best of authority that it is eternal punishment. The specifics may vary by individual or it could be the final and irrevocable extinguishing of the body and soul. We just don’t know, but when we evaluate the alternatives the prospect of it should be horrifying beyond description and we need to understand and help others understand the consequences of their decisions in life. We do know that God does not want hell as our final destination, and this was told to us by Our Lady of Fatima, when she asked the three shepherd children to include the following prayer in the Rosary: “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, saves us from the fire of hell, take all souls to heaven, and help especially those most in need of your mercy.”

Ignorance

But what if the Lord never entered our crowded lives? What if we never really heard about Him? Or effectively heard about Him? What if we are born and live in country or culture where Christianity is an anathema and even to pray in the name of Christ is blasphemy punishable by death? What about even those most subtle of situations where through family history, or other factors a child grows up in an environment of latent hostility or apathy towards Christianity. We must accept the fact that there are plenty who die without the opportunity, through no fault of their own, of knowing Jesus.

We don’t know on an individual basis, but we do have guidance from both the Bible and the teaching of the Catholic Church. Paragraph 847 of the Catechism:

“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

Paul tells us in Romans 2:14-15 that knowledge of good and evil is built into the heart of everyone. God’s inherent gift to each of us is a conscience of what is good and what is evil. Reason should tell us about the existence of a God and the acts that are against the laws of nature. Deep down we all know those actions which are proper such as taking care of the less

fortunate and honoring parents. We don’t know, of course, which of us will receive the grace of heaven. We can only trust Jesus and try to follow his commandments.

Universal opportunity for salvation

In one way or another Jesus opens the door to heaven for all, as is evidenced by the clause in the Apostles’ Creed which says that Jesus descended to the dead. There he brought his presence and gift to those who died without knowledge of him. We haven’t the foggiest of notions of what happened when he descended and how he revealed himself. We only know that his eternal message has now been, or will be, delivered to everyone including those who died without having the opportunity to know Christ.

Our choice – eternity with God, or apart from Him

God’s love is the overriding principle of Christianity. Another is the freedom God gave us to accept or reject that love. These two principles lead to what appears to be an inevitable consequence. We can reject God’s love and remain outside his presence. When we do that, we willingly accept the pain and suffering which accompanies such rejection. We will have exiled ourselves from God’s saving love and grace. Christ came to save us, not condemn. He opened the doors for all of us, but here’s the catch: He doesn’t force us through that door, and we can make the imbecilically poor decision to remain outside. Nevertheless, to remain outside would be our decision and the consequences of that decision would be a necessary corollary of God’s love. The Lord makes himself available in our crowded lives and we can accept, ignore, resist, or reject.

The bottom line is that God wishes no one to spend eternity in hell, but that through free will we have been empowered to make this choice. This is your decision, not his. God wants only those who love him to spend eternity with him.

Our Place in Eternity

Christianity teaches that God’s love and mercy are universally available and fall upon the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, the good and the bad, upon all of us like a gentle rain. If we live in a house with the blinds drawn shut we will never see the sun. We need to open them and allow light and warmth to enter. God’s love is out there waiting for an invitation.

God loved you so much that he gave you the choice. If I were you, I would want to be sensible and consider carefully the meaning of Jesus’ words when he said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. There is a reciprocity at play. Jesus took time out for us, so shouldn’t we take Time Out for Jesus?

Believe to understand.

Some websites and references

Last modified June 16, 2019