Why exactly should people burn in hell forever?
A conceptual summary of the purpose of punishment and hell
Parents, why do you beat or punish your children when they do wrong?
Teachers, why do you flog your students?
What is the purpose of prisons and rehabilitation centers?
It seems to me that the purpose of punishment is to make the offender change his ways and do good. Or to show the offender his wrong so that he or she may learn to do well.
If you remove this understanding from punishment, it becomes “subtle revenge.”
Hebrews 12:6:
“For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
Most times, we read here and stop.
Question: Why does the Lord discipline and punish his children?
Hebrews 12:10:
“... But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.”
Verse 11:
“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”
So, we see that God disciplines or punishes us first for our good.
You see, when you read the Old Testament about the punishment the Israelites suffered because of their wrongs, you may be tempted to think that God is wicked.
But the book of Hebrews comes to explain to us that all God does that we term “punishment” is for our good.
So, God’s purpose of punishment is not because he is trying to get back at us. But he lets these chastisements come because he wants to mold us to be that perfect people. And these chastisements can come in different forms, either in this world, or in hell, or in the “world” to come.
Proverbs 20:30:
“Physical punishment cleanses away evil; such discipline purifies the heart.”
Any punishment not geared towards this purpose is not of love.
This understanding of punishment changes a lot of things for us. For a long time, several Christian circles have preached and taught the concept of hell, or hellfire, from the position that God throws those who do not believe in Him into hell to burn forever.
To be honest, to conceive of, believe in, and agree with such a belief is not only dangerous, but it also points to a deep flaw in human sympathy and empathy. Even more, it points to a kind of reasoning that is not geared toward any meaningful goal.
I always ask (and if you are not religious, you would always ask this too),
“Why exactly should people burn in hell forever? What is the reason or purpose of the burning and crying in hell for all eternity?”
Does it make God happy, or does it make those who will be in heaven feel better about themselves? To be okay with the belief that millions of people will be crying and roasting in hell for all eternity is grossly inhuman and, most importantly, entirely pointless.
It is pointless because it does not translate into anyone’s good: not those in heaven, not God, and certainly not those in hell themselves. The only real “benefactor” here is the devil. So I always wonder why God would let the devil win by such a landslide in something He created.
You often hear people say that more people will go to hell than to heaven, and I ask them, what does that tell you about God?
If more people end up in hell than in heaven, doesn’t that make God a failure?
After all, He made this whole world and everything in it, including humanity. So if, at the end of the day, He loses and most of humanity ends up in hell, that means He lost to the devil.
The concept of a burning fire where people are roasted is both counterproductive, pointless, and ultimately wicked. Why create people if, at the end of the day, a large number of them will end up in a place of burning, forever separated from You?
And the “forever and ever” part confuses me even more.
Why exactly should they keep burning in hell forever?
What is the purpose of such eternal punishment?
This false concept of hell was popularised during the Middle Ages by the Roman Catholic Church.
The modern popular image of hell as a place of eternal conscious torment, with literal fire and endless suffering, became deeply entrenched during the Middle Ages through Western Christian theology, preaching, art, and literature. However, the doctrine itself developed over several centuries.
It is not God’s plan for humanity; it is merely a misinterpretation of the texts of the Bible.
Punishment has a purpose. That purpose is to compel obedience, not to destroy eternally. We don’t punish our children so that they will suffer forever. We punish them so they can change their ways and do better. If we are this wise, how much more so is God?
So punishment is restorative in nature. Just as you have a cut and you feel pain, the pain is there to remind you that there is a wound that needs to be healed. Once it is healed, the pain stops. In the same way, the concept of hell exists to show us that there is a problem. Once the problem is fixed, hell ceases to exist.
Hell is restorative. It is not, first of all, a place we go to. It is a state of life and experience that eventually influences the place we exist in.
The man influences the place. So those who live apart from God first experience hell as a state and then experience hell as a place.
The earth is currently hell. We just don’t know it because we have not seen anything better. When you experience floods, earthquakes, natural and atmospheric disasters, outbreaks of disease, wars, and economic crises, why do you think all of these evils exist?
These evils exist because we are in hell as a collective life experience. Planet Earth is actually hell as a result of the dominant collective consciousness of those living on it. The earth is constantly revolting and reacting to our consciousness, and that, in turn, is making life on earth hostile.
Humanity made the earth this way.
So hell is not something you experience because you don’t believe in Jesus. Hell is something you experience because of ignorance.
As long as we are not yet fully like God in knowledge and experience, we are experiencing hell. We just don’t realize it because we have never seen a reality or a world that is far better than what we currently have.
This is why the main focus of the Christian faith is not being born again but renewing the mind.
In fact, many believers who claim to be born again do not even realize the meaning of what they are saying. All they think about is a gate pass to escape this world, not realizing that we were created to govern and repair this world, not leave it.
I shared more about the concept of hell and this world in my podcasts:
My Private Thoughts on the World, Creation, God's POV, & Death
The Structure of Creation - Man, Realities, Dimensions, Heaven & Hell
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