RE: A rational explanation for hell?
September 16, 2010 at 1:30 am
(This post was last modified: September 16, 2010 at 8:46 am by blood_pardon.)
Hey Ace,
A man asked me this same question a couple weeks ago and I was stumped. Hell is a disturbing concept to say the least and if one day I stand before the Lord and find out that it was simply human misinterpretation I will be very relieved. That being said at this point in my walk along the Way I have no reason to believe that it isn't a real state in which men exist.
I have in my mind what I want to express but please bare with me.
In order to understand the reason for Hell it's important to grasp something of what God is. He is infinitely immense. So large that everything that exists does so inside of Him. All reality is caused and held together by this maximum. He's holy, holy, holy as Isaiah wrote.
A man once said "Sin is to seek to march up to God's throne, knock Him off it, kill Him, and to seat your self there instead."
Sin is a horrid thing. I see this image of a man suspended in air, completely surrounded by the presense of God, kicking, struggling, screaming his lungs out in protest. He wants to go his own way and nothing is going to stop him. Its like a man in the hospital tearing at the cords to the life support system.
The reason men go to hell is cause and effect. The lost man ignores and treats Him as an insignificant thing on this planet and when they die what changes? God is just as present as He always was except now they can see Him.
I've heard people say that Heaven is Heaven because God is there and Hell is Hell because He isn't. I believe Heaven is Heaven because of the love of God being expressed and Hell is Hell because of the hatrid and wrath being manisfest to those who despised Him all the days of their lives.
Ace Wrote:Can a theist here explain the reasoning behind endless torture for a finite victemless crime?
Who can give a rational reason for it?
Oh and why do people end up in hell for simply having certain thoughts or lack ther of? Who is affected by anothers beliefs (or lack ther of)?
A man asked me this same question a couple weeks ago and I was stumped. Hell is a disturbing concept to say the least and if one day I stand before the Lord and find out that it was simply human misinterpretation I will be very relieved. That being said at this point in my walk along the Way I have no reason to believe that it isn't a real state in which men exist.
I have in my mind what I want to express but please bare with me.
In order to understand the reason for Hell it's important to grasp something of what God is. He is infinitely immense. So large that everything that exists does so inside of Him. All reality is caused and held together by this maximum. He's holy, holy, holy as Isaiah wrote.
A man once said "Sin is to seek to march up to God's throne, knock Him off it, kill Him, and to seat your self there instead."
Sin is a horrid thing. I see this image of a man suspended in air, completely surrounded by the presense of God, kicking, struggling, screaming his lungs out in protest. He wants to go his own way and nothing is going to stop him. Its like a man in the hospital tearing at the cords to the life support system.
The reason men go to hell is cause and effect. The lost man ignores and treats Him as an insignificant thing on this planet and when they die what changes? God is just as present as He always was except now they can see Him.
I've heard people say that Heaven is Heaven because God is there and Hell is Hell because He isn't. I believe Heaven is Heaven because of the love of God being expressed and Hell is Hell because of the hatrid and wrath being manisfest to those who despised Him all the days of their lives.
