If there was ever a “jumping off point” for my awakening to the Truth of God (well, it was also the lies told about sex1), it would be this topic. Hell, especially of the eternal sense, is the most sadistic, vulgar, despicable, nonsensical, ridiculous thing that anyone could have come up with about God. Basically, there’s this place where you go, if you don’t make the “right decision” by your “free will” in this short life to believe in Him or you don’t love Him back like you should, where you go – forever – and burn and scream in agony, your flesh melting off of you continually. All the while, you’ll be in complete darkness (and in flames??), while you see people who are “saved” far away all happy, and you would wish you were there with them. You will wish that someone from there would be able to come over to where you are and give you a drop to drink because of how hot it will be there. And demons would be torturing you all the while. Forever. In agony. You will never escape. Ever. When I think about it, is it any wonder why there are so many intelligent people who are atheists now? Many atheists actually used to be believers. I think stuff like this drove them away. Can you blame them? Oh, by the way, Islam also believes in eternal hell. Just so you know, and it’s worth repeating, I am appalled at the doctrine of Eternal conscious torment (ECT). It is the sickest, vilest thing, cruelest thing anyone could have ever come up with, and the most slanderous thing you could say about God!! To say that He would create a being, knowing full-well that the person He created would never repent, and would then throw them into a fire to burn endlessly – FOREVER!! NOTHING comes close! Nothing! It makes God into a monster, and makes our Jesus Christ an absolute failure! But, here I present to you why, thank God, that is not the case!
When it came to translating the English word “Hell,” the King James translators went crazy with the word, translating it thirty times in the OT alone as hell, when it is the Hebrew word "sheol." In other words, to the King James translators, "sheol" is "hell." Now then, let's read Psalm 49:15,
"But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me."
The word "grave" in this verse is the Hebrew word "sheol," which is translated as "hell" in no less than thirty other verses. So if "sheol" really is "hell" then there is also "redemption" from hell!
And, with the Greek, we read in I Cor. 15:55,
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
The word "grave" in this verse is the Greek word "hades,” which is translated "hell" in no less than ten other verses. So if "hades" really is "hell" then there is indeed victory over hell! Point is, the gates of Hell have already been conquered by Christ! He has the keys to both “hell” and death (Rev 1:18) so it doesn’t matter if Hell’s gates are locked from the inside, as C.S. Lewis stated!
There are many “Church Fathers” that have been revered throughout the years, yet many of them must have been mentally ill, because they not only knew the destruction of the damned, but they rejoiced in it! From the Tentmaker website, we read the following direct quotes:
Tertullian
“At that greatest of all spectacles, that last and eternal judgment how shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer flames than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sages philosophers blushing in red-hot fires with their deluded pupils; so many tragedians more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers tripping more nimbly from anguish then ever before from applause."
“What a spectacle. . .when the world. . .and its many products, shall be consumed in one great flame! How vast a spectacle then bursts upon the eye! What there excites my admiration? What my derision? Which sight gives me joy? As I see. . .illustrious monarchs. . . groaning in the lowest darkness, Philosophers. . .as fire consumes them! Poets trembling before the judgment-seat of. . .Christ! I shall hear the tragedians, louder-voiced in their own calamity; view play-actors. . .in the dissolving flame; behold wrestlers, not in their gymnasia, but tossing in the fiery billows. . .What inquisitor or priest in his munificence will bestow on you the favor of seeing and exulting in such things as these? Yet even now we in a measure have them by faith in the picturings of imagination.” [De Spectaculis, Chapter XXX]
Thomas Aquinas
In order that the happiness of the saints may be more delightful to them and that they may render more copious thanks to God for it, they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned. . .So that they may be urged the more to praise God. . .The saints in heaven know distinctly all that happens. . .to the damned. [Summa Theologica, Third Part, Supplement, Question XCIV, "Of the Relations of the Saints Towards the Damned," First Article, "Whether the Blessed in Heaven Will See the Sufferings of the Damned. . ."]
“The same fire” (which he decides to be material) “ torments the damned in hell and the just in purgatory…The least pain in purgatory exceeds the greatest in this life.” Summa Theo. Suppl. Qu. 100, acts. 2, n. 3.
Jonathan Edwards
“The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardour of the love and gratitude of the saints of heaven.”
The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever. . .Can the believing father in Heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in Hell. . . I tell you, yea! Such will be his sense of justice that it will increase rather than diminish his bliss.
["The Eternity of Hell Torments" (Sermon), April 1739 & Discourses on Various Important Subjects, 1738]
Catholic Truth Society
What will it be like for a mother in heaven who sees her son burning in hell? She will glorify the justice of God. - Pamphlet from the late 1960s, part of a catechismal teaching [cited in an essay by the English poet, Stevie Smith, "Some Impediments to Christian Commitment"]
St. Anthony Mary Claret
“Once [a soul] is condemned by God, then God's friends agree in God's judgment and condemnation. For all eternity they will not have a kind thought for this wretch. Rather they will be satisfied to see him in the flames as a victim of God's justice. ("The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge . . ." Psalm 57:11) They will abhor him. A mother will look from paradise upon her own condemned son without being moved, as though she had never known him.”-- "The Pains of Hell," Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, consisting of thirty-five meditations from The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius as explained by St. Anthony Mary Claret. St. Claret's "explanations" were written in Spanish in the late 1800's.
Peter Lombard, the Master of Sentences
“Therefore the elect shall go forth…to see the torments of the impious, seeing which they will not be grieved, but will be satiated with joy at the sight of the unutterable calamity of the impious .” Sent. Iv 50, ad fin
Martin Luther
When questioned whether the Blessed will not be saddened by seeing their nearest and dearest tortured answers, “Not in the least.”
Gerhard
“…the Blessed will see their friends and relations among the damned as often as they like but without the least of compassion.”
These sick people got their jollies when thinking of people writhing in hell! Like I said before, it’s one thing to know people are going to hell. It’s all together another thing to look forward to watching it!! Like it’s going to be on pay-per-view or something! Seriously, I was getting slightly nauseous just reading this garbage! If you are an infernalist (someone that supports the false doctrine of eternal conscious torment, or ECT) then you, whether you want to believe it or not, agree with these same people! Are you shaking your head “no” right now? I can tell you that subconsciously, this heinous, sinister doctrine changes how your mind works. I’ve had “Christians” tell me when I’ve told them this that I was going to end up in hell forever, just for disagreeing with them! I would never condemn them to the same. There has to be a better way – and there is! Read on…
1
If you would like to know what the Bible really has to say on this
topic, go to my other blog:
https://whatislustbabydonthurtme.blogspot.com/
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