This is going to be pretty controversial. However, I don’t think it’s possible to write about Hell without having a perspective that’s challenging. So let’s answer the question; how can the God of love send people to suffer in the torment of Hell?
God is our loving Father, and as such God wants to see our immortal souls grow and develop towards His glory. Like every good father, God needs to allow us to face challenges and pain so that we can learn and grow.
When we suffer in life, it usually makes no sense. Yet if we wait long enough it seems that everything happened for a greater reason. The lessons are painful, and may seem unnecessary, yet without those painful lessons we know we would be no further along in our development.
Thus it is with Hell. I believe that God allows us to experience the pain and suffering that we ourselves consider appropriate. Once we die, and we no longer have our human ego to shield us with its many defences, we can be totally honest about how much suffering we unleashed on the world while we were alive. When our souls realise the gravity of our sins, we can then decide we deserve Hell. I believe that God then allows us to experience the torments we think we deserve, in a form of karmic balancing. I believe that this is not an eternal experience, although it will appear to be eternal for the soul experiencing it. After all, the gravity of the suffering would be greatly diminished if there was a countdown clock to watch in anticipation of the end.
Therefore I believe each soul chooses to experience the pain that it needs to experience in order to reconcile the pain it holds within due to the pain it caused to others. So once the soul stands in the presence of God Almighty, stripped of human defences, it sees their actions for what they were, and sends itself to Hell for its actions. God is a loving father, and allows the soul to learn the painful lessons experienced in Hell. I don’t believe God sends souls there for punishment when a soul feels innocent, I believe the soul agrees with the decision.
I believe that god will eventually redeem each soul, when each soul is ready to lift out of Hell.
This is seen on Earth. Earth could be heavenly, as most of the suffering comes from the actions of humans, not the planet. Yet people would rather hurt each other out of revenge, anger, hate, judgement, jealousy, guilt, shame, bitterness, selfishness and ignorance. Every day people choose to create a little bit more misery on Earth, when they could choose to act in love, peace and kindness. The reason they don’t choose peace is that it would mean they can’t “get even” any more. They would have to be the bigger person, feel the pain inside, and instead of sending it out into the world, transmute it into love in their hearts. That seems too hard, and less fun, so they choose the “simpler” path of retaliation.
Our Father God wants us to learn how to become like Him, the God of love. That is the goal of every good parent, to raise their child to be the best they can be. God believes in us, and God has eternity to see us grow into beings of love. God knows that no matter how much we suffer, we are always safe. God has our souls cradled in His hand while we twist and turn through the illusions. God absolutely loves every soul, as every soul is a part of God, just as every child is a part of their parent. God would not destroy or condemn a part of themselves for eternity. It is not possible. Every soul is a part of God’s biography. We are all vital to the ultimate plan of reuniting in infinite love.
When we are ready to turn to God’s love, we can call out to God for redemption. We can ask Jesus Christ to lead us home to God. Jesus Christ lived so that we, as human beings, could find a way home. He is our saviour, because He forgives us of our sins, and redeems us. Jesus Christ can wash us clean, so that our souls no longer need to go to Hell to suffer for our sins. We only turn to Jesus Christ for His salvation when we are ready to earnestly seek our God, our God of Love. When we are ready to turn from our sinful ways of revenge, anger, hate, judgement, jealousy, guilt, shame, bitterness, selfishness and ignorance, then we can follow Jesus Christ. We don’t need to know how to do it, and we don’t have to be perfect at it, we just need to desire it with all our heart. When we are truly ready to live in Heaven, Jesus Christ will light our way. Until that day, we will remain mired in suffering, falling down into the pain of our own making until we have had enough.
I appreciate that this is not a common teaching, but it is what Jesus Christ has placed in my heart, and I must testify to my Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Truth, and I shall always speak that Truth. God has shown me this is True. God has shown me that He loves us all infinitely forever, and He will never condemn us to Hell forever.
Take heart, He has overcome.
[After writing, I discovered this article that clarifies that Jesus did indeed teach that Hell was a place that people go to and stay in willingly https://www.rethinknow.org/what-the-bible-says-about-hell/]
Last Hope 