Does ETERNAL suffering really exist?

Great Debates
#1

Assuming there is a Christian God, and assuming he was a truly loving god, would He really allow somebody to suffer ETERNALLY in Hell (or just in a state of “not being with God”)? Surely He would eventually welcome them into Heaven, because He wouldn’t allow them to suffer for eternity.

I can understand purgatory, for the most part… you go to purgatory for a certain number of years (5, 10,000, a million, I dunno how that works) and the go on to Heaven to be with God… I don’t have a problem with that, and can accept it.

But would anybody ever really suffer for all eternity, or would they eventually go to Heaven, even if that person didn’t believe in God in the first place?

If they do suffer for all eternity, then how can God be a truly loving God?

#2

Picture this:

What if somebody, on seeing God, said “Screw you” and walked out of heaven FOREVER?

And I mean, like, he NEVER changes his mind.

#3

If you believe it does, it does. If you don’t, then it doesn’t. That’s as rational an answer you’re gonna get, considering it’s a faith question.

There’s really only one way to get a definitive answer. Kill someone, then curse God’s name while lying on the gurney with the needle in your arm, and then after you’re dead report back to us.

#4

IANACatholic, but I believe you spend an amount of time in Purgatory proportional to the amount of sin you have to work off.

#5

Obviously you’ve never been married

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:smiley:

#6

Obviously you’ve never been married

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#7

One interpretation of Revelations (the one I ascribe to) is that people do not go to hell. Hell is intended as the final damnation of the devil only, and he alone will suffer eternal torrment after the angelic war during which he is defeated.

Unrepentant people, on the other hand, (and by unrepentant these are those people who still dwell on earth in refusal of God’s existance after the rapture and Jesus’ 1000 year ruling of Earth) will merely cease to exist as their final punishment. No torture, just an erasure of their souls.

#8

Why did God create these people in the first place, if only to destroy them (torture them) later?

#9

Not being much of a christian but having been raised as one, I have always thought that instead of Heaven & Hell being specific places they are states of mind.

If we all follow (insert favourite deity) teachings then we will be living in heaven here on Earth, if we all follow our baser instincts then we would be living in hell.

Since this does away with heaven & hell as places, eternity is then just the span of your lifetime before the worms get you