I liked this post, but have questions. I suppose in asking them I may also be obliquely pointing out what troubles me most about hell.
1. The hypothetical possibility, however remote, of finding myself there: Apostasy is a sad reality. We are told that for the elect, they will persevere until the end by the grace of God, for He who started a work in them is faithful to finish it. However, I haven’t died yet, so this poses a bit of a problem. Although I acknowledge that for some there is a genuine, blessed assurance, I also must acknowledge that some individuals who experience a seemingly genuine assurance are confronted with the sad fact that such an assurance was nothing more than a self-imposed counterfeit when they find themselves in hell. Secondly, when I look at Matthew 7:22, I have always considered this verse to describe professing Christians who were self-deceived. In moments of - I don’t know what to call it - maybe doubt or humility - I have reflected on the fact that I may be self-deceived in some critical way. Now as I examine myself, review the gospel and my theology and God’s Word, I find no evidence that I could be self-deceived in a salvific way whatsoever. However, I also am still moved to acknowledge that that’s precisely the conclusion a self-deceived person might come to. I praise God that at this point in my walk I am not conscious of any sin unrepented of, though I do continue to sin and do not advocate sinless perfection. Still, how to resolve this minor, yet lingering epistemological “splinter” in the mind, I know not. What do you make of this?
2. The worms and fire: I have always interpreted these literally and see little reason at the moment to interpret these in some other way. Just as in the resurrection we will be given glorified bodies which can not die, I have always supposed that those bound for the lake of fire will similarly have bodies incapable of death, constituted to bear the eternal punishment which is due to the lost soul. Is there any reason to suppose these pictures aren’t to be taken literallly?
3. The social component: I have often surmised that there will be people who find themselves in eternal torment that will blame others in some sense for where they have found themselves. Yes, there will be an awareness of their own sinfulness, but even on earth that doesn’t prevent us from shifting blame to others. I think of popes and Muhammad, Buddha and many other false teachers and antichrists. I think of parents being blamed by their children, and children by their parents, eternally. I also reflect on the fact that the scriptures I’ve read seem to suggest an awareness between the righteous and the wicked, as well as the wicked and the righteous. I think of the possibility of the sheep witnessing the torment of the goats, whether it’s only witnessing the angels casting them down into the pit or seeing the smoke rise from that terrible place. I think of verses like Psalm 58:10 and Matthew 13:42. Is there any reason we should not suppose that the saints will see the wicked punished?
4. The separation from God and common grace: One of the most comforting things to me about Heaven is being able to see my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ face to face and commune with and worship and adore Him forever. Contrariwise, the notion of an outer darkness is probably the most terrifying aspect of hell to me.
Curious to hear your thoughts, but of course I would welcome insights from others also.
1. There's the possibility that I will get in a car wreck today, or tomorrow, or the day after. There's a remote possibility a piano could fall on my head before the sun goes down. I've seen pictures or the actual mangled results of devastating vehicle accidents, and many of us have been subjected to recent, vivid news reporting about the crushed submersible; all which events stimulate my limbic system to some degree by the contemplation: "It could have been me, I suppose." If I obsess over these possibilities, it is more of a sad distraction than a serious concern. By focusing on my duties in the moment, I have no time for fruitless speculation.
Something similar holds true for spiritual possibilities. One way to cease being consumed about whether my faith is ultimately strong enough to see me to the end, is to keep my eyes on Jesus instead of me. Just serve the Lord with love in your heart for his evident love and mercy to sinners, for his salvation to everyone who believes. Why not say with Paul, "I could wish myself accursed," if such a thing would increase the salvation of others through their faith in Christ. Of course the apostle knows that nothing can separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord. His appeal to hypotheticals like the above, or like "... lest I should be a castaway," acknowledge his lack of omniscience must permit some results
in theory, while
presently resting in the assured results of that which is promised to believers like him.
"Let tomorrow worry about itself." While it is today be softening your heart, not hardening it. Hold onto Christ now. Make your calling and election sure not so on some future date you may recall what moment you achieved assurance, but so on that future date you may keep assured remembering as you do now his cleansing you from your sins, and that he has given you every gift of life and godliness. Making efforts, as Peter urges his readers, is not unto union with Christ but because of it; and by not counting on the virtues mentioned but on "knowing Christ," fruitfulness and assurance are produced in us.
If you thought your wife didn't love you, would you love her less? Put differently, do you think you love your wife because you think she loves you? There's a part of my mind that fears I might in some future date cease to love my wife. Knowing her as I do, I think it is almost impossible she should cease to love me. If, contrary to all evidence, she did cease or proved she never had love for me, I suppose it would be possible for me to love her still for she already made my life better. Imagine loving someone so much, you would be willing to be immiserated if such suffering would give him proper joy. I think that's what Paul was allowing by his hypothetical. Not even hell was too terrible to face if God be glorified in his damnation. "If I be deceived... will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Thanks be to God, a theory is all it could be.
2. I think that with ALL the descriptions of damnation in the Bible combined, some ideas are
literally incompatible with others being
literal at the same time, in the same sense. So, at least a few things must be metaphorical, if only to allow some other things to be more literal. Hell's real horror is knowing the pure fury of the wrath and justice of God, unmitigated, unrestrained, unlimited--no more grace, only indignation forever. Hell is the presence of God for sinners lacking a Mediator or substantial mediation of any kind. Hell is being unable to hide oneself from the Almighty. Hell is utter alienation--from God, but also from others. There are no friends in hell. Hell is permanent suffering of soul and of body, with no prospect of release. I think burning, drowning, piercing, flaying, paralysis, contortion, deformity, disintegration, darkness, isolation--all these fears and others that go to the end of imagination and beyond are only able to convey the smallest comprehension of the terror of mind that will be eternal conscious-death.
3. If it is necessary in eternity for the godly to make a real-time observation of the wicked in their judgments, then it will be possible and done. If it is necessary for some aspect of punishment for one of the wicked for him to know and be ashamed of the evil he did to others, perhaps to hear the curses of those who now suffer along with him who was a primary cause of their lostness, or for the hatred of his victim to be actualized in some eye-for-eye kind of vengeance, then it will happen But only God knows what punishment fits the crime, or what interactions are correct for the everlasting penal estate. Think how every moment in hell is a new occasion of sin, and draws down ever more divine justice; inmate-on-inmate retributions and excesses begetting ever more enmity. "Hell is a place of perfect malice and contention," wrote Jonathan Edwards. Retreat to a cell, and there one's own memory and conscience accuses interminably. Self-loathing must follow, but there is no escape from hell. It is impossible that it should ever end. But for those that reign forever in glory with Christ, no acquaintance with the particulars of punishment for the wicked will teach the wages of sin more accurately than acquaintance with Christ and his perfect suffering once for sin.
4. Quite, and true. Yet, how is there "social interaction" in the bedlam of hell if it is outermost darkness with no "light of divine countenance" or any light? Hence why I say that something
literal has to give when we have a heaping up of biblical descriptions as God alerts rebel sinners to their desperate plight using manifold depiction, some more literal, others more metaphoric.
Those are some of my thoughts.
