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Devastating Bible Study
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Pastor William of our Gracepoint Davis is the one in the front middle.
That Bible study must have been something else.
Views expressed in this posting is ...
2 days ago
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Why is Hell Eternal When Sin is Temporary?
Sin is something that happens once and passes. So the whole business of hell being eternal seems like it is WAY out of proportion. Even in our human justice system, there is this idea of proportionality of punishment. Doesn't it seem unjust that God would punish us eternally for something that we did during the short years of our earthly lives?
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2 comments:
Before we begin discussing this, I would push back (just a little) on the presumption in this question that hell is a place of punishment that people get thrown into for an infraction that they committed. That is the presumption of this question, and I think it's only partially true that hell is some kind of a punishment. But the Christian doctrine of hell is much deeper than that. Perhaps that's a topic for another post.. but in short, hell is fundamentally a condition of being separated from God, ultimately because we as free-willed agents have chosen to reject God. So in a way, hell, more than some kind of punishment for our infractions, is the final result of our choice to reject God. That's when God finally concedes and removes His presence from us forever, as we had wished. That obviously didn't do it justice, so you could take a look at our Course 101 material (chapter 3) for a slightly more expanded treatment of the doctrine of hell.
Having said that, I do understand why this objection still comes up… Because there is an aspect of hell which is supposed to be a just punishment or the just consequence of our sins. And when seen that way, it just seems like eternity is a disproportionate consequence to our sins… because we have this perception that our sins are temporary, so hell’s eternity seems like it’s way “too much” of a punishment. Yes, it does seem that way... but if you think about it from a Christian perspective, I think it's false for us to think that our sins are temporary.
First, sins are not temporary because history is not temporary. When we lie, when we ravage someone else’s heart, when we cheat someone, when we steal someone's innocence, when we mar our own soul, that act is done, and it’s etched into history. We can’t press the “reset” button and erase that. No matter how much we try to forget about it, the reality is that that act was done, and that's permanent... even if our memory of it fades.
Second, sins are not temporary because the effect of that sin also goes on eternally, because sins damage souls that live eternally. If you damage someone's car, there's a proportional cost to that. If you rip someone's clothes, you can look at the market value of that and pay for it. Well, we can put a cost on it, because a car and clothes are mere objects that don't persist forever. But what is the cost of marring and damaging someone's soul? I think the human justice system limits the liability of sin, because the world's justice system cannot fathom the fact that human beings are eternal creatures of indescribeable value (made in the image of God). I'm not suggesting that human courts should therefore make punishments eternal; they cannot afford to do so for practical reasons. And since the world rejects eternality of the human soul, our world can, in a way, put a "price" on an individual and exact payment for damaging it. However, what if the Bible is true that we are more than our bodies? What if the Bible is true that we are eternal beings made in the image of God? Then to mar the human soul (even your own, because you do not own yourself, since your life was given) would be an act that has an eternal consequence.
To summarize, I think all of this really hinges on whether or not we think human souls are eternal. If we're not eternal, then our sins are temporary, since all of our sins will be erased forever once the memory is gone (or when humanity ultimately goes extinct in this indifferent universe). If that's reality, then our wrongs can be "priced" proportionately to our temporality. However, if reality is that we are eternal beings meant to have an eternal relationship with God, then we can see that our souls (as well as our sins) are far more significant than we’ve ever imagined.
I think once we understand the eternal nature of our sins, we can also come to appreciate the profound central truth of Christianity -- the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as an atonement for our sins. Because our sins have eternal consequences (and therefore require eternal punishment), the ONLY proportionate atonement for our sins is the sacrifice of eternal Son of God. Our eternal sins cannot be atoned for by paying a temporary price. But as Hebrews 7:27 says, Jesus "does not need to offer sacrifices day after day", but he "sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself."
One final note to add...
I think it’s kind of telling that we (myself included) have emotional problems with hell being eternal, but never about heaven being eternal. If hell’s eternity seems disproportionate, then by the same logic, heaven’s eternity should also be disproportionate.. Don’t you think? But I realized that I myself never wanted to object to eternity in heaven. :)
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