A QUESTION ON ETERNAL HELL

I was wondering. How on earth would I enjoy heaven (assuming I get in!) if there are people I love in eternal torment, who didn't believe?

For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things
will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65:17

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning
or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4

Will God wipe my memory of my wonderful friends? I don't want that.

Tough question. Only God knows the answer.

Just to remind all what eternal torment is like. Being tied up and forced to watch repeat episodes of MASH.
In Heaven you wont be tied up and you get to watch the new MASH series.

Hi Dibby,

I know it seems like an unfathomable pain, to think of those we love being lost forever.

But I think one important perspective we have to remember is that God Himself will be going through this very pain in a way we could never understand, seeing as a large portion of His creation (fallen angels and humans) whom He loved as His own children will be choosing to spend all of eternity away from Him, forever.

The Bible is clear that God wants no one to perish (2 Peter 3:9) and wishes that all would come to repentance, but sadly, many will opt not to.

In the parable of the poor Lazarus and the rich man (beginning in Luke 16:19), the rich man is suffering in hell, and when he looks up, he sees Lazarus in heaven, standing next to Abraham, and begs him to send Lazarus back from the dead to witness to his 5 brothers who are still on earth, saying that he does not want them to wind up in this terrible place.

I know that some interpret this as just a story, but since Jesus cannot lie and wouldn't just make things up, I've always seen this as a glimpse of what the afterlife will be like. The rich man knows he will be separated from his loved ones but yet claims he doesn't want them to end up in hell, even if they would theoretically be in the same place as him. So what must it be like for those on the other side -- the ones in heaven who have to watch their loved ones cast into hell?

I love that the Bible also gives us glimpses of God's heart, and no matter how stubborn, hateful, or rebellious human beings are, He wants nothing more than to pull them close and love them (as Jesus said about wanting to gather those who were rejecting him like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, Matthew 23:37.) But in order for Him to do this, the person must be willing.

Another look into God's heart that I find intriguing was when God had sent a plague to punish Israel for their rebellion, but when He sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, He finally told the angel, "Enough! Withdraw your hand!" (1 Chronicles 21). It's as if God Himself is saying, "Stop! I can't stand to watch this suffering anymore, so I am choosing stop it, even though it was the disobedience of the people that brought it on."

What I'm trying to get at is that whatever pain or loss we might feel from being separated from our lost loved ones, God will feel it infinitely more because everyone and everything that will be cast into hell is a being that He personally created and knew in a close, intimate way that no one could understand.

I imagine it to be something like a person who has a spouse or child who is addicted to drugs and has to face the fact that they have lost that person to their own choices and addictions forever, and knows that the only way they can keep the rest of the family safe is to cut themselves off from the destructive person.

As others have pointed out, the Bible says that a time will come where God will wipe away every tear and there will be no pain or sadness.

I heard a pastor preach a sermon once in which he stated that he believes God will eventually close the door to hell, seal it off from the rest of His creation, and purposely choose to forget (in a similar way that He chooses to forget our sins) those who are lost -- forever. This gave me a perspective on hell I've never had before -- I can't bear the thought of God choosing to forget about me forever.

I don't know if this is exactly how it will work (seeing as I don't think there are any verses directly supporting this?) but I do know that whatever sorrow we might feel over those who are lost, God will feel it in a much more potent way than we could ever comprehend, and He will be more than able to help us overcome those feelings, or will choose to take it away from us.

I would also guess we will feel differently about EVERYTHING once we are fully cleansed of sin and its environment, and will finally be able to see things through God's holy eyes.

I think when it comes to things that don't make sense I go back to the few things I do know. God is just, and God is love. I do not pretend to understand how things will be. My knowledge and ability to understand is too limited. I do know that an injustice will not occur. He is not going to make us forget something that is not right, is not fair. When we get home we will understand. What we need to do is trust that God is who he says he is. I don't just believe in Jesus. I believe Jesus and that is a big difference.

You will.

Because at this point we don't really know how this will work out.

Because I,m a human being with feelings? So heaven would become hell to me. If you really, really contemplate eternal torment and suffering it is bad enough for the truly wicked. Let alone the kind people I know who are not "born again" christians. To me it is a truly ghastly doctrine.

Was that question addressed to you? No, it was not. Nor do I believe the hellish doctrine of eternal conscious torment.

Hi Deade,
I don't really know if that is a cause for much more rejoicing than eternal punishment! I still wouldn't want to lose my friends and have them cease to be......kind of like Gollum at the end of Lord of the Rings.

Sorry Magenta. My mistake. I,m so used to people protecting the doctrine of eternal hell with the bible....I wrongly assumed!

Thank you I have noticed over the last few weeks you have been here that some of the questions you ask show a lack of knowledge of what God has said in His revealed written Word, which is why I have been responding to your questions with the corresponding Scriptures, those I know of at least, that relate to the things you ask.

This is a great, valid question.

Why are you not sure you will get into heaven?

I respectfully disagree.

The very thing that caught Moses' attention about the burning bush is that it was on fire, but yet was not burning up.

I know in this case, it represented God's holiness, as Moses was told to take off his sandals, but this points to the possibility of something being on fire but not fully destroyed in the sense that we know it.

I do believe though that none of us will truly know how it will be until we ourselves pass into the next life.

But that's just me and I know it's not very comforting to the OP.

Dobby, I know it's a very frightening thought, to lose those we love forever, and it's something many of us think about and are saddened by.

Have you ever talked to a pastor or maybe a small group Bible study within your church, to be able to study the Bible with others?

May God bless you and give you peace.

Hell and heaven are a state of mind and not places where people go.

1.In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth; these represents everything that was created. Hell is not a physical place within heaven or earth.

2. We are told the heavens and earth will pass away and instead will have new heavens and new earth. In these NH & NE, we still don't have a physical place called hell in them.

Rather, heaven means continued existence/understanding in the new dimension (new heavens and new earth).