OzSpen said:
I suggest you do a study on God's attributes of eternity and infinity. Psalm 90:2 (ESV) encapsulates some dimensions of these attributes:
'Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God'.
I plan on being eternally with God and experiencing eternal life. That's how long eternal damnation will last (Matt 25:46 ESV).
Over more than 50 years as a Christian and student of Scripture, I've compared 'eternal' many times over and know that it has a never ending meaning. See my article:
Eternal torment for unbelievers when they die
Well, Oz, the traditional Christian position based on Augustine is that God created everything including time. In that view God's eternity is not a rather long time without beginning or end, but no time at all, just one eternal “now”. Feel free to differ, but if so, you’ll probably run into a couple of theological dilemmas that this position easily solves.
As for theological dilemmas: while I acknowledge that nobody can fully understand God and while I will freely admit that many theological questions can’t be answered by human reason and certainly not by mine, I think the theological statements we dare make about God ought to be logically coherent and not self-contradictory.
Two theological premises I’m fully convinced of are that God is Good (and hence just) and that God is all-mighty.
The doctrine of neverending punishment for sins/unbelief committed in our temporally limited lifespan just does not make sense unless you want to assume that God Himself goes well beyond the limits of retributive justice as commended in the OT. And of course you must assume that He fully discards what Jesus said about forgiveness. If God wants us to forgive others their trespasses it stands to reason that He Himself views such forgiveness as virtuous and is capable and willing to forgive. And if He is all-mighty and “wants all people to be saved” (2 Tim. 1:4), I think we surely may hope that eventually He will save all people.
If you want to bring up the argument of human free will now ( … and try to console human free will with God being all-knowing without Augustine’s theory of time …), you may be interested in this excellent article Jürgen Moltmann wrote about “The Logic of Hell”:
https://jasongoroncy.com/2006/03/06/the-logic-of-hell-by-jurgen-moltmann/
It’s very well that you ‘plan’ on experiencing eternal life and I certainly do pray that you’ll get it, but surely your salvation is neither your nor my decision to make.
Now, if we are to contemplate eternal (or even just temporal) punishment, IMHO the biggest mistake we can make is being convinced that others will be punished whereas we ourselves won’t be. If we were to do so, we would have entirely missed the points Jesus actually tried to make when talking about hell and punishment. In fact we would be just like the self-righteous Pharisee and not at all like the Tax Collector we are told of in Luke 18:9-13.
As Hans Urs von Balthasar, with whom I share the hope that hell is empty, put it:
“Hell is to be contemplated strictly as a matter which concerns me alone. As part of the spiritual life it belongs behind the 'closed door' of my own room. From the standpoint of living faith, I cannot fundamentally believe in anyone's damnation but my own; as far as my neighbor is concerned, the light of resurrection can never be so obscured that I would be allowed or obliged to stop hoping for him.”
Could it be that you don't like the idea of unbelievers experiencing torment forever and ever and so you are wanting to redefine the meaning of eternal? Sure sounds like it.
Oz
Nope, being tormented for neverending time or being tormented for a timeless eternal “now” sounds equally horrid to me. Christian compassion forbids that I like either idea.