We as humans recoil in abhorrence at the very thought of any man torturing another, for any reason. Such dictators/despots/sadists/...we have many names for them...are the lowest of the low, and not even the hardest among us approve...except of course when it is our own lives potentially at risk then waterboarding for information yeah, why not? Go for it. Out of self interest we quell those conscientious objections which we know are morally right, compromise our God-given conscience in order to save the world, and us, from harm. And we still know its wrong. but there is no issue with those whose morality is diametrically the opposite of all we are taught and raised to cherish. Hitler and his cronies and all other evil cruel creatures that crawled upon the earth deserve hell right? Or at least they deserve to be justly punished, and we trust God to do that right?
But then we throw all that right out the window and justify God doing what no human has ever dreamed of nor is capable of doing...torturing some for ever, and deliberately keeping them alive every moment so that they cannot die. This is somehow a holy righteous expression of the love, justice, mercy, of the Creator we know as Jesus. This we attribute to His character...the willingness...no, the deliberate premeditated plan that never brings satisfaction to His sense of justice, and we then improve on that by claiming that at the same time, knowing many of our loved ones are there while we enjoy the pleasures of heaven somehow conclude that they all thoroughly deserve every excruciatingly agonizing moment, and such knowledge of our mothers and sisters and children and brothers and fathers enduring this torment has absolutely no effect on our reasoning powers...our sympathies are completely gone...and our overwhelming joy and happiness remains perfectly untarnished and unaffected.
Such a plan is not born from the mind of any reasonable human being, let alone a holy just righteous God. Such a concept is pure Satanic. And it astonishes me that anyone professing to know their God can blithely attribute such evil and wickedness to the God they claim they know and understand. I used to believe it. Until I was informed of the alternative. Then I realised my abject folly. When I read scripture without the glasses that previous ministers had provided me with, I discovered a God who cannot be measured by our own human perceptions...and when He establishes within us His own Spirit, we can trust that Spirit to accurately reflect God's passion for life...for justice...for righteousness...nd folk, eternal conscious torment does not belong anywhere near such a God. I am ashamed I once accepted it...and all Christianity should repent of so misjudging the character of God and attributing to Him such a mindless and evil concept.