What man does and what God does are not comparable, not at all the same thing.
Being made in God’s image, means that we feel what he feels....what is repugnant to him is naturally repugnant to us.....or it should be. Burning someone alive forever is not something a loving God needs to do.
An everlasting punishment for a short life of sin is hardly in accord with God’s justice. In his Law the punishment was always in accord with the severity of the crime.
In Israel, there was no torture or even incarceration....there was no need. Capital crimes merited capital punishment.....there was no higher penalty. Other crimes put offenders to work to compensate their victims....that is justice.
What if God created man to exist forever? Would you have God take that back?
What do you mean “if” God created man to exist forever? Man
was created to live forever, but it wasn’t due to him being in possession of an immortal soul. A “soul” is a living, breathing creature....the word never means a disembodied spirit. Animals are called souls and they were not designed to live forever.
Genesis 2:7....
“And God went on to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.“
So, Adam was not “given” a soul....he “became” one when God started him breathing. That spirit or breath of life is what sustains all living creatures. Once breathing stops, the spirit departs from the lungs and the soul dies. (Ezekiel 18:4) Animal or human, we all die the same death, we have the same breath (spirit) and we all go to the same place.....(Ecclesiastes 3:19-20)....back to the dust.
What if increasing sinfulness leads to greater and greater self loathing and inner torment, which if allowed forever becomes forever worse, and the suffering that causes sin to cease is a mercy?
That is a “what if” not a Bible truth. We know why sin exists and we know what God did about it. He did not want sin to sit there and slap us around....he wanted us to get a grip on our life and obey Christ’s teachings. The person of faith does not sin deliberately....he loves God too much for that. But a momentary lapse in judgment...that is something quite different. It brings repentance and forgiveness.
God does not need mankind to suffer after death....what good would it accomplish? At death one is acquitted of former sins (Romans 6:7, 23) and is resurrected with a clean slate to start again...(John 5:28-29)...this time in a world ruled by Jesus as king of God’s kingdom.
This kingdom is the means by which God restores his rulership over mankind and brings us back to the paradise conditions that he placed our first parents in...the one Adam lost for his children. Do you think that rebels could derail God’s original purpose for mankind? Not a chance! (Isaiah 55:11)
God offered the first humans everlasting life...but not immortality.
What if this is just a very hard truth to accept?
What if it’s a load of bunkum? What if there is no hell of eternal torment....would you think less of God because he doesn’t want to torture people?
How can you love a sadistic fiend?