what we claim as "justice' in eternal torment because it is God who is doing it. What dictators couldn't even hope to accomplish in the wildest dreams, God is seen as doing so to satisfy , no, it cannot satisfy anything if it never ends. Not even justice. So it comes down to God doing it for what? If it never satisfies justice, what does it accomplish?
Hi brakelite,
No need to apologize! But what if God did in fact create man to exist on into the future? Do I understand everything He does? what if there actually is a justice that this satisfies? Do I understand everything about sin and the justice it requires?
What if God actually was casting people into a Lake of Fire within which they would suffer forever? Would you say God was unjust? I can't imagine you would!
I think it comes down to our understanding of justice and fairness and what we do and don't deserve. But I can't hold my ideas above God's. And for myself, as I study this matter, I find that the same language that defines the eternal life of the redeemed is the same language that is used for the eternal torment of the condemned.
So if we look at the passages of the sufferings of the condemned as meaning it actually ends, then in all fairness we'd have to say the same of our own eternal life with God.
Now . . . If we are alive forever, made by God that way . . . in this world we are dead without Him yet still receive from His goodness, sun, rain, good crops for all! But after the judgment, even that will be taken from the condemned. Dead in life not knowing Him, and dead in death, cast away from Him.
But it may be that the suffering puts a stop to sin.
Anyway, I understand your view, and to be honest, there are times I wish I believed that. But I take that to mean that there are things I don't yet understand.
But what I read in the Bible just won't allow it, not for me.
Much love!
mark
