Hell of eternal torment or anhialation...or ..what?

(For those into the Anhialation doctrine this testimony applies as well)



Let us assume that the hell of eternal torment truly does exist, and that God will send those there who have not believed in his only begotten son, Jesus Christ.

Can you ever go too far in describing the agonies of hell, if such a place truly exists? On the contrary, if hell does exist, then even Jonathan Edwards did not give it justice. The religion of Islam is probably more consistent in its belief of hell and its description of such a place.

In the book of Islam, the description of hell leaves little to the imagination. In the Muslim hell, Allah tortures people by burning the flesh off of their bones. However, the nerves that transmit pain stimuli to the brain are located on the external skin of humans.

Therefore, when the skin has melted away, so have the nerve receptors. Hence, once the skin is gone, an individual can no longer feel the searing heat of the fire. Allah remedies this by endowing each tormented individual with a new set of skin once the old has burned away so that the person may again experience the unendurable pain of burning flesh.

While I was attending a private Christian college several years ago, I got into a heated argument with one of my best friends, who was studying to become a pastor of the Christian Reformed Church and consequently heavily endorsed the doctrines espoused by John Calvin.

We were discussing the topic of hell, and my friend put forward that he felt pastors shied away from the topic of hell, and felt that people needed to be warned of the consequences of a life of sin apart from God. He felt pastors were too "soft" in matters relating to hell and God's righteous judgment.

Curious as to what exactly my friend believed about hell, I asked him, and he replied matter-of-factly that whatever earthly terrors I could imagine, they couldn't compare to the actual terrors of hell. I attempted to come up with the most gruesome punishments I could imagine, including needles being stuck into your eyes forever, being impaled again and again, having your appendages sawed off by dull instruments, having your teeth yanked one by one, but it was to no avail.

Whatever I came up with, my friend told me the pain would be "infinitely" worse in hell. I had stretched the limits of my imagination, and could go no further. This idea of the worst conceivable pain, multiplied by infinity, would cause me much duress in later life.

I could not imagine a God who would allow such torture, whether it was him doing it or Satan. Because I looked up to my friend as one who would look up to an older brother, I thought I wanted what he had. When I thought of the ideal Christian witness, I thought my friend embodied the characteristics of an ideal Christian.

Therefore I always compared myself to him, and felt that I couldn't live up to his standard. Not only did I have problems believing in hell and predestination, but I even had nagging doubts about the divinity of Christ, primarily from what I understood to be Christ's lack of mercy for and damnation of the Pharisees.

I couldn't imagine that God himself could ascribe to a people such a fate as hell for being self-righteous. Most of the times, I shrugged off the horrible concept of hell, but from time to time, I questioned my salvation and wondered if personal damnation might be in store for me.

I would try to quell my conscience by attending worship meetings called "Hosanna" once a week that involved prayer and singing, but I couldn't help feeling a little cynical. All the songs related to God's love and mercy, and I couldn't help laughing to myself, wondering what it might be like if we were to sing songs that revealed the doctrinal truth held by the majority of the Church about God's judgment upon unsubmissive sinners.

We Praise you, Oh God
For you alone are worthy to judge
You alone can cast those unrepentant sinners into fire
There they'll suffer and burn forever
While we happily rejoice in comfort in Heaven, singing
Hallelujah, Hallelujah to the Just Lamb of God!

The most difficult thing for me was reconciling the loving side of God with the wrathful side. Many of my friends had little difficulty in doing so. In fact, one of my friends, in a discussion of God's war imperatives for ancient Israel, discussed with glee how God commanded the army of Israel to smash the heads of their enemies' babies onto the rocks and to destroy the mothers.

It seemed to me as though God was oblivious to the pain of the Israelite enemies; either that or he actually enjoyed slaughtering them.

It is said that there will be no more crying in heaven, and that God will wipe all of the tears from our eyes. If hell truly exists, then the knowledge of it must be entirely wiped out from the minds of the chosen elect. For anyone who had a heart would cry bitterly to know that while they lie in their comfort, the majority of humanity is undergoing unendurable suffering and pain.

The only way God could make people forget about hell would be to stage the largest cover-up in the history of the universe. He would have to erase from the minds of countless "saved" individuals all those who perished, whether they be mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and all of the extended relatives, as well as friends and acquaintances.

No one could have a trace memory of any who perished, less they wonder about their absence from heaven, and ask God about it. If by chance, someone remembered a loved one who was not a believer, God must certainly then make up some delightful story about the whereabouts of that individual so as to not allow one "tear" in heaven.

If it is true that a hell exists, yet God wipes the thought of hell from the minds of the saved, as well as the memory of all individuals who are perishing there, then God is a liar. He purposely deceives the inhabitants of heaven into thinking that he has only created "saved" individuals, in order that he might sustain the perfect peace of heaven.

For if the inhabitants knew that he was allowing countless millions to be tortured, and he had power over it, then a rebellion could very well arise, and then God would have to send everyone to hell. But then he would have no one to praise him, for they would all be cursing his name in hell. God would not like that.

If knowledge of hell were maintained in heaven, it seems it would be a thorn in people's collective consciences. It is not possible for a compassionate person to thoroughly enjoy eating a full meal while a man sitting next to him on the ground is starving to death, and his ribs show through his skin. Only the most heartless of men could finish off every last crumb without a single tinge of guilt.

Who could ever, in full knowledge, immensely enjoy their comfort while millions are suffering in unspeakable agony? Perhaps some would say that the tortured souls are getting their just reward, and God is repaying them back for what they have done. But let us consider this from a different perspective.

Suppose you were given the duty of a torturer, and the man you were to torture was Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer was placed in an airtight room with a window for you to watch him, and you could control the temperature any way you like. You could make the room freezing to the point that all his limbs froze, or you could heat up the room until he was dancing frantically in searing pain, every breath burning the inside of his throat and blisters beginning to develop on his skin.

Whatever you do, you know full well that nothing that you can do will ever destroy the soul of Jeffrey Dahmer, but he will remain conscious forever, in spite of the agony you put him through. Knowing how much pain you could inflict on this man, could you possibly put him through such torture, in spite of what he has done? At what point would you decide he has paid in full for his crimes? Could you stand to turn the knob to 200 degrees and watch him screaming in agony and begging for mercy? Could you turn up the heat to 500 degrees and then just walk out, knowing that Jeffrey Dahmer is suffering unimaginable pain?

Anyone who could possibly say yes is a heartless and merciless individual and has no love in him. I'll bet that even Jeffrey Dahmer's victims would relent after inflicting a small amount of pain. But were the God of wrath in control of the temperature, he would turn it up to 1000 degrees, and make it so the skin stayed on the bones. And God would never turn down the heat.

Not for all eternity! And if God could do such a thing, when it is under his power to cease it, he would indeed be the most heartless and merciless being in the entire universe. Of course, some will say that God hands lost souls over to Satan, who is merciless, and he is the one who torments the souls.

But is not God sovereign over everything? Certainly God has control over the amount that Satan can torture an individual. If he doesn't, then he is not omnipotent. If it were not God's desire, Satan could not even touch the hair on the head of any particular unrepentant sinner. Since Satan can only then act under the accordance of God's will, it must be true that, if hell exists, it is God's will for Satan to torture individuals, or else he wouldn't allow it.