Preaching of eternal damnation or eternal torment is probably the single most powerful weapon used against those who haven’t touched the true Creator. Truthfully, those who preach it haven’t touched him either! Fear, control, intimidation--these things add power to the success of a religious organization. While it is a hideous assault on the true character and nature of our Father, getting the religious mind to see God in a higher light is all but impossible. Established denominational policies and popular ministries are revered more than an individual seeking or questioning of such a harsh concept. The blind lead the blind into a ditch of death and darkness, a place the human nature is quite comfortable with. Here the beast nature of mankind can let its gnarly hair down and devour life.
The religious want blood and justice, an eye for an eye. Moses lives!! Vengeance seekers want somebody to pay. But why does it have to be eternally? There is no compassion, no mercy of any kind. This mind-set is of total and complete un-forgiveness. A truly Holy God, one who sent His son to die for us, could never qualify for the rules of this elite club. He would be too lame, too weak, too sissy. He would appear unable to restore law and order (like in the old West). He wouldn’t be tough enough to wear the tin star and shoot “the bad guys” or make sure they were hung by the neck until dead--without remorse.
In olden times, when men who died went “to sleep” or “slept with their fathers”, there was no mention of eternal damnation. The grave (sheol or hades) was the abode for everyone. The emphasis on eternal damnation came about in the centuries after Jesus died, when apostasy was all that was left of true Christianity. Also having a strong influence was the writing Divine Comedy by Dante, a poet of the 13th century. The book is fiction, but the inferno represented was incorporated into the Christian religion. Jesus didn’t talk such nonsense, but his words were abused by the very biased King James translators. For example, when Jesus spoke of those speaking blasphemy against the Holy Spirt being rendered eternally damned, a better translation will render it to be age-lasting correction (judgement). Interestingly, he was speaking this to the religious leaders of his day, and he was talking about them!
Another example is a parable about the death of a rich man and a poor man. (Luke, chap16) The poor man--an outcast--ended up in a place of comfort, but the rich man ended up tormented. There is no mention in this parable that the torment was everlasting, and being a parable, it was not a literal scene. In the story, a great gulf separated the two men. This gulf is the religious mind versus the spiritual mind. Moses and the prophets had foretold the coming of the Christ (who stood in their midst), and if the people wouldn’t listen to the prophets, they wouldn’t hear Jesus either. And they didn’t! The moral of the story (and four other witnessing parables in chapters 15 &16) was that the Jews had rejected their Messiah. Jesus was not talking scare tactics to get people saved; he was relating to those with spiritual ears the reality of what was happening around them--right then!
Having said all this, I’d like to aim my axe at the root of the problem, hidden in the unregenerated human heart, disguising itself as justice. Ever since the Adamic race fell out of communication with God (the “fall”), it has been driven to appease God, a God no longer seen or heard from, the distance being greater with each generation. A deep desire to compensate, to make sacrifices, or to offer life in exchange for mercy (hopefully) has to express itself. Devoid of God and spiritual enlightenment, all that remains is a two-legged beast. This beast is spoken of in the Revelation. A heathen face shows itself in a desire for human blood to be shed, or paganistic human sacrifice.
History shows again and again that civilizations declined with their belief in this practice, for it never perpetuated their legacy. It was their end. Human sacrifice was practiced during the days of Abraham, and abounded in Canaan, the land of milk and honey. There, blood-thirsty, bestial tribes existed until they were overtaken by the desert wanderers-turned-warriors led by Moses and then Joshua. God did not demand human sacrifice. He also found no pleasure in animal sacrifice (Isa 1:11), but the human nature demanded some kind of blood to be shed! That was the reason God established his own sacrificial system, to keep the reigns of animalistic tendencies under control, temporarily, until the final Lamb was slain. WE were the ones who needed appeased---not God!!
When our spirits are regenerated by the Holy Spirt, our new hearts are overtaken with love and forgiveness from on high. The desire to turn to old pagan ways is dissolved. All debts are cancelled and debits are filled up with credits. There is no more need for a life to be taken to pay for mistakes. I cannot help but question any person claiming to be a follower of Jesus who also believes in the god of eternal punishment. It’s not possible to be in both arenas, for there is a gulf fixed between them. With our new heart, outward law doesn’t rule and reign anymore, for Jesus has written His laws within us. Sadly, the Christian faith has become just another heathen religion, harboring a hateful god. And, like all religious gods, Love is lacking. Religious gods are devised by tormented minds, even if they had once viewed in sincerity what they thought was God.
Wafa Sultan is a brave, amazing woman who wrote the book A God Who Hates, stating her experience with the evils of Islam. We only have to watch the news to understand some of the delusional insanity leading to vengeance “for god”. No value for human life, terrorism being the staple. The psychologies behind gods of religion are unique and stem from unstable mental capacities as they are stressed and abused into a defense mechanism, and it does so because it doesn’t believe god really cares about them, for they only know "of him". When life is especially hard and no outward deliverance has come, this is understandable! And don’t plenty of “Christian” zealots shed a horrible light on the true God--whom they don’t know--when they blow up abortion clinics, carry banners of hatred for homosexuals, and picket funerals of fallen soldiers with assurances that those war mongers will surely burn in hell!
When a god’s requirements sound human, we are not dealing with a Divine deity. We are dealing with a heathen god of death and destruction, where torment replaces hope. A robotic lack of passion for lives that will be lost are just a means to the end for conformance to the narrow road they walk. Humans are sacrificed, and easily. They are statistics, not people. They are casualties for righteousness sake. These are doctrines of devils! Believers of the doctrine of eternal torment didn’t get their direction from Father, because they haven’t touched His heart! They, instead, express the offspring of religious brainwashing. Among the religious radicals, the need for separation from “infidels” who hinder the movement for religious justice make those who differ expendable, even forever. Human sacrifice, god of religion, eternal damnation: synonymous with paganism.
A prominent minister (whom I will not name) once spoke almost gleefully about believers in heaven being able to look down on all the people in hell. We would all be having a wonderful time and yet we could watch all the suffering of the lost. Apparently we wouldn’t be affected by all that torment. His words were cold hearted, cold blooded, foolish, childish, selfish and very unlike the God of Love. Though he is not alone, all will come to see themselves someday in the true hall of shame they reside in, and will have great sorrow for past words. What is especially lacking in this perspective is a passion for others, which also lacks the calling card of the fruit of the Spirit. What they do express, however, is spiritual terrorism! Thank God that He won’t be allowing those kind of carnal people to be judges over creation. But I believe a pre-requisite could establish the true heart of a so-called judge. Since my Father has established his understanding of this issue in my heart, I’m sure he will allow me to expound on my pretend proposal, albeit a good one!
Every person who is an advocate of a “forever” torment should have to spend a segment of their time within earshot and view of at least one person who is “writhing in agony”. They can get a first hand look into that person’s eyes, hear the pleading, agony-laced cries, and absorb the desperation, pain, and hopelessness of that person’s soul. Oh, and this person cannot be a stranger or anyone deemed less worthy, but must be one of their own friends who didn’t “make it”. Or better yet--a family member. Maybe their son or daughter. Don’t all condemned fit into the same category? How much passion would be stirred up by that pro-active assignment, steeped in a scene of relentless punishment? Could we watch someone we love endure torture while we are helpless to do anything to stop it? Does going to heaven mean that we don’t love anymore? How could there be a heaven without love? What a difference in perspectives between a faceless statistical person and our own mother or father. Even for that stranger, could we really be unaffected if we have to share the space? If we are not robots, we will break.
However, if we could endure our probationary period without having a change of heart, we should rightfully be placed as a permanent guardian in that horrid place, where we truly belong. This lack of feeling in itself would prove that we have no love, and we would be unworthy to live in the Kingdom of God, where love is life. A very powerful point can be made here to those who still want to hold on to a belief in eternal separation from God. Why would we be in heaven if we have such indifference to cruelty? Is the god of that heaven sadistic? That god couldn’t be Jesus.
The PASSION that Jesus Christ had, setting his face as a flint at the task set before him and the goal to be reached-- freeing mankind from its beast nature--will bring each man to a happy ending. He is our Father, which speaks of relationship. As his child, we will be molded and delivered, but not destroyed. His love for us is unconditional for we first lived in his heart! Jesus is the lover of all souls and Savior of all (1 Tim 4:10). “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6) “For as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous.” (Romans 5:19, a truly beautiful rendering from the Weymouth New Testament)
With Jesus working inside of us via the Holy Spirit, we cannot keep mercy and compassion from springing forth. Divine Love, not religious complacency, overtakes our being as we exude His forgiveness. The mind-set of the religious destroys, keeping them in the death of law. No inward change has happened to transform their carnal minds into the mind of Christ. Those who still stand on Mt Sinai will not find Moses residing there, for he has experienced salvation through Jesus Christ and is now standing on Mt Zion. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). The law has been overtaken and incorporated into the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). His new commandments concern love: love for God, love for our neighbors, love for ourselves. All other laws are swallowed up in and subject to the power and authority of His love. God’s sovereignty is Love.
Eternal damnation is a doctrine of pagan belief systems, of religious minds, and of the unconverted Adamic beast man. Don’t be fooled by the persons in the podium, dressed in their Sunday best, even if they do name the name of Jesus. Don’t be fooled by the multitudes who advocate and parrot their dead words. There may be life coming from some of the scriptures they quote, and they may not refer to (very often) the doctrine of eternal separation from God, but if that is the god they believe in, beware! Hear these words: MERCY, PEACE, COMPASSION, KINDNESS, FORGIVENESS, LOVE. This is the fruit of contact with God. We need no more bloodshed. We need no more human sacrifices and we need not demand justice. In Christ, all those urges will be consumed, for He is justice, for He was the FINAL sacrifice. Eternal bliss is our destination and our reality now and forever!
