Shaky Pillar #4
False Hope of Hell
“Hell could not be a place of torment because such an idea never came into the mind or heart of God. Additionally, to torment a person eternally because he did wrong on earth for a few years is contrary to justice” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, Copyright 1982 by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Page 89).
They believe the unrighteous dead will simply be annihilated without ongoing pain.
God Almighty is multifaceted. To presume that His lovingkindness would preclude Him from punishing iniquity is to fail to know Him at all. “Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:22). None should dare to confine the great God of heaven to merely one quality of His divine character. “God is love” (I John 4:8) and “God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29)! He is not one of those, but both of those, and much more besides!
It is not contrary to the upright character of God to torment sinners, for “it is righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, (even) eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (II Thessalonians 1:6-9).
Scripture warns of punishment worse than death. “A man that hath set at naught Moses' law dieth without compassion on (the word of) two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment,
think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29).
Christ foretold of fire, wailing, and gnashing of teeth awaiting those who offend: “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause
stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42). To underscore the fact that torture is
a real part of His plan for sinners, Jesus repeated the same thing in a different parable a few verses later (Matthew 13:49-50).
As if that is not emphatic enough, in another place, the Lord spoke of unquenchable fire five times in six verses! “And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. (where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.) And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. (where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.) And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48). The flames of hell will not instantaneously annihilate sinners but will burn them unendingly.
Comparing them to sheep and goats whom the Shepherd would separate, Jesus contrasted the unrighteous with the righteous, saying, “These shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). However, long eternal life will last is how long eternal punishment will be. If hell would be over within a split second, then so, too, would heaven.
