On Hell

So, hell, eh? Perhaps no doctrine has done more to turn people away from God than the teaching of an eternally burning hell. The idea that God is love but if you don’t love Him, He will torture you for all eternity in fire has turned millions against our loving Creator.

The Anglican church officially rejected the doctrine of an eternally burning hell last century. And many evangelical Christians have joined theologian Edward Fudge, who has also rejected an eternally burning hell. In his book The Fire that Consumes, he takes the view that the fires burn up and annihilate the wicked rather than torment them for all eternity.

Seventh-day Adventists also teach the ultimate annihilation of the wicked, that the fires burn only long enough to consume sinners and then they go out.

If God really is love, is the life giver, then why send people to eternal torment? If He is the life giver, then does He intentionally keep sinners alive to burn? Does Jesus not teach about forgiveness, why can’t He just let them die? If they want to be separated from God, why not just let them die? Eternally sleep, rather than eternally burn? Can you explain why God can’t do that without using a legalistic, punitive, tyrannical framework? “Sinners must be paid for their crimes!!” Why? Why not just let them die? Why would the loving God keep them burning eternally? Have any of you struggled with this question?