Scared Straight
Is there a possible purpose served by everlasting torment? Some argue that the threat of everlasting torment drives people to Jesus, but there’s a logical flaw to this argument. It may be that some people who’ve experienced torture, or some people with active imaginations are terrorized by the thought of everlasting torment. But the question remains: are they more likely to be driven to Christ or away from him? Who would be inclined to run to a god who establishes and maintains a place of everlasting torment? There is something to be said for a strategy that avoids offending a sadistic tyrant, especially one who can’t be escaped. On the other hand, running toward a sadistic tyrant doesn’t seem like a good long-term plan. There’s really no good strategy for dealing with an omnipotent sadistic tyrant. People are not scared into genuine faith in Jesus.
Benefit for the Saved
Perhaps the purpose of those in everlasting torment is to serve as a reminder to those who are saved that they need to stay in line. While I believe those in God’s kingdom will never forget the lessons of earth’s history, many of those lessons being about what one should avoid, the Bible is clear that God’s elect will have changed hearts. This means they will no longer be tempted by sin. There are those on earth today who are always in danger of alcohol, because they have a taste for it and they enjoy drunkenness. There are others on earth who do not like the taste of alcohol. This latter group is not tempted to become drunk. This is how life will be for the saints in heaven with respect to all sin. It’s not that evil will be impossible for them but that evil will no longer be attractive. They will recognize evil for its inherent ugliness. Since this is the case, there is no purpose in maintaining a large holding pen of the tortured as an everlasting object lesson.
Nor would the holy take any joy in torment of the wicked. While there is joy whenever wicked persons are stopped from their wicked practices, this is not the same as there being joy at the suffering of the wicked. Christians are commanded to love their enemies. Why? I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5.44,45). If anything, the thought of humans in torment would only serve to bring sorrow to those who have been saved. There is no benefit to those who have been saved in the ongoing torment of the wicked.
Benefit for the Wicked
If the wicked are tormented they will eventually see the wrong of their ways and repent. There might be something to this except when the torment is everlasting. Everlasting torment precludes repentance. To repent is to change one’s behavior. Bank robbers behind bars cannot rob banks; the wicked in everlasting torment cannot sin. Therefore they cannot stop sinning. Is it possible for the sinner to have a change of attitude about sinning? That seems highly unlikely, given that a change in attitude would have no impact on anything. Good attitude or bad attitude, the torment continues. Therefore, there is no reason for the sinner to repent. It also seems likely that if the attitude towards sin is irrelevant, there will cease to be any sort of attitude about it. In fact, it seems most likely that an eternally tormented being would tend toward any sort of madness that might provide relief. Eternal torment would be, certainly, humanly unbearable, which is another way of arguing that it is impossible.
We know there are purposes for suffering. For example, the apostle Paul talks about how suffering produces endurance and character. But the suffering Paul talks about lasts only for a time. He spoke of suffering coupled with hope. Suffering without hope results in mental breakdown and/or the loss of will to live. How hopeless suffering would even be possible for an everlasting being is a question. For humans to live forever in a tormented state, they would have to be given resurrection bodies and minds that are far more durable than what we now possess. In other words, they would have to be born again in order to survive. Perhaps this is a false application of the phrase, “born again”. Perhaps. But let’s not play a game of semantics. The damned would have to be remade with superhuman bodies and superhuman minds for them to endure endless torment. Is this what the Bible teaches?
We know that suffering can be done for the sake of others. Humans often live sacrificially for their loved ones. Generosity is a kind of self-sacrifice, transferring resources to those who are in need, while those who give, give up something they would otherwise benefit from. Christ’s suffering and dying was done for the sake of all those he would redeem. But the suffering of the wicked in a place of torment would provide no benefit to their fellow sufferers, nor would it provide benefit to those in heavenly places. Their suffering would not benefit them, nor anyone else, which is to say again, their torment would be without purpose.
God’s Justice / Justice in Creation
The wicked must suffer in order to meet the demands of justice. This is a false understanding of justice. The objective of justice is not retribution; it is restoration. Wickedness is theft from victims. Justice demands that the wicked repay their victims by restoring them to their status prior to being victimized, plus an extra measure to address their time and experience of loss. Justice is established when all people live together in fairness, cooperatively, and in mutual appreciation. Justice is established when society becomes a source of blessing rather than a cause for fear. The wicked in torment have no resources with which they can restore their victims. While it is true that the wicked, sequestered in a place of torment, are no longer capable of threatening or harming the innocent, this would also be true if the wicked were dead. The everlasting torment of the wicked, then, adds nothing to the cause of justice.
How is the problem of restitution resolved, then? How can there be justice without it? The answer comes through Jesus Christ who grants to his people everlasting life and freedom from sin, both individually and corporately. Jesus addresses the demands of justice by restoring the status of all his people, and then he awards them extravagant benefits far beyond anything they might have possessed in their earthly lives. Jesus resolves the debts we owe, and he resolves the debts others owe us. Because Jesus resolves all the issues related to establishing justice, it is impossible for anyone else to right the world or bring about justice. If this is true of the redeemed, it is even more true of any bound in eternal torment.
Look where you will and you will not discover a purpose for everlasting torment. Would God establish a place where his creatures would suffer forever without a purpose for doing so? No, he would not.
Recent Comments