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[[I’m very interested to understand how it is that you can see a deity who would inflict “nearly indescribable pain and suffering ... pain, suffocation, fear, darkness, heat, feeling like I was being consumed but not consumed- unable to escape- ... [and] intensly painful, sad, angry emotions that consume their thoughts- the gnashing of teeth described in the bible” as someone you would desire to worship and love.]]

How? Easily, God’s soveriegnty. I gave a link to Pink’s ‘God’s Soveriegnty’ on here before- noone who will go to hell will be there agaisnt their will. There will be none there without blame. Here’s the link- it’s a difficult position for sure, and one I can tell you honestly thast I’ve struggled with too- beleive me. However, it might sound cruel, but Pink does a much better job of explaning God’s Soveriegn right to judge than I could explain here- (and just for hte record- I went on a bender right after reading this book and ended up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning) But the stark reality is that we are the ones that choose hell over God, just as Adam chose knowledge over God’s protection. It coems down to free will and a God that won’t force anyone to love Him- anyways- I’m not doing pink’s work justice so here’s the link (his full book is free online at hte link):

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Sovereignty/sovereignty.htm

let me rephrase that- I shouldn’t say ‘it’s easy’, it’s not- It pains my soul and being to think peopel can willingly choose hell over God, but I recognize their right to do so. I didn’t mean for my statement to sound flippant or uncaring. It’s a heavy subject and liek I said, one that I’ve struggled tremendously with myself.

I think one of hte biggest issues with this issue you bring up is that while people may appear to be ‘fine people’ on the outside, their hearts are already, in the here and now, at enmity with God. I know in my life, I’ve seen some of hte nicest people you could meet turn bitterly angry when the subject of God and Salvation is brought up- I’m talking almost a raging anger too- to the point where I was like “Woah- I certainly didn’t expect that reaction from this person”. To illustrate my point here, one only needs do a quick google search on soemthing like ‘Born again’ or even something like “ID” to note that 3/4 of the sites listed will be sites that are quite angry with God and His people- whole sites are dedicated to angrily maligning God and those who beleive in Him- and these sites are created by people that you and I would never guess would be so bitter.

Pink (Whom I have to state here right off the bat- I don’t totally agree with some of his more minor denominational ideals) makes a very good point that Every person is born with the will to sin, the will to have hteir own soul be soveriegn (Much like Satan desired to be more soveriegn than God, which is why God kicked Him out of Heaven because holiness and evil and can not coexist in Heaven(This will be even more relevent an issue in the new Heaven)). In other words, we all have a pride that silently determines that we will bow to noone- We want soveriegnty, and this is a very true statement when one looks into psychology- most problems stem from minds that want more and more and want to dominate.

Pink also brings up another very good point, and that is that we fool ourselves into thinking that we are being truly ‘free’ by choosing not to bow to God’s Soveriegnty, when the reality of hte matter is that we are in bondage to sin in doing so. We aren’t strong enough to break out of it on our own, and therefore, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to do so. Only the strongest can take that final step toward absolute freedom of Salvation because it takes a big person to admit we have failed- those who don’t take that step, those who continually ignore the help of the Holy spirit, and refuse to submit, are held hostage by their pride- they are bondservants to sin, but they are wilful bondservants- the freely choose to be hostages because it’s easier (at least they think it’s easier) to stand on two feet and not bow. (The old saying “cutting off ones’ nose to save face” comes to mind here)

Here is how Pink puts it: “Now in contradistinction from the will of the Lord Jesus which was biased toward good, and Adam’s will which, before his fall, was in a condition of moral equipoise—capable of turning toward either good or evil—the sinner’s will is biased toward evil, and therefore is free in one direction only, namely, in the direction of evil. The sinner’s will is enslaved because it is in bondage to and is the servant of a depraved heart.”

The persons of sound mind and reasonable reasoning powers will not end up in hell unknowingly, they will have ended up their on their own free will AFTER they have decided to stop up the Holy Spirit’s help and ignore His promptings. The person knows full well that God is trying to tell them something through His Spirit’s promptings, but they make the conscious descision to decide i n their hearts that they simply will not listen.

God offers Heaven and all it’s glories for free ... Well, it’s quite expensive really, but Christ paid the price in full that we may freely accept the gift, and His offer is open to everyone. You and I can tell someone not to touch a hot stove, but if they refuse to believe you, and freely choose to touch it, they are responsbile for their own decision- We can’t force them to refrain from doing so.

Christ wept so hard over people who would end up in hell that blood came instead of tears- it tore His heart in two. Yet freedom- true freedom, means being able to shoose what we will when we will, and that includes choosing whether to bow to God or not. Christ so grieved for us that He was willing to sacrifice His life so that we wouldn’t have to be lost- that’s how I can serve a God of justice and Soveriegnty

This will be a bit long, but please bear with me. I just found again the passage in the book that caused me to go on my bender. It was a passage so difficult and so, as Pink says himself, ‘shocking’ that I shook my fist in God’s face and ran away from Him as far as I could- but following the passage, I will bring up a point I believe is important:

“To affirm that God decreed the entrance of sin into His universe, and that He foreordained all its fruits and activities, is to say that which, at first may shock the reader; but reflection should show that it is far more shocking to insist that sin has invaded His dominions against His will, and that its exercise is outside His jurisdiction: for in such a case where would be His omnipotency? No; to recognize that God has foreordained all the activities of evil, is to see that He is the Governor of sin: His will determines its exercise, His power regulates its bounds (Ps. 76:10). He is neither the Inspirer nor the Infuser of sin in any of His creatures, but He is its Master, by which we mean God’s management of the wicked is so entire that, they can do nothing save that which His hand and counsel, from everlasting, determined should be done.

Though nothing contrary to holiness and righteousness can ever emanate from God, yet He has, for His own wise ends, ordained His creatures to fall into sin. Had sin never been permitted, how could the justice of God have been displayed in punishing it? How could the wisdom of God have been manifested in so wondrously over-ruling it? How could the grace of God have been exhibited in pardoning it? How could the power of God have been exercised in subduing it? A very solemn and striking proof of Christ’s acknowledgment of God’s decretal of sin is seen in His treatment of Judas. The Saviour knew full well that Judas would betray Him, yet we never read that He expostulated with him! Instead, He said to him, “That thou doest, do quickly” (John 13 :27)! Yet, mark this was said after he had received the sop and Satan had taken possession of his heart. Judas was already prepared for and determined on his traitorous work, therefore did Christ permissively (bowing to His Father’s ordination) bid him go forth to his awful work.”

When I first read that, I understandably felt that God forordained that some people would end up in hell- but I later realized that the key phrase was that it is not God who ‘causes’ us to sin, but rather it is He who is master over even the sin we choose. I also now realize that in order for God to manifest His omnipotence, He must prove that He has dominion over sin, and for their to be mastery over sin, sin MUST be subject to Him, for if it were not, He couldn’t be truly omnipotent- sin would be greater than He. God would no longer be Diety.

You asked how a Diety could ‘inflict’, yet it is not, as Pink points out, God who inflicts, it is we whochoose to be judged by the omnipotent who MUST judge.

I talked before about you or I telling someone not to touch a hot stove, and their going ahead and doing so any way. If you or I spent every minute of every day preventign the person from touching the stove, they would not have free will, but would be forcibly complying with our will. In order for there to be free will, you or I can not prevent a person from touchign that stove if they so desire.

Hell was created to eternally bind sin away from the Holiness of Heaven. And again, God didn’t creatre sin, but He is the Master of Sin.

There is a great spiritual battle going on between good and evil. The Evil One thinks He can ‘win’ in the end against God, and if it were true, God would cease being God. His power over sin would be lost. But this will not happen, as God is omnipotent. For the meantime though, Evil and the Evil One are given free reign here on earth in order that we humans can have true free will. Those who don’t accept God’s gift of Free Will, are those who have determined in their hearts that God will not be omnipotent over them- just as the Evil One has determined in his blackened heart. It is not God who inflicts, it is the Evil One who convinces people to self-inflict, and to follow Him to the pits of hell as prideful as ever. Proverbs declares that it is pride that goes before a fall, and it shall be pride that hardens the heart and closes hte ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit, to prevent God from being omnipotent over them.

Hell will indeed be a terrible place, but no innocents will reside there- noone will be there against their own will, and it is God’s dominion over Sin that must be manifested in His judgement of said sin in order that His Godship be established irrefutably.

A common objection might be “Couldn’t God just make it so that everyone chooses to follow Him and forsake sin?” The answer is no, because then our wills would not be our own, and we would be nothign more than puppets doing whatever the puppetmaster decides we do. (This is a whole different theological issue, and a lengthy one- but basically it boils down to that theologically)