I’m not sure how you could justify the belief that a neverending punishment of torment and suffering is what is owed to a person who has sinned. It doesn’t matter what the magnitude or the number of the sins were, nothing could justifiably entail a neverending sentence.
This is actually fairly easily addressed, though the answer will likely not satisfy you.
The punishment due for an action is in some degree related to the nature of the offended party. It is for me to hit my sister than my brother, worse still my father, and even worse still my mother. This is something we just
know instinctually.
We also see that concept enshrined in almost all human law. The higher the “rank” of the offended party, the more severe the punishment.
Consider who the offended party is when we sin. Sure, we might hurt each-other, or we may hurt ourselves, but each sin we commit is also an affront against God. Given that God’s nature is infinite goodness, any affront against Him is of infinite magnitude, and deserving of infinite punishment. Hence, Hell is not only justified, it is mandated by even the smallest of sins.
It is only God’s mercy which saves any of us from eternal damnation, but in order to receive that salvation, his grace must be alive in our souls. Mortal sin kills that grace, which is why a person in mortal sin is denied access to His mercy, and therefore becomes subject to His justice.
Like I said, this answer isn’t going to satisfy you, but the strict fact of the matter is that your question has an answer. We just don’t like it because we can only think about things in finite terms. No matter who we offend on Earth, the offense is ultimately finite. This is not the case with offenses against God.
