Sometimes we hear unbelievers say they cannot respect the idea of a God who would prepare for us a place of everlasting suffering. Such a God is petty and vindictive. How would you answer this critique of the Christian hell?
I imagine your question arises from
frustration at being unable to communicate that
Love = Beauty = Goodness = Truth = Life = Existence = God, and that
to turn away can only bring misery to a person,
to those who cannot or will not connect with transcendent Reality.
I don’t believe I can argue against what are hard-held beliefs;
so, suppose I might attempt an answer through a confession of what it means to me.
God is Love, in Himself and in relation to creation.
Everything is good. However, this does not negate another fundamental truth which is that I am wicked.
This makes sense once Genesis is understood.
The reality of hell, then becomes that which I renounce in my journey to God. Some people do not, apparently.
Its emptiness and squalor are shed as one grows in overwhelming beauty and life that forms the Way, which does involve sacrifice btw, that is Christ Himself.
Where the fullness of God exceeds all time and all space (the realities of which our minds cannot comprehend),
I think it rather odd if someone does not experience fear,
confronted with the power and depth of His love and compassion.
Appreciating the glory that is God, any sense of His being “petty and vindictive” turns into an experience of personal shame.
Shame at the thought and in the recognition of the person one has made of oneself.
