Where is hell?

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Socrates4Jesus said:
Maybe God is not everywhere, but instead He is every-aware. Perhaps that’s what omnipresence means–to be completely aware of what is happening at every moment in every place, and to be powerfully effecting what is happening at every moment in every place. I don’t see how it could mean to be locationally present at every moment in every place, for then God would be locationally present in Hell, and by definition, Hell is, in part, to be eternally separated from God.
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God must be everywhere. If he were not, then he would be limited and we know that God is not limited in any fashion. Therefore, I argue that God is present in Hell, but not in the special way he is present in heaven. God is present in Hell, but the souls there cannot know him, where as God is present in Heaven and the souls there completely know him. Likewise God is technically present even in the soul that is stained by mortal sin. But not in the same way that he is in the soul that is filled with his grace.
 
Socrates4Jesus said:
Maybe God is not everywhere, but instead He is every-aware and every-active. Perhaps that’s what omnipresence means–to be completely aware of what is happening at every moment in every place, and to be powerfully effecting what is happening at every moment in every place. I don’t see how it could mean to be locationally present at every moment in every place, for then God would be locationally present in Hell. But by definition Hell is, in part, to be eternally separated from God.
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God has created everything and sustains everything in existence. So God must be in the persons who are in hell, sharing His power with them because they still have the energy required to exist and for free will.

God is in everything we consider to be evil: in the brain tumour which kills a child, in the parasite which causes disease, the fangs which tear the flesh, the gene which cause a deformity, the bullet which paralyses a man for life, the earthquake which destroys an entire city. Is this conceivable? Yes, because nothing is intrinsically evil. Evil emerges as the result of interference by one thing with another. It is impossible for everything to “mind its own business”. The very fact of co-existence entails co-operation and conflict but there is far more success than failure in the world. Otherwise we human beings would never have arrived on the scene!
 
Image_of_God said:
God must be everywhere. If he were not, then he would be limited and we know that God is not limited in any fashion. Therefore, I argue that God is present in Hell, but not in the special way he is present in heaven. God is present in Hell, but the souls there cannot know him, where as God is present in Heaven and the souls there completely know him. Likewise God is technically present even in the soul that is stained by mortal sin. But not in the same way that he is in the soul that is filled with his grace.
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You might be right. So, when you say God is present everywhere, do you mean locationally present? If locationally present, do you mean present in every atom, or in the spaces between every atom, or both?

🤷
 
tonyrey said:
God has created everything and sustains everything in existence. So God must be in the persons who are in hell, sharing His power with them because they still have the energy required to exist and for free will.

God is in everything we consider to be evil: in the brain tumour which kills a child, in the parasite which causes disease, the fangs which tear the flesh, the gene which cause a deformity, the bullet which paralyses a man for life, the earthquake which destroys an entire city. Is this conceivable? Yes, because nothing is intrinsically evil. Evil emerges as the result of interference by one thing with another. It is impossible for everything to “mind its own business”. The very fact of co-existence entails co-operation and conflict but there is far more success than failure in the world. Otherwise we human beings would never have arrived on the scene!
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You might be right. So, when you say God is present in everyone, do you mean all of Him is present in every living being? Is 100% of Him present in my Labradoodle Buster? Is 100% of Him present in the eggplant in my wife’s garden? Is 100% of Him present in Satan?

🤷
 
Socrates4Jesus said:
You might be right. So, when you say God is present everywhere, do you mean locationally present? If locationally present, do you mean present in every atom, or in the spaces between every atom, or both?

🤷
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I’m not sure. I want to say that God is not locationally present anywhere because He is spirit and does not take up space. I think in a mysterious way God is just present everywhere. I don’t think his presence can be explained. But if we hold that God is omnipresent, then he must be present everywhere, even in Hell. It’s just that the beings there cannot know him and therefore in that sense, they are separated from Him. Of course, we are speaking in philosophical terms where language can create complexities such as this. When speaking in theological terms it’s okay to say that God is not present in Hell at all.
 
Socrates4Jesus said:
You might be right. So, when you say God is present in everyone, do you mean all of Him is present in every living being? Is 100% of Him present in my Labradoodle Buster? Is 100% of Him present in the eggplant in my wife’s garden? Is 100% of Him present in Satan? 🤷
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One would think God’s total power or presence can hardly be necessary to sustain one finite being in existence! Not only that. To think of “all of Him” suggests that God consists of parts - which is clearly false. The real problem that He does not fit into any of our human categories. St Thomas Aquinas believed our knowledge of God is either analogical or by the via negativa, i.e. by considering Him by what He is not rather than what He is or, most importantly, by what He has revealed to us. Jesus told us that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge and we are of more value than many sparrows.
This implies that He knows and loves everything He has created, even the person in Hell who rejects Him. His love is not conditional on how His creatures behave. He is not united to that person because you cannot be united to some one who does not love you.
Nevertheless He is with that person for all eternity because He cannot reject what He has created in His own image and likeness. God’s perfection is beyond human comprehension. That is why so many people do not believe in Him. They dare not believe that such love can exist… They think it is too good to be true! Their lack of faith is not usually due to lack of charity but to lack of hope…
 
tonyrey said:
One would think God’s total power or presence can hardly be necessary to sustain one finite being in existence! Not only that. To think of “all of Him” suggests that God consists of parts - which is clearly false. The real problem that He does not fit into any of our human categories. St Thomas Aquinas believed our knowledge of God is either analogical or by the via negativa, i.e. by considering Him by what He is not rather than what He is or, most importantly, by what He has revealed to us. Jesus told us that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge and we are of more value than many sparrows.
This implies that He knows and loves everything He has created, even the person in Hell who rejects Him. His love is not conditional on how His creatures behave. He is not united to that person because you cannot be united to some one who does not love you.
Nevertheless He is with that person for all eternity because He cannot reject what He has created in His own image and likeness. God’s perfection is beyond human comprehension. That is why so many people do not believe in Him. They dare not believe that such love can exist… They think it is too good to be true! Their lack of faith is not usually due to lack of charity but to lack of hope…
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Beautiful!
 
FMLJoliecouer said:
Mabe God loves those in Hell (both living and dead) since Hell is separation from God

Mabe GOd even loves Satan
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FMLJoliecouer may have the answer.

Ungraced Man – which the damned will certainly be – marches to Hell flags flying, despising every moment in the presence of God’s love.

The chief pain of Hell may be the sensation of God’s love.
 
Going by quantum physics (which I had a good grasp of, even before I knew what it was) I’ve often thought that Hell is another dimension, another universe, maybe even a parallel to our own. Maybe Heaven is/will be a glorified version of the world as we knew it in life, just as our bodies will be glorified in the General Resurrection, and if so, maybe Hell is an utterly hideous version of the world as it was known by someone who died in mortal sin. Maybe the creators of the videogame “Hellgate: London” and the writers and directors of the movie “Constantine” were on to something in how they imagined hell, or hell on earth (if God allowed us to be punished by something like that, ie. demons crossing over onto earth and trashing the place, not that we aren’t doing a good job of that already…)
 
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