DO DAMNED DESERVE INFINITE TORMENT?

If we are sinners then it is certain that we deserve to be fully punished which is to undergo suffering that is unlimited for our sins. This seems too ridiculous to many but it is true. If people knew their religion better and had a sense of “sin” they would see that it is correct. Yet it feels ludicrous. Reason often reveals that what the heart says is stupid is not.

God is infinitely good. Therefore, he finds sin - which we all commit according to the Church - infinitely offensive for then he would hate it with an infinite hatred. It is infinitely unjust to offend a God who loves you infinitely. It deserves infinite or everlasting torment. No matter how harmless it seems it offers an infinite injury to God in the sense that it is an unlimited insult. All sin is infinitely offensive or infinitely incompatible with God.

If God is not infinite love but is perfect then he would be infinite love if he could be so it is still infinitely evil to sin against him. He merits infinite love from you because that is what he would give to you.

Sin is an act of ingratitude to God for his endless love. You are trampling on that love by offending him and being ungrateful – and your ingratitude is without limit and calls for everlasting punishment (page 68, The Bible Tells Us So).

Sin keeps you away from God so when God forgives you he is giving you himself and he is infinitely valuable. It follows that his forgiveness is the same value. By sin you are giving him no thanks for his mercy and telling him to keep his gift of himself. You are cruelly turning your back on what is beyond all price and infinitely precious and incurring an infinite sin.

Incidentally, there can be no such thing as venial sin, sin that does not drive God away from you and does not keep you away from him and which does not deserve unlimited punished when he hates all sin with a hatred that knows no bounds.

Time, that which passes, came from eternity or timelessness where nothing passes or changes. When you sin you cannot undo it. The evil you did will exist forever. The moment of iniquity exists in the timeless state of eternity forever and God will see it forever. It is like an insulting monument to God that cannot be destroyed but which offends forever. Sin deserves eternal punishment for it is part of eternity which is present to the eternal God.

You only do what looks good to you. When you sin you approve of all similar evils even if they are committed to infinity making you infinitely sinful. If a man murders his wife he is declaring that if he had an infinity of other selves that they would all do the same or that if there were an infinity of men in the same situation they should do the same.

Some say that sin can have infinite effects that we cannot ever begin to discover which makes it as infinite as God. They claim that the damage done by Adam’s sin alone illustrates the point. They can be right if it is true that there will be an earth and people upon it forever. They can be right if there is an infinity of imperfect beings who can be badly influenced by our sins.

The mere fact that this is possible and sin is unnecessary evil means that sin is an attempt to do infinite damage to the infinity of beings and accordingly is attempted infinite cruelty. It is bad beyond limit. Sin by definition has to be an unnecessary evil and anti-order and pro-chaos. Since Hell is the consequence of sin, ours or Adam’s sin on our behalf according to the Bible or both, it follows that God has no need for Hell and that means that God has no use for it and that the damned are there not because of God but in spite of him which is a zany idea considering that God is almighty.

So justice commands that sinners be punished with infinite suffering.

The doctrine of everlasting punishing implies that God is evil. If we should all be in Hell then he is evil for delaying our arrival there. If he has mercy he is still evil and eaten up with hate.

Incidentally, many argue that if we deserve eternal punishment as to duration then we must live forever for if God let the impenitent go to Heaven or out of existence he would be rewarding the sin.  Death can be a reward and relief for some.

While the idea of sin being a violation of who God as the infinite source of love is logical and must deserve infinite torment there is another side.  There is the fact that it is balanced out by good being an affirmation of infinite good in God so it deserves an infinite reward.  So the only answer is that there must be no Heaven or Hell and if we live forever it will be like we are now.  We do wrong and then do good and then wrong again and then good and so on for all eternity.