On Divine Punishment: Eternal Hell is Just

Premise

There is a claim that because God punishes you for not believing in Him, then He therefore is not a loving God, but instead is a controlling and evil God. This is a pushback on the claim that God is a loving God. The error that these objectors make is by believing in a misunderstanding of what Christians mean when we say “God is loving.” What does love mean? This divine and, by extent, general love can be defined in the Christian sense as two things, the second is dependent upon the first: wishing/willing the final end of someone and giving someone what they are due. But what someone is due is also dependent on the end they choose freely through their will. This claim can be argued in this manner.

Justification of Love’s Definition & Sending a Being Anywhere but Heaven

The first step is contingent upon the Christian claim that states that there is a higher purpose that you are ordered towards; God and Heaven. Now because there is a purpose to life that humans are made for, straying from our intended purpose(natural order) can be categorized as chaotic because, by definition, it is contradicting God’s order. Because the natural order should be followed, it is only logical that we help others lest they fall into chaos.

The thing being given as what is due is the final destination of the person; however, because of the proposition of free will, it is subject to change. In the Christian sense, this is having the ability to choose between what is good and evil. If man chooses an end, then that end is what shall be given to them in accordance with justice and respect of free will. We know justice is being applied because God is the judge presiding over your end place and He will judge depending on what you pick through your actions. 

This explains why God sends people to Hell, but it does not justify eternal punishment, only the action of sending man to one place and another to a different place. Meaning, we must still argue the morality of the destination and not simply justify the action of sending one to a place.

Moral Justification of Sending Humans to Hell

First, we must define what Hell is and what eternal punishment is. Hell, as defined by Christians, is the total separation of God. A human soul is entirely sustained by God as it is an immaterial soul. Animals hold to material souls and thus, their souls are destroyed upon their bodily death as their souls are dependent upon their bodies. As a human soul is immaterial, it is dependent upon an immaterial anchor. This immaterial anchor, we presume, is God. We presume the anchor is God because our souls are created in the image of God. In short, our souls are dependent on God for their existence. God, ontologically speaking, is technically in Hell by essence as God must be everywhere, however, God removes His glory and grace from Hell. We must also look at what hell is even further, but we must see what Heaven is first. Following Saint Augustine’s theory, evil is the privation of goodness. We can presume Heaven to be good as it fulfils the natural final end that was argued for during the justification for my definition of love. As evil is the privation of goodness, we can then presume that goodness is something, metaphysically speaking. Good has substance. We will then work off of the Christian presumption that states Heaven has so evil within, and thus, is a state and place composed entirely of substance. We then go on to believe that Hell is the antithesis of Heaven. Hell is a place composed of no substance within it, yet it is substance insofar as to mean that a stomach exists without anything inside of it; imagine the existence of a universe without anything within it. As there is nothing of actuality within it, we must believe that it is in a state of potentiality. Following the previous argument justifying the action of sending a human anyplace other than Heaven after death, we must bring an example of John Doe in Hell. John Doe’s soul is composed of substance, and thus, actuality. A metaphysical kinetic energy. But we proposed that Hell is a place of potentiality and is substanceless. If we apply the principle of energy conservation, then the introduction of substance, with "kinetic energy,” into a substanceless place of potentiality, it will create a reaction for Hell to remove the kinetic energy, the substance(the soul), by using its potentiality and turning it into a temporary actualized state of energy in order to return back into its state of passiveness. In which, results in hellfire. A form of a real fire, though as physical as a soul is in its own aspect and plane. We can observe a physical aspect of the metaphysical as we can observe angels interacting with objects. Meaning that there must be a physical aspect of the non physical within a certain sense.

In totality, the suffering in Hell is essentially the natural result of existing in a place of contradiction. As stated, Hell, metaphorically wishes to be in a state of as little energy; however, if the soul, a being with substance, exists with actuality of existence then it would act as a reactant with the potentiality of the unactualized substance in Hell. But, catholodox teaches that hellfire is willed by God. So to reason this with my theory, God wills hellfire by purposely designing Hell in such a way. This still presumes that hellfire will harm us. To justify this, I will bring up the previous statement that states our souls are dependent upon God to exist. Yet if God is what keeps our immaterial soul in existence, but we are away from God, our souls are away from what anchors their existence. This causes us to be in a state of unnaturalness as we are in a place where our souls were not originally designed to be in. This allows the hellfire to make our immaterial souls feel pain. Imagine, for analogy, a polar bear inside a volcano.

This all concludes and ties back to love in this manner. God loves all humans and is just, so God will give them what they are due at the end of our lives. Hell is in the absence of God. To be in mortal sin, which includes unbelief, is to be away from God in an immaterial sense. Following this to its conclusion, God will send the unbelievers to Hell, absence from God, as this is what they chose. Their being in a place in which their being is foreign and unnatural to, will cause pain, this is the natural consequence. We still need to justify the proposition that punishment is eternal and why finite actions warrant an infinite punishment.

Justification of Eternal Punishment

It tracks that if we presume the human soul to be immortal, via its nature, then we must also presume that nothing can kill, rather destroy, the human soul besides God. We can then go on to say that as Hell is not God as Hell is a place, and thus it is creation. This therefore means that Hell can not destroy the soul unless it is by the direct command of God. God will not give this authority to Hell.

We can understand this by the nature of sin. Sin, is the transgression against a being, whether it be purely against another, or that including against oneself. We can then assume that the punishment, though somewhat also controlled by the severity of the sin itself, will be dependent upon the being being transgressed upon. We can observe this without the need of Divine Cause by looking at how man treats beast. If John Doe kills the dog of his neighbor, he may be fined or imprisoned for a short while; however, if John Doe murders the child of his neighbor, then he may either be executed or imprisoned for life. Both commit the action of taking one’s life, yet they receive vastly differing punishments as humans are superior in worth and dignity than beast. Likewise, it is not the being who is being transgressed upon’s worth that solely decides punishment. Self defense is seen as so. Even then, if John Doe claims self defense in either killing, greater effort will be put into investigating the death of the child simply because of their worth.⟹STILL IN PROGRESS⟸