"If God creates hell and if Jesus is God, then Jesus creates..."

[$formyFamily]

I found a very thought provoking reading online here that I wish to share with you:

Please share your thoughts....

"If God creates hell and if Jesus is God, then Jesus creates eternal torture and the grand design that routes people to it. But Christians often say they love Jesus. The reason seems to be that he sacrifices himself to himself to appease himself as a work-around so his believers will be spared the eternal torture he created.

How can you love Jesus, the creator of this system? Do Christians secretly think it was Satan that created hell? Or do you believe that hell is really emotional and spiritual torture consisting of eternal separation from Jesus/God? Then how do you love the creator of eternal emotional/spiritual torture?

[EDIT:] Among the 3757 posts so far (as of June 26, 2008), several have rejected the idea that God created hell and I have learned an immense amount from following through with questions. In fact, the words "created" and "hell" have both generated much heated discussion. I hope people will continue to challenge every part of this question.

But just to clarify, given some confusion I may have inadvertently generated through my wording, this is an if-then question. I do not state that God did create hell. I asked an IF-THEN question. For the record, the question should probably read,

IF you think God maintains a place of eternal torture, and IF you think Jesus is God, and IF you love Jesus, THEN how can you have those thoughts (God/Jesus maintains a place of eternal torture) together with that feeling (love for God/Jesus)?

I ask how these three items can coexist in one person:

1. the belief that God maintains a place of eternal torture
2. the belief that Jesus is God
3. love of Jesus

Please continue to challenge any part and/or all of this question, including an assumptions or implications with which you disagree.

Thank you, everybody, for fascinating, challenging responses."

A reader's comments
June 26, 2008

[armywife422]

I believe God created Heaven and Hell. He created Hell as a place to send Lucifer aka Satan aka the devil and his demons (fallen angels). Just my two cents. He's a loving God but also a vengeful God.

[$formyFamily]

Originally Posted by armywife422

I believe God created Heaven and Hell. He created Hell as a place to send Lucifer aka Satan aka the devil and his demons (fallen angels). Just my two cents. He's a loving God but also a vengeful God.

Love is love, so how can love be vengeful other than, "Here now, I love you, so now let me beat the hell out of you for disobeying me and send you all to hell!" (no pun intended)

[armywife422]

Here's some reading you might be interested in.

God the Vengeful, Wrathful, and Jealous?!

[pebbles70]

Originally Posted by armywife422

I believe God created Heaven and Hell. He created Hell as a place to send Lucifer aka Satan aka the devil and his demons (fallen angels). Just my two cents. He's a loving God but also a vengeful God.

I agree..except for the vengeful God...My God is a loving and all-forgiving God...not unforgiving or vengeful....just my opinion.....

[Chicago]

Interesting thought, but here's the short version of how I've always understood it. I believe that Heaven is a place you end up if you have followed the correct path in life and deserve to be rewarded. I'm pretty sure Hell is where you end up if you don't deserve to be rewarded.

I could easily love any God who I know is sending a ruthless killer, rapist, etc, etc, etc... to Hell. I can also understand that even those who aren't on that level of sin still need to be helped onto the right path if they are to end up in any postion to be rewarded.

That's my view on it, but everyone sees things a little differently.

[mamasoul]

Originally Posted by pebbles70

I agree..except for the vengeful God...My God is a loving and all-forgiving God...not unforgiving or vengeful....just my opinion.....

Yes, He is loving and all forgiving...if we allow Him to be. We're given free will to either accept Him or not. It's our choice.

[pebbles70]

Originally Posted by mamasoul

Yes, He is loving and all forgiving...if we allow Him to be. We're given free will to either accept Him or not. It's our choice.

So true! We do have a free will and it's our choice to accept God's love and forgiveness or not....

[armywife422]

He is forgiving hence why He gave His Son to Forgive Us our sins. In the old testament, Leviticus 19:18 "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." In the New Testament, we are told to "love our neighbor as ourself."

[vipervma]

Why is it the same people seem to post these kind of posts just to get a rise out of or upset others that do believe in Christ's love and diety. I do not think a working forum should even have discussions of this nature, as all they do is cause strife and hurt peoples feelings.