OzSpen
Regular Member
- Oct 15, 2005
- 11,541
- 707
- Country
- Australia
- Faith
- Baptist
- Marital Status
- Private
No, we are discussing the issue of infinite punishment for finite sin. This is how the poster to the link I gave put it (in part):No, I understand it and I reject it. Besides, the other side claims that hell is eternal, everlasting, and neverending. In order for your technicality to take hold, you have to get them to admit that hell is not eternal. I don't think you will succeed in that attempt. They are a stubborn bunch.
However, there is another issue. For how long is life in heaven for those who accepted Christ as Lord in finite time? Is that fair? I'm using your argumentation of the unfairness of infinite punishment for supposed finite sin.A potential infinity, on the other hand, is a series or function that incrementally approaches infinity in value but never actually reaches it. The series of natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. is a potential infinity. Each number in the line is closer to infinity than its predecessor, yet every number in the line is a finite number, simply because its predecessor is also a finite number. The series is endless it has no final item and yet every item in the series is finite and the total length of the series up to and including that item is also finite. For example, the thousandth item in the series is finite (the number 1000) and the length of the series to that point is also finite (1000 items).
With this distinction in hand, it should be clear enough that if hell is endless then its duration is merely a potential infinity and not an actual infinity. Even if hell is everlasting, no person in hell would ever actually experience an infinite duration of punishment. Since the creation had a beginning in time, and hell is part of the creation, hell must also have a beginning in time; thus, at any point in time, hell has only existed for a finite duration and the same must go for its inhabitants, of course. The total duration of the punishment suffered by the damned will be ever-increasing, but it will always be a finite duration: one year, two years, three years, and so on. It follows that the traditional view of hell does not indeed, cannot involve punishment that is infinite in duration.
Now the original objector might reply that its unjust even to inflict a potentially infinite punishment for finite sin. But its hard even to make sense of such a claim, never mind to justify it. The simple fact is that at any point in time the punishment suffered by a person in hell can only have been finite in duration (and, as I argued earlier, finite in intensity). Since God never actually inflicts an infinite punishment on anyone, how could he reasonably be charged with injustice for doing so? No matter how much time passes, it is always finite punishment for finite sin. While it may be trivially easy to argue that an infinite amount is disproportionate to any finite amount, its much harder to argue that some finite amount is disproportionate to some other finite amount when neither amount is readily quantifiable (by us) in the first place.
In sum, this particular objection to the traditional Christian view of hell fails because it attacks a straw man. The traditional view doesnt involve an infinite punishment for sinners at least, not in any sense that obviously implies injustice or disproportionality on Gods part.
Sincerely, Oz
Upvote
0