People who say that God will torture sinners in the Lake of Fire fail to understand: sin is its own torture. God is infinitely loving: because his presence would be a torment for those who oppose Him, he will cast them into the outer darkness as a final mercy.
Indeed, in Genesis, the account of our lifespan being reduced to, on average, no more than 120 years was understood by the Early Church Fathers as a blessing from God, so that we would not be forced to live in the mire of sin for century after century.
Many preferred to die to the world immediately, and since martyrdom had ceased after 314 AD and ending one’s own life is forbidden as a form of murder (except when the person is mentally ill), thus many Church Fathers died to the world while remaining alive in the flesh by becoming monastics, starting with St. Anthony the Great and St. Paul the Hermit. In the Orthodox Church, nearly all of our bishops made this decision by becoming monks, with some being ordained as hieromonks (monastic priests) and then promoted to archimandrites (monastic protopresbyters) or the hegumens of monasteries, from which the bishops are chosen. But those who wish to avoid being compelled into serving as bishop can instead take the Great Schema, which is also available to nuns.
But they will then torment themselves, to a large extent, according to St. John Chrysostom, because of the sure knowledge of what they are missing out upon.
What I have said represents the Faith as expressed by the Fathers of the Orthodox Church to the best of my ability - if I have made any error my friends
@FenderTL5 @prodromos and others will correct me.
