Then comes the explanation of a Janus-faced god of love and justice.
Consider justice in light of Gods wrath and an eternal duration in hell.
Are
finite crimes deserving of an
infinite punishment? Surely they’re not. Atheists have argued this way for years and we reject their reasoning, why?
Of course an eternal punishment isn’t reasonable in light of a finite crime if the
crimes duration is the only thing under consideration, but what about the
magnitude of the crime?
It can take a conman hours or years to swindle someone, but a killer only needs 1 second to fatally stab somebody. Which was the greater crime? The taking of a life clearly, but that happened in an instant.
We could reason that the
magnitude of crimes against God
(however short lived) deserve an eternity of punishment because the offended party is of infinite greatness.
Perhaps
the duration isn’t why hellfire is eternal, but rather the
magnitude of the crime demands an eternity of punishment.
That line of reasoning resonated with me for many years. Does it hold strong though? Not biblically or logically. Biblically it’s the furthest thing from both the Bible portrait and our own lived experience with Jesus, Jesus who waits on our rebellion, protects us, saved us and nurtures our faith daily.
Logically is a real kicker though.
If the
only just punishment for the rebel sinner is an
eternal duration of hellfire, then nobody will have justice done, God can never say
“it is finished,” because the punishment is never finished.
If the finite crime
doesn’t deserve infinite punishment, then God wouldn’t doom people to hell forever,
If the finite crime
does deserve infinite punishment, then God can never see justice done.
So, that’s a small part of how Christians change their mind, in my experience. I don’t see
“reasoning with men” as wicked or immoral because God has put godly men in our midst, He’s given us all a spiritual family. People aren’t roadblocks to knowing God, they’re made in His image and part of how we know Him better.