Your argument is built on emotion, not Scripture.
I'll Chuck that one right back atcha. Scripture says the wages of sin is death, that the evil will dit, that God can destroy both body and sould in hell, and so on. Eternal life is purely the gift of God. Your lot turns it on its head and says that everyone has eternal life by default, and that thoe who sin will not only never die, but will live forever in torment. That not contradicts Scripture in two major ways: it turns eternal life that simply comes with having been born, and may ultimately be a curse from God rather than a gift. You also deny that God's "mercy endures forever", by saying that in fact His hatred and malice endure forever to torment those who haven't accepted our Lord's sacrifice as their own.Just for lagniappe y'all also believe that God's desire that all be saved is simply thwarted by most of His creatures, whom He therefore tortures for all eternity in His infinite and all-consuming anger.
So spare me the "we follow Scripture" canard. You most patently do no such thing. blythely ignoring Scripture that flatly contradicts your vile doctrine.
You speak as though God is required to share your definition of justice.
So you cling to the repellent belief that if God behaves that all honest people would call monstrous and inhuman, that we must call it good. This idea sevtves one purpose only: to make it sound as though your doctrine isn't the barbarous falsehood that it is. You tell us that God that God behaves in a manner that worst horrify thateven the worst fiend human. So it's, "Yes, we believe that God behaves iin a whooly monstrous manner,, but we better not say so lest He get us too!"
But if a human court can sentence someone to life imprisonment for a single crime, why is it “monstrous” for the holy Judge of all the earth to execute eternal judgment for a lifetime of willful rebellion against infinite holiness?
No problem there at all - if you ignore SCripture as to the nature of God, and turn Him into a cosmic version of Jong-Un KIm; a disgusting tyrant who takes pleasure in human suffering.
You say eternal punishment is “cruelty for its own sake.”
As opposed to? What purpose does it serve? Rehabilitation? Nope, it's an eternal sentence without possibility of parole. Some arcane law that God somehow has to follow? Rubbish, there is no such thing. The uplift and enlightenment of the blessed? Fron the enjoyment they'll get out of watching the less fortunate scream in agony? Cui bono? God? If so, we're back to "for its own sake", aren't we?
That simply reveals how lightly you treat sin and how small you think God is.
Yeah, old farmer Chun who who lived in 19th century Joseon (Korea) is a good example. Took care of his family, helped out his neighbors at need, was generally accounted pretty decent old man, and considered Christianity, based on what little he'd heard about it, to be yet another foreign religion with yet another god that some folks believed in and paid it no mind. So God, in HIs Justice, condemned him to be tortured forever for his ghastly sins, whatever they may have been. Thanks be to God!, right? Old man Chun deserved to tortured forever for whatever had stuff he did, because whether it's old man Chun or Hitler (Hitler is the standard for evil, right?), it's eternity in the fire, and we better bloody well say that's a Good Thing unless we want to jon them!
The cross itself disproves your accusation. Christ bore wrath so severe that He sweat blood.
Yes, I'm familiar with the effects of crucifixion. They're well recorded by history. The victims sometimes took days to die, since the Romans didn't have a way to make it last
forever.
your view doesn’t magnify God’s mercy, it trivializes it.
Explain to me how being crucified would be worse then being burned alive forever. I'm somehow not grokking that in fullness. I'm probably just not religious enough. Or at least callous enough.
And no, hell is not “burn baby burn.” It is the solemn, righteous judgment of a God who has given every warning,
Tell old man Chun how righteousnit is. He'll probably be a lot less sanguine about the whole thing. I expect the average poor benighted human has a hard time just what it was he did that made him deserve to be tormented
forever.
If someone raped and murdered a member of your family, you would not call a life sentence “monstrous”.
A life sentence that included continuous torture? I'd like to think I'm a civilized enough human being to leave off the torture and settle for the a few years in the pen and then a lethal injection. I'm not merciful or compassionate enough to advocate for a lifetime of torture.
Yet when the infinitely holy God judges the unrepentant who trample His grace for a lifetime, suddenly justice becomes “cruelty.”
Because that's what it is simple cruelty that serves no purpose at all except to onclict torture. Again, who benefits from it? God? How? THis is just the remnants of medieval barbarism beng attributed to God. That anyone still embraces such a blasphemous image of God is beyond my understanding, especially when it means having to ignore so much Scripture and "interpret away" so much more. I hesitate to say it's diabolically inspired, but it does, in fact attribute diabolical behavior and motivations to God. You might want to ponder tha. (JK, I know you won't.)
The problem isn’t God’s justice. The problem is your standard.
THe problem is your vile unGodly blasphemous doctrine.