The fact that the people in hell are gonna suffer there forever gives me heartaches since my compassion for people has grown.
Should I see them as i see satan? Wicked, so I don't feel any compassion for the condemed? How do you see them?
Well. You need some context there to understand "why" they are in Hell in the first place.
You see, they are children of the Devil, and because of that they were responsible for the evil deeds of all other evil people through history. Imagine, for instance, how many wicked children of the Devil posed as "Children of God" doing "the work of God" or whatever their concept of "good" and killing people in the name of God thinking they were doing God a favor.
And they never stopped, but rather the evil grew and grew.
It didn't matter that Jesus came and warned people of these very things. They did it anyway, even in the Name of Jesus.
Iron Maiden used as an instrument by "Christians" and Nazis to kill Christians and Jews.
Joan of Arc, a mere teenage girl who followed God's instruction, first imprisoned, ruthlessly put on trial, then burned alive at the stake.
Christians fed to the lions and other horrors done en masse to them by the Romans.
The Holocaust. Stalin. Pol Pot.
I should not even need mention crucifixions.
What a lot of people do not realize is crucifixions were designed as the most horrible way to kill someone: they would die from heart failure after prolonged exposure and stress. It was a slow but certain death. Peter refused to be crucified right side up and so was crucified upside down.
Before Jesus, the slave leader Spartacus rebelled against the Romans and the Romans lined the roads with all of the rebellious slaves when they finally won against them.
Unfortunately, the list goes on and on, and many of these horrors, sadly, continue to this very day: child sexual predators, serial killers, government sponsored torture involving mutilation and dismemberment, assassinations of family members, beheadings, burning people alive, and so on.
Now someone may say, "Oh, but I am not that bad and never did any such thing". But isn't it not like that, or why would Jesus have said to those who wanted to get inside, "Off, you, to the fire prepared for the Devil and his angels".
Same fire. Same punishment.
Men, in their sick imaginations, created the Bosch like landscape of Hell where some were "tinged with pain" forever and ever... and others horrendously burning in shame.
It is like a conspiracy, where maybe there was a cult leader or other leader, but everyone who was involved, big and small, helped everyone else of their group.
Consider a cult that is very wicked: okay, so the leader was the one who fooled everyone, but the actual cult members were the ones who empowered him to do this.
But... but... but... how profound is the forgiveness of God? How deep His Love? How impossible His salvation? We, ourselves, are sinners: but He is love. We do not save ourselves, but we trust in Him to save us.
And I think He can.
Like Jonah and Nineveh.
However, I could see how that could be very debatable when considering the historical context of how people think of Hell. That 'there is no way out of Hell', and so on. Maybe... there is.
Is all I am saying.
If, if... people can believe.
OTOH, maybe it is sinful to even consider that one might now - all of a sudden - believe when they find themselves in the fire. How dare they. They probably won't even right away remember who they were or what they did in some horrible attempt of their mind to escape the simple truth that had been plaguing them all along since they first entered Hell... the mind does anything and everything to try and escape certain horror and damnation, refusing to attempt the truth of their own crimes... even to the point of creating and sustaining long term amnesia.
I, personally, however, believe this is not the case, and God very well may offer repentance to all and everyone after some time of punishment. And genuine repentance.
As a "for instance" I was just reading today about how prisoners in Saudi Arabia were allowed to leave once they proved they had changed their minds about the violent interpretation of Islam. That is, the Saudis, taking the G-Bay prisoners, treating them as sons and brothers lost, to be redeemed and changed. Some are stubborn and refuse to believe. Others have, change, and are released from jail.
At G-Bay, they said, they were often treated cruelly by the Americans, but one said he understood because they probably wanted to enact some kind of vengeance. (Another one mentioned this, but also said that the new guys would get to know him and treat him humanely and decently.)
Would God do the later or the former?
(And do not try and deduce my stance on Saudi Arabia, I think that nation is seriously messed up. Also, I could point out how hard it is to tell if someone is really reformed and many released from G-Bay later went on right back into terrorism.)
