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What purpose does hell serve?
by Newbie » Mon May 19, 2014 2:57 pm
What purpose does hell serve? Is it a form of punishment? What, in your opinion, is the purpose of punishment (regardless if you believe in hell or not)?
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Re: What purpose does hell serve?
by jimwalton » Mon May 19, 2014 3:13 pm
It's my understanding that there are different kinds of justice. Distributive justice basically makes the decision of who gets it, and retributive justice makes the decision of how much.
For instance, in a company, if everyone gets the same pay raise no matter how hard they worked, what their level of success, how many sales they made, etc., this would be perceived as distributively unjust. Rewards and punishments should be allocated fairly to the appropriate people.
Retributive justice deals with the question of how much. It's a "the punishment should fit the crime" philosophy. Greater infractions should yield more dire consequences.
Hell, then, is certainly portrayed as an exercise of justice. A wrong has been perpetrated, and for justice to be served, balance must be reinstated in a system now askew. If punishment and reward are issued to the correct people in appropriate amounts, we would consider the situation to be fair, and restored to equilibrium.
The first tier of justice: The sentence is pronounced by someone with both the authority and the integrity to issue the verdict and the consequences. This person would be Holy God.
The second tier of justice: The rewards and punishments are delivered on the basis of personal decisions that cogent people intentionally made. Those who want to spend eternity with God get to; those who don't don't.
What about those who never heard, or those too young or mentally incapacitated to decide? That will all be taken into account.
Rom. 5.13: People won't be held accountable for what they didn't know.
Dt. 1.37-40; Num. 14.29; ISA. 7.15: People won't be held accountable for decisions they were too mentally incapable of making.
The third tier of justice: The rewards and punishments will fit the infraction. Hell is not a "One Fire Tortures All." (I don't even think hell is fire. That's just a metaphor to describe the awfulness of separation from God.) There are degrees (but not levels) of punishment in hell:
Mt. 11.22-24 – “more tolerable”
Mt. 23.14 – “greater condemnation”
Rev. 20.13 – “each in proportion to his works”
Lk. 10.12 – “it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town”
Lk. 12.47-48 – beaten with few blows or more blows
For instance, in a company, if everyone gets the same pay raise no matter how hard they worked, what their level of success, how many sales they made, etc., this would be perceived as distributively unjust. Rewards and punishments should be allocated fairly to the appropriate people.
Retributive justice deals with the question of how much. It's a "the punishment should fit the crime" philosophy. Greater infractions should yield more dire consequences.
Hell, then, is certainly portrayed as an exercise of justice. A wrong has been perpetrated, and for justice to be served, balance must be reinstated in a system now askew. If punishment and reward are issued to the correct people in appropriate amounts, we would consider the situation to be fair, and restored to equilibrium.
The first tier of justice: The sentence is pronounced by someone with both the authority and the integrity to issue the verdict and the consequences. This person would be Holy God.
The second tier of justice: The rewards and punishments are delivered on the basis of personal decisions that cogent people intentionally made. Those who want to spend eternity with God get to; those who don't don't.
What about those who never heard, or those too young or mentally incapacitated to decide? That will all be taken into account.
Rom. 5.13: People won't be held accountable for what they didn't know.
Dt. 1.37-40; Num. 14.29; ISA. 7.15: People won't be held accountable for decisions they were too mentally incapable of making.
The third tier of justice: The rewards and punishments will fit the infraction. Hell is not a "One Fire Tortures All." (I don't even think hell is fire. That's just a metaphor to describe the awfulness of separation from God.) There are degrees (but not levels) of punishment in hell:
Mt. 11.22-24 – “more tolerable”
Mt. 23.14 – “greater condemnation”
Rev. 20.13 – “each in proportion to his works”
Lk. 10.12 – “it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town”
Lk. 12.47-48 – beaten with few blows or more blows
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