Lesson 233 . Love Does Not Torment Souls Forever

Two teenagers decided to furnish a basement for themselves in one of the houses in the city. But rats lived in this basement. They came to visit, spoiled things and food, and caused disgust. So it was decided to catch these rats with a trap. Every day a new rat with a broken spine lay in this device. These dead rats were piled outside like trophies, as food for stray animals. Then one day, only one of a rat’s legs was broken, and it was still alive, sitting in the trap. The teenagers decided to punish it for being a rat. They devised an execution. They made a fire in the courtyard, found an iron bucket of tar, put the rat into it, covered the bucket with broken glass, and began roasting their victim over a low fire, delighting in the suffering and squeals of the poor rat. It ran around the bucket and squealed in pain, which gave the teenagers savage joy. The rat could not endure such torture and quickly died, much to the disappointment of its tormentors.

What would you say about these people? What would you call them? Sadists. What would you do with these teenagers if you saw this with your own eyes? You would turn them over to the police so that they could be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I think that reading this story brought some very unpleasant thoughts to your mind. But what if a human being were put in the rat’s place? What feelings would then overwhelm you?

And if people did this, we would call them maniacs, sadists, executioners, and murderers, and we would be right.

Now let us leave everything as it is, but imagine a sinner in place of the rat, and put God the Father and the Son in place of the teenagers. During this execution, They can exercise Their Divine power, not allowing the flames of the fire to go out and not allowing the victim to die, endowing him with the gift of eternal life for eternal torment in the fire, while watching with interest how much this sinner suffers and listening to his endless curses and groans as heavenly music, and receiving the smell of burning flesh as a pleasant aroma. And the saved stand nearby and sing a song of praise to Him Who is Love, thanking God that He saved them from such an eternal nightmare, and looking upon the sinner with contempt as they remember how he rejected God’s mercy. How foolish this sounds.

I have simply tried to describe in human terms what people attempt to prove to us doctrinally. Perhaps I have embellished something, but the essence remains the same, except that there is not just one sinner in the fire, but all of humanity.

Simple questions immediately arise:

What is the purpose of eternal torment?

Could these people not be justly punished according to their deeds and then simply deprived of life, so that they would no longer exist anywhere?

Can Love act so savagely toward deceived people?

Will I be eternally happy knowing that somewhere my unbelieving relatives are being tormented forever?

And there are also many questions addressed personally to God. Yet if He is like that, it would be better not to ask anything, but to remain quietly silent and work out one’s salvation in fear and horror, afraid of making a misstep. On what would such faith be based? On fear.

The Bible speaks of the lake of fire. It tells of the punishment and torments of sinners. We are given certain accounts of the final judgment upon the wicked and Satan, and of the second death. All of this is in the Bible. But where did the teaching of the immortality of the soul come from? Who is the author of this doctrine?

Mathematics is an exact science, and if a small error is made at the very beginning of a calculation, then no matter how correctly the problem is solved afterward, the answer will be wrong.

God is Love. And this is the most correct answer, which helps us understand all difficult questions precisely in this light.

It is written that the soul is mortal and that the soul that sins will die. It is very important to understand this question correctly at the very beginning. If I make a mistake in this understanding, all my subsequent theology will be wrong.

We read in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Ezekiel 18:4 states: “Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And verse 20 says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son...”

But Satan says in Genesis 3:4: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.”

Whom will you believe—God or Satan?

Your answer lays the foundation for all your subsequent theology. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the soul is immortal. The book of Revelation says that the souls of those who were slain cry out from under the altar. We read God’s answer in Genesis 4:10: “And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”

The life of a person is in the blood, and this shed blood has a special voice that only God hears; He remembers all the righteous and their premature death for the faith.

The soul is mortal—this is a biblical foundation, and it is logical, humane, just, understandable, and a manifestation of love toward a sinful being.

A sinner will not be able to inherit Eternity, but neither will he be tormented forever. There is simply no purpose in that. Nothing distorts the character of God as much as the teaching of eternal torment. And if eternal torment exists, then God is not Love; He is then more like a merciless sadist. And it deeply grieves Him when people portray Him this way and teach others to do the same.

If I believe in the immortality of the soul, then I must put these sinful souls somewhere. And the more realistically I try to describe hell, the more unreal God’s love appears in this realm of evil, violence, and eternal life in eternal torment.

Today there are many testimonies from people who claim to have seen hell and heard these groans. One cannot argue with their experience. But visions can be tested by the Word of God. Isaiah 8:20 states: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Satan performs many miracles. But if I have witnessed a false miracle, it does not become truth in the light of the Bible, even if my eyes saw something.

God is Love, and this Love does not torment souls forever.

Once I met a man who was striking a mouse against the pavement while holding it by the tail. I asked him why he was doing this. He said that a bicycle had injured it and it was lying on the road in painful agony, so out of love for it he hastened its death so that it would no longer suffer. I immediately imagined how our Lord will deal justly with all sinners. Each one will be resurrected, receive punishment according to his deeds, and then die the second death. Forever. No trace or memory of them will remain. And Eternity will not be torn apart by the cries of miserable souls who, for ten to seventy years of sin, would otherwise have to pay forever through cruel torment.

God is Love. In His just treatment of those who rejected the gift of life, Love will perform His unusual work and destroy sin, sinners, and every memory of it. Everything throughout the Universe will be clean, and God will be eternal Love through all the endless ages of Eternity.

In the light of the Bible and God’s love, the truth about the death of the soul reveals God’s most just and humane treatment of those whom He created for His glory, while giving people freedom of choice and inviting them to choose Him.

Would you want to unite your life with a person who proposes marriage but threatens to subject you to eternal torture if you refuse? Does that sound foolish? We should not attribute to God titles that are foreign to Him. We should not distort love to please Satan. Love casts out fear; there is no torment in love.

Homework 233

1. In the light of our lesson, please read Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4, 20, 23, 32; Isaiah 53:11; Matthew 26:38; Ecclesiastes 9:4–6, 10; Revelation 6:9–10; Leviticus 17:11, 14; Genesis 4:10; and Revelation 20:4–5, 12–15.

2. What did you understand from this lesson?

3. Who benefits from the teaching of the immortality of the soul?

4. Do you believe that God created an immortal soul? Do you have proof for this claim?

5. What happens to the soul after a person dies?

6. Why did Satan begin his first sermon with the words, “Ye shall not surely die”?

7. Why did Adam not die immediately after breaking God’s law? Who took Adam’s sins upon Himself?

8. What do people do after they die?

9. Can belief in the immortality of the soul lead me to believe in spiritualism?

10. If, for example, a soul were to live in hell forever, who would have to give and sustain that life?

11. What is “hell” in the light of the Bible?