Is there a hellfire?
Published:Monday | April 9, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I find Garth Rattray's article 'Winning souls over' (Gleaner, April 9, 2018) quite interesting. The irony of most religious teachings is that the very means that they use to win souls over is that which deters souls, considering people have no fear of hellfire anymore.
But how could someone actually reconcile a God of love with eternal punishment of fire, given that the soul will be able to experience the heat anyway, since the flesh could not withstand the fire for a few minutes, save for eternity? A God who sent His only begotten son to save us with such extreme suffering and personal expenses to both, to now banish us for eternity because of an error during 75 years of living?
Even the human court system would cry injustice. Is man more just than God? When children were being sacrifice to Baal in a fire, God said such a thing did not even enter into his mind. Which is quite understandable, because God's very essence is love.
One need not go much further than scriptures like Ezekiel 18:4, which says, "For the soul that sinneth shall surely die." The wages that sin pays are death (Romans 6:23). We are, therefore, absolved of our earthly transgressions, however heavy, for God is love.
As Mr Rattray says, fire can be used symbolically to mean just complete destruction, as when it says in Revelation that Satan and his demons will be cast forever into eternal fire. What kind of fire would have an effect on spirits anyway?
God draws one to him with ropes of love, not with fear and threats of terror. He desires us to serve Him out of pure love, not out of anxiousness and dread.
HOMER SYLVESTER