William James

William James
We must get by on what truth we have today, and be willing to call it error tomorrow.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Did God Create Hell?

The comment was made:

"So if God is the creator of Heaven and Earth (glad I didn't have to dig around for that scripture!), then he also created Hell and exiled Lucifer there."

To which I responded:

If we LDS believe in multiple gods, each of whom has the capacity to create things, then it necessarily follows, as I see it, that NOT everything in the universe was created by God. On the subject of hell itself, I am no expert (though at times of discouragement it has felt like I was observing it first hand), but from what I can tell, the doctrine of hell is a somewhat recent invention in the Judeo-Christian tradition. In any event, if there is such a thing as hell (which I tend to doubt), then I envision it as a cold place where people, through their own stubbornness and hatred, cease to progress because they have stopped loving, and that it is a misery not thrust upon them by any outside force (such as God's judgment), but rather is suffered quietly and brought on by their own refusal to see the light. I don't think God has created, or would even need to create, such a place, because it would exist on its own, just as darkness exists automatically in the absence of light. Just speculation.

And in response to another comment that: "So what I'm asking is. . . who chooses Hell when they know that it is a torturous eternity?"

I responded:

I personally believe that few, if any, people will not be saved. It seems to me that a belief, that any soul would ever wind up in eternal misery and be denied salvation and happiness, is irreconcilably inconsistent with the notion that God's love for us is infinite and has no end. It is also irreconcilable with the notion of a perfectly just God, because an infinite punishment, to be just, would necessarily require an infinite crime, and that is something none of us are capable of committing, in my opinion. If God truly loves us that much, he will never give up on us, no matter how badly we have sinned, no matter how much time has passed, no matter how little we deserve his grace. I believe that there have been statements by Brigham Young and statements in the Book of Judas which support my view (which I arrived at on my own). This is not to say that we will be saved "in our sins" as opposed to "from our sins", but rather it is to say that there will never be a time when we are forever foreclosed from repenting, seeing the light, and progressing. The only questions are, how soon will we reach the point of eternal progression, and how fast will we progress.

No comments:

Post a Comment