When I shared this image, I made the comment "Repentance evokes a change of heart that makes punishment unnecessary." This should tie in nicely with what I blogged about yesterday.
The purpose of divine punishment (including the withholding of special blessings, if you want to consider that a punishment) is to inspire change. God doesn't want to hurt us - He wants to help us become better people. Sometimes, we get comfortable where we are, doing what we do, and God gives us a little reminder that we can't stay here (Well, we can, but it won't work out for our greatest happiness). God knows that if a little bit of pain now can prompt us to be better people who will find true happiness later, then our well-deserved spanking will have been worth it.
That should answer the question of the purpose of punishment on Earth, but what of Eternal Punishment, i.e. Hell?
I believe that the desired effect is the same, but that the method is different. Instead of giving us a kick in the pants here and now, God warns us that we're going to get our pants kicked if we don't straighten up. The ideal in this situation is that, by warning us about a potential, severe punishment, we repent to avoid the punishment, so the punishment never has to actually happen. But for some people, it does. What then?
I find it hard to imagine a loving God subjecting His children to the endless torture of undying flames that some people believe hell to be, even if they deserve it. I personally think that any pain that goes on in hell will be emotional and self-inflicted. I'm sure this idea didn't start with me, but I can't remember where I got it, so I can't cite the correct source, but I'm sure I've heard that the pain of hell is actually not externally-sourced torture, but the internal pain of regret. If, in hell, we know what choices we made and what happiness could have been ours if only we had made wiser choices, merely having that knowledge might be punishment enough.
Whatever hell is, God knows, and He wants us to avoid it, so He warns us about it, and does all He can to steer us away from it. By our behavior, many of us occasionally take steps toward hell, and God tries to discourage that as much as He can, and if He has to hurt us sometimes to keep us away from even greater hurt, so be it.
But really, I'm sure He'd rather not hurt us at all. He wants us to do good for the sake of doing good, not just to avoid punishment. He wants us to willingly walk in that hope-filled path and to have a more glorious future. As always, God knows and wants what's best for us, and sometimes He makes it painfully clear that He really, really wants us to repent.
1 comment:
I think hell is knowing who and what we could have been and what we could have had. I also think there will also feeling the pain we caused for which we have not repented. It is not necessarily "punishment" but natural consequences and the result of natural law. It will, however, feel like punishment. I do not believe that God inflicts punishment to hurt us for being bad, but that there are laws that dictate consequences. Obedience to law (including repentance) brings pleasant consequences. Disobedience brings unpleasant consequences. God knows and tries to tell us.
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