Hell Revisited

 

Some questions arise that cause us to revisit the concept of hell; knowing that hell is a place of burning and torment (at least based on the proof-text of its existence and its characteristics – the Bible):  “How could a loving God create a hell and allow some people to go there for eternity?” “An eternity in hell seems to be an extreme penalty for sin, regardless of the severity of the sin.” “Why isn’t there some other place for people to spend eternity besides heaven or hell that is an appropriate penalty to fit their crime”?  (Note that none observe that eternity in Heaven seems to be an extreme reward for repenting and believing, no matter how "late" in life. Remember the thief on the cross?)

 

Of course, our proof-text suggests levels of punishment in hell but let’s not get embroiled in that debate.  Let us just propose a third destination for those who die and who don’t wish to spend eternity with God in Heaven and believe their sins do not merit the hell described in the Bible.  Of course, every sinner would believe their sins do not merit hell, so everyone would go to this third destination.

Let us suppose that when God created hell, which He intended only for fallen angels, He also created another place for sinful man.  

 

Let’s suppose God created a place that is not heaven or hell. Let’s call it “not heaven and not hell.” Let’s call it Nohenohe.  Nohenohe would be a place where God isn’t and, for the purpose of this essay, He has not created it as a place of burning and torment.  Let us assume Nohenohe is a place where basic needs of the sinful departed are met and neither burning nor torment are part of the original creation of the place.  Now, let’s assume that all of those who have no need of God go there.  These are the people who preferred their sin over God.  This seems a reasonable concept to address the posited questions.  Let’s call these people the no-need-for-god people, or “Nogods.” 

 

So we have now provided Nohenohe for all the Nogods. Only the fallen angels go to hell - the Nogods go to Nohenohe.  Again, Nohenohe’s characteristics do not include burning or torment as part of the characteristics built into the place by God.  It provides for the basic needs of the Nogods and let’s assume Nohenohe is pretty much like planet Earth in a pristine condition, at least at the beginning.  Let’s also assume that it runs for eternity without any further intrusion from God.  This is as the Nogods would want…no intrusion by God when they were alive and no intrusion by God on Nohenohe.  Oh...and no one dies on Nohenohe…they already did.

 

Let’s see, who’s the first Nogod?  If we return to our proof-text we find one of the earliest Nogods (and maybe the first) was Cain (the actual first person to die was Able but he went to heaven).  Cain is an unrepentant murderer of his brother, Able, whom Cain killed after God reprimanded, and then warned of sin.  So, when the second Nogod arrived in Nohenohe, perhaps Cain was waiting.

 

Let’s review history and look for some other Nogods who would populate Nohenohe. Let’s consider only some of the Greater Nogods.  The following have been included in various lists of the top 10 most evil men in history (a list of evil women could be provided as well) and would appear to qualify:  Caliqula; Nero; Gaius Ceasar; Gehghis Khan; Attila the Hun; Mao Tse-tung; Ivan the Terrible; Adolf Hitler; Josef Stalin; Pol Pot.

 

All of these departed would enter Nohenohe as Nogods, to die no more.  These Nogods are intermixed with “Middle” Nogods - people ranging from Jack the Ripper to Ted Bundy come to mind; and the Lesser Nogods – the people who never made a name for themselves in the earthly world of the Greater and Middle Nogods, but none-the-less had no need of God in their earthly lives.

 

​Keep in mind that Nohenohe is a place of immortality.  None of the Nogods die.  They already died.  In Nohenohe, they live forever.    Because God is not present in Nohenohe, no Godly controls are present either – no Godly moderating influences like a Billy Graham.  All Nogods are free to live anyway they desire without the influence of God or Godly people.

 

Now, at this point, it is clear how things would proceed on Nohehohe.  We know simply by looking at the history of how things have proceeded on earth throughout the ages.  However, we are somewhat limited in our speculations because unlike on Nohenohe, people on Earth don’t live forever…all die which, fortunately, includes the Greater Nogods. Unlike on Earth, on Nohenohe the Nogods never die and their victims don’t either.  So, the Greater Nogods will never stop their evil activities with the resulting effect on themselves and on the Middle and Lesser Nogods, without end. The Middle Nogods would wreak their own havoc.  One can only speculate on what the Lesser Nogods would contribute (or suffer).

 

If the Nogods’ knowledge extends only to the current knowledge on Earth, one can imagine that the ultimate condition of Nohenohe would be all-out nuclear war resulting with setting the place on fire.  Since no one can actually die, this likely would happen because there would be no deterrent other than the pain of the fire.  Our experience on Earth suggests that this deterrent would not work because the Greater and perhaps Middle Nogods would conceive of ways to avoid creating pain for themselves, at least for a time.  However, ultimately, we know all would be enveloped.

 

It is very likely that the end condition of Nohenohe would be eternal burning and torment, perpetrated by its own inhabitants.

 

Perhaps this is why God did not need to create Nohenohe.