When writing about Hell, C.S. Lewis noted the following in his 1940 work The Problem of Pain:

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, especially, of Our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom, and it has the support of reason.”

He’s far from alone.

Hell is an extremely difficult doctrine to come to terms with; a loving God who would go as far as to lay down His life and cast people into a fiery pit for eternity doesn’t sit well.

Far from being the “good news”, the Gospel message would be a warning – a threat even – that the consequences would be unimaginable if people don’t believe the events to be true.

This isn’t a new philosophical problem either’ fo centuries, theologians have wrestled with the concept of Hell, with many developing thought experiments to try and make sense of it.

The fact that almost all talk of Hell in the Bible employs metaphor rather than concrete descriptions actually invites this kind of imagined, careful, reverent speculation.

4th-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa is an early example of conducting thought experiments around Hell.

He wondered if, eventually, God’s punishment of sinners in Hell would come to an end and all would eventually be absorbed into the good.

The wider church rejected this idea, but they tolerated it as a speculation generated by Gregory’s passionate insistence on God’s goodness.

Then there’s the thought experiment you often hear that Hell is just separation from God.

It’s not torture in any real sense, but it’s hellish because what could be worse than being outside the presence of God?

The big problem with this train of thought, though, is that if God holds every particle in existence in every moment, how could anyone or anything be beyond the presence of the omnipresent one?

Anyone in Hell with functioning logic would know that God is actually present in the deepest possible way.

Perhaps the most well-known (at least in Christian circles) thought experiment on Hell comes from the aforementioned C.S. Lewis in his work The Great Divorce.

In that book, Hell is a diminished existence, such that people don’t just deserve hell; they actually choose to stay there because they can’t bear the glorious realities.

There’s another thought experiment though that’s helped John Dickson reflect on this issue.

What if the horrific descriptions of Hell in the teaching of Jesus are horrors only relative to the glories of God’s kingdom?

1 Corinthians 2 says;

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, these things God has prepared for those who love him”.

In other words, although we do have lots of pictures of God’s kingdom, pearly gates, streets of gold, fruitful abundance, and eternal singing, all of it is inadequate.

The metaphors excite the imagination and the expectation of bliss, but they don’t capture what’s in store.

Something like that must also be true of the equally dramatic metaphors of hell; fire, darkness, beating with rods, and so on.

Those, too, are pictures designed to shock the imagination into contemplating the loss of God’s glorious kingdom.

Relative to streets of gold, Hell is darkness.

Relative to eternal choirs of joy, hell is grinding teeth.

Relative to feasting on the Tree of Life, Hell is a scorching fire.

Hell is horror, but only as measured against the ecstasies of the kingdom.

The relative distance between Heaven and Hell, bliss and loss, stays constant forever, but the experience of Hell is torment only in comparison to the overwhelming ecstasies of heaven.

Here’s where things can become truly weird.

“This thought experiment suggests that Hell might be eternally better than anyone truly deserves.,” poses John.

“The punishment of damnation then lies in the immeasurable loss of what could have been.

“Hell compares to heaven like Darkness compares to streets of gold, or fire compares to feasting; the metaphors end up being true in their contrasts, but the popular caricature of God torturing people in Hell simply doesn’t hold when viewed through this lens.”

In this thought experiment, each person in Hell will fully recognise that their degree of loss or shame is deserved, and commensurate with their deeds.

At the same time, they’ll know that they’ve received far more mercy than they could ever have hoped for, given their rejection of God and His ways.

Of course, none of this might be true.

However, if humans’ very limited logic and imagination can conceive of a scenario that helps us cope with the thought of loved ones in Hell, then surely the truth of the matter, whatever it is, will be even more satisfying.

That’s the aim of thought experiments like this: to take seriously the terrifying metaphors Jesus offered about Hell while holding fast to the knowledge that this is the same Lord who gave up his life to save people from judgment.

How can this Lord be judge and yet not a torturer? That’s the question.

This thought experiment offers a response.

Adapted by Alasdair Belling from Undeceptions episode 147 ‘On Hell’. Listen here

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