How Much Hate Is enough?

God had been chipping away at my understanding of hell for quite some time. I had been wrestling theologically for years but one night, several years ago at a bonfire on a friend’s country property, it hit me experientially.

The bonfire was very large. It measured close to 4 metres across and when it was lit, the flames stretched several metres in the air. I sat, with my wife, my children and my friends, around the fire. As a child I had always liked to watch fire, even if it was only the flickering flame of a candle. There is something, at least for me, quite captivating about a bonfire. I sat and watched until the cold of the evening began to settle in. It took some time for me to realise that I was becoming quite cold, but eventually I moved closer to the fire. The heat was intense. I was still quite some distance from the flames, yet I was already too close. It was too hot, yet I could not move away. I stood, just staring into the fire. I was now uncomfortably hot. I took a step closer. I should have taken a step back, not forward, but I could not help myself. Still several metres away from the bonfire, the heat was oppressive. Just 3 metres and 5 minutes before, I had been cold. It was hard to remember that. I removed my jacket, thinking that would help me feel not quite as hot, but that only made it worse. Now I could feel the intense heat on my flesh. I kept staring at the fire, thinking of the hatred it would take to be able to throw someone into the fire. It was literally unbearable for me to be closer than 2 metres to this fire – I tried but could not imagine the pain of actually being in the fire. Your flesh would literally melt off your bones. I began to wonder - how much hatred would it take to put someone through that? A person with deep-seated psychological problems could do it perhaps, but I am talking about someone whole and healthy. How much hate would be enough?

I thought of some people whom I hate. I thought of the people who have hurt my loved ones. I thought of the maniacs who sexually abuse children. I thought of Adolph Hitler and even worse, Josef Mengele, the famous ‘Angel of Death’. How much hate is enough? I could not throw any of those hated people into the fire. It is just too cruel. But, you may well say, these men have done things far worse to their victims – they deserve the fire! Be that as it may, it is not I who could be the one that throws them into the fire. And I strongly believe that you could not be that one either. Perhaps, in a moment of extreme rage (and it would need to be very extreme) my anger might overpower me and I might throw them into the fire. Perhaps, but leaving someone in the fire is even harder than throwing them in. Even if you or I did throw someone into a fire, we could no more leave them in there than jump over the moon. Once you heard the screams, and smelt the burning flesh, something would give way inside of you and you would relent. I cannot conceive of a hatred so intense that would allow me to throw someone into a fire and leave them there - or even worse, holding them in there.

Still standing before the fire, I began to think about God. If I could not throw these people in the fire, what then must we think of the God who could? It is not weakness that prevents me from throwing these folk on the fire - it is compassion and it is mercy. Should we thus conclude that I am in fact more compassionate and more merciful than God? I should think not, but then we must start questioning the doctrine of hell. For if God is more merciful and compassionate than we are, and I believe He is, then He could never cast anyone aside forever - especially in torment.

It warrants thinking about.