Hell, etc

I went to a Church of England church yesterday where the sermon was about hell as a place of never ending torment for all those who aren’t ‘Christians’ by their definition.

I do not understand this. I don’t understand how anyone can believe this and carry on with life as normal. I’ve found one or two bloggers who believe it too.

I believe in hell. A literal, tormentuous hell that is far worse than we can imagine. There are no devils with pitchforks and no sense of community. It is just the sinner and God, full of wrath, one-on-one forever. You don’t want to experience that and neither do I.

The sermon ended with the words (talking about the day of judgement, second coming) ‘we look forward with eager anticipation to that day’ or somesuch, which makes it even more incomprehenible to me.

Someone, please explain.

Update: Please, don’t have nightmares.

Update 2: I know that one can use the Bible to make a case for this doctrine. But like Andii I am “not convinced that the Biblical stuff actually teaches the whole eternal torment thing”.

But that isn’t really my point. I am interested in how someone who does believe this copes with their belief in such a thing.

Update 3: I don’t like this post sitting at the top of my blog really, but I haven’t got any more cartoons scanned to push it down and out of sight.

Update 4: Thanks to Richard, John and Steve for links and further comments. I quite liked what Kim said: “…you’re really looking for a psychopathologist, not a theologian”.

Tim Challies sent a polite reply to my e-mail but is unable to respond at the present time.