Questions about the afterlife hold great significance for most Christians. As I mentioned in my last post, however, the terms used to categorise different theories of heaven and hell (such as the ‘traditional view’, the ‘biblical view’, the ‘literal view’, or the ‘metaphorical view’) are often vague and perhaps even inaccurate. In Part 1, I described the first five afterlife models from my list of fourteen: Predestination, Endless Physical Suffering, Simple Separationism, Simple Destruction, and Second-Chance Separationism.
And now, let us continue!
Type 6: Second-Chance Destruction
There are two possible destinations in the afterlife. One of these destinations is eventual destruction into non-existence. Human freedom of choice remains after death, meaning that it may be possible for a person to reconcile to God and escape destruction. This opportunity may continue to be available for some time. However, there will come a point where second chances are no longer possible (maybe because time runs out, or maybe because the desire and ability to change is permanently lost). God will hold off on the final destruction of an individual until this ‘point of no return’ is reached.
Type 7: Perpetual Opportunity
“… the pains of hell are a result of the continuing free choice of the damned. No single sin deserves eternal punishment, nor does any finite number of sins. Since our earthly existence is temporary, we can only commit a finite number of sins in this life, and none of them is infinite in seriousness. So we cannot come to deserve eternal punishment because of these sins. Therefore, the [punishments of hell] can only be eternal if the damned continue to sin eternally; and this eternal sin can only deserve continued punishment if the sin is committed freely…
God’s love for all humanity means that he is always willing to welcome his prodigal sons and daughters with open arms. The only thing preventing him is our stubbornness; as C. S. Lewis put it, the gates of hell are closed from the inside… This version of hell is liberal in allowing for the possibility that someone may repent after death… if the damned continue to sin freely, then they are free to cease sinning as well, and vice versa.”
— Charles Seymour, ‘A Theodicy of Hell’, Chapter 6
There are two possible destinations in the afterlife. One of these destinations could be called ‘hell’. ‘Hell’ could be described as the experience of humans in the afterlife who continually choose to remain separated from God, and instead choose to primarily serve their own ego. Alternatively, ‘hell’ could be said to be a place of punishment, where God fairly punishes those who continually choose to commit new sins.
Human freedom of choice remains after death, meaning that it may be possible for a person to reconcile to God and leave hell. This opportunity is perpetually available to all people in hell; a ‘point of no return’ does not exist. Some people in hell will continue to choose to reject God forever, and therefore ‘hell’ will exist perpetually. The opportunity to leave hell, however, will remain perpetually available to them.
Type 8: Dual-Destination Universalism
“… the agony will be measured by the amount of evil there is in each individual. For it would not be reasonable to think that the man who has remained so long as we have supposed in evil known to be forbidden, and the man who has fallen only into moderate sins, should be tortured to the same amount in the judgment upon their vicious habit; but according to the quantity of material will be the longer or shorter time that that agonizing flame will be burning; that is, as long as there is fuel to feed it. In the case of the man who has acquired a heavy weight of material, the consuming fire must necessarily be very searching; but where that which the fire has to feed upon has spread less far, there the penetrating fierceness of the punishment is mitigated, so far as the subject itself, in the amount of its evil, is diminished. In any and every case evil must be removed out of existence, so that, as we said above, the absolutely non-existent should cease to be at all. Since it is not in its nature that evil should exist outside the will, does it not follow that when it shall be that every will rests in God, evil will be reduced to complete annihilation, owing to no receptacle being left for it?
… Therefore, those who have parted with evil will be united with Him; and so, as the Apostle says, God will be all in all
; for this utterance seems to me plainly to confirm the opinion we have already arrived at, for it means that God will be instead of all other things, and in all.“
— Gregory of Nyssa, ‘On the Soul and the Resurrection’
There are two possible destinations in the afterlife. One of these destinations is ‘hell’, which may or may not involve physical punishments. It may be that a person’s destination is determined by decisions and actions they made within their lifetime (that is, God judges each person’s life and assigns them a destination accordingly). Alternatively, a person’s destination might be decided purely by their own power of individual choice.
The experience of hell will eventually cause all people to reconcile to God (possibly because the punishments of hell cleanse them of their evil nature; possibly because hell makes them realise that doing good and submitting to God is the superior choice). All people will therefore escape hell and go to heaven.
Type 9: Reincarnation
There are two possible destinations in the afterlife. After death, some souls will ascend to the ideal, non-physical realm, while other souls will descend back to the inferior, physical realm, possibly being reincarnated into a human or animal body. It is possible that some souls will also receive additional punishments prior to being reincarnated.
Human souls are inherently immortal, while human bodies are not. Individual human consciousness will continue indefinitely after death.
It may be that a person’s destination is determined by decisions and actions they made within their lifetime (that is, some kind of phenomenon judges each person’s life and assigns them a destination accordingly). Alternatively, a person’s destination might be decided purely by their own power of individual choice.
Each person’s destination in the afterlife will be influenced by their level of knowledge, understanding, and ignorance. Those who led lives of ignorance, attaching themselves to physical pleasures and concerns, will naturally be drawn to remaining in the physical realm.
This is a modified excerpt from my as-yet-unreleased book, Decoding Gehenna: Hell and the Afterlife in the West. Subscribe or Follow Me for updates and more sneak-peek excerpts!
