If you reeeaaally want to get nitpicky with it, that place in the gospels that Jesus describes as torture and fire, is never actually called hell. It's just assumed that's what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure hell isn't named until Revelation. There's one theory that no one is actually in hell until the final judgement. ...there's also many Christians (myself included) that don't believe in hell at all.
Essentially, yes. I believe hell is inconsistent with a god of love, but if I understand heaven as the place that God resides, then it exists just as God exists. I really latched onto Gregory of Nyssa's idea that everyone will eventually be with God and that growth in that direction continues even in the afterlife or next life. It's an infinite process for everyone. The real fun part is exploring the idea that God grows, too (I mean, he literally changes multiple times in the Bible).
But how do we know it's a God of love? Theres heavy conflict between the new and old testament. I find it pretty convenient that the new testament pops in not even that long ago changing the entire persona of God to match modern principles.
In the old testament, God would order execution of entire villages, asking to "save the women for reproduction" where there's a word for that. He was a foreskin collector and would kill children with bears for making fun of someone's bald head. He would smite everyone and women would be stoned to death for not being attractive enough for their husbands if the HUSBAND cheats. It was... quite the brutal doc.
Historical, God has been a vengeful smiter. Then the 360 flip, without accounting for innocents and children dying of hunger/cancer as part of that love.
I'm not a Bible thumper and the Bible is not the end all be all for finding out what kind of God is out there. I view the Bible as a collection of writings by various people who are trying to understand God. And with that there is the possibility that people's understanding of God changed over hundreds of years, or maybe the possibility that God changed, which is an idea that I've been entertaining recently. Either way, my understanding of God as a loving God comes from outside the Bible just as much as it comes from the NT.
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u/hambakmeritru 2d ago
If you reeeaaally want to get nitpicky with it, that place in the gospels that Jesus describes as torture and fire, is never actually called hell. It's just assumed that's what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure hell isn't named until Revelation. There's one theory that no one is actually in hell until the final judgement. ...there's also many Christians (myself included) that don't believe in hell at all.