Very often Christians are seen as condemning, hateful, and intolerant of other people's beliefs and disbeliefs. Many have said the God of the Bible is an unjust, wrathful dictator who punishes those who do not deserve it. As a result, Christians are seen as bigots who believe we are a corrupt people, actually deserving of this wrath.
If this is your belief, let me disagree with you. I do not like the idea of hell. I do not want to be intolerant, I would much rather be accepting and encouraging. I'd much rather welcome all belief systems with open arms and simply say, "God will welcome your commitment to your faith, whatever faith that might be."
However, I cannot do this. I cannot tell a person he is well when he is dying. I cannot go against what I believe to be true and lie about whether there not being future damnation. I'd much rather the world to be perfect, free from pain, misery, and death. Why would I want to cause even more by believing in and warning others about hell? I do not want to cause even more pain and agony.
I cannot deny what I believe to be true. Against my wishes, I do believe there is a literal and eternal place called hell. I believe that only those who are perfect will not go there, and thus, all of us deserve hell for our imperfection. Against my wishes to simply being in denial, I must accept that hell is what we deserve. Heaven is what I would much rather deserve but the only one who deserves heaven is the one who created it. Thankfully, we, who are enemies of God, can be adopted into the family of God.
We are but hungry orphans in a dying world. God offers us the chance to enter into his family. There is nothing we can do to make it up to God, as an orphan might as well give pocket change to his adoptive father in repayment. How can a deptor repay an impossible dept? God needs nothing from us but desires our love. Our rightful place is to be far from God but he has loved us enough to humble himself to the point of dying for us.
With all of this said, it is not bigatry, intolerance, or hatefulness that I mention hell. I only mention hell because I fear what eternity is in front of the people I encounter, and because I rejoice in the fact that God has made a way out.
Comments
As far as what hell is like, the worst part about it is indeed separation from God. And with the type of punishment, if it is not literally being thrown into a lake of fire I can't imagine being an object of God's wrath to be an enjoyable experience. I do not believe God's wrath can be sugarcoated, nor should it be. To diminish God's wrath is to diminish the meaning behind sending his Son Jesus Christ to die upon the cross.
Your Thessalonians quote does not mean eternal according to Youngs Literal Translation. A finite punishment makes equal sense from direct Koine translation. Also, are you talking about Jude 1:7,not 1:9? Once again, Sodem and Gomorrah is a fine example of a finite time, since the cities were re-built.
YLT does not say in Thessalonians that this is eternal but it that certainly does not mean that the punishment is temporary. You can actually read about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young%27s_Literal_Translation#Eternity_or_age Indeed many try to make the word mean something temporary, but I personally feel that it would be forcing a belief into the Bible that is not what the text says, aka eisegesis rather than exegesis. ...and since when was Sodom and Gomorrah rebuilt? There is even debate about where they once stood as there isn't even a foundation left of them. Many believe the cities were close to the Dead Sea, but I've certainly never heard of them being found. Also, even if they were rebuilt, that does not mean the people who died in Genesis were reborn or had the wrath of God released from them.
enterawesome