Physical fire in hell?

[JBlack]

Recently, I was at my local McDonald's, and there was a Christian group there handing out pamphlets and praying for people. A man walks up to me and asks me if I know where I'm going when I die. I was having a long day and I wanted to just ignore him or tell him to piss off, but I've been raised to be respectful so I talk to him. I'm agnostic so I tell him "No, I don't know, and I don't think you do either."

He then talks (on and on) about God and Jesus, and about heaven and hell. He tells me in hell there's going to be a physical fire.

He also tells me that the human body consists of 4 parts. The physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. He said when we die, it's only our physical body that dies. Our physical returns to dust and the rest lives on.

But wait... if Hell has a physical fire, and after death you no longer have a physical body, then how can hell hurt you?

He was confused by my question so I broke it down further for him.

When I was a kid, I burnt my arm on the iron. It hurt and so I cried. However, I didn't cry because my emotions were hurt, or because my spirit was hurt... I cried because my physical body was hurt. Now, when we die, we no longer have physical bodies. So how can a physical fire hurt you if you no longer have a physical body? How can you experience physical pain with no physical body?

He couldn't answer the question. He tried to, but failed miserably. He gave a response, but the response failed to answer the question.

And so my question is:

1. Do Christians believe that hell contains a physical fire? or just some like the man I met at McDonald's?
2. If hell contains a physical fire, how does that fire hurt people who no longer have physical bodies?
3. Is God going to give the hellbound their physical bodies back, just so they can be tortured in a physical fire? (Why not just leave them dead??)

[McCulloch]

1. Do Christians believe that hell contains a physical fire? or just some like the man I met at McDonald's?
2. If hell contains a physical fire, how does that fire hurt people who no longer have physical bodies?
3. Is God going to give the hellbound their physical bodies back, just so they can be tortured in a physical fire? (Why not just leave them dead??)

1. Christians are all over the map with regard to their beliefs about hell.
2. You really got him on that one. Here's a surprise, maybe this guy has not really thought the whole thing through.
3. Good question, I'll bet that the Christians are not in complete agreement on this one either.

Welcome to the forums.

[JBlack]

You're probably right. I don't think he ever thought it through either. I hope he does now though.

Thanks for welcoming me.

[elle]

And so my question is:

1. Do Christians believe that hell contains a physical fire? or just some like the man I met at McDonald's?
2. If hell contains a physical fire, how does that fire hurt people who no longer have physical bodies?
3. Is God going to give the hellbound their physical bodies back, just so they can be tortured in a physical fire? (Why not just leave them dead??)

McCulloch answered this very well, but I will give perspective from when I was a Christian.

1. My sect of Christianity taught that there were three parts to a person: body, soul, and spirit. Every person born had a physical body and soul (which was a person's "breath life"). Christians when they became born again became complete people with god's gift of holy spirit inside of them. Upon death, the body returned to dust, the soul went back to god. So whoever did not have spirit would not have an immortal part of them. Hell was not taught as a place of fire literally or physically, but as the grave where there was no thought or possible communion with god.

2. Some type of magic? I don't know. I was taught that risen Christians would be given new spiritual bodies. I suppose if god could pull all of that off, he could figure out a way to give deceased non-Christians physical bodies that would feel pain but not burn to a crisp after a couple of minutes. I wholeheartedly feel that some beliefs such as this one are not completely thought through or understood by the believer. My sect taught that things were supposed to make sense logically and fit in with science (which when I decided to think logically prompted my departure), and I simply do not see how it is scientifically possible for this place to exist or for this particular type of torture to work.

3. I was taught that the first human body was made from dust (the earth) and so physically that is what humans would return to after death. I think god would need to create new physical bodies. I think that some would argue that eternal hellfire is evidence of god's justice. I disagree. I think leaving non-Christians in their graves in peace is fine. Shouldn't our separation from god be justice enough?

Very interesting questions that I think poke huge holes in the hellfire theory. It would be great if a Christian who holds the belief in a physical hell would attempt to answer this question.

[Jayhawker Soule]

In my opinion heaven and hell are relatively recent concepts, perhaps as recent as Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd century BCE, and served as an attempt to address the Problem of Evil. If reward and punishment are arbitrary, then what does that say of God? If reward and punishment are for actions in this life, then why does horrendous suffering inflict the good while the evil live in luxury? Sure, then, true reward must be a matter of the world to come. Such views would have played well to the Hellenized conscripts of nascent Christianity.

[puddleglum]

Acts 24:15 says "There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust." So those condemned to hell will have physical bodies. It is possible that the fire is literal but it is also possible that conditions in hell are so unlike anything we know that there is no way to describe it literally and so fire is used as a symbol. Whichever it is, there is no doubt that it will be a place of suffering.

[Miles]

Acts 24:15 says "There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust." So those condemned to hell will have physical bodies. It is possible that the fire is literal but it is also possible that conditions in hell are so unlike anything we know that there is no way to describe it literally and so fire is used as a symbol. Whichever it is, there is no doubt that it will be a place of suffering.

In light of all the claims of god being a loving, merciful, just, and compassionate entity, I've always found the idea of hell to be pretty curious. To assign anyone to a place of eternal or even extended but temporary suffering just because they screwed up during their comparatively few years on Earth, strikes me as barbarically cruel, and hardly in keeping with the kind of god described above. Moreover, I fail to see why such a god would be worthy of honest worship---a god whose basic approach to deciding which afterlife a person goes to is one of, "Kowtow to me = here's your reward . Don't kowtow to me = gee, that's the breaks buddy. By By! Maybe next time yo . . . . Oh wait! There is no next time is there. TEE HEE.

[Miles]

Please disregard the last two comments above, which for some reason I'm unable to access to delete.

[Coyotero]

Not sure about hell, but I'm pretty sure there's a physical fire in my guts everytime I eat at McDonald's.

[BrandenHarvey]

1. Do Christians believe that hell contains a physical fire? or just some like the man I met at McDonald's?
2. If hell contains a physical fire, how does that fire hurt people who no longer have physical bodies?
3. Is God going to give the hellbound their physical bodies back, just so they can be tortured in a physical fire? (Why not just leave them dead??)

This is from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective:

1. SDA's believe that when the Bible talks about Hell, it is talking about a time when the wicked dead are resurrected, which is 1,000 years after the second coming of Christ. When this happens, there will be a physical fire that rains from Heaven that consumes and destroys them.

2. It hurts them because they are resurrected with physical bodies.

3. He gives them their bodies back so he can show them why they didn't make Heaven. Then "every knee will bow down and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Then "they will all admit that their punishment is just." They don't burn forever. They are burned until they die. The same as if you caught on fire right now. That's why the Bible calls it a "second death."