Part of the Plan or Unintended Consequence?

It is really a question about the character and sovereignty of God: If Eternal Conscious Torment were part of God’s plan from the beginning, then what would that say about the character of God? On the other hand, if it were an unintended consequence, then what would that say about the sovereignty of God?

God is Love. Whatever the sovereignty of God is, it cannot be anything other than a manifestation of the love of God. In St. Paul’s wonderful description of  Love in 1 Corinthians, we know that love is not coercive. From the same source, we also know that love never fails, never gives up. Love always perseveres.

Did God choose to create a world in which some would suffer eternal conscious torment, knowing full well that such would be the case? Knowing the end from the beginning — indeed, the end is in the beginning — did God choose to create some who would suffer eternally? That does not sound like the God who is Love (1 John 4:8) but rather a monstrous deity, not worthy of worship.

Or imagine a scenario where God really did not know who would accept or who would reject God. To proceed to create in that situation would mean that the eternal torment of any soul — any one of us — would be an acceptable risk, therefore an acceptable loss, to God. Surely that is not the way of Love.

For God to create a world in which all finally turn to God does not require that God must overcome human will, for the problem of human will has never been anyone freely choosing to act against God and the good. Free will is not the ability to choose against one’s inherent nature, for there would be nothing to distinguish such from random event. But free will is the ability to act according to one’s true and inherent nature. 

What is the true and inherent nature of humans? It is that of creatures created in the image of God, to be like God. But the problem of the will is that because of darkness, deception, sin, and ignorance, the human will was impaired, defective, and in bondage. Shall we then imagine that God would allow anyone whose will is defective because of darkness, deception, sin, bondage, or ignorance to suffer eternal torment because of the defective choice of a impaired will is to imagine God as a pitiless and petty being.

The doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment is not a biblical one but is cobbled together from various strains. Nor is it a benign doctrine but one that does great damage to both the character and sovereignty of God — and so also to God’s holiness.