Or more specifically, how come eternal punishment for seemingly trivial things is not unfair? The answer is that an offense is not only measured by the action itself, but also by who was offended. Let’s look at an example. My wife and I have two dogs. What happens if I lie to my dogs? Absolutely nothing. They won’t even know. If we had children, what if I lied to them? Not much really, they may never know either, but even if they did, consequences for me would be minimal. What happens if I lie to my wife? Uh-oh, that’s more serious and may result in me sleeping on the couch for a while. What if I lie to the government? I would probably be fined or imprisoned or in some cases maybe put to death (is treason punishable by death? I thought it was…). To keep all other variables constant, let’s say the lie involves me not telling the truth about my income. I made $100,000, but tell everyone I only made $40,000. The punishment for my offense, and the offense itself, is different depending on who I offend.
Now consider God, who we sin against or offend above anyone else. What kind of punishment do we deserve if we offend an infinitely holy, infinitely just, infinitely worthy, infinitely dignified, infinitely honorable God? You guessed it. We deserve infinite punishment. Makes perfect sense to me!
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well, i guess about 99.9% of us are going to be in eternal agony, and i guess im one of them… good bye…
James,
You don’t have to unless you so choose. Check http://blog.zerodeviation.net/good-person-test/ how to get right with God. I’ll pray for you!
Christoph