Introduction
Many people mistakenly read Holy Scripture in an overly literalistic way, concluding that God is inherently wrathful and that He created hell as a place designed to torture sinners and rebels against their will. This understanding, however, does not reflect the fullness of the biblical witness nor the patristic mind of the Church.
Throughout Scripture, God is consistently revealed as One who respects human free will. In Deuteronomy 30:19, the Lord sets before Israel a genuine choice: life or death, blessing or curse. Humanity is not coerced into communion with God, nor is it forced into separation from Him. Rather, each person freely chooses either to move toward God or to depart from Him.
Furthermore, when Scripture speaks of hell, Gehenna, or the Lake of Fire, it does so primarily through prophetic and apocalyptic language. Such language employs intense and symbolic imagery to convey profound spiritual realities, not crude or literal descriptions of physical mechanisms. Misunderstanding this kind of genre leads to misunderstanding the message itself.
Before we can speak accurately about hell, we must first understand who God is. For if hell exists by God’s allowance, then its nature can only be understood in light of God’s nature. A distorted understanding of God inevitably leads to a distorted understanding of hell.
It was precisely this failure that led certain groups in the early centuries of Christianity, commonly referred to as the Gnostics, to conclude that the God of the Old Testament was a different deity that was very wrathful, vengeful, and cruel. In contrast, they claimed that the God revealed in the New Testament was a god of love, mercy, and grace who came to rescue humanity from the evil Old Testament god. Because of what they perceived as divine wrath in the Old Testament and divine mercy in the New Testament, they could not accept that both revelations spoke of the same God. Their error was not in recognizing God’s mercy, but in failing to understand the Old Testament God rightly.
We will examine, by the guidance of God, how He truly honors human freedom, and how hell is not a created chamber of torture into which God forcibly casts sinners, but rather a tragic consequence of freely chosen separation from Him. Only by rightly understanding God’s nature can we begin to understand His justice, His wrath, and the reality of hell itself.
The Wrath of God
To understand what Scripture means by “the wrath of God,” we must first clarify what divine wrath is and what it is not. God’s wrath cannot be equated with human wrath, for Scripture explicitly condemns wrath as a destructive passion. In the moral language of the West, it is counted among the “Seven Deadly Sins,” precisely because it disorders the soul and alienates a person from God.
The Holy Apostle Paul commands:
Let all bitterness, and rage, and wrath (ὀργὴ), and clamor, and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.
Ephesians 4:31
If wrath is something the Holy Apostle Paul orders to be removed from within us, then it is not from God or given by Him. For wrath is not among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, Scripture teaches that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). Human wrath stands in opposition to these virtues of God.
This raises an important question: In what possible manner, then, can Scripture speak of God as being “wrathful”?
At the same time, Scripture repeatedly and unambiguously affirms that God is love (1 John 4:8), that He loves His people with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), and that His mercy endures forever (Psalm 136). Any interpretation of divine wrath that contradicts these affirmations must therefore be mistaken.
If God were wrathful in the human sense, being subject to emotional outbursts, irrational anger, or vindictive rage, He would be sinful. For wrath is sinful. Such an idea would directly contradict God’s holiness, immutability, and perfection. God cannot possess what He condemns, nor can He act contrary to His own nature.
Therefore, when Scripture speaks of God’s “wrath,” it cannot be describing a passion or emotional disturbance within God. Rather, it speaks in accommodated, anthropomorphic language, revealing how God’s unchanging goodness is experienced differently by those who reject it. Divine wrath is not a defect in God, but a consequence of human sin encountering divine holiness.
By the way, for those who do not know what anthropomorphic language is.. It is when human traits, emotions, or actions are attributed to God so that finite humans can understand Him.
Examples include God’s “hand”, which refers to His power. God’s “eyes” refer to His knowledge. God’s “anger” or “wrath” refers to His just response to evil. God “repenting” in Scripture simply refers to a change in how humans experience His action, not a change in God Himself. God is infinite, immaterial, and beyond comprehension Humans need analogies to grasp divine realities. Anthropomorphism is pedagogical, meaning that it is designed to teach. It is not literal.
Hence, logically, when Scripture says “His mercy endures forever”, this is not saying God feels mercy the way humans feel emotion, but that His unchanging goodness is eternally experienced as mercy by those who turn to Him. For God does not have mood swings where one time He is merciful, and another time He is not.
God Is Love
Scripture teaches that God is unchanging (Hebrews 13:8). From this, we understand something fundamental about God’s nature: God does not become loving, nor does He cease to love. God IS love.
Love is not merely a quality that God happens to possess. Created beings may possess love, grow in love, or lose love, but none can truthfully say that they are love itself. Only one Being can make such a claim: God Almighty. As the Holy Apostle John declares, “God is love” in 1 John 4:8.
If love were merely a property that God possessed, this would imply that love existed either prior to God or independently alongside Him, as something external that God acquired or participated in at some point. Such a view would reduce love to a created or abstract principle and place it above or beside God. No, this would be absurd theology with no foundation at all.
Rather, love exists because God exists. Love is not something God encounters; it is who God eternally is. God does not draw love from elsewhere, nor does He fluctuate between loving and not loving. Because God is immutable, His love is unceasing, inexhaustible, and eternal.
All creatures participate in love only insofar as they participate in God. We know love precisely because we share in Him. By this, we also know that love is a Divine Energy, which is God’s life and goodness communicated to creation. God cannot stop loving, because to cease loving would be to cease being Himself.
Therefore, when Scripture speaks of God’s actions, whether in mercy, judgment, or correction, they must always be understood as expressions of the same unchanging divine love. God is love, and nothing He does is ever contrary to that truth.
Saint Isaac the Syrian on God’s Wrath
So then, if God is Love, and if wrath is explicitly condemned by Scripture as not of God, or even a fruit of the Holy Spirit, then why is the word ascribed to God like in Ephesians 5:6, which says that the wrath (ὀργὴ) of God will come upon the sons of disobedience?
Let’s see what Saint Isaac the Syrian has to say for us:
2. It is completely wrong for us to imagine that anger, wrath, jealousy, or similar emotions have anything to do with God’s nature. No one in their right mind, and no one with true understanding, could possibly believe such a thing about God. We also cannot say that He acts out of retribution, even though Scripture sometimes seems to suggest this on the surface. To think this of God, or to suppose He punishes evil acts in the way humans do, is utterly unacceptable.
If we claim that God uses such things as retribution, we are implying that His nature has a weakness. Even virtuous and upright humans, whose thoughts are in full harmony with God’s will, rarely act out of pure retribution. How much less could we believe this of God, who created humanity with honor and great love?
God knows every person and every action, and His grace never ceases for anyone. Even when people commit many evil acts, He does not stop caring for them, not even for a moment (Ezekiel 33:11).
If someone claims that God tolerates sin on earth just to show His patience before punishing people mercilessly later, they are thinking in a profoundly blasphemous way. Such a person diminishes God’s kindness, goodness, and compassion, which are the very qualities by which He truly bears with sinners. They wrongly assume that God is bound by passion or emotion, and that His patience is only a temporary cover for future punishment. Not only is this a false view, but it also slanders God (Hebrews 13:8)…
15. Scripture reminds us that God does not repay evil in the way humans do. Instead, He sets things right. Repaying evil is a trait of wicked people, while correcting evil is characteristic of a loving father.
Scripture sometimes presents God as giving rewards or punishments as if by requital. But this is not His actual purpose. His goal is to inspire love and reverence in us, so that we live morally upright lives. By love, we grow in understanding and wisdom…
17. To think otherwise is childish. It portrays God as weak. It implies that after creation became corrupted against His will, He had to devise a plan to punish it. Such thinking is a feeble way of understanding the Creator.
19. Just because Scripture uses terms like wrath, anger, or hatred for God, we should not think that He actually experiences these emotions. Many figurative terms are used in Scripture, and they are far removed from His true nature.
As humans, our rational nature grows gradually in understanding the mysteries of God. We should not take everything in Scripture literally. Instead, we should seek the hidden providence and eternal knowledge behind the stories. In the future, we will understand many things that seem mysterious or contradictory now. There are countless aspects of God’s plan that we cannot even imagine.
22. …To claim otherwise is blasphemous. To say that God will hand people over to suffering or torment as vengeance implies enmity or spite. Nothing God does is vengeful. All His actions are entirely motivated by mercy, love, and compassion.This is the beginning and the end of His dealings with us.
-Saint Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies (Paraphrased).
Saint Isaac the Syrian explains how God does not operate the same way human beings do, and that He most definitely does not possess weaknesses such as wrath. For He is perfect, holy, and without sin. Since the divine mode of existence transcends human comprehension, Scripture employs terms such as “wrath”, “anger”, and “provocation” to express the grave and fearful consequences of sin when it encounters God’s uncreated light.
This follows the same logic as Scripture’s statement that God “rested” on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2), not because God grows weary, but because divine realities are communicated through human language suited to our limitations. In this way, Scripture speaks economically for our good, adapting eternal truths to finite understanding. For this reason, passages that speak of God’s wrath must not be interpreted in a crude or literal manner.
Therefore, God’s wrath is not God experiencing anger or emotional disturbance. Rather, it describes the painful and distressing experience of a person who resists the loving and patient presence of God. The Divine Love that brings peace and joy to the righteous is experienced as discomfort and torment by those who reject it. Thus, God’s wrath is not an emotion within God, but the human experience of encountering the Divine Light and Fire while standing in opposition to it.
Examples
Think about it. When God “punished” anyone, what did exactly happened?
💛 The Flood (Genesis 6–9): At first glance, it seems that God is directly destroying humanity. In reality, God’s withdrawal of restraint allows creation to collapse toward disorder. The waters returning recall the pre-creation state, when the earth was “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). Death and destruction arise not from divine aggression, but from the absence of God’s sustaining presence (Psalm 104:29–30).
💛 Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19): Fire and brimstone falling from heaven may appear as divine assault. Yet these elements symbolize the manifestation of God’s holiness. The cities were morally corrupt, and when confronted by divine light, they could not endure it and were “consumed”. God is Light (Psalm 36:9; John 1:9), and just as light reveals what is hidden, God’s holiness exposes and overwhelms sin. The “fire” is not intentional wrath but the natural consequence of unrepentant souls encountering divine perfection.
💛 Isaiah’s Vision (Isaiah 6): When the Holy Prophet Isaiah sees God on His throne and cries “Woe is me!”, it may appear as fear in the face of a wrathful God. In truth, Isaiah is reacting to the overwhelming glory and holiness of God. His fear is the natural human response to encountering the unapproachable light of divine perfection while still sinful. The “punishment” is the weight of God’s glory on an unprepared soul, not an act of wrath.
💛 Uzzah and the Ark (2 Samuel 6:6–7): When Uzzah tried saving the Ark of the Covenant from falling to the ground and dies instantly for touching it, it may seem like divine anger. In reality, the Ark represents God’s manifest presence. The human body cannot endure direct contact with pure holiness without proper preparation. God does not strike with vengeance; rather, the lethal effect arises from the unmediated exposure of mortals to His holiness.
In each case, when Scripture describes God “punishing” people, the human perspective interprets divine action as retribution, but a closer reading in light of God’s love and holiness reveals a deeper reality: that what appears as punishment is ultimately the natural consequence of encountering divine perfection and holiness. God’s actions are not motivated by anger or vindictiveness, but by the immutable reality of His love and the overwhelming power of His presence.
Cruel Law of Moses?
But what about instances in Scripture where God commanded people to be stoned for certain sins, or ordered the prophets of Baal and apostates to be slain? At first glance, such passages seem violent. Let’s be clear here. God did not create violence. He entered a violent world and governed it as it was, not as it should have been.
God had two options:
1. Let Israel fully collapse into violence and paganism.
2. Enter their broken legal system and restrain it from within.
God chose the second option. He bore the moral burden of governing a fallen, sinful, and rebellious nation rather than leaving them to self-destruction. So can we not see that all this was done in love? For a greater good? For if Israel dissolved into idolatry, assimilated into surrounding cults, practiced child sacrifice, and lost covenantal identity overall, then God’s perfect plan for eventual salvation and freedom from sin for all through Jesus Christ would not come to pass.
God, as sad as it is true, had to use drastic and extreme measures in a world with hard-hearted and rebellious people (Matthew 19:8). However, God never willed any of the terrible things to happen (Lamentations 3:33).
This is exactly why when the Holy Apostles James and John asked Jesus if He wanted them to command fire to come down from heaven, that it may consume the unbelievers, Jesus rebuked them because God does not, and has NEVER, liked violence. Nor does God wish any man to perish, but to have Life Eternal (Ezekiel 33:11).
54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;
56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
Luke 9:54-56
Jesus did not justify the violent judgments of the Old Testament. He did not say it was necessary either. He said their spirit was wrong for even desiring it to happen. Jesus was trying to say that violent vengeance and retribution was never God’s true spirit.
What appeared as divine wrath in the Old Testament was often a concession to human hardness of heart, permitted for a time to maintain order and preserve the people for a greater plan.
Can we not, therefore, see that the reason why the Law was so cruel, was not because God wished for the lives of sinners as payment for their sins in rage, but rather because God was doing His very best to preserve Israel for a greater plan of salvation in the future? Its severity was never an expression of God’s rage or desire for revenge, as the Holy Apostles James and John understood mistakenly.
We see this truth, even in the Old Testament itself, in 1 Kings 19:11–13. In this passage, the Holy Prophet Elijah is commanded to stand before the Lord on Mount Horeb. A mighty wind tears the mountains apart, yet the Lord is not in the wind. An earthquake follows, but the Lord is not in it. Then comes a great fire, and again the Lord is not present. Finally, Elijah hears a still, small voice. In this moment, God reveals that His true presence is not found in violence or destruction, but in gentleness and quietness.
This encounter foreshadows Christ Himself, who did rebuke His disciples for assuming that God dwells in consuming fire and violent judgment. God is not revealed in wrathful spectacle, but in love, mercy, and humility. What Christ unveils is not a change in God, but the unveiling of who God has always been.
Hell is NOT Literal
We can reasonably conclude, then, that Hell is not a literal place of fire, lava, or physical torment. To interpret it this way would portray God as bloodthirsty, arbitrarily casting people into flames to be tortured eternally against their own will, which is a notion utterly incompatible with Scripture’s revelation of a loving and just God.
What does Scripture even say about Hell anyway? Scripture says that Hell is or has these things:
- Unquenchable Fire (Matthew 5:22)
- Outer Darkness (Matthew 8:12)
- Prison (Jude 1:6)
- Undying Worms (Mark 9:48)
- Corpses of Death (Isaiah 66:24)
The problem arises when these descriptions are interpreted literally because they do NOT logically add up.
Fire produces light, but Jesus says that Hell is an outer darkness. So how could both exist simultaneously? Hell cannot be a literal prison because that would imply it being an enclosed structure with cells. And how are there worms living in Hell if there is fire there, supposedly? Last time I checked, worms cannot survive in fire. Hell is said to contain corpses, but if the dead are unconscious, how can they experience punishment?
Hell Explained
So common sense, Scripture, and patristic insight all indicate that the depictions of Hell are not literal, but rather apocalyptic imagery conveying profound spiritual truths.
Unquenchable Fire: This imagery reflects what Isaiah experienced in his vision in Isaiah 6: The overwhelming presence of God without healing. For God is indeed a fire (Hebrews 12:29). An analogy of this would be how one and the same fire can purify gold and yet burn straw. Likewise, God’s holiness can purify the righteous saints and yet burn unprepared sinners. So this fire is not imposed punishment, but rather God’s love encountered as pain.
Outer Darkness: This imagery represents the rejection of divine illumination (John 3:19). It is not the absence of God either, but rather the refusal of Him. This is why Jesus says there will be gnashing of teeth there (Matthew 8:12); it illustrates the soul’s experience of distance from God. Though it feels forsaken and condemned, God’s love remains; it is the soul, wounded by its own choices, that experiences what we perceive as wrath, darkness, or forsakenness.
Prison: This imagery depicts the bondage of the soul to its own will. Sin immobilizes the soul (John 8:34). When this happens, the soul cannot move toward love; not because God restrains the soul, but because the soul no longer knows how. This is exactly the tragic case of satan, who is not prevented from repenting by God, but rather is too deep into his own pride that he cannot find his way out. Even if he were to be sorry, it would be nearly impossible to repent.
Undying Worms: This imagery symbolizes unending inner corruption. It is the memory of sins that does not sleep and thus brings forth gnawing regret, obsessive remembrance, and self-consuming shame. The soul becomes its own decay.
Corpses of Death: This imagery goes along with the Undying Worms, portraying the spiritual death and decay that sin brings. God is Life itself; separation from Him results in death, as Adam experienced through sin. A spiritually dead person cannot experience true joy or fulfillment. That is why God’s presence, which is Life itself, becomes intolerable in this state. Thus, inner corruption only grows and gets worse because the soul has lost the source of Life itself; that is, God.
In other words, Hell is not a physical place, but a state of being. It is the tragic condition of a soul that freely rejects God and experiences the natural consequences of that rejection. It is the human encounter with God’s infinite love and holiness when the soul refuses communion with Him.
Commonly Misunderstood Verses
41 Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;”
Matthew 25:41
This verse is often taken to mean that Hell is a literal place of physical torment. In reality, Hell is indeed prepared when unrepentant sinners are exposed to God’s Divine Presence that, without purification, is experienced as consuming fire. It is not God actively inflicting pain, but the soul’s inability to receive His holiness.
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the Gehenna of Fire.
Matthew 5:22
This verse, likewise, is misunderstood to mean that Hell is a literal physical place of torture because of the mentioning of Gehenna. Gehenna was indeed a real place where garbage and dead animals were burnt outside of Jerusalem. Therefore people interpret Hell to be a place outside of God’s Kingdom where people shall be burnt alive.
This is kinda close to the truth, but the reality is that Jesus uses Gehenna as imagery to reflect how people experience God’s presence as a consuming fire, along with true separation from God, meaning that the soul is unable to receive Him. For God is omnipresent, even in Hell.
8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8
This verse is also misunderstood to mean that the Lake of Fire is a literal place of torture that God made. However, this imagery is eschatological and symbolic, as is all of Revelation. No reasonable person will think Revelation is a literal book; it is full of symbolism.
A similar imagery appears in Daniel 7:10 where a river of fire flows forth from God. The Lake of Fire is God’s Holiness and Presence of Divine Glory that cannot be approached or borne without transformation. For God’s presence at Sinai was a fire. Even Jesus’ eyes are a blazing fire in Revelation 1:14.
For Topheth has long been ready,
Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.
He has made it deep and large,
A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.
Isaiah 30:33
In Isaiah 30, this verse describes the Final Judgment, not as a literal lake of fire, but as a furnace with wood. This difference in imagery shows that the descriptions are symbolic rather than literal, for God does not change: the lake of fire in Revelation and the pyre in Isaiah are both images of the same divine reality, experienced differently by different souls.
Notice that God never claims to create these places. Scripture simply says that they are “prepared”. When Topheth is described as “long prepared for the king of Judah,” it refers to Judah’s rebellion: under threat from Assyria, the people sought help from Egypt, relying on human strength rather than the Life-Giver Himself.
From the moment the Israelites turned from God, the reality of hell began to take shape, not as a constructed place of fire, but as the soul departing from God. God is not creating wood or flames; rather, the breath of the Lord sets it aflame, showing that the torment is the soul’s encounter with God’s unchanging holiness in a state of resistance.
Thus, any biblical description of hell, including the Lake of Fire that burns with brimstone, represents the holy presence of God revealed to sinners in an unrepentant state. Hell is prepared in life, shaped by our choices, and only made manifest after death, which seals the soul’s condition for eternity.
And, yes, Topheth is a prophetic image of the Final Judgement like the lake of fire because Topheth was a literal site in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), which Jesus uses to describe the final state of the soul.
Torment from God’s Holy Presence
2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.
Revelation 15:2
In this vision, the Saints are depicted as standing upon the divine fire itself, which proceeds from the presence of God. Yet they are not harmed by it. The fire is not chaotic or destructive, but stable, purified, and even beautiful; it is a symbol of God’s holy and unveiled glory as experienced by those who are prepared for it.
By contrast, the unrepentant respond to this same Divine Presence with terror:
16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence (προσώπου, prosōpou) of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath (ὀργῆς, orgēs) of the Lamb.
Revelation 6:1610 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence (ἐνώπιον, enōpion) of the holy angels and in the presence (ἐνώπιον, enōpion) of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:10
The torment of the wicked occurs not away from God, but in His very presence. Thus, Revelation presents Divine Fire as a single, unchanging reality in that it is joy and stability for the saints, but torment for those who are unprepared to stand before God’s holiness.
In this light, God’s wrath is best understood not as a separate act or substance, but as the mode in which God’s holy presence is experienced by sinners who cannot bear His might and purity. Even the brimstone part is linked to the breath of the Lord, as we have already seen in Isaiah 30:33, further reinforcing that what burns the wicked is what proceeds directly from God Himself.
We see this in chapter 6, where the wicked do not flee from a created punishment, but from the face and presence of God Himself. The “wrath of the Lamb” is directly associated with His revealed presence, indicating that divine wrath is not something separate from God, but the experienced reality of His holiness by those who cannot endure it.
Sea of Glass
Revelation 15:2 has the Saints standing on the sea of glass mixed with fire, as we have already seen. The glass is said to be LIKE crystal (κρυστάλλῳ) in Revelation 4:6. Now, I have already explained the fire part, but now we will discuss the glass part because it proves that Heaven and Hell are experiences of the soul in relation to God’s holiness.
In the Old Testament, crystal was used as an imagery for the glory of Heaven, empowered by God’s presence. Revelation calls back to this imagery.
💛 Exodus 24:9-10 LXX: God Himself stood on Mount Sinai and below His feet was a pavement of crystal, namely Sapphire (σαπφείρου), that was as clear as the Heavens. This is the glory of Heaven, empowered by God, now present and brought down on Earth by those who chose to obey and do the will of God This is how God is experienced when encountering the holy and sanctified instead of a consuming fire as the Israelites perceived in verse 17. For instead of consuming, the fire becomes purifying.
💛 Ezekiel 1:22, 25-28 LXX: The same imagery is presented here. The Living Beings are underneath a firmament that is above their heads, which is described as crystal (κρυστάλλου) in verse 22 and the throne therein as Sapphire (σαπφείρου) in verse 26. See how Ezekiel recalls the crystal-Sapphire imagery from Exodus? It then goes on to elaborate on the glory of God, resembling a man, who looked like glowing metal with fire around it from the loins up in verse 27. It further goes on to elaborate on the radiance of Him being like a rainbow.
💛 Ezekiel 10:1 LXX: Ezekiel also sees an expanse-like firmament over the heads of the Cherubim, where God’s throne is, which is again described as Sapphire (σαπφείρου) in appearance.
💛 Isaiah 54:11-12 LXX: God says that He will lay the foundations of Israel on Sapphire (σάπφειρον) and their gates of Crystal (κρυστάλλου). So this crystal-Sapphire imagery that we see in Scripture is an obvious reflection of God’s glory in the highest, which will be fully manifest in the ages to come.
Now, when we get to Revelation’s sea of crystal where the Saints stand on, we get the message of the imagery; it is God’s most excellent glory, unveiled and revealed, upon the Saints who are not harmed by it. This is why they can also stand in the fire of God and not be consumed. The glory of Heaven is now among men and it does not overwhelm them. For they are holy and in alignment with God’s will and holiness.
On the contrary, the unveiled glory of God, and His manifest glory and purity that He fills the Heavens with, is experienced as the Lake of Fire and Brimstone by sinners; torment, anguish, and aching. For they cannot withstand the overwhelming presence of the Most Holy and Pure God.
Conclusion
God fully respects human free will. He does not coerce or force anyone, yet our choices carry real consequences. Sin brings death, but God offers life.
God does not delight in the suffering or destruction of the wicked. He does not create literal flames and lava to torture sinners. Instead, God’s presence is a consuming fire: He never prevents anyone from repenting, but those who reject Him experience the natural consequences of that rejection. Suffering in Hell is not imposed by God. Rather, it is the outcome of turning away from His mercy.
God is fire, and people experience Him differently according to their spiritual state. The saints are purified and unharmed, while the unrepentant are consumed and experience torment when exposed to His holiness.
This is seen in Scripture, like when the burning bush was not consumed by God’s fire in Exodus 3:2. The Theotokos is another example. For she bore God Himself without being consumed for bearing holiness itself.
On the contrary, those who approached God irreverently were consumed. An example of this is when the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were struck down by divine fire for offering unauthorized fire in Leviticus 10:1. Another example would be how some of Korah’s fellow rebels were consumed by fire from the Lord for rebelling against Moses in Numbers 16:35.
In all of these, God’s fire is not vindictive; it is the holy, purifying, and life-giving presence of God. Those who suffer do so not because God delights in their pain, but because His love and holiness cannot be fully received by those who resist Him.
The Church’s Stance on Hell
The Church was not always united on what exactly Hell and the Lake of Fire was in the earliest centuries. Most did agree on the fact that the Final Judgement was real, that evil and unrepentant sin have serious consequences, that the righteous are ultimately united with God, and that separation from God is the worst possible fate.
💛 Eternal Punishment: Early Christians such as Saint Clement of Rome (c. 35-101) and Saint Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) believed that the Lake of Fire, which follows after Hell, would be eternal conscious torment. This is seen in Saint Clement of Rome’s Second Epistle, Chapter 6, verse 7, where he says that nothing shall deliver us from eternal punishment if we disobey God’s commandments, and Saint Justin Martyr’s First Apology, Chapter 52, where he says that the wicked will be endued with eternal sensibility into everlasting fire.
💛 Annihilationism: This is another view that was held by some Early Christians such as Arnobius of Sicca (c. 250-330 AD) that viewed the souls are eventually annihilated and pass away when cast in the Lake of Fire. This can be found in his Against the Nations, Book II, §14, pg. 79-80 (Page 107-108 website). Saint Basil the Great (c. 329-379 AD) also testifies that by his time, masses of mankind did in fact believe that there was an end to Eternal Punishment. This can be found in Theology: Questions of the Day, Chapter 11, pg. 136-137. However, it is important to note that Arnobius of Sicca is among the few who explicitly teaches annihilationism because the view was not that mainstream in the Early Church.
💛 Apokatastasis: Apokatastasis, otherwise known as Universalism, was a view held by some Early Christians that all rational creatures, whether human or angel, will eventually be restored into harmony with God after a period of corrective and purifying punishment. Early Christians with this view included Origen of Alexandria (c. 184-254 AD). We see this in his On the First Principles: Book I, Chapter 6, §1-2, where he says that the wicked shall be subdued under Christ and thus be saved since Scripture says all knee will bow to Him. It is important to note that Origen of Alexandria is among the few who explicitly taught universalism because this view wasn’t that mainstream in the Early Church either. Others are accused of also being universalist, but there’s not much evidence other than secondary sources saying so like council condemnations and whatnot.
💛 Metaphorical Hell Imagery: This is the view that the heated and wrathful imagery of Hell is metaphorical for the intense spiritual realities. Early Church Figures with this view include Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202 AD), and Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 AD), among others. We will elaborate more on this more, since that is the focus of this article.
So we can clearly see that there were many varying views in the earliest centuries of the Catholic (Universal) Church. This was mainly because they were given imageries and metaphors in Scripture that they themselves would have to put the effort in to find out what they meant.
But by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Orthodox Church finally and unanimously settled on the belief that the wrath of God is not literal human wrath, and that Hell is the soul’s wounded experience of God’s own love and purity.
Metaphorical Hell Imagery
❤️ Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202): Now, one of the earliest witnesses of this view, as we have said, is Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. Saint Irenaeus uses Hell imagery in his works, meaning that he repeats the way Scripture speaks of it; as a place of fire and torment. However, he says that these are not caused by God as the tormentor, but rather it is an eternal and endless, but painful, experience of God’s goodness and love. For God is eternal. He compares the suffering to light, which, in itself, is not afflicting; it is the blindness that brings calamity upon one’s self.
Source: Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies: Book 5, Chapter 27-28.
❤️ Saint Methodius of Olympus (c. 250-311): Saint Methodius of Olympus records how he saw an Agnos tree on Mount Olympus that was surrounded by flames, flourishing and ever-green instead of burning. He then casts ordinary branches into the fire and they were burnt to ashes. He marveled at the meaning of this miracle and said that God appointed the miracle as an example of the coming day, when all things are deluged with fire from heaven. He speaks of the Last Judgement where the righteous shall not be harmed by the Divine Fire, but rather experience growth and purification as the tree did in the miracle he saw. On the contrary, sinners, like the branches he threw in and were burnt to ashes, shall be consumed by the Divine Fire.
Source: Saint Methodius of Olympus, Discourse on the Resurrection, Part 1, §14.
❤️ Saint Basil (the Great) of Caesarea (c. 330-379): Saint Basil the Great says that he believes that the fire prepared in punishment for the devil and his angels is the same fire that illumines those who rejoice. He states that there are two capacities in this fire and compares these two capacities to how the Three Holy Youths were cast into the furnace and were not harmed by the fire therein, not even their hairs or clothes. On the contrary, those who threw them into the furnace were instantly consumed.
Source: Saint Basil (the Great) of Caesarea, Homily on Psalm 28, pg. 206.
❤️ Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407): Saint John Chrysostom makes this conclusion about hell: He links the presence of God to punishment and eternal destruction, saying that His coming will be light to some but vengeance to others. Meaning, God is unchanging, but the way we approach Him and the state of our souls define how we experience His Divine Presence. This is consistent with the theology that God is a fire, purifying and unharming the righteous while burning and consuming sinners.
Source: Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on 2 Thessalonians, On 1:9-10, Paragraph 1.
He also says elsewhere that God’s wrath refers, not to the affliction of light when someone hides from it, but to the great affliction and damage done upon himself from being shut up in darkness. In like manner, God is not triggered by sinners who choose their own ways, but rather sinners experience what we call “wrath” and “destruction” when they despise God.
Source: Saint John Chrysostom, First Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall, §4.
❤️ Saint Mark the Ascetic (reposed after 430?): We do not know when this ascetic monk lived, but many sources link him to the 5th century. This Saint links “Hell” and “perdition”, from Proverbs 15:11 LXX, to inner states of the soul. He states that “Hell” is ignorance, for both are dark, lacking in illumination. He then says that “perdition” is forgetfulness, since both involve extinction. In other words, Hell is not where God is absent, but where the heart is darkened. He speaks of extinction, not referring to the annihilation of the soul, but of the loss of spiritual perception and sensitivity to grace. The soul still exists, but no longer sees. He makes this clear when warning Christians to do good when they remember, and to not surrender their minds to blind forgetfulness. In other words, spiritual vigilance saves the soul from Hell, the state of darkness and forgetfulness.
Source: Saint Mark the Ascetic, On the Spiritual Law: 200 Texts, §53-62.
❤️ Saint Diadochos of Photiki (c. 400-486): Saint Diadochos of Photiki expresses similar language to Saint Mark the Ascetic. He says in Text 28 that when Scripture talks about “quenching” the Holy Spirit, that it refers to His Divine Light departing and not literal quenching, since He is Eternal and cannot be quenched by mere mortals.
Now, when this Divine Light is hidden from us, that is when He leaves the intellect without the light of spiritual knowledge; it becomes dark and full of gloom, which is what hell is in essence, as Saint Mark the Ascetic said. He also explains in Text 100 how the soul, when in doubt because of sins, needs to go through the “fire of judgement” with the rest of mankind, that he may also be granted access into Heaven when Christ returns.
Interestingly enough, Saint Diadochos implies that the judgmental fire is universal and given to all mankind in general. The only difference is that it will be like hell for the worldly, but for Christians who still have sins needed to be purged from them, it will be purifying. He confirms elsewhere in Text 17 that the fire of God is not arbitrarily wrathful or punishing, but always viewed in light of God’s love for mankind.
❤️ Saint Romanos the Melodist (c. 490-560): Saint Romanos the Melodist gives an interesting perspective on water and fire, both of which have been used to either save or destroy. Remember when God flooded the Earth and burnt Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone? Saint Romanos the Melodist writes of how the devils rejoice with satan because satan has “destroyed” men with water and fire. And, yet, we know that God was the one that sent fire from Heaven and allowed the flood to happen.
This is Romanos being consistent with the theology that all judgment is good towards righteous souls, but is punishing towards sinners. Does not Paul say that the same water that drowned the world was the same water that saved Noah (1 Peter 3:20-21)? And was it not the same fire that consumed the king’s servants, who tried casting the three holy youths into the furnace, that also saved the three holy youths from harm and death? It is the same fire!
We also see the demon possessed child in Mark 9:22 where the demon tries to kill the child by making him jump into water or fire. And yet, we are saved by the waters of Baptism and the fire of the Spirit. Saint Romanos the Melodist is being consistent in that all judgement and all things God does is for salvation and benefit of man. It is only the unstable, wicked, and sinful soul that experiences punishment and damnation of the very things that save us too.
Therefore, why believe that this loving God, that does not desire the torture or misfortune of sinners, willed to create a place of torture and punishment for sinners? No. Everything God does is in love and for salvation. We experience damnation from what was supposed to save us because of our wickedness. Hence why the Life-Giving Body and Blood of our Lord both is the medicine of immortality, as Saint Ignatius of Antioch said in his Letter to the Ephesians Chapter 20, and puts people to sleep, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:30.
The same God both kills and makes alive, not out of revenge or vengeance, but according to how He encounters the state of our soul. Water is good. Fire is good. They are created by God. God didn’t ever create things to harm us. The demons simply rejoiced because when an unstable soul encounters goodness, which was NEVER meant to harm them, it burns or drowns them.
Source: Saint Romanos the Melodist, Kontakion 22: On the Crucifixion, Strophes 5-6. (page 220)
❤️ Saint Isaac (the Syrian) of Nineveh (c. 613-700): Saint Isaac the Syrian expresses the importance of love in a Christian’s life, saying that loving is putting on God Himself; for God is love. He goes on to say that Paradise is the love of God for man, in which lies the sweetness of all blessings, and that those in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love, being deprived of it. In other words, true love is torture to a sinner that has not understood true love in their entire lives, nor have they ever practiced it. Since God is love, they will experience it in a hellish form; unbearable and aching. Saint Isaac the Syrian is against the idea that souls in hell are deprived of God’s love since love IS what God is.
Source: Saint Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies, Homily 28
❤️ Saint John of Damascus (c. 675-749): Now, Saint John of Damascus also agrees that God doesn’t punish anyone. He says in §44 that all have the decision to participate in God. Those who do experience delight. Those who do not participate in God experience punishment. He also agrees with the idea that “punishment” saves if you choose to live, but seems like wrath or arbitrary punishment if you choose to rebel, as we have seen with Saint Romanos the Melodist.
He also states in §71 that God will give all people good in the coming ages, even to the devil. He goes on to explain that a being’s inability and refusal to participate in this goodness is what prepares and manifests punishment, but that it in itself does not proceed from God, who is good. In like manner, death was not created by God, but was made manifest by our own deeds.
Thus, this inability to see God for who He is, and the inability to experience God’s goodness as it is, is what brings irreversible pain and “punishment” in the coming ages. Not that God inflicts them, but that the soul is unable to escape the darkness it trapped itself into.
Source: Saint John of Damascus, Against the Manicheans, §44, 71 (page 14)