Does God Take Pleasure in Punishing People?

After the Millennial reign of Christ, everyone will receive their bodies back to their souls. Now when the wicked are sent to Hell, will those earthly bodies be consumed in the flames? Or will God re-create their bodies to be able to withstand the flames of Hell to live on forever in agony? Does God make special bodies for these people for the sole purpose of keeping them alive to torture them? Wouldn’t that make God sadistic? Do you have a defense for this accusation if an unbeliever asks you?

If God says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11), then what on earth makes us think He will cause people to be tortured for an eternity in Hell for finite sins? Is it not God who made the rules of judgement? Or is it the rules that rule over Him? If then He made the rule, why would He make a rule that would cause Him endless suffering?

Would not God be suffering Himself for an eternity, knowing that He’s continually keeping the flames of Hell burning to cause the endless suffering of billions of people? It pained Him enough to see all the suffering in the world that as He was approaching Lazarus’ tomb, “Jesus wept” and “was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled” (Jn. 11:33). Before God flooded the world, “He was grieved in His heart” and sorry that He had made man. (Gen. 6:6-7). He took no pleasure in the death of the wicked but there was a big sin problem that needed to be delt with. For the unrepentant, death is the solution to deal with sin and eradicate it. But if people suffer an eternity of torment in Hell, sin will never be eradicated. It will never be defeated. People will continually hate God and blaspheme His name for eternity all under His all-seeing eye. Can one define this as “Victory” over sin and death? And would God really put up with this for an eternity if He had said before destroying the earth with a flood, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever”? Would He then really put up with insults and profanities hurled at Him day after day without end?

1 John 3:8 says, “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” The works of the devil are defined as sin. This is what Jesus will destroy. But will it really be destroyed if sin continues on for an eternity in hell?

Both Moses and Paul wished themselves to be accursed so that others could be saved. It’s hard to imagine they believed in eternal conscious torment. Because if they did, that would mean that they would have wished eternal conscious suffering upon themselves, that they would trade heaven for that if they could. But this is quite an inconceivable conclusion, the most irrational and ignorant decision anyone could possibly make if eternal conscious torment is true. If the suffering were temporal though, it would make more sense when Moses said, “blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Ex. 32:32). The love of God within their hearts would also make more sense if this were the case. It was only by the power of the Holy Spirit that Paul was able to say, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Ro. 9:1-3). The love of God in his heart for his kinsmen is the same love of God that sent Jesus to the cross.

Before God flooded the world, God said that He regretted that He had made man, which is the most profound way to express the grief He had in His heart. And it is also to say that it would have been better if man had not been born than for him to live in this wicked and evil existence. Could this then be the same God who goes to the other extreme to keep someone suffering alive forever when it is completely within His power to undo life? Is this the same God who will give man an immortal body for the sole purpose of suffering eternally? Is this consistent with God’s heart?

Psalm 30:5 says that God’s anger is but for a moment and Exodus 34:6 says that God is slow to anger. Jonah 4:2 says that God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, eager to turn back from destroying people. Knowing this, is it conceivable for this God who is hesitant to be angry and is known for momentary anger, for Him to then be angry forever by stoking the flames of hell for eternity? Is this consistent with His nature? Is this consistent with the glory that God desires to be revealed to mankind? Is this what victory over sin, death, and the devil is all about?