Christianity and Hell

Two thoughts.  First, the idea that being “saved” is sufficient acts, in my view, as a barrier to moral progress.  Salvation is not principally a moral deed with any content outside of accepting the paradigmatic moral deed of Christ himself: acknowledging it, and pledging allegiance to the author of this uebermoral act.  Certainly, Christ taught us to love one another,but from a theological perspective in most sects, being “born again”, or observing the rites of the  Church, is sufficient.  This is in my view an ironic outcome.

Secondly, what if hell is nothing more than suffering all the pain you inflicted on others?  Even for the most evil–Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Mao, Hitler–this would still be a finite amount of pain, even if quite large.  I have seen the case made that the Biblical word for eternity is closer to “one thousand years”.  That is a significant difference, that between the finite and the non-finite.

Or take Lincoln.  I have wondered about him.  I visited his grave and it had a strange energy to it.  He caused a war to be fought which caused an ENORMOUS amount of suffering.  Yet, arguably, he caused a great deal of good to be done as well, although it is of course impossible to know what would have happened if he had let South Carolina and the rest of the South go.  Does he feel the pain of one Confederate soldier, then the jubilation of at least one slave?  I have no idea.  It’s an interesting topic, though.