Hello,
when I grew up I talked with christians sometimes, and with muslims. What they had in common was seeing punishments of God usually being spiritual in nature. For example, when someone was condemned that meant something like being put to shame and regret and sadness. There were no beatings or literal burnings, the shame felt like a beating and a burning.
I do not easily undertand how easily christians have come to believe in medieval extreme ideas of burning punishment. Nowadays it must be pain and not shame, it must be fire and not regret, it must be in hell and not in the burning presence of God.
We once had it all already when we found that God's punishment are spiritual consequences.
Greetings,
Daniel
G'day;
Looking at the history of the church and how they tweaked doctrines exposes how this eternal hell and fear of punishment came to be.
Trying to claim wisdom from God these church leaders brought in torture to force salvation.
They are under the illusion of doing work for God.
Used to think they knew what they were talking about until mercifully being released from that bondage.
Much of this comes from the push for personal recognition. Detracts completely from the work of Christ and causes doubts about His capabilities.
Varying cultures seems to display the variety of religious attempts to explain God.
Romans 9