Eternal Life or Eternal Torment?

 "The Lord isn't slow with the promise, like some consider slowness, but He is longsuffering for you, not willing anyone to be destroyed but all to give way into a change of mind." 1 Peter 3:9

     One question which has been recently brought up is whether or not God will torture those who don't believe for eternity. This is an uncomfortable question, and it stems from "How can a God who is love justify torturing anyone for eternity and still be love?" It's a perfectly legitimate question, and one which deserves an answer. 

     My answer is that He doesn't. They torment themselves. There is the torment of the psyche due to the untreated malfunction and its logical trajectory, and there is the torment of God's presence due to their rejection of Him. As John wrote, "because every person practicing foul things hates the light and doesn't come to the light, so that his works wouldn't be brought to light" (John 3:20). And the torment lasts for as long as they refuse to cry out to Him, just as it does in this life. "Because every person who would call upon the name of the Lord will be delivered" Romans 10:13 (Joel 2:32). 

     Death is not the complete cessation of the person, not to God who clearly preserves each and every psyche of every human being beyond physical death and considers them very much alive as Jesus taught in Mark 12:26-27. And it is clear from the book of Revelation that every human being will be resurrected in an immortal, spiritual body regardless of whether they have rejected Him. Why indeed would He do this if there was no further hope of reconciliation and redemption?

     Another question which is born from the first one is, what does "eternity" or "eternal" actually mean? I'm not certain any of us can really imagine it. I think it largely depends on your view of God and whether He is subject to time and space, or whether time and space are subject to Him. If it is placed in the context of the former, then it might simply mean "time without end." But if placed within the context of the latter, then it would have a different meaning altogether. It would be an existence outside of the time stream we all experience, and the human brain just isn't equipped to think outside of its four dimensional existence. Try as it might, it can't conceive of an existence without some kind of temporal motion. But what if Eternal Life and Eternal Torment have nothing to do with the passage of time, but being fully and clearly enveloped in the Eternal One and the difference is whether or not you reject that embrace? What if they are, for all intents and purposes, the same existence from different points of view?

     I can't say whether everyone will eventually come around and cry out to Him, or whether they'll be stuck in torment for eternity because of their own willful rejection. I can say that it will be up to their choices. But I do think that the clues are there that God leaves the door open for them to come to their senses. God is eternally patient with us. He allows us to suffer the consequences of our choices so we will learn from them, like any good parent would, but like any good parent, He doesn't give up on us either.