Christian doctrine says that human beings have an immortal soul which outlasts the physical body as we experience it (some say that we have a "physical body which is spiritual" which obeys the physical laws of the Spiritual Realm, which are different from those we obey in our everyday world).
Scripture says that a human soul may be damned eternally and I do not dispute this assertion as likely factual. What I take exception to is that people often interpret the term "eternal" differently. To fundamentalists the term "eternal damnation" is equivalent to sentencing a criminal to life in prison without parole. No escape. Ever.
Though some may commit egregiously sinful acts in their human bodies and fully deserve punishments such as "eternal damnation" I am also conscious of the fact that many of the most evil people are also among the most disturbed. In most cases, not even psychopaths create themselves. Though a sociopath like a serial child murderer is commonly beyond redemption (they actively, murderously defend their psychotic ideas of reference, keeping themselves sick) they were not born evil. They were once an innocent infant who deserved only love, but instead got to be abused to the point of losing their minds.
So in light of the fact that even evil people don't really choose to be evil* but sort of "grow into it" over years, it doesn't seem fair at all that someone who say commits an unforgiveable sin like mass murder should literally be condemned to Eternal Damnation. Somehow that doesn't seem to fit into the template of an all loving, all-knowing God.
So instead of scrapping the whole idea of an all-loving, all-knowing God, I sought out alternative views on "eternal damnation" and so came across the writing and thought of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg was a polymath. He was a very successful professional before he started writing books on theology. Among the topics he addressed in his books was that of eternal damnation. Swedenborg made a bold claim. He said that he had been visited by angels who told him that people had misinterpreted certain aspects of the Bible and that they wanted him to clarify them for Humanity by writing and speaking about it.
Putting aside whether he was telling the truth or not (and there is strong evidence that he might well have been) when I read what he wrote about eternal damnation in the book Heaven and Hell, it was a revelation.
To be clear, Swedenborg does not dispute that damnation can be eternal. He does not dispute that some souls have degenerated under the care of their principles into such a deplorable state, that they cannot progress forward in their existence. They are by nature, degenerates. Such souls , ES stated, do in fact experience eternal damnation in the afterlife. However, it is not imposed by a vengeful God, but rather by their own acts (karma).
Here is where Christianity and Vedantism (Hinduism) converge. The Hindus(Vedantists) say that human souls can either evolve or devolve by the free will of the person. Based on their choices, souls either progress or regress. When a person passes away, their soul remains as it was when they lived and based upon that, certain things happen to them in the Spiritual World which are directly determined by the development (or lack of it) of their soul.
Swedenborg said that he was told that the Vedantist account is close to the truth. He said that we "self condemn" ourselves by not living a good life, not because we make ourselves targets of a vengeful God, but because we make ourselves unfit for Heaven. This is analogous to how an imperfect laser crystal, when energized will explode, whereas a perfect crystal will transmit and amplify the energy which passes through it.
So effectively, although a soul may experience a state which appears to THEM as eternal damnation, the truth is that in reality, the state of their damnation last only as long as necessary to allow them to learn from it and to move forward into a higher level of development. So it is only eternal TO THEM.
This view exposed Swedenborg to howls of outrage from other self-described Christians of his time. They called him a lot of names such as heretic, sacrilegious, blasphemous yet he stuck to his assertion.
Swedenborg also asserted that he had been told that there was per se, no Hell. At least not in the sense that many fundamentalist Christians describe it. Swedenborg said that Hell, as damnation, is a condition of the soul which though experienced as eternal and permanent, is in actuality only as eternal and permanent as it has to be in order for the soul to learn what it needs to learn to move forward in its development.
One reason that this is so important is that many people say ( and I believe them) that one of the things that turns them off to allowing themselves to try to be Christians, is the whole concept of a loving God condemning people to eternal Hell and eternal damnation.
Sometimes misconceptions have a positive purpose. For instance the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" actually translated from the original ancient Greek, Aramic and Hebrew into "thou shalt not take a life by lying in wait" IOW, "thou shalt not commit MURDER" (an illegal, immoral form of homicide).
Those who oversaw the creation of the Gospels and took charge of the dissemination of the various translations of Scripture never bothered to correct that in many publications or oral conveyance of Scripture.
Swedenborg stated that he was told (again by angelic beings) that this served a purpose in the ancient age, because most people were much more simple-minded then (basic education was not universal). Distinctions between "Thou shalt not kill" and "thou salt not commit murder" were too refined for most of the people to understand clearly. So the leaders of Christianity deigned not to correct it.
Swedenborg said that the amount of fear and other negative emotions associated with various misconceptions and misinterpretations of Scripture was a problem that he wanted to help to ameliorate.
So do I. There is a billboard along a road where I live near a Christian college which states boldly in white letters on black background, "Fear God!" Now, I get where they are coming from. What it might more clearly state would be, "If you are going to be afraid of something in this life, fear what will happen if you walk away from God". But the short version "Fear God" sounds waaaaaaay too negative for me.
I don't think God wants the primary and prevailing emotion associated with Him in the minds of people to be fear. I think there is evidence that God wants human beings to think of God the way a good child thinks of their parents. Not with fear so much as with respect and love.
Are some people in our modern age frightened into refraining from grievous sin by fear of going to Hell for eternity? Sure. I think that number is likely very few. Are many good people turned off to Christianity when they might otherwise not be, because of the doctrine which states that an all-knowing, all loving God condemns souls to eternal Hell, the way a judge sentences a criminal to life without parole in prison? I'd say that number far exceeds the previous one.
* Evil behavior is almost universally associated with some severe form of emotional illness or psychotic process, not any innate, conscious, self-directed decision-making.
