Is Hell Really That Bad?

       “Hell is stupid,” someone once said to me. “Who would want to live in hell? Wouldn't it be better to be erased from existence than to be a miserable slave and have to work or be punished all the time?” These were questions that I had never thought about before and while I could not believe that these statements were true, I found them unsettling. Though I have no intention of going to hell when I die, concepts or hell and how it is run affect my perception of God. To me, the core question is what is the true nature of hell and is hell really that bad?

Are Evil Spirits Slaves?

       There are two types of freedom according to Swedenborg: heavenly freedom from the Lord, and infernal freedom. We are told in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines that “all freedom is like a man's self and according to it” and the passage continues on to explain that through repentance, people receive a heavenly proprium from the Lord, which is the Lord's (NJHD 148). This proprium is the key to having true freedom from the Lord. On the other hand, “to do evil from freedom, appears as freedom, but it is slavery...for the man who has been in such freedom then becomes a vile servant in hell” (NJHD 142). This freedom is called infernal liberty and is defined as “being led by the loves of self and of the world, and by their lusts” (NJHD 148). But how are evil spirits slaves? Does God force them to labor and work for his own benefit or pleasure?

       That seems to be the viewpoint of some people, but the writings paint a different picture. Instead of showing God as the captor, evil loves are the captor. The slavery itself comes as a form “of madness” which “invades them [evil spirits] whenever they see some angel and feel the divine atmosphere surrounding him” (Divine Providence 340). Elsewhere it says, “every evil carries its punishment with it, the evil and the punishment being connected ” (Heaven and Hell 509). From this, it is evident that it is not God being unloving and forcing slavery upon people who do not do his will, but it seems to have the nature of a chemical reaction. In this reaction, when evil spirits are brought into the spheres of heavenly loves, their abhorrence of this angelic presence that they hate causes them to try to destroy it at all costs. While a natural person would at least learn after the first time being punished to not attack what is good even if they wish to, an evil spirit has no externals with which to moderate their internal desire to destroy what is good. Therefore, they are forced by their evil desires to attempt to destroy what is good and are punished for it. Punished by God right?

       Punishment certainly does not seem like a loving thing for God to do. And what is the point of punishment if evil spirits are stuck in hell? One answer is that “punishing evil is within order because how else would a kingdom exist if evil was condoned” (Spiritual Experiences 4276)? This still conveys an image of God being a king who is punishing his subjects, which does not fit with New Church teachings. Swedenborg teaches that God does not ever punish those in hell, but he explains that “he who commits evil is punished, as soon as convicted of having done the evil; for then he draws the punishment upon himself, although others administer it” (SE 4651). It is the “many who are around” (SE 2438) the person who committed the evil, who love inflicting punishment. When that spirit commits an evil deed, those spirits punish him because he “possesses the evil and it is turned into the evil of punishment” (SE 2438). From this teaching it may be seen that the Lord is not the one inflicting punishment. Punishment is permitted because in the world of spirits, spirits are not allowed to regress into worse evils than they were in in the world. If they act to a worse degree, punishers appear and inflict punishment to the degree that they overstepped the bounds of their allowed evils (AC 6559). This view of the regulation of punishment paints a picture of a loving God because it shows that his true objective is to preserve what is good in a person. And while evil spirits are not good, God is still trying to preserve what is better in them and keep them from becoming even worse. When an evil spirit does an evil deed worthy of punishment, they have stepped outside of the Lord's sphere of protection where those who wish to punish others can attack them. This punishment forces the evil spirit to realize that what they did was more evil than what they are permitted to do and that they are not allowed to get away with it. This brings about two results: they fix their mistake and act differently so that they can come back into the Lord's protection even if they do not realize that is what they are doing, and second, they are made aware that the evil behavior is not acceptable. When an evil person is not punished, he assumes that the Lord does not care about the evil action (AC 1311). Therefore punishment is necessary to maintain order because without punishment, God would essentially be accepting evil as an okay love. But this is not possible because the Lord wants everyone to be as happy as they can be, and selfishness and evil loves are not the way to heavenly happiness which is the highest level of happiness a person can achieve.

Happiness in Hell.

        One important aspect in looking at whether hell is really that bad is happiness. Would God create a place for someone if they were not going to be happy there? One of the essential reasons for hell is to have a space where evil people can go and be as happy as possible instead of living in heaven where they would be constantly tormented. Swedenborg says that one of their delights is the love of ruling from the love of self and he describes it as a delight “to surpass all the delights that are in the world” (DP 215). That is a powerful delight. It is highly doubtful that they get to feel that delight all the time, but it is still something, which they are happy with. One key detail in that quote is that it was better than all the delights of the world. So while it is powerful, the lowest heaven has higher delights than those in hell.

        In other places in the writings, it talks about how things that seem nasty and disgusting to natural people are delightful to those in hell. Swedenborg at one point talks with evils spirits whose delights were perceived as “stenches from excrement, foul odors from corpses, and the reek of stale urine” and that they found them “absolutely delightful” (DP 340). Likewise the freedom in hell, or slavery, is like perfume to them (TCR 495). In the same account, the evil spirits tell Swedenborg that in the afterlife, “everyone is permitted to be in the enjoyment of his delight even of one most unclean provided he does not molest good spirits” (DP 340). From this it is clear that hell is a place for hellish spirits to be as happy as they can be without being able to harm good spirits. And by keeping them away from good spirits, the Lord is also keeping the evil spirits from attacking the good spirits on impulse and therefore keeping them from inevitable punishment. However, through trying to keep them from punishment, the evil spirits are constantly in a state of anger or rage because they are not able to destroy everything good (HH 538). This is a sad idea because while they may be in the place where they are the happiest, they are still being tormented. But it is important to remember that it was their choice to be there.

Why is Hell Eternal?

      Swedenborg writes that “repentance is not possible after death” and that “no one's life can by any means be changed after death” (HH 527). But why not? If God wants everyone to go to heaven and to be as happy as possible, why would he not give humans an infinite amount of time to become good and go to heaven? There are a few points that answer these questions. While God does want everyone to get to heaven, he values our freedom above all and “if a man could be reformed by compulsion, all would be saved” (NJHD 148). So if someone chooses not to go to heaven, there is nothing that the Lord can do about it except make that person as happy as possible wherever that person chooses to be. But wouldn't it be freedom to allow people to change if they wanted to?

       The purpose of earth is to prepare ourselves for heaven. I think that people are given ample time to choose on earth where they want to be in the next life by the choices they make everyday. Most people have an immense amount of time on earth to choose between heaven and hell because every moment they have the opportunity to choose. I do not know why anyone would choose to go to hell, but people who do still seem to be happy with that choice even after they are shown the delights of heaven. In one memorabilia, Swedenborg shares the story of a man who enters the spiritual world and says, “What is heaven, and what is hell? Is it not heaven where ever a person is free, and is he not free who is at liberty to make love to as many of the opposite sex as he pleases? And is it not hell where ever a person is enslaved, and is he not enslaved who must restrict himself to one” (Conjugial Love 477)? Then an angel takes him to heaven and shows him many wonders in heaven. Then the angel lets him into his interiors, which were evil loves, and the magnificent sights and smells disappear and seem to be rubble. In this way, the angel demonstrates that unless the man is able to change his interiors to have a chaste love of the opposite sex, then he will not go to heaven. The man understands this and Swedenborg says that the man changes his ways briefly, but ultimately he reverts back to his old ways and it is suggested that he goes to hell. So why would a person still choose hell after seeing all the wonders of heaven? One possible answer is that he is too attached to his evil loves and does not care about anything other than himself. Or maybe he is just too lazy to change. But because of this, I think that even if people were given an eternity to change, they would not change to become good. Therefore, the Lord takes away their exteriors so that they cannot fake being good in order to trick the simple angels in heaven and thereby create false heavens. Then He takes away any goods and truths that they did have in the world so that those goods cannot be perverted or profaned, and so that the evil spirits are not tormented by things from the Lord which are attached to them.

Is Hell Really That Bad?

       No...and yes. Hell does not seem to be as bad as society pictures it being for evil people because it is the best place for evil people. Hell does not exist for the punishment of evil people or only for the benefit of the angels. It is largely present for evil spirits themselves because God loves them just as he loves all people. While hell is a miserable place, it is also the place where people who have chosen to love themselves and the world more than anything, can be the happiest. Without hell, evil spirits would be in constant pain, unable to escape the sphere of heaven and the spheres of love to the Lord and to the neighbor. At the same time, hell is bad and it cannot be equated to a heaven for evil people because it still contains bad things such as slavery and punishment brought about by evil and because the level of happiness in heaven is much greater than the happiness in hell.