A challenge to the doctrine of eternal damnation reframes hellfire not as a place of divine judgment but as an inner state—a condition of the mind shaped by unresolved fear and guilt. Simulating works at this same level: not to avoid what is hidden, but to bring it into the light of direct experience, where it can finally be seen for what it is and ultimately released.
"The word “hell” is from the Anglo-Saxon root “helan, to conceal.” The Greek root is “helios, sun or fire.” Therefore, the word “hell-fire” is very appropriate to depict the concealed fire of agony that stored-up tendencies can produce in one’s earthly life or in the astral world. Just as a murderer burns with evil conscience during wakefulness and with subconscious terror during sleep, so he suffers from fiery torment in the sleep state of death.
A benign father could never eternally burn a soul made in His own image for its temporary mistakes on earth. The idea of eternal punishment is illogical. A soul is forever made in the image of God. Even a million years of sin could not change its essential, divine character. Man’s unforgiving wrath against the evil actions of his brethren has created this misconception of eternal hell-fire.
Once I met an old man who lived near Seattle. I had been sitting near the sea, much inspired by the vastness of divinity. After that inspiration subsided I felt hungry, and went to the farmhouse of this man, seeking to buy some cherries. The rosy-cheeked man looked very happy, and showed me kind hospitality. A divine impulse then came over me, and I said to him, “Friend, you look happy, but there is a hidden suffering in your life.” He asked, “Are you a fortune-teller?” I answered, “No, but I tell people how to improve their fortunes.”
He then said, “We are all sinners, and the Lord will burn our souls in hell-fire and brimstone.”
I replied, “How could a man, losing his body at death and becoming an invisible soul, be burned by fire created by material brimstones?” He surprised me by repeating angrily, “We will certainly burn in hell-fire.” I said, “Did you get a telegram about this from God, that He will burn us in hellfire?” At this the old man became even more agitated.
To mollify him, I changed the subject and said, “What about your unhappiness over your wicked son?” He was surprised at my words and acknowledged that he was helpless to correct his son, whom he deemed incorrigible. This sorrow remained as a burning fire at the back of his mind. I said, “I have a remedy that will absolutely cure this situation.” The old man’s eyes gleamed with joy as he smiled. I, then, with a mysterious attitude as if about to reveal the grand solution, whispered to him, “Have you got a very big oven with a broiler?”
“Why, yes,” he said. Then, suspiciously he asked, “Just what are you getting at?”
“Don’t worry,” I said reassuringly. “What I’m proposing will end all your sorrows.”
Somewhat mollified, he said, “Go on.”
“Now then,” I continued, “Heat that oven, with the broiler, to red-hot temperature. Do you have some strong rope and two trusted friends who would not repeat anything against you?” Again he said, “Why, yes.” Then I said, “Call your son here. With the help of your friends, bind him hand and foot, and slip him into the red-hot oven.”
The old man was furious! Shaking his fist at me, he shouted, “You blackguard! Who ever heard of a father burning his son, no matter how wicked?”
I then spoke soothingly, “That is exactly what I wanted to tell you. Where did you, who are human, get this instinct of love except from the Divine Father? Even a human father cannot stand the cruel thought of roasting his own son alive to put him, or himself, out of misery. How could you think the Divine Father, who has infinitely greater love than you, and who created parental love, would burn His own children with hell-fire and brimstone?”
The old man’s eyes filled with tears of repentance as he said, “I understand now that the Heavenly Father is a God of love!””