Are All Sins Equal in the Eyes of God? Are there Different Punishments in Hell?
Michael Horton states in the video above:
"No, I don't believe all sins are equal. There are some sins that God hates more than other sins. I think we can say that on the basis of what God himself says about some sins. Typically, those are sins that effect more people because God not only lives his own character, he also loves those whom he made in his image. So sins that are done in private, and that provoke God's anger are terrible - every sin is worthy of condemnation, the sentence of death. Nevertheless, some sins are even weightier because they violate the image of God in other people. There's a difference on the horizontal scale of how things play out in history, a difference in the way God treats sins.
"However, when one sin is enough to condemn us, what's the point in talking about degrees? You're either condemned or you're not condemned. And the idea that in heaven there are different levels, and in hell there are different levels descending down, is more from Dante and popular lore than it is from the Bible. There's really nothing in Scripture that talks about the eighth floor being better than the third floor of heaven. And these circling rings of despair in hell getting worse and worse as you go down - there's really none of that; that's fantasy.
"Bottom line, in heaven everyone is joyful; everyone is delighted; everyone shares together mutually in the inheritance of the saints with Christ. In hell, everyone together mutually shares in everlasting humiliation, guilt, and death."
Photo Credit: GettyImages/jerry2313
