AFter years of thinking about the subject I have come to some conclusions about some things and still have questions about others.
The definitions of the actual words are helpful at a time but later one thinks on the concepts.
I can't convince you and won't even try. I can say what I think and just say that it is what I have concluded after much thought and for my own reasons.
Heaven and hell are not physical places but are spiritual places. Whatever descriptions of them there are will not include any physical fire. Even if it did one's body would be long gone and only the spirit would remain. Without a body physical fire would not burn one.
But what kind of "place" is hell? It would not have length or width, it would not be up or down or east or west of something else. Based on thoughts that may or may not be yours I conclude that IMO, hell is the experience of being out of communion with God, it is being separated from God, being far from God; Hell is wanting to love and be loved by God but being unable to do so. It is in fact synonymous with the second death.
Think of the death of Adam. On the day he sinned he died but then he lived for many more years. There are two deaths - the spiritual in which upon one's first sin one is separated from God and is spiritually dead, and the second death of the body in which the body dies later. Before the second death one is still subject to the flesh and can still be tempted and can still make the choice to do what is right or not. After the second death there will be no more flesh to tempt us or to be corrupted. So when do we have to make the choice to have faith in God who saves? Before the flesh is gone or after? Honestly it appears that the choice must be made before the flesh is gone but it also appears that God wishes no one to miss out on heaven. If God does save even after death there is still value in being saved as soon as possible. It is appealing to decide that God saves after death but IMO that opinion stands on shaky ground. If God does not save after death and there is value in being saved as soon as possible then I choose to be saved as soon as possible. Why would someone choose to be separated from God any longer than necessary? Knowing that God wants to love you now could we say that the person who choose to delay his salvation loved and trusted God? And if he does not love and trust God then he is not saved. The experience of loving and trusting God is truistically connected to salvation. When one sins it is because one does not trust God and therefore one is separated from God both because of the sin and the lack of trust that caused it. One one begins to love and trust God again one is rejoined with God both because the love and trust are restored and because he no longer loves sin.
Hitler, Stalin and the rest? Do they love and trust God and did their love and trust motivate their behaviors? It is self evident that much of what they did was not because they loved and trusted God. But if they became new people sometime near death then those new people certainly could be receive the love of God and be near to Him in heaven. I trust God to have made the right decision regarding Hitler and Stalin etc.
