Hi, Don! Thank you for your kind words about Johnny. They were touching and very much appreciated.dastardly stem wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 3:17 pmIt's not that this isn't a nice thought. It's that it is not what Mormonism is.Don Bradley wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:59 amDavid Bentley Hart has a wonderful book on universal salvation called That All Shall Be Saved. Among the many, many arguments he employs is that no finite wrongdoing can rightly incur an infinite penalty: https://smile.amazon.com/That-All-Shall ... 0300246226
Those who think anyone should be punished forever may be forgetting just how long forever is. Suppose every murderer had to spend 1,000,000 years of penance for each victim whose life they took, and suppose some particularly horrendous murderer killed several million people in concentration camps. One million times millions still comes out to a very finite number--'mere' trillions--a very large number, but a small number compared to the numbers humankind has conceptualized thus far, and still utterly finite. So after all the suffering, penalty, purgatory, penance, repentance, or however one would conceive of it...then what?
Don
Back to dastardly stem's comment, I would have to agree with his conclusion that the LDS theology does not, at least consistently, believe in finite punishment. If one believed in eternity, the argument that "no finite wrongdoing can rightly incur an infinite penalty" makes sense, but it is not what the LDS church teaches.
I find it interesting that the SeN author believes his soul does not "demand unending torture in Hell for egregious wrong doers before they’ll be satisfied," but he finds acceptable the unending separation from the fullness of joy and from family members for those who worship differently than he does. It's not consistent, and it certainly doesn't represent the thoughts argued here by Don.Nelson, in a 2019 general conference address wrote: They need to understand that while there is a place for them hereafter with wonderful men and women who also chose not to make covenants with God, that is not the place where families will be reunited and be given the privilege to live and progress forever. That is not the kingdom where they will experience the fullness of joy, of never-ending progression and happiness.
Peterson may be expressing his private opinions, but he certainly posts as though he represents the LDS church position, which I think is what leads to the frequently morally strange positions he takes. Building theological consistency out of the LDS position is an impossible task.