Reason #3 There is no such thing as 'separation from God'
There is no such thing as 'separation from God'. There is no such place we could go where God does not exist. Therefore, he would have to endure Hell too for all eternity along with his wayward children! Why would God put up with that? The good news is HE WON’T.
Notice with me Psalms 139:7-12: 7 ‘Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in Hell (Sheol... the grave), behold, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me’; even the night shall be light about me.
12 Yes, the darkness hides not from you; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to you.’
So, we can stop using this lame idea that there is such a thing as separation from God.We may choose to separate ourselves from contact with God, but he will never separate from us and even then, there is no true separation unless we are dead, that is permanently dead.
This means we’d be unconscious for all time to come. Hell is a hole in the ground where people get buried. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Sheol (Hebrew) and Hades mean ‘the grave’ and have nothing to do with fire. These words do not indicate a place of torment or torture, but merely a grave.
The only thing that would separate us from God, then, is death. The ‘soul’ that sins will die according to Ezekiel 18:4 & 20. (4 ‘Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.’
And verse 20: ‘The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.)
Souls are persons, not an immortal component residing inside that would live on consciously for all time to come, as we will explore later. We must be careful not to add or subtract from God’s inspired word.