So what are we to do with the language about judgment, punishment, wrath, and hell in the Biblical texts? Again, as I have argued, these are relational terms that describe human distance from God. Or, to flip this, the proximity of human sinfulness to God. The reactive party is us, not God. This is a Johannine idea:
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19)
Light enters the world, people respond to the light, and that response is the judgment. Judgment is not imposed or inflicted but is, rather, a consequence of one's relationship/reaction to the light.
This idea is not new or liberal. It is a very old notion that goes back to the church fathers and can be traced though the tradition. A particularly good example comes from St. John of the Cross' The Dark Night of the Soul. In The Dark Night of the Soul John of the Cross describes the dark night as God's purgation of the soul. God's light shines into the soul's darkness. And yet, this light is experienced by the soul as darkness. Why is that? Because the light of God is blinding to eyes accustomed to the darkness of sin. Similar to how we experience blindness when we step from a darkened space into a bright light. Here is John of the Cross describing the blindness and darkness the soul experiences when it encounters God's light:
Divine things in themselves the darker and more hidden are they to the soul naturally; just as, the clearer is the light, the more it blinds and darkens the pupil of the owl, and, the more directly we look at the sun, the greater is the darkness which it causes in our visual faculty, overcoming and overwhelming it through its own weakness. In the same way, when this Divine light of contemplation assails the soul which is not yet wholly enlightened, it causes spiritual darkness in it; for not only does it overcome it, but likewise it overwhelms it and darkens the act of its natural intelligence...the natural strength of the intellect is transcended and overwhelmed by its great supernatural light...In addition to blindness and darkness, the incursion of light also causes the soul "affliction and torment." This pain is interpreted by the soul as God's wrath, punishment, and rejection. In the passage below John of the Cross describes this. Note how the dismay of the soul (torment and pain) is taken to be evidence that God is "against" the soul (wrath and judgment) and that God has "cast it away" (separated from God, an experience of hell):
And it is clear that this dark contemplation is in these its beginnings painful likewise to the soul; for, as this Divine infused contemplation has many excellences that are extremely good, and the soul that receives them, not being purged, has many miseries that are likewise extremely bad, hence it follows that, as two contraries cannot coexist in one subject—the soul—it must of necessity have pain and suffering...[B]ecause the light and wisdom of this contemplation is most bright and pure, and the soul which it assails is dark and impure, it follows that the soul suffers great pain when it receives it in itself, just as, when the eyes are dimmed by humours, and become impure and weak, the assault made upon them by a bright light causes them pain. And when the soul suffers the direct assault of this Divine light, its pain, which results from its impurity, is immense; because, when this pure light assails the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so impure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and thinks that it has set itself up against God. This causes it sore grief and pain, because it now believes that God has cast it away...
This is what I mean when I describe God's wrath, judgment, and punishment as relational terms. God isn't angry at the human person. Nor is God inflicting pain on the person. God is tranquil and impassive toward human sin. There is no reactive agitation on God's side. But the soul, upon encountering God's Love and Light, experiences it as darkness, torment, pain, judgment, wrath, and hell.
There is a further point John of the Cross makes: the encounter with God is purgative. While blinding and painful at first, the soul is cleansed and purged. Sight is slowly gained as the soul becomes accustomed to the light. As Jesus says, the pure in heart will see God.
In The Dark Night of the Soul John of the Cross is describing the soul's mystical union with God. But transpose John's vision into an eschatological key and you get the picture I have often tried to describe concerning God's judgement, wrath, and the soul's experience of hell. When the sinful soul encounters the Light and Love of God it is thrown into "outer darkness" where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth." The soul experiences hell and feels cast away. And yet, this experience is purgative, a necessary stage on the soul's journey toward God.
