Devotional Thoughts: Do I Want Hell to Exist?

Like most people I don't like to think about it. Don't like talking about it. And am not thrilled to blog about it.

But when I read a passage like Matthew 14:1-12, I found myself thinking about it.

Excerpts:
For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife ... But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." ... He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

Gruesome.

Do you think Herod, Herodias and Herodias' daughter belong in hell?

What are the alternatives to hell?

(1) If there is an afterlife and there is no hell then we will be sharing "a cloud and a harp" in heaven with these three people?

(2) If reincarnation is the next part after this life then what will these three come back as? Will they suffer for their sins? However, in reincarnation, one doesn't know what the previous life was like? They would suffer but not know what they did in a previous life that caused their suffering?

(3) And if there is no afterlife ... they get away with it and die and are no more.

The idea of hell as a place in the afterlife to punish the wicked is a difficult concept to accept. However, how does it compare to the other three alternatives?