The Youngest Person In Hell
@AJ1952Chats (2332)
Anderson, Indiana
March 2, 2008 1:38pm CST
For those who believe that there will be a number of people who will go to hell instead of Heaven (whether hell is an actual location or simply means that the person either never wakes up or else will wake up at an appointed time to be judged and then destroyed by fire) what do you think would be the age of the youngest person to experience this?
Some people say that seven is considered to be the age of accountability? Does that mean that some people believe that there will be children as young as seven in hell?
Other people say 12 or 13 when it comes to being accountable.
Some might say 18, 21, or even 25.
What if somebody is 100 but is developmentally-delayed so that they might have the mental age of six.
And--going the other way--how about a five year old genius who functions, in many ways, as somebody older? Would this five-year-old be considered to be accountable and cast into hell?
The next part of the question is: What do you see hell as being like? A burning lake of fire where people suffer forever? Isolation? An incinerator that simply burns somebody up? Just not waking up into Eternal Life after dying? Dependent on your state-of-mind as in the story about the spoons where Heavenly-minded people fed each other while hell-minded people spent their time cussing because they couldn't feed themselves?
4 people like this
11 responses
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
3 Mar 08
I think the youngest person in hell is about 3 or 4. If the rules are the rules and you break them , it doesn't matter what age you are, you are going to hell.I picked 3 or 4 because that is the time you know right from wrong.
I think hell is your worse nightmare come to life and you must live and relive it over and over again. so hell will be different for each person.
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
My worst nightmare at that time (when I was three or four) was when I got mad at my folks for not letting me have my way and told them that I was going to skin them.
I'd really told them that--and, of course, didn't mean it. I was just mad and venting.
But, in this nightmare, I went into their bedroom and saw two skeletons lying on the bed, and there was a woodsman there like the one who skinned the wolf to get Little Red Riding Hood and her grandma out.
He had the skins of my mom and dad--that looked like they would have had they been blow-up dolls that had gotten deflated.
I looked at him in horror, and he apologized saying, "I'm sorry. I thought you wanted them skinned."
I was so thankful to wake up and find out that I still had a Mommy and Daddy.
That was my worst nightmare at three or four.
Some little kids have even worse nightmares--and their nightmares aren't just dreams.
Things like being beaten--and even raped--by their parents.
Would these children have to go through this over and over and over for eternity?
I think not!
You have the right to your opinion, but I can't see a loving God doing this to little babies like that!
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
I agree.
At that age, I knew about God and Heaven--and knew about God even before then--and it was just natural to me to want to be friends with Him.
In fact, I didn't even know about the possibility of hell until I was eight or nine years old. This wasn't taught to me--meaning that everything I did for God only had to do with my desire to do what He wanted me to.
Having Jesus for a friend and loving and serving God was just reality and wasn't buying fire insurance.
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@jennysp8 (855)
• United States
3 Mar 08
A child of 3 or 4 my know the difference of right and wrong according to what their parents taught them,....but they truly do not have an understanding of right or wrong in God's eyes...or that there even is a greater purpose for staying "on the right track" besides having a time out or the TV turned off. To cast a child of 4 years old to hell because they told their parents "I hate you" - which is not "honoring thy parents" - - - CRAZY
2 people like this
@jennysp8 (855)
• United States
3 Mar 08
As for how young the youngest person in hell is? I'm not really sure...But as far as when someone is old enough to go there - that would be the age of not just accountability but understanding of God.
Some people reach that at ten....some people at 14 or 16....some not until later. It is different for everyone just as our journey here is different for everyone.
What do I think hell is? Not really sure. I do not believe in the burning lake at all. You just probably cease to exist and never wake up or you live your own hell - over and over and over forever. Such as, think as the worst thing that you personally could ever see or experience...and then imagine that being played in front of you over and over....it would be a spiritual and emotional hell.
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
Even someone of 14 or 16 it would be hard to imagine being at such a level of understanding about God to either be destroyed or have to experience something awful over and over again--and I can't imagine this happening to a ten year old child.
And what of what child's parents? Perhaps, this little one might be their only child. What if the two parents were saints and went to Heaven? Wouldn't they be in hell without their child--especially, if for some reason they didn't realize that this child had reached such an understanding of God at the time they might have buried a little bald-headed and brave cancer patient with his/her favorite stuffed toy and expected to meet this child in Heaven.
@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
At a higher level of understanding and thought, I think that you would be more compassionate--meaning that the thought of anybody in hell (and, especially, a young person) with no way out wouldn't set well with you.
Now, somebody in hell who is there to be shaped for being ready to accept God's way (somebody with hope of, eventually, getting out) would be a different matter. I would feel sorry that the people were suffering but would realize that they were suffering for their own good and eventual redemption just as there's suffering at times (e.g. chemotherapy) involved in getting well from a serious illness.
One minister I talked to many years ago had an interesting way of looking at hell.
He said that, because God loved us so much, all people would be taken care of. The people who didn't make it to Heaven wouldn't know the joy of Heaven but their basic needs would be taken care of so that they would, at least, be comfortable.
The sad part would be that the fellowship with God that we experience even now in our imperfect state-of-living would be gone. They would know what it felt like to be basically left alone by God except for having their basic needs met.
Even that, to me, would be a sad way of thinking about anybody being in with no hope of anything better.
@jennysp8 (855)
• United States
3 Mar 08
That's why I said for everyone it's different. There is no argument that there is not a 14 year old alive that has a true understanding of God based on how they were raised. That was exactly my point - everyone has a different age...some young...some old...
And as far as people in Heaven feeling like they are in "hell" because they are so upset their child or their parents or their best friends did not make it to heaven...once in heaven you have a better understanding of everything - things that effect you in this world do not effect you there. You are at a higher level of understanding and thought.
1 person likes this
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
3 Mar 08
I don't believe in Hell.
God would simply not do that to us.
@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
We actually do hell to ourselves when we choose to separate ourselves from God--but I agree with you. God's love is stronger than the hell we might make for ourselves and choose for ourselves to stay in and, at some time, it will prevail!
But God wants us to make the decision for ourselves to draw closer to Him. He won't take us by force.
@coffeeshot (3783)
• Australia
3 Mar 08
This has to be the most interesting discussion I've seen in a very long time! To be honest, I can't see God banishing anyone to hell. God's too nice to do that. Hell I imagine is an awful feeling that you'll have forever in your guts eternally. I honestly don't know. No one wil ever know. All I can say is that God would have to be pretty terrible to send a 12 year old to hell.
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
Amen!
These little children never asked to be born, and God would have to be some kind of a Hitler figure (like the devil) to create little ones and get some kind of buzz out of sending them into an everlasting cycle of suffering and no hope just a few short years later!
@Feona1962 (7526)
• United States
3 Mar 08
WOW! This is an extremely tough question...or should I say questions! I would certainly hope that a child is NOT doomed to hell...or anyone for that matter, but most definitely not a child...Children are part of their parents and if they end of in hell, shouldn't their parents go as well...*shudders at the thought*...I mean the ones under 18 anyway..I wouldn't think of hell as a "burning lake of fire". If it was and going there was because a person did evil here on earth, don't you think that it would deter others or anyone from being evil? Maybe we already are in hell, and things here will continue to go wrong until we get it right....*just a thought*....
@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
Yes, that would be sad--like the example I gave of a little cancer patient a few responses up.
You see these stories all of the time with these heartstring-tugging kids with their little bald heads and brave smiles.
What if one of those babies got the idea in his/her head that there must not be a god or else he/she wouldn't be so sick while so young? What if everybody else in the family believed in God and kept the faith, but this one little kid didn't?
I believe that his/her parents, grandparents, siblings, friends from school, etc. would be heartbroken if they got to Heaven and didn't find him/her there.
They would be in Heaven, but how could it be Heaven without that precious child?
@jordanatmeh (31)
• United States
3 Mar 08
Hi there, I think because of my religion, everyone who is bad will go to hell only if he really knows whats going on becaue a really young person is still learning his morals and does not really no whats good from bad. A really old person, lets say with a disease like altimers or something will forget things and do crazy things will probably not be the ones that go to hell. Still though, if an old person that is perfectly fine and can still make decisions and decides to do bad things will most likely go to hell.
@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
3 Mar 08
Definitely people won't be punished for their emotional and brain problems, and God has a clearer view of each brain than any of us do and knows the full background of each person.
This means that the person we might see and being hellbound is actually a very emotionally-needy person, and God sees this person's heart and will deal with them compassionately.
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
2 Mar 08
I do not think children will go to hell period,
in essence children are innocent, they learn from their adult counterparts,
the ignorant as far as I am concerned are not accountable for their actions, as they know not what they do, as Jesus so humbly said
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
2 Mar 08
And another comforting thing is that, when Jesus said those words, He was directing His prayers, love, and well wishes not towards children but, instead, towards people who should have been old enough to know better but were either clueless or else willful!
@cripfemme (7698)
• United States
3 Mar 08
I love the Heaven/Hell feeding story. It's one of my favorite fables. I don't think little kids or developmentally delayed folks are in Hell. I don't actually think Hell exists, accept for really unredeemable people like Hitler. Everyone else, I figure just needs to go work off the demeits for poor choices.
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
6 Sep 08
I think that rather then it being a specific age it is more when a person knows something is wrong and still does it anyways. If a 5 year old knows that killing another child is wrong and still does it, then they are accountable. If they didn't realize what they were doing or the actual outcome then no. I also believe that God tempers these things with mercy. He may take into account that it is a 5 year old and help him turn his life around so he can find forgiveness and redemption. I also believe that when you ask for forgiveness that it has to come from your heart and only God knows if it really does.
As for what I really think Hell is...I think it's a place where your worst fears are re-lived over and over, day after day for eternity.
@creative_angel312 (390)
• United States
2 Mar 08
I'm not really sure what to believe, but I think everyone has their own perception of hell. What may make one person cringe in fear or disgust, may be some else's fancy. There's really no way of knowing...
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
2 Mar 08
You're right about that!
My cousin, Denise, would be in pure Heaven while surrounded by all of her cats (and there' a bunch of them, for sure)--but put a mutual friend of ours in the same room with those same cats, and she would be in hell for sure!!!
