If one has actively sought evil, then the scenes depicted in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement will be but a pale imitation of the real thing. To be tormented by the devils of fear, guilt, remorse, and be unable to repent because it is too late; fire and brimstone would be better than that, because they would at least come to an end. Fear and guilt never come to an end. Or again, if during this life one has never bothered much about eternity, then one is likely to be overwhelmed by the eternal sleep of death; oblivion. Goethe looked forward to the time when Mephistopheles or the Spirit of the World would be saved; but I think he was too sanguine. He believed in the essential goodness of man; and I regret to say my experience is different.
If one readmits God into one’s thinking, the picture remains much the same, although there is a greater prospect of mercy. Even if Jesus was not the only son of God, he was still by far the greatest religious genius who ever lived. And what he went through was more than most of us would care to face; and for whom did he do it? For his enemies, believe it or not. Even if you discount the idea that he came from Heaven, and knew at least something about the place he had come from, his views on the after-life command more respect than most peoples’. So one may be confident the Deity, albeit just, is not vindictive. True scripture says, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord”; but it is seldom that retribution follows swiftly on evil deeds in this world. Jesus prophesied the fall and devastation of Jerusalem if his gospel of peace were rejected; and in doing so was remarkably prescient. But it did not occur until a generation later. Nor was there any obligation on the Jewish leaders to listen to the zealots, and rebel in 66AD, but they did. And to start with they had some success; but in 70AD the Romans made a thorough job of it, as they usually did. And the result was the Jewish nation lost its country for nearly 1900 years; a big price to pay for a foolish political mistake. But then in my experience, if you make one foolish decision, you usually go on to make others; it becomes a habit, because you lose your sense of perspective. That is the only way, I think, in which God seeks vengeance; by allowing men to blind themselves by the folly of their own conduct. But what a frightful world it would be, if it were not so; if evil men could do evil with impunity, and not even suffer the inconvenience of spiritual blindness as a result of what they do. Evil would triumph! It is actually a mercy that we make ourselves blind by our folly or evil deeds. It is a merciful vengeance.
At the same time, the Divine mercy is unlikely to permit a second bite at the cherry. What would be the point? Any advocate knows that a re-trial is largely a ritual affair. All the witnesses are prepared for the clever questions; and only exceptionally is a more just result obtained in a retrial. What would be the point from the Deity’s point of view? Any repentance after death would stem from expediency; and the loyalty of such penitents would be that of fair-weather friends.