The Divine Presence Model of Hell: Understanding R. Zachary Manis’s Revolutionary Biblical Framework

Introduction: A Paradigm Shift in Understanding Hell

For centuries, Christians have wrestled with one of the most challenging doctrines of the faith: the nature and purpose of hell. How can a loving God permit eternal suffering? What exactly is hell, and why does it exist? In his groundbreaking work “Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God: An Essay on the Problem of Hell,” philosopher R. Zachary Manis presents a compelling alternative to traditional Western views of hell that has deep roots in Eastern Orthodox theology and, more importantly, in Scripture itself.

Manis’s divine presence model offers a profound reconceptualization of hell that preserves the biblical witness while addressing the philosophical and theological problems that have long plagued traditional views. Rather than understanding hell as God’s retributive punishment imposed from without, or as a place where God is absent, Manis argues that hell is the way unrepentant sinners necessarily experience the unmitigated presence of a holy and loving God.

This article will provide a comprehensive exploration of Manis’s divine presence model, drawing extensively from his book to examine the biblical, theological, and philosophical foundations of this view. We will see how this model not only resolves many of the traditional problems associated with the doctrine of hell but also offers a more coherent and biblically faithful understanding of God’s nature, human freedom, and the ultimate destiny of both the saved and the lost.

Part I: The Crisis of Traditional Views of Hell

The Problem of Justice

Before we can fully appreciate Manis’s divine presence model, we must first understand the serious problems that plague traditional Western views of hell. In the opening chapters of “Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God,” Manis identifies what he calls “the problem of justice” and “the problem of love” as fundamental challenges to traditionalist accounts of hell.

The problem of justice arises from the apparent disproportion between finite earthly sins and infinite eternal punishment. As Manis explains in Chapter 1, “The Problem of Justice, The Problem of Love,” the traditional retributivist view holds that hell is God’s way of balancing the scales of justice by inflicting suffering on those who have caused harm through their sins. However, this creates an immediate difficulty: how can any finite sin, committed by finite beings in finite time, warrant infinite punishment?

Some traditionalists have attempted to resolve this problem by arguing that sin against an infinite God deserves infinite punishment. Manis thoroughly examines this response, particularly the version defended by W.G.T. Shedd, and finds it wanting. The core issue is that the severity of a crime is not determined solely by the status of the victim but also by the nature of the act itself and the capacities of the perpetrator. A child who disobeys their parent commits the same type of offense whether that parent is a janitor or a judge, yet we would not say the punishment should differ based on the parent’s social status.

The Problem of Love

Even more challenging than the problem of justice is what Manis identifies as the problem of love. This problem strikes at the heart of the Christian understanding of God’s nature. Scripture tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Yet traditional retributivist accounts of hell seem to contradict these fundamental truths about God’s character.

In traditional Western theology, particularly as influenced by Augustine and later Reformed thinkers, hell is understood as God’s retributive punishment – a deliberate infliction of suffering that serves no redemptive purpose. The damned are not being reformed or improved; they are simply being punished forever for their earthly sins. This raises a profound question: How can a perfectly loving God inflict or permit endless suffering that serves no redemptive purpose?

Manis argues that this problem is particularly acute for those who hold to theological determinism (the view that God determines all events, including human choices). If God determines who will be saved and who will be damned, and if He creates people knowing they will be damned, how can He be said to love them? As Manis notes in his discussion of Calvinism, this view seems to make God the author of evil and undermines any meaningful sense of divine love for the reprobate.

The Doxastic Problem

Beyond the problems of justice and love, Manis identifies what he calls the doxastic problem – a set of difficulties related to belief, knowledge, and rational conviction. This problem, developed extensively in Chapter 2 of his book, reveals how traditional views of hell create severe tensions with other central Christian doctrines and practices.

The doxastic problem manifests in several ways:

These problems are not merely academic puzzles; they strike at the heart of Christian faith and practice. They challenge our ability to coherently believe in, love, and worship the God revealed in Jesus Christ while simultaneously believing in traditional conceptions of hell.

Part II: The Four Standard Options and Their Shortcomings

Before presenting his divine presence model, Manis carefully examines what he identifies as the four standard views of hell in contemporary philosophical and theological discussion. Understanding why each of these views falls short helps us appreciate the need for an alternative approach.

1. Traditionalism

Traditionalism, the dominant view in Western Christianity since Augustine, holds that hell is a place of eternal conscious torment where God actively punishes the wicked for their sins. This punishment is retributive – it aims to balance the scales of justice rather than reform the sinner. As Manis explains in Chapter 3, traditionalism faces all the problems mentioned above: the problem of justice (disproportionate punishment), the problem of love (unloving infliction of purposeless suffering), and the various doxastic problems.

Moreover, traditionalism often relies on questionable metaphysical assumptions, such as the idea that humans are necessarily immortal and therefore cannot cease to exist. While this view has deep historical roots, Manis argues that its philosophical and theological problems are insurmountable without significant modification.

2. Universalism

Universalism – the view that all will eventually be saved – attempts to resolve the problems of traditionalism by denying that anyone will be eternally lost. Prominent defenders like Thomas Talbott and Robin Parry argue that a loving God would never permit eternal separation from any of His creatures. As Manis discusses in his analysis of Talbott’s position, universalists argue that God’s love is “inescapable” and will eventually overcome all resistance.

While universalism solves the problems of justice and love, Manis argues that it diverges too far from biblical teaching and Christian tradition. Jesus clearly taught that some would be eternally lost (Matthew 25:46), and the possibility of final rejection of God seems necessary for genuine human freedom. Furthermore, universalism struggles to explain biblical passages about the unforgivable sin and the fate of those who reject Christ.

3. Annihilationism

Annihilationism holds that the wicked will ultimately cease to exist rather than suffer eternally. This view, examined in Chapter 5 of Manis’s book, comes in both retributive and non-retributive forms. Retributive annihilationists see annihilation as God’s ultimate punishment, while non-retributive annihilationists view it as the natural consequence of rejecting the source of life.

While annihilationism avoids some of the problems of eternal torment, Manis argues that it faces its own difficulties. It struggles to account for biblical language about “eternal punishment” and “eternal fire.” Moreover, if annihilation is seen as merciful compared to eternal suffering, why would a loving God not annihilate the wicked immediately rather than allowing any postmortem suffering at all?

4. The Choice Model

The choice model, popularized by C.S. Lewis and defended philosophically by Jerry Walls, understands hell as a self-chosen separation from God. On this view, the damned are not in hell because God sends them there as punishment, but because they freely choose to reject God and separate themselves from Him. Hell’s doors, as Lewis famously put it, are “locked from the inside.”

Manis sees the choice model as an improvement over traditionalism, as it attempts to preserve human freedom and make damnation a matter of personal responsibility rather than divine decree. However, he identifies several critical problems with this view in Chapter 6:

Part III: The Divine Presence Model – A Revolutionary Alternative

The Core Insight

Having examined the shortcomings of the four standard views, we can now turn to Manis’s constructive proposal. The divine presence model is built on a simple but profound insight: hell is not the absence of God but the presence of God experienced by those who have rejected Him.

As Manis explains in Chapter 7, “Developing an Alternative to the Standard Options,” this view has deep roots in Eastern Orthodox theology but has been largely absent from Western philosophical discussions of hell. The key claim is that “the eternal suffering of hell is not the result of any divine act that aims to inflict it, but rather the way that a sinful creature necessarily experiences the unmitigated presence of a holy God.”

This model reconceptualizes the relationship between heaven and hell. Rather than being two separate locations or states, they are two different ways of experiencing the same reality – the unveiled presence of God. For those who love God and have been transformed by His grace, His presence is experienced as light, warmth, joy, and love. For those who have rejected God and hardened their hearts against Him, that same presence is experienced as fire, torment, darkness, and wrath.

Historical and Theological Foundations

One of the strengths of Manis’s proposal is that it is not a novel invention but rather a recovery of an ancient Christian understanding. In Eastern Orthodoxy, this view has been maintained consistently throughout the centuries. Manis quotes extensively from Eastern fathers and theologians to demonstrate this historical pedigree.

Saint Isaac of Syria (also known as Isaac the Syrian), a seventh-century mystic and theologian, provides one of the clearest ancient expressions of this view. As quoted in Manis’s book:

Similarly, Saint Basil the Great, one of the Cappadocian Fathers, wrote about the dual nature of divine fire:

Even in Western Christianity, traces of this understanding can be found. Martin Luther, in his Commentary on the Psalms, wrote:

These historical witnesses demonstrate that the divine presence model is not a modern innovation but a recovery of an ancient Christian insight that has been particularly preserved in the Eastern tradition.

Part IV: Biblical Foundations of the Divine Presence Model

While historical precedent is important, the ultimate test of any Christian doctrine is its faithfulness to Scripture. Manis devotes considerable attention to demonstrating that the divine presence model is not only compatible with biblical teaching but actually makes better sense of the full biblical witness than the standard alternatives.

God as Consuming Fire

One of the most significant biblical themes supporting the divine presence model is the repeated description of God as a “consuming fire.” This image appears in both the Old and New Testaments and is central to understanding how God’s presence can be both salvation and judgment.

In Deuteronomy 4:24, Moses warns Israel: “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” This statement is not metaphorical in the sense of being merely symbolic; rather, it describes something essential about God’s nature and how His holiness relates to creation. The author of Hebrews picks up this theme, declaring, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

What does it mean for God to be a consuming fire? The divine presence model suggests that God’s holy presence has a purifying, transforming effect on everything it encounters. For those who are aligned with God’s nature – those who have been purified and made holy – this fire is warming, illuminating, and life-giving. But for those who resist God and cling to sin, this same fire is experienced as burning, consuming, and tormenting.

This understanding helps explain numerous biblical passages that might otherwise seem contradictory. For instance, in Exodus 24:17, “the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain” to the Israelites. Yet Moses was able to enter this fire and speak with God face to face. Similarly, in Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace, but they are not consumed; instead, they walk unharmed with a fourth figure who looks like “a son of the gods.”

The Day of the Lord as Revelation

The biblical concept of the “Day of the Lord” or final judgment is consistently portrayed not as God imposing an external punishment but as a revelation or unveiling. The Greek word “apocalypse” literally means “unveiling” or “revelation.” According to the divine presence model, the final judgment is fundamentally about the full revelation of two things: Christ in His glory and the true nature of every human heart.

Consider how Paul describes the second coming in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10:

Note carefully what Paul says here. The punishment of the wicked is “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Many English translations add words that aren’t in the Greek, making it sound like the destruction involves separation “away from” God’s presence. But the Greek preposition “apo” can mean “from” in the sense of source or origin. The destruction comes from God’s presence, not from separation from it.

This interpretation is confirmed by Revelation 14:10, which explicitly states that the torment of the wicked occurs “in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” The damned are not separated from God; they are exposed to His unveiled presence in a way they cannot bear.

Light and Darkness

Another crucial biblical theme that supports the divine presence model is the interplay of light and darkness. Scripture consistently identifies God with light: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Jesus identifies Himself as “the light of the world” (John 8:12). Yet Scripture also speaks of hell as “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30).

How can hell be darkness if it involves God’s presence, and God is light? The divine presence model offers a profound answer. As Manis explains, the darkness of hell is not the absence of God’s light but the way that light is experienced by those who have made themselves incapable of receiving it.

Jesus provides the key to understanding this in John 3:19-21:

Those who hate the light experience it as darkness – not because the light has changed but because their spiritual eyes are diseased. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:22-23, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Biblical Support Through Key Passages

Let us examine how the divine presence model illuminates specific biblical passages about hell and judgment:

Scripture Reference	Traditional Interpretation	Divine Presence Model Interpretation
Matthew 25:41 – “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”	God sends the wicked away to a place of punishment	The “departure” is relational, not spatial – the damned cannot commune with God though they remain in His presence. The “eternal fire” is God’s holy presence experienced as torment by those who reject Him
Mark 9:48 – “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”	Eternal conscious torment in a place of punishment	The “worm” is the gnawing conscience that cannot escape the truth revealed by God’s presence. The unquenchable fire is God Himself, who is eternal
Luke 16:23 – The rich man “in Hades, where he was in torment”	A separate location where God punishes sinners	The torment comes from finally seeing the truth about himself and his choices in the light of God’s presence
2 Thessalonians 1:9 – “Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord”	Destruction away from God’s presence (separation)	Destruction that comes from (source) God’s presence, not separation from it
Revelation 14:10 – “Tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb”	Difficult to explain – why would torment happen in God’s presence?	Perfectly coherent – the torment IS the experience of God’s presence by those who have rejected Him
Revelation 20:14 – “The lake of fire is the second death”	A place of eternal punishment	The “lake of fire” is the overwhelming presence of God (who is a consuming fire) experienced by the unrepentant after resurrection

Part V: The Mechanism of Damnation – Self-Deception and Hardness of Heart

One of the most philosophically sophisticated aspects of Manis’s divine presence model is his account of how damnation actually occurs. Drawing heavily on the insights of Søren Kierkegaard, Manis argues that hell is not simply chosen in a moment of clear-minded decision but is rather the culmination of a long process of self-deception and hardening of heart.

The Role of Self-Deception

As Manis explains in Chapter 6, building on Kierkegaard’s analysis in “The Sickness unto Death,” self-deception is not merely an intellectual error but a willful suppression of truth. It is the capacity to hide from oneself truths that are uncomfortable, inconvenient, or threatening to one’s self-image. In matters of faith and morality, self-deception allows people to suppress the conviction of conscience and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

The process works like this: When confronted with the truth about our sinfulness and need for God, we have two choices. We can accept this truth, humble ourselves, and seek forgiveness and transformation. Or we can reject this truth, rationalize our behavior, and construct elaborate self-justifications. Each act of self-deception makes the next one easier, gradually building up what Scripture calls “hardness of heart.”

This process of self-deception has cumulative effects. As Manis notes, “To engage in self-deception repeatedly, and especially habitually, is gradually to form in oneself the kind of character that renders one unable to perceive the deepest truths of human existence: the ethico-religious truths and the truth about oneself in relation to God.”

The Hardening of the Heart

Scripture frequently warns against hardening one’s heart. Hebrews 3:15 exhorts, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” This hardening is not something God does to people against their will (though Scripture sometimes uses this language phenomenologically); rather, it is something people do to themselves through persistent resistance to God’s grace.

The biblical paradigm for this is Pharaoh in the Exodus narrative. The text alternates between saying that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The divine presence model helps us understand this: God’s persistent revelation of Himself through the plagues had the effect of hardening Pharaoh’s heart because Pharaoh chose to resist rather than submit. The same divine action that would soften a receptive heart hardens a resistant one.

This principle extends to the final judgment. When Christ returns in glory and every knee bows before Him, not all will bow in worship. Some will bow in forced acknowledgment while inwardly raging against the truth they can no longer deny. Their hearts, hardened through a lifetime of resistance, cannot be softened even by the unveiled presence of Love Himself.

The Judgment of Transparency

Manis introduces the concept of the “judgment of transparency” to explain what happens when the self-deceived encounter God’s unveiled presence. Throughout our earthly lives, we can hide from others and even from ourselves. We can maintain false self-images, deny our faults, and suppress guilty knowledge. But in God’s presence, all of this becomes impossible.

As Manis writes in Chapter 7:

This forced transparency doesn’t lead to repentance for the damned. Instead, it drives them deeper into self-deception and resentment. Unable to hide from the truth but unwilling to accept it, they exist in a state of perpetual rage against reality itself. They gnash their teeth not just in pain but in anger at God for exposing what they spent their lives trying to hide.

Part VI: Why Salvation Becomes Impossible

A crucial question for any view of eternal hell is why salvation becomes impossible after death or final judgment. If God continues to love the damned and desire their salvation, why can’t they repent and be saved even in hell? The divine presence model offers several interconnected explanations that Manis develops in Chapter 8.

The Nature of the Final Choice

First, the divine presence model suggests that the encounter with God’s unveiled presence at the final judgment represents a fundamentally different kind of choice than those we make in this life. In our current existence, we “see through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Faith involves trust in what we cannot fully see or understand. But at the final judgment, all is revealed. The choice made in full knowledge and in the immediate presence of God has a finality that our earthly choices lack.

Consider an analogy: A person might claim they would love to live in Hawaii based on pictures and descriptions. But if they actually visit Hawaii and find they hate it, their rejection is of a different quality than their initial attraction. Similarly, those who reject God after encountering Him directly have made a fundamentally different and more final choice than any earthly rejection.

The Psychology of Ultimate Defiance

Drawing on Kierkegaard’s analysis, Manis explains how the psychology of the damned makes repentance impossible. The damned are not merely mistaken about God; they are in a state of defiant despair. As Kierkegaard writes in “The Sickness unto Death,” this is “the most intensive form of despair: in despair to will to be oneself” – that is, to insist on being oneself in opposition to God.

The damned, confronted with the truth about themselves and God, respond not with humility but with rage. They would rather suffer eternally than admit they were wrong. Their hatred of God becomes so intense that they prefer their torment to the possibility of reconciliation, because reconciliation would require admitting their guilt and God’s righteousness.

The Entrenchment of Character

Another factor is what might be called the entrenchment of character. Throughout our earthly lives, our choices shape our character. Each choice to love or to hate, to forgive or to resent, to humble ourselves or to persist in pride, forms us into a certain kind of person. By the time of final judgment, this process has reached its conclusion.

C.S. Lewis captured this idea when he wrote that in the end, there are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “Thy will be done.” The damned have become the kind of people who cannot enjoy God’s presence. Even if the gates of hell were opened (and the divine presence model suggests they are never locked by God), the damned would not leave because they cannot bear to be in God’s presence.

The Problem of Moral Inability

Finally, there is what theologians call moral inability. This is not a physical or metaphysical inability to choose good, but a moral and spiritual inability arising from the corruption of the will itself. The damned retain free will in the sense that they are not coerced, but their wills have become so corrupted that they can only choose evil.

This is analogous to how Satan is understood in traditional theology. Satan retains free will – he is not forced to rebel against God. But his will has become so fixed in evil that he cannot choose good. He freely chooses evil because that is what he wants to choose. Similarly, the damned freely remain in hell because, given their corrupted nature, they cannot want heaven.

Part VII: Answering Objections to the Divine Presence Model

Having laid out the positive case for the divine presence model, we must now consider potential objections. Manis addresses many of these in his book, showing how the model can respond to various philosophical and theological challenges.

Objection 1: Doesn’t This Make God Responsible for Hell?

If hell is God’s presence rather than His absence, doesn’t this make God directly responsible for the suffering of the damned? This objection misunderstands the model. God is not actively torturing the damned; rather, the damned experience God’s unchanging nature as torment because of what they have become.

Consider an analogy: The sun shines on both healthy and diseased eyes. Healthy eyes experience the light as illumination and warmth. Diseased eyes experience the same light as painful and blinding. The sun is not responsible for the pain; the disease is. Similarly, God’s nature doesn’t change. What changes is the capacity of creatures to experience that nature as blessing rather than burning.

As the Orthodox theologian Alexandre Kalomiros explains:

Objection 2: How Is This Different from Traditionalism?

Some might argue that the divine presence model is just traditionalism in disguise. After all, both views affirm eternal suffering for the damned. However, there are crucial differences:

Objection 3: Doesn’t Scripture Teach Separation from God?

Many biblical passages seem to speak of hell as separation from God. Jesus says, “Depart from me” (Matthew 25:41). Paul speaks of being “shut out from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9, NIV). How does the divine presence model account for these texts?

The key is to understand that relational separation is not the same as metaphysical absence. The damned are separated from communion with God, but they are not separated from God’s presence. They cannot enjoy fellowship with God, but they cannot escape His reality.

Consider marriage as an analogy. A divorced couple may be separated relationally – they no longer enjoy the communion of marriage. But they might still have to encounter each other, and these encounters might be painful precisely because of the broken relationship. The presence of someone we are estranged from can be more tormenting than their absence.

Moreover, as we’ve seen, many passages explicitly place the suffering of the damned in God’s presence (Revelation 14:10) or describe it as coming from God’s presence (2 Thessalonians 1:9, correctly translated). The divine presence model actually makes better sense of the full biblical witness than views that emphasize separation.

Objection 4: Doesn’t This Undermine Human Freedom?

If the damned cannot escape God’s presence and are tormented by it against their will, doesn’t this violate their freedom? This objection misunderstands both freedom and the nature of hell in this model.

First, the damned freely chose to become the kind of people who cannot bear God’s presence. Through countless free choices to reject truth, love, and goodness, they formed themselves into beings incompatible with divine communion. Their inability to enjoy God’s presence is the result of their free choices, not a violation of them.

Second, the model doesn’t suggest that God forces His presence on the damned in a way that violates their will. Rather, God’s omnipresence is a necessary aspect of His nature. God cannot cease to be omnipresent without ceasing to be God. The damned cannot escape God’s presence not because God won’t let them, but because there is nowhere to go where God is not.

Third, the suffering of the damned is not something external imposed on them against their will. It arises from within – from the conflict between what they have chosen to become and the ultimate reality they cannot escape. In a perverse way, they will their own suffering by willing to remain in opposition to God.

Objection 5: How Can Heaven Be Blissful If Hell Exists?

This is a form of what Manis calls “the problem of neighbor love.” How can the saved experience perfect joy knowing that others are suffering in hell, possibly including people they loved on earth?

The divine presence model offers resources for addressing this problem that other views lack. First, it emphasizes that God continues to love the damned and that their suffering is not something He delights in or actively inflicts. The saved can thus share God’s attitude – loving the damned while recognizing that their suffering is self-inflicted and freely maintained.

Second, the model suggests that the saved will have perfect understanding of why the damned are in hell. They will see clearly that the damned have freely chosen their state and would not leave even if they could. This perfect understanding, while not eliminating sorrow for the lost, prevents the kind of anguish that would destroy heavenly bliss.

Finally, the transformation involved in salvation includes the perfection of love and emotional response. The saved will feel appropriate sorrow for the damned without being overwhelmed by it. They will, like God, continue to will the good of the damned while recognizing that the damned have definitively rejected that good.

Part VIII: The Scriptural Testimony – Comprehensive Biblical Support

To fully appreciate the biblical foundation of the divine presence model, let us examine comprehensively how Scripture supports this understanding of hell and judgment. The following tables organize key biblical passages thematically, showing how they support different aspects of the model.

Table 1: God as Consuming Fire

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
Exodus 24:17	“To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.”	God’s glory appears as consuming fire – His presence has a fire-like quality
Deuteronomy 4:24	“For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”	Direct statement that God IS a consuming fire, not merely that He uses fire
Deuteronomy 9:3	“But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire.”	God’s presence goes forth as devouring fire
Psalm 21:9	“When you appear for battle, you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and his fire will consume them.”	God’s appearance brings burning to His enemies
Psalm 50:3	“Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.”	Fire accompanies God’s coming/presence
Psalm 97:3	“Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.”	Fire proceeds from God’s presence affecting His enemies
Isaiah 10:17	“The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame.”	God as light is also fire – same reality experienced differently
Isaiah 30:27	“See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire.”	God’s presence brings consuming fire
Isaiah 33:14	“The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: ‘Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?'”	The key question – who can dwell with God who is consuming fire?
Jeremiah 4:4	“…or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.”	God’s wrath experienced as unquenchable fire
Hebrews 10:27	“…but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”	Judgment involves fire that consumes God’s enemies
Hebrews 12:29	“for our God is a consuming fire.”	New Testament affirmation that God IS consuming fire

Table 2: The Presence of God in Judgment

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
Psalm 139:7-8	“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”	God’s presence is inescapable, even in Sheol/hell
Amos 9:2-3	“Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down.”	No escape from God’s presence anywhere
Jeremiah 23:24	“Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”	God fills all things – omnipresence
2 Thessalonians 1:9	“They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (literal translation)	Destruction comes FROM God’s presence, not separation from it
Revelation 14:10	“They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.”	Explicit statement that torment occurs IN God’s presence
Isaiah 2:10,19,21	“Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty!”	The wicked flee from God’s presence but cannot escape it
Revelation 6:16	“They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'”	The wicked seek to hide from God’s face but cannot
Nahum 1:5-6	“The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence… Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger?”	God’s presence brings judgment naturally

Table 3: Light and Darkness – The Dual Experience

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
1 John 1:5	“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”	God’s essential nature is light
John 1:5	“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”	Light and darkness coexist – darkness cannot extinguish light
John 3:19-20	“Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light…”	The same light is loved by some, hated by others based on their moral state
John 8:12	“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”	Christ is light – relationship determines experience
John 9:39	“For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”	Same presence of Christ brings sight to some, blindness to others
Matthew 6:22-23	“If your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”	The problem is in the perceiver, not the light
2 Corinthians 2:15-16	“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.”	Same reality (Christ’s presence) experienced oppositely based on spiritual state
2 Corinthians 4:3-4	“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel…”	Spiritual blindness prevents proper perception of light
Matthew 25:30	“And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”	“Outer darkness” despite being in God’s presence – experiential darkness
Ephesians 5:8	“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”	People themselves become light or darkness based on relationship to God

Table 4: The Transformation vs. Torment Principle

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
Malachi 3:2-3	“But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire… He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”	God’s presence refines some, consumes others
1 Corinthians 3:13-15	“Fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss…”	Same fire rewards some, brings loss to others
Daniel 3:25	“Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”	The righteous can walk unharmed in the fire of God’s presence
Exodus 3:2	“There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.”	God’s fire doesn’t consume what is aligned with Him
Acts 2:3	“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”	The Holy Spirit as fire – blessing to believers
Isaiah 6:6-7	“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand… With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away.'”	Holy fire purifies the repentant
Zechariah 13:9	“This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.”	Fire refines God’s people
Malachi 4:1-2	“‘Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble…’ But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing…”	Same “day” burns the wicked but heals the righteous
Luke 3:16-17	“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire… burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”	Same baptism of fire – life to wheat, destruction to chaff

Table 5: Self-Deception and Hardness of Heart

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
Hebrews 3:13	“But encourage one another daily… so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”	Sin deceives and hardens the heart
Ephesians 4:18	“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”	Hardness of heart causes spiritual blindness
Romans 1:21	“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”	Rejection of God leads to darkened hearts
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12	“They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved… They will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”	Refusing truth leads to condemnation
Matthew 13:15	“For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.”	People close their own eyes to truth
John 12:40	“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts.”	Persistent rejection leads to inability to perceive
Romans 1:28	“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind.”	Rejecting God leads to depraved thinking
2 Timothy 3:8	“…so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”	Opposition to truth corrupts the mind
Jeremiah 17:9	“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”	The human capacity for self-deception
Proverbs 28:14	“Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.”	Hardening heart leads to trouble/judgment

Table 6: The Finality of Judgment

Scripture Reference	Text	Relevance to Divine Presence Model
Revelation 22:11	“Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”	Character becomes fixed at judgment
Luke 16:26	“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”	A fixed separation after death
Matthew 25:46	“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”	Eternal destinies determined at judgment
Daniel 12:2	“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”	Resurrection leads to fixed eternal states
John 5:29	“…those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”	Resurrection unto fixed destinies
Matthew 12:32	“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”	Some sins cannot be forgiven even in the age to come
Hebrews 9:27	“People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”	Judgment follows death definitively
2 Corinthians 5:10	“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body.”	Judgment based on earthly life

Part IX: Theological Implications and the Character of God

The divine presence model has profound implications for our understanding of God’s character and the nature of salvation. By reconceptualizing hell as the experience of God’s presence by the unrepentant, this model preserves and even enhances our understanding of divine love while maintaining the reality of judgment.

God’s Love Remains Universal

One of the most significant advantages of the divine presence model is that it allows us to affirm without qualification that God loves all people eternally. Unlike traditionalism, which often suggests that God’s attitude toward the damned is one of wrath rather than love, the divine presence model maintains that God’s love never ceases.

As St. Isaac the Syrian wrote, “It is not right to say that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God.” Rather, they experience that love as torment because they have made themselves incapable of receiving it properly. God does not stop loving the damned; the damned have stopped being able to receive that love as love.

This understanding preserves the biblical teaching that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) without qualification. God’s essential nature doesn’t change based on human response. He remains love even toward those who reject Him. The tragedy of hell is not that God stops loving but that some creatures render themselves incapable of experiencing that love positively.

Divine Justice and Mercy United

The divine presence model also resolves the apparent tension between God’s justice and mercy. In traditional Western theology, these attributes often seem to be in conflict – mercy wants to save all, but justice demands punishment. The divine presence model shows how justice and mercy are actually the same divine action experienced differently.

God’s presence is both perfectly just and perfectly merciful. It is merciful because God continues to offer Himself in love to all creatures. It is just because each person experiences that presence according to what they have become through their free choices. The righteous experience God’s presence as the fulfillment of their deepest longings; the wicked experience it as the frustration of their disordered desires.

In this way, the model fulfills Paul’s statement that God “will repay each person according to what they have done” (Romans 2:6) without making God a retributive punisher. The “repayment” is not an external sentence but the natural consequence of encountering Ultimate Reality with a particular spiritual condition.

The Necessity of Transformation

The divine presence model emphasizes why salvation must involve transformation rather than mere forgiveness. If heaven and hell are two ways of experiencing God’s presence, then we must be changed to enjoy that presence. This is why Scripture speaks so extensively about being “born again,” becoming a “new creation,” and being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

This understanding illuminates Jesus’s words to Nicodemus: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). It’s not that God arbitrarily excludes those who aren’t “born again”; rather, without spiritual transformation, God’s presence would be experienced as hell rather than heaven.

This is also why sanctification is not optional in the Christian life. The process of becoming holy – being conformed to the image of Christ – is the process by which we become capable of enjoying God’s presence. As Hebrews 12:14 states, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

The Role of Christ’s Atonement

How does Christ’s death and resurrection fit into the divine presence model? Christ’s work is even more central in this understanding than in traditional models. Christ doesn’t merely pay a legal penalty; He provides the means of transformation that enables us to endure and enjoy God’s presence.

Through union with Christ in His death and resurrection, believers undergo the fundamental transformation necessary to experience God’s presence as blessing rather than burning. As Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). This union with Christ is what enables believers to stand in God’s presence.

Moreover, Christ’s incarnation reveals that it is possible for humanity to be united with divinity. In Christ, we see human nature perfectly united with divine nature, showing us both what we are meant to become and providing the means to become it. This is why Eastern theology speaks of salvation as theosis or deification – becoming by grace what God is by nature.

Part X: Pastoral and Practical Implications

The divine presence model is not merely an abstract theological concept; it has profound implications for Christian life and practice. Understanding hell in this way can transform how we approach evangelism, discipleship, and spiritual formation.

Evangelism: Invitation Rather Than Threat

Traditional evangelism has often relied heavily on the threat of hell: “Turn or burn,” “Get saved or get tormented.” While the reality of hell should not be minimized, the divine presence model allows for a more positive evangelical approach. The gospel becomes an invitation to transformation that prepares us for the ultimate encounter with God.

Instead of primarily warning people about a threat God will impose, we can invite them to become the kind of people who can enjoy God’s presence. The focus shifts from escaping punishment to receiving healing and transformation. This aligns with Jesus’s own preaching, which emphasized the positive invitation to enter the kingdom of God more than threats of punishment.

Discipleship: The Urgency of Transformation

If heaven and hell are determined by our capacity to experience God’s presence, then spiritual formation becomes urgently important. Discipleship is not just about learning doctrine or following rules; it’s about undergoing the deep transformation that prepares us for eternity.

This understanding gives new meaning to spiritual disciplines. Prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, and worship are not arbitrary religious duties but means by which we open ourselves to God’s transforming presence. They are practice for eternity, gradually increasing our capacity to endure and enjoy the divine presence.

As Manis explains, the process of sanctification is essentially learning to experience God’s presence positively. Every moment of communion with God in this life prepares us for the eternal communion of heaven. Conversely, every act of resistance to God’s presence reinforces patterns that, if not repented of, will make His eternal presence unbearable.

The Problem of Suffering

The divine presence model also provides resources for addressing the problem of suffering in this life. If God’s presence can be experienced as either blessing or burning depending on our spiritual condition, then suffering may sometimes be the result of encountering God’s transforming presence while still in a state of spiritual resistance.

This doesn’t mean all suffering is punishment or that those who suffer are necessarily more sinful. Rather, it suggests that some suffering may be the labor pains of spiritual transformation. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The saints’ ability to experience joy even in suffering becomes more understandable in this framework. Having been transformed to align with God’s nature, they experience His presence as comfort even in the midst of external trials. As Paul writes, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed… struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

The Nature of Sin

The divine presence model helps us understand why sin is so serious. Sin is not merely breaking arbitrary rules; it is forming ourselves into beings who cannot bear God’s presence. Every sin makes us a little less capable of experiencing God’s love as love. This is why Scripture warns so strongly against sin – not because God is vindictive, but because sin corrupts our capacity for eternal joy.

This understanding also explains why some sins are described as particularly serious. The “sin against the Holy Spirit,” for example, may be understood as the complete hardening of heart that makes repentance impossible. It’s not that God refuses to forgive this sin, but that those who commit it have destroyed their capacity to receive forgiveness.

The Importance of Community

If hell is the inability to experience love properly, then learning to love and be loved in community becomes essential preparation for eternity. The church is not just a social club or educational institution but a community where we practice the kind of communion that characterizes heaven.

This is why Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love neighbor. These are not arbitrary commands but descriptions of what we must become to enjoy eternal life. Heaven is perfect communion with God and others; if we cannot love, we cannot enjoy heaven.

The divine presence model thus emphasizes the importance of forgiveness, reconciliation, and genuine community in the church. These are not just nice ideals but essential practices that prepare us for eternity.

Part XI: Responding to Philosophical Challenges

While the divine presence model offers compelling solutions to many traditional problems, it also faces certain philosophical challenges that deserve careful consideration. Manis addresses these thoroughly in his book, and we’ll examine the most significant ones here.

The Problem of Moral Responsibility

If the damned are in a state of self-deception and spiritual blindness, how can they be held morally responsible for their condition? This challenge strikes at the heart of any view that emphasizes the role of self-deception in damnation.

Manis, drawing on Kierkegaard, argues that self-deception is not innocent ignorance but willful suppression of truth. We are responsible for our self-deception because we actively choose to hide from truths we find uncomfortable. Each act of self-deception is a free choice to reject truth in favor of a preferred falsehood.

Moreover, the process is gradual and involves countless decision points. No one becomes utterly hardened through a single choice. Rather, through repeated decisions to resist God’s grace and suppress the conviction of conscience, people gradually form themselves into beings incapable of repentance. At each step, they could have chosen differently. Their final state is the culmination of a lifetime of free choices.

The Problem of Proportionality Revisited

Even if hell is God’s presence rather than an imposed punishment, doesn’t eternal suffering still seem disproportionate to finite sins? This is a sophisticated version of the problem of justice that recognizes the improvements of the divine presence model while maintaining that a fundamental disproportion remains.

The response requires us to reconsider what makes hell eternal. On the divine presence model, hell is eternal not because God decides to punish forever but because:

1. God is eternal and omnipresent. There will never be a time or place where God is not present. If someone has made themselves unable to bear God’s presence, this is necessarily an eternal condition unless they are transformed.
2. The damned perpetually reject transformation. Hell continues because the damned continue to reject the only thing that could end their suffering – submission to God and acceptance of His transforming grace.
3. Character becomes fixed. Through their earthly choices, the damned have formed a character that is incapable of repentance. Like a tree that has grown irreversibly crooked, they cannot straighten themselves.

The eternality of hell is thus not a divine decision but a metaphysical necessity given God’s nature and the free choices of creatures.

The Problem of Divine Responsibility

If God knows that His unveiled presence will torment the wicked, why does He unveil Himself? Doesn’t this make God responsible for their suffering even if He doesn’t directly cause it?

This objection assumes that God has a choice about whether to reveal Himself fully. But the divine presence model suggests that the full revelation of God is necessary for the perfection of creation. For the saved to experience perfect communion with God, He must be fully present. The tragedy is that this same presence, which is the greatest good for the saved, is torment for those who have rejected it.

Consider an analogy: Suppose a doctor discovers a cure for a terrible disease that affects everyone. The cure will completely heal those who have prepared their bodies through a prescribed regimen, but it will cause severe allergic reactions in those who refused the preparation. If the doctor administers the cure to save those who prepared, is he responsible for the allergic reactions of those who refused preparation despite repeated warnings?

The analogy is imperfect, but it captures something important. God’s unveiled presence is the ultimate good, the thing for which all creation was made. That some experience it as torment is due to their free rejection of the preparation (transformation) God offered.

The Hiddenness Problem Reversed

If God’s presence causes torment to the wicked, why doesn’t He remain hidden from them out of mercy? This reverses the usual divine hiddenness problem, suggesting that a merciful God would hide Himself from those who cannot bear His presence.

The divine presence model offers several responses:

Part XII: The Divine Presence Model and Other Theological Systems

How does the divine presence model relate to and interact with various theological traditions within Christianity? While the model has its strongest roots in Eastern Orthodoxy, it offers resources that can enrich other traditions as well.

Eastern Orthodoxy

The divine presence model is most at home in Eastern Orthodox theology, where it represents not an innovation but a systematic articulation of long-held beliefs. The Eastern emphasis on theosis (deification), the distinction between God’s essence and energies, and the understanding of salvation as healing rather than legal transaction all harmonize perfectly with this model.

Orthodox theology has long taught that heaven and hell are not different places but different experiences of God’s presence. The Divine Liturgy speaks of God as “everywhere present and filling all things.” Icons of the Last Judgment typically show both paradise and hell illuminated by the same divine light emanating from Christ.

For Orthodox Christians, the divine presence model simply makes explicit what has always been implicit in their tradition. It provides philosophical articulation for beliefs expressed in their liturgy, hymnography, and patristic writings.

Roman Catholicism

While Western Christianity has traditionally emphasized more juridical understandings of hell, the divine presence model is not incompatible with Catholic theology. The Catholic emphasis on purgatory as purification rather than punishment resonates with the model’s understanding of fire as transformative.

Moreover, Catholic mystical tradition has long recognized that God’s presence can be experienced as painful by those unprepared for it. St. John of the Cross wrote about the “dark night of the soul,” where God’s purifying presence is experienced as darkness and suffering before it becomes light and joy.

The model also aligns with the Catholic understanding of mortal sin as something that fundamentally disorders the soul’s relationship with God. If mortal sin makes us incapable of communion with God, it follows that God’s presence would be torment rather than blessing to those who die in such a state.

Protestantism

Protestant theology, with its emphasis on salvation by grace through faith, might initially seem at odds with the divine presence model’s emphasis on transformation. However, properly understood, the model actually reinforces key Protestant insights.

The model emphasizes that transformation is entirely God’s work in us, not something we achieve through our own efforts. We cannot make ourselves capable of enduring God’s presence; only the Holy Spirit can accomplish this transformation. This aligns perfectly with the Protestant emphasis on divine grace.

Furthermore, the model supports the Protestant teaching about the necessity of being “born again.” If heaven is the unveiled presence of God, then we absolutely must be spiritually regenerated to enjoy it. This is not works-righteousness but recognition that salvation involves real change, not just legal declaration.

Reformed theology’s emphasis on God’s sovereignty is also preserved in this model. God remains absolutely sovereign; the suffering of the damned doesn’t thwart His will but results from His unchanging nature encountering their freely chosen condition.

Evangelical Perspectives

Evangelical Christianity, with its focus on personal relationship with Jesus Christ, can find much to appreciate in the divine presence model. The model emphasizes that salvation is fundamentally about relationship – being able to enjoy communion with God – rather than simply avoiding punishment.

The evangelical emphasis on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit aligns perfectly with the model’s insistence that we must be changed to enjoy God’s presence. The “personal relationship with Jesus” that evangelicals emphasize is precisely what prepares someone to experience God’s presence as joy rather than torment.

Moreover, the model provides resources for evangelical apologetics. Instead of defending God’s right to torment people eternally, evangelicals can explain that God desires everyone’s salvation but respects human freedom even when it leads to self-destruction.

Part XIII: Living in Light of the Divine Presence Model

If the divine presence model is correct, how should it affect the way Christians live? The implications are profound and touch every aspect of spiritual life.

Worship as Preparation

Understanding worship in light of the divine presence model transforms it from duty to preparation. When we worship, we are practicing for eternity, learning to enjoy God’s presence. Every moment spent in genuine worship increases our capacity to experience God positively.

This explains why worship can initially be uncomfortable for new believers or those returning to faith. They are not yet accustomed to God’s presence. But through continued exposure in the gentle, veiled form of corporate worship, they gradually develop the capacity for deeper encounters with the divine.

The liturgy becomes a kind of divine therapy, slowly healing our spiritual senses so we can bear increasing degrees of God’s presence. This is why ancient liturgical traditions speak of the “awesome mysteries” and approach the Eucharist with a mixture of joy and holy fear.

Prayer as Transformation

Prayer is not primarily about getting things from God but about being transformed by encounter with Him. In prayer, we expose ourselves to God’s presence, allowing Him to gradually change us into people who can enjoy that presence eternally.

This understanding explains why contemplative prayer traditions emphasize simply being in God’s presence without agenda. It’s not about accomplishing something but about letting God’s presence do its transforming work in us. The hesychastic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox, with its emphasis on interior silence and the presence of God, makes perfect sense in this framework.

Even intercessory prayer takes on new meaning. When we pray for others, we are asking God to transform them as He is transforming us, to prepare them for the eternal encounter with His presence.

Suffering as Purification

While not all suffering is purification, understanding the divine presence model helps us see how suffering can serve a transformative purpose. When we experience the painful aspects of encountering God – conviction of sin, the discomfort of having our false selves exposed, the difficulty of surrendering our will – we are experiencing a foretaste of what the damned experience eternally.

The difference is that, by God’s grace, we can respond to this suffering with repentance and openness to transformation. What would be eternal torment for the hardened becomes temporary purification for those who submit to God’s work.

This perspective can help Christians endure suffering with hope. As Paul writes, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). Even painful encounters with God’s holiness serve to prepare us for eternal joy in His presence.

Evangelism as Urgent Love

If hell is the inevitable result of meeting God unprepared, then evangelism becomes an urgent act of love. We are not trying to convince God to save people; God already desires their salvation more than we do. Rather, we are urging people to accept the transformation that will enable them to enjoy God’s presence.

This removes the adversarial nature that sometimes characterizes evangelism. We are not threatening people with what God will do to them but warning them about what they are becoming and offering the hope of transformation. The focus shifts from escaping punishment to receiving healing.

Community as Practice for Eternity

If heaven is perfect communion with God and others, then learning to live in genuine community becomes essential. The church is not optional for Christians; it is the laboratory where we learn to love and be loved, forgive and be forgiven, know and be known.

Every act of genuine love prepares us for heaven. Every act of forgiveness makes us more capable of experiencing God’s presence positively. Conversely, harboring resentment, refusing forgiveness, or isolating ourselves from community reinforces patterns that, if not repented of, would make heaven itself unbearable.

This understanding should motivate Christians to pursue deep, authentic relationships despite the difficulty and pain they often involve. The discomfort of being truly known by others is preparation for being fully known by God.

Conclusion: The Coherence and Hope of the Divine Presence Model

As we conclude this comprehensive examination of R. Zachary Manis’s divine presence model of hell, we can see how it offers a revolutionary yet deeply traditional understanding of this challenging doctrine. The model succeeds where others fail by maintaining several crucial tensions that other views collapse.

Preserving Divine Love and Human Responsibility

The divine presence model maintains that God genuinely loves all people and desires their salvation while taking human freedom and responsibility seriously. God does not arbitrarily damn anyone, nor does He override human freedom to ensure universal salvation. The tragedy of hell is that some creatures freely make themselves incapable of receiving the love that God eternally offers.

This preserves both the biblical emphasis on God’s universal love and the equally biblical teaching about the reality of final judgment. We need not choose between a God who doesn’t really love everyone and a God who doesn’t really respect human choice.

Uniting Justice and Mercy

Rather than seeing justice and mercy as competing divine attributes that must be balanced, the divine presence model shows how they are united in God’s nature. The same divine presence that is perfect mercy to the repentant is perfect justice to the unrepentant. God need not choose between being merciful and being just; His unchanging presence accomplishes both simultaneously.

This resolves a tension that has plagued theology since Augustine. We need not imagine God torn between desires to save and requirements to punish. His single, unchanging nature accomplishes both salvation and judgment through the same action – His presence.

Explaining Biblical Language

The divine presence model makes sense of the full range of biblical language about hell without resorting to strained interpretations. Hell can be both “outer darkness” and “eternal fire,” both “destruction” and ongoing “torment,” both “punishment” and natural consequence. These are not contradictions but different metaphors for the same reality – the experience of God’s presence by those who have rejected Him.

The model particularly excels at explaining passages that have been problematic for other views, such as the torment occurring “in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10) and destruction coming “from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

The Ultimate Tragedy and Hope

The divine presence model reveals hell to be even more tragic than traditional views suggest. The damned are not suffering in a place where God is absent; they are suffering in the very presence of Love itself because they have made themselves incapable of receiving love. They are not rejected by God; they perpetually reject the God who continues to love them.

Yet the model also offers profound hope. It assures us that God’s love never fails, never ends, never gives up. Even in hell, God has not stopped loving the lost. The suffering of hell is not evidence of God’s cruelty but of the depths to which human freedom can sink when it rejects its own good.

For those who accept God’s offer of transformation, the model promises that the same presence that would be hell to the unrepentant will be infinite joy forever. Heaven is not a reward external to God but the enjoyment of God Himself. As Augustine prayed, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

A Call to Transformation

Perhaps most importantly, the divine presence model issues a call to transformation that is both urgent and hopeful. Urgent, because we are all moving toward an inevitable encounter with the unveiled presence of God. Hopeful, because God offers the transformation we need and accomplishes it by His grace through faith.

The question is not whether we will encounter God’s presence – that is certain. The question is how we will experience that presence. Will we allow God to transform us into people who can enjoy His presence, or will we resist until that presence becomes unbearable?

This is not a threat but an invitation. God, who is love, desires to share His infinite joy with all His creatures. He offers the transformation necessary to enjoy His presence. The gospel is the good news that this transformation is possible through Christ, who united human nature with divine nature and offers to share that union with all who trust in Him.

Bibliography and Further Reading

Primary Source

Manis, R. Zachary. Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God: An Essay on the Problem of Hell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Manis, R. Zachary. Thinking Through the Problem of Hell: The Divine Presence Model. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2024.

Historical Sources on the Divine Presence Model

St. Isaac the Syrian. The Ascetical Homilies. Especially Homily 27 on hell as the scourge of love.

St. Basil the Great. Commentary on Psalm 33, discussing the dual nature of divine fire.

St. Symeon the New Theologian. The Discourses. Various passages on experiencing God’s presence.

Kalomiros, Alexandre. “The River of Fire.” A modern Orthodox presentation of the traditional Eastern view.

Related Philosophical and Theological Works

Kierkegaard, Søren. The Sickness unto Death. Essential for understanding self-deception and despair.

Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce. A literary exploration of themes similar to the divine presence model.

Walls, Jerry L. Hell: The Logic of Damnation. A philosophical defense of the choice model.

Talbott, Thomas. The Inescapable Love of God. A philosophical case for universalism.

Kvanvig, Jonathan L. The Problem of Hell. A comprehensive philosophical analysis of hell.

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