A Choice of Amens

“My son,” the courteous master said to me
“All those who perish in the wrath of God
Here meet together out of every land

And ready are they to pass o’er the river,
Because celestial justice spurs them on,
So that their fear is turned into desire.”

Dante’s Inferno, Canto III

Dante imagines the throngs of the damned will be spurred on toward Hell with a desire to see the justice of God vindicated in their own damnation. Though petrified of that far bank of the Styx, they pay their admittance to bone-faced Charon for passage to that black shore, yearning that their vessels of wrath may fulfil their purpose.

I do not think Hell will look like Dante imagined it. But there is a fearful glint of truth to this scene, where the damned’s fear of Hell is turned into earnest desire to get their so that the fulfillment of God’s justice may begin.

Will there be such perspicacity in Hell? Sounds like it:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:20,11 (ESV)

There will be a time when the tongue of every sentient being will speak the most obvious fundamental reality of existence: Jesus is Lord. Knees will bend in assent.

Thanks be to God there is another way to praise His justice:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life

Titus 3:4-7 (ESV)

Perhaps Heaven’s cries of joy and Hell’s agony will both be the synchronous chorus of eternal “amens” to the Justice of God.

Choose your Amen.