Periodically, I get into discussions with professional colleagues, and the topics diverge from simple clinical work to what it means to be alive and human.

One of the things people contemplate from time to time is whether or not there is a literal hell.

During one of those conversations with a particular colleague, I happened to speculate that if, according to the Westminster Confession, our chief purpose as human beings is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, then perhaps hell is the inability to enjoy God, and that one is "in" hell already if that's one's case.

To that, he said, "If this is hell, it has much to be said for it."

I admire the humour. Perhaps this is not hell, but simply sometimes hellish.

I responded with an illustration I heard when I was in the ministry about the antinomy of man's free will and God's sovereignty: imagine a portal in time and above the portal as you approach it is a sign that reads, "The Free Will of Man".

You pass through the portal in time, and as you do, you realise it's a membrane, and you've arrived in a new dimensional universe.

You look back from where you've come, and above the portal that is now fading behind you, you see the words, "The Sovereignty of God".

By analogy, I would suggest that what looks pretty good here might look like hell on the other side.

What looks like being able to do nicely without God on this side, looks like separation from everything beautiful, virtuous, and loving on the other side. What seems like, "I can do just fine without God", on this side, looks like, "Oh GOD! Where are you?" on the other side.

Is hell a burning fire? I don't know. I tend to believe that it is an eternal regret, and such a deeply felt pain that it feels like a burning fire of torment.

Is hell a threat? Are we simply caught in some kind of Stockholm Syndrome with God as the aggressor?

Hell is no more a threat than the assertion that if you swim out without gear and go down, down, down in the ocean here, you will die.

Is that a threat or a statement of how things work? In the same way, hell is not a threat; it's just a result of how things work.

To that my colleague replied, "In order for what you believe to make sense, you have to question the beauty, virtue and love in my life, and the lives of all your non-believing friends."

I replied that I didn't have to question these things in other people and went on to say that the point of the metaphor is relative to the person who is looking at the signs over the portal.

I said, "It's for you to experience and know or not know about yourself. Furthermore, I was raising one possibility, and I'm sure there is much I don't know about what the passage from this form of existence to that is like.

However, I believe that in God resides goodness, beauty, order, justice, grace, and loving kindness to infinite proportions; to be separated from that would be hell whether you have it in this life or the next.

I also know that we have the capacity to fool ourselves; we are like lobsters slowly boiling away as the water temperature rises, and we are dying oblivious to the situation, often splashing around and revelling in the briny water.

I don't know about you, but for me almost weekly now I see more grey hair, a sagging of the skin, a new wrinkle, some increased stiffness, and all this kind of ageing seems to be picking up momentum. I'm seeing more road signs that tell me I'm approaching the portal, so one day I will know because I will 'see' for myself. You too. In the meantime we splash, and I do not begrudge you your splashing."

Still, I did go on to say, "I do not question the beauty, virtue and love in your life, nor in the lives of anyone else. There is a concept in theology called 'common grace'.

One source for this belief is a scripture that reads, in part, "... for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous".

"If you and I stood right now (it is 6.24 a.m. here in Bermuda) on Warwick Long Bay, we'd see the dark ocean stretching out and we could hear the surf curling up on the sand, and if we turned, we'd see the sun beginning to rise over the Island behind us.

The beauty would reveal itself to us a little more each minute as the light increased. The same ocean, the same sand, the same trees behind us with light growing over their tops and spreading out all around would be there for each of us.

So, I would not question that beauty was in your life, for I know it is. I would not question that virtue was in your life, for I know there is a mix of it in everyone and around each one. I would not question that love is manifest in you.

But so much of the time we (you and I) are splashing in the brine, with our relative versions of these things, while the sun comes up and the rain falls on each one of us – and while the portal gets closer and closer. Is it a threat or just a statement of the way things work?"

My colleague and I are still talking. We tend to go around and round on such things. I hope it's not just more splashing.