The problem with understanding what is going on is that we have placed so much dogma on top or our understanding of what was written in the Bible. Even the Bible was changed by well meaning scribes.
We have lost so much of the information… what we really have lost is the codex. The structure from which these teachings were taught.
Like, if you write reincarnation out of the Bible, then every passage that assumes you know about reincarnation doesn't make much sense, or the flock believes they know about what they are reading about. Not knowing that they made the whole thing up.
Sin is one of those things.
The bible says "God will be upset with you if you sin" (paraphrase)
"God will punish you in eternal burning fires, if you sin"
"Santa is watching you… so you better be good for goodness sake"
Sin has become the stick with which to keep people in line.
God loves you
This is so very misunderstood because we don't know about the layers of reality anymore.
"If god loves us, why do we have natural disasters that kill lots of god fearing people?"
People, atheists and Christians, often say these kinds of words. One to mock, and one because they are hurting and do not comprehend.
To allow this to make sense, we need to put back all the layers.
God
Groups of beings that are a part of God
Universe(s)
Galaxies
Heaven/hell
Earth
You see, you are an eternal being that has decided to play a game of Universe/physical incarnation.
From our view/words, God loves his children who are playing a video game. They are very immersed in this game. And, God is happy they are having fun, even if the boss mob is wiping their butts every time.
From God's point of view, the character in the video game is just a bunch of pixels. And they have infinite lives. And the kids have chosen to play this game. (and they can quit any time they want)
We are all here on Earth to explore ourselves and find new experiences. (not going to the Bahamas and seeing tropical beaches, although that is a new experience, i mean the type that really change your life)
Heaven / Hell
These are part of the construct that is Earth. You might say that they ARE the wheel of time. Or the wheel of reincarnation.
You spend a lot of "time" in these places (that really have no time) in between lives.
Heaven is a rest stop, in between lives. It has many levels so that you can go to the one that most expresses your view of / worship of God.
Hell is a place where you go to burn out all the Sins out of yourself, and refine your experiences down into a single drop. You stay there as long as you need to.
Sooooo, only in a roundabout way do we go to hell forever.
Hell is an eternal burning fire. (you could also see it as light, really intense light that shines completely through you removing any impurities / darkness.)
You will go there if you Sin.
But, it is not an eternal torture for sinners.
What Is Sin?
You could say that a Sin is something that dirties your soul. Or something that hurts your soul. Or something that makes your current body break away from your soul. (the discrepancy is pain. You are going against who you are or who you want to become)
If you are not a narcissist/psychopath, killing people hurts. A good person, who has shot someone for the first time often has quite a breakdown. Talk to soldiers about this. Therefor, someone wrote down that you should avoid killing people, because it really hurts your soul. Of course it came out as
Thou shalt not kill.
And, when you kill someone, you will spend more time in Hell.
Unfortunately, you will also carry that wound in your soul for your whole life. PTSD is not a nice thing to suffer with.
God doesn't hate you, or will punish you for making this Sin. From a higher perspective, it is like watching a Dirty Hairy movie. Of course someone has to be the bad guy. And the "winner" of the gun fight has to deal with all of that Sin, but God does not hate you for this. It really is just a movie (or video game) However, you will spend more time in Hell, and so, you could see that as God punishing you. Or you could see it as God giving a particular dirty kid a really good scrubbing in the bath tub.
Now, these books, which talk about living and understanding life were left by people who knew the structure.
We, humanity, will return to those levels.
Like a highly spiritual person can notice when they sinned, because their soul hurts. But, lots of people do not believe in this woo woo stuff, they don't even pay attention to the indigestion in their guts. They don't even know the feeling of being in touch with your soul.
Tomorrows normie, will be as sensitive as today's highly spiritual person. And, then we won't need the books, the Bible, it will be inside of us. We will tell if we are about to sin as easily as a person today will observe they are about to put their hand on a hot stove.
Avoiding Sin is not just something you should do to avoid the ire of the big man upstairs, but because your life goes so much better without your soul being hurt. Sadly, the Bible has degraded into "Thou Shalt Not Steal"