In its home country China, where Taoism adopted tenets of other religions, popular belief endows Taoist Hell with many deities and spirits who punish sin in a variety of horrible ways.

His suffering poses one of life's great questions and a critical challenge to Jews: If God does not reward obedience and punish sin, why bother obeying God's law at all?

To suppose that God forgives or punishes sin, according as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love and make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing.

Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful and not punish sin?

And I would have you believe, my sons, that the same Justice which punishes sin may also most graciously forgive it, and that no ban is so heavy but that by prayer and repentance it may be removed.

"Sweat is a natural help in physical exertion,"37 not an innovation introduced to punish sin.

Zek claimed, with little preamble, that he had died during the night and was even now trapped between the Divine Treasury and the Vault of Eternal Destitution for the little known and seldom punished sin of genocide to no profit.

When he explained how a holy God had to punish sin but didn't want any of the people he created to die, I finally started to see it.