This idea was first introduced to me almost a year ago by a good friend of mine. I've added some of my own personal touches to this analogy but the fundamental lesson still remains the same: If heaven was just a plain room, and the only other person inside it was Jesus, would you want to stay and chat with him for eternity? Or would you want to leave and find something 'better'?
For a Christian, you'd most undoubtedly say "yes of course I'd stay and chat with him". If anyone has issues with this idea of an afterlife, that's fair. Some people might perceive this kind of existance as boring or unbearable (eternity in a room with just one guy...). I feel that the basic idea of heaven and hell is this: if you don't want to spend eternity with God, that's fine. Just leave the room and see what you will find. It's not as if God kicked us out of the room. It's not as if we don't have the right ID to get into this exclusive room, nor do we have the right clearance. God has given us all we need to get into that room through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If you don't want to spend eternity in that room chatting with Jesus, don't worry; God won't make you do anything you don't want to do. He'll leave you alone and let you live your afterlife the way you want to. Of course according to the bible this essentially means an eternity of torment and suffering.
However, this is not to say that God tortures you and causes you to suffer because you don't believe in him ("You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder" James 2:19). The demons believe in God, yet they too will suffer eternity in hell. So clearly our punishment is not as simple as "you didn't believe in him, therefore God will put you in hell forever". It's more of, "you find the idea of spending eternity with God unbearable, therefore he will leave you alone forever". Hell isn't defined by presence; it's defined by absence: the absence of God's love. He doesn't hate you, he merely withdraws his love from you because you rejected it.
For example, if your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you, no matter how many times you try to get back together with them, it won't be true love unless they relent and accept your love once more. If you force the relationship to happen, then it won't be a genuine relationship. Likewise, God cannot force you to love him otherwise it would not be a real relationship. He merely moves on, albeit reluctantly, just like how we would have to accept our loss and move on with life. So please, don't perceive hell as a place we're sent to because God is vain and petty, see it for what it really is: an absence of his love. How much would it cost you to accept his love? How much would it cost you to not accept it?
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