....if it were but that one dimensional and simple ...
I have learned to accept the hell as the punishment of the wicked as a mystery which God mercifully keeps the saved from ever learning fully which must needs be practically.
On the other hand I believe that I have learned some 'deeper insights' about hell from Christ's own and DIVINE AND ALIVE EXPERIENCE OF IT IN THAT NIGHT AND DAY OF HELL IN THE GARDENS OF GETHSEMANE AND GOLGOTHA ---where hell was "IN THE KINGDOM OF HIS FATHER".
I never thought one might think about hell as in the Kingdom of our Father where CHRIST'S DARKEST HOUR was the BRIGHTEST IN GOD'S GLORY, and where the RIVER OF LIFE gushed forth from the Throne of God in Paradise.
Where all the Promises of God came TRUE in Jesus' Promise to the thief next to Him on the cross: "Verily I say unto Thee [as must have the Father to the Son], Today shalt THOU BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."
O, I cannot care less what people might say or think.
You fail to understand that while Jesus was standing before Nicodemus on earth as a man, he claimed at the same instant he was also in heaven as an omnipresent God the Son. Hence, God the Son was already in heaven at the same instance he told the theif on the cross that this very day the theif would be with him in heaven.