Posted on 05/27/2010 11:43:09 AM PDT by markomalley
There are a few who say that hell is not eternal and that some day God’s mercy will overcome his justice and hell will be emptied. What does the Bible and catechism say about this? |
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Hell |
| One day, just as I had awakened, when I was putting myself in the presence of God, I was suddenly overwhelmed by despair. Complete darkness in the soul. I fought as best I could till noon...I fell to the ground, despair flooding my whole soul. I suffered terrible tortures in no way different to the torments of hell. (24) |
| One day, I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realising it. And at the end of the raods there was a horrible precipice; that is the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings. (153) |
| (Italics are mine) |
| Sr. Faustina is 'transported' to Hell - |
| Today I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of real torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one's condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it - a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, ....the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. |
| I, Sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell. When I came to, I could hardly recover from the fright. How terribly souls suffer there! Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the covnersion of sinners. I incessantly plead God's mercy upon them. O my Jesus, I would rather be in agony until the end of the world, amidst the greatest sufferings, than offend You by the least sin. (741) |
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| The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to Me is the prayer for the conversion of sinners. Know, My daughter, that this prayer is always heard and answered. (1397) | ||||
| Does God condemn anyone? | ||||
| When the sisters got up at eleven o'clock at night to keep vigil and welcome the New Year, I had been writhing in agony since nightfall, and this lasted until midnight. I united my sufferings with the prayers of the sisters who were keeping vigil in the chapel and atoning to God for the offences of sinners. (1451). When the clock struck twelve, my soul immersed itself more deeply in recollection, and I heard a voice in my soul: "Do not fear, My little child, you are not alone. Fight bravely, because My arm is supporting you; fight for the salvation of souls, exhorting them to trust in My mercy, as that is your task in this life and in the life to come." After these words, I received a deeper understanding of divine mercy. Only that soul who wants [to be damned] will be damned, for God condemns no one. (1452) | ||||
| Oh, how beyond comprehension is God's mercy! But- horror -there are also souls who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn this grace! Although a soul is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God. But sometimes, the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose hell; they make useless all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them and even the efforts of God Himself..(1698) | ||||
And there are some that don’t even believe there is a hell.
Heaven has nothing to offer a hellish soul. C.S. Lewis wrote an interesting story about this called “The Great Divorce.”
How does that actually happen?
“… I like a lot of activity. Heaven seems too placid to me. Now there’s a lot to do in hell …I’ve lived a happy life” --Art Linkletter on Larry King Live, 2005Sometimes people wonder why some folks live to be so very old while others die at such a young age. I'd have to think in Art Linkletter's case, God was giving AL a plentiful block of time in which to change his mind.
Music,joy,flowers,dancing,pleasure,enjoyment lead to hell.
Wow.
Even Jesus drank wine and enjoyed celebrations.
I am not sure, but from what I recollect, it seems that the gaze of God is one that goes directly into the pit of one's soul. And, the soul decides whether it wants to be with God or not for eternity.
A decision such as this is not out of the realm of possibility. If one is to understand that God is pure mercy, a soul who seeks mercy will find God and receive mercy.
Chances are that the soul which has never wanted God in his life, will not seek mercy, will not receive it and, as a result, will choose hell over heaven.
I think what this is about is how if someone goes through life, treating it like one big party, joke, etc., they will end up in Hell. Always giving into each and every desire, impulse, freely taking and giving nothing back.
Note how the people who walked on the broad beam went to hell and the people on the narrow one, went to Heaven. They don’t call it ‘walking the straight and narrow’ without reason.
It’s that the people who went to Hell lived life the easy way out, not the one where they worked, sacrificed, suffered, and in the end lived righteous but difficult lives.
THE TEACHINGS OF THE FATHERS, DOCTORS AND SAINTS OF T CHURCH UPON THE FINAL DESTINY OF MOST PEOPLE.
1) Notwithstanding assurances that God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved, it remains equally true that few will be saved; that only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost for ever. (St. John Neuman)
2) It is certain that few are saved. (St. Augustine)
3) The majority of men shall not see God. (St. Julian the Martyr)
4) Those who are saved are in the minority. ( St. Thomas Aquinas)
5) The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love almighty God. (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
6) So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved. (St. Philip Neri)
7) Among adults there are few saved because of the sins of the flesh....With exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned. (St. Remigius of Rheims)
8) Death bed conversions/repentance-there are hardly any:
Out of 100,000 sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely ONE will be saved. (St. Jerome)
9) The MAJORITY OF CATHOLICS GO TO HELL:
a) The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few - not as many as ten - went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and THOSE CAST INTO HELL WERE NUMEROUS AS SNOWFLAKES in mid-winter. (Bl. Anna Maria Taigi)
b) There are many who arrive at the faith, but few who are led to the heavenly kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s Feast-Day; we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how FEW they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the elect? (Pope St. Gregory the Great)
c) The Ark, which in the midst of the Flood was the symbol of the Church, was wide below and narrow above, .... It was wide where the animals were, narrow where men lived; for the Holy Church is indeed wide in number of those who are carnal minded, narrow in the number of those who are spiritual.
( Pope St. Gregory the Great)
d) Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to heaven? Alas, my children we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter. (St. John Vianney)
10) MOST PRIESTS GO TO HELL:
a) I do not speak rashly, but how I feel and think. I do not think that many priests are saved, but that those who perish are more numerous. ( St. John Chrysostom)
b) Most priest are lost and few bishops are saved, not because of what they do, so much as what they fail to do. (St. John Chrysotom)
c) Many religious go to Hell because they do not keep their vows. (St. Vincent Ferrer)
CATHOLICS NOT ASPIRING AND NOT LIVING AS SAINTS WILL GO TO HELL:
a) They who are enlightened to walk in the way of perfection, and through lukewarmness wish to tread the ordinary paths, shall be abandoned. (Bl. Angela of Foligno)
b) They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved. (Pope St. Gregory the Great)
c) St. Teresa.... had she not risen from the state of lukewarmness in which she lived, she would in the end have lost the grace of God and been damned. ( St. Alphonsus Liguori)
14) How many inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to say is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with it’s thousands of inhabitants, not 100 people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! ( St. John Chrysostom - the city was Antioch and its inhabitants were known to be in pursuit of comfort and the good things of things life.)
15) A multitude of souls fall into the depths of Hell. (St. Anthony Mary Claret - It has been revealed that on the day of the death of St. Bernard there also died 79,999 other people, and of this total of 80,000 who died, only St. Bernard and two other monks were saved. So out of 80,000 dead, 79,997 went to Hell! )
16) In the great deluge in the days of Noah, all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water, but sins, continually inundates the earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved. ( St. Alphonsus Liguori)
17) Yes indeed, many will be damned; few will be saved. (St. Benedict Joseph Labro)
18) If you only knew the women who will go to Hell because they did not bring into the world the children they should have given to it. ( St. John Vianney)
19) He who goes to Hell, goes of his own accord. Everyone who is damned, is damned because he wills his own damnation. (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
20) THOSE WHO HAVE HEARD NOTHING ABOUT THE FAITH CAN ALSO GO TO HELL:
a) When such unbelievers are damned, it is on account of other sins, which cannot be taken away without the faith, but not because of their sin of unbelief. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
b) Everyone that is of truth hears my voice. (St. John 18:37)
c) It may be true that there are, in the remotest parts of the world, some people who have not yet seen the light of the Savior. Certainly, God’s manifold and ineffable goodness has always provided, and still provides, for all mankind in such a way that not one of the reprobates can find an excuse as though he had been refused the light of truth. ( St. Prosper of Aquitaine)
d) No one is lost without knowing it, and no one is deceived without wanting to be. (St. Teresa of Avila)
21) OUTSIDE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THERE IS NO SALVATION:
a) No matter how praiseworthy his actions might seem, he who is separated from the Catholic Church will never enjoy eternal life (Pope Gregory XVI)
b) O ye atheists who do not believe in God, what fools you are ! But if you do believe there is a God, you must also believe there is a true religion. And if not the Roman Catholic, which is it? Perhaps that of the pagans who admit many gods, thus they deny them all. Perhaps that of Mohammed, a religion invented by an impostor and framed for beasts rather than humans. Perhaps that of the Jews who had the true faith at one time but, because they rejected their redeemer, lost their faith, their country, their everything. Perhaps that of the heretics who, separating themselves from our Church, have confused all revealed dogmas in such a way that the belief of one heretic is contrary to that of his neighbor. O holy faith! Enlighten all those poor blind creatures who run to eternal perdition! (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
Yikes! That is very sobering indeed.
Thats very profound. To the gist of it. And concise. A lot of wisdom.
You know thats speaks volumes. I think when people suffer its also a gift for eternity and penance. That was 5 years ago
Yes,I was thinking of it in terms of the wonderful,pleasant things God provides for us and that it’s meant for us to enjoy what God provides. The original post seemed very strict in that it even said flowers were on the road to hell. That and the rest seems extreme. Yet,I do agree that what you say is quite sensible.
Sorry that does not make sense. If most people go to hell then the devil wins. Otherwise why would God make us. Just to see us suffer! If a third of the angels disobeyed. That could be the ratio for man. I think the saints were overwhelmed with the sight of Hell. Even the early church fathers argued about the suffers outside Noah’s Ark asking for mercy during the deluge. Also thats private revelation with the saints’s quotes(We do not have to believe it). I believe Christ came to win.
Sobering.
I made a mistake,it was the content of the second post to which I referred.
The fact of the matter is we don’t know what happens after we die. We can believe, be sure, be confident, even “know” what will happen...but we don’t know.
The devils already lost long ago, that is why they are devils.
Re: Otherwise why would God make us. Just to see us suffer!
You could say the same about the devils.
The tree does not understand the prunuing nor the ground the tilling, but the husbandman knows.
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