Posted on 11/20/2017 7:50:50 AM PST by Salvation
This is the eleventh in a series of articles on the Four Last Things: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell.
Today we come to the final of the Four Last Things: Hell. I have written extensively on this topic over the years, largely in response to the widespread dismissal of the revealed doctrine of Hell. In contradiction to Scripture, many presume that Hell is an unlikely destination for most. Never mind that Jesus taught just the opposite (e.g., Matt 7:13-14). In my own small way, I have tried to keep people more rooted in the sobriety of the Gospel than in the wishful thinking of the modern age. No one warned of Hell more than did Jesus. Arguably, 21 of the 38 parables amount to warnings about Hell and the need to be ready for judgment day. (I have written more on that here: Jesus Who Loves You Warned Frequently of Hell.)
In this post, however, I would like to consider why Hell has to be. Frequently, those who doubt Jesus biblical teaching ask this: If God is love, then why is there Hell and why is it eternal?
In short, there is Hell because of Gods respect for our freedom. God has made us free and our freedom is absolutely necessary if we are to love. Suppose that a young man wanted a young lady to love him. Suppose again that he found a magic potion with which to lace her drink. After drinking it, Presto, she loves him! Is it real love? No its the effect of chemicals. Love must be freely given. The yes of love is only meaningful if we are free to say no. God invites us to love him. There must be a Hell because there has to be a real alternative to Heaven. God will not force us to love Him or to come to Heaven with Him.
But wait a minute; doesnt everyone want to go to Heaven? Yes, but it is often a heaven as they define it, not the real Heaven. Many people understand Heaven egocentrically: Its a place where they will be happy on their own terms, where what pleases them will be available in abundance. The real Heaven is the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. So while everyone wants to go to a heaven as they define it, not everyone wants to live in the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. Consider the following examples:
The point is this: If Heaven isnt just of our own design; if Heaventhe real Kingdom of Godis about these things, then doesnt it seem clear that there actually are many who dont want to go to Heaven? You see, everyone wants to go to a heaven of their own design, but not everyone wants to live in the real Kingdom of Heaven. God will not force any one to live in Heaven if he doesnt want to live there. He will not force anyone to love Him or what He loves or whom He loves. We are free to choose His Kingdom or not.
Perhaps a brief story will illustrate my point:
I once knew a woman in one of my parishes who in many ways was very devout. She went to daily Mass and prayed the rosary on most days. There was one thing about her, however, that was very troubling: she couldnt stand African-Americans.
She would often comment to me, I cant stand Black people! Theyre moving into this neighborhood and ruining everything! I wish theyd go away. I remember scolding her a number of times for this sort of talk, but it seemed to have seeming effect.
One day I decided to try to make it more clear: You know you dont really want to go to Heaven, I challenged.
Of course I do, Father, she replied. God and the Blessed Mother are there; I want to go.
No, you wont be happy there, I responded.
Why? she asked, What are you talking about, Father?
Well you see there are Black people in Heaven and youve said that you cant stand to be around them, so Im afraid you wouldnt be happy there. God wont force you to live in Heaven if you wont be happy there. Thats why I think that you dont really want to go to Heaven.
I think she got the message because I noticed that her attitude started to improve.
Thats just it, isnt it? God will not force us to live in the Kingdom if we really dont want it or like what that Kingdom is. We cant just invent our own heaven. Heaven is a real place. It has contours and realities of its own that we cant just brush aside. Either we accept Heaven as it is or we ipso facto choose to live apart from it and God. So, Hell has to be. It is not a pleasant place, but I suppose the saddest thing about the souls in Hell is that they wouldnt be happy in Heaven anyway. Its a tragic plight, not to be happy anywhere.
Understand this, too: God has not utterly rejected even the souls in Hell. Somehow, He still provides for their basic needs. They continue to exist and thus God continues to sustain them with whatever is required for that existence. He does not annihilate them or snuff them out.
God respects their wish to live apart from the Kingdom and its values. He loves them but respects their choice.
Why is Hell eternal? Here I think we encounter a mystery about ourselves. God seems to be teaching us that there comes a day when our decisions are fixed forever. In this world we always have the possibility of changing our mind so the idea of a permanent decision seems strange to us. Those of us who are older can testify that as we age we get more and more set in our ways; its harder and harder to change. Perhaps this is a little foretaste of a time when our decisions will be forever fixed and we will never change. The Fathers of the Church used an image of pottery to teach on this. Think of wet clay on a potters wheel. As long as the clay is moist and still on the wheel it can be shaped and reshaped, but once it is put in the kiln, in the fire, its shape is fixed forever. So it is with us that when we appear before God, who is a Holy Fire, our fundamental shape will be forever fixed, our decisions will be final. This is mysterious to us and we only sense it vaguely, but because Heaven and Hell are eternal, it seems that this forever-fixed state is in our future.
This is the best I can do on a difficult topic: Hell has to be. Its about Gods respect for us. Its about our freedom and summons to love. Its about the real Heaven. Its about what we really want in the end. We know what God wants: to save us. The real judgment in question is what we want.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
There is an argument—a very convincing one—that Hell is not eternal for only God is eternal. Dualism like that of the Manichees was considered heresy in the day.
Yep. it’s all covered here:
Jewishnotgreek.com
Quibbling.
“Eternal” includes more than our awarenes of time time, but from in time it includes all of the past as well as the present and future. The Lake of Fire is still in the future. When it will be occupied even the “past” while it has been occupied will not include eternal past.
Hell can be both forever and still not be eternal.
If hell can be both forever and still not be eternal there’s more than a snowball’s chance in hell!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_XV
Ice 15 also absolutely lacking in magnetism ... so it would be the most unattractive snowball possible.
But look, if that lake is eternal, certainly your damnation doesn’t have to be—unless you’re the devil incarnate.
But look on the bright side: if that lake is eternal, certainly your damnation doesn’t have to be—unless you’re the devil incarnate.
Are you thinking as man does or are you thinking as God does?
Personally, I wonder if the soul requires a body to have free will and thus be able to make choices.
But, once the body dies, it loses its free will and the soul is then fixed, set in its ways, so to speak, as it can no longer change itself.
Because, without the body, there is no free will, and thus no choice and no ability to repent, and thus, no forgiveness for the disembodied soul.
But does that mean eternal damnation? Well...maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the eternal fire of hell is itself a natural purification process that burns away sins.
The sins of a soul are what give it mass and weigh it down, so to speak.
When a sin-free soul is released from its physical body in death, it blasts off to heaven like a rocket being launched into space.
However, the more sin the soul has, the greater the souls density or mass or weight, and down, down in hell it sinks to the level of its sin.
However, as the fire burns the sins away, the soul naturally becomes lighter, less dense, and naturally the soul rises higher.
This is not unlike what happens when a soul in a body repents and sins are forgiven, but without a body and a free will to make the choice to repent and seek forgiveness, the sinful soul in hell simply must endure the natural process of being literally being purified by fire for however long that process takes.
Because of the laws of thermal dynamics and how nothing is wasted, I sometimes think that hell is like the furnace/power station that runs the heat and lights for Heaven.
Ive heard of the great power that is, or that is contained within, a soul and that it is somewhat analogous to the power contained within the atom.
Perhaps hell is naturally hot kinda like a nuclear reactor is hot, due to the great energy of that YUGE concentrated mass of disembodied souls burning away their sins.
Therefore, if there are levels to hell and a soul rises (becomes closer to God) as it becomes less dense, due to its sins burning away, then damnation doesnt have to be eternal. It just feels that way.
Jesus didnt teach anything on hell. He taught about Gehenna, the proper name of a valley on the S and E of Jerusalem. That proper noun didnt need translating anymore than Jerusalem or Bethlehem did, and the Roman Catholic church didnt translate it. In the 16th century, they substituted the word hell for Gehenna. Hell came from a word meaning cover, from which our word helmet comes. Farmers used a hell to cover their produce so it wouldnt freeze. The word had no connotation of eternal conscious torment in the spiritual realm.
Comparison of Jesus Teaching on Gehenna
vs. Roman Catholicism on Hell
1. Jesus taught that Gehenna was escapable, while Roman Catholicism teaches that Hell is inescapable.
2. Jesus taught only one occurrence of the punishment of Gehenna, while Roman Catholicism teaches Hell is eternal and unending.
3. Jesus taught that the punishment of Gehenna was in only in his generation, while Roman Catholicism teaches its for all generations.
4. Jesus taught that the punishment of Gehenna was a physical judgment, while Roman Catholicism teaches Hell is a spiritual judgment.
5. Jesus warned that the punishment of Gehenna was a regional judgment involving people in Judea, while Roman Catholicism teaches Hell is global and universal.
6. Jesus taught that mortal souls, living humans would go to Gehenna, while Roman Catholicism teaches that immortal spirits will go to Hell.
7. Jesus taught that Gehenna would be physical punishment, while Roman Catholicism teaches that spiritual punishing would be carried out on immortal spirits.
8. Jesus taught that the punishment in Gehenna was to avenge martyrs, while Roman Catholicism makes no connection to avenging martyrs in Hell.
9. Jesus taught that Gehenna was to be the end of Old Covenant Israel, while Roman Catholicism teaches nothing about Hell in relation to Old Covenant Israel.
10. Gehenna was known to Moses and the Prophets, the Roman Catholic concept of Hell is unknown to Moses and the Prophets.
11. Gehenna didnt need translating, Roman Catholicism didnt translate Gehenna, but substituted Hell for it.
12. There was no eternal conscious torment in Gehenna, like there is in the Roman Catholic concept of Hell.
13. The warnings of punishment in Gehenna originated with Jesus, eternal conscious torment originated in Egypt.
14. The location of Gehenna is well known, the location of Hell in the spiritual realm is unknown.
15. Photographs of Gehenna are readily available, while there are no photographs of Roman Catholicisms concept of Hell.
16. All of these characteristics of Gehenna are in the Bible, while none of Roman Catholicisms concept of Hell is in the Bible.
17. Gehenna and Hell are not the same in any way.
How could you know? Go with Calvin, begin as a man.
One of Msgr Pope’s best ever.
I've read something like this...
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Daniel 12:2 niv
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Somehow; I am not convinced.
I've read something like that...
Oh?
What chapter and verse; if you please.
Off COURSE it is.
As long as you never, ever go there!
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