Posted on 03/27/2007 10:53:30 AM PDT by Mount Athos
Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.
Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to “admit blame and promise to sin no more”, they risked “eternal damnation — the Inferno”.
Hell “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more”, he said.
The Pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic doctrine, noted that “forgiveness of sins” for those who repent was a cornerstone of Christian belief. He recalled that Jesus had forgiven the “woman taken in adultery” and prevented her from being stoned to death, observing: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
God had given men and women free will to choose whether “spontaneously to accept salvation . . . the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind”.
Vatican officials said that the Pope — who is also the Bishop of Rome — had been speaking in “straightfoward” language “like a parish priest”. He had wanted to reinforce the new Catholic catechism, which holds that Hell is a “state of eternal separation from God”, to be understood “symbolically rather than physically”.
Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a Church historian, said that the Pope was “right to remind us that Hell is not something to be put on one side” as an inconvenient or embarrassing aspect of belief.
It had been misused in the Middle Ages to scare the impressionable with “horrific visions” of damnation, as described in Dante’s Inferno.
It had a pedigree, however, that went back to Ancient Egypt and the Greek idea of Hades, and was described by St Matthew as a place of “everlasting fire” (Matthew xxv, 41).
“The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a Hell on Earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife,” Professor Bagliani said.
In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared that Heaven was “neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God which is the goal of human life.” Hell, by contrast, was “the ultimate consequence of sin itself . . . Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”.
In October the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a “halfway house” between Heaven and Hell, inhabited by unbaptised infants and holy men and women who lived before Christ, was “only a theological hypothesis” and not a “definitive truth of the faith”.
Timely visions
— “Outer darkness . . . there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” St Matthew
And what do you think was meant by "be as children"?
Those who "have never even heard of Jesus Christ" have light like a weak flashlight. Those who hear the good news of Christ's death for sinners are like those standing in Madison Square Garden before a bank of Hi intensity lights. Men are not judged on HOW MUCH light they have, but WHAT THEY DO with the light they have.
The testimony of scripture and experience is that men universally turn away from the true God, and either worship themselves, their pleasures, or false religions.
THAT is what men are judged for (See Romans 1-2 for a more detailed explanation)
>>Well,if all you say is true<<
It's not me, it's scripture. I'm just repeating it.
>>If Theres a Hell Below,Were All Going to Go!<<
That's exactly the point. If we all got what was truly "fair", that's where we'd all end up.
Given this, how can you then deny the sweetness of Grace?
>>I am not a person who takes The Bible literally.I do read it a lot and much is very inspirational and just basic common sense.<<
Then it's either all true, or none of it is. You can't pick and choose.
>>I am a critical thinker and do not accept ANY book or idea without deep analysis and a healthy dose of skepticism.<<
Then search the scriptures for your answer. Scripture proves itself, and is the perfect thing for those who think critically, as well as those who don't.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour ...
>>The child can only "choose" Christ when he or she obtains the age of reason --around age 7 when First Communion is offered.<<
Chapter and verse, please.
I plead innocent to your first charge and guilty to the second.I DO have a high view of my own character and I feel that way because development of aformentioned character is constantly changing and being smoothed out for the better.
I do exercise humility and view God as my standard for how to live a righteous life.And,like all of us mortals,I have fallen short of that in my own life.
Yet eternal damnation?Sorry, but thatterrible fate offends my understanding of the essence of God Himself.
Well, then STOP whining and go about your way!
Read Augustine vs Pelagius, and then the Council of Trent.
They just don't call it Pelagianism. They do deny that salvation is a complete and total gift. They had to, after Luther.
Fortunately, there are many in the RC church whose hearts are much better than their heads.
Do they ever really read any of the pope's writings?
I HAVE accepted Jesus.
Its a lot of that narrow and arcane theology that turns me off.
I still sin.A lot less than I used to but the Devil does get into me once in a while.I admit that.I forgive myself and try to do better the next day.
Heh, check out Castro's pics since he's come back from the brink. He's looked over the edge and knows what's coming. With the utter failure of Castro's communism Cuba now has to turn to Western-syle capitalism to pay its bills. His life's work has been a failure -a giant, failed lie. And that's just on the positive side for him. Then there's everything he's done to the Cuban people and all those he's had murdered. Check him out, he knows what his due is. Gee... too bad atheism and communism didn't work out for him -as if it ever would have.
Don't forget to tell Him/Her that ALL of those things mentioned will send someone to hell (Rom 3:23 "for all have sinned, and fallen short of the Glory of God")..Now what it sin: Anything that violated the law..where is the law: The ten commandments are the basis of the law..
If Anyman (myself) included has broken (one), we have broken them all (He, Himself quoted as saying as much).
So ANY will condemn you, but ONLY Christ will Pardon you (Anyman or Woman).
We are all doomed unless we accept Christ's gift, but then again that is a choice.. (repentence +faith, belief in Christ as Savior for his willing punishment for our sins..)!
>>Does this apply to the millions of people that have never even heard of Jesus Christ?<<
Only if they've never worshipped other Gods, lied, stolen, coveted, murdered, dishonored their parents, committed adultery...
If God's plan is to save a tribe of Aborigines who have never heard of him, he will send a missionary.
If you're that concerned about those who have never heard of God, you ought to repent of your sins, dedicate your life to Christ, and serve him in the jungles, seeking the lost and preaching salvation to them.
I do the right thing as much as possible.I live by MY understanding of what God's purpose is for me on the planet.
I'm comfortable with that now and thats what I can live with and have a clear conscience.
If I wanted a rehash of Catholic teachings, I would have read it myself. I don't care what council's say, I don't care what blasphemous teachers say, I only care about what the Word of God says.
You're only showing your reliance on the teachings of the RCC, and not your own study of scripture.
I challenge you to do better than that.
I know this is off the subject but the truth is Cuba has been a hellhole under Castro's tyranny but was also a very miserable place under Bautista and the colonial Spanish before him.
Cuba has never been truly free if you use the standards of civilized democratic Western society.
Colossians 1:24: Now I can find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions on behalf of His Body, the Church
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
Nice try but no cigar...You leave out words, you can make it mean anything you want, can't you???
What you are saying then is Christ's sacrifice on the cross 'alone', isn't sufficient for YOU...
>Hell is for Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, etc. The REAL bad folks of which there are too many as it is.<
Hell is for ALL sinners, no matter what the sin, who do NOT repent, do NOT change their wicked ways, and DO NOT accept Christ Jesus into their hearts.
Redemption is for ALL sinners, no matter what the sin, who DO repent, DO change their wicked ways, and DO accept Christ Jesus into their hearts.
The truth is rather that God is such a being that cosmic rebellion DESERVES punishment due to the inherent criminality of the creature creating treason against the creator. The biblical teaching is that not honoring God as God and giving thanks have intrinsic moral content which screams out to the universe for JUSTICE (not revenge). Our moral comapsses are so twisted and perverted (and our willingness to condemn "God" and excuse ourselves) that this train of thought actually seems silly to us. Again, it is because we have a defective view of God and sin. If there truly IS such a being who is so worthy of honor, then the crime of dishonoring him is a universal and eternal crime. Again, we have too high a view of our own "morality" and too low a view of God.
It is precisely because He is NOT "quick to anger" that he puts up with the impudence, arrogance and haughty nonsense thrown back in the face of Him who gives us the very breath to mock and blaspheme. I should know.
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