Following are my notes from the talk, "Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory", a few weeks ago. Just like the outline for Heaven, this is only a fraction of the evidence from Scripture and the Church about Hell. Some theologians say that Christ talked about Hell more than Heaven "in order to get our attention".
We should have a holy fear of Hell so that we will choose Heaven. If we remain in the state of Christ's Grace until we die, we will ultimately go to Heaven. Please post any comments or questions, and pass this "wake-up call" on to all those close to you!
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Hell
a. Does it exist?
Scripture
Jesus
- refers to Hell 28 times and eternal punishment about 90 times in the Gospels
- uses the terms Hades, Gehenna, Eternal Fire, Field of blood
- Mk 9:43-48, e.g.
- Mt 10:28-“fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell”
- Mt 25:46- those who don’t care for the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters “will go away to eternal punishment”
-“wailing and grinding of teeth”
- the good-for-nothing servant (Mt 25:30)
- children of the kingdom (of darkness) – Mt 8:12
- the man not dresses for the wedding feast – Mt 22:13
Paul-(2 Thess 1:9) for those who “refuse to accept the gospel of our Lord Jesus…their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord”
Peter- (2 Pet 2:4) “when angels sinned, God did not spare them: he sent them down into the underworld and consigned them to the dark abyss to be held there until the Judgement”
Rev (14:10): “all those who worship the (devil) …will be tortured…forever”
Church
– early Church Fathers described Hell as “eternal punishment” ; affirmed by early Church councils and Pope Benedict XII (1336)
- St Teresa of Avila: "I was at prayer one day when suddenly, without knowing how, I found myself...plunged into Hell...I felt a fire within my soul the nature of which I am incapable of describing. My bodily sufferings were so intolerable...and these are nothing by comparison with the agony of my soul, an oppression, a suffocation and an affliction so deeply felt"
- Fatima* – vision of Hell by children: sea of fire; demons and souls with burning embers, black and transparent; terrifying looking animals; children cried out for all to hear
b. What is it like? (we only know what’s been revealed to us)
Scripture (described above)
Church
- “hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned and in which they are deprived of the sight of God and are in dreadful torments for all eternity” (Baltimore Catechism)
- pain of loss
- being separated by God, rejected by Christ (“I know you not”-Mt 25:12)
- shame, regret, despair
- pain of sense (torments)
-“fire” (of Gehenna) – “the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out” (Mt 3:12)
- principal means of torments that will be different than earthly fire because it will affect both body and soul
- the pain of the sense will be as nothing compared to the pain of loss
- “We must not ask where hell is, but how we are to avoid it” (St. John Chrysostom)
- Hell is eternal separation from God (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
- “hell is not a punishment imposed by God…it is the natural consequence of an unrepentant sinner’s choice against God” (Pope John Paul II)
- basically, when the person dies, he sees the face of God and he realizes at that moment that he is not worthy to be with God for all eternity; he realizes that he chose hell during his life (GWS)
c. How long does it last?
- “eternal fire, eternal punishment, eternal separation”
- Lk 16:19-31 The rich man and Lazarus
- “a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours”
d. Who goes there? (we know there are souls in Hell, but can’t know specifically whom)
Scripture
- Jesus : see above +
-“all evil doers” (Mt 13:41)
- “many take the road that leads to destruction” (Mt 7:13)
- “the elect are few” (Mt 22:14)
- “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 19:24) - referring to someone whose god is money
- is Judas in Hell? can't say for sure, but Jesus says it is “better for that man (by whom the Son of Man is betrayed) if he had never been born!” (Mt 26:24)
-“anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch-and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and burnt” (Jn 15:6)
Paul: Gal 5: 18-21 (cf. 1 Cor 6:10)
-"those who behave in these ways (sexual vice, impurity and sensuality, the worship of false gods and sorcery, antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and such things) will not inherit the kingdom of God"
John: “sin that leads to death” (1 Jn 5:16)
-i.e., mortal sin
Church
- “those who die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love” (CCC, # 1033)
- mortal sin:
1. grave offense (it's wrong) -mainly, direct offenses against the Ten Commandments
2. full knowledge (I know it's wrong)
3. full consent (I freely choose to do it)
- CCC: #1861
- "mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace.
- "if it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back.
- "However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God" (in other words, we can judge an action as a grave offense, but only God can judge what's in a person's heart; that's why we can never say that "so and so" is in Hell; also, we don't know if at the moment of death that he/she showed some sign of repentance-'Lord, have mercy' - that God would take into account in his infinite Mercy)
- 4 distinctions of Hell:
a) damned - eternal punishment
b) limbo (Abraham’s bosom) - holy souls (from OT) there until Christ freed them
c) limbo (infants) - "Holy Innocents"
d) purgatory - temporal punishment
-“God predestines no one to go to Hell" (CCC, #1037)
- Hell is the result of free will, and ultimately, God's Love
- God loves us so much that He has given us free will in order that we will choose to be with Him in Heaven
- He respects our free will so much that He allows us to choose to reject Him; He helps us so much in our lives (with His grace) to choose Him, but won't ever force us to love Him
- our free will is REAL (the "power to make choices for ever, with no turning back")
- God wills each of us to choose Heaven, but allows us to choose Hell
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*Fatima prayer: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy."
5 comments:
Arnaud/"Holy Church"/"Anonymous",
Hey, bro, I don't know if you're one and the same author, but I have removed these 2 comments for a couple of reasons. Arnaud, I know you mean well, and you are just trying to help people, but these 2 comments (and the others from the past few weeks) confuse the readers of this site more than they help, I would guess.
The reasons I removed them are:
a) they are not directly related to my posts, and may confuse others
b) they suggest an "agenda" which I am not presenting
I do want to show the "Passion of the Christ" on Wednesday night during Holy Week, and have begun to plan for it. I will let you know.
It's not my intention to remove any comments on this site, but I have been noticing a surge in long, CAPITALIZED comments that are not related to my posts. Especially just after my post, it might discourage folks from leaving comments. So, I hope you and any others understand my position.
Your own personal, concise comments or questions related to my posts are most welcome. I'm sure they would be very good and helpful to others.
For you or anyone else, let's keep it to that, please.
Thanks,
Greg
why did Jesus have to go to hell if He never sinned? was it to atone for our sins?
I think I addressed this in another comment/post, but we say in the Creed that "He descended into Hell. On the third day he rose again". Jesus descended into Hell (see 1 Peter 3:18-19) to free all of the souls who lived holy lives before Him.
"It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell" (Roman Catechism).
"Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him" (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
No one could enter Heaven before Christ's Death and Resurrection because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. So, all of the just who lived before Christ and in anticipation of the Messiah went to this "prison" or "waiting cell" which is called Abraham's Bosom after they died. When He descended into Hell ('Sheol' in Hebrew; 'Hades' in Greek), He freed all of these holy people and took them to Heaven.
Christ himself is the atonement for all of humanity; His Sacrifice on the Cross is the act of atonement. He completes the act of atonement for the just who lived B.C. by freeing them from hell. For those of us who live A.D., we actually complete Christ's act of atonement when we unite ourselves with the Cross as the Body of Christ (see Colossians 1:24).
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