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Do
You Reject the Concept of an Eternal Hell? |
Consider:
*
How can you reject the concept of an eternal Hell when there are
numerous references to it in Holy Scripture? For example, consider
the following passages (emphasis added):
Mt.
3:10-12: "Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than
I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Mt.
5:22: But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to
fiery Gehenna.
Mt.
8:11-12: "I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven,
but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of
teeth."
Mt.
13:40-42: Just as weeds are collected and burned (up) with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of
teeth.
Mt.
13:49-50: Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of
teeth. Mt.
22:13: Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into
the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of
teeth.' Mt.
25:30: And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of
teeth.
Mt.
25:40-46: And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal
life.
Mk.
9:47-48: Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be
thrown into Gehenna, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched.' Lk.
3:17: His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but
the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Lk.13:28: And there will be
wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.
Lk.
16:22-26: When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for
I am suffering torment in these flames.' Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.'
2
Thes. 1:6-10: For it is surely just on God's part to repay with afflictions those who are afflicting you,
and to grant rest along with us to you who are undergoing afflictions, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels,
in blazing fire, inflicting punishment on those who do not acknowledge God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
These will pay the penalty of eternal ruin, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified among his holy ones
and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed. Jude
1:7: Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice,
serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal
fire. Rv.
14:9-11: A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, "Anyone who worships the beast or its image, or accepts its mark on forehead or hand,
will also drink the wine of God's fury, poured full strength into the cup of his wrath, and will be tormented in burning sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
The smoke of the fire that torments them will rise forever and ever, and there will be no relief day or night for those who worship the beast or its image or accept the mark of its
name."
Rv.
19:20: The beast was caught and with it the false prophet who had performed in its sight the signs by which he led astray those who had accepted the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped its image. The two were thrown alive into the
fiery pool burning with sulfur.
Rv.
20:10: The Devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and
sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. There they will be tormented day and night forever and
ever.
Rv.
21:8: But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort,
their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second
death.
Considering
the above, why do you doubt? Do you call Jesus a liar? Do you call
Scripture a liar? *
Why do you believe the other things in Scripture - especially the
pleasant things - but refuse to believe in hell? Is this not just
wishful thinking on your part? *
Not only is there a hell, but Christ even warns that few
are saved: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is
wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who
enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the
road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." (Our
Lord Jesus Christ, Mt. 7:13-14) *
Do you think that the unchangeable God will change His mind or that
He is "bluffing"? "God is not man that he should
speak falsely, nor human, that he should change his mind. Is he
one to speak and not act, to decree and not fulfill?" (Num.
23:19)
Click
here for 'Do All 'Good People' Go To Heaven? / No Salvation
Outside the Church'
Closing
Quotations...
"Once lost, we are lost
forever." (Muller)
"[I]n hell there is no
redemption" (Responsory)
"If Hell could repent,
you would obtain its pardon." (Catechism of the Cure de Ars)
"They who perish,
perish by their own negligence." (St. Ambrose, Doctor of the
Church)
"Too late they will
believe in eternal punishment who would not believe in eternal
life." (St. Cyprian)
"There is a great
difference between fire that can be quenched and fire that is
unquenchable." (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
"It is not God who
condemns us to Hell; it is we ourselves who do it by our
sins." (Catechism of the Cure de Ars)
"If Hell were not
eternal, it would not be so frightful a chastisement." (St.
Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"God threatens Hell,
not to send us there, but to deliver us from that place of
torments." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"Moreover, if anyone
without repentance dies in mortal sin, without a doubt he is
tortured forever by the flames of eternal hell." (Council of
Lyons / Pope Innocent IV, 1254 A.D.)
Q: "Who are they who go
to Hell?" A: "They who do not die in the grace of God,
that is, [those] who die in mortal sin." (Catechism of St.
John Neumann)
"Those are punished in
hell who die in mortal sin; they are deprived of the vision of God
and suffer dreadful torments, especially that of fire, for all
eternity." (Baltimore Catechism)
"There is no middle
place: you must be forever happy in Heaven, or overwhelmed with
despair in Hell." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the
Church)
"[T]he unhappiness of
the damned surpasses all unhappiness of this world." (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"When, moreover, we
reflect that this torment is to be eternal, we can see at once
that the punishment of the damned includes every kind of
suffering." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"But it remains
unquestionably true that just as there is no end of joy for the
good, so too there will be no end of torment for the wicked."
(Pope St. Gregory I the Great, Doctor of the Church, 6th century
A.D.)
"Although the sinner
does not believe in Hell, he shall nevertheless go there if he has
the misfortune to die in mortal sin - even though he neither
believes in Hell or even thinks about it." (St. Anthony Mary
Claret)
"[A]ll whosoever die in
mortal sin, neither faith nor works of mercy will free them from
eternal punishment, not even after any length of time" (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"I proclaim that the
liberty of the human will was not destroyed but enfeebled and
weakened, and that he who is saved, was tried; and he who
perished, could have been saved." (Council of Arles, Letter
of Submission of Lucidus, c. 475 A.D.)
"We declare that a
great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment
suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those
mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be
numbered among the elect." (Pope Benedict XIV)
"How great will be the
pain and misery of the damned, seeing that they might have been
saved so easily, provided they had prayed to God for their
salvation!" (Muller) [Note: This, of course, presupposes
that they will also do all else that is required (e.g. repent,
confession, penance, amending their ways...)]
"So great is the thirst
of the damned, that if one of them were offered all the water on
this Earth, he would exclaim: All this water is not sufficient to
extinguish the burning thirst which I endure. But alas! The
unhappy damned shall never have a single drop of water to refresh
their tongues." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"Can. 9. If anyone says
or holds that the punishment of the demons and of impious men is
temporary, and that it will have an end at some time, that is to
say, there will be a complete restoration of the demons or of
impious men, let him be anathema." (Pope Vigilius, Canons
Against Origen, 543 A.D.)
"It is of faith that
Heaven exists for the good and Hell for the wicked. Faith teaches
that the pains of Hell are eternal, and it also warns us that one
single mortal sin suffices to condemn a soul forever because of
the infinite malice by which it offends an infinite God."
(St. Anthony Mary Claret) Note: This refers to an unrepented
mortal sin. Every mortal sin - no matter how evil - can be
forgiven by the Church.
"The reason why
everlasting punishment appears hard and unjust to human ideas is
because in this infirmity of our mortal state we have no adequate
grasp of what exceeding high and pure wisdom which would enable us
to form an idea of the enormity of man's first transgression. The
higher man's enjoyment of God, the greater his impiety in
forsaking God: destroying in himself a good gift that might have
lasted for ever." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 5th
century A.D.)
"There is hope of mercy
in time and in eternity; but there is confession in time only, and
not in eternity. There is no confession of sins in any time except
in this present life. By his own will each man is permitted and
has throughout life the freedom to choose confession. But when we
die we lose life and along with it the right to exercise our will.
For then a law already set down unto rest or unto punishment
sustains, in accord with its past exercise" (St. Hilary of
Poitiers, Doctor of the Church, c. 365 A.D.)
"It is written (Matthew
25:41): 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which
is prepared for the devil and his angels.' Therefore they will be
punished eternally. Further, just as the good angels were made
happy through turning to God, so the bad angels were made unhappy
through turning away from God. Therefore if the unhappiness of the
wicked angels comes at length to an end, the happiness of the good
will also come to an end, which is inadmissible." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"If we were required to
die twice, we could jettison one death. But man dies once only,
and upon this death depends his eternity. Where the tree falls,
there it shall lie [Eccl. 11:3]. If, at the hour of death, someone
is living in bad habit, the poor soul will fall on the side of
hell. If, on the other hand, he is in the state of grace, it will
take the road for heaven. Oh, happy road!" (St. John Vianney)
[Note: Most souls destined for heaven are thought to first
require the purification of purgatory. Click
here for 'Do You Reject the Concept of Purgatory?']
"[A]ccording to the
Philosopher (Ethica Nicomachea v, 5), punishment is meted
according to the dignity of the person sinned against, so that a
person who strikes one in authority receives a greater punishment
than one who strikes anyone else. Now whoever sins mortally sins
against God, Whose commandments he breaks, and Whose honor he
gives another, by placing his end in some one other than God. But
God's majesty is infinite. Therefore whoever sins mortally
deserves infinite punishment; and consequently it seems just that
for a mortal sin a man should be punished for ever." (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"They say that He held
out empty terrors to deter them from sin. We answer, if He
threatened falsely to check unrighteousness, then He promised
falsely to promote good conduct. Thus while they go out of the way
to prove God merciful, they are not afraid to charge Him with
fraud. But, they urge, finite sin ought not to be visited with
infinite punishment; we answer, that this argument would be just,
if the righteous Judge considered men's actions, and not their
hearts. Therefore it belongs to the righteousness of an impartial
Judge, that those whose heart would never be without sin in this
life, should never be without punishment." (St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church)
"How can eternal
punishment be taken to mean a fire of long duration, and eternal
life be believed to be without end, when it the very same place
and in one and the same sentence Christ spoke of both together:
'Those shall go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into
life eternal'? If both are eternal, certainly it must be
understood either that both are of long duration but with an end,
or both are perpetual and without end. For they are related as
being equal: on the one hand, eternal punishment, and on the
other, eternal life. But to say in this one and the same sense,
eternal life will be without end and eternal punishment will have
an end, is quite absurd." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the
Church)
"Since punishment is
measured in two ways, namely according to the degree of its
severity, and according to its length of time, the measure of
punishment corresponds to the measure of fault, as regards the
degree of severity, so that the more grievously a person sins the
more grievously is he punished: 'As much as she hath glorified
herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give
ye to her' (Apocalypse 18:7). The duration of the punishment does
not, however, correspond with the duration of the fault, as
Augustine says (De Civitate Dei xxi,11), for adultery which is
committed in a short space of time is not punished with a
momentary penalty even according to human laws." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"In one place the Lord
declares that 'these shall go to eternal punishment,' and in
another place He sends some 'to the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels'; and speaks elsewhere of the fire of
gehenna, specifying that it is a place 'where their worm dies not,
and the fire is not extinguished'... Although these and the like
declarations are to be found in numerous places of divinely
inspired Scripture, it is one of the artifices of the devil, that
many man...ascribe an end to punishment, so that they can sin the
more boldly. If, however, there were going to be an end of eternal
punishment, there would likewise be an end to eternal life. If we
cannot conceive of an end to that life, who are we to suppose that
there will be an end to eternal punishment? The qualification of
'eternal' is ascribed equally to both of them." (St. Basil
the Great, Doctor of the Church)
"'But,' some may say,
'a fault that has a termination ought not be punished unendingly.
Almighty God is undoubtedly just; and if what was committed was
not an eternal sin, it ought not be punished by eternal torment.'
We hasten to answer that they would be correct, if the severe and
just Judge were coming to weight men's deeds and not their hearts.
For the sinning of the wicked does have a termination, because
their lives have a termination. They would have wished to live
without end so that they might be able to continue in their
iniquities without end. For they seek more to sin than to live.
And they desire to live here always, because if they could
continue to live they would never have to stop sinning. It
pertains, therefore, to the justice of the strict judge that those
who were of such a mind in this life, that they willed never to be
without sin, shall never be without torment; and no end of
punishment is given the wicked man, because, so long as it was
possible, he did not want there to be any end to his crime."
(Pope St. Gregory I the Great, Doctor of the Church, 6th century
A.D.)
"My children, we are
afraid of death; I can well believe it. It is sin that makes us
afraid of death; it is sin that renders death frightful,
formidable; it is sin that terrifies the wicked at the hour of the
fearful passage. Alas! O God! there is reason enough to be
terrified, to think that one is accursed - accursed of God! It
makes one tremble. Accursed of God! and why? for what do men
expose themselves to be accursed of God? For a blasphemy, for a
bad thought, for a bottle of wine, for two minutes of pleasure!
For two minutes of pleasure to lose God, one's soul, Heaven
forever! We shall see going up to Heaven, in body and soul, that
father, that mother, that sister, that neighbor, who were here
with us, with whom we have lived, but whom we have not imitated;
while we shall go down body and soul to burn in Hell. The devils
will rush to overwhelm us. All the devils whose advice we followed
will come to torment us. My children, if you saw a man prepare a
great pile of wood, heaping up fagots one upon another, and when
you asked him what he was doing, he were to answer you, 'I am
preparing the fire that is to burn me,' what would you think? And
if you saw this same man set fire to the pile, and when it was
lighted throw himself upon it, what would you say? This is what we
do when we commit sin." (Catechism of the Cure of Ars)
"And the justice of no
law is concerned to provide that the duration of each man's
punishment should be the same with the sin which drew that
punishment upon him. There never was any man, who held that the
torment of him, who committed a murder or adultery, should be
compressed within the same space of time as the commission of the
act. And when for any enormous crime a man is punished with death,
does the law estimate his punishment by the delay that takes place
in putting him to death, and not rather by this, that they remove
him forever from the society of the living? And fines, disgrace,
exile, slavery, when they are inflicted without any hopes of
mercy, do they not seem like eternal punishments in proportion to
the length of this life? They are only therefore not eternal,
because the life which suffers them is not itself eternal. But
they say, how then is that true which Christ says, With what
measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again, if temporal
sin is punished with eternal pain? They do not observe that this
is said with a view, not to the equality of the period of time,
but of the retribution of evil, i.e. that he that has done evil
should suffer evil. Man was made worthy of everlasting evil,
because he destroyed in himself that good which might have been
eternal." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"We find also other
reasons given by the saints why some are justly condemned to
everlasting punishment for a temporal sin. One is because they
sinned against an eternal good by despising eternal life. This is
mentioned by Augustine (De Civitate Dei xii,12): 'He is become
worthy of eternal evil, who destroyed in himself a good which
could be eternal.' Another reason is because man sinned in his own
eternity (FS,Q87,A3,r 1); wherefore Gregory says (Dialogorum iv),
it belongs to the great justice of the judge that those should
never cease to be punished, who in this life never ceased to
desire sin. And if it be objected that some who sin mortally
propose to amend their life at some time, and that these
accordingly are seemingly not deserving of eternal punishment, it
must be replied according to some that Gregory speaks of the will
that is made manifest by the deed. For he who falls into mortal
sin of his own will puts himself in a state whence he cannot be
rescued, except God help him: wherefore from the very fact that he
is willing to sin, he is willing to remain in sin for ever. For
man is 'a wind that goeth,' namely to sin, 'and returneth not by
his own power' (Psalm 78:39). Thus if a man were to throw himself
into a pit whence he could not get out without help, one might say
that he wished to remain there for ever, whatever else he may have
thought himself. Another and a better answer is that from the very
fact that he commits a mortal sin, he places his end in a
creature; and since the whole of life is directed to its end, it
follows that for this very reason he directs the whole of his life
to that sin, and is willing to remain in sin for ever, if he could
do so with impunity. This is what Gregory says on Job 41:23, 'He
shall esteem the deep as growing old' (Moralium xxxiv): 'The
wicked only put an end to sinning because their life came to an
end: they would indeed have wished to live for ever, that they
might continue in sin for ever for they desire rather to sin than
to live.' Still another reason may be given why the punishment of
mortal sin is eternal: because thereby one offends God Who is
infinite. Wherefore since punishment cannot be infinite in
intensity, because the creature is incapable of an infinite
quality, it must needs be infinite at least in duration. And again
there is a fourth reason for the same: because guilt remains for
ever, since it cannot be remitted without grace, and men cannot
receive grace after death; nor should punishment cease so long as
guilt remains." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and
"greatest theologian in the history of the Church") |
