The definition of eternal is actually ‘lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning’.
Both statements are correct.
Actually it seems to me that hell did have a beginning in time, didn’t it? So how can it be eternal?
We don’t really have much information about heaven or hell, except that one place is a place of reward and the other a place of suffering. Jesus promises one or the other for each of us, and the Church teaches that purgatory is a halfway place between here and heaven, not between hell and heaven.
Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great 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, lit by God’s anger; 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. (741)
That makes sense. There are many things we don’t know much about, hell and heaven are just two such things.
Some changes remain impossible though.
Dead human bodies do not just exist in time, they rot, decay and then eventually turn to dust.
Just as the dead human body changes in time so as to cease being, but never to resume being alive; the dead in Hell would undergo deteriorative change (whatever that means spiritually) **if **there were time there – but not change so as to be released from
This sounds logical, but the soul in hell being a conscious person, could conceivably change for the better. Or is he prohibited from changing for the better? That would be a rather strange prohibition.
Not really.
I did not realize that. I thought humans are supposed to repent on their own, that forgiveness needed grace from God.
If repentance did not involve grace, but forgiveness did, you could have the situation of persons repenting and yet denied forgiveness. But, Scripturally, those who repent receive mercy.
Ok, so even faith is not something that person can decide to have by himself, but only if offered to him upon God’s choosing?
Tell you what, 77, you raise some good points, and to do them justice I will need to ask a very knowledgeable priest about them.
Sounds good, no hurry.
As I said above, how are we to know? The details are not revealed to us.
Free will doesn’t imply unlimited power.
Many people without faith repent.
The only criterion of being in hell is the choice to be independent.
Timelessness does not exclude spiritual activity. Otherwise Creation would be impossible.
People can choose to change but they need not change to the extent of losing their independence - which is the very reason why they choose hell with full knowledge of the consequences. Hell is not a trap but the result of a carefully meditated revolt.