Are you afraid that you might be eternally damned?

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Do some people worship God out of fear? thinking, “oh dear best be good, otherwise I will burn in hell for eternity!”

We should try to worship God out of love shouldn’t we?

Yes creepy thought, burning and suffering non stop for ever, how horrible 😦

Evanescence
 
Yes, I do get that thought from time to time. It forces me to run to the foot of the cross.

I wonder how many gleefully hope that people will go to hell so they can applaud the looks on the faces of the poor sinners when they’re cast into the lake of fire as they congratulate themselves on making heaven.
 
I do fear Hell…however I place all my Trust in the Lord.
and thank him for the sacrament of penance that heals my soul of sin.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.:gopray2:
 
If someone had asked me that question a few years ago, my evangelical response would have been" I am definatley going to heaven"Once saved,always saved!.
However, now that I am hoping to become Catholic, I see many areas of my life that could be leading me to damnation.
I fear hell now, I hope that I don’t end up there!
 
I trust that Jesus will do as He promised. Because I believe Christ’s promise that those who eat His body and drink His blood will have life everlasting, and I follow His words and try my best to do the will of His Father, I have very little to no fear of damnation.

What I am more afraid of is, losing friends or loved ones, who may have lost their way and end up condemned OR IF the atheists are correct and there is nothing after life.

For my friends and loved ones, I pray for their deliverance often. I trust in the Lord to lead them to salvation as well.

The latter makes no sense to me since all indications are that the atheists are way off in left field. The evidence is overwhelming that Christianity and Catholics in particular have it right.

For the atheists to be correct, then Jesus had to be lying. All the apostles and disciple had to be lying. All the saints and miracle workers had to be charalatans, and all the eyewitnesses to the hundreds if not thousands of miracles had to be either lying or delusional. And all the doctors or medical folks or scientiests who examined the facts or docments that confirmed many of the miracles had to be lying, delusional or in on the hoaxes.

The vast mountain of evidence would all have to be discounted and disproved. When 25000 folks at Fatima witness a miracle, it is hard to say they were all delusional. So many times, God has come through with miracles, healings, other miraculous events. The artifacts, testimony are overwhelming. God exist, and He does what He promises.
 
That is a fear that I have had since I was a young child. I had nightmares over and over again that I was going to hell or already there. I’d dream that the satan was standing before me and if I stopped saying the Hail Mary, I would drop right into hell. I continuously had horrible dreams about my eternal damnation. I had dreams like this until I went away to college. After that, the dreams stopped but I continued to feel like … well like a piece of filth and their was no hope for me. My father was physically abusive and both my parents had been telling me my whole life that I was horrible, unworthy of their love and basically not worth much at all. My mother even told me on more than one occasion that no one would marry me and when I got engaged she was shocked that someone would want to marry me. No matter how I tried to improve myself, in their eyes their view of me didn’t change so I viewed myself as hopeless.
 
Depends if you are non-catholic, liberal, or a Democrat. Then you know are,
 
It seems to me that the Calvinists have a possible solution to the problem of fearing damnation: God already has decided!

You can’t change what God already predestined!

If you worry about something, you have two choices: (1) change it; or (2) stop worrying.

If the Calvinists are right, then all you can do is stop worrying, and get on with your life.

(I’m not arguing for predestination, but I do think it has its strengths. :D)
 
Someone wrote that if you are concerned about it, then you need to do something about it.

One thing … I have never started a thread … but a topic might be… do bureaucrats go to hell?

So I have avoided being a bureaucrat… have gotten into a LOT of trouble because of that…

Any ideas? Thoughts? Is it worth a new thread???
 
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yellowlablover:
That is a fear that I have had since I was a young child. I had nightmares over and over again that I was going to hell or already there. I’d dream that the satan was standing before me and if I stopped saying the Hail Mary, I would drop right into hell. I continuously had horrible dreams about my eternal damnation. I had dreams like this until I went away to college. After that, the dreams stopped but I continued to feel like … well like a piece of filth and their was no hope for me. My father was physically abusive and both my parents had been telling me my whole life that I was horrible, unworthy of their love and basically not worth much at all. My mother even told me on more than one occasion that no one would marry me and when I got engaged she was shocked that someone would want to marry me. No matter how I tried to improve myself, in their eyes their view of me didn’t change so I viewed myself as hopeless.
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Wow, that is depressing. Just remember, God is merciful and you have a great opportunity to become a great saint under these circumstances. God never gives us more than we can handle. Obviously your parents have some deep rooted issues. Don’t let them affect you. I was physically and verbally abused as a child as well. God loves you. You also need to remember that your children do not need to be treated like this either. I have to remember that every day. Hang in there!! :tiphat:
 
I am afraid of assumption and pride. I will not think that I am saved. I can only hope. I feel that if I were to assume my salvation, I would be just like protestants. I do not believe in the faith alone theory. I know that I can fall any second. I have to depend on God for my salvation. He is the only way!
 
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MikeinSD:
Depends if you are non-catholic, liberal, or a Democrat. Then you know are,
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What an awful thing to say ! Sorry I’m one third of the above. I would have said the same thing about Republicans.
 
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wcknight:
What an awful thing to say ! Sorry I’m one third of the above. I would have said the same thing about Republicans.
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I would have to say that if you were a pro-life Democrat, this may not apply?
 
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Ahimsa:
It seems to me that the Calvinists have a possible solution to the problem of fearing damnation: God already has decided!

If God had already predestined who was going to be eternally damned then what about “free will”? Why would we bother to confess our sins and why would God offer his forgiveness and mercy? I don’t believe that God would tell us to confess and say that he is merciful if he had already decided who was going to hell. Also, if certain individuals were “predetermined” to be damned, that would mean that something that God made was inherently evil. I do not believe that God makes anything evil. We may choose that path, but He would never choose it for us.
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Supralapsarianism (the Calvinistic doctrine that God predestines people to hell) was declared a HERESY at the Council of Trent. It is a vile heresy that makes God into the author of evil (no matter how the Calvinist heretics try to deny it).
 
If you’re on board with either the Republican or Democratic programs 100%…it’s a sure sign of reprobation. 🙂
 
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wcknight:
What an awful thing to say ! Sorry I’m one third of the above. I would have said the same thing about Republicans.
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I apologize. I was being sarcastic. I cannot imagine anyone damning a fellow person to the pits of hell based on a political agenda here in the US. Americans fought 2 wars (WWII and the Cold War) against political systems that put people in a physical hell based on racial purity and class.
 
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Timidity:
Wasn’t St. Joan d’Arc asked a question like this during her trial?
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She was asked, “Are you in a state of grace?”
She answered “If I am not, may God put me there. If I am, may God keep me there”.

Sounds like a saint to me!!
:twocents: It also sounds like a prayer that we would all benefit by praying every day.:twocents:
 
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amanda_nicole82:
I completely agree with you. I am not afraid, I know that I am a child of God and I am going to Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that there is only one way to Heaven, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life John 3 v16.
Once we accept Christ into our life we no longer have to wonder and worry about where we will spend eternity, we can rest assured that we will spend eternity with God. That does not mean that we should live our lives as if we can do anything we please because we are going to Heaven for sure. It is our job and responsibility as Christians to live our life for Christ, in a way that is pleasing to Him.
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The phrase “accepting Christ into your life” is never used even once in the Bible. With all due respect, you are reading your Evangelical tradition (which is a very modern tradition) into the Bible. In John 3:16, the verb “believe” in the Greek (pisteuo) is in the present continuous tense, which means that the person must believe continously, not a one-time act of faith. A better way to translate it is “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes and keeps on believing shall not perish, but have etenal life”.

Jesus said that we needed to “repent and believe” the gospel (Mark 1:15). Both verb, “repent” and “believe” are in the present continous sense in Greek, which means we must live a life of repentance and a life of faith. Living a life of repentance is what we Catholics mean by living a penitent life.

Jesus said “Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21). We must do God’s will to enter heaven. God’s will is to keep His commandments. It is not enough to say “I accepted Christ” (again, this phrase is never even used in the Bible. This phrase is a modern invention that was not even used until the latter half of the 20th century)

I used to be a Protestant, and used to believed that I was saved because I accepted Christ. Satan used this idea to make me do all sorts of sins, I even visited prostitutes. These ideas came into my head: “Why not visit a prostitute? You are save anyway? Just confessed it to God!” And I fell into sin, as well as other sins. I remember an Evangelical gay Christian tried to pursuade me to have sex with him. He also gave me the argument that I was saved so I did not need to fret. I did not give in to that sin, but I did not give in to other sins because I felt I did not have to worry because I was “saved”.

Brother, this is a very dangerous doctrine that I am convinced came from the Devil.
 
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