Do you honestly believe in hell?

[Richard_White]

This thread is over a year old, and so if you guys want to keep discussing this topic, then you should start a new one!

But yes, I do believe in hell, and those who deny God and His love during their lives will continue in their separation from God after their death.

May God bless you all!

 

[Vico]

I believe in heaven, but I don’t believe in hell. That’s just my honest belief about the matter. Of course not everyone can get into heaven, but I think those who don’t just die. They don’t go to hell, they don’t go anywhere. They literally just stop existing.

Wouldn’t a punishment for being a mortal sinner be much worse if you ended up completely dead and alone versus being with other sinners in hell? What do you guys think?

The teaching is of the Church is that the soul is immortal and that it becomes reunited with a resurrected body. The second is that we do not have the ability to change our minds after death. The third is that God gives us free will. I accept these. So if I willfully choose to self-exclude myself from the Beatific Vision at least at the last moment of my non resurrected life, God will not force it on me later.

 

[EasterJoy]

The teaching is of the Church is that the soul is immortal and that it becomes reunited with a resurrected body. The second is that we do not have the ability to change our minds after death. The third is that God gives us free will. I accept these. So if I willfully choose to self-exclude myself from the Beatific Vision at least at the last moment of my non resurrected life, God will not force it on me later.

To clarify:
CCC 2283:
By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.

Hell exists, but who goes there and what they experience when they get there is up to the Almighty, who communicates with other souls in ways we cannot know, let alone judge. Holy Scripture, including the words of Our Lord in the Gospels, gives accounts of eternal damnation which ought to be taken with extreme seriousness. Even if these passages were meant metaphorically by the Holy Spirit who inspired them (in the knowledge that the full truth of Heaven and Hell are both beyond the comprehension, experience and language capacity of humans before death), those are some extremely serious metaphors.

 

[Vico]

To clarify:
CCC 2283:
By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.

Hell exists, but who goes there and what they experience when they get there is up to the Almighty, who communicates with other souls in ways we cannot know, let alone judge. Holy Scripture, including the words of Our Lord in the Gospels, gives accounts of eternal damnation which ought to be taken with extreme seriousness. Even if these passages were meant metaphorically by the Holy Spirit who inspired them (in the knowledge that the full truth of Heaven and Hell are both beyond the comprehension, experience and language capacity of humans before death), those are some extremely serious metaphors.

Yes, that is in the section on suicide. Certainly at the moment of death there could be repentance. But we do have to accept the teachings:

• With death the possibility of merit or demerit or conversion ceases. (Sent. certa.) - Vatican Council.
• Immediately after death the particular judgment takes place, in which, by a Divine Sentence of Judgment, the eternal fate of the deceased person is decided. (Sent. fidei proxima.)

Based upon Union Councils of Lyons and of Florence declaration that the souls of the just, free from all sin and punishment, are immediately assumed into Heaven, and that the souls of those who die in mortal sin or merely in venial sin descend immediately into hell. - Hell here includes purgatory.

Catechism

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.” 272
272 St. John Damascene, De Fide orth. 2,4: PG 94,877.

 

[brad90956]

Wouldn’t a punishment for being a mortal sinner be much worse if you ended up completely dead and alone versus being with other sinners in hell? What do you guys think?

You basically just described Hell. You are alone, in darkness. You can’t seek comfort or security from anyone. Not only alone, but you are separated from God for eternity.

The body dies, the soul does not.

God is love and merciful but He is also a just judge. In the Gospels, Jesus speaks more about Hell than Heaven to warn us so I would place my trust in Jesus that He knows what He is talking about.

 

[truetofaith]

This thread is over a year old, and so if you guys want to keep discussing this topic, then you should start a new one!

But yes, I do believe in hell, and those who deny God and His love during their lives will continue in their separation from God after their death.

May God bless you all!

This thread may be a yr. old but there are only 125 posts…which is very low.

There is another Topic about hell, going around. “Could hell be Cold?”