Do you know if you're Hell-bound? Or will you be totally surprised?

[MichelleByrne]

I sometimes think how horrible it would be if, despite my religious practices and prayer, I might still end up in Hell! I really don’t think this, but the fear is there. I’ve heard that going to Hell is a choice, which I’ve always thought so strange, but then, I have noticed that some nonbelievers do seem to understand the risk they’re taking, especially when they grossly insult someone, then follow it with “I’m going to Hell” and a chuckle, which gives me goosebumps.

 

[Patty23]

I don’t think you know if your hell bound or not but you can know if you are a hellish or an angelic creature. Feeling angelic is not the same as feeling perfect but rather you know that you are seeing things according to their proper essences and try as hard as you can to harmonize yourself with the Divine Harmony and trust in God’s providence.

The duality of the soul and the body though they interact is not a perpendicular interaction but rather a parallel action, that is why we call the human body a composite being, neither being only a body nor being only a soul but both a soul and a body.

Personally, I have reflected so much on this parallel reality between our soul and our body.
My dad usually says that it is an intellectual insult to not be able to stop smoking so he thinks and he says someday he will just quit it. I think this is also what happens to the soul. We always think that when we sin, someday we will be somehow able to just quit sinning. But I think the reality of vice is a mirror to show us the exact thing that is happening to our souls. The more we do vices, the harder for us to stop.

With regard to your question, I think the current state of you soul will only be eternalized, it is not like something that you get to choose God or not, it simply becomes a matter of fact that even if you have lived your life as an atheist you won’t be surprised that there is a God. It simply doesn’t matter to you. You become to obssessed with yourself.

On the otherhand, I think an atheist who honestly sought for truth all his life will be joyous to have found God which is the living truth.

It all boils down to honesty and humility (because if not it only becomes a form of relativism). If you conform yourself with what you think is true, good and from God, I think God will take care of the rest(imperfections,sins,past sins etc).

So let us all repent and ask for God’s forgiveness and wisdom.

 

[slywakka250]

It all boils down to honesty and humility (because if not it only becomes a form of relativism). If you conform yourself with what you think is true, good and from God, I think God will take care of the rest(imperfections,sins,past sins etc).

What if you were a devout Catholic, but came to believe that another religion was the truth?? How can you tell if you are really being honest and humble, and sincere?? I think it is difficult to tell, especially when people say that intentionally doubting a single teaching of the Catholic Church amounts to a profound lack of honestly, because the Catholic Church’s teachings are some how supposed to be self-evidently true. (I don’t think they are),. or the authority of the Catholic Church to speak absolute truth is obvious to all…(I dont’ think it is) How do you know if your seeking truth in the right way???

 

[Betterave]

What if you were a devout Catholic, but came to believe that another religion was the truth?? How can you tell if you are really being honest and humble, and sincere?? I think it is difficult to tell, especially when people say that intentionally doubting [WHY WOULD ONE INTENTIONALLY DOUBT?] a single teaching of the Catholic Church amounts to a profound lack of honesty [WHO SAYS THIS?], because the Catholic Church’s teachings are some how supposed to be self-evidently true. (I don’t think they are),. or the authority of the Catholic Church to speak absolute truth is obvious to all…(I dont’ think it is) How do you know if your seeking truth in the right way???

God is mercy. He knows our hearts and he judges justly. The Church teaches this. The Church also warns us against scrupulosity.

The Church does not teach the stuff I bolded.

 

[MindOverMatter2]

I am not a good person. For all the good deeds I have done there is still selfishness in me. No. I do not deserve heaven. My works are worthless for it is evident to my mind that, by my own will alone, I do not love God with all my heart. If I enter heaven, all the glory is Gods alone. It cannot be because I deserve the love of God. How arrogant of me to think that I am good! Woe on to them who dare think such things. Thus I suspect hell as much as I hope for heaven.

 

[Patty23]

What if you were a devout Catholic, but came to believe that another religion was the truth?? How can you tell if you are really being honest and humble, and sincere?? I think it is difficult to tell, especially when people say that intentionally doubting a single teaching of the Catholic Church amounts to a profound lack of honestly, because the Catholic Church’s teachings are some how supposed to be self-evidently true. (I don’t think they are),. or the authority of the Catholic Church to speak absolute truth is obvious to all…(I dont’ think it is) How do you know if your seeking truth in the right way???

Honestly, I don’t think it is possible for a devout Catholic to say that other religions are true… The teachings may contain parts of truth. Just like science and philosophy for example but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the religion is true. Man by nature can know truth so virtues can easily be known without so much Divine Revelation. But the Judeo-Christian tradition possesses the Divine Revelation that cannot and is not the immeadiate object of our knowledge. It is not an act of the intellect but rather by heart to know this.

I honestly believe that there are truths in every religion. Christianity refers to itself as having the fullnes of truth and not as the sole possessor of truth.

Early philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and even Buddha, Confucius, and Lao Tsu had many profound ideas regarding virtues and truth. We just have to know that truth never contradicts itself. If one contradicts the other, that is the only time we have to make judgments.

With regard to the differences among religions, I think the fundamental difference themselves are the very reasons why we ought to examine our religion. Although the virtues may have similarities, the very nature of religion is still what makes the religion what it is. Although as I’ve said that the moral teachings may be the same, but the concepts of immortality,evil,good and even God itself are very much different. When two things obviously contradict each another, one must be right so I guess this is the dividing line. For Hindus, all of us are gods and that the ultimate god is nothing but consciousness itself which is impersonal to the highest level because it doesn’t know itself and the others as particular. (The ultimate goal is to be released form personhood some sort like that) This is very different from Christianity wherein it teaches us that there is only one God, and this God is very much alive and is in fact a person, three persons in one God.

 

[GratefulFred]

Do I KNOW whether I am going to Hell or Heaven? No.
Do I BELIEVE I am going to Heaven? Yes.

I cannot attain Heaven by my own efforts. That eternal reward is God’s to give to me.

I know that I DO LOVE God and that I try to love others for the love of God. I know that I am not perfect and that I sin. I know I try most of the time not to sin but sin I do. I am so grateful for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Beyond my best efforts, I totally trust in God’s infinite Mercy. I do not believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died for my sins and then would not show His Mercy when my time comes.

I BELIEVE THIS. I TRUST JESUS. I CONTINUE TO MAKE BEST EFFORTS AND STAY CLOSE TO THE SACRAMENTS.

 

[catholictiger]

ill just say this prepare your heart as best you can actively participate in the sacraments.

Attend mass on sundays every sunday

go to daily mass as often as you can

go to confession as much as you think you need it (i think once a month is good, when school is going on i try to attend twice a month every other week)

make sure your baptised (im sure you are)

make sure you are confirmed (im sure you are)

the top two are the most important and you should participate in those sacraments as much as possible.

I don’t know if we will be surprised if we go to hell or if we will have a general idea when we approach death on where our after life will lead. I think if you are in a state of grace you will know that you are going away from hell, ive heard stories of people at deaths door who saw signs of god and his saints right before his death.

I don’t think where we go for our afterlife will be a surprise, it may be for some, mainly people who aren’t fully into their faith.

Again if you partake in the sacraments you are helping your salvation. Along with other things prayer, loving your neighbor, living by the commandments, along with many other things.

 

[Walter_Maxey]

Surprised. IF I make it to Heaven, I will be like the sheep in Matthew 25, unsuspecting. Perhaps this is because I don’t think about it at all, or hardly at all.

Rightly or wrongly (and I would invite comment on this), I do not try to avoid sin out of a conscious fear of Hell. I try to avoid sin because I do not want to be a sinful person, because I recognize that those acts are inherently bad, and I believe that they lead to unhappiness in the long term, and lead to harm to those whom I love, and make me less of a person. I do the best I can here and now. but I leave the afterlife to God. I feel that my time here is mine to work with (with God’s help, of course), and any afterlife I am granted is merely by God’s grace and mercy–His to offer on His terms.

I have often wondered if a heightened sense of Hell would cause me to be more consistently good. But I have encountered people who have a much more heightened sense or fear of Hell, and yet they still do a lot of bad things that I would not even consider. So I wonder.

I have had this vague sense that people who are good only to avoid Hell have a legitimate, but less mature faith…like that of a child who does not steal a cookie not because he knows it is wrong but because he knows he will be punished. When he grows up, he doesn’t do it because he knows it is wrong.

I had a friend who told me that he would have no compunction about murder if he found out that God did not exist. Honestly, I worried about being friends with him. For, to me, the Church’s teachings seem self-evidently right–based in reason as well as authority–and the reason was still present, even if the authority somehow came into doubt. For him, the teachings of the Church are only right because of their authority, and apparently have no basis or tie to reason or rationality in his mind.

 

[Betterave]

I had a friend who told me that he would have no compunction about murder if he found out that God did not exist. Honestly, I worried about being friends with him. For, to me, the Church’s teachings seem self-evidently right–based in reason as well as authority–and the reason was still present, even if the authority somehow came into doubt. For him, the teachings of the Church are only right because of their authority, and apparently have no basis or tie to reason or rationality in his mind.

Interesting comments. I’ve been thinking about hell a lot lately too and I don’t fear it either (usually), but I think a lot of people would do well to (perhaps myself included). The thing is, when it comes to the question about motivation, there is a major problem in our culture with rejecting the rule of reason, and I suspect this is connected to rejecting the notion of hell. Really being reasonable is not a naturally easy and inviting task for most human beings and a belief in hell actually directly supports the healthy functioning of reason itself, not just what we usually think of as “moral behavior” (which of course accords with right reason). Hell gives weight to reason.