Does God Grieve Over the Souls in Hell?

[distracted]

Yes, I think God grieves.

Does Jesus grieve?

I’m not sure why i posted the thread, said waht i said… because justice is justice and why would God grieve when justice (Hell) is accomplished??

that makes no sense…

hopefully we humans will pray for the lost ones while thye are savable…

and even with us humans, grieving, though understandable, doesn’t really resolve anything. It should lead us to prayer… and sometimes that is all we can do… and is the best thing to do (usually the only and best thign).

 

[distracted]

That was just my point…no difference. Don’t we Catholics believe that Jesus grieves? Then, yes, God grieves as well, right?

That’s what I think.

As for God that Father, we are his children. Wouldn’t you grieve if your child was in prison for the rest of his life and you were never going to be able to see him again? Yes, your child made a choice to do something that got him in prison, however, doesn’t mean that you would not miss him and still love his soul…any way…that’s what I think…

again, i’m not sure why i worded things the way i did… was just in a hurry and when i am in a hurry, don’t think straight sometimes…

i have spent time with Jesus in the Real Presence (Blessed Sacrament) and i don’t think that He grieves, per se. The only thing that grieves Him is sin and its awful consequences… it seems that when i am There, i have to stay There at least an hour (“Could you not watch with Me one hour?”) … in order to get the icky effects of sin washed off my soul… Even other pepole’s sins affect my soul… and my mind (they disturb me… a LOT)… and so when i am There Jesus… does for me what needs to be done and what i cannot do for myself… Sometimes i don’t have a clue what the true condition of my soul is until i am There iwth Him… In fact, i don’t think there is ever a time when that is not thecase…

i wish more peple would spend time There…

it seems we love $$ and our lives in this world more than we love Him… He’s the only “thing” that can help us/ save us… or understand us… or fix us…

we love other humans over Him… humans who, again, cannot help us in the things that matter the most. Most people wouldn’t help us in this way even if thye knew they could… They do not love us or like us as Jesus does… not even close… I used to think that God loves us but doesn’t like us… but that’s not true… He must have liked us also or He wouldn’t have given us His Son, who can emphathize with our weaknesses and struggles… I never felt liked by ANYONE, to speak of, until i found Jesus in the Real Presence… He doesn’t judge pepole by their weaknesses because He knows what its like to be human… He hates our sins but the longer we are with Him, the more those sins get washed away… and maybe the Father does dislike us (seems like it sometimes… often) but

*I have spent much time with Jesus in the RP and He does NOT dislike us…

and after all the insanity i have gone through in life, the inustice, the hate, the abuse, etc…that means FAR more to me than i could EVER begin to put into words… *

 

[distracted]

Perhaps this one falls into that category of 'We’ll never know ‘til we get to heaven. Then, we’ll understand everything.’ Truly, His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. All we can do is know that He loves us so much more than we can possibly imagine!

God bless,
Dan

this is weird… and may not mean a whole lot… but when i read this i was thinking: A guy wrote this… and was going to check your profile but then saw Dan at the bottom…

have no idea what this means… just kinda interesting… if only to me…

 

[distracted]

If we acknowledge the fact that we grieve if we knew our family members to be in hell.
Similarly, there are many, who have to hand over their family member/s to the police for crimes, but have still loved them nevertheless.

Then how much more would God grieve over his family that went to hell ?

again, i think God would grieve if he thought about it but why should he think about it? God isn’t into self-abuse as we humans are…

and again, justice is justice. Why would God love justice and then … uh… disaffirm justice, as it were, by grieving about it??

i don’t … i am still thinking… (God only knows how THAT’s going to turn out!! )

 

[distracted]

.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. (Douai-Rheims)

 

[distracted]

One of my friends was praying about this. She was asking God why He just didn’t wink Lucifer out of existence.

She felt God say, “because I love him.”

yes but that means he does NOT love US…

:crying::coffeeread:

 

[distracted]

i remember reading once that god has his hand out to those in hell, but owing to their pride and stubborness and the the way they lived their life, they refuse to to take it.

that’s a beautiful thought… but Jesus spoke of eternal Hell… so this implies that there is a way out of Hell if only one would take it(?)

but then maybe that is why its eternal, because those there are so entrenched in thier evil that they wouldn’t even think to take his extended hand… i dont know…

its like one poster said, this is something we will know in Heaven… too mind-boggling for now…

 

[AmandaB]

I don’t know if he grieves over the souls in hell, BUT I definitely believe he grieves and feels sadness and pain, because it says in the Bible that it angers him and saddens him to see his children suffering or being tortured by bad people. It talks a lot about him feeling anger as well as jealousy. I believe ALL our feelings, he feels as well, that is why he gave them to us. However, we can not control them in ourselves the way he can control his feelings. That is why it is ok to feel anger, jealousy, e.t.c, but it’s what you do with it that is the key. It is said that there is no pain and suffering in Heaven, but what GOD feels is a different thing. After all, he is God, so he will always have different feelings then us. The feelings that are awful to us may be easier for him to tolerate, as well his happiness is probably more intense then ours as well! (Just my opinion anyway, but we will never really know until we die)

 

[Monica4316]

this is not accurate.

God does not know anyone’s choices before he makes them… He chooses to give us total free will which means we can choose absolutely anything we want, wehterh good or evil…

I agree that God gave us free will, but I disagree that this means God doesn’t know our future choices. He can know our future choices but not have any part in them… but simply observe them, outside of time

 

[distracted]

I After all, he is God, so he will always have different feelings then us.e)

i dont;’ think his feelings are that different from ours… at least when we are living a truly Christian life, that is. The more time we spend with Jesus in the Real Presence, the more we see things the way He (God) does…

too bad more people don’t do that…

 

[distracted]

I agree that God gave us free will, but I disagree that this means God doesn’t know our future choices. He can know our future choices but not have any part in them… but simply observe them, outside of time

God can choose to give up whatever He wants and He did when he gave us free will… (omniscience or whatever)

it doesn’t make sense that God would say: You can do whatever you want… make whatever choices you want… and then say, but i already know waht choices you will make (you are a robot) and you are going to hell for them because they are not the right choices…

this is totally illogical… We are totally free agents…

 

[mikee]

It’s actually a teaching of the Catholic Church that God knows everything, even future, contingent events:

That God is omniscient or possesses the most perfect knowledge of all things, follows from His infinite perfection. In the first place He knows and comprehends Himself fully and adequately, and in the next place He knows all created objects and comprehends their finite and contingent mode of being. Hence He knows them individually or singularly in their finite multiplicity, knows everything possible as well as actual; knows what is bad as well as what is good. …] That God knows infallibly and from eternity what, for example, a certain man, in the exercise of free will, will do or actually does in any given circumstances, and what he might or would actually have done in different circumstances is beyond doubt — being a corollary from the eternal actuality of Divine knowledge. So to speak, God has not to wait on the contingent and temporal event of the man’s free choice to know what the latter’s action will be; He knows it from eternity. But the difficulty is: how, from our finite point of view, to interpret and explain the mysterious manner of God’s knowledge of such events without at the same time sacrificing the free will of the creature.

newadvent.org/cathen/06612a.htm

There are different theological and philosophical schools of thought explaining how exactly God’s foreknowledge is compatible with free will (the CE article goes into it more). But the Church teaches that God knows everything, even our contingent free actions.

 

[distracted]

It’s actually a teaching of the Catholic Church that God knows everything, even future, contingent events:

newadvent.org/cathen/06612a.htm

There are different theological and philosophical schools of thought explaining how exactly God’s foreknowledge is compatible with free will (the CE article goes into it more). But the Church teaches that God knows everything, even our contingent free actions.

***I absolutely HATE when pepole post things and do NOT say where it came from… ***

and i will never believe that the Church teaches predestination… that some are destined for Hell…some for Heaven because God “knew” thye would choose Hell… Anyone can change the path he is on for better or for worse… and God does not “know” what choice a person is going to make… only what hcoice he is* likely *to make under any given circumstances… He knows what kinds of choices a committed Christian will make and also the likely choice a non-committed one will make… because thye are committed or not… and He works with the committed ones in their daily lives… to achieve what He wants to achieve… which is what he wants to achieve in ALL people’s lives… but many will NOT let Him… They do not do His will… and that is why they end up in Hell… Only those who do the will of the Father will go to Heaven… which explains why jesus said so few find the narrow road… most people are too busy doing thier own will… so called… don’t have time for what God wants… no time to do all those hard things it says in his Word to do… like love people… like seeing others as being none other than Christ Himself… (admittedly difficult when most people act like demons and not like Christ)… but anyhow… where was i???

in any case, in this sense God may “know” how a person will handle something… because He knows they are trying to be Christian… trying to do what HE wants…

other than that there is no predestination…

 

[mikee]

This is obviously a very emotional topic for you, and I’m sorry to have offended you. But instead of blowing off what I’ve posted, perhaps take the time to understand - or perhaps consider that you may not fully understand the matter at hand.

In regard to predestination, I can give you other sources that delve into the same topic, including Dr. Ludwig Ott’s Fundementals of Catholic Dogma (you can read the section of the book here in case your interested), as well as other trusted sources including Jimmy Akin (who goes into the same topic in this article, along with another article linked to called “A Tiptoe Through TULIP”), Dave Armstrong has a few great sources here, not to mention the fact that the Catechism of the Catholic Church also refers to God’s eternal plan of predestination in section 600.

To make this controversial issue short: the Church does teach predestination to heaven, but it does not teach that God positively predestines anyone to hell. How predestination exactly works, along with grace and free will, is a matter of very complex and technical debates among theological circles. It’s not as simple as you’ve put it.

But that’s not even the subject I was responding to. I was responding to your claim that God does not know the future actions of his creatures. You said God only knows what a man “is likely to make under any given circumstances.” This may be your own private conclusion, but please do not mislead others into thinking that this is the Catholic Church’s.

What the Church teaches: from Dr. Ludwig Ott’s "Dogmas concerning the Unity and Trinity of God

By the knowledge of vision (scientia visionis) God also foresees the future free acts of the rational creatures with infallible certainty (De Fide).

 

[distracted]

You said God only knows what a man “is likely to make under any given circumstances.” This may be your own private conclusion, but please do not mislead others into thinking that this is the Catholic Church’s.

]

why not? you have… You posted that stuff knowing it wasn’t the official teaching of the Church… yet implying that it was…

and i don’t care about Protestant readings on Catholicism… The only ones who really know Catholicism are the ones who live it… and i dare say there are few of those around…