Hell and Gratitude

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ameryle

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God giving me existance is a great thing that I should be grateful for. But when I think that I may end in hell for an eternity of agony, I can’t find it in myself to thank him for having created me. How can I overcome this?
 
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Hell (the rejection of Love) is always a theoretical possibility with a creature that has the capacity for love. It’s not why God created you and it’s not what He wants. It’s hopefully not what you want either.

You’re made to be his child and that means being with him in Heaven forever, sharing in his life.

Peace.
 
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Imagine your parents take you to the zoo and you fearing that you can end up in the tiger cage. That’s only going to happen if you run away and jump in. Trust them and you’ll be fine. Would you be angry at your parents for taking you to the zoo in that situation?
 
TheLittleLady said:
No one ends up in hell unless they choose to be there.
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Chistian-ity said:
You choose the path to hell, it’s not a roll of the dice.
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“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14.

Is it your position that most people choose Hell? I don’t think so.
 
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It is the position of Holy Mother Church that mortal sin, the sin that sends one to hell, must be done intentionally and with knowledge. No one is sent to hell in some surprising “GOTCHA” by God.
 
I’m not suggesting that God is just waiting to pounce on someone and dispatch them to Hades, but according to the above verse from Matthew, “there are few” who find the way to life. I don’t believe that anyone would freely “choose” an eternity in Hell. I suspect there’s more to it than that.
 
ameryle said:
God giving me existance is a great thing that I should be grateful for. But when I think that I may end in hell for an eternity of agony, I can’t find it in myself to thank him for having created me. How can I overcome this?
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Being created a human is an opportunity to participate in the divine, but it is not forced. Since the rational soul lives forever from it’s creation, and has free will, it can choose to not love God, and God cannot change that since the free will was given, and necessary, to express love.
 
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ChuckB said:
I don’t believe that anyone would freely “choose” an eternity in Hell.
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I cannot fathom rejecting God by committing a mortal sin, but, I have done it. It is my firm resolution to never do it again.
 
I don’t think anyone thinks, “Hmm, I have the choice either to spend eternity in Heaven or be tortured in Hell. I would rather be tortured so I choose Hell.” Rather, the people who choose Hell choose it by rejecting God. They are hedonists who don’t believe in Hell, or God for that matter. In their view, life is short, so it might as well be spent in search of fleshly gratification while it lasts.
 
Thank Him because in Him, you live and move and have your being. Thank Him, as He has graciously granted you the freedom - the freedom - to choose Him or deny Him. He is not only huge, He’s huge on freedom.

I think that is good to ponder.
 
ChuckB said:
I’m not suggesting that God is just waiting to pounce on someone and dispatch them to Hades, but according to the above verse from Matthew, “there are few” who find the way to life. I don’t believe that anyone would freely “choose” an eternity in Hell. I suspect there’s more to it than that.
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There isn’t a Church teaching on whether or how many people are damned.

The Doctrine of Hell is corollary, so it is logically deducible from other established beliefs. 1) God is Love, and 2) We are free. Breaking away from the God of Love is necessarily painful and continually painful.

I’m going to post Bishop Barron again. These videos of his are very good:

 
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Hellbound souls reject God’s mercy, and indeed choose to be there.
 
Certainly, there are evil men and evil angels that seek to lead others to their destruction. Evil men I can understand, as they seek affirmation in their vices; it is the demons I don’t understand. I mean, sure, I can comprehend the notion of demons wanting to be worshiped, and so they seduce humans into regarding them as gods. What I don’t understand is the pure envy and hate that leads demons to tempt humans with worldly pleasures that they themselves despise, that they fell from grace because they were too self-absorbed to serve God, but then they go and seek the destruction of humans even though they gain nothing thereby.
 
@mythbuster1

But don’t we see parallels in human behavior at times? Wanting to watch the world burn, or doing something out of spite or bitterness. That is from the voice of the demonic tempting a person, yes, but it happens through a person’s free will.
 
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ameryle said:
God giving me existance is a great thing that I should be grateful for. But when I think that I may end in hell for an eternity of agony, I can’t find it in myself to thank him for having created me. How can I overcome this?
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How about not doing stuff that will send you to Hell, and if you should slip up, you repent, go to Confession, get absolved, and then avoid sinning going forward?

God doesn’t just zap people randomly into Hell, you know. People send themselves there.
 
So you’re saying that demons seek to destroy people for the fun of it?
 
Have you ever felt tempted to do or say something out of anger or spite or bitterness? Not all sin has an obvious self-serving motive, such as free money or sensual pleasure.

The devil tempts us with pleasures but he also tempts us with malevolence or agitation or cruelness. He finds whichever area we are most vulnerable and exploits it as much as possible. This still comes within us though. Even without demonic attacks we are still capable of evil.

God allows demonic attacks to happen because the more we go to Him for help and refuge, the more the virtues develop.
 
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Demons seek the destruction of humans because they hate God. When a human finds God, that gives glory to God, so the demons want to take that glory away.
 
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