H
honorspianist
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You know how doctrine teaches that Hell is not a place, but rather a spiritual state? Is that supported anywhere in scripture?
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T
thistle
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Below is the Church’s teachings on Hell:You know how doctrine teaches that Hell is not a place, but rather a spiritual state? Is that supported anywhere in scripture?
HELL
CCC 1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”
CCC 1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616
CCC 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
CCC 1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619
CCC 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”:621
The numbers refer to the footnotes in the Catechism on scripture, early church fathers and other church documents.
C
copland
Guest
Right now when a person dies out of the state of grace, their soul goes to a holding place called Hades. It is probably in the middle of the earth, since Jesus seems to indicate that in Matt. 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly: so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
But at the resurrection of everyone, the souls of all will be reunited with their bodies, and those who are unsaved, they will be thrown body and soul into the Lake of Fire which is called Hell, Rev. 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
St. Bede in his commentary of Revelation comments on this, here is the quote.**14**death and Hades. So he signifies that the bodies are to be gathered from the earth, and the souls from their own places. For by the name of “death” he designates good souls, which have only suffered the dissolution of the flesh, and not punishment too; and by the term Hades, bad. And it may also be taken literally, that all the bodies, even those which the deep has swallowed, or the wild beast has devoured, will rise again. And Tichonius expounds it thus : "The people which he will here find alive are the dead of the sea, ‘And death and Hades gave up their dead.’ These are the people which are buried. But when he had said, that ‘they were judged, every one according to works,’ he briefly subjoined, that “both death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.” He means the devil and his own, whom Hades followed aboveapocalyptic-theories.com/images/footnotes/r16.gif, as he sat on the pale horse. So he repeats what he had already said more plainly by anticipation, ‘And the devil who seduced them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.’ But that which he had added aboveapocalyptic-theories.com/images/footnotes/r17.gif more obscurely concerning the beast and the false prophet, he here more openly sets forth.
But at the resurrection of everyone, the souls of all will be reunited with their bodies, and those who are unsaved, they will be thrown body and soul into the Lake of Fire which is called Hell, Rev. 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
St. Bede in his commentary of Revelation comments on this, here is the quote.**14**death and Hades. So he signifies that the bodies are to be gathered from the earth, and the souls from their own places. For by the name of “death” he designates good souls, which have only suffered the dissolution of the flesh, and not punishment too; and by the term Hades, bad. And it may also be taken literally, that all the bodies, even those which the deep has swallowed, or the wild beast has devoured, will rise again. And Tichonius expounds it thus : "The people which he will here find alive are the dead of the sea, ‘And death and Hades gave up their dead.’ These are the people which are buried. But when he had said, that ‘they were judged, every one according to works,’ he briefly subjoined, that “both death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.” He means the devil and his own, whom Hades followed aboveapocalyptic-theories.com/images/footnotes/r16.gif, as he sat on the pale horse. So he repeats what he had already said more plainly by anticipation, ‘And the devil who seduced them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.’ But that which he had added aboveapocalyptic-theories.com/images/footnotes/r17.gif more obscurely concerning the beast and the false prophet, he here more openly sets forth.
B
bogeydogg
Guest
There is no single person in Scripture who teaches more about Hell than the Lord Himself. I have many friends who flatly deny the existence of Hell but I think to so is to leave orthodox teaching and stray into heterodoxy from which many other heresies may grow.
However I think the teaching of Hell being a literal place of burning and torture may be secondary. Understand, I do personally believe that Hell is a place of eternal conscious torment, but I understand those who would say that things like fire and undying worms are symbols of how terrible it will be to be separated eternally from God.
I think though they have missed the point. If, in fact, things like fire and worms are symbols, then can it not also be said that symbols usually are less than the things which they represent? If that is the case then can it not also be said that regardless of Hell would be like we most certainly do not want to go there?
However I think the teaching of Hell being a literal place of burning and torture may be secondary. Understand, I do personally believe that Hell is a place of eternal conscious torment, but I understand those who would say that things like fire and undying worms are symbols of how terrible it will be to be separated eternally from God.
I think though they have missed the point. If, in fact, things like fire and worms are symbols, then can it not also be said that symbols usually are less than the things which they represent? If that is the case then can it not also be said that regardless of Hell would be like we most certainly do not want to go there?
C
copland
Guest
When I was discribing to my son about Hell, I gave him a picture of how it would be to never be able to see your loved ones again, forever. I think that seemed to bother him more than any type of punishment such as fire. I can relate to that too, because I cherish every moment with him, and fire would be only a secondary punishment to being apart from God and my loved ones.
R
ricko
Guest
It may not be physical such as a rock but to those in heaven or hell it is real.
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