How do we know for sure that Hell won't be empty?

[Prodigal_Son]

And I hate to be picky, but you left out a crucial element that made my premise perfectly sound–we’re all sinners.

Not every sinner goes to hell. In order to show, logically, that even one sinner *necessarily *will go to hell, you need more than “it is possible that a sinner go to hell”.

Now, that fact that the premises do not logically prove the conclusion does not make the conclusion false. It just means that the argument is invalid.

I suppose, given an infinite amount of sinners, the sheer possibility of hell might inevitably lead to many sinners going to hell. But that conclusion is not logically guaranteed, only strongly suggested by the syllogism.

 

[Della]

Not every sinner goes to hell. In order to show, logically, that even one sinner *necessarily *will go to hell, you need more than “it is possible that a sinner go to hell”.

Now, that fact that the premises do not logically prove the conclusion does not make the conclusion false. It just means that the argument is invalid.

I suppose, given an infinite amount of sinners, the sheer possibility of hell might inevitably lead to many sinners going to hell. But that conclusion is not logically guaranteed, only strongly suggested by the syllogism.

I’ll be sure to spell it all out using every correct philosophical term in the book next time I’m asked a simple question.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Prodigal_Son]

I’ll be sure to spell it all out using every correct philosophical term in the book next time I’m asked a simple question.

Merry Christmas!

Guilty as charged!

Merry Christmas!

 

[Newman1]

Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

 

[nsper7]

The belief that no one is in Hell is called Universalism and that belief has been condemned by the Church as heretical. I don’t know which council or what document to point you to but it is the reason that Origen is not St. Origin.

Actually, Origen was condemned I believe for believing that Hell would emptied and the damned (even Satan himself) might well be eventually allowed into Heaven.

Numerous visions of the Saints point to Hell having a quite a population.

 

[JVD]

The following list of facts proves that hell is not empty of human souls:

1. The doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (“Outside the Church there is no salvation”) proves that there are souls in hell since not all souls in opposition or indifference to the Catholic Church can be ‘invincibly ignorant’ . Otherwise only practising Catholics would be subject to the penalty of hell just because they are enlightened to the fullness of the Christian truth. This would be a violation of God’s Justice since The Church would become an instrument of damnation (and populate hell) in a diabolical perversion of Christ’s intentions. If on the other-hand all souls were "invincibly ignorant’ (both inside and outside the Catholic Church) then “ignorance” would become a sacrament onto itself; and salvation could be achieved by giving everyone frontal lobotomies or by teaching ignorance as a means of malicious salvation. But ignorance can only mitigate guilt, not relieve it, nor can ignorance itself impart grace. Ergo - hell must be populated.
2. There are many church approved visions/apparitions/visitations from/by the saints depicting souls in hell.
3. Christ being Divine could not have a single shred of insincerity in His soul. But Christ taught more about hell and avoiding it than on all other things. Therefore it would be insincere for Christ to alarm people and scare them needlessly if hell were empty. This would be a contradiction of His nature and His Divinity and prove that Christianity is false or else it must prove that hell is real and that hell is far from being empty.

4)St. Peter in 2 Peter 3:16 says *"There are some things in them [Paul’s Epistles] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. *This is infallable scripture that tells us that some men are going to hell for attempting private interpretation of scripture outside of the apostolic teaching.

1. The church teaches that while all are predestined to grace only some are predestined to glory. This is proof that the church teaches that not all go to heaven. Therefor, since hell is the only other possible terminus the Church also teaches that hell is populated.

I would say that #3 above is the most powerful argument since it would be completely insincere and a violation of Christ’s nature for Him to alarm people and invite martyrdom and perseverance in the faith if no souls went to hell.

Bottom Line: If hell is not populated then for practical purposes hell does not exist for human souls and our faith is a lie.

James

 

[Bussi]

Hi everyone. A person on another thread asked me how I know for sure that Hell won’t be empty. I am not sure how to answer this. Does the Church definitively teach that there will be anyone at all in Hell? I posted this Bible verse as evidence that there will be people in Hell:

(Matthew 7:13 RSV) "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.

But what I need is an official statement from the Church that states that there will be people in Hell. Please help!

Remember the “Non Serviam” by which one third of the angels (A sin of pride) fell and by which they condemned themselves to hell for eternity. (I think the basis for this is in the book of Revelations …The tail of the dragon swept a third of the stars (angels?) out of the sky (not sure of the wording but this was how it was explained to me). So we know that there will be some created beings there at least. The angels decision was irrevocable the knew exactly what the consequences would be, but they, like Red Skelton’s "Mean wittle kid " character used to say, "I gonna dood it anyway . All we have to go on is God’s revelation that mortal sin breaks any bond of friendship we may have with God and will not allow sin in his presence. He gives us so many chances to tun our lives around…

BTW, What about the visions of hell and the torments of he souls already there were suffering that the children at Fatima were allowed to see? The Church thoroughly investigated and ultimately authenticated Fatima. Even though it was officially declared worthy of belief we are not required.to believe, but then how are we to account for the miracle of the sun that at least 70,000 saw.

We humans don’t know for sure whether a person goes to Heaven or hell, the judgement is His alone and not ours. We can only pray, O my Jesus, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven , especially those in most need of Thy Mercy.

Bussi

Bussi

 

[thistle]

Hi everyone. A person on another thread asked me how I know for sure that Hell won’t be empty. I am not sure how to answer this. Does the Church definitively teach that there will be anyone at all in Hell? I posted this Bible verse as evidence that there will be people in Hell:

(Matthew 7:13 RSV) "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.

But what I need is an official statement from the Church that states that there will be people in Hell. Please help!

How much more official can it get than the verse you quoted. Jesus spoke these words.

 

[LilyM]

Virutally all (more then 99%) of Catholics, even those who consider them somewhat devout and ALL other people in the world in in a state of mortal sin.

And you know this how? You’re not God, you’re not gifted with the omniscience necessary to read hearts and minds and souls. More importantly, you’re not gifted with perfect understanding of God’s mercy and how it operates either - and that too contributes to our salvation above and beyond what we may or may not do.

All catholics - catholics who contracept - catholics who do not attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation + all those with perfect contrition = Heaven

Therefore much less then 1%.

Not even close. Among those identifying as Catholic there are still way more than 1% who do NOT miss Mass, do NOT contracept and so forth - or at the very least who do not go their life long without repenting, confessing (where perfect contrition is NOT necessary) and ceasing to sin in these and other mortal ways.

Remember also the three requirements for mortal sin - grave matter (which exists in the case of all these people), full knowledge (which may or may not exist in the case of these people - many are very badly catechised indeed these days through no fault of their own) AND free consent (which again may or may not exist for these people).