How easy is it to go to Hell?

[Socrates92]

We are to trust in God’s infinite mercy. It is the caveat to all of the other teachings

Technically, it’s not a caveat. A caveat implies that there is something lacking in the teaching, which is simply false. God’s mercy is more an explanatory factor of all the Church’s teachings, as they can all be understood in light of that mercy.

 

[MNathaniel]

I think the thing about “choosing”, is that it isn’t just standing in front of God and choosing to flick a switch like: “All else being equal, I’d rather experience pleasure in heaven than suffering in hell.” That’s not what true choice is.

Caveat: the following is my private rambling. I will humbly submit to correction if anything I say is shown to contradict Church teaching.

That said, true ‘choice’ is about what we choose… when that choice comes at a cost. For example, can we really be said to ‘choose’ truth, if – when honesty will cost us something else we value, like popularity – we tell a lie?

No. In such a case, we showed our choice through our action, and when it came right down to it we preferred our own pride or comfort (popularity; whatever the motive for our lie) above truthfulness. The circumstances we experienced didn’t ‘force’ our choice – they just made our choice visible to us. And the reality tends to be that the choice comes down to love of self, or love of God & neighbour.

And the goal of human life is to become the kind of person who makes the right choice(s). The kind of person who, when it truly costs everything else, chooses to love God with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength. And the kind of person who loves our neighbour as ourself.

Because only when we are TRULY that kind of person – only when we are doing, here on earth, the will of Our Father in heaven – are we actually ‘choosing’ heaven. That is, heaven in the meaningful sense: eternal communion with our God who is love. Who IS choosing, and loving, the other. We have to enter into communion with Him here on earth: now, in this life. Today. This second.

It seems to me a fiction to tell ourselves that we can choose love of self in this life – to cultivate a character that is willfully ordered around love of self, however that manifests in our particular circumstances – and then magically find after death that our eternal character is ordered towards love of other (the heavenly state). To think that we can become hellish (prideful, self-centred) in our choices in this life – and then to not experience the hellish state when our character is ‘fixed’ into the form we chose through our, well, choices.

I think it’s a good (if scary) exercise. To pray and figure out what we ACTUALLY choose, every day. Is it our popularity? Our pride and feeling good about our intellect? Our comfort and worldly experience of pleasures? What do we sacrifice? What do we choose?

 

[BornInMarch]

It’s not an easy road to Hell, and it’s likely only a minority of people go there. A grave action isn’t just required; a person must also understand fully that it is wrong and choose it of their own volition. Mistakes, accidents, and actions born of ignorance do not lead to Hell. It needs to be an attitude of “I know it’s wrong, I just don’t care!” and the guilty person needs to stand by that action until the very end.

Anyone who says “Good people go to Hell” or “The majority of people go to Hell” is (in my view at least) just a ladder day Donatist or a modern day Pharisee, not a good example of a Christian.

 

[Nigel7]

It’s not an easy road to Hell, and it’s likely only a minority of people go there.

Your statement completely contradicts the teaching (warning) from our Lord on this matter…

“For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many."
Mat 7:13

This also answers the OP’s question.

 

[catholic03]

Some people say it’s easy to go to hell, others say it’s hard.

For practising Catholics, like most of us here, I’d say it is pretty hard for us to commit a mortal sin because of our mindset and that we can safely hope to go to heaven.

For non-Catholics, and those who don’t practise, it is a different situation.

I try not to think about it. My scrupulosity means it is rather unhealthy to obsess over hell. I just trust in Jesus, because I know he wants me to place my fears, worries and hopes with him.

He will take care of them.

That’s all I’ll say on this thread lest my scrupulosity starts playing on my fears.

 

[IanM]

Very, very good sermon that sadly many will never hear or will be too afraid to face, as it illustrates the changes to be required by all of us.

Read also of the vision of Hell granted to Teresa of Avila.

https://catholicsay.com/st-teresa-of-avilas-haunting-vision-of-hell/

 

[Zaccheus]

LittleFlower378:

One unrepentant mortal sin sends one to hell for all eternity

This really is a terrible thing to say. It completely leaves out the part about God being a merciful God. No one knows who is in hell. We shouldn’t pretend that how one may get there is so black and white.

Except that it is.

God is merciful. He gives us the moral law imprinted on our hearts. He gives us the scripture and the Church to teach us.
He gives us opportunities to repent. He gives us the Sacraments: Confession to cleanse our souls, Eucharist to strengthen us against temptation.

He takes account of our circumstances. “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

To be guilty of mortal sin we have to know what we’re doing is seriously evil and we have to give full consent of the will.

But if we do commit mortal sin we must repent of it or we die condemned.

This is not happy news, not pleasant to hear. But it is the truth.
Those who tell us this are not telling us what they desire to be true. They are telling us the truth.

Suppose you see a doctor and he tells you that swelling on your neck is a cancerous tumor. Do you accuse the doctor of giving you cancer? Or at least of wanting you to die of cancer?
Or do you ask him to arrange chemotherapy or surgery to save your life?

So with sin. If you know or think you’ve committed mortal sin then go to Confession. Tell the priest the truth. Be forgiven.

 

[Zaccheus]

And who knows if she went to hell or not? Nobody here, that is for certain.

That’s true, we can’t judge a specific person to hell.

“You can’t be sure John Smith or Mary Jones is in Hell.”
That is true but it does not refute the truth that a single unrepented mortal sin can send someone to Hell.

God has mercy upon us. But God also is just.

 

[Zaccheus]

We are to trust in God’s infinite mercy. It is the caveat to all of the other teachings. That is what the Church teaches many times over. No two people are the same. We don’t know who goes to heaven or hell, regardless of what their personal situation is at the time of death.

We don’t know which people did or did not commit mortal sins.
We do not know which people repented or did not repent of mortal sins.
We do know that those who commit mortal sins and then refuse to repent before death–do go to hell.

 

[Latin]

God has mercy upon us. But God also is just.

If it is true that God Loves us, He is Merciful and Just then NO ONE goes to hell because He predestined everyone to heaven from all eternity.
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For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1) that the "Divine will or power is called fate. "
But the Divine will or power is not in creatures, but in God. Therefore fate is not in creatures but in God.
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The Divine will is cause of all things that happen, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 1 seqq.). Therefore all things are subject to fate.

The same is true for events in our lives. Relative to us they often appear to be by chance.
But relative to God, who directs everything according to his divine plan, nothing occurs by chance.

Hence if this divine influence stopped, every operation would stop.
Every operation, therefore, of anything is traced back to Him as its cause. (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III.)
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St. Thomas (C. G., II, xxviii) if God’s purpose were made dependent on the foreseen free act of any creature, God would thereby sacrifice His own freedom, and would submit Himself to His creatures, thus abdicating His essential supremacy–a thing which is, of course, utterly inconceivable.

Aquinas said, "God changes the will without forcing it . But he can change the will from the fact that he himself operates in the will as he does in nature,” De Veritatis 22:9. 31. ST I-II:112:3. 32. Gaudium et Spes 22; "being …

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St. Thomas teaches that all movements of will and choice must be traced to the divine will: and not to any other cause, because Gad alone is the cause of our willing and choosing. CG, 3.91.

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CCCS 1996-1998; This call to eternal life is supernatural, coming TOTALLY from God’s decision and surpassing ALL power of human intellect and will.”

John 15:16; You did not chose Me, but I chose you.
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There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will, (De fide).

2022; The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man.

Acts 13:48; … as many as had been appointed for eternal life believed. – Not even one former unjust, idolaters, drunkards, etc. said no to God’s salvation.
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God bless

 

[Zaccheus]

@Latin
You’re not allowing for human free will. God allows us the choice.

 

[Latin]

You’re not allowing for human free will. God allows us the choice.

St. Augustine on Grace and Predestination​

I.(1) On human interaction with grace: Every good work, even good will, is the work of God.
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De gratia Christi 25, 26: "For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it"
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De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32: "It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good … . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act , providing most effective powers to the will."
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Ibid. 6. 15: "If then your merits are God’s gifts, God does not crown your merits as your merits, but as His gifts."
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Ep. 154, 5. 16: "What then is the merit of man before grace by which merit he should receive grace? Since only grace makes every good merit of ours, and when God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing else but His own gifts."
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St. Augustine is called, rightly, the Doctor of Grace, for his great work. Augustine showed very well our total dependence on God.

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The Council of Sens (1140) condemned the idea that free will is sufficient in itself for any good. Donez., 373.

Council of Orange (529)
In canon 20, entitled hat Without God Man Can Do No Good. . . Denz., 193; quoting St. Prosper.

In canon 22, says, “ No one has anything of his own except lying and sin. Denz., 194; quoting St. Prosper.
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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence also says;
Life everlasting promised to us, (Romans 5:21); but unaided we can do nothing to gain it (Rom.7:18-24).

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Fallen man cannot redeem himself. (De fide.) – It is God’s responsibility to save ALL OF US.
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Without the special help of God the justified cannot persevere to the end in justification. (De fide.) – It is God’s responsibility TO KEEP US SAVED by His grace of Final Perseverance.

2016 The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance.
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The salvation of every predestined to Heaven is eternally protected by God’s gift of Perseverance, this is an INFALLIBLE PROTECTION of the salvation of every predestined to Heaven. – This is an infallible teachings of the Trent and formal teachings of the Catholic Church.

Without God’s gift of Perseverance everyone would die in mortal sin, (THERE IS NO SALVATION WITHOUT IT) while the receivers of His gift of Perseverance NO ONE can die in mortal sin because this is an INFALLIBLE PROTECTION of every predestined to Heaven.
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As we see Zaccheus, God created us and He is responsible for our salvation.
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God bless

 

[Zaccheus]

None of which refutes that God allows us free will. We can’t do good without Him but He allows us to choose good, which means we can refuse to choose good.
His omnipotence does not deprive us of the power to choose.

 

[Gripper]

It’s very easy to go to Hell.

 

[Gripper]

Theoretically speaking ( i could be wrong) But being Catholic is the easiest thing.

Theoretically this is correct but there is usually a particular sin that some of us continue to fall into.

 

[Latin]

None of which refutes that God allows us free will. We can’t do good without Him but He allows us to choose good, which means we can refuse to choose good.
His omnipotence does not deprive us of the power to choose.

Zaccheus, when you say God allows us free will, do you speak a libertarian free will or an aided wfree will?
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LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL
Libertarian free will is basically the concept that, metaphysically and morally, man is an autonomous being, one who operates independently, not controlled by others or by outside forces.

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AIDED FREE WILL
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator.
God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes:
"For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.

307 God thus enables men to be intelligent and free, causes in order to complete the work of creation, … Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions…

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There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will, (De fide)

The three Divine or Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are infused with Sanctifying grace. (De fide.)

2022; The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man.

St. Thomas teaches that God effects everything, the willing and the achievement. S. Th.II/II 4, 4 ad 3:

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We are both agree, God allows us free will, the question is:
God has given us a LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL or an AIDED FREE WILL and we probably most of the time freely cooperating with His graces without even know it, because God changes our wills without forcing it or He can change our wills from the fact that he himself operates in our wills as he does in nature?

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What do you believe Zaccheus, God has given us a Libertarian free will or an Aided free will and He causes us in order to freely choose to complete the work of creation?

Thank you for your answer in advance.
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God bless

 

[Vico]

… I’m sure no Catholic wants to be there. …

Why is that?

 

[Inquiry]

I’m not sure that line is just about people who enter Hell when they die. It seems to me He is also talking about everyone who commits a Mortal sin. Every Mortal sin is the choice of Hell, after all, even though through God’s grace we are able to reconcile with Him afterwards.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

For practising Catholics, like most of us here, I’d say it is pretty hard for us to commit a mortal sin because of our mindset and that we can safely hope to go to heaven.

I commit mortal sins on an almost weekly basis due to how ingrained a habit it became before I came back to my faith. I’m trying to stop, but don’t kid yourself, it’s pretty easy to go on committing mortal sins once you’ve started.

I’m trying to stop, and I hope and pray that God is taking that into consideration and won’t let me die in a state of mortal sin, but at the end of the day when I sin it’s a choice I’ve made, and it’s a choice that puts me at enmity with Him. Pray for me, and for the millions of men and women who, while trying to be good and faithful people, continue to fall into the sins that trap us. Pray that we may be spared the torments of damnation and have the grace of a peaceful, faithful death.

 

[Mijoy2]

The “those that are in hell chose it” philosophy is at best flawed at worse, a horrible lie.

The most sadistic/hateful/horrendous person who ever lived does not chose unimaginable suffering on himself. It’s non-nonsensical. It’s simply the best argument many can come up with to explain the unexplained.