Is God present in hell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Monica4316
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Monica4316

Guest
Or not?

what does the Church teach on this?

thank you 🙂

(if He is present there, then of course the souls there experience His presence as pain, and He is not united with them and not in their hearts)
 
Hell is the absence of God. Heaven is being in His presence.
 
Logically-speaking, God cannot be absent from a place that exists. All things exist by virtue of the fact that God imputes His Being on them. Were God’s existence/presence to leave any object, it would not be “absent God”, but it would simply cease to exist. No trace would even remain of its existence. To say that Hell is the absence of God is something like a heresy. Which Psalm is it that says “no matter where I flee, God is there”? Even in the deepest abyss, God is present.
 
God is everywhere, God is everything. So God can’t be absent from anywhere, including hell.

But hell is most likely NOT a place, but a condition. If someone puts a wall around themselves to ignore and reject God, then that situation is Godless and a state of absolute dejection.

It is ironic - one suffers for eternity from separation from God, but in reality, God is right there all the time.
 
“Though I descend to the uttermost regions of Hell, behold, thou art there.” - Psalm 139.
 
God is omnipresent, so yes as others have said he is present in hell. When we describe God’s presence (which isn’t physical, God is pure spirit) we mean where he works, in other words, where his actions are. God sustains hell and the souls there in existence, so yes he is there. Also, God is executing his justice there, so yes he is there. Hell is the absence of the beatific vision more precisely.

And last thing- Hell is not a physical place at first b/c we do not have bodies to suffer there. After the Resurrection, however, hell is a physical place with real physical punishment.
 
How God can be present in the absence of him (hell) ? Does it mean that he is present in evil too?
In this case, hell won’t be that much evil, since God the all goodness is in it… Unless he is not a total good.
 
“The gospel was preached even to the dead. The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.”

Catechism of the CC #634.

This always gets me to wonder if “all times and all places” includes hell. And, further begs the question…Is God’s mercy available to those sinners in hell?

Before you answer, read that passage a couple of times. I know it really has me wondering…
 
GloriousOrder said:
Logically-speaking, God cannot be absent from a place that exists. All things exist by virtue of the fact that God imputes His Being on them. Were God’s existence/presence to leave any object, it would not be “absent God”, but it would simply cease to exist. No trace would even remain of its existence. To say that Hell is the absence of God is something like a heresy. Which Psalm is it that says “no matter where I flee, God is there”? Even in the deepest abyss, God is present.
Click to expand...
Please don’t call me a heretic.

I was not approaching this from the angle you did. My statement meant that in Hell we are separated from Him, rather than adoring Him in Heaven. My point being that we are irrevocably divorced from Him.

Obviously I wasn’t as philosophically clear as you, but that doesn’t mean I’m committing something like a heresy.
 
Everythinh what exists was created and is sustained by God. In this sense God created the hell and His present keeps it existent.

Those in the hell by their own will exclude themselves from God. This will is petrified and unchangeable. In this sense for them God is absent from the hell.
 
I have always understood that hell was the complete absence of God.
 
corsair said:
I have always understood that hell was the complete absence of God.
Click to expand...
This is a misunderstanding, as a previous poster has already explained - if God were not present in some sense, then the place or the condition or however one experiences Hell would simply not exist. So, God is present in His providence (they continue to exist) and in His perfect Justice (they are punished for their sins) - but they do not experience His mercy or His love, and certainly not His friendship.
 
jmcrae said:
This is a misunderstanding, as a previous poster has already explained - if God were not present in some sense, then the place or the condition or however one experiences Hell would simply not exist. So, God is present in His providence (they continue to exist) and in His perfect Justice (they are punished for their sins) - but they do not experience His mercy or His love, and certainly not His friendship.
Click to expand...
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said; “Love without pain is Heaven, Pain with love is Purgatory, Pain without love is Hell” - that kinda sums up the “active” prescence of God in each place/state.
 
This may sound idiotic, but Hell is a symbol of God’s love. He allowed you to choose which path you wanted by giving you free will. I have been told that God’s love is made up of two things: mercy and justice. If you choose to sin against God’s will with your free will, you can take the path of mercy which is in the sacraments or you can take the path of justice and, depending on if the sin was venial or mortal, go to Purgatory or go to Hell.

What I am getting at is that God’s love is justice. Hell is a form of God’s justice and, therefore, a form of his love. God’s beauty is in everything that he creates. He created Hell and so His love and beauty can be found there.
 
God can indeed be absent from some places. Sometimes, far too often, He’s not present in my mind.

We have the power to make Him present or absent. God gave us unimaginable freedom and power.
 
If hell is an eternal separation from God, than the souls presiding in hell would be unaware of His Presence! Does this answer the question? For is it not an unsensible idea that God is present in Hell? Our Father who art in Heaven! Maybee we could think of hell not as a physical dwelling , but rather a spiritual dwelling.
 
I don’t understand how hell can be eternal? What if someone who went to hell repents and wants to become a better person don’t you think that the Lord would forgive him and get him out of hell?
 
504Katrin said:
I don’t understand how hell can be eternal? What if someone who went to hell repents and wants to become a better person don’t you think that the Lord would forgive him and get him out of hell?
Click to expand...
I don’t think you can repent in Hell. Besides, in Hell you probably don’t feel sorry for what you’ve done because it’s an eternal feeling of anger, jealousy, and all other Hellish feelings.
 
valoriuslobo said:
Hell is the absence of God. Heaven is being in His presence.
Click to expand...
Not really. Hell is separation from God, not absence. One popular description of hell I like is that in the next life we are all exposed to the same fire of God’s divine love. Those in heaven experience the warmth of the fire as eternal bliss, those who are defiled experience it as purification (purgatory), and those who have hated God in their lives are pained by the experience. So God doesn’t stop loving those who are in hell, its those who are in hell are the ones who have no ability to accept God’s love. Imagine a woman being wooed by a man and the man is persistent, his love is genuine and true. Yet the woman reject the man’s love. From the woman’s point of view, it becomes harassment. Thats how those in hell perceive God’s love.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top