People of all different religions love God.. so why do so many people end up in Hell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter distracted
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
RoryMcKenzie56 said:
*It was good and true but being a reminder of our position in the Cosmos, being created beings with no more rights than minerals or vegetables. *
Rory

Allow me to clarify.

The point is that all creatures with the exception of man invariably fulfill the purpose for which they were made. Along with some of the angels, only man has ever disobeyed God. Certainly God has granted us higher faculties, greater dignity, and potential for participation in the divine nature, but none of this changes our essential common ground with rocks and carrots, our createdness. We have no standing whereby we may approach God with any complaint. We come from Him, belong to Him, and go to Him along with the rest of Creation. In 1856 Fr. Faber was living in an age that was obsessed with the rights of man in the political realm and he thought that it was beginning to spill over into the spiritual realm. People seemed to him to be forgetful of what it means to be created, wholly contingent beings, dependent upon God from the very beginning of their existence.

My intent was not to suggest that the citizen of any particular state should have a standing in civil law equal to a bed of potatoes. But justice recognizes that our position as creatures with the Creator involve only obligations on behalf the creature and rights on behalf the Creator. The beautiful part of it though, is that in His wonderful generosity, the Creator seems to have an incorrigible love for us. If we will, He adopts his wildest and most unruly creatures to be His very own children, which of course involves certain rights and privileges which we do not deserve at all!

Thanks for letting me clarify…I hope it makes more sense now.

Rory
Click to expand...
yes it does make more sense… I thought, at first that you were saying man is no higher than the animals… :eek: which didn’t make sense in light of other things you said…

you say: The beautiful part of it though, is that in His wonderful generosity, the Creator seems to have an incorrigible love for us. If we will, He adopts his wildest and most unruly creatures to be His very own children, which of course involves certain rights and privileges which we do not deserve at all!

i could never believe that God loved someone like me… (or worse someone like Dahmer :eek:)

but if you take sin away, which is what God desires to do… then people can be lovable… and acceptable to God.

virtually the only time i feel that i am acceptable to Him is when i am in the Real Presence (wehther at Mass or just sitting in silence w/ Him in the Church)…

i pray others discover the RP… *** i don’t see how anyone can stay a strong christian in this big, confusing, un-christian, scary world without that… ***
 
That is an interesting take on Purgatory I think.

So, is it your belief not many will even be in Purgatory?
 
StrawberryJam said:
That is an interesting take on Purgatory I think.

So, is it your belief not many will even be in Purgatory?
Click to expand...
well… the virgin Mary was supposed to have appeared to someone some time ago and said that nowadays more people go to Purgatory than … before (?) … maybe because Christianity has spread to all corners of the globe now (?)…

only problem is, this may not be an approved apparition??? does anyone out there KNOW???

even so, Mary is also supposed to have said (and i totally believe THIS) that this time we are living in now is the worst in history, sin-wise…

they could both be true, i suppose… 🤷

in any case, i wouldn’t want to go to Purg… esp the lowest parts of purgatory… i’ve heard its excrutiating… (though it would, obvoiously, be preferable to the other place) :eek:

in any case, i believe many people end up in Hell… I have seen & experienced more evil than … well, than most people probably have… For one thing, i have read a lot of history books… it’s just one war after another… hatred, rape, revenge, abortion, other murder, etc, etc… Seems there was never a time in history when some group wasn’t trying to kill virtually everyone outside his group…

but anyway…what happened in history hasn’t stopped, to speak of… nothing’s changed in this modern era… so called. Now its “another kind of war”… The group everyone seems to hate is the unborn… millions and millions murdered… the most innocent of all…

… No, i don’t see too many people exactly giving up all they have to follow Jesus… not hardly…

Jesus himself said that there are “few who find” the narrow way to Heaven… (st Mt 7:13, 20 & St Lk 13:24, etc)
 
StrawberryJam said:
That is an interesting take on Purgatory I think.

So, is it your belief not many will even be in Purgatory?
Click to expand...
already answered your post… but uhhh… WHAT is an interesting take on Purgatory, exactly…?

were you even talking to me?? :confused:
 
distracted said:
already answered your post… but uhhh… WHAT is an interesting take on Purgatory, exactly…?

were you even talking to me?? :confused:
Click to expand...
I found your answer about Purgatory interesting because it does not line up with what I have read about it in official catholic teaching that the faithful must believe, and not the version of purgatory found in non binding places in the tradition.🤷
 
distracted said:
i agree w/ everything but the last sentence… paragraph

just loving God is not enough. In fact in today’s Mass readings God speaks of those who love Him AND keep His commandments… those are the ones who are in his favor…

like i said in OP it is easy to love God at least most of the time…

If a person “loved God” and yet didn’t keep his commandmnets… and when he died still didn’t repent of his evils, he would not go to Heaven or Purgatory… because he is in total agreement w/ his sins, as it were… does not reject them or wish to be purified of them…

It is very dangerous to bleieve and/or teach that just loving God saves one from Hell…
Click to expand...
Interesting point. 🙂 I actually expected that that last paragraph would be misunderstood. I apologize for any confusion it had caused since I didn’t explain myself well. 🙂

Each one of us has his/her own idea of “love”. If a person said that he/she “loves” God (based on his/her own idea of “love”), does that mean that he/she really “loves” God? If he/she said that he/she “loves” God but he/she didn’t do what God’s will, then it is not really “love”. That person’s idea of “love” is a false idea of “love”.

Love is like a fire that consumes. It empties you of yourself, of your self-seeking, of your selfish desires, of your self-love, and then it will transform you into itself.

A soul that has a true desire to love God must realize that it cannot love apart from God because love comes from God, and love comes from God because God is Love Itself. Love will make you burn with desire to be with God, to be in union with God. Love will make you forget about yourself. It will empty you of yourself, it will empty you self-love that you will desire nothing but what God wants you to desire, you will do nothing but what God wants you to do, you will only will what God wills because love consumed you and transformed you that you can no longer distinguish yourself from God because you are in complete union with Him.

You cannot say that you love someone if you are not in union with him/her. You cannot say that you love yourself if you don’t do what your self wants. You cannot say that you love God if you are not in union with God, if you are not doing God’s will. If you say that you love God but do not do His will, then who is it that you love? It is not God whom you love. It is yourself whom you love because you do what you want to do, you obey your own will, you satisfy your own desires.

There should be a union in loving. So, if you say that you love God, then your will should be in union with His, otherwise it is not really love at all.

If a person who lived his/her whole life in sin but at the moment of death has a little spark of love for God in his/her heart (a desire to be with God, to be in union with God) and with this love he/she decided to be in union with God, then he/she will not go to hell, but he/she has to be in Purgatory until he/she is purified and consumed by love. 🙂 That little love would be the start of being in complete union with God in Heaven.

🙂
 
Did you say spark?

Oh dear!

I did a thread on Spark!

Guess what happened to it???

Gnostic stuff. 😦
 
StrawberryJam said:
Did you say spark?

Oh dear!

I did a thread on Spark!

Guess what happened to it???

Gnostic stuff. 😦
Click to expand...
Hi StrawberryJam! 🙂

I don’t know what spiritual meaning others have with the word “spark”. I just used it in my reply as a “little something” that starts “something big”. haha…just like a spark starts a fire… 🙂 hope that helps…i’m sorry to what happened to your thread. 😦
 
geometer said:
John Edward, who is a natural medium, has found many people on the other side, so to speak, who don’t seem to be in hell, who were non-believers in this life.
Click to expand...
Why should I believe Mr. Edward?

Edwin
 
StrawberryJam said:
If you believe in purgatory why do you believe many are in hell?
Click to expand...
Non sequitur. Purgatory is for those who die in a state of grace. One can believe that many people go to hell, and that most of the rest need some time in purgatory. This is a fairly grim view of the world, admittedly. But there’s no inconsistency between the two beliefs.

Edwin
 
iWantToLoveHim said:
You cannot say that you love someone if you are not in union with him/her. You cannot say that you love yourself if you don’t do what your self wants.
Click to expand...
talk about an interesting point…

The sadthing is that many children are not loved rightby their parents and then grow up being self-destructive… etc… If you don’t learn to love/like yourself as a child, very difficult to do so when grown… and if you don’t love yourself, because you think you are wrothless… you may think God feels the same way about you… and stay away from Him… possibly missing Heaven… Maybe that’s one reason Jesus seemed to focus more on keeping God’s laws than “relationship”… (?) It is easy to see (at least for some of us?) how some law is good for us/society… but relationships are complicated… and… convoluted and frought with difficulties… etc…

just a thought…
You cannot say that you love God if you are not in union with God
Click to expand...
well, i think you sometimes can… because, to a very real extent, we are ALL separated from God just by being here on Earth… in an ungodly society… yet we still love God… we true Chrstians do… (the Jews probably do as well… don’t know since never been JEwish :D:

)
 
StrawberryJam said:
I found your answer about Purgatory interesting because it does not line up with what I have read about it in official catholic teaching that the faithful must believe, and not the version of purgatory found in non binding places in the tradition.🤷
Click to expand...
how so?

i forgot what all i said… in this particular thread…

i don’t say anything taht i don’t know to be Catholic teaching… or if i do mention something that is … someone’s opinion, i say so…
 
Contarini said:
Non sequitur. Purgatory is for those who die in a state of grace. One can believe that many people go to hell, and that most of the rest need some time in purgatory. This is a fairly grim view of the world, admittedly. But there’s no inconsistency between the two beliefs.

Edwin
Click to expand...
that’s because the world is very grim… (sinful, ungodly)
 
PatThompson said:
An experiment:
  • Imagine a religion where there was no continuous threat of Hell, from the moment you were born.
  • How much power would the men and women who run the religion have over their people without that threat?
Now ask yourself, who told YOU that many people end up in Hell?
Click to expand...
I thought Jews also believed in some sort of Hell. Are you an Orthodox Jew? Besides some liberal priests (even Catholics sadly) are denying the existence of the eternal Hell state. Therefore, your implied conspiracy theory is proving to be more and more illogical.
 
distracted said:
technically i cannot prove it… not to anyone’s satisfaction save my own…

I am convinced because of my experiences in life and what i have learned through reading, etc…

i could never begin to explain to you or make it clear to you all that i have experienced and learned so as to convince you or anyone else that there is a Hell and that many go there… I have read of many saints who say that many go there. I trust the saints… and again, could never prove to you or anyone WHY i trust them… Suffice it to say that my experiences in life alone would cause me to trust them on this and virtually everything else… (also Jesus said that there are many who will try to enter Heaven but will not be “strong enough” (St Lk 13:24… st Mt 7:13,20)

Yes, i have been to “hell” as a matter of fact (small h rather than cap H)…

again, very long story … :banghead::ouch::hypno:
Click to expand...
Then how many people go to Heaven?
 
.

Hell is kinda simple to understand in a way…

If you aren’t “with God” totally in this life or at least trying to be…

you won’t be with Him in the next…

you go where you desire to go… (more/less)…

why would people desire to be with someone they don’t love for all eternity?

And as Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments…”
 
Richard_Kastner said:
I was reading through this post trying to find someone to answer when I realised that everyone, at least everyone that I read, seems to have it wrong.

Here’s Matt7:13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

It says here not that some won’t make it, but most won’t make it and in Matt7:22 it says

22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

So the very things that these people were doing that they thought were pleasing to God were called iniquity by Jesus. Well, what were those things. I’m sure they were doing many of the things that people on this post say are ways to get to heaven. They were probably loving one another. They were probably keeping the commandments. They were probably being good people (at least what they thought was good). But the bottom line is that there is nothing that we can do that is good enough to get us into heaven. The absolute only way to heaven is faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.
Jn.14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Click to expand...
That sure cuts the list of things to worry about down quite a bit!

I hope you did not express this as a get out of jail card, because that is exactly how I took this. I hope I am really wrong. Because I know other protestants here would tell me this would be really wrong to think.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top