A
ahs
Guest
I am writing a brief article on the “last things” and I would appreciate some peer review on my “Hell” section. I want to make sure it’s theologically/doctrinally sound. It’s 545 words (in case that matters to anyone).-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hell. This is an “either/or” with #4 Heaven]. If you were on the “or” side of Judgment…if you did not receive that grace and did not have life in Christ and were not Baptized into Christ, if you did not love but hated others (1Jn 3:14-15) or if you separated yourself from God and did not repent, or neglected the poor or His little ones, (Mt 25: 31-46) your eternal existence will be “hell”.
So many people think of this as some medieval punishment by God. It’s not. Hell is torment, but not because God wants to eternally torment anyone. It’s torment because it was created for the devil and those who followed the devil in renouncing God (Mt 25:41). Hell is eternal existence in the absence of God. And for those who rejected God, or those who did not receive the supernatural Grace to co-exist with God, and did not choose to live in Christ, it was their choice, not God’s. God gives us all the grace to come to know Him. We all have an inner calling, so to speak, to know our Creator. God does not will for anyone to be damned. Hell is a choice that a person makes when they choose not to unite themselves to God, or they choose to separate themselves from God and then choose not to repent up to their death.
Think about it. If you were told that you were going to go to space (and for whatever reason there was no choice in the matter, just as experiencing death has no opt-out), but you chose not to wear the spacesuit that was offered, whose fault would it be when you were shot up to space and you died for lack of equipment? The fault would be yours. It was your choice not to be prepared.
Here’s another way you might look at it. If you lived your entire life for yourself, doing what YOU wanted and fighting for the causes YOU wanted, and only worshipping God the way YOU wanted, regardless of how HE wanted to be worshipped, you have essentially set yourself up as your own God. Then imagine you eternally meet God, and He’s not the God that YOU wanted Him to be…He does not match your ideals, His ways are not your ways, He doesn’t support the things you fought for in life, He doesn’t give YOU the respect/homage for your own ideals/opinions that you would expect is due to you, etc… He would be repulsive to you. And not just an instant of repulsion, but eternal…forever and immeasurably repulsive to your spirit which can no longer change because you are no longer in a physical world where things undergo change.
So, as horrible as Hell would be, being eternally separated from the God whom we were created to be united with, to Hell you would go by your own choice, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth (Mt 8:12, 13:42,50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Lk 13:28), and an eternal reminder that you are there by your own choices…your own fault. You won’t blame God, because you will be eternally aware of those instances where God nudged you in the right direction, and you ignored Him or chose contrary to Him.
Hell. This is an “either/or” with #4 Heaven]. If you were on the “or” side of Judgment…if you did not receive that grace and did not have life in Christ and were not Baptized into Christ, if you did not love but hated others (1Jn 3:14-15) or if you separated yourself from God and did not repent, or neglected the poor or His little ones, (Mt 25: 31-46) your eternal existence will be “hell”.
So many people think of this as some medieval punishment by God. It’s not. Hell is torment, but not because God wants to eternally torment anyone. It’s torment because it was created for the devil and those who followed the devil in renouncing God (Mt 25:41). Hell is eternal existence in the absence of God. And for those who rejected God, or those who did not receive the supernatural Grace to co-exist with God, and did not choose to live in Christ, it was their choice, not God’s. God gives us all the grace to come to know Him. We all have an inner calling, so to speak, to know our Creator. God does not will for anyone to be damned. Hell is a choice that a person makes when they choose not to unite themselves to God, or they choose to separate themselves from God and then choose not to repent up to their death.
Think about it. If you were told that you were going to go to space (and for whatever reason there was no choice in the matter, just as experiencing death has no opt-out), but you chose not to wear the spacesuit that was offered, whose fault would it be when you were shot up to space and you died for lack of equipment? The fault would be yours. It was your choice not to be prepared.
Here’s another way you might look at it. If you lived your entire life for yourself, doing what YOU wanted and fighting for the causes YOU wanted, and only worshipping God the way YOU wanted, regardless of how HE wanted to be worshipped, you have essentially set yourself up as your own God. Then imagine you eternally meet God, and He’s not the God that YOU wanted Him to be…He does not match your ideals, His ways are not your ways, He doesn’t support the things you fought for in life, He doesn’t give YOU the respect/homage for your own ideals/opinions that you would expect is due to you, etc… He would be repulsive to you. And not just an instant of repulsion, but eternal…forever and immeasurably repulsive to your spirit which can no longer change because you are no longer in a physical world where things undergo change.
So, as horrible as Hell would be, being eternally separated from the God whom we were created to be united with, to Hell you would go by your own choice, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth (Mt 8:12, 13:42,50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Lk 13:28), and an eternal reminder that you are there by your own choices…your own fault. You won’t blame God, because you will be eternally aware of those instances where God nudged you in the right direction, and you ignored Him or chose contrary to Him.
