The denial of Hell-by Christians?

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Nicea325

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As a Director of Catechetical Ministry at a local Roman Catholic parish located at So.Cal., a particular topic has caught my attention: Hell. I find it amazing at the amount of parents who get offended when Hell is taught or mentioned. I have had numerous complaints by parents telling me why I allow my catechist to teach about Hell? :eek: My rebuttal: Since when has the RCC denied the existence of Hell?

My question to my non-Catholic brethen is simple:

Does your particular Christian tradition (Baptist,Methodist,etc) teach about Hell?

God Bless
 
Nicea325 said:
As a Director of Catechetical Ministry at a local Roman Catholic parish located at So.Cal., a particular topic has caught my attention: Hell. I find it amazing at the amount of parents who get offended when Hell is taught or mentioned. I have had numerous complaints by parents telling me why I allow my catechist to teach about Hell? :eek: My rebuttal: Since when has the RCC denied the existence of Hell?

My question to my non-Catholic brethen is simple:

Does your particular Christian tradition (Baptist,Methodist,etc) teach about Hell?

God Bless
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My Baptist Church teaches that there is a hell. - And that you won’t go there if you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour.

Everyone has (in theory) the possibility to get to know about Jesus ("Go out in the world and teach them all what I have told you and baptize them in the name of the Father,the Son and the Holy Ghost. [cf. Mt 28:19-20])
Then they are free to either accept God’s gift of Salvation or not to do so.
But if they do so, they will have to face the consequences. - They will go to hell, as brutal as it sounds.
Actually, the topic hell also makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like to think about it. And I think it’s hard but just of God to damn all those who don’t repent and accept His gift (The Salvation through Jesus Christ’s Blood on the cross)!
Because: "23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: " [Rom 3:23-24]
 
In the conservative evangelical community I was raised in, hell was a major topic from the pulpit.

Among “non-programmed” Friends one would not hear much of the belief concerning hell…“programmed” Evangelical Friends may teach on it in their Sunday School classes and from the pulpit.
 
Esdra said:
My Baptist Church teaches that there is a hell. - And that you won’t go there if you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour.

Everyone has (in theory) the possibility to get to know about Jesus ("Go out in the world and teach them all what I have told you and baptize them in the name of the Father,the Son and the Holy Ghost. [cf. Mt 28:19-20])
Then they are free to either accept God’s gift of Salvation or not to do so.
But if they do so, they will have to face the consequences. - They will go to hell, as brutal as it sounds.
Actually, the topic hell also makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like to think about it. And I think it’s hard but just of God to damn all those who don’t repent and accept His gift (The Salvation through Jesus Christ’s Blood on the cross)!
Because: "23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: " [Rom 3:23-24]
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Of course the topic of Hell makes most uncomfortable. However, my concern is those who believe it does not exist and that everyone is saved. Unfortunately,not all will be saved.
 
Nicea325 said:
Of course the topic of Hell makes most uncomfortable. However, my concern is those who believe it does not exist and that everyone is saved. Unfortunately,not all will be saved.
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Many agnostics (and some “liberal Christians”) think so. And yes, you are right. Not everyone is going to heaven. Otherwise Jesus would’ve died in vein.
 
Esdra said:
Many agnostics (and some “liberal Christians”) think so. And yes, you are right. Not everyone is going to heaven. Otherwise Jesus would’ve died in vein.
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Indeed. I cannot speak for other Christians,but many adult Catholics truly believe everyone is going to Heaven. Really? My rebuttal to many who believe such a fallacy:

Then I guess we are all wasting our time here teaching and proclaiming the Gospel,if we are all going to Heaven?
 
Sister Lucy of Fatima Describes the
Vision of Hell

At Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary told the three child seers that many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray or make sacrifices for them. In her Memoirs, Sister Lucy describes the vision of hell that Our Lady showed the children at Fatima:
“She opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.”

www.fatima.org
 
Nicea325 said:
Indeed. I cannot speak for other Christians,but many adult Catholics truly believe everyone is going to Heaven. Really? My rebuttal to many who believe such a fallacy:

Then I guess we are all wasting our time here teaching and proclaiming the Gospel,if we are all going to Heaven?
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That “rebuttal” doesn’t make sense logically - maybe you are wasting your time.
 
Peace and blessings,
I will digress a little from your question but not to derail your thread.
Catholic practice as i understand from what i witness is hell is very real but is not the emphasis of the church today. I see this as largely due to its teachings on invincible ignorance. Also because the oldies i listen to did not like being preached to about the negative aspects of life but today emphasis God love.
I see it as swinging too far to the opposite extream.

For me the fear of Gods wrath is very real and a valued motivator to desire His love by being of His love.

I often remark to the oldies that while they did not like the way it used to be they are solid in their devotion where as people my age who were given the love only emphasis dont bother as much with devotion.
I ask them to consider some of the old ways are good as they show our actions have serious consequences and half the teaching is inadequate to enlighten the full understanding of truth.

Todays reading(24th) from eclisasticies (sorry cant spell) explains the balance of wrath and mercy very well and is very relevant to your thread.

To move back to your question i fellowship with an AOG community, hell is often a focus of there teaching but not a big sunday topic as they focus sundays on worship and thanks with positive guidance.

Of your thread a little Islamic religion communities i know have great emphasis on heaven and hell and noticeably these people have strength in devotions. (not to start are muslims right or wrong but it illustrates what teaching understanding of consequences good and bad does to inspire devotion in humans)

I dont think humans like to think of hell as none of us are perfect and are working on submission to real love (verb) to maintain living in hope.

Its a good thread you have started.

May God bless you and yours to be living light of His love
 
TedDC said:
That “rebuttal” doesn’t make sense logically - maybe you are wasting your time.
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It makes perfect logic. If everyone believes we are going straight to Heaven,then why Jesus even bother to found His Church? Jesus crucifixion is redemption for everyone,not a free-tecket to Heaven. Wasting my time? God is not a waste of time,but ignorance is a useless trait many humans display everyday about God.
 
Hmmmm. Maybe it is time to bring back some Hell fire sermons. Remind the laity that Hell is real and a doctrin of the Church. One needs to sometimes emphisize the neggative to understand and apreciate the good and the point there of Christs redemptive suffering.
 
Nicea325 said:
It makes perfect logic. If everyone believes we are going straight to Heaven,then why Jesus even bother to found His Church? Jesus crucifixion is redemption for everyone,not a free-tecket to Heaven. Wasting my time? God is not a waste of time,but ignorance is a useless trait many humans display everyday about God.
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I agree with you as i understand. The Catholic church does recognise invincible ignorance is given mercy by God.
 
I am currently on another “forum”…a Christian forum, and it is amazing to me, no startling that this is such a hot topic!!! The argument stems from the words “sheol” and “gehenna”…which some Christians opposing the actual existence of hell, say are not relating to hell. Wise, in their own eyes of course, is their knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, stating that these words…actually are a type of “station”, especially the word “Sheol”, and that the word “Gehenna”…actually refers to a dump site in Jerusalem…funny…I checked it out…google it if you like, but their analogies, and translations of the words, are true! :eek:
John Paul II addressed the issue of Hell, and his theology is that the “lake of fire”…and all these things we as Catholics and even Evangelical Protestants have come to believe as “Hell” are actually figurative from the Book of Revelation.
He states Hell is a a “Total Separation of God…the Creator, and the Created”…not hell fire, like we have believed. Personally, I dont know how our souls can be more on fire with pain than to know we would be separated from God forever, but google John Paul II on the topic of Hell, I tell you true, he did not deny it, but he sure caught “hell” for it by the press. The headlines read…“Awh Who Put Out the Fire”…
Anyways, interesting, but I do believe in the Justice System of an Almighty God, and the Catholic Church does state the existance of an eternal life without God…is Hell…
Denny in Michigan…
 
workingman said:
Hmmmm. Maybe it is time to bring back some Hell fire sermons. Remind the laity that Hell is real and a doctrin of the Church. One needs to sometimes emphisize the neggative to understand and apreciate the good and the point there of Christs redemptive suffering.
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Beautiful answer and best i understand would strengthen the descendants of Catholics.
 
I’m Baptist, and my church certainly teaches that their is a hell. It’s not an explicit topic taught from the pulpit all that often. Normally it shows up more often in the Sunday School setting. Though we understand that when the pastor talks about choosing Christ that the other option is in fact hell. So the topic of hell is more implied during sermons unless Revelations is being taught.
 
Oh I wouldn’t down play it to much and have it sounding as not such a bad place. The Visions of Fatima are “Worthy of Belief” and the last 5 popes are believers in Fatima. So I would say its horrific.

Do you have the link from John Paul II?

Heres Benedict XVI words on Hell.

While it is true that hell is rarely spoken of even from the pulpit nowadays, some bishops have been moved to warn about hell when motivated by love - by an overwhelming concern for the salvation of those entrusted to their care.

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.

Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to “admit blame and promise to sin no more”, they risked “eternal damnation — the Inferno”.

Hell “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more”, he said.
 
GaryTaylor said:
Oh I wouldn’t down play it to much and have it sounding as not such a bad place. The Visions of Fatima are “Worthy of Belief” and the last 5 popes are believers in Fatima. So I would say its horrific.

Do you have the link from John Paul II?

Heres Benedict XVI words on Hell.

While it is true that hell is rarely spoken of even from the pulpit nowadays, some bishops have been moved to warn about hell when motivated by love - by an overwhelming concern for the salvation of those entrusted to their care.

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.

Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to “admit blame and promise to sin no more”, they risked “eternal damnation — the Inferno”.

Hell “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more”, he said.
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The name of Jesus means “God saves” (from hell). The Holy Spirit is love. Ask the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus to save those today who won’t make it when called. We must ask now for tomorrow will be to late for them.

This is how we should teach hell, in a loving, positive way, doing the very work of Jesus Himself. Remembering His suffering, say, “Please Lord Jesus, have mercy on them whom you are calling today.” Have this intention in you morning offering, they need you desperately.

“…love everyone, but especially the brethern.” Paul, the convert and murderer.
 
Nicea325 said:
Indeed. I cannot speak for other Christians,but many adult Catholics truly believe everyone is going to Heaven. Really? My rebuttal to many who believe such a fallacy:

Then I guess we are all wasting our time here teaching and proclaiming the Gospel,if we are all going to Heaven?
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The number of uncatechized adult Catholics is very concerning. Hell is not a pleasant subject, but a reality nevertheless. It is important, I think, that people understand that those who end up in hell have chosen this for themselves by rejecting the mercy and grace of God. It is His desire that all be saved.
 
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