The Fear of Hell

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oldcelt said:
So, we choose hell after being created by an omniscient and immutable creator? Doesn’t sound like there was much of a choice there.
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There is always a choice.

Everyday we make choices in the life we live. We can choose to sin or not to sin but it isn’t just a matter of us sinning because we are all sinners and every day we make the choice between right and wrong, selfless or selfish, God or the devil. God knows our weaknesses and he knows we are sinners and will fail in our choices at times. There will be times when we choose sin over God.

There is a point in all of this that you are missing. God the Father sent his son Jesus to Earth to take the punishment for that sin and He gave us His Word and built a Church to lead us and guide us and give us the strength to choose right and to give us knowledge about what is right. It isn’t like he just put us here, said here you are, choose heaven or hell and then deserted us. He is always with us, loving us, calling us, speaking to our hearts, encouraging us to choose right and when we fail in our choices and sin he made the way for us to reconcile: His Church and the Sacraments, especially the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation.

There is always a choice. Every day you and all of us make choices. The ultimate choice though, is whether we accept the love of God or not, whether we walk away from the love and redemption God offers or accept His gift.

God bless.
 
Charlemagne_III said:
Sometimes we hear unbelievers say they cannot respect the idea of a God who would prepare for us a place of everlasting suffering. Such a God is petty and vindictive. How would you answer this critique of the Christian hell? :confused:
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Not all versions of Christian Hell are compatible with each other. They also might not match the concept that you have in mind. For some hell is a place of eternal fire, being tortured, or just being isolated from God. It may be worth further qualifying how the person to which you are speaking understands hell.
 
ThinkingSapien said:
Not all versions of Christian Hell are compatible with each other. They also might not match the concept that you have in mind. For some hell is a place of eternal fire, being tortured, or just being isolated from God. It may be worth further qualifying how the person to which you are speaking understands hell.
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You may be too literal a person.
It is difficult to describe a state of being, and we draw on our experiences to do that.
Hell is a bad place; I know everyone would agree.
If heaven can be compared to attending a great feast, hell would be like being thrown out or not allowed in.
If heaven is described as a fulfillment of what we desire most, hell will be seen as an emptiness, a hunger, a place of woe, of pain.
I would agree that if people are going to discuss hell, they should start with a definition of terms, so they are not arguing about different things.
 
Aloysium said:
You may be too literal a person.
It is difficult to describe a state of being, and we draw on our experiences to do that.
Hell is a bad place; I know everyone would agree.
If heaven can be compared to attending a great feast, hell would be like being thrown out or not allowed in.
If heaven is described as a fulfillment of what we desire most, hell will be seen as an emptiness, a hunger, a place of woe, of pain.
I would agree that if people are going to discuss hell, they should start with a definition of terms, so they are not arguing about different things.
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Perhaps…just perhaps…you are not literal enough. And what about the suffering of infants in this reality. Takes a cold, hard god to do that.

John
 
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Aloysium:
Hell is a bad place; I know everyone would agree.
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I don’t think everyone would agree with that. Some would say it is not a ‘place’ as such. Some would say it does not exist at all.
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Aloysium:
…if people are going to discuss hell, they should start with a definition of terms, so they are not arguing about different things.
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I agree entirely with this.
 
GEddie said:
Our LORD never said that Hell was created for human life, but rather, “the devil and his angels.”

Human beings just end up following them there.

ICXC NIKA
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I was going to say the exact same thing, Ive always wondered about this too, why would an all-powerful God create a place specifically for Satan and the fallen angels and then send human souls to the same place? Humans and angels are completely different types of beings, so essentially what is ‘hell’ for them, may not be for humans, or vice verse.

I have a feeling we are completely mis-interpreting hell in the bible.
 
mikekle said:
I was going to say the exact same thing, Ive always wondered about this too, why would an all-powerful God create a place specifically for Satan and the fallen angels and then send human souls to the same place? Humans and angels are completely different types of beings, so essentially what is ‘hell’ for them, may not be for humans, or vice verse.

I have a feeling we are completely mis-interpreting hell in the bible.
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Why?

Whatever else it may be, Hell is eternal separation from God. How can that be misinterpreted?
 
Nixbits said:
I don’t think everyone would agree with that. Some would say it is not a ‘place’ as such. Some would say it does not exist at all.
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Anyone who believes Christ tells the truth would not believe there is no Hell.

Read Matthew 25 through to the end of the chapter.
 
Aloysium said:
You may be too literal a person…]
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I don’t think so, especially after watching a lot of conversations about how and other topics of disagreement at which it is later discovered that the two people engaging in discussion don’t have a similar concept of what is being discussed. If your concept of hell is not one with which the person has a problem then their disagreement may be with someone else. That’s probably good to know.
 
captainrick said:
👍 Agreed. For someone to call God “petty and vindictive” is giving God human-like traits. God is the creator of the universe, not some superhero in the sky being petty or vindictive toward people.
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Hi Captain, God did have human like traits His name was Jesus, He was not vindictive nor petty, but He did mention hell many times.

God Bless:)
 
oldcelt said:
Perhaps…just perhaps…you are not literal enough. And what about the suffering of infants in this reality. Takes a cold, hard god to do that.

John
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What do you mean the suffering of infants? Are you saying infants are in hell or do you mean infants born with disease or aborted babies?

It is hard to answer a one line statement like that.
 
oldcelt said:
My tense is absolutely correct. Whether you wish to admit it or not, even in eternity there has to be a beginning for our world. A moment when your God willed it into existence. If there is no such point…then your God cannot exist. The Catholic God knew with absolute certainty all future events when he created, with infallible foreknowledge he preordained all future events.That is Catholic Dogma that I have posted repeatedly.
Free will cannot exist under such a system, and all the Church offers is that it is a mystery.
Free will does exist…therefore nothing is foreknown or foreordained…therefore, the Catholic notion of God cannot exist.
We are on our own…thankfully.
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Concerning predestination, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says the following:

cc.600. "To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination’, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: ‘In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.’[Acts 4:27-28 ; cf. Ps 2:1-2 .]For the sake of accomplishing His plan of salvation God permitted there acts that flowed from there blindness.Cf. Mt 26:54 ; Jn 18:36 ; Jn 19:11 ; Acts 3:17-18

There blindness shades of Adam and Eve.:eek:
God knows what our end is but he does not interfere, unless He so chooses. If He does, it is called Divine Intervention.

God Bless:)
 
oldcelt said:
My tense is absolutely correct. Whether you wish to admit it or not, even in eternity there has to be a beginning for our world. A moment when your God willed it into existence. If there is no such point…then your God cannot exist. The Catholic God knew with absolute certainty all future events when he created, with infallible foreknowledge he preordained all future events.That is Catholic Dogma that I have posted repeatedly.
Free will cannot exist under such a system, and all the Church offers is that it is a mystery.
Free will does exist…therefore nothing is foreknown or foreordained…therefore, the Catholic notion of God cannot exist.
We are on our own…thankfully.
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and just who are you thanking when you say “thankfully”
 
onenow1 said:
Concerning predestination, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” says the following:

cc.600. "To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination’, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: ‘In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.’[Acts 4:27-28 ; cf. Ps 2:1-2 .]For the sake of accomplishing His plan of salvation God permitted there acts that flowed from there blindness.Cf. Mt 26:54 ; Jn 18:36 ; Jn 19:11 ; Acts 3:17-18

There blindness shades of Adam and Eve.:eek:
God knows what our end is but he does not interfere, unless He so chooses. If He does, it is called Divine Intervention.

God Bless:)
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👍
 
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