What exactly is hell

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Okay, I’ve seen how we define hell, and this may seem like a silly question and I have searched it but I guess I’m just trying to understand exactly what it is.

*We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.” CCC 1033 *

I’ve also read other forum posts on the subject of people rejecting and such but what exactly is it? I mean does God not have an influence on what happens there? If not what does that look like? How does it even “work” to begin with? I mean God holds everything together and allows people to reject and turn away from him, but like how does that work??

It says To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.” So I suppose I understand the definition but not so much how it exactly works.

If anyone understands my question and can answer that’d be great. This one has been kind of mind boggling me for a while.

Another thing to add is he allows people to turn away from him, even Satan turned away from him, but did they really turn completely away from him because if they did how would they even exist, respectively that is.

Also other posts on the subject where people have asked the same thing would be appreciated as well as I couldn’t find ones relevant to this particular question.
 
Think of all the things God is and what it would be like to be in His presence. God is love. He is light. He is hope. He is peace. He is healing. He is comfort.

Then take all the antonyms. Hate. Darkness. Despair. Anger. Pain. Discomfort. etc.

That should give one an idea of what it would be like to be away from God for eternity.

Now as to why? If someone hates you and wants nothing to do with you, would forcing them to be in your presence for eternity be showing them love? In fact, I imagine it would be a bit of torture itself. So God gives us the free will to reject him or accept him.
 
but how are you sustained in that state. Like whenever I’ve been mad or angry things that would be classified as antonymous as you said, it doesn’t last. Also let’s say one turns away from God (commits a mortal sin) doesn’t repent of it, let’s say the person is a murderer but isn’t constantly in a state of hate etc. When/if this hypothetical person goes to hell, do they automatically become all those things? Like they may be like “yeah i know killing is wrong and i’ll go to hell for it” but then if you brought to their attention other heinous acts they’re like “well I wouldn’t do that” does their state of mind automatically change to “yeah I’d do that now” when they enter hell? As in does their “condition” worsen?
 
Interesting article, thanks for sharing! But as mentioned in the article the person is suffering and it appears the person wants to be free from that which would imply (to me) that they’re searching for some type of “peace” and not trying to persist in evil and stuff… So my original question remains “how do they even operate in this state”

It appears from the article we don’t completely understand how people become possessed, but if it’s by a demon, weren’t they in hell, how did they get on earth?

But then again hell is a “state of being” (correct me if i’m wrong) so you’re essentially “trapped” in this state of being since there’s no leaving it?

Stuff like this is what I don’t understand.
 
thed0ctor said:
Interesting article, thanks for sharing! But as mentioned in the article the person is suffering and it appears the person wants to be free from that which would imply (to me) that they’re searching for some type of “peace” and not trying to persist in evil and stuff… So my original question remains “how do they even operate in this state”

It appears from the article we don’t completely understand how people become possessed, but if it’s by a demon, weren’t they in hell, how did they get on earth?

But then again hell is a “state of being” (correct me if i’m wrong) so you’re essentially “trapped” in this state of being since there’s no leaving it?

Stuff like this is what I don’t understand.
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Hell is the eternal separation from God, so there is no escape. Those harassed by demons have an escape while they are yet in their mortal bodies. In each case that I am aware of, the person tormented by demons did not ask for assistance, but those who loved them interceded on their behalf. It was family, or sometimes Jesus Himself. Notice that He said that only fasting and prayer drive some demons out? That is up to us to carry out. As well, demons can inhabit the flesh, but not the spirit. They seem to overpower or suppress the spirit of the one possessed.

The prince of this earth has been defeated, yet he remains among us as long as we dwell in this human estate. From the Book of Job, we know that he came from “roaming the earth, and walking up and down upon it”. We know from Revelation 12 that he tried to devour the Child destined to rule all nations with an iron rod, but failing in that, when the Child was caught up to His Father’s throne, he went after the woman, who remained on earth. Yet, the earth helped her.

As to where demons came from, or how they got here, hell is their state of existence. Since they have no bodies, they are free to roam everywhere but heaven, where nothing impure may enter (Revelation 21:27). Much else is simply mystery, as it has not been revealed to us. What is clear is that we have a choice, and that even those who have been forcibly and violently overtaken by evil still have recourse through those who love them.

Here is another article, but it is not as comforting as the first: holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/guests/tomhoopes/darkbackward.asp
 
but how do you “survive” in that state of eternal separation from God when he’s the one who holds things together, who gets you through the day, etc.
 
thed0ctor said:
but how are you sustained in that state.
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After death we no longer exist in time - instead, we exist in eternity. Eternity, by definition, is an unchanging state - which is how the state of heaven or hell is sustained, and why it is inescapable.
 
thed0ctor said:
but how do you “survive” in that state of eternal separation from God when he’s the one who holds things together, who gets you through the day, etc.
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I think your answer is in your question. You know that feeling you get where you know you couldn’t make it on your own? When you are down to the last bit of energy you have and if one more thing goes wrong… you just couldn’t live? That very moment when the only thing you have to turn to get you through the day is God? Imagine not having that. Not having anyone to turn to. Being in that state… that one moment… where you can’t stand it anymore… forever.
 
thed0ctor said:
but how do you “survive” in that state of eternal separation from God when he’s the one who holds things together, who gets you through the day, etc.
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It is ordained by decree of His justice that one should suffer eternally for rejecting Him. Just as we have a justice system on earth, so also does God have a justice system. Ours is temporal, His is eternal.
 
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