C
Counterpoint
Guest
What’s the purpose of hell?
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B
Bradski
Guest
Would you want to end up there for all eternity? No? Well be a good boy. Or else…
E
EMFrost
Guest
Best source to start with is the Catechism. I know it’s wordy, but I believe you deserve a full answer. To sum up. God gave us free will, therefore choosing not to be with Him is an option. Thus there is hell. We choose not to be with Him by both committing mortal sins and being unrepentant of them. God does not want any of us to end up in hell. He would rather send His only Son to die upon a cross than risk spending eternity without any one of us.
Hope this helps:
[QUOTEIV. HELL
1033 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.”
1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”:621
Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.622]
Hope this helps:
[QUOTEIV. HELL
1033 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.”
1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”:621
Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.622]
C
Counterpoint
Guest
So, God wants us to love him. But if we do not choose to love him, he will consign us to eternal fire (where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth). Does that sound about right?
T
TarkanAttila
Guest
Think of it this way. God created everything. Nothing that exists exists except because He made it.
If you reject God, who made everything, including your family, friends, your activities, and hobbies, your sex and alcohol and drugs, and everything you love, hate, and ignore -
If you reject God, how are you going to be able to accept anything He made? Hell is all that’s left - nothingness. Or almost complete resistance to Being, which is perfectly embodied in God.
C
Charlemagne_III
Guest
Sounds about right, except for the part about God consigning us.
We consign ourselves.
T
TarkanAttila
Guest
Whereas you have no reason to be good or evil. All that awaits you is to turn into maggot food - if the materialist atheism is true.
EDIT: Actually, in point of fact, free will does not exist in materialist atheism, either. If the origin of all things is an accident, one destined to happen by gravity or whatever, then what are our feelings and choices? Where does free will come in? And therefore, how can anything be good or evil, if we have no choice?
Call it whatever you want. Address it however you want. Heck, stay atheist if you want. But at least admit free will does not exist - or cannot be scientifically proven given the parameters you have set for yourself.
M
MarcoPolo
Guest
It’s awkward to me to think of hell having a “purpose.” Here’s why. Here in the temporal world, if we jump off a cliff, we’ll fall and be killed. That is the nature of temporal reality. Do we then ask “what is the purpose of getting killed”? It’s not so much a purpose as it is a consequence of certain action.
In the same way in the spiritual order of reality, rejection of God results in eternal separation from God. It is tantamount to spiritually jumping off a cliff. You will spiritually die if you do this.
In the same way in the spiritual order of reality, rejection of God results in eternal separation from God. It is tantamount to spiritually jumping off a cliff. You will spiritually die if you do this.
R
rcwitness
Guest
That is one way to word it.
Another is to refuse to love God is to accept death.
Or, rejecting God’s love is weeping and gnashing when He sends us away.
Or, If you do not love your creator, what do you love?
When we see things outside the confinements of this world, we will see how much we depend on Him. As it is, we have faith in knowing we need Him. Because of His divine revelation, we know how much He has struggled with us from the beginning, and ultimately at Calvary.
T
TarkanAttila
Guest
It’s like poison in a way, isn’t it? It’s not rational to eat poison - or to give it to someone else to eat. But you can, if you want, and the consequence goes with it.
C
Counterpoint
Guest
It sounds like your God is not able to accept rejection.
C
Counterpoint
Guest
It sounds like your God does not accept rejection very well.
D
davidv
Guest
Sounds like you don’t know God.
C
Counterpoint
Guest
Was hell created?
C
Charlemagne_III
Guest
He accepts rejection. For people who want nothing to do with him there must be a place for people to spend all eternity, so he obliges them by creating hell.
Would you prefer that God should go ballistic and anihilate them?
T
TarkanAttila
Guest
It sounds like you want something only He can offer.
What is it you want? Where else could it have come from?
R
Robyn_p
Guest
He can accept it fine. It’s us who can’t. I think this quote sums it up best:
Do we suppose…that human irreverence can [hurt him] or can bring about ‘His glory’s diminishment’? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him. and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces…
But it is not that God has arbitrarily made us so that he is our only good, rather, God is the only good of all creatures…That is the conclusion of the matter. God gives us what He has, not what He has not: He gives the happiness there is, not the happiness that is not…If we will not learn to eat the only food the universe grows – the only food any possible universe ever can grow – ***then we must starve eternally. *** (CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain. 42, 45-47
This is just reality. If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we thirst. God doesn’t create those things, they’re just consequences of our actions. It’s the exact same situation with hell. He didn’t create it, because strictly speaking hell isn’t really anything at all. It’s real, don’t get me wrong. Starvation is real too. But it’s not a “thing”, it’s an absence, a lack. Hell is the definitive self exclusion from God and the saints, that’s it. All those images of fire and brimstone are just images, they’re not what hell is. The real hell is much more bland. It’s what happens when a soul completely turns in on itself and rejects God, and therefore love. Selfish, lonely people are already practically in hell.
I’m not sure what else can be said. If we don’t want Him, He won’t force himself on us. God wants us to love Him, not for His sake, but ours. But love has to be free. Otherwise, it’s not love.
C
Counterpoint
Guest
Why is it that some of us are able to learn and some of us are not? And why do the “unlearned” have to remain in ignorance for eternally? Are they incapable of learning? Is that what you are saying?
If we are created to seek the good, then it logically follows that everyone is seeking the good as he or she understands it. That’s the point.
J
jochoa
Guest
The purpose for hell is to grant those who want to not follow the rules of Love a place to reside.
What is your understanding of the purpose of hell?
V
Vico
Guest
It exists for the devil and his angels but will serve for others according to their works.
** Apocalypse12:7-8 **And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.
Matthew 25:41 Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
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