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Blessedwithfive
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My confirmation kids asked me when hell began…My thinking is that it started from the beginning but than I thought maybe it was when sin entered the world?
So what is it?
So what is it?
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Xystus
Guest
CCC 1033 calls hell the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. I am no theologian but it seems to me that this means hell “began” with the first “definitive self-exclusion” which i guess would be Lucifer’s refusal to follow God.
Interesting question and i am interested to see what others have to say.
Interesting question and i am interested to see what others have to say.
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Vico
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Hell could be the word used to translate Gehenna (Hebrew) or Sheol (Hebrew), or Hades, the Greek word.
The Second Coming seems to be the defining moment since before it the damned were in Sheol (Hades) and then after in Gehenna which is always placed at the end of the world after the general resurrection, where the damned have resurrected bodies. The just were able to enter heaven (from Sheol) after the Resurrection of Christ.
Fallen angels, per St. Thomas Aquinas, torment souls in life and afterlife so that is the place of some, even as Holy angels tend to the living, and to the dead that are just.
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Ron_Conte
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Only God has always existed, so Hell has not always existed. Jesus (Mt 25) said that Hell was created for Satan and his angels. So probably it was created when some angels fell and became devils.
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Blessedwithfive
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thanks for your reply. Does that mean God CREATED hell? If so than God created evil and I don’’t think that is right…Or is it more like God allowed hell to be created?
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Thom18
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God created Hell. It seems bad, until you consider what Hell is and who gets sent there, and why.
Hell is eternal separation from God. People end up in Hell by sinning. Sin is the rejection of God. So, the people that go to Hell, are those who rejected God and didn’t repent.
Hell is eternal separation from God. People end up in Hell by sinning. Sin is the rejection of God. So, the people that go to Hell, are those who rejected God and didn’t repent.
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machango
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Hell is always here. We just have to pay attention to our action everyday.
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Benadam
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There are beings that God created that hate Him. Even after God has revealed Himself fully to them.What more can God do? Without hell those beings who choose to exist without God would not be able to exercise their free will.
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Blessedwithfive
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I guess I can’t understand how anyone who knows the truth (about God) would choose to reject him. It boggles my mind…
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Benadam
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It is mind boggling. I kinda think Satan, being the most gifted and beautiful angel God created, the one most like God he might have thought. That, perhaps was the mindset of pride that directed his choice to rebel. Maybe? It’s interesting that the name of the angel that drove him out is ‘who is like God?’
I’m not sure if hell even exists yet. Satan and his angels were cast down to earth not hell. So, if the fallen angels operate on earth then the only reason for it would be humans. I can think of metaphysical reasons that could make their entry something that isn’t happening yet, but is something a damned soul may experience immediately after their particular judgement. Pure speculation.
Another perspective is that hell formed when Jesus entered Hades. The souls of the deceased from the beginning of history were all there. Big place.
When Jesus’ soul entered, every soul that ever lived before Him would be exposed to His Gospel. The souls that accept Him, follow Him to heaven, or for most I would think experienced purgation. The souls that choose to exist without God would go to hell. This is a possible time when hell began to exist. When Jesus visited the souls in Hades.
I’m not sure if hell even exists yet. Satan and his angels were cast down to earth not hell. So, if the fallen angels operate on earth then the only reason for it would be humans. I can think of metaphysical reasons that could make their entry something that isn’t happening yet, but is something a damned soul may experience immediately after their particular judgement. Pure speculation.
Another perspective is that hell formed when Jesus entered Hades. The souls of the deceased from the beginning of history were all there. Big place.
When Jesus’ soul entered, every soul that ever lived before Him would be exposed to His Gospel. The souls that accept Him, follow Him to heaven, or for most I would think experienced purgation. The souls that choose to exist without God would go to hell. This is a possible time when hell began to exist. When Jesus visited the souls in Hades.
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Brendan
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Hell is, as noted above, simply the state of exclusion from God.
Is it the light bulb that creates a shadow ( the area of lack of light), or the object that does not let the light through create the shadow?
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Bob_Crowley
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I think it started when Lucifer rebelled, and persuaded a lot of angels to rebel with him. It’s a moot point as to whether Lucifer and his fallen angels then created Hell as they were cut off from God, or whether God formed it as a place of punishment.
I think it’s a bit of both, just as for example the state might create a prison, but the inmates give it its peculiar flavour. A place of quarantine then becomes a place of mutual torment. Human beings placed into such an environment would be very much inferior beings - mere pawns in a gargantuan conflict.
I also wonder what the angelic war looks like - they don’t have material weapons as we do, and could be described as beings of pure intelligence. So it would have to be a sort of telepathic battle, a war of wills, of truth versus un-truth.
I think it’s a bit of both, just as for example the state might create a prison, but the inmates give it its peculiar flavour. A place of quarantine then becomes a place of mutual torment. Human beings placed into such an environment would be very much inferior beings - mere pawns in a gargantuan conflict.
I also wonder what the angelic war looks like - they don’t have material weapons as we do, and could be described as beings of pure intelligence. So it would have to be a sort of telepathic battle, a war of wills, of truth versus un-truth.
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Benadam
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I was just thinking. When Jesus died and His soul joined all the other disembodied souls, all the souls that accepted Him would go to heaven with Him. Even those needing purged. So, Hades, the abode of all the dead before Christ appeared is the abode of the damned after. Hades became hell. hmmmm. Is it really hell without fallen angels? Maybe right now it is a place without God but at the end of time, the added torment of Satan and his angels will make it the hell most people think about. Just thinking.
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Vico
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The underworld is called Sheol which has a place for the just and the unjust.Benadam:
I was just thinking. When Jesus died and His soul joined all the other disembodied souls, all the souls that accepted Him would go to heaven with Him. Even those needing purged. So, Hades, the abode of all the dead before Christ appeared is the abode of the damned after. Hades became hell. hmmmm. Is it really hell without fallen angels? Maybe right now it is a place without God but at the end of time, the added torment of Satan and his angels will make it the hell most people think about. Just thinking.
The eternal place of suffering with bodies (resurrected bodies) populated from the Last Judgement, is called Gehenna.
It all appears to be twofold (for creatures) with the physical (human bodies) and spiritual (holy angels, fallen angels, human souls).
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