Who guards Hell?

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Nelka

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Maybe I am looking at this with too much of a human mind but does God have an angel stationed outside of hell to stop people trying to escape?

Or is it like being in such a deep cavern that no soul could ever escape and doesn’t need to be guarded?

Or are the souls weighted so heavy that they cannot even lift off the ground?
 
The sad part is that none of the people in Hell want to leave (at least according to some sources)😦

Although, in the parable of Lazarus, it sure appears that that person wanted to leave.

ie, I don’t know 😃
 
i think maybe god just guards it using his power…although he does allow them to escape sometimes if it is according to his will and will increase our faith
 
Nelka said:
Maybe I am looking at this with too much of a human mind but does God have an angel stationed outside of hell to stop people trying to escape?

Or is it like being in such a deep cavern that no soul could ever escape and doesn’t need to be guarded?

Or are the souls weighted so heavy that they cannot even lift off the ground?
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I think in hell our state of soul is so disoriented, like we have 509 diseases. We have all physical illness, something so terrible
 
Also, Hell is at least as much a state of the soul as a physical place. Likely more so, though there may certainly be space of some kind involved once the damned receive their bodies back.

If Hell mostly consists of realizing that you will be forever incomplete without God, but also being permanently unwilling to let Him in, then it would not be possible to escape by fleeing anywhere.

Usagi
 
Usagi said:
Also, Hell is at least as much a state of the soul as a physical place. Likely more so, though there may certainly be space of some kind involved once the damned receive their bodies back.

If Hell mostly consists of realizing that you will be forever incomplete without God, but also being permanently unwilling to let Him in, then it would not be possible to escape by fleeing anywhere.

Usagi
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I agree. Hell isn’t a physical space where you can escape from as if its Alcatraz. Its a spiritual state where the souls are separated from God through their own desires want something other than God.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I agree. Hell isn’t a physical space where you can escape from as if its Alcatraz. Its a spiritual state where the souls are separated from God through their own desires want something other than God.
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I disagree with you about hell not being a physical space, and I agree with your take about the spiritual side of the matter. I am ready to bet that given the fact that the devil wants us in hell , he will do his best to keep people within the hell’s physical constraints (whatever they are) to ensure the suffering of the damned and to further their hate for God.
 
Remember, God doesn’t condemn you to Hell. You condemn yourself to hell. Once there you can never leave. You don’t have the ability to leave. You are stuck. You can’t sneak into heaven. You can’t leave Hell. You are there at your own fault.
 
Hell is also a separation from God, eternally…and there’s no arguing who is at fault for us getting there if that happens. And no blaming God because we will know everything. There is also no second chances of getting out of “it”. So probably no need for a guard, but instead a self imposed exile.

I think when the time comes and we will *see things as God sees *and even those of us in heaven will even realize why even our most minor and seemingly insignificant disobenience of God, even the most minor disagreement with what God wanted for us, will leave a permanent mark. Maybe by God’s good grace we can work that off in purgatory, or maybe it will stay with us forever.

My 2c 🙂
 
If those in Hell are there by choice, they are OK with that, right? From their point of view, what’s the down-side of being in Hell?

I get the separation from the glory of God thing as its own “Hell”. But if the damned want that, in what way is that a bad thing (from their point of view)?

My old favorite unanswered question: If Hell is the separation from God, does that mean the Omnipresence of God has a boundry beyond which He is not?

Glennonite
 
I think once someone gets to hell, oh yes, they want out. But they have made their bed. They have rejected God. Rejected morals.

Hell is a place where you have so much pain you can’t bare it, but you have no choice. The bible tells how bad hell is. No, no one wishes to go there.

I think God turns his back on you once you are in hell.
 
God knows the pain we go through. He has experienced more pain than we can know by dieing on the cross.

The Romans could get you to talk by nailing you on the cross. It was not only a way of execution, but also a way of torture.
 
Glennonite said:
If those in Hell are there by choice, they are OK with that, right? From their point of view, what’s the down-side of being in Hell?
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Hell can still be a miserable experience even if those there choose it.

Even in this life, it is possible to be utterly miserable, to wish not to be miserable, and yet to be unwilling to behave in a way that would reduce our misery, if that required thing requires too much change or sacrifice from us. The damned are forever unwilling to say “Thy will be done” instead of “My will be done,” and so they remain as they are.

As for God being absent from Hell, it may be more that those in Hell lack the ability to experience God’s presence as a positive thing. I tend to favor the notion (not official, obviously, though I believe it is popular in the East) that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are the same objective experience – being exposed to God without any veils or filters in the way – that is subjectively different depending on the individual soul’s degree of readiness for that experience.

Usagi

Usagi
 
Glennonite said:
If those in Hell are there by choice, they are OK with that, right? From their point of view, what’s the down-side of being in Hell?

I get the separation from the glory of God thing as its own “Hell”. But if the damned want that, in what way is that a bad thing (from their point of view)?

My old favorite unanswered question: If Hell is the separation from God, does that mean the Omnipresence of God has a boundry beyond which He is not?

Glennonite
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A concept I first heard this Easter weekend on the -]History/-] Heresy Channel;) is this; Hell is 100% hate. So that would be a down side for sure.

I also heard it said that the moment when Jesus said “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me” was the moment of the propitiation of all the sins of mankind and God turned away, this was allegorized or manifested by the darkening of the sky. I don’t know if that is accepted Catholic theology or just speculation but thats the fist thought that comes to mind in response to your question of Omnipresence.
 
'St. Francis of Rome lived a very holy life. Many times she saw with her eyes her Angel Guardian at her side. It pleased the Almighty God to let her see many other wonderful things. Brev Rom. One afternoon the Angel Gabriel came to take her to see hell. She went with him and saw that terrible place. Let us follow in her footsteps, that we might see in spirit the wonderful things which she saw. Our journey is through the deep dark places under the earth. Now we will set off. We pass through hundreds and hundreds of miles of darkness. Now we are coming near the terrible place. See, there are the gates of hell! When St. Francis came to the gates of hell, and she read on them these words, written in letters of fire: “This is Hell, where there is neither rest, nor consolation, nor hope.” Look, then, at those tremendous gates in front of you. How large they are. Measure, if you can, the length and breadth, the height and depth of the terrible gates. *Is. V. *“Therefore hath hell opened her mouth without any bound. Their strong ones and their people, and their glorious ones, go down into it.”

See also the vast thickness, the tremendous strength of those gates. In a prison on earth there are not, perhaps, more than two or three hundred prisoners. Still the gates of a prison are made most strong with iron, and with bars, and with bolts, and with locks, for fear the prisoners should break down the gates and get away. Do not wonder, then, at the immense strength of the gates of hell. In hell there are not two hundred or three hundred prisoners only. Millions on millions are shut up there. They are tormented with the most frightful pains. These dreadful pains make them furious. Their fury gives them strength, such as we never saw. We read of a man who had the fury of hell in him. He was so strong that he could easily break in pieces great chains of iron. Mark v. The vast multitudes in hell, strong in their fury and despair, rush forward like the waves of the sea. They dash themselves up against the gates of hell to break them in pieces. This is the reason why these gates are so strong. No hand of man could make such gates. Jesus Christ said that the gates in hell should not prevail against his Church, because in hell there is nothing stronger than its gates.’
  • Fr. John Furniss
Food for thought. 🙂
 
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