Why do heretics go to hell?

[CompSciGuy]

See this is were I get confused, perhaps I should start a thread.

Based on what you suggest in the above quote then:

A nominal Catholic, who knows (I believe most do) that the CC claims that missing Mass on Sunday is a grave sin, yet does not know and believe that the CC has the authority to make such a claim is still committing a mortal sin (for the reason you state above). However, the nominal Protestant who knows that the CC claims that missing Mass is a grave sin, but by virtue of the fact that he is not catholic, is not necassarily committing a mortal sin.

Then one would conclude it would be better for the nominal catholic to rebuke his catholicism and become protestant. Which of course he will not do because he is obviously unaware that the CC has the authority (or does not accept that the CC has the authority, to pass judgement on what is grave sin and what is not).

See the hole in the logic? By this logic, 80% (based on what I have read on the internet) of catholics are in a state of mortal sin for this reason alone, never mind any others. Most the entire flock is damned.

What makes you think that the nominal Catholic, by rejecting his faith, will have better chances? It seems to me his chances will be worse.

It is also possible that we may be assuming too much about God’s mercy/judgment.

 

[puzzleannie]

I
I’d understand,God sending to hell a heretic person that believed that Catholic was the truth,but then from “wicked” cunning intentions purposely steered/led people away from the Church,but regarding heretcics that are misled/delude,.confused etc,for them i dont understand.

Thanks

they don’t necessarily. We don’t know and the Church does not say who is or is not in hell. What the Church does say, because she has been given authority from Jesus Christ himself, who has been saying it in one way or another in these gospels of the last few weeks before Advent, is that those who willfully, knowingly, deliberately reject him and his Church are damned. The key here is full knowledge and full free will intent. It does not say, mislead or delusional, but someone who knows the Church teachings fully and yet rejects them. Not even a person brought up in another religion who has been told only lies about the Catholic Church, but someone who has been given the gift of faith yet rejects it.

Also missing from your scenario is the fact, also Church teaching, that Jesus confronts every person at the moment of death in the particular judgement, they are given all knowledge of the truth and what it means to eternally reject Him, and only when they do that are they consigned to hell, by their own free will choice.

A Christian who has a problem understanding or believing one particular doctrine or practice of the Church is not a heretic, he is a doubter or at most a questioner, and is simply in need of further instruction, prayer and humility. So it is unfair to bring up the Catholic who does not know why we have to attend Mass, or a Methodist who has never learned about the Real Presence, in the same discussion with “heretics”.

What we must believe, as Christ again has been warning us in these gospels of the last weeks of the year, is that we do not dare to presume upon his mercy if we have rejected him in any way, including and especially in our treatment of the poor and week, under the guise of being his followers. So the Church allows for the possibility, without any guarantee or assurance, that at the moment of death someone not in full communion with her may yet be saved.