Why is everyone obsessed with Hell?

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Genesis315 said:
This fear is often what motivates a person to first rise up from sin toward the life of grace
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To me, this is the worst reason to serve God. Where there is fear, there is torment. Perfect love cast out fear. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. 1st. John 4:18

The best reason for serving God, in my view, is gratitude. I am grateful He saved me eternally. Jn. 5:24.
 
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ProdglArchitect said:
I’m sorry, but I have to completely disagree. Salvation is not set until we are dead and have been judged.
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Exactly.

How could it be? Does God take our freedom to embrace or reject Him away at baptism? No, we aren’t taught that. We are taught we do not have to fear that our embrace will be rejected, we are assured we will not be judged as we deserve if we depend on the saving mercy won by Christ, but we also know we still retain the power to turn away.
tgGodsway said:
To me, this is the worst reason to serve God. Where there is fear, there is torment. Perfect love cast out fear. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. 1st. John 4:18

The best reason for serving God, in my view, is gratitude. I am grateful He saved me eternally. Jn. 5:24.
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Still, the worst reason to willingly serve God is better than the best reason to put off doing it.
Where there is presumption, depair will inevitably follow. That is the cost of willful arrogance.
You are right about this: those who humbly rise up, turn away from their sin and some puny reason like the prodigal son had–why am I starving in squalor when my father’s servants never want for food?–will be given not the reception we deserve but a reception that reflects the boundless generosity of the love of God.
 
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PetraG said:
but we also know we still retain the power to turn away.
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PetraG, I hear you. No one can take away your choice or power to turn away from the living God. The judgment Seat of Christ will be filled with many people who turned away from serving. But the good news is our judgment seat has no judgment over sin. That judgment has passed at the cross. see John 5:24. We will be judged, but not for that reason.
 
Guys, can you PLEASE take the theology discussion to another thread? It’s making it hard for me to read responses about the actual topic I posted, which is the obsession with Hell.

I don’t want to flag people for having a good discussion, so asking you nicely.
Thank you.
 
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Once again…as the OP of this thread, can you all PLEASE start a new thread for this discussion about salvation in scripture? It is not on topic, and it is derailing the thread.

Thank you.
 
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I hear you Tis_Bearself.

We are talking about eternal life as it relates to the end result, HELL. but I will stop here for you.

Blessings,
tgGodsway
 
There is no need to stop. Please just start a new thread. Invite Petra and Prodigal and whoever, and continue your discussion there.

That way I can read responses on the topic that I started, and you can continue with your separate topic.

Thank you.
 
Pardon my ignorance Tis_Bearself. But I am not fluent on starting new threads. How do I do that? and how do I invite others to tag in?

This theme evolved on the bases of why people are so obsessed with Hell. The obsession is rooted in the beliefs offered for salvation, both protestant and Catholic. Those beliefs are challenged here. In other words I’ve been giving the reasons why people are obsessed, in my view. How is that off the topic of why people are so obsessed?
 
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  1. Go to the forum you want to post your topic in, such as Apologetics/ Sacred Scripture if you are having a Scripture discussion.
  2. You should see a button labeled with the plus sign + or “New Topic” near the bottom of your page. Click it and start a topic.
  3. To invite people, just tag them in your first post by putting an “at” sign @ and typing their name, like this: @tgGodsway
 
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Not everyone goes straight to perfection. Sometimes fear is the first step before perfect love completely replaces it. Love is of course the best–as I said, that is where salvation is found. Staying on that first step is certainly a problem.
 
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I don’t understand why people continue to derail the thread. This has nothing to do with why people are obsessed with Hell. I’ve asked nicely twice that the discussion be continued somewhere else and it’s still just going and going here like the Energizer Bunny. I haven’t flagged because I’m trying to be nice. Why are you people continuing with this?

The discussion I was interested in seems to have gotten totally lost. It’s discouraging to say the least. This is why people flag posts for “off topic”, because polite requests are ignored.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Why are people so obsessed with Hell instead of wanting to be good people, loving their neighbors and building a relationship with God?
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I’m not sure one excludes the other. In trying to avoid mortal sins and thus end up in hell, then causes one to be a better person within their relationship with God and others. I think once someone has overcome mortal sins - by Gods’ grace - and are at the stage of committing venial sins only, then the worry ceases, and then the focus is more on obtaining the virtues.

I think this would mostly affect those who returned to the Church after a long period and after examining their consciences to return, realized the full extent of all they’d done, what horrific lives in Gods’ eyes, they have led.

Plus it is what underlies scrupulosity - fear and anxiety.

It also can be as a result of not knowing what the Church teaches, reading the wrong things either online or in print and therefore having the wrong understanding of various things. Not being able for whatever reason - mental incapacity, cognitive impairments, how an individual understands things in the way it’s been explained - explained differently they may just understand correctly.

Badly catechized, left Church when a youth, cramming in all the things forgotten and trying to learn the Faith all over again in a short time as possible.

Or it could simply be because of how often we were warned of the possibility of going to hell in the Bible. Jesus, Who loves you, warned of Hell – A Catalogue of Jesus’ Warning texts. Msgr Charles Pope.
Tis_Bearself said:
Are people just looking for loopholes to commit sin,
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Whilst possible, I would think in most cases not likely.

Just my two cents.
 
Amen! I am mystified too. Our pilgrim journey is like driving. Focus on the ditch and you’ll get there! Focus on your destainttion, and cooperating with God’s grace, you’ll gert there instead.

Whatever happened to the virtues?
 
po18guy said:
Focus on the ditch and you’ll get there!
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I see that as being helpful - knowing what to avoid. Like driving - always good to know where the potholes are, rather than hitting each one.

Perhaps people are struggling to just stay out of the pot holes, let alone trying to practice the virtues. Every one is at a different stage in the process of attaining Sainthood. Some are further along than others, some slip back, some make little progress.

God leads a soul as He Wills. There was something I remember reading, but can only remember part now, but it was in regard to others faults - that if God was leaving them where they were and putting up with them and their faults, then how can we do any less. Or something along those lines.
 
I agree with what you say here, Bear. No doubt we should all focus on being better people by improving ourselves as best we can, in small ways and incrementally, if taking big steps all at once seems too difficult. Before doing this, we should all probably re-examine and reevaluate our lives thus far to p(name removed by moderator)oint ways we may have missed the mark and ways we might do better.

Perhaps the reason why some or even many Christians, and Catholics in particular, are obsessed with hell is that hell was probably a major issue in their home during their childhood. It is, after all, a rather significant part of Christian theology as a whole. Even more interesting to me is the seeming obsession among Christians with heaven (the flipside issue) in the form of questions such as “What can I do to make it to heaven?” Again, much of this, in my view, is due to the nature of Christianity itself. Salvation is just such a big part of the faith, the ultimate goal, it seems, given the lesser importance of this pilgrimage on Earth, this “veil of tears.”
 
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As has been pointed out by a certain esteemed clergyman, there seems to be a much higher percentage of scupulosity here - more so than in the general public.

As to driving, we seek to avoid the potholes and do not stop dead in the road for fear of hitting them. God always provides a way around.
 
po18guy said:
As has been pointed out by a certain esteemed clergyman, there seems to be a much higher percentage of scupulosity here - more so than in the general public.
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True. But I guess as the hugely well-known Catholic website it is, with the title Catholic Answers forum, I’m not surprised we see that here.
 
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