Will those in Hell wish they'd chose Heaven?

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I’ve heard a lot of evangelists say to non-believers that “once your in Hell, you’ll wish you’d listened”, but I’m not sure if that’s theologically accurate. The way I understand it (if I’m understanding it wrong, please tell; that’s why I made this thread), those that are in Hell have hearts rock-solid, and if you were to give them the same choice that they had on Earth: love the Lord your God, and be in a loving relationship with Him forever, or continue to reject Him, and stay where you are, they would universally choose to stay where they are, regardless of the unspeakable suffering that goes on there. That’s why I am quite skeptical of a lot of these near death experiences, almost all of them involve someone being taken to Hell, but getting another chance, and accepting that chance with open arms. Is my understanding correct?
 
Do we really know if anyone’s in Hell? Catholicism makes it more of a question rather than a statement.
 
“Near death” experiences would, at best, fall under the category of private revelation. They could be authentic visions of the afterlife, or they could be a biological hallucination; no one is obliged to accept such visions as authentic (from God).

You are perhaps partially correct regarding the Catholic understanding of Hell. Only those who choose damnation are condemned to live there; however those who live there would forever suffer an insatiable greed, and would forever experience bitterness over their lot (*especially *because they would know they freely chose their fate).
 
VanSensei said:
Do we really know if anyone’s in Hell? Catholicism makes it more of a question rather than a statement.
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We know for certain that Satan and the fallen angels occupy the pit; they are persons, if not human…
 
VanSensei said:
Do we really know if anyone’s in Hell? Catholicism makes it more of a question rather than a statement.
Click to expand...
Didn’t Jesus say the path to Hell is wide and easy to follow and many go there? While we can’t say a paticular person is in Hell, we know some are because the Blessed Mother showed the 3 children of Fatima, Hell and the souls in there. She also said that more people go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason. Could be a pretty busy place. Catholicism teaches us there IS a Hell and it’s possible to go there if you die with even one unrepentant mortal sin. To believe that everyone is just going to whizzzz right into Heaven, we might be just fooling ourselves. Jesus opened the gates of Heaven for us but He’s not going to shove us in!. God Bless, Memaw
 
CatholicSoxFan said:
I’ve heard a lot of evangelists say to non-believers that “once your in Hell, you’ll wish you’d listened”, but I’m not sure if that’s theologically accurate. The way I understand it (if I’m understanding it wrong, please tell; that’s why I made this thread), those that are in Hell have hearts rock-solid, and if you were to give them the same choice that they had on Earth: love the Lord your God, and be in a loving relationship with Him forever, or continue to reject Him, and stay where you are, they would universally choose to stay where they are, regardless of the unspeakable suffering that goes on there. That’s why I am quite skeptical of a lot of these near death experiences, almost all of them involve someone being taken to Hell, but getting another chance, and accepting that chance with open arms. Is my understanding correct?
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I would say that your understanding is correct. Those who wind up in hell might “wish” they were in heaven, but even assuming they were given another chance - would not choose to do what was necessary to get there.
Instead, they would gripe and groan and moan about how unfair things are, and how nothing is ever their fault, and they are so misunderstood, and blah blah blah…
In short - they would remain totally self centered and, like their lord in hell, they would refuse to “bend the knee”.

As for near death experiences and second chances…I don’t see any reason to doubt them. Whether the change occurs through a near death experience or some other sort of awakening - what does it matter? 🤷

Peace
James
 
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