Would a person be able to enter heaven if they had doubts at there final moments

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Would someone be able to go to heaven if they Doubt gods existence at the hour of death , I’m just curious, honestly I imagine a lot of people have doubts at the hour of death or least I would imagine, I know I would or maybe that’s just me . I Thank you for your time.
 
Yeah I wonder and worry about this as well. Didn’t St. Theresa of the little flower doubt even at her end? Maybe there’s hope there!
 
Fear is what leads to doubt. It’s normal to be both afraid, and to doubt. As long as your assurance in God’s mercy supersedes that doubt, then yes.
 
There’s nothing in the scriptures that say that you’ll go to Hell if you have doubts. As long as that person is born again, they’ll go to Heaven.
 
God’s plans are not so easily foiled. A life of grace will not be jeopardized by one moment of doubt, even at the last breath. The Lord, himself, cried out from the cross that he felt abandoned. It is quite human.
 
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Doubt, in and of itself, is not a sin. It’s only when your doubts lead you to sin that you are in trouble. For example, if in your final moments you went beyond doubting and mentally rejected God or Jesus, instead of at least being open to the possibility in the midst of your doubt, then that could be a sin.
 
TheOldColonel said:
God’s plans are not so easily foiled. A life of grace will not be jeopardized by one moment of doubt, even at the last breath. The Lord, himself, cried out from the cross that he felt abandoned. It is quite human.
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I agree with you but it brings up the question of despair. I recall reading that when Jesus expressed the feeling of abandonment that it wasn’t despair. I don’t believe that the sin of despair in our final moments would be anything but venial if a sin at all.
 
Jesus ‘felt’ abandoned by His Father because His Father DID withdraw Himself completely. It is something that the souls in hell will ‘feel’ for eternity. God never withdraws from us. He must think about every atom of His creation at all times in order for it to continue to exist…and God does not un-create. God the Father could withdraw from His Son since His Son is God Himself, He who was, is and always will be.
 
One can have doubts, but they must be accompanied by hope. We are to hope in the mercy of God and in His promises. To assume that we are definitely going to heaven is to commit the sin of “presumption”. Until the moment after death, none of us truly knows for sure where we will spend eternity. We place our trust in God that we are found worthy of His promise of heaven, but Jesus never made a guarantee to us that we would be saved, not even to His disciples. Heaven is not a place for “good people”. Not all “good people” will go to heaven, because one can be good and still be a staunch atheist. You have to seek to know, love and serve Jesus here on earth in order to merit even the possibility of going to heaven. That is why God judges us; He sees us as we are, from the moment of our conception. When doubts overcome you, the best thing to do is pray and tell God, like a child would to a parent, all about it.
 
Have you ever been with someone as they’re dying?

It often tends to be a very thin place, if that makes sense. I suspect that people who are dying have more of a grasp of Reality than people who are well and happy and alive.

There are good deaths and there are bad deaths, if you’ve ever chatted with a hospice worker-- or listened to nurses talk amongst themselves (like this thread that goes for almost 200 pages). But death isn’t usually the time you start turning over philosophical differences in your head; death is the time the consequences of your philosophy while alive strikes home.
 
CherylPurrs said:
Jesus ‘felt’ abandoned by His Father because His Father DID withdraw Himself completely.
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No, His Father didn’t. Jesus and God the Father are one. They are not separable. There is no way God could withdraw from Jesus.
Jesus felt the human feelings of being abandoned by God because He was fully human, as well as fully divine.
It is human nature to feel that God has deserted us at times of great stress such as death or severe physical and mental pain, when God just does not seem to be “answering” prayers and we are ready to crack under pressure.
This does not mean God has actually gone or left or withdrawn from us. God’s right there, but the feeling of abandonment is part of the human condition.
God was right there with Jesus also, in fact, one with him.
 
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Benadam said:
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TheOldColonel:
God’s plans are not so easily foiled. A life of grace will not be jeopardized by one moment of doubt, even at the last breath. The Lord, himself, cried out from the cross that he felt abandoned. It is quite human.
Click to expand...
I agree with you but it brings up the question of despair. I recall reading that when Jesus expressed the feeling of abandonment that it wasn’t despair. I don’t believe that the sin of despair in our final moments would be anything but venial if a sin at all.
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That’s an interesting topic. I remember discussing that in a group many years back. One of the suggestion as to why Jesus called out to the Father at the very moment before he died was that he felt the separation from the Father God.

How could Jesus feel this separation? We thought that as he died on the cross, he was carrying the burden of the sins of mankind. Sins separate us from God. And that was how Jesus felt. It was so painful that he had to cry out, ‘God, God, why has you forsaken me?’

The thing that our Savior did for us. His suffering was real which he really felt.

God bless.
 
Pray often for the grace of final perseverance. (more on this here from St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Pray the Hail Mary often, which asks for her intercession at the hour of death.

Pray to St. Joseph for a happy death, so you that you have the sacraments and, like him, you may have Christ and Mary at your side at the hour of death.
 
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Indeed, how could one judge that is was freely chosen. No one wants despair. It is painful.
 
God doesn’t put us in hell just because we’re being human. He knows our struggles better than we do. He wants us with Him; He desires none to perish; He won’t cut anyone out on some mere technicality or another.
 
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