Hell Has to Be

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 11-19-17 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Hell Has to Be

Msgr. Charles Pope • November 19, 2017 •

This is the eleventh in a series of articles on the Four Last Things: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

Today we come to the final of the Four Last Things: Hell. I have written extensively on this topic over the years, largely in response to the widespread dismissal of the revealed doctrine of Hell. In contradiction to Scripture, many presume that Hell is an unlikely destination for most. Never mind that Jesus taught just the opposite (e.g., Matt 7:13-14). In my own small way, I have tried to keep people more rooted in the sobriety of the Gospel than in the wishful thinking of the modern age. No one warned of Hell more than did Jesus. Arguably, 21 of the 38 parables amount to warnings about Hell and the need to be ready for judgment day. (I have written more on that here: Jesus Who Loves You Warned Frequently of Hell.)

In this post, however, I would like to consider why Hell has to be. Frequently, those who doubt Jesus’ biblical teaching ask this: If God is love, then why is there Hell and why is it eternal?

In short, there is Hell because of God’s respect for our freedom. God has made us free and our freedom is absolutely necessary if we are to love. Suppose that a young man wanted a young lady to love him. Suppose again that he found a magic potion with which to lace her drink. After drinking it, Presto, she “loves” him! Is it real love? No it’s the effect of chemicals. Love must be freely given. The yes of love is only meaningful if we are free to say no. God invites us to love him. There must be a Hell because there has to be a real alternative to Heaven. God will not force us to love Him or to come to Heaven with Him.

But wait a minute; doesn’t everyone want to go to Heaven? Yes, but it is often a “heaven” as they define it, not the real Heaven. Many people understand Heaven egocentrically: It’s a place where they will be happy on their own terms, where what pleases them will be available in abundance. The real Heaven is the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. So while everyone wants to go to a “heaven” as they define it, not everyone wants to live in the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. Consider the following examples:

1. The Kingdom of God is about mercy and forgiveness. Not everyone wants to show mercy or forgive. Some prefer revenge. Others favor severe justice. Some prefer to cling to their anger and nurse resentments or bigotry. Further, not everyone wants to receive mercy and forgiveness. Some cannot possibly fathom why anyone would need to forgive them since they are right! Recall the second son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Instead of entering the feast at the pleading of his father, he refuses to enter because that wretched brother of his is in there. He will not forgive or love his brother as the father does. In so doing, he excludes himself from the feast. Despite his father’s pleading, he will not enter through forgiveness and mercy. The feast is not a feast at all for him. Similarly, Heaven will not be “heaven” for those who refuse the grace to forgive and love their enemies and those who have harmed them.
2. The Kingdom of God is about chastity. God is very clear with us that His Kingdom values chastity. For the unmarried, this means no genital sexual contact. For the married, this means complete fidelity to each other. Further, things such as pornography, lewd conduct, and immodesty are excluded from the Kingdom. Many people today do not prefer chastity. They would rather be unchaste and immodest. Many celebrate fornication and homosexual acts as a kind of liberation from “repressive” norms. Many people like to consume pornography and do not want to limit their sexual conduct. It is one thing to fail in some of these matters through weakness, but it is quite another to insist that there is nothing wrong with such behavior.
3. The Kingdom of God is about Liturgy. All of the descriptions of Heaven emphasize liturgy. There are hymns being sung. There is the praise of God. There is standing, sitting, and prostrating at certain times. There are candles, incense, and long robes. There is a scroll or book that is opened, read, and appreciated. There is the Lamb on a throne-like altar. It’s all very much like the Mass—but many are not interested in things like the They stay away because the say it’s “boring.” Perhaps they don’t like the hymns and all the praise. Perhaps the scroll (the Lectionary) and its contents do not interest them or agree with their moral preferences. Having God at the center rather than themselves is unappealing.

The point is this: If Heaven isn’t just of our own design; if Heaven—the real Kingdom of God—is about these things, then doesn’t it seem clear that there actually are many who don’t want to go to Heaven? You see, everyone wants to go to a “heaven” of their own design, but not everyone wants to live in the real Kingdom of Heaven. God will not force any one to live in Heaven if he doesn’t want to live there. He will not force anyone to love Him or what He loves or whom He loves. We are free to choose His Kingdom or not.

Perhaps a brief story will illustrate my point:

I once knew a woman in one of my parishes who in many ways was very devout. She went to daily Mass and prayed the rosary on most days. There was one thing about her, however, that was very troubling: she couldn’t stand African-Americans.

She would often comment to me, “I can’t stand Black people! They’re moving into this neighborhood and ruining everything! I wish they’d go away.” I remember scolding her a number of times for this sort of talk, but it seemed to have seeming effect.

One day I decided to try to make it more clear: “You know you don’t really want to go to Heaven,” I challenged.

“Of course I do, Father,” she replied. “God and the Blessed Mother are there; I want to go.”

“No, you won’t be happy there,” I responded.

“Why?” she asked, “What are you talking about, Father?”

“Well you see there are Black people in Heaven and you’ve said that you can’t stand to be around them, so I’m afraid you wouldn’t be happy there. God won’t force you to live in Heaven if you won’t be happy there. That’s why I think that you don’t really want to go to Heaven.”

I think she got the message because I noticed that her attitude started to improve.

That’s just it, isn’t it? God will not force us to live in the Kingdom if we really don’t want it or like what that Kingdom is. We can’t just invent our own “heaven.” Heaven is a real place. It has contours and realities of its own that we can’t just brush aside. Either we accept Heaven as it is or we ipso facto choose to live apart from it and God. So, Hell has to be. It is not a pleasant place, but I suppose the saddest thing about the souls in Hell is that they wouldn’t be happy in Heaven anyway. It’s a tragic plight, not to be happy anywhere.

Understand this, too: God has not utterly rejected even the souls in Hell. Somehow, He still provides for their basic needs. They continue to exist and thus God continues to sustain them with whatever is required for that existence. He does not annihilate them or snuff them out.

God respects their wish to live apart from the Kingdom and its values. He loves them but respects their choice.

Why is Hell eternal? Here I think we encounter a mystery about ourselves. God seems to be teaching us that there comes a day when our decisions are fixed forever. In this world we always have the possibility of changing our mind so the idea of a permanent decision seems strange to us. Those of us who are older can testify that as we age we get more and more set in our ways; it’s harder and harder to change. Perhaps this is a little foretaste of a time when our decisions will be forever fixed and we will never change. The Fathers of the Church used an image of pottery to teach on this. Think of wet clay on a potter’s wheel. As long as the clay is moist and still on the wheel it can be shaped and reshaped, but once it is put in the kiln, in the fire, its shape is fixed forever. So it is with us that when we appear before God, who is a Holy Fire, our fundamental shape will be forever fixed, our decisions will be final. This is mysterious to us and we only sense it vaguely, but because Heaven and Hell are eternal, it seems that this forever-fixed state is in our future.

This is the best I can do on a difficult topic: Hell has to be. It’s about God’s respect for us. It’s about our freedom and summons to love. It’s about the real Heaven. It’s about what we really want in the end. We know what God wants: to save us. The real judgment in question is what we want.

[Elsie]

1. Jesus taught that Gehenna was escapable...

Somehow; this rich man didn't get the message...

 

Luke 16:19-31

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

[Salvation]

*8Jesus didn’t teach anything on hell.**

This is a mistaken idea.

The word, hell, (or another word that means hell) is in the Bible more than the word, heaven, is.

Check it out:

hell, netherworld, underworld, Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, place of darkness, etc.

[Salvation]

Thanks for that verse, Elsie.

[Salvation]

Another good story.

[editor-surveyor]

.
All we need is the word of God.

Hell is!
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
God is eternal, but so is the bride of Yeshua!

(and so is the punishment of Yeshua’s enemies; the Bible tells me so!)
.

[FNU LNU]

That’s my point. Reputable translations don’t translate Sheol, Tartarus, or Hades as hell.

[FNU LNU]

Elsie, Lk. 16 doesn’t have Gehenna in it, but Hades, and they’re not the same.

[Salvation]

Nevertheless they are the places of forgotten souls doomed for eternity to darkness.

We need to think like God thinks here....not how we as humans tend to think.

[Salvation]

From the Catholic Dictionary:

HADES

Definition

In Greek religion the god of the underworld; consequently the kingdom ruled over by Hades, or the abode of the dead. In the Bible the Greek translation of the Hebrew sheol, also meaning the abode of the dead, or death, or the power of destruction, or the place of the wicked after death. (Etym. Greek Haid_s, the nether world.)

[FNU LNU]

.” In all of the Gehenna passages taken together, the only people on the planet threatened with Gehenna were Judean Jews in Jesus’ generation. No one else; not folks in Asia Minor, nor Americans in our time, were ever threatened with Gehenna.

He warned them to flee Jerusalem to the mountains! Our Lord told them to escape, and the faithful Jews did! Escape from Gehenna was possible! Thus, in Matthew 23:33-36, Jesus warned the Jews that their very generation (and no other) was headed for the judgment in Gehenna, and in 24:34, He said it would occur in His generation (not in any other). He warned them (not us) in 24:15-16 to watch for the sign of His coming, and flee to the mountains. In Luke 21:26, Luke’s account of the same discourse, Jesus warned: “But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass” (Luke 21:26).

[FNU LNU]

I’m sorry, but that’s just not true. I’m aware that the Roman Catholic church translates them all with hell, but that’s just an assumption.

[Mark17]

Matter 25:18. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
I interpret “everlasting,” to mean everlasting. It will exist eternally. One can spend one hundred trillion eons in the lake of fire, and come no closer to having his sins burned away, than if he had only been there for 5 minutes. People are dying every moment of every day, and (my own guess) possibly 95% of the world’s population will fall like snow ❄️ flakes into the lake of fire. There will be no escape, not now, not ever.
Now, the key is, to avoid the place. This is where we have differences of opinions, on how to accomplish that, but there is no place worse than the lake of fire, so it would behoove people to find out what the Lord says, about avoiding the place. 🔥

[5cents]

Eternity and eternal are not Greek concepts. That was not known at the time of Christ. Such a philosophy, Platonic in origin, was foreign to humanity at that time. Research the origin of those Latin words, eternal and its variations, and you will find they additions to the word of God.

The original Writings, where we get our bible translations from, do not contain any word that warrants being translated as “Eternal” You err considerably by failing to know Greek and the what the Greek word aionios means.

Also, assigning the English word ‘hell” to the Vale of Hinom (Gehenna), and with two radically different words, Tatarus and sheol, is a great error that should be refuted in all cases where they arise in conversation.

The Scriptures do not support your proposal, seriously. God chose the Greek language to express and reveal Himself. Therefore, consider that carefully. He did not use the mongrel English language for a reason.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the quote from Matthew.

[metmom]

It’s not eternal as it was created so has a beginning.

It can have no end, but it still isn’t eternal.

[metmom]

Sin cannot be burned away.

Sin must be cleansed from the soul before death and the only thing that does it is the blood of Jesus Christ. It must be forgiven by God. It cannot be eradicated in any other way.

Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

[aspasia]

Good job. A+ answer.

[metmom]

Thank you.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

[Mark17]

Thanks for the quote from Matthew.

You are quite welcome Sal. I am utterly amazed at some of the stuff I am reading here. Things like getting sins burned away. I don’t buy it. MM is right. The ONLY way, on God’s green earth, to have one’s sins “ burned away,” if someone wants to use that term, is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There simply is NO OTHER WAY.
Sal, I saw your definition of Sheol, and Hades. I think I agree. They mean the same thing it’s just one is Hebrew, and one is Greek, but mean the realm of the unsaved, spiritually dead souls of the wicked. Here is my opinion. I tend to think that the only difference between Hades and the Lake of Fire, is that Hades is temporary, but the Lake of Fire is permanent. Sal, I think we have discussed this before, that people are dying, every second of every day, and the vast majority of the people dying, fall like snow flakes into a Christless eternity, into hell fire and brimstone, from which there is NO escape, ever. The reason the Lake of Fire continues, is because, in Hell, sinners continue to sin. They don’t become better, they become worse. Just how much sinners in Hell, will be permitted to sin, is not clear, nor do I think it is important. What IS important, is telling people how they can avoid becoming a statistic, and assure their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Make sense?