Posted on 12/03/2005 11:41:20 PM PST by WKB
THE Devil's work is far from done. More than a third of Scotland's clergy still believe in the literal existence of Hell as a place, according to a new survey.
Hell has not got any less hellish over the centuries either. The ministers, from a wide range of denominations, are convinced that lost souls will still suffer eternal mental anguish after death.
Hardliners hold out the prospect of eternal physical punishment as an added part of the package for the condemned. Judgment Day, whether it ends in being sent to Hell or not, is also a strong belief, the survey found, with more than half of Scottish ministers in no doubt that humanity is divided into the saved and the damned after they depart the ranks of the mortal.
Your personal chances of being sent to either Heaven or Hell, however, could depend on where you live. Ministers who believe in an eternal mental and physical torment are much thicker on the ground in the Highlands and Islands and on the west coast of the mainland.
Far fewer ministers in the east and south of Scotland are convinced that their parishioners will suffer a fiery fate being lashed by Satanic demons.
The survey, 'Hell in Scotland: A Survey of Where the Nation's Clergy Think Some Might Be Heading', was conducted by Dr Eric Stoddart, a lecturer in practical theology at St Andrews University.
The divinity scholar canvassed the views of 750 clergy from the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist and Scottish Episcopalian churches, as well as other Presbyterians and the Salvation Army, to find out what constituted a modern Hell.
Stoddart said: "The fire and brimstone may largely have been extinguished but the beliefs that many Scottish clergy hold concerning the potential horrors that await "the lost" continue to be dark and forbidding. All will not be well, if the majority of Scotland's clergy are to be believed."
Throughout the history of many religions, the concept of a fiery Hell has been used to frighten populations away from sinning. The reward for a morally good life - and those who repented before death - was a place in Heaven alongside your God, while those who sinned without remorse were destined to descend into the Devils's domain.
The concept of Hell as a literal place has declined in an increasingly secular world. But what surprised Stoddart is that "there is a solid number of Scottish ministers who still believe in eternal torment.
"There are those who maintain that Hell is something that should have gone away with the thinking that the Earth was flat, but it clearly hasn't," he said.
"I can understand that after death there might be some who think there are others who won't get into Heaven. They just won't exist. But for others to think there is really mental and physical torment came as a shock to me."
Belief in Hell appears to follow strict geographical boundaries. According to the survey, 37% of ministers in the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland are convinced the "lost" will go to Hell, with Strathclyde not far behind with 33%. This compares with 15% in the Lothians and Central regions, 9% in Grampian, Tayside and Fife, and just 6% in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders.
"You are going to get more Hell belief in the Western Isles because of the strong presence of Presbyterian groups like the Free Church of Scotland," Stoddart said.
"Also, the west coast has a stronger Catholic presence as well as more conservative Baptist and other Protestant groups. By contrast, the east coast appears to be less Hell-fearing than the west."
Social commentators said the continuing strength of the literal belief among ministers in modern Scotland reflected the rise of religious fundamentalism across the world.
Rev Professor George Newlands, head of the Kirk's School of Divinity in Glasgow, said: "It is no surprise that there remains such a strong belief in Hell, because all over the world, religions are tending to become more fundamentalist and moving towards a kind of literalism. On many religious issues, there is a more literal interpretation of scriptures in the west than in the east, which corresponds to the north-south divide in the US."
Historian Michael Fry said the remaining fundamentalist areas which still believe in Heaven and Hell were a useful mirror image for the rest of modern, materialist Scotland. "It will not alter the fact, however, that most people will make their own moral choices."
A spokesman for the Catholic Church, which last week announced it was to scrap Limbo, the state between Heaven and Hell into which unbaptised babies were dispatched, said: "The Catholic Church affirms the existence of Hell, understood as eternal separation from God. However, the Church has never formally defined who, if anyone, is in Hell."
Stoddart, a former Baptist minister, says he no longer believes in Hell in the sense of a future destination. "But there is still a lot of value in talking about Hell because it allows us to say no to things in a moral sense. It's a way of making a judgment on what is right or wrong."
There was nothing new in what Our Lady had to say in Fatima but the Miracle of the Sun was used to draw attention once again to the truths of the Christian religion - our faith in the blessed Trinity--the God who rewards and punishes, while His mercy is infinite - the reality of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
She allowed the children, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, even though they were only aged seven to ten years old to see a horrifying vision of Hell.
So anyone who doesn't express an explicit belief in god is condemned to an eternity of hideous torture? Man, that god is one sick and twisted dude! He seems to be a very insecure individual as well...
And you seem to be one very lost individual
on the way to the very hell the article is about.
Hell is for people who reject creativity--- who reject, in fact, the source of all Creation. One of the torments there is sure to be: dying perpetually of boredom.
My God is a God of Love.
So is mine but HE is also a Just God.
As the adage says, as long as there is life, there is hope. In fact, I think the poor late Floridian Terri Schindler used to say that before she was stricken (by whom?) in 1990.
Yes, this God of love is so pure that He cannot bear to look upon sin.
Ah! but BLOWY...
What IF!!....
HELL is what some think!..heaven is like..
BUT!! Heaven is so far away better than HELL that its purely unimaginable by humans(heaven),
and MAKES HELL....... HELL in contrast.. to it..
What then Blowster..
BTTT!
Because he possessed some knowledge [what is referred to as "dirt"] about them, I suppose. Also because he probably found "heavenly" types boring. I could easily understand it.
There is a quote by some saint that says that the floors of hell are paved with the skulls of bishops. So I guess that would indicate that no one is exempt. Everyone has as chance at ending up in hell or in heaven.
Can you source these statistic via url?
Here it is:
"The walls of hell are lined with the skulls of bishops."
Saint John of the Cross
Satan is not the ruler of hell. It is his prison.
I don't beleive IN hell and i don't beleive in Satan i beleive hell exists and i beleive Satan exists For Christ has told me he is real.
I beleive in Jesus Christ and i beleive in heaven
You can't have one without the other the one you beleive of is a choice given to you freely and if you choose not to beleive you still have made a choice
Wording of phrases could be just as damning as the phrase itself.
Attributed to St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, and St. John Eudes. Probably all three said it, but I like to give credit to Athanasius because he was the earliest.
Sorry, but no. My god is not a vengeful god.
Remembeer also that God does not "want" anybody to go to hell. But the cruel, the heartless, the corrupt, even if they were given a free pass to heaven, would quickly make a mini-hell around themselves even there.
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