Pope says hell and damnation are real and eternal

The Australian ^ | March 28, 2007 | By Richard Owen in Rome

[MarkBsnr]

HELL is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, Pope Benedict XVI has said. Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, the Pope said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to "admit blame and promise to sin no more", they risked "eternal damnation - the inferno". Hell "really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more". The Pope, who as cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic doctrine, noted that "forgiveness of sins" for those who repented was a cornerstone of Christian belief. He recalled that Jesus had forgiven the "woman taken in adultery" and prevented her from being stoned to death, observing: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation...the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind". Vatican officials said the Pope - who is also the Bishop of Rome - had been speaking in "straightforward" language "like a parish priest". He had wanted to reinforce the new Catholic catechism, which holds that hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically". Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian, said the Pope was "right to remind us that hell is not something to be put on one side" as an inconvenient or embarrassing aspect of belief. It was described by St Matthew as a place of "everlasting fire" (Matthew xxv, 41).

[MarkBsnr]

Lest we lose sight of the goal.

[ClearCase_guy]

The media seems to think it's news when the Pope says he believes the Bible.

[theDentist]

In their iopinion, it's quaint.

[betsyross1776]

Any Christian that does not believe that there is a hell and that you will be punished for evil on this earth ,does not believe in the Christian faith.All the pope is doing here is warning what will happen to us if we do not repent for our sins. If you believe there is nothing else after death , sorry you are dead wrong. I wish more people would read what the pope has just said and consider the consequences.Peace with God or the fires of Hell.If more people believed i Hell maybe it would be a better world. Don't forget evil exists so we may be the better of it.

[kosta50]

HELL is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire

Hell is a place?

[MarkBsnr]

Hmm. Good point.

I'm going to have to look at his actual speech.

[Alex Murphy]

Hell is a place?

Pretty sure the Pope isn't espousing Annihilationism. What else do you envision Hell being, besides a "place"?

[MHGinTN]

I find it amusing that many folks who poopoo the notion of Hell are usually familiar with the nature of black holes ... where time is stretched into infinity at the horizon of a star (hot, don'tchaknow) with such powerful gravity that even light will not escape it, where being inside would allow viewing of what is outside but outside cannot see inside.

[kosta50]

I find it amusing that many folks who poopoo the notion of Hell are usually familiar with the nature of black holes

Then we should speak of Hells, not Hell, and acknowledge that there must be billions of places that qualify as "hell."

Your theory would make Hell(s) temporary, as black holes are not permanent, eternal structures in the created finite, universe.

You treat spiritual separation from God as a physical "place" where God isn't, and subject that which is spiritual (i.e. love) to gravitational laws!spiritual!

[MHGinTN]

?

[kosta50]

What else do you envision Hell being, besides a "place"?

If Hell is a "place" then it is part of a created universe where God is not!

Besides, God did create hell (eternal lake of fire) -- for the devil and his angels, who are noëtic beings without a body.

What would real fire and a real lake do to evil spirits? Why would there be a physical place for spiritual beings? Why would there be "real" (material) fire for that which is not material?

[kosta50]

"?"

Which part don't you understand?

[MHGinTN]

Understand? I didn't missunderstand, I was questioning your projection of so much motive.

[ArrogantBustard]

What do you mean by "place"?

Seriously ... Do you think Heaven and Hell exist in space and time, the same as (let us say) Chicago? Do the terms of physical the physical realm really apply to the spiritual realm?

[kosta50]

I'm going to have to look at his actual speech.

Here is an article that makes it clear it is not a Catholic or Orthodox doctrine to consider hell a "place." From the source:

A FEW YEARS ago the Catholic Church modernized its teaching on eternal damnation when John Paul II rejected the idea of hell as a physical place. Instead, preached the pope, "Hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy. [It is] a condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life." As for eternal damnation, he said those who freely choose separation from God have their choice "confirmed with death and seal that choice forever."

[kosta50]

I was questioning your projection of so much motive

My motive? I was responding to this ridiculous association of yours that somehow hell is a 'place' identical with a black hole.

[kosta50]

Seriously ... Do you think Heaven and Hell exist in space and time, the same as (let us say) Chicago?

My point exactly.

[MarkBsnr]

"Hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy. [It is] a condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life."

Nicely put. I wonder what the New Testament free thinker types would make of this.

[Rutles4Ever]

HELL is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire

This is a poorly written, fallacious opening sentence. In fact, it's contradicted by the pope later on in the text. He says that hell is not a literal "place", but a state of existence in which man is totally and eternally seperated from God. He also doesn't say that they physically "burn" there, either. The author of this article is a moron.

[kosta50]

The author of this article is a moron

I couldn't agree more.