The fires of Hell are real and eternal, Pope warns

The Times (UK) ^ | March 27, 2007 | Richard Owen

[Mount Athos]

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.

Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI 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”, he said.

The Pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic doctrine, noted that “forgiveness of sins” for those who repent 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 that the Pope — who is also the Bishop of Rome — had been speaking in “straightfoward” 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 that 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 had been misused in the Middle Ages to scare the impressionable with “horrific visions” of damnation, as described in Dante’s Inferno.

It had a pedigree, however, that went back to Ancient Egypt and the Greek idea of Hades, and was described by St Matthew as a place of “everlasting fire” (Matthew xxv, 41).

“The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a Hell on Earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife,” Professor Bagliani said.

In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared that Heaven was “neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God which is the goal of human life.” Hell, by contrast, was “the ultimate consequence of sin itself . . . Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”.

In October the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a “halfway house” between Heaven and Hell, inhabited by unbaptised infants and holy men and women who lived before Christ, was “only a theological hypothesis” and not a “definitive truth of the faith”.

Timely visions

— “Outer darkness . . . there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” St Matthew

[PigRigger]

"Yeah, but the thief didn't commit any further sins"

It does not matter whether he sinned thereafter, as it does not matter to my ebing worthy of salvation through Christ.

What matters is that we accept and acknowledge we are imperfect and do not deserve to be with God....and that we cast all of our sins on to the innocent lamb who suffered for them and claimed our salvation....Christ...

Will we sin again...yes, because we are imperfect creatures...will we be forgiven....most definitely yes if we believe in our hearts and minds that Christ, through God's grace, is our salvation....

Faith, through Christ, will hopefully help us to live a better and more acceptable life....but it is a fallacy to believe we will be perfect in that attempt....

The degree to which one can live that life differs from person to person....but in the end it is unimportant....the degree to which we believe in our hearts that He is our Lord and Savior is what separates us from true death....a complete separation from God....

[PigRigger]

"It is either the statement of a bonafide lunatic or God himself in human form."

Spot on....

[null and void]

It does not matter whether he sinned thereafter, as it does not matter to my being worthy of salvation through Christ.

So from what you've said, an ax murderer who accepts Christ as his personal savior is free to continue chopping up babies? He has a get out of Hell free card, no matter how foul a life he leads after his salvation?

I find that incompatible with anything I recognize as moral.

[Marysecretary]

If you have Christ in your life as your Lord and Savior, don't worry about hell. Heaven is your destination. We're all sinners saved by God's grace, Riverman. When you repent and ask for God's forgiveness, it's like a clean slate. Of course, if you keep doing the same old sin, you need to stop and He can help you do that as well. Your past is just that, PAST. Enjoy today and don't worry about tomorrow. We spend way too much time in guilt and shame for what we've done (I've done some of that stuff, too, Riverman) when God wants us to live for Him NOW. We don't know what tomorrow will bring so let's enjoy today. Love, Maryxxx

[Bob J]

Actually it means being free from sin.

[Marysecretary]

Get the book 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese. It's a fascinating account of hell. I hope you get it, mugs. Hell IS real.

[Marysecretary]

There's another book I can recommend to you. I believe it's called 90 Minutes in Heaven, written by another author different from the 23 Minutes in Hell book. They're both eye openers.

[Bob J]

Well it's interesting hell is never mentioned in the Old Testament, not even Jesus mentions it. Jesus only talked of heaven.

Seems to only have come up after Jesus died.

[Riverman94610]

I feel you,Mary.
And,yes,I let those sins I mentioned go.I feel a lot better in doing so physically,mentally and spiritually.
Doesn't mean I can't do BETTER and work on myself a little more every day.Perfection is something I will never achieve but will always strive for.
Give God all the thanks,however.Thats where I'm coming from.

[Marysecretary]

Well, I won't argue with you over a mystery none of us will ever solve, mugs.

[Bob J]

I guess you're planning on being there. Ain't no email in heaven.

[Bob J]

I'm going to pick on you some since you responded to me.

Are you telling me the only reason you're "good" or try to lead a admirable life is because if you don't you'll be thrown into a fiery hell for all eternity? Rather a selfish reason to be good, isn't it?

What happened to doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do? This is why I say only children could believe in hell because only a childish mentality could accept it is the compelling reason for being "good".

[Bob J]

In other words, an adult can comprehend the concept of a higher good, whereas children cannot. Therefore, the concept of hell is introduced for those with a childish mentality. So, would you rather be treated as an adult with free will who can think for themselves and make adult decisions about what is right and what is wrong...or would you rather be treated as a child who must be threatened with severe punishment in order to keep their hands out of the cookie jar?

[mad_as_he$$]

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term.


The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :


Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the
different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because
Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

[Bob J]

One more extension...

I think, therefore there is no hell.

[Bob J]

An urban legend.

[mad_as_he$$]

Yup, but a good one!

[BnBlFlag]

This Pope will make a good Baptist yet!

[armydoc]

not even Jesus mentions it

Curious how you would interpret Mark 9:43-48, Bob.

[mugs99]

Get the book 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese. It's a fascinating account of hell. I hope you get it, mugs. Hell IS real.

I already know about Bill and his books. He's big on Art Bell. That out of body travel stuff is great entertainment!

Well, I won't argue with you over a mystery none of us will ever solve, mugs.

And a grand mystery it is!
.