Posted on 02/09/2014 7:01:10 AM PST by Kaslin
Last Sunday, as most of you know, the Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a heroin overdose. Strewn about the millionaire’s abode were sixty bags of un-used smack along with five empty/used bags of the “Ace of Spades”. According to the reports, those who discovered the dead thespian said he was found deceased with a needle in his arm. Not a pretty picture.
Later that same night, as the news channels began to report on Hoffman’s death, the various talking heads began to wax eloquently about how he was a great actor, a normal guy, who rode his bike around the neighborhood, loved his children and was an all-around good dude who was now “resting in peace.”
This left me thinking, “What the hell ever happened to hell?”
Did it get shut down?
Did I miss a Facebook alert about its closing?
Did it get defunded like ACORN?
Did Obamanomics also accelerate its demise?
I wonder this because I don’t hear much about the netherworld or the Prince of Darkness anymore and it appears as if, at least according to E! News, you can believe and do whatever the heck you want nowadays and upon your seedy expiration – boom! – you’re in heaven playing a harp, walking around in a white peignoir, sitting on a cloud, eatin’ ice cream with Jesus.
As a former self-destructive, narcissistic drug addict, my carnal man wishes it had that option available thirty-plus years ago, back when I was a hellion, because I never would’ve repented and started following Christ’s lead. Because, you know, he can be a real cosmic killjoy to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life; and what druggie doesn’t want to have his coke and snort it, too?
Just think about it. What a wonderfully convenient and fleshily appealing notion. Heaven without desisting from or believing anything!
Check it out, according to the glitterati …
- I can go to heaven without faith in Christ’s sacrifice
- With zero desire to follow God’s edicts
- I can screw everything that’ll hold still
- Shoot heroin
- Snort coke
- Fuel the nasty, despicable, murderous drug trade with my money
- Utterly wreck my parents', spouse's and kids' lives pretty much forever
And when I die during an O.D. of frickin’ heroin, when I come to, I will be rocking up instantly to the same place Mother Theresa calls home. Yahtzee! What a deal. Shoot, that’s better than the Toyota Sale-A-Thon.
Unfortunately for my flesh, back when I was a user the only option available for me to pull my head out of my backside and to bank eternal security entailed my putting my trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross and doing a 180 away from all the things that caused him and humanity pain. As stated, there was not the option of doing whatever I wanted and still entertaining a hope of heaven when I was to take the big dirt nap.
However, as seen with the Hoffman situation, it’s now being afforded to us especially if you’ve won an Oscar or a Grammy. Or if you’re a fashion designer. Or any other BS profession that entertainment lackeys drool over. To them, if you dazzled us on the silver screen, the small screen or via the stage … then hallelujah, God loves you and abracadabra … you’re in.
Does it not strike any of you as strange that playmates, reality stars, rock stars, godless actors, mean old aunts and uncles who openly defied God and all that is holy, just and good are instantly sanctified once they die and they’re heading for the same place Billy Graham is?
That’s cuckoo talk to me. But if you’re comfortable with it, good luck. That’s definitely not a dice roll I’d bet on. But then again I could be wrong and the CNN entertainment reporter could be right.
Old Russian folk tale which I also remember being the stone soup story although I may be getting them confused. Bitter old woman in a poor village, never did a decent thing in her life, recluse, miser. During a time of famine, a man goes out in the square in the dark and the cold and starts boiling water with a stone in it. Pretty soon people creep out of their huts (think the village in Babette’s Feast). They put maybe a mutton bone, or an old dried up potato or a pinch of salt. Finally the old woman comes out and begrudgingly throws an old dried up onion in there. The village had a big pot of soup to share. A few days later the old woman dies (not from eating the soup we hope) and as her soul is rocketing down to hell, she sees the stem of that onion and she grabs on to it and wow, gets up to heaven. Understand, even purgatory is heaven in a way because there is still a way to heaven. This is an old folk tale but I profoundly believe in hell but I also believe in God’s mercy. The Church can definitely say whether someone is a saint. She cannot definitely say whether someone went to hell. OK, maybe back in the old days a person wouldn’t be buried in hallowed ground if he/she committed suicide (read Hamlet) but it was not an official pronouncement of hell.
Also I’m an 8 year veteran of Al-Anon and I will tell you that it’s certainly not my job to judge this man. Thank God and I totally mean that respectfully.
Yep, because this example could also expand to alcoholics or anyone else with a substance abuse problem.
I have not one iota of a clue who this dude is who cared more about getting off than about his family and no, he doesn’t get a pass for entertaining us
Oh you must be part of this recent “don’t judge me” trend, good luck with that
no, you can tell what is in their hearts by the fruit of their actions
I think everyone who says, ‘You’re going to Hell!’ is going to get a little taste of it themselves.
“.. this example could also expand to alcoholics ... substance abuse problem”.
You are right and I will give a personal example. My late Uncle was very young when he was drafted in WWII. Some years later, he returned home an alcoholic. He remained an alcoholic until his death. My Father and brothers never turned their backs on him and to be honest.. he was the kindest, funniest yet haunted individual you would ever want to meet. I don’t know what he endured there because it was always spoken about in “hushed” words. Is he in hell? Will the homeless man/woman living on the streets addicted to alcohol/drugs also end up there? I don’t know but I pray not. I see a huge difference in hurting yourself vs hurting another individual. God is the ultimate judge and if you think about it.. that’s the way it should be. Only He knows what went on in someone’s life and if they are worthy of everlasting life. Only He knows our struggles mentally and physically. Only He can condemn. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.
This is a keeper.
Does that include Elijah and the prophets? You are not right in your silliness
it is not the substance abuse per se that is the sin, the sin is in ignoring your children, being selfish and not putting your family ahead of your own needs, being part of a fiendish “entertainment” system that promotes evil, screwing everything that moves, now do you see the difference?
someone who is a harmless old drunk is not sinning in my book
LOL, sent that one to my son who plays among other instruments, the banjo. The other Gary Larson cartoon that applies to him is the one where the guy is walking through hell pushing a wheel barrow and whistling. One demon says to the other, “I just don’t think we’re getting through to him.”
Your's is a good theme, but the different one. This is more along the lines of don't be deceived, certain people don't inherit. The effeminate won't inherit, so maybe the rockers get a pass?
Substance abuse hurts everyone around the person. I agree. You and I are going to have to agree to disagree with respect to addiction. You see it as a choice and I see it as a disease. “Not putting your family ahead of your own needs”.. can include everyone from the career military man to the workaholic. Please NOTE: I am only stating that we cannot judge if a person enters heaven or not. Only God can do that. Only He truly knows the entire aspect of a person and his/her soul.
Yep, that must be it.
Please explain the silliness. My original point was that most who say another is going to Hell, is going to Hell oneself.
Of course this is the ultimate destination of liberal Protestantism.
As theologian Richard Niebuhr put it when speaking about the church in America, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
IOW, if hell makes the pew sitters uncomfortable, just don't mention it anymore.
That's sort of like, we can't give people speeding tickets--only police can do that.
We really do not know where the man ended up. The thief on the cross had a last minute repentance and conversion, and Seymour may have also. With a name like Seymour, God knows he probably had lost and messed up parents!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.