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The Reality of  Hell
Kathy Bernard - Publisher

"And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth." -
Matthew 13:42:



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Today hell seems to be soft-pedaled, a back of the mind thing we do not want to think or talk about.  It is not often addressed in church these days, yet it is the boogey man who hides in the closet of our minds, coming to the forefront whenever we are forced to take a good look at it.  And if we look too close, some of us may find ourselves looking squarely at how we may be living our lives contrary to what God teaches. 

If God loves us so much, many ask, why does He send people to hell?"  

God does not send anyone to hell.   God gives us a choice.  It is we who send ourselves there using the free will that God gave us.  We turn our backs on His priceless gift of eternity and instead choose to make our own laws and rules.  We can decide to accept or reject His Son, Jesus Christ, Who offers to pay for our salvation and avoid hell.    Sadly many of us choose to indulge ourselves with things we know goes against God's teaching.  And we change anything that does not fit in with the lifestyles we have chosen.   

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who refuse to believe, where both soul and body can be lost. But Jesus solemnly proclaims that He "will send His angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire", and that He will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" 

Matthew 13:36-43 tells of a separation of those who are destined for heaven and those who will be sent to an eternal hell. “Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, 'Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field’ Jesus replied, ‘The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send His angels and they will remove from His Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!"

In an article entitled  "THE HELL THERE IS"  Catholic Answers has this to say:    "The doctrine of hell is so frightening that numerous heretical sects end up denying the reality of an eternal hell. The Unitarian-Universalists, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christadelphians, the Christian Scientists, the Religious Scientists, the New Agers, and the Mormons—all have rejected or modified the doctrine of hell so radically that it is no longer a serious threat. In recent decades, this decay has even invaded mainstream Evangelicalism, and a number of major Evangelical figures have advocated the view that there is no eternal hell—the wicked will simply be annihilated. But the eternal nature of hell is often stressed in the New Testament.  For example, in Mark 9:47–48 Jesus warns us, "It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." And in Revelation 14:11, we read: "And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.  Hell is not just a theoretical possibility. Jesus warns us that real people go there. He says, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matt. 7:13–14).   The Hell There Is! | Catholic Answers

Pope John Paul II wrote, in his 1994 book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" that too often "preachers, catechists, teachers no longer have the courage to preach the threat of hell" (p. 183)... "In point of fact, the ancient councils rejected the theory . But In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks clearly of those who will go to eternal punishment (cf. Matt. 25:46). [But] who will these be? The Church has never made any pronouncement in this regard." (Pages 183-186)  

It seems today we have a modern adaptation of that place called Hell. We have renamed, redefined, and packaged it to suit our sense of propriety, thus sparing our delicate senses.  It has been labeled in such acceptable terms it leads us to believe if we do go there it really might not be all that bad. And the roads pointing to Hell have been made extremely attractive enough that we are inclined to take chances hoping we will be able at some point to repair the damage to our souls in the time left to us. But, you see, time is not promised to anyone.  And heads of church speaking on the issue of Hell may say it is not necessarily a place but a state of mind or better yet do not even discuss it unless pressed. 

Fr. Marcel Nault (1927-1997), speaking at the Fatima Bishops Conference relates, "I preach often on Hell. My friends, you have received your catechism, you have received your gifts from God. For me, Jesus wants me, Jesus asks me, Jesus begs me, Our Lady of Fatima begs me to preach Hell. There are many revelations that we can read in the holy books and some souls in Hell have spoken, given the privilege by God, to help us in our faith. And those souls in Hell say, "We could accept to be in Hell a thousand years. We could accept to be in Hell a million years, if we knew that one day we would leave Hell."

Fr. Nault continues, "But no, my friends, we must meditate, not only on the pre-destination of seeing God in Heaven, we must also meditate on the eternity of Hell. I heard a priest in the charismatic conference with about 10,000 lay people and 300 priests present.  He was preaching, "My friends, God is love, God is mercy and you will see His Infinite Mercy at the end of the world, delivering souls from Hell.  What heresy! Yet his bishop did not remove his faculties, and he was allowed to continue to preach such heresy.  With our little human intelligence we make a little "philosophic reasoning"........"    How many times have you heard that hypocrisy?  My friends, Hell exists.  Hell is eternal. I can go into Hell.  You can go into Hell.   And if God had called me to my eternal reward some years ago, I would have gone to Hell for all eternity, weeping, crying.  Not for a million years, not for a thousand million years, but for eternity.  I preach to bishops like I preach to everyone because bishops too have a soul to be saved."  The Lord Jesus has chosen us among men to make us priests for one reason, to offer sacrifice to the Almighty Father and save souls from Hell.  When I preach at parish retreats, I always end with the preaching on Hell.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Father Marcel Nault was ordained March 4, 1962, Father Marcel was a Confessor and Spiritual Director of Our Lady of Fatima Apostolate.  He was a retired priest of the diocese of Sault St. Marie, Ontario.

Father Robert Barron, on the subject of hell, has this to say in part: "Time and again, as I go about the work of evangelization, I encounter from both believers and non-believers, a fierce objection to the doctrine of Hell. In its most radical form, it runs something like this: how could a God who is described as infinitely good create, sustain, and send people to a place of everlasting torment? Many people have directed my attention to a video done some years ago by the comedian George Carlin, a former Catholic. In front of a deeply sympathetic audience, Carlin exposes what he takes to be the silly inconsistency of Catholic belief: “for one mortal sin (usually having to do with sex), God will condemn you to a place where you will suffer forever in unbearable pain…but yet,” the comedian goes on in a mocking voice, “He looooves you!” Judging from their hysterical reaction, the audience can’t get enough of this. One wonders whether Carlin doesn’t have a point. Perhaps we ought simply to jettison this horrifying and apparently illogical doctrine, this superstitious holdover from a primitive time.

"Well," Father Barron tells, "I would suggest, not so fast. It might be wise to note first that Hell is hardly an ecclesiastical invention of the middle ages. In point of fact, “Gehenna” and the “everlasting fire” are mentioned frequently by Jesus himself, and the existence of Hell is confirmed by our greatest theologians and spiritual teachers from ancient times to the present day. And one can find a pithy defense of the doctrine in the Catechism of the Catholic Church from 1992. The belief is so persistent, I would argue, because it is a corollary of two other essential beliefs, namely, that God is love and that we are free. Let me say a word about each of these. For Catholic theology, love is not something that God does or one attribute among many that God happens to have. Rather, love is what God is. To will the good of the other as other is the very nature, substance, and essence of God. Accordingly, God doesn’t love some and hate others; He doesn’t fall in and out of emotional states, sometimes loving and sometimes hating. To use Jesus’ own metaphor, He is like the sun that shines on the good and the bad alike. God doesn’t love us because we’ve been morally upright; rather, whatever moral goodness we have is the result of God having loved us. This is the principle, basic to all Biblical thought, of the primacy of grace. To read this in full:
Fr. Robert Barron's Word On Fire - What the Hell? (I'm Kidding on the Title)   See also Father Robert Barron's video on Hell:  Fr. Barron comments on Hell - YouTube .

Theologians have wrestled with the interpretation of Hell for centuries.  The Bible is very specific in telling us if we choose to make our own laws and live our lives in mortal sin without seeking God’s forgiveness for our actions we will be sentenced to Hell for eternity.  God does not want this calamity to befall any of us but chooses to give us an alternative, a way to gain perfect existence forever. The only answer being Jesus Christ Who says in John 14:6, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one gets to the Father except through ME."  Read also 1 Timothy 2:5-6, "For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.  He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.  This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time."

 

"And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to
enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have
two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the maggots
never die and the fire never goes out.
- Mark 9:47-48

 

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