Eternal Hell Dogma is the Ultimate Offspring of the Evil Mind
AN IRREVOCABLE DOGMA
The Catholic Church claims to be infallible when it intends to be and speaks to
the whole Church. Everlasting punishing torment for those who die estranged from
God is a dogma of the faith. Deny it and you deny what God has said through the
Church. Deny it and you deny that the Church is really unable to err in matters
of faith and morals. Deny it and you deny that Catholicism is the true faith and
affirm that it is just a load of human opinion and not a divinely revealed
faith.
Origen felt that the pains of Hell might only be temporary and at least three
synods shot him down for that (page 84, Reason and Belief).
The idea of a Hell that is unlimited in time seems to have been made official in
543 AD. The Synod of Constantinople revealed the doctrine officially.
Lateran IV in 1215 AD infallibly decreed that the wicked “will receive perpetual
punishment with the devil and the others everlasting glory with Christ” (DS 801,
cf. 411).
The Council of Florence in 1442 declared, “The holy Roman Church…firmly
believes, professes and proclaims that none of those outside the Catholic
Church, not Jews, nor heretics, nor schismatics, can participate in eternal
life, but will go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,
unless they are brought into [the Catholic Church] before the end of life” (DS
1351). See also Reason and Belief page 84-85 which adds the information that
this bigotry was also sanctioned and clarified under the authority of Pope
Eugene IV.
Incidentally, modern Rome now teaches that all sincere Jews can be saved. If
Florence taught that then why didn’t it say that if Jews are banned from Heaven
it is only contumacious Jews that are meant. If you teach that only insincere
Jews who secretly believe in Jesus go to Hell, you don’t say that Jews go to
Hell. Florence contradicts modern Catholic doctrine.
Views like this made Romish Christianity the most murderous religion in the
world. If people should be sent to everlasting punishing just because they have
not been made Catholics by pure chance then they are not fit to live. Nobody can
be condemned for killing what is worthless.
Benedict XII in 1336 wrote in his Constitution, Benedictus Deus, “We define that
according to the general disposition of God the souls of those who die in actual
mortal sin go down immediately after death into Hell and are there tormented by
the pains of Hell” (DS 1002).
In 1892 the Inquisition decided under Leo XIII that a priest who refused to
forgive the sins of a penitent who denied that there was real fire in Hell was
right (page 85, Reason and Belief).
God will not make a Hell with fire unless there are people to be put in it. The
Book of Revelation says that there are some beings there. Some liberal
theologians agree but say there is no Bible verse that asks us to believe that
any human being is in Hell. But Jesus did say that some will rise again to be
lost forever. If people to go Hell for neglecting prisoners as Jesus says that
means quite a few will end up there. And Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven
or salvation! He warned about it and said that we must squeeze through the
narrow gate for the road to damnation is wide. If nobody goes to Hell then why
worry about Hell? Why not convert to Judaism if you are a Christian who feels
like a change? If Hell is not a place but a mental state or a state of existing
without God then Hell does not exist and the Bible is wrong to say it does exist
if it is true that nobody goes there. God can't know if Hell is possible if
nobody chooses it or goes there. He can't know who your grandfather would have
married if not your grandmother and that is because your grandfather married
your grandmother.
Most forms of Christianity including the Roman Catholic Church and the
Eastern Orthodox Churches hold that those who die estranged from God will suffer
forever and ever in Hell and there is no hope of release. The Book of Mormon and
the Bible and the Koran teach the same doctrine.
The Catholic Church claims to be infallible when it intends to be and speaks to
the whole Church. Everlasting punishing is a dogma of the faith for it was
revealed through the infallibility mechanism and was made as such as clearly as
possible during the Council of Trent. Deny it and you deny what God has said
through the Church. Deny it and you deny that the Church is really unable to err
in matters of faith and morals. Deny it and you deny that Catholicism is the
true faith. Deny it and you assert that Catholicism is just a load of human
opinion and not a divinely revealed faith.
Because Hell and its everlasting nature is a defined article of the Catholic
faith it is an essential and Radio Replies tells us that whoever knows it is
Catholic doctrine and still denies it has renounced his Catholic faith and
repudiated the teaching authority of the Church and no priest can admit such one
to the sacraments until he fully accepts the doctrine (Question 926, Page 220,
Radio Replies 3, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota,
1942).
The Book of Revelation tells us that the smoke of the torment of those who
commit idolatry will ascend “forever and ever” [eis aioonas aioonoon –
literally, from ages to ages] (14:11). I used to think that it was just saying
that the smoke would rise forever not that they would be tormented forever. The
picture I had was of the smoke rising from the fire they had been destroyed in.
But there would be no point in preserving the smoke if that happened for the
saints cannot sin so the smoke must rise forever because the damned are
tormented forever. When the verse says the smoke of the torture will rise
forever and ever and immediately after that they will be tormented day and night
forever it clearly means that sinners will suffer forever. Put it this way, why
say the smoke of their torment will rise forever when you could say the smoke of
their destruction? Given how hot the fire is we would expect them to be dead
before they can even get near it as they are flung in but they are alive.
Anybody could write a book that would have more right to be considered scripture
than the Book of Revelation so this book has no right to be so brutish and
should be torn out of the Bible.
Jesus predicted that on judgement day all those who were not kind to others
would go into “never-ending punishment [kolasin aioonion]” (Matthew 25:46 – my
version). The Greek word, derived from kolasis which is translated punishment
does not mean annihilation though some say it does. It appears in 1 John 4:18
which says that “fear makes you restrained [or punished]” (my version) and
cannot mean annihilation here – note the present tense. Earlier in the same
sentence, he spoke of “never-ending life [zoozeen aioonion]” meaning everlasting
happiness in Heaven. If the punishment ends so does the life of Heaven so we
ought to take the word never-ending (aioonion) literally. Annihilation is not a
punishment but a kind of reward for there is nothing to dread about ceasing to
exist so it is crazy to suppose that the punishment is cessation of existence.
Annihilation means treating the worst sinner the same as the not-so-bads.
In the gospels, Jesus said hardly anything about what it is like to be saved
after death but said plenty about Hell suggesting that it was such a big danger
that it should be focused on. He was a hell-fire and brimstone preacher.
Jesus will say to the unjust, “Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). The fire puts out of
existence or it torments or both. God would not keep the fire lit after it has
destroyed the wicked and eradicated evil for the saved cannot sin for they are
too happy to and don’t need the reminder. So when Jesus said the fire is
everlasting it must be maintained for the purpose of tormenting sinners. This
sentence was uttered at a most solemn moment so it is absurd to say that Jesus
is speaking in symbols. Can you imagine a judge sentencing a man to death and
saying that he meant he wanted the man put in jail only which he considers to be
a living death? Since God can make virgins have babies without sperm he can make
magic fire and so Jesus should be taken literally for he never indicated that he
should be taken any other way.
Some say there is a contrast between everlasting life and everlasting punishment
meaning that the latter must represent death. But then as now people who had a
hard time of it were said to have no life. That could be the meaning of the
contrast and it probably is for it is more natural to use the word death than
punishment when you mean annihilation. Also it is not necessarily an intended
contrast. If you say John could go to Heaven or Hell that does not necessarily
mean that Heaven and Hell aren’t alike.
When God needs a fire though he can destroy without it we see a hint that the
fire is not just for destruction but for tormenting. Some think the fire was
prepared for the Devil and his angels at the end of the world. They would say
that everlasting punishment because it contrasts with eternal life is
everlasting punishment in the sense that the persons will be put out of
existence forever. But the Devil and his angels don’t have bodies so the fire
must be for tormenting them. God does not need fire especially when it comes to
spirits or beings that have no bodies. The fire is for torment and the
destruction of happiness but not for annihilation or the destruction of personal
entities. It is not fire as we know it but a magic fire and therefore one that
could torment forever. Jesus never said the fire would be made at the end of the
world. When the fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels though it was
known that there were plenty of sinners to go there it implies that its purpose
is tormenting punishment because the meaning must be that the fire was made
before the world began and the Devil and his angels for whom it was prepared
were thrown in and it was made for them at the start for there were no people
made yet which does not exclude God intending to throw any people who were as
bad in later. But since Satan and his angels are alive according to the gospels
it follows that the fire is for torturing.
Paul wrote that if Jesus has not risen from the dead then the dead are lost
forever and Christians are still in their sins meaning that sincerity will not
save so this implies that unless you have the right gospel there is no hope.
This sentences most people, even most Christians, to eternal damnation for
having the wrong beliefs.
Once when he was asked if only a few would be saved, Jesus replied that people
have to strive to get into Heaven and to squeeze through the narrow door (Luke
13:23, 24). He did not say straight out that only a few can expect to be saved
but when he started talking about the need for a struggle and to get in through
a narrow door yes was written all over it. So all do not go to Heaven, namely,
those who don’t strive. He did say then that only a few go to Heaven. When
anybody asks you if your pub can hold many punters and you tell them that they
need to do something hard to get in it is obvious that you are indicating that
it does not. Jesus was doing the same thing here. It is laughable that some
argue that 99 out of hundred would be few to Jesus who wants all to be saved –
meaning that not many doesn’t mean not many here (page 288, Handbook of
Christian Apologetics). But when Jesus was on such a serious subject he was
hardly likely to be unclear and childish. Only a few go to Heaven so the rest
must suffer forever. If he had been talking to himself saying so few will be
saved we might believe the laughable interpretation of this but when he said it
to others who would have taken him to mean few in the real sense that is what he
meant. If sincerity could save most would be saved.
The text that it is not easy getting through the narrow door of Heaven can be linked to where Jesus said nobody is really good but only God so you are the one making the door narrow. These things imply that to think it is only murderers and bandits and paedophiles that go to Hell is very far off the mark. It implies you risk Hell yourself for wanting people to go there because of the damage they actually manage to do when what matters is that they don't love God.
The atmosphere of the New Testament even without the Hell texts would show Hell is assumed to be real.
Hell is an essential part of the Christian faith and is what Jesus is really
all about.
