Introduction
As the end of our earthly pilgrimage,
death involves an inescapable judgment which leads to the definitive outcome of
the person’s life. (cf. CCC 1021-22)
The church teaches that those who
have died in the state of grace “are received immediately into heaven, and see
clearly God Himself, one and three, as He is, while those who die in actual
mortal sin go down to hell immediately” (Council of Florence, ND 2309).
HELL: The Doctrine of Hell as a Scandal
·
The
whole of creation is moving towards that absolute future wherein it will come
to its glorified Lord in order to reach the Father. Scripture utters an urgent warning of the
consequences to the individual who would exclude himself from this movement
towards fulfillment, pointing out that it is possible for someone to choose a
life lived exclusively in and for himself instead of the life with God in a
community of brothers and sisters. Such
a life is called hell.
·
The
doctrine of hell is not the central teaching of Christianity; it is still an
essential element of it and as such must be placed among the most difficult
problems of the Christian faith.
·
In
view of God’s omnipotence and his will that all should be saved, the opinion
that there is for some men an ultimate state of incompleteness and torment is
one of the scandals of Christendom.
·
One
who refuses belief in Christ remains outside the world’s salvation in history;
his life issues ultimately in meaninglessness.
·
In
this exposition we shall first consider the scriptural texts, then the Church’s
teaching; after this an attempt will be made to explain the nature of hell, and
finally there will be a treatment of the most important problems related to
this doctrine.
THE SCRIPTURES
·
Ideas
of Jewish theology – OT- Hellenistic times
-
The
underworld is held to be the habitation of the good and the wicked: all must descend into it-kings and beggars,
masters and slaves, the old and the young, the just and the unjust. The underworld is a gathering place in which
the dead lead a shadowy existence. There
is rest, there is no suffering; but on the other hand, there is no happiness
either. It is a state hardly to be
called life, although love and hatred are felt there and the inhabitants are
not deprived of knowledge: those who
were close to each other in life know each other again. They also seem capable of being aroused from
their condition by certain events.
·
The
concept that the departed souls of the just come to God and those of the
godless are punished in the underworld. (Is.24,21 f.; 15, 11; 66,24; Dan. 12,2;
2 Mach. 6, 26f; Wis. 4,19; 5,31-13).
- NRS Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt.
- NRS Jeremiah 7:32 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the
LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of
Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth until
there is no more room.
·
Hinnom(Greek,
Gehenna) was from ancient times a place of evil reputation threatened with
divine retribution, the belief arose that it would be the place which, last
judgment, would open up and engulf the rebellious Israelites in its punishing
fires.
·
In
the NT, the term Gehenna is understood to mean the place of eternal judgment,
prepared not only for the devil and his angels but for all those who refuse to
believe and be converted, to which the condemned will be sent.
- NRS Matthew 25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You
that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels;
- NRS Matthew 13:42 and they will throw them into the furnace of
fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
·
John
the Baptist and Jesus himself both testify that those who are not converted are
threatened with burning in a fire that will never go out.
- 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out
of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw
them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.
·
Hell
is also described in terms of darkness, howling and gnashing of teeth (Mk.
9,42-48; Mt. 5,29f.; 8,12; 13,41f).
·
It
is a torment so unimaginable that no effort on man’s part to escape too great
(Mt. 5,29f; 10, 28; Lk. 16,19-31).
·
In
describing the last judgment, Jesus says:
“ when
the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit in
state on his throne, with all the nations gathered before him. he will separate men into two groups, as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will say to those on his
left hand, “the curse is upon you. Go
from my sight to the eternal fire that is ready for the devil and his angels.”…
and they will go away to eternal punishments. (Mt. 25,31 ff., 41.46)
·
According
To Paul, this judgment will bring calamity to the reprobate, and eternal ruin (
1 Thess.5:3, 2 Thess. 1:9, Timothy 6:9)
·
Utter
destruction (Rom. 9:22, Phil. 3:19)
·
The
Pauline writings go on to speak of the wrath of God under which the demand
stand (2 Thess. 1:7-10, Rom. 2,5,8)
·
There
existence is not life but death ( 2 Cor.2:16; 7:10, Rom. 1:32)
·
They
are excluded from the kingdom of God (Gal.5:21, Eph. 5:5)
·
In
some passages of the Book of Revelation (14:10, 19:20, 20:10-15, 21:8): hell is described as a place of fire and
brimstone, as in the OT story of the fate of Sodom and Gomorrha.
·
In
John we find the concept of the sin which leads to eternal death (1 John
5:14-17). As “life” is to be understood
as union with Christ, so “death” means the dissolution of that union.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE
·
In
the post-apostolic times the discussion was concerned with the beginning, the
duration, and the kind of the punishment in hell.
·
Clement
of Alexandria was probably the first to tech that there would be a limit to
this suffering, although the most influential representative of this thesis was
Origen.
·
His
views were adopted by a number of the Fathers: Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose,
Cyprian, Hilary; and until 249 they were also held by Jerome.
·
The
idea was rejected by the Church, and it was eliminated from the body of
Christian dogma, at the Council of Constantinople (543).
·
It
was Chrysostom in the East and Augustine in the West who set forth the doctrine
of the eternal duration of hell
unequivocally; both, however, sometimes accept the idea of some diminution of
the penalty.
·
From
the time of Pope St. Gregory (590-604) the idea that the suffering of hell
began with the death of the sinner gained favor, until in 1336 it became a
dogma.
The Teaching of the Church about Hell
·
There is
complexity about the problem.
·
The development
was very slow and gradual.
·
Hell’s
existence had already been asserted in
-“the faith of Damascus”
- In the Athanasian Creed
- In some councils (4th Lateran, Lyons, and Florence,
also Trent)
The
Church’s teaching on hell culminated in the definition of Pope Benedict XII
contained in the constitution Benedictus
Deus, which declares that the souls of those who die in mortal sin are cast
into hell, where they suffer the torments of the damned.
The Nature of Hell
·
No formal
doctrine with regard to kind of punishment suffered.
·
Innocent III,
emphasized that it is twofold, consisting in the deprivation of the vision of
God and some kind of physical suffering.
Hell as the Consummation of a Sinful
life
Nature of hell, from divine revelation does not
describe as a state outside our experience but simply issues a warning:
resisting divine plan, failing to achieve the fullness if life, and living in
hatred instead love, expect a fearful life of punishment.
Hell does not refer to a specific place. When the
scriptures say it as a place, is intended as a warning, concerning life beyond
death, to the man who chooses for himself and cut off from God’s love. Sin in
all forms- egoism, hatred, lust for power, pride… is understood as a failure to
love, hell can be understood as the final fixation in this state. There is
total self-isolation from God and man.
But the mystery of hell remains unfathomable. We
cannot say that it consists in physical torment or a general disaster, and yet
these experiences within history and individual lives must be used as aids if
we are to get some idea of its fearfulness. Without the clear and vivid speech
of the Scriptures no one would conceive of the possibility of hell.
Another point to be made is that man carries hell
within himself. He creates it. When he is guilty of boundless hatred,
exploitation, and oppression … the forces at work in him represent at least a
foreshadowing of hell. Hell is the solidification of such disposition.
The
Loss of God as Irremediable Incompleteness
As a creature he is meant for God. His existence is a
“living with”-that is relational- vertical as well as horizontal: man’s life is
essentially and necessarily an existence with, in and through God. Thus, saying no to God also saying no to
himself. This rejection makes himself divided, incapable of self-fulfillment
and maturity. He will remain so forever.
HELL
The Church clearly affirms the existence and eternity of hell for
those who die in the state of mortal sin (cf. CCC 1035). In this the Church
simply follows Jesus’ own teaching on “gehenna,” and his own judgment as Son of
Man: “Out of my sight, you condemned, into that everlasting fire” (Mt 25:41;
cf. Mt 5:22; 13:42-50; Mk 9: 43-48).[1]
The
Fire of Hell
If the Scripture frequently uses the
word fire when speaking of hell, it must be taken into account that it is used
along with such expressions as wailing and the gnashing of teeth and the worm
that does not die- all belonging to the same kind of literary imagery. Is the fire, then, meant as a real event or is
this a metaphor?
Patristic Times: The term fire
referred to the remorse of the damned.
Scripture: Fire
frequently symbolizes the presence of God. This indicates that the damned live
in the presence of God’s immutable and inescapable judgment. But how is this
judgment to be interpreted?
God’s judgment imposes restraining
bonds on the damned soul—the pain of
sense. He is immobilized within himself because, being unable to love,
he cannot reach out towards any other human being. The damned soul is incapable
of this movement owing to the isolation within himself which has followed upon
his hatred of God.
The damned soul is the captive of
the creation. He remains walled up within his personal solitude in the world
God has created. The whole meaning of the material world comes from its service
to man or the dominion man exercises over it. But the lost soul is immured in
his own solitude in such a way that he cannot integrate the things of the world
with his own existence or utilize them for his personal fulfillment.
So he is subjected to constriction on all sides by
things he cannot touch, while at the same time he cannot resist their pressure.
The image suggests itself of a prisoner confined in a lightless room without
doors or windows, who must live there without hope of escape.
The
Eternity of Hell
The chief problem concerning hell is
its eternity.
Some theologians: Sin is an
infinite outrage against God; and since man, who is finite in nature, cannot be
punished for it in a manner that is infinite in intensity, he must be punished
in a way that is infinite in extension.
According
to this opinion, sin is finite insofar as
it is an act of man but infinite insofar as it has a relation to God.
John Duns Scotus rightly raised the
objection that sin cannot be called an infinite offense against God because man
is finite and incapable of any infinite action. Thus, if the infinite character
of sin is to be based on the relation to God, then the penalty likewise can be
called infinite since, it also comes from God.
Hell is endless for another reason,
namely that for those who have chosen this course sin has no end. A damned soul
never can nor will free himself from his sin. It is true that he abhors his
broken and deprived condition, feeling nothing but disgust for himself. But he
is held fast by his animus towards God, unable to yield. Revolt against God has
become irresistible drive in his nature, a lust by which he is destructively
consumed.
The “eternity” of hell consists not
primarily in the quantitative aspect of duration, but in the ultimate
self-realization of the sinner who in pride and egoism withholds himself from
creative love. Hell and its eternity are created by man, not God, and this in a
world which is created by God and by means which are God’s gifts. Every person
who is damned therefore suffers the hell which is precisely fitting for him.
God
and Hell
There are two senses in which God has a role in hell:
first, he does not prevent the exercise
of man’s free will in sin; second, he
does not give to the damned the grace of repentance.
With regard to the first point, God
created man with freedom; in freedom man participates in God’s own sovereignty.
God respects man’s freedom whatever the risks; he will not force anyone.
The question then arises whether a
kind of freedom might not be possible wherein man would not sin, or would not
be in a position to sin. But in fact freedom does not consist in the ability to
commit sin. The freedom given to man is the one which makes it possible for him
even to rebel against God.
With regard to the second point, it
is difficult for us to believe in the total finality of a man’s damnation. It
cannot be denied that God could give him a grace so efficacious that without
any loss of freedom he could abandon his self-idolatry and cast himself upon
God’s mercy.
It would be a mythical concept of
hell to imagine the damned pressing upon God and God hurling them back with the
words “Too Late”. The damned do not want God, do not want Love, because they cannot: it is the final agonizing
mystery of hell that the human will no longer tends towards God. Absolute
finality of this human destiny manifests itself.
Regarding the eternal duration of
hell, it is senseless if the ones undergoing this punishment are not able to
reform themselves. But the meaning of hell does not lie in man’s correction but
in the revelation of God as Holy, as Love, Truth, Justice, as Absolute God. To
live without God decides at the same time for absurdity with regard to his own
subjective life fulfillment, and that the meaningful and complete life can be
lived only in and with God. We should ponder the biblical promise; that man is
saved from all the “hells” of our earthly experience- from despair, from the
abyss of sin and its torments- through participation in creative love in
Christ.[2]
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