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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Sep 2003
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 20 |
My post was of an interesting point of view. One of which makes a lot of sense. I thank those who approached it openly, I knew some (which will remain unnamed) would not or could not. I am happy to see so many who adhear to their Catholic faith yet make intelligent nonjudgemental replies.
I really wasn't denying that hell existed, just that perhaps only an extremely hardend few may be there. Perhaps most will pay a punishment according to their sins and be free. Perhaps our prayers for the dead accomplish more than we know.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 127
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They don�t bring it up at the meetings on religious tolerance, but the official Catholic policy is that Protestants, Muslims, and Jews go to hell....that remains today the official dogma. If it's official dogma - when, where, and what document? We Latins like killing trees (previously, it was sheep - we're getting better!), after all. :p
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 6,923 Likes: 28
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MKE:
You wrote:
"my spirit leads me to believe that God's mercy rarely would allow a disobediant child to be forever punished"
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I wrote as a reply:
We believe that Jesus Christ is God-in-the-Flesh. We also believe what He tells us in the New Testament. He speaks of a Final Judgment, a lake of fire, and all those fearsome things that present problems for so many. He also tells us that "eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love Him."
It seems to me that the Divine Justice comes in at this point to balance the Divine Mercy. We choose our eternity by our growth here.
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I've heard and discussed these issues for a long time--longer than I want to think about. While it may tug at our liberal sense of giving everyone an eternal number of chances and our idea that everyone can be rehabilitated if given enough time, I still hold to the New Testament, though without making judgments. The Truth is Jesus Christ: He is Truth Incarnate. He not only is fully truthful in what He says but in His very Being. He tells us plainly that there are the Last Four Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. We will have the first two; the third is our own choice.
The problems come into our spiritual lives when we want to waffle on what is plainly there for us to accept or reject. Much like the compelling repetition in St. Matthew's Gospel where Jesus keeps repeating "but I tell you," He keeps telling us about reality while this present age, like every age before it, tries to waffle, water down, and soften what is stark, black and white. It should come to you as something from Ripley's: believe it or not (but don't try to pick and choose, or edit, or interpret it away.)
We can get into trouble when we think of eternity as a long series of years, giving the false impression that at some distant time rehabilitation for all might be accomplished--something like Purgatory only longer. Eternity is one constant present tense: there is no past and no future. So what you get when you first enter it is it.
I can pray that all mankind will be saved, but to say that all will be saved is simply not true. BTW, I do pray for that.
In Christ,
BOB
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