Hell is a matter of freedom of choice

HEAVEN and Hell have a habit of appearing in discussions about religion as if they were equal sides of the one coin. But they do not enjoy the same status within the Christian tradition.

This basic difference between heaven and hell is that neither scripture nor the church has ever judged anyone to be in hell whereas both have confidently declared many people to be in heaven.

The concept of hell is primarily a statement about the seriousness of human freedom and the potential we have to isolate ourselves totally.

If heaven can be described in terms of the joy that we get from being with Christ, then hell is about the darkness from freely choosing to abandon our God and our neighbour.

Heaven is God's desire for the world whereas hell is about the possible frustration by human freedom of that divine plan for every human being.

So hell is not God's creation. It is not the outcome of some additional divine sentence for punishment or retribution. Nor is it "a place" to which God "sends" sinners.

Instead hell is a freely chosen final destiny, involving the punishment and suffering that results from a persistent lifestyle of self-isolation in deliberate and conscious opposition to God.

The source of much thinking in Christian circles about hell goes back to the Jewish scriptures wherein the dead were confined to a shadowy and nameless existence in an underworld called Sheol.

Gradually, the belief developed that God would reward the just and punish the wicked at the end of time.

The divine judgment involved seems to be one of divine retribution and punishment - but the preaching of Jesus is focused on the offer of salvation to every human being.

Mark's gospel summarises the message of Jesus in the following way: "The Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news".

Within this context Jesus does say that those who do not accept this call run the risk of incurring divine judgment and the punishment of hell.

In addition the New Testament also implies that those who consistently refuse to love God and neighbour will not go to heaven: "Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life". (1 John, Ch.3, v.14-15)

Down through the centuries in various councils the Catholic Church, in continuity with the teaching of Jesus, has always stated its belief in the existence of hell.

The recent Catechism of the Catholic Church talks explicitly about the existence of hell and its eternity, warning that: "To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from God forever by our own free choice."

The traditional Christian view about hell emphasises the reality of eternal punishment stressing the pain that results from freely choosing to cut oneself off from the love of God.

Purgatory is a different matter. There is no direct evidence in scripture for its existence. What we do find in the Jewish-Christian scriptures, however, are some few references to the practice of praying for the dead.

The underlying idea is that the dead may still have need of forgiveness for their sins before entering eternal life.

By the fourth century the liturgy of Christian burial also included the practice of offering the Eucharist for the dead.

In 1979 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that the Church believes there may be purification before we get the vision of God, but that it is different from the "pains of the damned".

In the teaching of the church there is a consistent appeal for caution in the way Purgatory is presented. It should also be pointed out that descriptions of Purgatory as a place are avoided, that references to "fire" and the duration of Purgatory are excluded, and that statements about the nature of punishment are omitted.

There can be no doubt that in the past there have been gross exaggerations in popular preaching and teaching about Purgatory and that at times more was said about the pain of Purgatory than about the mercy of God.

If there is to be any credible retrieval of Purgatory therefore, then it must be kept in mind that our sins do make us unworthy of being with God - but God's infinite love transforms the selfishness of the human heart.

St Paul summed it up when he pointed out that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more".

Copyright 1998 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.