Besides the harangues of the secular world around us, I have been told directly and have heard among others in  informal group settings that the idea HELL exists is ridiculous. The reasoning is, if God loves us how could He ever let any of us go there? How could He make such a horrible place? I have even heard that if God made people go to Hell He was no different than the murderers He was sending there. Result: There can be no Hell because then there is no God–HUH ???? Whatever.

I am not a theologian.  However, I was educated in grade school by the Ursuline nuns, and they were quite successful at instilling the “fear of hell” in me and my classmates. We were taught that God our Father was one tough parent, and that we had better mind “our Ps & Qs” or else.  I was sure many of my school mates were destined for Gehenna because they had eaten meat on Friday. Not me, I was afraid of not being able to get to confession in time so I stuck to cheese or tuna. Then they changed the rule and you could eat meat. I was so confused that for the first time I began to question things. I mean, did the people who ate meat the week before the rule was changed die and go to Hell,  and then the people who ate meat the following  Friday went to heaven? Okay, I figured it out for myself, and I want to share my personal theology about Hell. If you decide I am a bit wifty, so be it.

First of all, I know and believe unequivocally that there is, in fact, a place called Hell. There has to be. When I bring Holy Communion to the home bound and to folks in nursing homes my first prayer is from the the first letter of John, Ch4:16, “We come to know and believe that God is Love and he who abides in Love abides in God and God in him”. If God is Love and Love is God, He cannot put any of us in Hell. He does NOT do it. Contrary to some belief,  He is not waiting to clobber us over the head with a mallet because we mess up. He is, in fact,  the most loving, compassionate and forgiving Father we could ever have, including our own earthly one.

We put ourselves in Hell all by ourselves by rejecting the Love that is given us by God.  You see, we have this thing called pride. So many of us think we are SO smart. The consummate atheist, Frederick Nietzsche was SO smart that after having thought about it for a very long time announced that “God is dead”. I have been blessed because I know I am not that smart.  I’m not even as smart as Christopher Hitchins who thinks that “believers belong to the infancy of species”. Thank you Lord for keeping me dumb.

Look, I try to keep it simple.  There has to be a God. We just have to look at the perfection all around us. The change in seasons, the new birth of springtime, day and night always within a 24 hour period, sunshine and moonshine, baby ducks following their mom.  Those who choose to reject that simplicity and fall prey to their own false pride can wind up in a place called Hell.  But we have a soul that is indestructible and eternal, right?  My theology tells me that Hell is the utter and complete loss of Hope. We always have another chance while we are alive. When we die there are no more second chances. I cannot imagine existing in a world absent of all Hope, and knowing it is for all eternity. That is hell for sure.  As for me, I intend to keep watching those baby ducks.

Larry is a Catholic/Christian author and blogger and posts weekly commentary. His work has appeared in such publications as Zenit from Rome, Aleteia, New Evangelists, Top Catholic Blogs, Big Pulpit, Catholic365.com and others. His first children's picture book, "Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes" was published in 2011. In 2012, his full-length novel, "The Priest and the Peaches" was released. His second novel, "The Demons of Abadon", was released in the spring of 2016. Larry’s latest novel, “Horizon Homeless” was released in ebook format in May of 2017 and the paperback followed on July 27, 2017. Larry belongs to the Catholic Writer’s Guild, The Catholic Writer’s Society, The Knights of Columbus, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He has been an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion for over twenty years bringing communion to the homebound and hospitalized. He lives in Pinellas Park, Florida and his kids and six grandchildren all live within three miles of each other. His first wife died of cancer in 2003. He remarried four years later and became the primary caregiver for his wife, Martha who came down with Non-Hodgins Lymphoma in 2011. The cancer was in remission when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in October of 2014. Sadly and unexpectedly, Martha passed away on March 27, 2017. The writer says, "God has me where he needs me and I try my best to make Him proud. Larry’s blog site is http://www.slipperywillie.blogspot.com You can find more at www.larrypeterson-author.com

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By Catholic Writing and Publishing9 Comments on How can a God Who is Love Put People in Hell?

9 Replies to “How can a God Who is Love Put People in Hell?”

  1. I actually knew there was a Hell before I knew there was a Heaven. Long story.

    If I was the devil, I wouldn’t want people to think I exist. It would make my job much easier. People who don’t believe in objective evil are the most likely to commit it.

    1. Hey J.D.–I think Satan has done a remarkable job of hiding his existence behind the relativism that is so widespread in today’s secular world. He is one slick and cunning adversary.

  2. People now alive who cannot stomach the notion of God or abide by His rules will never be able to endure eternity next to Him. They separate themselves in this life and then find out that in the next they are separated forever. Only then do they learn the true cost. I trlu believe we stoke our own hellfires while we are alive.

  3. Thanks Larry.

    Recently I applied Pascal’s logic for believing in God. If you believe and there is actually no God, you are no worse off. But if you chose to not believe and there is a God, there’s a problem in the hereafter.

    The person responded that, “All religions say something like that. Obey the rules and you go to heaven, otherwise you go to hell.” This person believed that God gave her intelligence so she no longer needed God. She could guide herself. She could live life for the present and have no concern for the hereafter. Her relativistic approach could eventually lead her to make bad decisions.

    She seemed like a nice person. I wish her well and pray for her.

    Let’s pray for each other as well.

    God Bless,

    Don

  4. Amen! The door to hell locks from the inside. A good and merciful God doesn’t desire us to be anywhere but with Him, but He did gift us with free will so that we could freely choose to love and serve Him.

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