Hell: Eternal Suffering or Temporary Punishment (Jesus Christ, ritual, Latter-Day Saints, reject)

[JTFC]

The way that the Catholic church views hell is that it is only a state of being in which God is not present in your life. Hell can be a place when you die because it is appart from heaven and away from God. God is kind and mercyfull and would never allow one of his precious creations go through such torture, unless they choose that path by not admitting that what they did was wrong and letting God forgive them.

Hope this answers questions.

[Melancholy]

Originally Posted by JTFC

The way that the Catholic church views hell is that it is only a state of being in which God is not present in your life. Hell can be a place when you die because it is appart from heaven and away from God. God is kind and mercyfull and would never allow one of his precious creations go through such torture, unless they choose that path by not admitting that what they did was wrong and letting God forgive them.

Hope this answers questions.

Yes it does.
ThanksJTFC.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Michel, thank you so much for your comments. (We really miss hearing from you as often as we used to.)

As I miss you all; I get ten or so minutes everynow and then.

I think you may be getting Purgatory and Limbo mixed up. Purgatory, I am quite sure, is alive and well in Catholic theology. Limbo, on the other hand, has been "dropped" if I'm not mistaken. But as you probably know, I really prefer not to try to explain other people's religious beliefs. Since they generally don't seem to be able to explain mine very accurately, I suspect the same may be true when I try to explain theirs.

You are right; I checked......

I have long felt that the doctrines of the Spirit World and Purgatory share a common source. As a Latter-day Saint, though, I believe that Purgatory is a doctrine that started out right and ended up wrong. If I understand Purgatory correctly, most who die will spend a brief time there after death, and that the purpose of the time is to purge them of their less severe sins so that they can enter Heaven. For us, not even the most righteous people who have ever lived will go straight to Heaven. Nobody will go to Heaven until the Last Judgment when we are all resurrected (i.e. our spirit re-enters our newly immortalized and perfected body).

I understand that, and (maybe to me) Purgatory is incarnations on Earth - each one with the purpose of becoming more spiritual until one is judged good enough to enter heaven

I guess it's a matter of semantics. Hitler may not have been "wicked," but I find it difficult to find a word that would describe him much better than that one.

Well, I think that as far as being sinners, we're all pretty much in the same boat. I also believe that God would not punish someone for commiting a sin if the person was mentally incapable of realizing that what he was doing was wrong.

I agree with you in what you say, but "wicked" is an odd word - I looked it up in the etymology on line and it quotes "Wicked is c.1275, earlier wick (12c.), apparently an adj. use of O.E. wicca "wizard" (see wicca). "

I don't really understand the need for another word to describe what we consider to be bad or sinful. Besides, I know some wiccans who deserve heaven far more than I do.

This raises a couple of questions in my mind, Michel. How much sin is "too much" sin? And what about a person who maybe commits many, many sins but is truly repentent? Would your concept of "too much sin" be balanced against "too little repentance"?

Sorry; that was very "sloppy" of me to use.........

Also, when do you see the process of reincarnation as coming to an end? Do you see everyone as ultimately "getting it right"? And if a person cannot remember a prior life, how it is possible that his experiences in that life will be of any benefit to him the next time around?

It would be all too easy if one remembered previous incarnations to "get it right" . Suppose you die, and are told that you have failed learning the lesson in your life's quest; if you could remember that one lesson next time round, it would be because of that that you will chose to avoid the same pitfalls; we need to want to be acceptable to God - not because we know he wants something from us, but because we genuinely believe in his will(that part of it) and have a genuine desire within ourselves to achieve that aim - as well as all the other ones.

This paragraph deserves frubals, so I'm off to give them to you!

Thank you very much, what ye sow, ye shall reap!!

(I don't like that little blue guy - he looks far too full of himself, but it is the mnearest smiley to the one I want to use.

[Sola'lor]

Originally Posted by michel

Thank you very much, what ye sow, ye shall reap!!

(I don't like that little blue guy - he looks far too full of himself, but it is the mnearest smiley to the one I want to use.

Hahaha. That gave me a chuckle. What a great way to start out the day.

[michel]

Originally Posted by JTFC

The way that the Catholic church views hell is that it is only a state of being in which God is not present in your life. Hell can be a place when you die because it is appart from heaven and away from God. God is kind and mercyfull and would never allow one of his precious creations go through such torture, unless they choose that path by not admitting that what they did was wrong and letting God forgive them.

Hope this answers questions.

I like that - if you don't mind, I'll keep it as a quote; it is exactly what I understand as being "hell" - Hell is our deliberate separation from God.

[SimonCross]

Good Evening
I have been reading this and the replies, and ponder on how to respond?

In some ways we all make our own Hells?

For God gave us the one gift that no other species has, to think and to have free thought to choose. Whether there is a spot where souls are to be judged is a 50/50 question with no real concrete answer.

No matter how many ideas,views that there are,I do feel to bring everything into one definitive answer, would take the person to actually crossover then to actually back to say one way or the other the question YES!! or NO!!

Even though I'm R.Catholic does not mean that I am not open to possibilities, expressing ideas and thoughts is good food for the mind. I for one do embrace a spirit place a place between the High Heavens and the lower places call it Hell if you like that middle place that maybe where we are on hold to be judged or not??

What is required is for me to think out side of the box, I feel that in the quest of life one never really finds all the answers only possibilities. And where there is sin there is always forgiveness.

Questions and more questions never enough answers, amazing it has always felt that way for me.

Thank you

Simon Cross

[Charity]

My belief is a place of eternal suffering.....I like the other thought better, but I have to abide by my own conclusions..........

[MysticSang'ha]

In my practice, I have come to the notion that hell is one of the many realms in samsara, where we continue to cycle through again and again and again (not hell, per se, but we cycle through samsara).

That being said, I believe hell to be temporary, like the human realm, like the animal realm, like the ghost realm, and like the heaven realm.

And I don't see hell as a place for punishment, either. I see it as a manifestation of how our karma has ripened with the proper causes and conditions.