Hell
Which is worse? To be thirsty with no water around or to be thirsty with water around but no access to it?
Very often, hell is associated with death. The "common" biblical understanding of death is the absence of God's presence. While that may be true of death, i'm not so sure that the same holds true for hell. I wonder which would be worse - the absence of God or the presence of God without "access" to him?
Perhaps hell is being near the presence of God but being cut off from him... with a two-fold consequence. First, there would be the torment of remembering - what could have been and could be "now." Second, there would be the torment of understanding - realizing God's eternal goodness and beauty and understanding my own putrid wretchedness... with no way to ever be better.
posted by Jim at 4:46 AM
1 Comments:
The Pope recently made the news on this topic, thought you'd be interested. Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, the Pope said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to "admit blame and promise to sin no more", they risked "eternal damnation - the inferno".
Hell "really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more".
See http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21460090-2,00.html
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