Michael Pakaluk’s article Why Do Christians Believe in Hell? in The Catholic Thing of Tuesday, January 21,2020 commences:Why Do Christians Believe in Hell? Because Christendom has affirmed it, Jesus clearly teaches the reality of Hell in the Bible, and Hell’s reality resonates with an honest account of our own experience.
He then goes on to introduce the one who needs to get a grip, namely, “theologian" David Bentley Hart and his nice, warm fuzzy personal feelings about Hell, as compared to those of the heartless rednecks who stick to the traditional teachings of the Church:That’s not the answer theologian David Bentley Hart gave earlier this month, when the New York Times offered him a perch to discuss the misguided beliefs of his fellow Christians. The Bible is so unclear about Hell, he wrote, while it is clear about universal salvation, that the doctrine of Hell must be purely an expression of the ill will of Christians. They hate their fellow human beings so much that they want them to spend eternity in torment.
I know he is not on his own, as many nominal Catholics these days, even priests, don’t believe in Hell.
What am I saying – “even priests”? As it turns out, many of them are the worst, in that they believe that either Hell doesn’t exist at all, or that it exists, but no one goes there. That is the convenient way of getting past that troublesome part of the Apostles Creed, (which has almost universally replaced the Nicene Creed at Mass), when it speaks of Christ descending into Hell. The way they get around that, for the sake of the simple-minded parishioners, is to say they believe Hell exists, but no one goes there. Poor old God – so much eternity on his hands that he has to invent places that will never be used just for something to do!
Anyway, if you want to read what a heartless hater of nice people you believers in Hell are, plough through the rest of the article. You might die laughing, but what the Hell!
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