JH
#0
I have a few questions about hell.
Does the Church teach that hell is everlasting? If so, why? What could man possibly do to be sentenced to eternal punishment and damnation?
Also, I was reading an article on an Orthodox website that said, before Jesus came, everyone, no matter how righteous, would descend into hades, seperated from God and Paradise. However, I remember reading a quote from St. Isaac of Syria:
\\"Those who find themselves in hell will be chastized with the scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! The sorrow which takes hold of the heart which has sinned against love is more piercing than any other pain.\\"
So what, Hell is being in the Presence of God, hating it, and feeling guilty?
Thank you & God Bless
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JC
#2
Iv always thought of hell as seperation from God. Sin being something that is apposed to the will of God, Iv always remembered being 4 years old and being sent to timeout, I would slam doors and cry and yell. as a four year old I did something that was against the will of my Father and Mother and because of that I was taken out of communion with them.
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Elena Ribarevski
#3
I took 4 years of Latin, and my Latin teacher always said that Hades is not the equivalent of Hell. Hades was basically the Underworld where your soul went after you died. And there were different areas where you ended up, depending on how sinful you were.
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GS
#4
Hell confirms that we have free will.
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BM
#5
Have you ever read the River of Fire? It might be worth reading, it totally changed my former Methodist image of Hell (a real Dante\'s Inferno idea) into a more Orthodox one. It also helped me get over my somewhat anger towards a God that would \\"throw\\" people into hell for even the slightest offence. The angry God, just didn\'t make sense.
It helped me understand that God is always the same, Loving. We are the ones who choose our ultimate fate. Do we accept this Love or do we reject it? This life is to be used to figure out what it is that we will choose for the rest of time. Can you imagine feeling love from someone who you hate and you can not escape? It would be hell!
Its like an oven where two identical breads are cooked, yet one comes out a golden brown and the other is burned. The oven is the same for both.
Is hell everlasting? That\'s been debated...so I can\'t fully say. Only God knows really. I do like though that we can pray for our dead relatives...in this way Love crosses boundries that we can not cross.
About the scourge of love....have you ever hurt someone so deeply that you could barely look at them for the guilt you felt in hurting them? The tears that you cried at their feet for the hurt that you gave them in a choice that you later regretted? It is a very very deep pain. So it makes sense that to hurt the ultimate Love, that the guilt would be the worst of all.
Hope that helps!
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