Burning in Hell

"The Fall of the Damned" by Peter Paul Rubens

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If I had my way, I would prefer to skip Purgatory. However, I realize that my soul is in need of a good cleansing and purging. Only after it is properly cleansed and purged of all impurities left behind by my many sins will I be deemed ready for Heaven. Even though I am not looking forward to spending time in Purgatory, I would hate to be a soul that damns his or herself to Hell.

The other day while baking cookies I carelessly touched the hot cookie sheet onto my arm. It immediately began to hurt and blister. Then yesterday, I carelessly went near the whistling of the tea kettle, burning my finger. Both times the pain was very intense.

That pain helped me to reflect on eternity.

Can you imagine what it will be like for the souls who up to the very end of their lives continued to reject God's love and mercy? Our loving Father will have given them every chance He could possibly give them to repent, to turn back into His loving arms. But these obstinate souls in their misguided pride will reject Him still again for the final time, and will go of their own volition, into the waiting arms of the Prince of Darkness and Father of Lies.

I am currently reading The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life by Father Charles Arminjon*. He quotes an eminent yet nameless theologian regarding the resurrection of our bodies. It is my understanding that not only the sheep will have their bodies reunited with their soul but the goats will too.

"in the body of a man...there is both something essential and something secondary and accessory. The essential part is what he shares with no one, what he alone possess and will possess forever; it is the part of him that existed at the moment he was formed, animated and vivified by his soul. These essential elements he will always keep. They will always be his. The rest, that which is produced by nutrition, digestion, and assimilation, is not he. He can lose it, and does lose it, without ceasing to be himself. It will be with these essential, personal elements that God will resurrect the glorious, spiritual bodies, as also He will resurrect the immortal corruption of the damned. The soul being the same, the real kernel, the constitutive element remaining the same, the rest is of little importance and its identity will remain eternally...."

The above description of the body's resurrection seems to indicate that the damned will not only feel physical pain...actually agonizing physical pain of the burning fires of Hell, but that pain will never cease. It will be for all eternity. They will never have a respite from that agony. Yet even this endless torture will not compare to the spiritual pain they will feel knowing they have lost God's love forever because of their rejection, not of Satan and all his empty promises, but that of their loving creator.

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Welcome to hell !!!

Well, I hope the title of this post has captured your attention for the next minute or so.

Whatever you conceive it to be, hell does exist all right! It may be an ever-burning everlasting fire mixed with the acrid smell of burning flesh and sulphur. Or it may be just a state of consciousness in the total absence of God’s presence and love.

When I was at school, many moons ago, a schoolboy described hell as being upside-down for eternity in a pile of manure. Now, there’s an image you’d probably never thought of. 

And as sure as hell exists we can be certain that the devil exists too.

He is not just a euphemism for evil, wickedness and wrong-doings. He is a living being, with us here and now, every day, and intent on the destructions of souls.

As Christians we cannot possibly believe in God and not believe in the devil. Yet, sadly for us, and fortunately for him, he has been cleverly air-brushed away from our sermons and our churches and our lives.

When is the last time you heard a sermon on Sunday about the dangers of the devil? I haven’t for at least a lifetime!

Yet, the devil belongs to the priest’s sermon as surely as God does.

You wouldn’t expect to drive on a perilous road without any warning signs of sharp bends, steep hills, and blind corners, would you? Yet we seem happy to live our lives oblivious of the very existence of a cunning and dangerous enemy ever eager to lead us to damnation when we least expect it.

There are indeed people who believe in the devil to the point of worshipping him. Whilst I cannot understand why anyone should wish to do so, at least I acknowledge their honesty in so doing; which is more honest than the millions of so-called Christians who attend church every Sunday yet don’t know exactly what to believe.

In December 2007, I understand, the Pope issued a directive to the Church to train and appoint priest exorcists in every Diocese to combat the spread of Satanism.

Well, at least he believes in the devil and is prepared to do something about it.

Has this message reached all priests I wonder? And if it hasn’t, then surely it is evidence of the success of the devil himself.

Perhaps we should all ask our priests about this Pope’s message!

I don’t know whether we have an exorcist priest in our Diocese. Do you know about yours?

Has the Church globally heeded the Pope’s warning and taken any action?

More pertinent point, do our priests everywhere, regardless of denomination, actually believe in the existence of the devil as a living being; or do they espouse the milder euphemism of what he represents?

Do you?

Or are there millions of Christians everywhere sleep-walking their way into hell?