Will people in hell repent and be saved by God? The Bible's answer is clear



According to the Bible, what will hell be like?

The descriptions are awful, and the occupants are unsettling. Jesus said "the devil and his angels" would be there (Matthew 25:41). He taught that the unrighteous would be there (Matthew 25:41-46). John the apostle described it as "the second death" (Revelation 21:8) and the "lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). It is a place of unceasing punishment (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:46), and thus it is a place from which there is no escape.

Growing up, I used to imagine that those who go to hell would, at some point (and probably sooner than later), come to their senses and repent. If the prodigal in the parable (Luke 15:11-32) came to his senses when he was eating pig slop, surely the horrors of hell would provoke deep sorrow and repentance.

Have you ever wondered whether there will be repentance in hell? Should we imagine that those in hell will eventually cry out to God for salvation, only to have their cries rejected? Will they plead for his redemption, pledge themselves to him, and renounce their wickedness, only to have their desperate cries met with divine contempt?

We should not imagine those things because we have no biblical reason to suppose that the wicked will ever be repentant in hell.

Hell is full of hardened hearts. And repentance doesn't flow from a hardened heart. Repentance is a gift of God. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. And in the New Testament, repentance is unto salvation.

Will they wish they weren't in hell? Yes. Will they wish the punishment would cease? Of course. Consider the language of the rich man in Luke 16, when he says, "I am in anguish in this flame" (Luke 16:24) and describes his abode as "this place of torment" (Luke 16:28).

Jesus described the emotions of hell's occupants when he said, "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42; see also Matthew 24:51).

Should we imagine this "weeping" as being tears of repentance? No repentance is specified. Weeping is not the only thing mentioned. We read about weeping and gnashing of teeth. Together, that pair of descriptions — tears and teeth — is an image of distress and rage. The "gnashing of teeth" denotes rage and hostility. The inhabitants of hell are hostile, angry, rageful.

Hell is full of hardened hearts. And repentance doesn't flow from a hardened heart. Repentance is a gift of God. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. And in the New Testament, repentance is unto salvation. There is never true repentance without salvation. Peter said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38). When addressing those who might be opposed to the gospel, Paul said, "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:25-26). And, of course, Paul is talking about people alive on earth, not about people in hell.

Faith and repentance are the result of the gracious work of the Spirit, as the Lord opens our eyes to see the ugliness of our sin and the beauty of redemption. He convicts us, and we experience genuine contrition, a godly sorrow. According to Paul, "Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Those in hell will never desire to worship God. They will never love the Lord. They will never repent. Instead, their hardness of heart will bear the fruit of all the horrors of sin.

If there is any grief in hell, it is a worldly grief and not a godly grief. Godly grief produces repentance, the repentant are saved, and God is glorified because his Spirit's merciful work illuminates the sinner's heart and reveals the glory of Christ to him.

It is unthinkable that repentant people would not be saved. And because those in hell will not be delivered from their judgment, there can be no genuine repentance in them. The Spirit will not produce repentance in the hearts of the wicked who cannot be redeemed from the second death.

There will not be any saving grace or common grace in hell. There will only be the unrestrained rage of the godless, who, in their unending unrepentance, will indulge their blasphemies and hatred to the uttermost. If heaven is a place of love and hope, hell is a place of hate and despair.

Those in hell will never desire to worship God. They will never love the Lord. They will never repent. Instead, their hardness of heart will bear the fruit of all the horrors of sin. The wicked in hell will be embodiments of iniquity, living manifestations of spiritual darkness. They will never want to flee to Christ, for they will despise him and blaspheme him forever.

When we reflect on the abode of the wicked, let us rejoice that there is good news of a Savior who welcomes sinners to him even now. When people flee to Christ, he will never refuse them. In fact, he saves them and keeps them — forever.

This article was originally published by Dr. Mitchell Chase at his Substack, Biblical Theology.

We All Saw Clearly On Sept. 11, 2001 A Battle Between Good And Evil That Still Rages

Once again, we are in a battle too many Americans do not know we are involved in. Our culture has changed as Americans turn away from God.

Street preacher says Subway worker refused to serve him over his T-shirt condemning homosexuality with biblical reference



A street preacher said a Subway worker in Wisconsin recently refused to serve him over his T-shirt displaying a phrase condemning homosexuality as a sin.

Rich Penkoski told the Christian Post he was wearing a T-shirt displaying the phrase "Homo sex is sin: Romans 1" when an interaction took place — which was recorded on video — in the Waunakee restaurant. Penkoski was traveling with other pastors after preaching outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the Post added. Waunakee is about an hour and 20 minutes west of Milwaukee.

'If the shoe were on the other foot, if somebody walked in and said, 'Oh, I'm gay' or whatever, and I said, 'Nope, I'm not serving you,' this would be all over the place, and I'd be fired, or I'd be getting sued.'

David Grisham, apparently also one of the street preachers, posted a Facebook message Tuesday with multiple photos saying, "This person working at Subway in Waunakee Village Mall refused to serve us because of our Christian T-shirts. Christophobic bigotry should not be tolerated. Please give Subway corporate a call." It isn't clear on what date the interaction occurred.

One of the photos Grisham posted shows four men outside a Subway wearing T-shirts displaying phrases such as, "Abortion is murder," "Homo sex is sin: Romans 1," and "Planned Parenthood murders children and rapes their mothers."

Grisham posted video of the interaction in the Subway, writing in the caption, "Subway Karen refuses to serve street preachers because of Christian T-shirts in Waukanee [sic] Wisconsin." The following is how the exchange went down:

"Are you refusing to service customers? She's refusing to serve us," one man says in the clip. "She just said she's refusing to serve us."

"What are you talking about?" another man asks.

"This girl right here said she's refusing to serve us," the first man replies.

"So we have to go somewhere else?" a third man wonders.

"I want her to say it again," the first man says.

"I am refusing you service," the Subway worker behind the counter replies.

As for her reasons for the refusal, she soon says it's a "personal matter."

The first man asks if it's "because of my T-shirt?"

She replies, "Yes."

"OK, [I'm] sure Subway Corporate will love to hear that," the first man replies.

The Christian Post reported that the Subway employee speaking in the video was referring to Penkoski's "Homo sex is sin: Romans 1" T-shirt.

"If the shoe were on the other foot, if somebody walked in and said, 'Oh, I'm gay' or whatever, and I said, 'Nope, I'm not serving you,' this would be all over the place, and I'd be fired, or I'd be getting sued," Penkoski told the Post.

Penkoski added to the Post, "But these LGBT people are so emboldened that they think just because they're either gay or gay allies, they can say and do whatever they want. So if they really want equality, then they should be OK with me suing them the same way they sue us."

Penkoski said he has spoken with his attorney about possible legal action against Subway for a civil rights violation, the Post added.

Grisham noted in a Facebook comment that his group "did NOT purposely try to antagonize anyone. We just went in for a sandwich. A local pastor was buying us dinner, and we had only been inside for less than a minute and hadn’t said a word to anyone. She just saw our shirts and blurted out profanity and said she wouldn’t serve us. REASONABLE people are reasonable when it comes to differences of opinion and are professional enough to just serve someone without letting their emotions go into elementary schoolyard mode and whine publicly."

Grisham noted in another comment that "if we had been homosexuals with rainbow shirts, and they refused us service, there would be riots in the streets."

But plenty of commenters on Grisham's Facebook posts about the incident pushed back hard. To wit:

  • "Learn the difference between Christianity and Christian nationalism," one commenter shot back. "[You] all are simply bigots, and that’s why she refused you service."
  • "I wouldn’t serve you, either," another commenter said. "You wear disgusting shirts like that to get a reaction out of people. Good job. You got your reaction."
  • "Subway will not take your side, nor will any reasonably minded person," another commenter declared before adding, "You are not a Christian in any way shape or form."
  • "Having these kinds of shirts on and calling them 'religious T-shirts' is a CRAZZYYY reach," another commenter wrote. "Speaks volumes to the values of your religious priorities, I guess. You're always welcome to have freedom of speech, not freedom of consequence. To everyone saying you should sue based on 'religious discrimination' has (1) never seen the shirts you guys were actually wearing or (2) is grossly misinformed as to how the legal system actually works. The prosecutors would laugh it out the courthouse in an hour."

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 sided with Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips after he refused to make a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding. But last October, the Colorado Supreme Court said it would take up a lawsuit from transgender plaintiff Autumn Scardina against Phillips after he refused to make a cake to celebrate Scardina's gender transition.

The Christian Post said Subway's corporate office did not respond to its request for comment by time of publication.

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Blaze News original: Understanding hell — Part III



Hell has long had a hold on the Western imagination.

Middle Age scribes rendered depictions of hell strikingly similar both to those painted centuries later by Renaissance greats and to those photoshopped nearly a millennium later by keyboard-bound game designers. It has served as an unnerving backdrop in Hollywood features, medieval passion plays, early modern poetry, and graphic novels alike.

Despite hell's sustained cultural influence, its hold has slipped in the way of belief among Americans. Meanwhile, others, religious and secular alike, maintain that it is a thing of cruel fantasy or, alternatively, a kindness misunderstood.

In Parts I and II, a number of faith leaders and scholars shared with Blaze News their views on hell. These perspectives ranged from the Roman Catholic belief that hell is a place of eternal torment inhabited by those resistive to God's love and grace, to a Jewish perspective that hell is a kind of "spiritual washing machine" that prepares most souls for paradise.

In what follows are two contrastive views on the matter: the first from a conservative Presbyterian who believes there indeed exists a place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death, and the second from a progressive liberal who does not believe in hell but maintains that the truly wicked run the risk of being forgotten or possibly stricken from existence.

While they each have emphasized different consequences in and beyond the land of the living, both individuals noted the importance of taking action in the here and now.

Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson is a writer, a columnist, and the host of "The Erick Erickson Show" on 95.5 WSB. Erickson received his law degree from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law and practiced for six years, primarily at Sell & Melton LLP. Erickson subsequently served as editor in chief at RedState.com for a decade, as a political contributor at both CNN and Fox News for several years, and as a city councilman for Macon, Georgia.

Erickson, a proud member of the Presbyterian Church in America who has started on a theology degree at Reformed Theological Seminary, has a book out later this month entitled, "You Shall Be as Gods: Pagans, Progressives, and the Rise of the Woke Gnostic Left," which explores the longstanding conflict between the Christian church today and paganism.

In his phone interview with Blaze News, Erickson minced no words about the reality of hell and the torments that await those who have rejected Christ. However, he emphasized that it is not by the cruelty of God that some men are damned but by His love and mercy that they could ever be saved.

Real and everlasting

Erickson indicated at the outset that the Presbyterian Church of America follows the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was produced by the Westminster Assembly during the English Civil War and completed in 1646.

The Westminster Confession affirms that the Bible in its original languages is pure and remains the infallible source of doctrinal authority for Christian faith. The document is also unmistakably clear about Presbyterian beliefs in the afterlife — as was Erickson.

'Those who are separated from God will be there eternally.'

"Yes, hell is real, and it is eternal," said Erickson. "It is a physical place" where the devil, the demons, and the damned all ultimately go.

The conservative host noted that after the day of judgment, "Those who are separated from God will be there eternally" immediately upon dying. There is no transitional period or purgatorial state getting in the way of damned souls' encounter with final consequence.

In terms of its relation in time and space to heaven, Erickson noted that "whether we view it as inside or outside the gates of heaven, there is some physical location outside the realm of God where those who are not of the kingdom of God will go."

Apathy be damned

The Westminster Confession states, "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death."

When asked about this belief that God predestines some souls to hell, Erickson indicated that Presbyterians and Calvinists believe "there are those God elected to save and all others not to save."

'God clearly wants a relationship with us.'

Erickson indicated that "if you desire to be with God, then you're among the elect. If you have no interest or desire, then you're not."

"God clearly wants a relationship with us. He sent Jesus to live a perfect life in this world, to try to call everyone to Him," said Erickson. "I definitely think there is a portion of the people who reject God who, through their own stubbornness, wind up there."

While some Christians might find the idea of predestination difficult to digest, Erickson alternatively indicated, "I have a hard time understanding why we get to heaven. I mean, I'm amazed by God's love to allow us, knowing all of the sins of my life."

Once saved, always saved

To avoid hell, actions aren't going to cut it. After all, no one is good enough on their own merit — either for heaven or to pay back the sacrifice at Golgotha. The key, stressed Erickson, is faith in Jesus Christ. Such is the way of salvation.

Blaze News asked Erickson whether people who genuinely have faith in Christ could jeopardize their salvation and guarantee a fast-track to hell through some misstep in word or deed.

'If you put your faith in Christ and trust Him, you can't be snatched away from Him.'

"So, the 'once saved, always saved,' is something a lot of evangelicals would say; that if you are saved, you can't be snatched away from Christ," said Erickson. "Whether or not you are saved — you may think you are and you're not — that's between you and God, not for me to decide. But the general rule is, if you put your faith in Christ and trust Him, you can't be snatched away from Him."

Whereas other denominations might be less committal in their responses, Erickson indicated that those who do not accept Christ, including nonbelievers, are precluded from going to heaven and thereby consigned to hell. This is cause, he acknowledged, for Christians to proselytize.

"I think a lot of denominations that believe in predestination and the doctrine of election are asked, 'Well, why bother doing these things if God's got it and the Holy Spirit's in charge?'" said Erickson. "We are instruments of God's will, and we are called to evangelize, and Christ tells us in the Great Commission to preach, teach, and baptize in His name."

Erickson suggested that hell is likely not egalitarian in the way of the punishments. Accordingly, those unfortunate enough to wind up there having never before heard of Christ won't suffer to the extent of a truly wicked person for all time.

"I don't know that I would say it's PCA because we don't get into it a lot," said Erickson, "[but] I do think that there are levels of separation from God. Those who do terrible things are punished more than those who just never knew Christ."

Just as Dante figured the great minds of antiquity would be stuck in the first circle of Dante's hell, Erickson suggested that there may be gradations of suffering and that such people may just experience "an absence of God as opposed to active punishment."

Downplaying the depths

Blaze News asked Erickson about the efforts by some denominations to downplay the existence of hell. The conservative host indicated that in doing so, they effectively water down Christ's own teachings.

'Christ Himself didn't speak in red letters.'

"I think Jesus Himself spoke more about hell than anyone else in Scripture and for any denomination to downplay hell is downplaying a significant portion of the things Christ talked about," said Erickson.

"I mean, there is an aspect of some Christian denominations that take a red-letter view — that they only pay attention to the red letters in the New Testament, which some editor centuries ago put in," continued Erickson. "Christ Himself didn't speak in red letters, but within those red letters are a lot of discussions of hell, damnation, and judgment. So, to be dismissive of that is to be dismissive of a whole lot of what Christ talked about."

Erickson acknowledged a possible correlation between the narrative elimination of the possibility of hell and the laxation of morals, noting that "'secular, secularism,' translated actually means 'nowism'; that only the here and now matters. And there is a lot of that, I think, that even creeps into the church to be so focused on the here and now that we forget about eternity."

Besides possibly impacting public morality, the effort to discount the existence of hell also has theological implications.

"You know Tim Keller, one of the more famous PCA pastors, before he passed away said, 'Unless you accept that the devil and hell were real, a lot of Scripture doesn't make sense.'"

The story of salvation, too, would be undercut by the notion there is no hell.

"Why do we need to be saved if there is no eternal punishment?" said Erickson.

Additionally, there is a comfort in recognizing hell's existence. After all, oftentimes evildoers escape justice in the temporal realm.

"The doctrine of hell gives me comfort that there are those who are terrible people who will get away with terrible things in this lifetime, but they'll never escape judgment," Erickson told Blaze News. "I wouldn't want to believe in a God that could look on the horrors of this world and say, 'Well, that guy gets in too.'"

While Erickson expressed uncertainty about whether a broader belief in hell might yield social benefits today, he said it certainly helps people of faith, affording them "some level of calibration to, I think, be empathetic to those who are not saved; to understand that this is the best they're going to have; and to be relational and perhaps save those who otherwise would not be with you in heaven."

Rabbi Shana Goldstein Mackler

Rabbi Shana Goldstein Mackler has been serving for 20 years as a rabbi at the Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, where she is now also a senior scholar.

Rabbi Mackler, a teacher at the Hebrew Day School of Central Florida, was voted one of America's Most Inspiring Rabbis in 2016 and is both a founding member of the West Nashville Interfaith Clergy Group and president of the Nashville Board of Rabbis. She and her husband, Army veteran Lt. Col. James Mackler, are the proud parents of two daughters.

At the outset, Rabbi Mackler clarified to Blaze News over the phone that a distinguishing feature of Reform Judaism, of which she is an exponent, when it comes to ritual laws, "Reformed Judaism feels guided by the ritual commandments and the more orthodox feels governed by them."

Heaven on earth and hell in question

Rabbi Mackler emphasized that Jewish views on the afterlife and the possibility of hell differ wildly: "For as many Jews as there are in the world, there's probably that many opinions on the afterlife."

"The texts in virtually every era of Jewish life have some sort of concept of a world where people go when they die. In the Bible, there is this concept of Sheol. It's not very specific," said Rabbi Mackler. "It takes on different names through our rabbinic tradition (e.g., 'Shamayim'), which comes about after the Hebrew Bible was closed."

'We don't focus as much on the next life as we do on this life.'

A lack of textual specificity and the emergence of various interpretations have apparently all but guaranteed the impossibility of consensus, but there appears to be little urgency given the Jewish focus on the here and now as opposed to the hereafter, suggested Rabbi Mackler.

"We don't focus as much on the next life as we do on this life so the concept of that as a reward or punishment is not really the focus of Jewish practice," said the rabbi. "Most of us focus on trying to make whatever our concept of paradise is here on earth."

As for hell, individuals may try to generate pockets of it on earth, but Rabbi Mackler indicated there's no such place awaiting us after death.

'We don't have fire and brimstone.'

"We do not have a concept of hell," said Rabbi Mackler. "We don't have the devil. We don't have fire and brimstone. We don't have any of that. That's not our concept at all. So, I think that's a big difference for us: We just don't have that form of punishment."

There is, however, a minority of Reform Jews — perhaps even among her congregation — who believe otherwise.

An appetite whetted for justice

Rabbi Mackler indicated that over time and through acculturation, particularly when living in diaspora, some Jews have adopted views on the afterlife that may be more recognizable to mainstream Christians.

"Everywhere we went, we were influenced by the people among whom we lived. And so some of the concepts like the Hellenistic concept of Hades — those kind of things you can see finding their way into some literature at some point in time," Rabbi Mackler told Blaze News. "I would say that because hell is very much a [popular] concept in our modern life ... it makes its way into someone's psyche, regardless of their religious focus."

Rabbi Mackler noted that these views also resonated with concepts already in Judaism, particularly in Deuteronomy, which advances the understanding that the righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished. Bereft of a sense of justice in this world, the rabbi noted that the desire for an afterlife became all the more appealing.

"We see lots of things where the wicked people get success or they get elevated or they get famous or whatever the benefit is that they're seeking, and righteous people suffer. So, I think there was a question, and Job actually ultimately asked the question, 'Why do righteous people suffer?'" said Rabbi Mackler. "I think the idea of the world to come was an avenue for that to be worked out."

"So, if it didn't happen in our lifetime for the righteous to be rewarded and the wicked to be punished, I think that was really where it was a need for people to see that for following the rules and keeping all of the commandments that we're supposed to do, it will eventually happen, even though we may not see it in our own lifetime," added the rabbi.

The influence of other cultures' views on hell, the biblically grounded promise of justice, and the human desire to see the haughty fall have apparently prompted some Jews to believe in the existence of hell.

Posthumous waiting room

Rabbi Mackler told Blaze News that while souls may not ultimately face the possibility of hell, some Jews believe in a "sort of waiting period" that souls must endure after death — a "transitional period between the death and maybe the ultimate."

"You know, there is a view of resurrection — not everybody believes in that, but it's collective, it's not an individual resurrection; it's going to be a collective, communal thing at the end of days," said the rabbi. "If that is part of their belief system, there is sort of a waiting period to get there."

The belief in the existence in such a waiting period corresponds with the practice of praying over the course of the year following the death of a loved one, "which is thought to be one of those ways that we can elevate that soul."

Memory and special cases

Truly reprehensible individuals could be altogether precluded from joining the posthumous waiting room, speculated the rabbi. At the very least, their immorality could mean their temporal erasure.

Concerning the person who renounces God or faith or morality in this world, Rabbi Mackler said, "There is a thought that they would be cut off from their kin. The idea of not being part of a community, of alienating yourself like that; like that's the punishment itself. The worst thing that we could have is not leaving a mark in this world, right."

In Reform Judaism — and perhaps Judaism more broadly — memory, morality, and the afterlife appear to be strongly linked.

Alienation from the community could mean annihilation in, at the very least, the worldly sense. After all, the memories of the faithful departed are alternatively kept alive in regular prayers.

"I don't know if you know but there is a concept called the 'minyan,' like not the little yellow guys," said Rabbi Mackler. "It's a quorum, a number of people that's needed for a prayer. So, when Jews get together to pray, we need that quorum for certain prayers to be said. They can pray alone, but the ideal is to pray in community or to read the Torah, the sacred Scriptures, in community or to grieve in community."

"So, that's how memory gets passed on, whether it's out of collective peoples' memory or our individual memories of people," continued the rabbi. "We to this day will read the names of people that none of us knows, but every Friday night when we have our Sabbath prayer, we have what's called Kaddish."

"So, we will recite their names on the anniversary of their passing, and when someone dies, we also have not just on their anniversary, but four times throughout the year on certain holidays, we have a memorial service. So, people are constantly being remembered," added Rabbi Mackler.

Extra to working against the establishment of a better world, the truly wicked person all but guarantees he will not be remembered in this manner.

'It's like nothingness, right.'

"So, the idea that we wouldn't be positively furthering the world — that, in and of itself, not being remembered for our blessing — would be the punishment that we would get," added the rabbi.

'They'll cease to be, perhaps.'

Blaze News pressed the issue of what would happen to a truly evil soul. Rabbi Mackler replied, "A lot of people really think about that, but because they don't really have a formed concept of hell, all we could say is that they will not have a share in the world to come. It's like nothingness, right. They'll cease to be, perhaps. I mean, this is conjecture."

"The only time that we really know about an afterlife is that people are remembered," added Mackler. "And we say, 'remembered for our blessing,' and so that's the legacy we leave and is how people will remember you. For us, that's the worst of the worst, right."

Regarding incentives for good behavior

Rabbi Mackler noted there is a concept of acting out of fear of retribution and punishment "in the Bible, the Torah itself, where there are blessings and curses; if you do these things, if you don't do these things."

While Judaism contains within it a sense that good deeds will be rewarded and bad deeds will be punished, the trouble, according to Rabbi Mackler, is that behavior shaped by external threats of final rewards and punishments is "not the way that a free person behaves."

"That's not the ideal of a free person, a person that's created in the image of God, a person that has agency in this world," said the rabbi. "We're supposed to choose it for ourselves to do right, to do good, instead out of fear of something else coming at the end of our life."

Rabbi Mackler did highlight, however, that moral choices nevertheless have real consequences.

"The punishment itself I think comes from when we don't have a world we want to live in if we create the curses ourselves by the choices that we make collectively," said the rabbi. "So, I think there's that collective responsibility piece that might be more challenging for me to have this idea of each person having a tally, you know: things that will get them into heaven or things that will send them to hell."

In Part I, Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Thomas Collins details the Roman Catholic views on hell and mortal sin, and Rabbi Aron Moss discusses the "kindness" of hell and the nature of Gehinnom.

In Part II, Rev. Fr. Calvin Robinson discusses the reality of hell from a British Old Catholic perspective; Rev. Dr. Lance Haverkamp discusses the Christian Universalist belief that all souls will ultimately be saved, possibly negating the need for hell; Bishop Stephen Andrews provides an Anglican perspective on the darker side of the afterlife; and Dr. Kenneth Green provides historical insights into Jewish views on Gehenna.

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Blaze News original: Understanding hell — Part II



The leading polling outfits all indicate that the majority of American adults believe in hell. The trouble with that determination is that there is a wide range of views on what exactly the word "hell" means.

For existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, hell was apparently other people. As became clear in part one of "Understanding hell," the Jewish conception of hell, or Gehinnom, closely resembles the Roman Catholic conception of purgatory. Meanwhile, hell according to Catholics is an eternal place of torment effectively chosen over God and love by sinners.

Blaze News has endeavored to further explore the particularities of various views on hell.

In part two of "Understanding hell," a British Old Catholic priest, a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Toronto's Department for the Study of Religion, a Christian Universalist executive minister, and an Anglican bishop share their respective thoughts on and insights into the inferno.

Rev. Fr. Calvin Robinson

Rev. Fr. Robinson, formerly a deacon in the Free Church of England, was ordained a priest last year through the Nordic Catholic Church of the Old Catholic denomination of the high church Lutheran patrimony and concluded his service in an Anglican parish in Harlesden, England, last month.

Fr. Robinson has served as a radio presenter, a television presenter for GB News, and as a political adviser, and has worked ardently in various media to defend traditional values in and outside the church.

Blaze News put questions to Fr. Robinson over the phone while he was visiting the Lone Star State.

Eternally apart from God

Fr. Robinson said that belief in the existence of hell is one of the "fundamental pillars of our faith." After all, "Christ came to earth as God incarnate to offer us eternal salvation from eternal damnation."

While through His death and resurrection, Christ has gifted mankind salvation, some may nevertheless opt out. This comes down to a choice: "We get to choose to live forever in Christ or to be damned forever without Him," said Fr. Robinson.

'It is up to us to accept it.'

Hell is the place where those who freely willed themselves into damnation reside for eternity.

Fr. Robinson indicated that we have but our short time on earth to make that choice of infinite consequence, telling Blaze News that "our lives here are so important because we have the opportunity to repent of our sins, to be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit, and to have faith in Christ — to accept the offer of eternal salvation that He gives us. It is up to us to accept it."

When pressed on whether human beings' eternal fates are sealed upon death, Fr. Robinson indicated, "That's what we don't know."

"We don't know what happens the instant we die," said Robinson. "We don't know when judgment takes place, which is why we pray for the souls of the faithful departed. It's why we pray that if they are in a purification process, if they are in some kind of limbo or purgatory, we pray that their journey is increased and they gain entry into heaven. That much is a little bit more vague."

Opposites in the hereafter

Fr. Robinson indicated that hell is the opposite of the Beatific Vision, which is the immediate knowledge of God.

'Hell is the absence of God.'

"If heaven is the Beatific Vision — if heaven is communion with God in ... praise and worship of Him, in an intimate relationship with Him — then hell is the opposite," said Robinson. "Hell is the absence of God. And fear and damnation is the opposite of love and hope."

While opposites in at least this respect, heaven and hell share this much in common: They are both places, said Fr. Robinson.

"[Hell is] absolutely a place. I mean, the words 'physical' or 'spiritual' lose relevance when we're talking about the afterlife," Fr. Robinson told Blaze News. "It's not a place as in like Texas versus Canada. It's not an earthly place. But it is a place that, well — Christ descended into hell to free souls before His resurrection."

Seizing upon Fr. Robinson's allusion to Christ's harrowing of hell, Blaze News revisited the question of whether the damned might have a shot, ultimately, at redemption.

Fr. Robinson clarified that Christ had not rescued the damned from hell after the crucifixion, but rather lost souls who previously had nowhere else to go.

"The word the Bible uses there for hell is 'hades,' right, rather than Gehenna. So, it seems as though that was a place of lost souls rather than damned souls because there was no entry into heaven after the fall — not in the way we have it now," said Robinson. "So basically, when Christ descended into hell, what He was doing was opening the gates of heaven for the lost souls and for the rest of us who have faith in Him."

In darkness, embodied

Blaze News asked Fr. Robinson whether the residents of hell would be conferred their bodies after the resurrection along with the saved in heaven.

"I don't think I've ever been asked that before," said Fr. Robinson, laughing.

Resuming a serious tone, the priest noted that "upon the resurrection, we know that Christ comes from heaven on a cloud and meets us, essentially, halfway, and we are resurrected for our glorified bodies and join Him. ... I think if we refer to Daniel, everyone gets a resurrected body. So, whether it's saved or not saved, everyone gets a resurrected body."

Guaranteed ticket to hell

Fr. Robinson indicated that all sin separates humans from God, but mortal sin poses the greatest threat to their salvation. Fortunately, "We have the sacraments so we can be realigned with the graces of God."

'We also know that the gravest sin is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as well, so we should always be wary of that.'

"So, for example, if we have mortal sin on our soul, then we should repent of our sins to be reassured of our salvation because we can lose our salvation," said Robinson.

While any mortal sin could drag a person down, the priest cautioned against one sin in particular.

"We also know that the gravest sin is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as well, so we should always be wary of that," said Robinson.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is regarded by some Christian theologians as an unpardonable sin, citing various gospel passages, including Matthew 12:30-32 where Christ says:

Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

This warning is repeated in Luke 12:8-10 and Mark 3:28-30, and echoed elsewhere in the New Testament.

Augustine of Hippo said that it is "being unrepentant that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven in this age, nor in the age to come."

Aquinas wrote that "in one way, to sin against the Holy Ghost is to sin through certain malice," specifically by "contemptuously rejecting the things whereby a man is withdrawn from sin." He noted further that it is unpardonable "by reason of its nature, in so far as it removes those things which are a means towards the pardon of sins."

"We should always avoid sin," reiterated Fr. Robinson, "but when we do sin, we should repent of our sins and realign ourselves with Christ."

When pressed on whether non-Christians — those who ostensibly never formally aligned with Christ — were hell-bound, Fr. Robinson responded, "It used to be said that there is no salvation outside of the church. However, we know that Jesus Christ died for all of us. So those who are ignorant of the faith, those who never had access to the faith — we can only hope and assume that God finds a way to reveal Himself to them."

While holding out hope for nonbelievers, Robinson added, "But we know the surest way to salvation is through the church, is through faith in Jesus Christ."

A chastening belief

Fr. Robinson indicated that fear of hell should help orient us toward heaven and God; that we should fear what separates us from God and the judgment that may make definitive that separation.

"We're going to stand there before Jesus Christ one day and atone for our sins. We're going to hope that we've repented of our sins enough and had faith in Him enough to be accepted into heaven," said Robinson. "We should be afraid of the alternative."

'Having fear of hell and having love of heaven go hand in hand.'

Fr. Robinson noted further that "we should be afraid of living out our lives focused towards hell because it's not somewhere we want to be. We want to be in heaven. Having fear of hell and having love of heaven go hand in hand. It's difficult to have one without the other."

A waning belief in hell may correspond with an increase in immorality because it takes consequence off the table, suggested Fr. Robinson.

"If there is no hell, you can do what you like — it doesn't matter. We center our lives on Christ and we do things out of love, of course, but we also have to do things out of fear of hell because if we don't, then we are passive. Then we have dead faith," said the priest.

Rev. Dr. Lance Haverkamp

Rev. Dr. Lance Haverkamp, executive minister of the Christian Universalist Association, studied at Denver Seminary and at the Wagner Leadership Institute, earning a master's degree and a doctorate in practical ministry.

The Christian Universalist Association is a "loose association of CU congregations, who provides needed coordination for things like military and hospital chaplaincy, globally recognized ordination."

Rev. Dr. Haverkamp shared some Christian Universalist insights into hell and salvation with Blaze News via email.

All are saved

In the first complete American translation of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy," Canto III opens with a description of the vestibule of hell:

Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost. ...
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
"All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

Those Christian Universalists who believe that this antechamber sees regular traffic apparently believe there is ample cause for hope.

Rev. Dr. Haverkamp told Blaze News that Christian Universalists generally believe that "through the saving work of Jesus Christ, all people will ultimately be reconciled to God."

Accordingly, hell, should it exist, is not a place of eternal torment but rather a place for correction, not wholly unlike Gehinnom as described by Rabbi Aron Moss.

Rev. Dr. Haverkamp noted that while Christian Universalists largely see eye-to-eye on the big picture, there is "diversity of thought" on the specifics. He identified three main branches of Christian Universalist thought:

  • "Patristic Universalists, following the teachings of many early church fathers, believe that those who reject God in this life will undergo temporary correction in the afterlife, but will eventually repent and be saved. They see this correction as real, but not eternal. This was the majority belief, for the first 500 years of the early church."
  • "Liberal Christian Universalists tend to downplay the idea of any correction. Many believe all are saved immediately upon death, without any corrective period. Opinions vary on whether correction is literal or metaphorical. They tend to take Christ's statement that 'It is finished' literally."
  • "Charismatic Universalists, coming from Pentecostal backgrounds, retain a more fundamentalist view of a correction, and of the end times. However, they still see correction as temporary, and believe all will ultimately be restored through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ."

This belief — in the ultimate reconciliation of all — is based on a scriptural understanding "of God's boundless love, Christ's victory over sin and death, and God's desire for all to be saved," said Rev. Dr. Haverkamp.

While Haverkamp alluded to other scriptural passages, he specifically referenced 1 Timothy 2:4, 1 Corinthians 15:22, and John 3:17 as verses bolstering the belief in universal salvation.

The first passage notes that "God our Savior ... wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." The chapter goes on to note that Jesus "gave Himself as a ransom for all people."

The second passage, in 1 Corinthians, notes that "for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."

The third passage states, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."

Blaze News staff writer Christopher Enloe highlighted several additional verses that hint at the salvation of all, including Romans 5:18-21, which states:

Just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rev. Dr. Haverkamp said, "We understand biblical references to a correction for unbelievers as real warnings, but see them in light of larger themes of redemption and reconciliation."

Bishop Stephen Andrews

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Andrews is the principal of Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. The American-born Anglican served as the bishop of the Diocese of Algoma from 2009 to 2016.

A graduate of Cambridge University and Wycliffe College, Andrews has explored the Jewish biblical interpretation of the Second Temple period and taught courses on the prophets of Israel, the Pauline epistles, the development of Christian thought, St. Mark's Gospel, and Christian worship. He is also a father of two, a grandfather, and a woodworker.

Bishop Andrews responded to Blaze News' questions via email.

The gray town once visited by Christ

Bishop Andrews indicated that there is "no consistent doctrine of hell in Anglicanism, but to the extent that we affirm the Creeds."

The Anglican Church, which does not define its doctrine in a single confession, affirms in multiple creeds and in the church's 39 Articles of Religion that Christ descended into hell.

The hell referenced in Article III in reference to the divine descent is "widely interpreted as 'the place of departed spirits,'" said Bishop Andrews.

When asked whether hell could be conceived of as a place, Andrews replied, "Of course it is 'conceived of' as a place because of the imagery the Bible uses to describe it. But many understand these images metaphorically, and hold that hell is better thought of as a state of being."

The bishop added that C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" is "quite evocative in this way."

Lewis' hell is a gray town devoid of joy and subject to constant rain. While only a bus-stop away from the periphery of heaven, the souls inhabiting the place are more often than not self-made captives to pride, vice, and/or delusion.

'There will be a new heaven and new earth. But these are also understood as realms of the spiritual.'

"Once again, because of the images Scripture uses, earth, heaven and hell are conceived of as spatial," said Bishop Andrews. "Heaven and earth are also described in temporal language, so there will be a new heaven and new earth. But these are also understood as realms of the spiritual. Lewis's 'gray town' is a literary image that invite[s] us to think of the spiritual (and psychological) aspects [of] eternity."

The traditional view is that the occupants of the heavenly and hellish spaces both "inhabit resurrected bodies (Matthew 25), though theologians since the time of Augustine have struggled to understand this," said Bishop Andrews. The embodied in the latter camp may not be long for existence, according to some Anglicans.

Despite the variability in Anglican beliefs on hell, Bishop Andrews indicated that "many do believe it is eternal, though many would adopt a conditionalist or annihilationist reading of the biblical text."

According to conditionalism, the damned, having rejected the gift of immortality conditional upon belief in Jesus Christ, will ultimately be erased from existence rather than suffering eternally in hell.

Salvation beyond the grave

When asked about the apparent insinuation in the Rainer fragment of the apocryphal Apocalypse of Peter that the damned could ultimately be saved, Bishop Andrews clarified that "there is a section in this fragment where those who are saved see the torment of the damned and pray for their salvation. There is no biblical warrant for this, though the practice of praying for the dead comes from the earliest centuries of the Christian church."

"In this case, the teaching of the Catholic Church is that those being prayed for exist in purgatory (i.e., the fate of the damned is unalterable)," said Bishop Andrews.

The Anglican Church, meanwhile, discounts the existence of purgatory, stating in Article XXII, "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God."

Bishop Andrews noted, however, that those Anglicans "who pray for the dead may have some vague idea of an intermediary state the dead inhabit for a time."

Such prayers would apparently be wasted on those who deliberately reject God. Bishop Andrews indicated such rebels "will not be forced to live with God for eternity."

Judaic roots and divine justice

While Jesus' description of hell was taken from the Hebrew Bible, Bishop Andrews indicated that the concept metamorphized in Hellenistic cosmology, where Sheol and Gehenna became Hades and hell.

"In the Hellenistic period, hell becomes more straightforwardly understood as a place associated with punishment," said the bishop.

'A balance of perspective is required.'

The promise of hell as punishment, as an expression of divine justice, can be beneficial in this mortal realm. Bishop Andrews said that this understanding of hell "can guide moral behavior and be the basis of social cohesion."

However, the "prospect of heaven can also be a source of hope for those who live in discouragement and despair," said the bishop. "But a balance of perspective is required, lest someone think that salvation is a matter of living a virtuous life."

Dr. Kenneth Green

Dr. Kenneth Green is a professor at the University of Toronto's Department for the Study of Religion where he specializes in Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion. Green has written extensively on the thought of Leo Strauss, whom he figures for one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century.

Green, who earned his doctorate in Jewish philosophy at Brandeis University, is presently working on a book tentatively titled, "What Moses Saw: Maimonidean Meditations, or On the Torah as a Speculative Teaching." His latest book, "The Philosophy of Emil Fackenheim: From Revelation to the Holocaust," was published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press.

Green responded to Blaze News' questions via email.

Hell, depending on who you ask

Dr. Green indicated that "Jewish views on hell are a complicated matter" and that there is no "simple, single view of hell in Judaism." While there is certainly a concept of hell in Judaism, some faith groups give it more consideration than others.

The hell of the Jews, Gehinnom, derives its name from a valley surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem. Dr. Green noted that this particular valley, the Vale of Hinnom, was referred to in the Book of Jeremiah "as the location in which Jews who had succumbed to idolatry sacrificed their children (Jeremiah 7:31 and 19:2-6), which the prophet cursed as a horrifying deed."

While sharing the valley's name, Gehinnom is a spiritual locale, albeit possessing a "quasi-physical aspect," said Dr. Green.

"It is not precisely clear just how it stands 'geographically' in relation to heaven and earth, but it is clearly somehow 'beneath' the world, following the word 'Sheol' in the Book of Numbers, Job, and Samuel," continued Dr. Green. "It is unclear what happens in it, whether it is reward and punishment or only eternal sleep."

'Hitler and his Nazis would qualify for such a sentence.'

When pressed about Gehinnom's possible eternal nature, Dr. Green noted that "Hell is 'eternal' — for some. A theological debate has erupted at several points in Jewish history about whether it is 'eternal,' or only seemingly so, i.e., until the Messiah arrives = the redemption occurs, which will be a historical event."

Dr. Green indicated that some Jews believe that there are some sins "so great as to preclude a soul's ascent to heaven ever, hence guaranteeing one's permanent sentence of punishment in hell for eternity."

"In our era, Hitler and his Nazis would qualify for such a sentence, and probably some terrorists also," added Dr. Green.

Rabbi Moss, who spoke to Blaze News in Part One, and Rabbi Shana Goldstein Mackler, whose insights are featured in Part Three, have both expressed the alternative belief that wicked persons who have evidenced an unwavering commitment to evil may instead be annihilated for good.

Hell, under development

Dr. Green noted that the Jewish concept of hell has changed periodically over the ages.

"For the ancients, it was not as defined clearly or in detail," said Green. "Then it became defined clearly and in detail in the medieval era."

Now, the professor indicated it is "much vaguer" for most Jews, with some moderns even discounting the need for such a concept.

While the Christian concept of hell is rooted in the Jewish tradition, Dr. Green noted it still plays a much bigger role, "or at least in orthodox Christian belief."

Dr. Green noted that extra to having greater significance in some forms of Christianity, "It's also different in being defined in greater detail and pictured in Christian tradition almost from the beginning."

Another distinction is that whereas some Christians attest that entry to heaven is conditional on faith in Christ, "Heaven isn't believed to be reserved only for Jews," said Dr. Green.

"The most famous and authoritative statement on this point is that any Gentile who observes the basic religious laws (no idolatry allowed) and the basic moral laws ('the seven commandments of Noah') qualify for the reward of eternal life," added the professor.

The Noahide Laws prohibit the worship of idols, the cursing of God, the commission of murder, the commission of adultery or sexual immorality, stealing, and the consumption of flesh torn from a living animal. The seventh law requires the establishment of courts of justice.

In Part One, Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Thomas Collins details the Roman Catholic views on hell and mortal sin, and Rabbi Aron Moss discusses the "kindness" of hell and the nature of Gehinnom.

In Part Three, Rabbi Shana Goldstein Mackler provides some Reformed Jewish thoughts on the prospect of hell and the afterlife, and American conservative talk radio host and writer Erick Erickson goes deep on the Presbyterian Church in America's views on perdition.

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Blaze News original: Understanding hell — Part I



The Pew Research Center indicated in a December report that 71% of Americans believe in heaven, 61% believe in hell, and 60% believe in both. Gallup and AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research surveys conducted last year turned up similar results. American Christians appear to be keeping these numbers north of 50%.

A 2021 Pew survey revealed that 92% of American Christians signaled a belief in the existence of heaven and 79% said they believed in the existence of hell. By way of comparison, 37% of the unaffiliated camp — which included atheists, agnostics, and "nothing[s] in particular" — said they believe in heaven and 28% said they believed in hell.

A survey now 10 years old indicated that American Jews, meanwhile, are on the whole far more skeptical than even the unaffiliated camp concerning the existence of hell: 22% said they believed in hell, and 70% said they didn't subscribe to the notion.

While many Americans believe that the moral choices they make today could prove eternally consequential for their immortal souls, there are some resistant to the possibility that they might one day face judgment and be found wanting. There are others yet who have taken an active role in reassuring believers that they have nothing to worry about in the way of eternal damnation.

David Bentley Hart, the philosopher who penned "That All Shall Be Saved," is among those keen to discount the existence of hell and shame Bible-citing cautioners. Hart suggested in the New York Times that the corresponding belief is not only biblically unjustified but an anachronistic "instrument of social stability."

Derek Ryan Kublius, an ordained elder in the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, similarly figures the belief in hell to be a means of controlling people, blaming the belief largely on alleged biblical mistranslations.

While the likes of Kublius and Hart figure that when it comes to hell, it's more than just the gates that won't prevail, psychologists and bloggers working on eudemonistic presumptions about earthly priorities have warned that a belief in hell might adversely affect mental health and moods.

Given the stakes and the enduring controversy about hell, it is worthwhile reviewing what is meant by "hell" — is it a place, a state of being, or both? Is hell eternal or a temporary means to purification? What action could guarantee a man's placement "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched"?

Blaze News put these and other questions to a Catholic cardinal; a British Old Catholic priest; a high-profile conservative member of the Presbyterian Church in America; an Anglican bishop; the executive minister of the Christian Universalist Association; a professor of Jewish studies; an Australian rabbi; and an American Reform rabbi.

In what follows, the accomplished constituents of this octet provide their respective views on the thing of nightmares that haunts the bottom of many a Renaissance painting and perhaps existence itself: Gehenna, the inferno, Hades – hell.

Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Thomas Collins

After earning degrees in theology and English in 1973 and becoming a priest the same year, Cardinal Collins studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, specializing in sacred scripture and the Book of Revelation. He received his licentiate in sacred Scripture in 1978 and a doctorate in theology in 1986.

Cardinal Collins has held various academic appointments and leadership roles in the decades since. In addition to his appointment to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, Cardinal Collins ran Canada's largest archdiocese from 2007 until last year.

'Dogma takes its stand on solid ground when it speaks of the existence of Hell and of the eternity of its punishment.'

At the outset of his phone interview with Blaze News, Cardinal Collins referenced three writers with penetrating insights into hell whom he indicated were worth readers' consideration.

The first: St. Thomas Aquinas, whose supplements 97-99 to "The Summa Theologica" detail the nature and physicality of hell and its torments; the will and intellect of the damned; and the endlessness of hell.

The second: the late American Jesuit priest James V. Schall, who noted in "The Modern Age," "Hell, in its original teaching, was a final guarantee of justice. If rightly understood, it is rather a positive teaching, even a freeing one. Hell has too few defenders, not that we advise anyone to choose the place."

The third: Pope Benedict XVI's 1977 book, "Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life," wherein the late pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, noted, "No quibbling helps here: the idea of eternal damnation, which had taken ever clearer shape in the Judaism of the century or two before Christ, has a firm place in the teaching of Jesus, as well as in the apostolic writings. Dogma takes its stand on solid ground when it speaks of the existence of Hell and of the eternity of its punishment."

Hell exists and is eternal

'The second death is a death over which we have some choice by how we live, and we would call that hell.'

Cardinal Collins confirmed to Blaze News that the Catholic Church believes that hell exists, that it is a place, that it is "eternal punishment for those who are guilty of what we call deadly or mortal sin," and that this understanding is supported by the sacred scriptures.

The cardinal highlighted several biblical passages referencing hell, including:

  • Chapter 16 of Luke, where the poor man Lazarus dies, then goes to the bosom of Abraham, whereas the rich man dies and goes to hell;
  • Matthew 25:31-46, which notes that Christ the judge will separate all the nations as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and will say to those at his left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"; and
  • Chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation, which says "Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

Cardinal Collins noted that whereas we all experience the first death, which is unavoidable, "the second death is a death over which we have some choice by how we live, and we would call that hell."

Infernal physicality

When asked about the physicality of hell, Cardinal Collins said that most of the imagery in the scriptures is natural and "comes from something physical on earth like Gehenna."

"So the imagery is there. It is fire. But immediately after death, we're spirits. We know the body is not there. At the resurrection, however, it is," said Collins. "I think the imagery [of hell as a fiery, physical place] is like angels' wings. It expresses something profoundly true, but the imagery being used is natural, it's earthly. It speaks to a truth, but we don't know."

Cardinal Collins underscored that "when we're talking about the ultimate things, the resurrection of the body, we're talking about something we don't understand. Even the risen body. What is it? What do we mean? The only example we have is Jesus after the resurrection, which we have descriptions of. So our mind is really not quite prepared to figure out what it means."

Choosing hell

Cardinal Collins indicated that hell is chosen.

'The collateral side effect of having the freedom to love is, obviously, we also have the freedom not to, and that can lead us away from God.'

"[Life on earth] is a time where we are challenged to make choices. We have free will. That's at the heart of the Catholic teaching on the existence and reality of hell — is free will," said Collins. "If we are to be free to love God, we have to be free to the alternative. Freedom is a key point here."

"The collateral side effect of having the freedom to love is, obviously, we also have the freedom not to and that can lead us away from God," said Collins.

While God wants us to be with Him forever and gives us His grace, Collins indicated sinners can nevertheless "swim against the stream" of His grace and love toward hell.

The unholy trinity

The sinners' damning rejection of the holy Trinity often takes the form of self-worship.

'We get caught up in these little islands of autonomy. Ego.'

Reflecting back on 51 years of hearing confessions, Cardinal Collins said that one of the common penances he gives is, "Say one Our Father and think on the words: 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,' because most frequently we say, 'My kingdom come, my will be done.' We get caught up in these little islands of autonomy. Ego."

"Instead of worshiping the blessed Trinity in whose image we're made — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three persons, one God, joined together in love — we worship the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. We implode into ourselves. And that moral spiritual black hole is hell. That's what leads to hell," said Collins.

Just as worship of this unholy trinity amounts to a pre-emptive descent into hell while still alive, Collins said heaven similarly begins on earth.

"It's not completed, but it begins on earth when we love other people with a generous love, when we live in the imitation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the way the second person of the Trinity showed us how to do it in the midst of this wicked world," said Collins.

Guaranteeing real estate in hell

Cardinal Collins told Blaze News that Catholics believe that sinners can secure their spots in hell by committing "what's called deadly, fatal, or mortal sin."

For an action to qualify as deadly sin, Collins noted three criteria must be satisfied: the action must be seriously evil; the actor must know that the act is wrong; and the actor must commit it freely.

'If any of those things are missing, we're not talking about mortal sin.'

Cardinal Collins referenced the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 and other such massacres as "unspeakably evil" acts fulfilling, at the very least, the first criterion. He noted that extra to non-defensive killing, other actions that would qualify as intrinsically evil would be adultery and abortion, adding that Pope John Paul II provides great clarity on this matter in his encyclical "Veritatis Splendor."

In terms of the second criterion, Cardinal Collins raised the hypothetical of a child who unwittingly kills a number of people after picking up a gun. While the act itself is evil, the absence of knowledge means it is not a mortal sin. After all, even with conscience present, the child had no idea what effect the weapon would have.

The third criteria, that the act must be executed freely, might not be satisfied in cases of mental and medical compromise or coercion.

"So mortal sin is serious evil, knowingly done with complete knowledge, and freely done. If any of those things are missing, we're not talking about mortal sin," said Collins.

The hell-bound society

Blaze News sidetracked the conversation to press Cardinal Collins about whether a society that regularly commits intrinsically evil acts, abortion in particular, would be hell-bound if its population was propagandized into thinking the acts amoral or even good, thereby putting a mortal sin criterion into question.

"Would somebody growing up with a society having their mind twisted by false teachings — swimming through a sea of lies — can they be held morally accountable as they should be for a mortal sin? I would say that's a very good point. I think that is a limitation on their freedom," said Collins.

'We have within us — everyone does, not just people of faith — a basic understanding of right and wrong.'

The cardinal said that on the one hand, "I think our society is so corrupt in its valuation that people can honestly, to some degree at least, they cannot know these things are wrong and/or they might have pressure to do them if they don't have the freedom."

On the other hand, Cardinal Collins emphasized that "there is still conscience."

"We have within us — everyone does, not just people of faith — a basic understanding of right and wrong," said the cardinal. "Now, it can be weakened and corrupted by society, but I think we can’t simply say, 'Oh well, society made me do it.'"

Heaven's antechamber

While Cardinal Collins said Catholics noted that while there are ultimately two destinations after death, there is also a purification process for heaven-bound souls.

"Purgatory is another part of Catholic teaching. It's not — some think of it as a temporary hell, you know, like fire and stuff like that, but just for a short time. That's not the way to look at it. It's not true," said Collins. "Purgatory, purification, is part of heaven. You might call it the antechamber to heaven, and it's a state of purification."

'There's no use praying for people in heaven because they don’t need it or in hell because they can't use it.'

Cardinal Collins indicated that purification can begin long before stepping foot in heaven's antechamber and can take the form of "the struggles of this earth."

Regarding the post-death variety of purification, Collins indicated Catholics pray for the souls of the dead who may not have been fully purified.

"There's no use praying for people in heaven because they don’t need it or in hell because they can't use it. We pray for people who have died and that's found in the Old Testament, in Maccabees," said Collins. "It's a good and noble thing to pray for the dead. That’s what we do at our funerals."

"That's why I don't like it, it's so wrong — I mean, it's understandable, but it's so inadequate — when our funerals are canonizations of people. ... We pray for people that if they are not fully in communion with God yet, they will be purified and they will be with the Lord," added the cardinal.

Hell's relevance

"Hell is part of our faith, but it's not the heart of our faith," Collins told Blaze News. "It's sort of an obvious corollary to freedom, and it's all over the scriptures. It's there in the faith of the church. Yeah, there it is."

In terms of his ministry, Cardinal Collins indicated that hell comes up quite frequently, as he regularly saysLeo XIII's prayer to St. Michael and asks Christ to "save us from the fires of hell" when praying the Rosary. However, he insisted that the Catholic faith is not centered on fear of hell but rather on the love of God.

"If we're dwelling on hell all the time, I think that's not spiritually healthy. But if we ignore it, I think we're naïve, and that’s also not spiritually healthy. The focus of our life is the love of God and living that way," said Collins.

Cardinal Collins summarized the matter thusly:

I would simply say that freely loving God is what God makes us for. If we're going to freely love God, the alternative has to be there that we don't. I think history and simple common sense reveal to us that that happens in life — that people totally go against the love of God.

Look at the horrible things — just look at the last century, at reality, at the horrible things done. And that reality to have the freedom to say no to God is the foundation for the fact, the reality of hell. But hell is not the main thing. We focus on the love of God.

Rabbi Aron Moss

Rabbi Aron Moss is the rabbi at Nefesh Center in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of "Can I Name My Dog Israel: Life Questions That Aren't So Black & White" and a prolific writer whose insights into a broad range of topics, including Jewish mysticism, frequently appear on Chabad.org as well as on his podcast entitled, "Two Jews, Three Opinions."

Rabbi Moss spoke to Blaze News over the phone about the Jewish beliefs regarding the afterlife and the idea of hell, specifically Gehinnom — alternatively pronounced "Gehenna" — as a "great kindness."

Hell exists by another name — but it's neither physical nor eternal

'To be able to get there you need to cleanse yourself of any negative residue that you accumulated during your lifetime.'

Rabbi Moss indicated that he and his congregation "certainly do believe in hell" but noted that hell is an English word with its own connotations. When responding to questions about hell, Rabbi Moss specifically referred to Gehinnom.

Unlike the hell described by Cardinal Collins, Rabbi Moss indicated that Gehinnom is a temporary state that prepares souls for heaven.

"So almost every human being leaves this world with some residue of negativity from their sins, the things they've done wrong in this lifetime," Rabbi Moss told Blaze News. "In order to be able to reach the afterlife, which we call the Garden of Eden, paradise — a place where we enjoy the closeness to God — to be able to get there you need to cleanse yourself of any negative residue that you accumulated during your lifetime."

Bodiless and on the go

Gehinnom serves as a "spiritual washing machine to rid the soul of the residue of negativity that accumulated while in the body," said Moss.

Despite its physical description in sacred texts, Gehinnom is completely spiritual, as is the rest of the Jewish afterlife.

'It's a good exchange rate that we have: A bit of suffering in this world is worth a lot in the next world.'

"The body turns to the dust where it came from, the soul returns to God and on the way to its return to God may go through that cleansing, and it's a purely spiritual state," said Moss. "Any physical terminology we use, like, you know, the fires of Gehinnom or anything like that, are purely metaphorical to understand what that cleansing is."

What is described as fire may instead reflect the feeling that results from a soul's confrontation with its earthly past.

"One depiction of Gehinnom is that the soul has to face its behavior that it's done over its lifetime and by looking back at your behavior from the perspective of truth, when you're in the world of truth," said Rabbi Moss. "So just the shame and the embarrassment of looking back at our misdemeanors and our wrongdoings — that shame itself is like the fire of Gehennim, the heat that we feel in the embarrassment. The soul feels that embarrassment, and that itself is the cleansing."

Like Collins, Rabbi Moss indicated that purification can also take place on earth.

"If we go through pain and suffering in this world, then that is a cleansing of our soul, and a small amount of suffering in this world will exempt us from a large amount of suffering in the next world," said Moss. "It's a good exchange rate that we have: A bit of suffering in this world is worth a lot in the next world."

Some souls too dirty to launder

Rabbi Moss indicated that there are some souls too wicked to be allowed into Gehinnom.

'Once you've studied in Kabbalah, you can see it in the Hebrew Bible.'

"They may be sent back down in a form of reincarnation to fix things on earth. There may be unfinished business that rather than being cleansed, you maybe need to go back down and reverse it in another lifetime," said Moss.

When pressed about the nature of that reincarnation, Rabbi Moss noted that the Hebrew Bible does not go into great detail about what happens to the soul or discuss Gehinnom at length but does, however, provide hints.

"These ideas are much more found in the Kabbalah, the mystical side of Judaism," said Moss. "But once you've studied in Kabbalah, you can see it in the Hebrew Bible."

Rabbi Moss noted that the story of Jonah and the whale serves as a prime example.

"So the Kabbalists understand that as talking about the process of reincarnation. The soul that has a mission to fulfill in this world, and if you don't fulfill that mission, so you can be reincarnated in non-human form," said Moss. "You might find yourself in the belly of a fish. Eventually, you'll be spat up on dry land to be reincarnated in human form and to fulfill the mission that you didn't do last time."

While some souls too wicked initially for Gehinnom may be afforded the opportunity to settle their earthly affairs and try again, Rabbi Moss indicated there are other cases of people whose "evil is so entrenched, so connected to them, that Gehinnom — the sort of external cleansing is not enough."

"The [person's] soul would have to be completely destroyed," said Moss. "And that's a very extreme thing. We're not talking about the garden-variety person who may have done wrong. We've all done wrong. We're talking about somebody who is evil incarnate. I guess Hitler is the one we always use as the example. So someone of that level of evil: It's not enough for them to go through some time of cleansing. That's a different story.

Hell as a great kindness

Blaze News asked Rabbi Moss why hell was a "great kindness," which he has previously suggested elsewhere. He underscored that unlike the hell of eternal torment, Gehinnom is a short route to paradise.

Rabbi Moss noted that "ultimately, the journey of the soul is to reunite with God and to connect deeply and profoundly with our Divine source. That's really where the soul is headed to. In order to get there, we have to get rid of all of the blockages that would prevent us from joining that union with God."

Gehinnom is a kindness for aiding souls in that regard.

"It's not an idea of eternal damnation, and it's [in] order to get to a higher place," said Moss.

More prayers for the dead

Just as Catholics pray for the souls of the dead, so too do Jews. But instead of praying for souls believed to be in purgatory, they pray for the souls transitioning through Gehinnom.

"Jewish tradition believes that the average wicked person has twelve months of cleansing. So in our Jewish tradition, if somebody passes away, their friends will pray for the departed, and we actually say those prayers called Kaddish. It's a prayer that allows the soul to be elevated," said Rabbi Moss.

The rabbi noted that it is customary to pray for the departed for 11 months and not 12, to signal an understanding the decedent was not wholly wicked.

Gehinnom's relevance

While Jews generally believe in the afterlife, Rabbi Moss indicated they don't place great emphasis on heaven or hell.

"We do see it as an important element of faith, but it's not central to our belief system, meaning we do good because it's good, not because we're going to get rewarded," said Rabbi Moss. "We avoid evil because it's wrong, not because we're going to get punished."

Rabbi Moss acknowledged that the prospect of eternal punishment or reward can serve as an incentive and is "necessary for our moral structure" but, again, is not central — especially not a great deal more focus assigned to the here and now.

"We believe that being good and doing good is much more about this world — making this world into heaven rather than going to heaven, and also that the bad that we do makes a hell down here and creates suffering down here," said Moss. "That's much more our purpose — is the here and now."

In "Blaze Originals: Understanding hell – Part II," Rev. Fr. Calvin Robinson discusses the reality of hell from a British Old Catholic perspective; Rev. Dr. Lance Haverkamp discusses the Christian Universalist belief that all souls will ultimately be saved, possibly negating the need for hell; Bishop Stephen Andrews provides an Anglican perspective on the darker side of the afterlife; and Dr. Kenneth Green provides historical insights into Jewish views on Gehenna.

In Part III, Rabbi Shana Goldshein provides some Reformed Jewish thoughts on the prospect of hell and the afterlife; and American conservative talk radio host and writer Erick Erickson goes deep on the Presbyerian Church in America's views on perdition.

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Hozier’s ‘Inferno’-Inspired EP Goes Through Hell And Back But Still Rejects Redemption

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-03-at-8.23.28 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-03-at-8.23.28%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Even after rising from terrible experiences, Hozier admits he won't reject the sins that led him through hell in the first place.

Stephen Colbert shredded for bit about Ronald Reagan in hell with demons 'dancing around' him 'chanting' he 'should've addressed the AIDS crisis'



Late-night TV host Stephen Colbert is getting shredded on social media for his bit about Ronald Reagan in hell with demons "dancing around" him and "chanting" that the former president "should've addressed the AIDS crisis."

What are the details?

The host of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Wednesday's episode ripped Republican politicians — and "independent, nonpartisan journalists" at Fox News — over U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failing to garner enough votes to become the new speaker of the House.

At one point the Colbert show played a clip of a frustrated Sean Hannity on Fox News wondering what Reagan would say about the ongoing drama on Capitol Hill.

With that, a delighted Colbert reacted by doing what the Hollywood Reporter characterized as an impression of Reagan being "awoken from the dead":

Uh, where am I? Everything was so dark for so long, and then there were these demons dancing around me chanting ... "you should have addressed the AIDS crisis when you had the chance." Then I woke up all of a sudden. Mommy!

As his audience dutifully laughed, clapped, and cheered, Colbert grimaced and seemingly mimicked poking Reagan with a pitchfork.

Here's the clip:

\u201c.\u2066@StephenAtHome\u2069 \u201cjokes\u201d Ronald Reagan is in Hell after failing to \u201caddress\u201d the AIDS epidemic\u201d
— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott) 1672920009

How are folks reacting?

Given the audience reaction to Colbert's impression of Reagan, no doubt there are many out there who also loved it. But others felt quite differently:

  • "What a scumbag Colbert is," one commenter said.
  • "Colbert is an ignorant fool," another user declared.
  • "He'll find out what hell is about soon enough," another user opined. "I doubt he'll see Reagan there, though."
  • "Has he ever spoken to his good buddy Tony Fauci about his role in the early days of the AIDS crisis?" another commenter wondered.
  • "Of course, this is an utter lie that was used to smear Reagan, but I guess the historically ignorant love to prove how truly ignorant they are," another wrote.

On that note, a link to an article on the Independent Gay Forum Culture Watch — originally published in 2003 for National Review Online — showed up in the comments as well. "The Truth about Reagan and AIDS" makes a case that the narrative that Reagan "did nothing, or worse, about AIDS and hated gays, to boot, are both tired, left-wing lies about an American legend."

A later author's note on the article also contests a widely held "myth" that Reagan never uttered the acronym "AIDS" until 1987 when he actually did so during a 1985 press conference. In addition, the author's note asserts that "total federal HIV/AIDS expenditures grew from $0 to $5.727 billion" under Reagan, which "belies the notion that he 'did nothing' about this vicious disease."

Portal to Hell Opening? | 11/18/22

Portal to Hell Opening? | 11/18/22

In Speech Walkback, Biden Now Admits He’s The Real Threat To Democracy

Two months before the November midterms, Biden went on a 30-minute tirade branding his political opposition as threats to the republic.