Is Hell Eternal?

Until I was about 21 years old, I would have answered, “Of course, hell is eternal. The Catholic Church says so and all the rest of the churches do too.” When I started thinking of a truly loving God, I started reconsidering the idea of eternal damnation.

Those who support the concept of eternal punishment base their case on Biblical quotations and free will. When you read the quotations about everlasting fire, it appears to be an open and shut case. However, there are far more quotations about God’s love and forgiveness. “His mercy endures forever,” according to the Psalms. The quotations about eternal fire for sinners are few. An examination of the eternal fire quotations have to be seen in a context of other quotations that show a metaphorical meaning rather than always a literal meaning.

No one with a scientific background who will say that creation took place in 6 days or even 6 million years. The idea of the story is that God did it. Likewise, Jesus tells us to pluck you eye out if it is a cause of temptation. However, no Christian church has ever endorsed mutilation as a response to temptation. Jesus wanted to emphasize that people who followed him should make extraordinary efforts not to fall into temptation.

Matthew’s gospel (27:51-53) tells us that after Jesus’ crucifixion, some dead people in the Jerusalem area came back to life, got out of their graves and spoke to many residents. This is the quotation: “And look! The curtain secluding the Holiest Place in the Temple was split apart from too to bottom; and the earth shook, and rocks broke, and tombs opened, and godly men and women who had died came back to life again. After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the cemetery and went into Jerusalem, and appeared to many people there.” Had this truly happened, there would have been shock waves in the Palestine and other parts of the Roman Empire. There would have been investigations by the Romans. As it is, there is no other record of this described event anywhere outside this gospel. The historian Josephus made no reference to this event. The event did not happen. Matthew wanted to let people know that something extraordinary did happen. Jesus’ death and resurrection was a big deal.

The conclusion is that many parts of the Bible are hyperbole, a fancy term for exaggeration to emphasize the points by the gospel writers. If the references to everlasting fire are seen as hyperbole, then the message is that you should not sin because there are negative consequences.

The Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which has some basis in Scripture, is the answer for the negative consequences. God gives pardon to everyone including Hitler and Stalin after they have repented long enough.

Some people feel that without Hell, there is no free will. An examination of purgatory with a comparison to the criminal justice system allows free will. Every criminal trial has two phases, determination of guilt and sentencing for the guilty. People are free to sin (reject God) and realize after death that they did wrong and that sins have consequences. My theory is that no sentence from a loving God would last forever. There would eventually be a pardon.

The current idea of God would make him, her or it far more barbaric than Hitler or Stalin. After all, those dictators could only torture you for a limited number of years, not forever.

Since I am a Catholic, I hope that there is some flexibility in all the previous church statements on Hell. If there is no room for discussion, the church is in real trouble. In Europe, I imagine that there are more people who feel like I do and the discrepancy between a loving God and eternal Hell is one of many reasons to blow off church as a part of your life.

The official line of the Catholic Church is that its doctrine does not change. It certainly hardens and softens over time. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 took a hard line in declaring an eternal Hell. The Council of Constance in 1442 took an even harder line declaring that those outside the Church, Jews, heretics and schismatics would suffer eternal fire. The Church has softened since then and hopefully will soften some more.

God in his or her infinite mercy probably has a flexible response. The Catholic idea of purgatory would allow for different punishments for different offenses.

Let there be mercy for all and not just some.

Ed O’Rourke is an environmental accountant who lives in and grew up in Houston.