In my second blog I posited that those in hell would create it themselves by their disobedient nature. I also tried to show how this is not an impossible outcome by the example of NAZI Germany and how it became basically a hell on Earth. Similarly, the godless communist philosophy of the former Soviet Union turned Russia in a hell on Earth. But those not acquainted with the Bible will say, God’s book, the Bible, never says anything close to: God will let the people He judges as not suitable for heaven create hell. Some will say, in fact, the Bible never even implies it. To that I would say take a look at Romans 1:16-32. They are as follows with commentary after each verse or group of related verses.
Verse 16:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek.”
Commentary: this indicates that what follows is for eternal salvation of all that believe – both Jew and gentile.
Verse 17:
“For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faiths it is written: The just man liveth by faith”
Commentary: God’s justice is meted out, in the next world, in its fullness, but as we saw in my second blog, the lesson, as to what results in not following God’s law is seen to be true in this world, so that it can be extrapolated as a natural result, if the behavior discussed is carried into the next world. In other words, God lets us see, in this world, that what he says is true for human nature in general and, though Catholics know God is incapable of lying, so that those reading the gospels will know what He says is true.
Verse 18:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice:”
Commentary: It does not say God’s wrath is visited on man from heaven, it says “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.” I see this as meaning God built his eternal punishment into man’s choice to eat of the tree of good and evil in the garden of Eden. His and her pride in thinking that they could understand things better than God from the knowledge they gained would be their downfall. The Truth (John 15:6), God’s Word (John 1:1) – Jesus Christ who is synonymous with the example of his life, is the only way man has to keep from destroying himself, by creating his own eternal torment in hell. Those that hold themselves to the Truth and are loyal to the Truth are kind to each other, loyal to one another and God and show mercy as God shows mercy and thereby follow the Path and maintain the heaven established by the Truth. In heaven there is no need for police because each person polices his or her self. In hell there can be no effective police because everyone is corrupt, without fidelity to the law, without affection for their fellow man and without mercy for anyone.
Verse 19 and 20:
“Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.”
“For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.”
Commentary: As is pointed out in books such as C.S. Lewis’ Book Mere Christianity, God’s moral law, our sensitivity to injustice, the wrongness of going against the commandments (invisible to the eye) is written on our hearts (we know intuitively). We also have the reasoned facts that 1) God created us from nothingness 2) that He is all mighty and that 3) the success/stability of a society following his “rules” is the reasoned result of Him being all knowing and all good and in addition to “writing it on our hearts” revealed it in the Bible.
Verses 21-23:
“Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened.”
“For profession themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
“And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four footed beasts, and of creeping things.”
Commentary: see the truth of this in Luther’s revolt against the Catholic Church and the wars it spawned and the thousands of martyrs that were killed because of accusations of disloyalty when certain countries went protestant. The stealing of cathedrals and universities built by the Catholic Church was also a result of the revolt. We also see the truth of this from the results of the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau which spawned the bloody the French Revolution and the Masonic order which arguably has done much to destabilize the Catholic Church as well as foment revolutions in Mexico etc.
Verse 24:
“Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their hearts unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves.”
Commentary: Read closely in the verse above that “. . .God GAVE them up to the DESIRES OF THEIR HEART” [emphasis mine]. People who are hellbent on uncleanness and dishonoring their own, bodies God let them have their wishes, He did not force it on them. Hell is created by the people that will be there, NOT BY GOD!!!. As one example we see those who do not accept God as creating them “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) and because of this, these young girls and young women are being cheated out of their self-worth and scholarships in things like swimming competitions by transgender athletes. They are discriminating again against women by forcing them to compete against biological men.
Verse 25:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worship and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
The creature in this context is clearly the devil. Because the devil is an angelic intellect and those in hell will be forced to worship him due to his cunning and lack of Gods push back in hell because all there, by definition, have rejecting God. Because those in hell chose to reject God in life he is giving them all their wish. The lack of the love of God – the rejection of God, and by extension His precepts, is the cause of hell.
Verse 26 [and foot note for this verse from the TAN edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible]:
“For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature.”
[Footnote – “God delivered them up” Not by being author of their sins, but by withdrawing his grace, and so permitting them, in punishment of their pride, to fall into those shameful sins.]
Commentary: These sins like abortion (murder destroying possible citizens of heaven) and against the natural law seen in the attraction of man to woman and stated as the first command by God after creation (Genesis 1:28 “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. . .”), and the use of contraceptives.
Verse 27:
“And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
Commentary: The natural “use” of women is to work with God to produce possible citizens of heaven – children. Man to man sex cannot produce children and is for that reason is unnatural. Man to man attraction cannot necessarily be prevented, and is not in itself evil or bad, but the man-to-man interaction as with premarital heterosexual sex before marriage is something that will create hell. The thing in this life that they are most susceptible to is “. . .receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” We can see from the CDC that this “recompense” can be, at least partially, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) of not only HIV but also Syphilis and gonorrhea. There is also evidence that psychological anomalies seem to be connected to those engaged in same sex activities (for some information see the article explored in the abstract https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135311319890133X, for an actual internet posted article more in depth mentioning possible secular remedies see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01506/full )
Verses 28-31:
“And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient;”
“Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers,”
“Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,”
“Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy.”
Commentary: Those in hell (this group also, as in above cases, include those who reject God on Earth and is essentially a warning to those to change their ways to save themselves not only on Earth but in the next life) “liked to not have God in their knowledge,” which is to say they did not want to think about God and by extension what He labeled as right and wrong. In delivering them up to a reprobate state He let them be and do what they wanted. “Inventors of evil things” includes things like novel torture, eliciting extreme fear, attacking a country in the vanity of national pride etc. to be “without affection” is to be without charity or love. To be “without fidelity” is to have loyalty to nobody and basically creates a world where nobody can trust anybody else. Finally, to be “without mercy” is, for example, to be able to torture or assault someone either sexually, physically, emotionally or mentally without pity or respite simply for one’s own pleasure or entertainment.
Verse 32:
“Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.”
Commentary: This is why those that do not positively follow the commandments and hold others in their care or authoritative influence such as children, family, employees or political constituents are condemned also. If you do not, in justice, stop evil you cannot be expected to be spared it. There is an adage that “silence implies consent” but whether or not you are in authority if you do not stop evil or say something about it (i.e., stay silent), you allow it, and in essence consent to evil and its consequence of hurting others. In addition, you will likely, given enough time, probably subject to that evil. And remember time in hell is infinite.
Just as God gives free reign to our desires here on earth He will give the same freedom in the afterlife, but those in hell will be on their own, rejecting God and is all knowing wisdom as our creator. God will not be in hell to judge or enforce justice, He lets the avarice, murderous intent and malice in hell, allow its inhabitants take care of their punishment. So, the way those in hell create its punishment lie, for the most part, in the lack of compassion there. It is clear to me that this excerpt from Romans is a blueprint for not only hell in the afterlife but also to create a hell here on Earth.
But in heaven, these types of things will not be a problem because original sin will be removed as to our revealed desire to have it removed in living our lives committing to follow all of God’s law (consenting to God’s will without reservation in all things) and thereby giving our consent to change us, to heal the wound of original sin, to allow us to once again use our intellect to do the right thing. Things like concupiscence will be permanently remove or otherwise suppressed by our reason and intellect. In Mark chapter 12 verses 24 and 25 he speaks of God using his power to make those that rise in the glory of heaven “as the angels in heaven.” In our life we must trust God in all things and believe all Jesus Christ and Christ’s church requires us to believe and make our will one with His to desire all He wants for us..
“Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence.” (Proverbs 3:5 Douey-Rheims)
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 