I have, in earlier post, spent a lot of time on hell. This is only to give evidence that it is not created by God but by its inhabitance. The “physics” of hell, I am of the opinion, is the same as heaven (though hell is totally absent of God’s loving presence and its inhabitance still have the unrepaired wound of original sin) but because of hell’s inhabitance’s predilection toward evil, the afterlife’s increased sensual sensitivity, increased mental clarity etc. result in the unimaginably painful existence and the overwhelming sense of guilt of having disrespected their all-good Creator. The thing that will make it even worst, which I have not yet really discussed is the devil and his demons that will also be there.
Heaven is the opposite. Their increased sensual sensitivity will make the direct knowledge of God soothing, pleasurable beyond anything ever experienced on earth (1 Corinthians 2:9) and the knowledge of their struggles while on Earth will give the inhabitants of heaven the comfort that they will have done the best they could to bring God’s plan for salvation to all men to fruition. Trying to bring God’s plan for salvation, as good sons and daughters of God and thereby trying to help Christ save as many souls as possible, through prayer, direct charitable action or through evangelization will guarantee them mental and emotional satisfaction in heaven. But if one wishes their family’s souls to be saved like St. Monica with regard to her husband and son, St. Augustine, they must work and pray with all their might while on earth because I am of the opinion that Luke 14:25 implies that if you wish to follow Christ, you must be willing to abandon your family to follow him, specifically into heaven, that you may be asked to forget them (were they to be unsuccessful in attaining salvation) or follow them into hell. You must love Jesus Christ more than even your family and life on earth if you want to attain life eternal. But Christ assures us in Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it shall be given you. . .” But we must also remember 1Thessalonians 5:17 and “pray without ceasing.”
We become adopted children of God (Romans 8:14-17) by being like his Son and by letting his Son work through us (Galatians 2:20) – by becoming His hands on earth in these latter days. We are adopted Sons of God because we have adopted Christ’s mission are trying to save as much of the world as we can from the grips of the devil. We are called to help Jesus Christ save as much of the world we can from eternal damnation. Could Christ have done this alone? Of course He could, but it would likley have been against our free will or might have had some other unintended side effect that an all perfect God would see. God actually made us independent of Him and able to use our feelings, intellect and free will to pick how we want to live. If we live against his will, it will lead us to try create world filled with people opposed to God’s precepts and will. If we live against Gods will it will also facilitate more people to choose evil and cause them to be damned. As we can see, as I have pointed out before, going against God’s will leads to societies like NAZI Germany, the Russian Confederation circa 2022 attacking Ukraine out of pride and lust for political power and Pol Pots Cambodia with millions senselessly killed. Living according to his will and precepts leads to heaven upon our deaths and if applied on earth in a particular society, a happier society. Also, if Christ is perfectly followed by everyone in the catholic church (unlike those in the Catholic clergy injecting modernism into the church to try and pervert Christ’s teachings make the church “of the world,” as opposed to Christ’s teachings to be in the world but not of it. John 17:15-21) the Catholic church would be a perfect society (but humans are not perfect and Masons and communists against the church have infiltrated it making this impossible on Earth). With perfect people in heaven the perfectly designed society of the church will actually be the perfect society – heaven.
In heaven, the wound of original sin is repaired by God upon the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42) of the dead, for all those who fought for that repair, in life, by living a life desired by God, a life lived as if man were not wounded by original sin. This is the essence of the Catholic life, to say yes to God in everything he requires of us and pledge to want and to accept everything he wants for us. How we are to be changed by God, to repair original sin, is indescribable so to receive it we must offer ourselves up to God to be God’s hands on earth by being adopted sons and daughters following in the footsteps of his true Son – Jesus Christ.
The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is the model for a perfect society. Unfortunately, it requires perfect people for it to be not only a model for a perfect society but an actual perfect society. But can an actual perfect society ever exist without perfect inhabitants of that society? No, that is why Jesus Christ says in Matthew 5:48 “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly father is perfect.” But the push back comes that we are imperfect beings with the stain of original sin so we can not be perfect, in fact no one can be. The sad truth is that for those that do not believe in God, are not in His Church or are in his church but resist his precepts or worst yet decide his precepts are wrong and wish to follow their own, the fact that they cannot be perfect is true. Fortunately, the happy reality is that though possibly less than 10 percent (Luke 17:11-19 in the story of the 10 lepers that Christ cured and only the one Samaritan returned to give thanks) and probably no more than 11 out of 12 (with Jesus Christ – the Son of God as their personal spiritual advisor only 11 out of the 12 men He advised were saved), will be saved, every man who wants to be save, if he sacrifices, gives alms, fasts and prays for help to achieve the perfection required, will be saved!!!
That’s the good news which is elucidated on or made clearer as well as fleshed out in detail in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. Also 2 Peter 3:9 assures us: “The lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” I read this as meaning the lord tries to give us as much time and inspiration as we need on Earth to turn our lives toward him, in penance, as in the case of Mary Magdalene. In the story of Voltaire he spends his life revolting against God and his church and eventually gets sick and calls for a priest and repents but when he gets well he returns to railing against God. We learn later in his life that he got sick again, calls for priest but his “friends” keep the priest from him and he dies screaming in horror that he sees Satan coming for him, according to a nurse attending him. The way I see it God gave him a chance to repent but God is not to be mocked (Galatians 6:7). Also, 2 Peter 3:9 above shows it is God’s wish that none should perish in the fires of hell but He wishes them to repent and change their wicked ways, have true sorrow and do penance and reparation to not only God, but those who they have hurt.
Atheists are often times trying to color God as some kind of egotistical jerk who finds some sort of perverse joy in hurting people or damning people, though nothing could be further from the truth. 2 Peter 3:9 above is from the New Testament but in Ezechiel 33:11-20 of the Old Testament God makes it perfectly clear that every man and woman are responsible for his or her actions and “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.” In this group of verses God makes clear if the good man goes bad he is damned, where as if the evil man repent and make reparations for his wrong, he will be saved. In fact from the parable of the workers who get paid the same if they work all day or just the last hour (Matthew 20:1-16) as well as his promise to the good thief on the cross that he would be in paradise with him that day (Luke23:32-43), we see, if we truly convert and are truly sorry and willing to make amends for our sins, even at our death bed, we can go to heaven (even if possibly needing to go to purgatory for some time).
When God commands seemingly horrendous things like the “ban” where everybody and everything living is executed in a village, he is trying to make a strong point to hopefully prevent more horrendous things like maybe the use of nuclear weapons. The ban was a statement as to the evil of things such as child sacrifice to the god Baal (see The Worship of Baal – Bible History (bible-history.com) that people this punishment was inflicted on, had been carrying out. Similarly, the death of Onan for “spilling his seed” to avoid his obligation to his brother was, in my opinion, to highlight the extreme wrongness of destroying the existence of someone God wanted to be in the world, by way of their conception, through either contraception or abortion.
Contraception is against the natural law and therefore against the first of the 10 commandments (“I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them . . .” Exodus 20:2-5) and specifically worshiping sexual pleasure as an idol (thereby serving Satan), as opposed to obeying Gods first commandment to mankind, immediately after creating them, in the bible, to “increase and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).
Now. as a couple to both truly voluntarily refraining from sex for a good reason, or using a natural method of possibly limiting the number of children a couple could have, is acceptable according to the bible if you use that time in prayer to better one another (1 Corinthians 7:5). I must stress this must be by true mutual consent or it is a mortal sin. Catholic couples do not have the option of finding sexual satisfaction outside of marriage either alone or with someone that is not their spouse.
To recap, many will probably go to hell (it is definitely not the case that no one is in hell according to our Lord in Matthew 7:13-14), God does not create it (those in it and the devil and his demons do) , and all men can go to heaven even if they are evil if they repent of their sins and do penance for their sins before they die. They can even be saved at their deathbed. God wants all men to be saved (go to heaven) and gives them the , but they must, of their own free, will want to be saved and repent and do penance to be saved. Heaven is the most desirable place for any being to be with unimaginable happiness which will probably improve with time into eternity.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 