Huh? The Pope Says There is no hell!

Opening Insights: Hells Bells

Four words have turned the world upside down. The controversy that has shook the world: "THERE IS NO HELL!"

Controversy erupt around with reports that Pope Francis has denied the existence of hell. Sinners who die without achieving eternal salvation “are not punished,” the pope said, according to an article by Mr. Scalfari in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “There is no hell; there is the disappearance of sinful souls.”

Quoted by an Italian journalist who is both a friend and frequent interviewer of the pontiff, Francis reportedly said that sinners who die without eternal salvation “are not punished” but that instead of their souls simply disappear. “There is no hell,” he unambiguously declared.

Interestingly, in the uproar that followed, the Vatican tried to smooth over the rather stunning statement but nevertheless stopped short of expressly denying it, saying that the quote was a “reconstruction” of the interview and not a transcript.¹

What has this done to the world? How has it impacted Catholicism and trust in the Pontiff, the religion and the Church itself?

Let's explore the realities of the Pope's words...

Informational Insights: Hell Outside or Inside

First let's get the facts:

The Pope made the statement yesterday in the Vatican City.

At this morning's mass at the basilica of St. John's, news of the Pope's statement caught most of the people completely by surprise. "The Pope said what?" asked one man. "I'd have to see it before I believe it."

For centuries the popular image of the wrath of God has been fire, brimstone, and every imaginable - and unimaginable - horror. The modern teaching of the Catholic church does not refer to hell as a place.

So, for many practicing Catholics, like Frank O'Leary, the Pope has simply confirmed what they believe anyway. "A lot of these things are metaphorical," he says. "I never really thought of heaven as a physical place. It is not surprising to me that the Holy Father would point out that hell is not physical in the sense of this physical plane that we're on right now."

The Pope isn't saying there's no hell at all. He's saying that hell is the state of eternal torment a soul ends up in when it cuts itself off from God.

And so another piece of religious folklore gives way to the rational mood of our times. It was only last year that Catholics heard from their Pope about the need to build more bridges between faith and reason. And just last week he set the record straight about heaven. Not as a place in the clouds but as a state of eternal union with God.²

The news report above is not from 2018, but rather from 1999, when Pope John Paul II caused a commotion when he rejected the concept of a literal hell: fire and brimstone.  He stated that “rather than a physical place, hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God."

Controversy erupt around with reports that Pope Francis has denied the existence of hell. Sinners who die without achieving eternal salvation “are not punished,” the pope said, according to an article by Mr. Scalfari in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “There is no hell; there is the disappearance of sinful souls.”

Quoted by an Italian journalist who is both a friend and frequent interviewer of the pontiff, Francis reportedly said that sinners who die without eternal salvation “are not punished” but that instead of their souls simply disappear. “There is no hell,” he unambiguously declared.

Interestingly, in the uproar that followed, the Vatican tried to smooth over the rather stunning statement but nevertheless stopped short of expressly denying it, saying that the quote was a “reconstruction” of the interview and not a transcript.

[...]

Such revisionist thinking from religious leaders can be understood as an attempt to make theology comply with predominant perceptions and attitudes. Whereas in ancient and medieval times it was perhaps not so difficult to imagine a deity who would arbitrarily condemn individuals to eternal punishment even for relatively minor slights such as working on the Sabbath or disobeying one’s parents (indeed, both are capital offenses in the Old Testament), such outcomes are inconsistent with our modern sense of justice. (And most believers would assume that God must be just, right?)

Because our understandings of the world, and of morality, in particular, have evolved significantly in recent centuries, theology has often struggled to keep pace, sometimes doing so smoothly and sometimes not. Churches have split over disagreements over how—or even whether—to adapt. A prime example would be the schisms within various Christian churches over the issue of slavery in the Nineteenth Century.

[...]

[Steven] Pinker attributes today's softening of harsh theology to the influence of Enlightenment humanism. With the rise of reason and science as major forces in the world, unimaginable progress has ensued—and not just technological progress, but moral as well. Enlightenment values have made the angry God of the Old Testament, and many other biblical concepts, seem more akin to mythology than revealed truth.

To humanists, the idea of eternal hellfire has long been considered mythological. After all, most people historically have followed any particular religion for one main reason—they were born into it—and with that in mind, it is incomprehensible that a just God would condemn entire populations to eternal damnation merely for being born into the wrong family with the wrong religion. Indeed, as the late comic George Carlin famously pointed out, to suggest that a loving God could possibly sentence his own children to hellfire is not only inconsistent but comical.

These are some of the reasons humanists have rejected traditional religion, and it would seem that these same factors might be reshaping the framework of traditional religion as it attempts to adapt to modern society.¹

Sources:

¹ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201803/smile-there-is-no-hell-even-the-pope-says-so
² //www.cbc.ca/news/canada/no-hell-pope-1.173448

Possibilities for Consideration: Hell, Heaven and Earth

A tree has both straight and crooked branches;
the symmetry of the tree, however, is perfect. Life is balanced like a tree.
When you consider the struggles, difficulties, and sorrows as a part of it,
then you see it as beautiful and perfect.
GEORGE LAMSA

When we examine different versions of the Bible we have to carefully examine whether the Pope's new found revelation is more true to the original intention of the author. We have to remember that much meaning and intention gets lost in translation. For example:

Luke 14:25

• NIV: "If any one comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he can not be My disciple".
• Lamsa: "He who comes to Me and does not put aside his father and his mother and his brothers and his sisters and his wife and his children and even his own life can not be a disciple to me".
  Comment: Note how the regular bible asks you to hate and the Lamsa bible to "put aside".

Mathew 24:7

• King James Bible : Jesus says: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
• Lamsa Bible: Jesus says: "My God, My God, for this I was spared!"
  Comment: Jesus, having predicted that he would be beaten, would most not likely say that God has forsaken him. It makes no sense in that context.

Ephesians 6:12

• Bible, New International Version: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms".
• Lamsa: "For your conflict is not only with flesh and blood, but also with the angels, and with powers, with the rulers of this world of darkness, and with the evil spirits under the heaven".
  Comment:This, of course, completely changes the meaning of the text. The Lamsa version shows that the spiritual struggle is ALSO one with flesh and blood

Source: //www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread670002/pg1

So, lastly we ask, what have the Pope's words done to the world, Catholicism and trust in the Pontiff, the religion, the Church and ALL religious groups?

Did the Pope's words:

• Create anger and distrust?
• Arrive as the result of a PR trick?
• Arrive resulting from poor and hurtful reporting?
• Result in people walking away from Catholicism?
• Discredit the church, religion etc. and create a distrust of religious movements?

OR

Did the Pope's words:

• Open the door to truth?
• Open the door to new thinking?
• Open the door for religion to become more current/relevant?
• Open the door to a fact that was skewed by Catholic teachings for years?

Are we investing too much in the words of a messenger, rather than going back to basics and reading the message in its principle-based way?

Add Your Insight: Reunite Under Spirituality and Human Interests?

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.
MOTHER TERESA