Saturday, October 12, 2013

I'm sorry, Virginia: yes, there is a hell, and you'd better avoid it if you can


This is getting some play over in a post entitled "How many people are going to Hell... and why?" at Fr. Z's Blog, where he posts Voris' video and writes:
The greatest accomplishment of the Enemy of our souls is to deceive people that the Enemy doesn’t exist … that there is no Hell … that people can’t go to Hell … that no one is in Hell, blah blah blah. Let’s be clear about this. Catholics are obliged to believe in the existence of the Devil and of Hell. These are de fide doctrines taught by the Church without the possibility of error. The Devil exists. Fallen angels hate you with a malice no human can imagine. They have an intellect that surpasses our mere human faculties in a way that we can’t fathom. They never tire. They are relentless. They are real. If you don’t believe in the existence of malicious fallen angels, you are in serious risk of joining them in Hell. This is no joke.
The combox at Fr. Z's has been lit up with some provocative exchanges, and even this forray into regions where angels fear to tread by our own correspondent and private eye, Guy Noir:
Fr Barron and Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II are all, quite simply, wrong on this point. You have to be a theologian to miss it! Even suggesting “most” will be saved is a rather comical take on Scripture, and in his encyclical on hope Benedict uses purgatory to push a quasi-universalism. He states most everyone will end up there, prior to Heaven. All of this is plainly and extension of Vatican II’s reformation of doctrine. It is not a valid development, anymore than is the wholesale abandonment on inerrancy. I challenge anyone here to go read Barron, and re-listen to Vorris. Barron essentially says, the pope is always right. Vorris is spot on. God bless him.
[Hat tip to JM]

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