Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!geneva.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bnr-public!hwt@watmath.waterloo.edu (Henry Troup) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Finality of Hell (was Re: Predestination and judgement) Message-ID: Date: 15 Jul 89 08:24:22 GMT Sender: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 40 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article bnr-fos!bnr-public!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) writes: > >One final comment: Any doctrine that hints that a person has a chance >to get out of hell after he has been put into it is in grave violation >with the Word of God. Luke 16:26 tells us (hence refers to heaven and >thence refers to hell) "And beside all this, between us and you there >is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you >cannot; neither can they pass to us, that {would come} from thence.". > >Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 >856 Grenon Avenue >Ottawa, Ontario, Canada >K2B 6G3 As I work with Dave, we just had a brief conversation on this, and I thought I'd continue it... To me, this seems to fall into the category of 'with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible'. 'They which would' cannot pass; unless they accept God, and repent. I believe that God's infinite mercy does not permit the commital to Hell to be final. Only the continual, minute-by-minute and day-by-day rejection of God keeps the damned in Hell. (That's the hell of it, and I'm not joking.) Someone characterized Hell as 'the violent ward of a hospital for the theologically insane'. If Hell doesn't get your attention, you really are in trouble. C.S. Lewis, in the 'Great Divorce' (I think) allegorically describes a bus trip from Hell to Heaven. The point is that free will is what sends people to Hell, and in free will is the ability to change, repent, and escape from Hell. But first, you have to stop liking being in Hell. utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bnr-public | BNR is not | All that evil requires hwt@bnr (BITNET/NETNORTH) | responsible for | is that good men do (613) 765-2337 (Voice) | my opinions | nothing.