Sect. 282HellHell

“The everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” to which the wicked will be condemned, is called “Hell (שְׁאוֹל, ᾅδης, γέ́εννα, infernus).” We must, however, bear in mind that these words are sometimes used in Scripture to mean merely the grave, or the unseen world generally (e.g. Gen. 37:35; 42:38; Acts 2:27, 31; Apoc. 20:13; cf. Job 10:21, 22). It is from the context that we can ascertain whether the abode of the damned is referred to. We have already said something on this question when treating of our Lord’s descent into Hell.

I. That the wicked will be punished after death is acknowledged by all who maintain the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. God is holy, and therefore hates sin; He is just, and therefore claims satisfaction for the offences committed against Him; He is wise, and therefore requires punishment as a means of restoring the moral order. Inasmuch as sin does not receive its due punishment in this world, it must do so in the other. Hence the traditions of all nations speak of some sort of hell. It is from Revelation, however, that we derive our chief information about the fate of the damned. “The Lord Almighty will take revenge on them, in the day of judgment He will visit them; for He will give fire and worms into their flesh, that they may burn and feel for ever” (Judith 16:21). “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach to see it always” (Dan. 12:2; see also Isaias 33:14; 66:24; Wisd. 4:19). In the New Testament mention is made over and over again of “Hell,” “Hell-fire,” “everlasting fire,” “the fiery furnace,” where there “shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 5:22; 7:13; 10:28; 13:42; 25:41, etc.).

The Fathers, from the very earliest times, all agree in teaching the real existence of Hell, and prove it both from Holy Scripture and reason (see St. Justin M., Apol., ii. c. 9; Athenagoras, De Res Mort., c. xix.; St. Ignatius, Ad Eph., c. xvi.; Tertullian, Adv. Marc., i. c. 26; St. John Chrysost., Hom. iv., De Fato et Provid.). The most important decisions of the Church on the subject are the profession of faith made in the Second Council of Lyons (1274), (repeated in the Decree of Union in the Council of Florence, 1439): “The souls of those who depart in mortal sin, or only with original sin, go down immediately into hell, to be punished, however, by different torments (mox in infernum descenders, pænis tamen disparibus puniendas);” and the definition of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), that the wicked “shall receive everlasting punishment (pœnam perpetuam) with the devil” (cap. Firmiter See also the Council of Trent, sess. vi. c. 14; sess. xiv. can. 5.

II. Putting aside as comparatively unimportant the question where Hell is, we have now to consider the nature and duration of the torments of the damned.

1. As sin is a turning away from God and a turning towards creatures (aversio a Deo, conversio ad creaturam), a twofold punishment is suffered by the sinner: one privative, the other positive.

(a) The pain (or punishment) of loss (pœna damni) consists in the privation of the highest good to which man is destined, viz. God Himself, and the enjoyment of His blessed vision. “Depart from Me, ye cursed.” “I know you not whence you are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Matt. 25:41; Luke 13:27; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9; Apoc. 22:15). Theologians rightly look upon this as the most dreadful of all the punishments of Hell; it is the utter blighting of one’s existence; nothing can be worse than to realize that one has lost for ever by his own fault the Greatest of all Goods, for which he was made, and which he might so easily have attained. It is “so great a punishment that no torments known to us can be compared to it” (St. Augustine, Enchirid., c. 112; see also St. John Chrysostom, Ad Theodos. Laps., i. nn. 10, 12).

(b) The positive punishment is called the pain (or punishment) of sense (pæna sensus). It embraces all the torments not comprehended under the pain of loss, and is so called because it produces sensible suffering, and is produced chiefly by a sensible object, viz. fire. That there is a fire of some sort in hell is taught in numberless passages of Holy Scripture (e.g. Matt. 13:30–50; 18:8; 25:41; Mark 9:42 sqq.; 2 Thess. 1:8; Heb. 10:27; Apoc. 18:8; 19:20; 20:9, sqq., etc.). The question is whether this “fire” is to be understood in the metaphorical sense of spiritual torments, such as anguish of conscience, etc., as Origen (De Princ., ii. 4 sqq.), St. Ambrose (In Luc., xiv.), Theophylact (In Marc., ix.), Catharinus, and some others maintain; or in the strict sense of material fire. This latter opinion is the common teaching of the Fathers and theologians, though not defined by the Church (Suarez, De Angelis, 1. viii. c. 12; Petavius, De Angelis, 1. iii. c. 5); and is supported by the various expressions used in the Sacred Writings when hell is spoken of: e.g. “the furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42); “the bottomless pit” (Apoc. 9:1); “the pool of fire and brimstone” (ibid. 20:9); “the rage of fire shall consume,” etc. (Heb. 10:27); “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24); “a flame of fire yielding vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8); “the fire is not extinguished, for every one shall be salted with fire” (Mark 9:48). How pure spirits (the devils) and disembodied spirits (the souls of the wicked before the resurrection of the body) can be affected by a material substance is beyond our comprehension; but the fact is not therefore to be denied (see St. Thomas, In iv. Sent., dist. 44, q. 3, a. 2; Suppl., q. 70, a. 3; Contra Gent., iv. 90; Suarez, De Angelis, lib. viii. c. 14, n. 46). Besides the various torments arising from the action of fire, the damned suffer the pangs of remorse; “their worm (σκώληξ) dieth not” (Mark 9:43, 45, 47); their intellects are darkened, their wills are impenitent, and the companionship of the devils and other lost souls adds to their misery. After the resurrection their bodies will likewise be tormented, as having been the partakers of their sins (St. Thomas, Suppl., q. 98; Contra Gentes, l. iv. c. 89).

3. The various passages of Scripture already quoted clearly teach the eternity of the pains of Hell. The argument does not depend simply upon the meaning of the word “everlasting” (æternus, αἰώνιος); it is from the context, and also from other expressions, that we gather that the punishment is to have no end. “Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not extinguished (οὐ σβέννυται)” (Mark 9:44); “It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting than having two feet to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire (εἰς τὴν γέενναν εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ ἄσβετον)” (ibid. 45). “Life everlasting” is opposed to “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:41); and as the one has no end, so also the other. Moreover the wicked are said, over and over again, to be absolutely excluded from the kingdom of God: “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin” (Mark 3:29; Matt. 12:32). “Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers … shall possess the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9, 10); “It were better for him if that man had not been born” (Matt. 26:24); “Not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21); “I never knew you; depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (ibid. 23); “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:28); “The pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων)” (Apoc. 20:9, 10).

Bearing these texts in mind and remembering that a judge’s final sentence should be clear, we are forced to interpret our Lord’s words, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,” as meaning a punishment that will have no end. “If Christ had intended to teach the doctrine of eternal punishment, could He possibly have taught it in plainer or more direct terms? If He did not intend to teach it, could He possibly have chosen language more certain, à priori, to mislead, as the unbroken experience of eighteen centuries proves, à posteriori, that it always has misled, the immense multitude of His disciples?”

The teaching of the Fathers on the eternity of Hell is almost unanimous. St. Clement of Rome, St. Justin Martyr, Theophilus, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, St. Irenæus (Contra Hær., iv. 28), St. Cyprian (Ad Demetr., 24, 25), and Hippolytus—to mention only the early Fathers—all speak of “eternal punishments,” “unquenchable fire,” “eternal fire,” “torments without end” (see Petavius, De Angelis, lib. iii. c. 8). The great Origen, it is true, held that all men, and even the devils, would be saved at last (De Princ., i. 6; In Josu., Hom. viii.); and his teaching to some extent influenced the opinions of St. Gregory of Nyssa (Or. Cat., 26), St. Gregory of Nazianzum, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome (In Is., xiv. 20), see Petavius (l.c., cap. 7). But the long catena of passages quoted by Petavius (l.c.) proves that these were merely exceptions to the general teaching. Origen’s views were condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553), which brands the doctrine of restoration as monstrous (τερατωδῆ ἀποκατάστασιν) (can. i.). His name also figures in the eleventh anathema, though here no mention is made of any particular error (see the question discussed in Hefele, Hist. of the Councils, ii. 898). “Which faith,” says the Athanasian Creed, “except every one do keep entire and inviolate, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.… They that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic faith.” The Fourth Lateran Council (c. Firmiter) and the Council of Trent (sess. vi. c. 14; sess. xiv. can. 5) speak of “everlasting punishment” (pæna perpetua), “eternal punishment” (pæna æterna), and “eternal damnation” (damnatio æterna.

It may be objected that a doctrine which seems opposed to the goodness and mercy, and even justice of God, cannot be contained in Holy Scripture, and that therefore these passages cannot be taken to mean that the punishments of the damned will be endless; especially as the Scriptures distinctly teach that God “will not always be angry, nor will He threaten for ever” (Ps. 102:9), and they also speak of a “restitution of all things (ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων)” (Acts 3:21); “when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). We readily acknowledge the difficulty of reconciling the eternity of Hell with the existence of an infinitely merciful God; but the doctrine is taught so distinctly, that we have to accept it just like other doctrines which we cannot understand. “What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid” (Rom. 9:14). We must, of course, put aside all exaggerated notions as to the numbers of the lost. We cannot believe that God, “Who will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). will condemn any one who has not deliberately rejected Him. The difficulty about the salvation of those who are outside the Church has already been dealt with (supra, p. 385; and vol. i. p. 135); and the fate of unbaptized children will be considered presently. It is, however, the belief in Purgatory which is of the greatest help to a belief in Hell. If we admit that after this life the imperfect will suffer punishments which will have an end, we can more readily believe that the hardened sinners will be for ever cast out of God’s sight. It is surely noteworthy that the Protestants, who began by rejecting Purgatory “as a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God,” should now be giving up their belief in Hell, and taking refuge in some sort of Purgatory, and appealing to the Scriptures in proof of its existence.

Scholion. Besides Hell, properly so called, there are other abodes of the departed which sometimes are called by that name. The just who died before Christ’s ascension into Heaven were unable to enter that place of bliss. “All these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise” (Heb. 11:39). They were detained in “Limbo,” so called because it was believed to be on the border or fringe (limbus) of Hell. They suffered no torments, except that of hope delayed. Hence their abode was also called “Paradise” (Luke 23:43), and “Abraham’s bosom” (ibid. 16:23). This “Limbo of the Fathers,” which no longer has any existence, must be distinguished from the “Limbo of the children” (limbus puerorum), where unbaptized infants are detained (supra, § 164).