Do you fear Hell

[Aaron-Aggie]

Where does you fear of hell fall?

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

My desire for Heaven out weighs it. However, I still have a very strong fear of hell.

 

[Shekinahs]

Blessings Aaron (love that avatar by the way. It's cool )

I voted that I have no reason too. Hell is already defeated and I'm not going there and Jesus did not give me a spirit of fear. Not of anything of this world or not of this world. But being fear-less does not mean be careless.

~ShekinahMoon~

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

I fear hell, but my desire for Heaven way out weighs it.

The fight against sin is a daily battle.

 

[marciadietrich]

I said "nope" ... and after my pentecostal fire and brimstone upbringing it has taken years to get to that point. Fear of going to hell seems like a lame reason to want to go to heaven, and I don't think that it is what should be led with in presenting the gospel (good news). I don't fear hell, actually I do still fear NOTHINGNESS ... but if I died and was in hell, I don't believe it is all constant fire torture forever and I just don't fear it anymore.

 

[DaveAG]

"Yes but my desire for Heaven outweighs it"

I try not to think about it really, I try and be as good a Catholic as I can. If I still go then I at least know it will be just and I deserved it for something.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

I absolutely fear it.

/shiver

I just try and rely on God's mercy.

 

[nyj]

I'd say 99.9% of my confessions are imperfect. The main reason for my confessing is fear of Hell.

 

[Hoonbaba]

My response:

No. Because I'm more 'terrified' of God who can put me there!!

-Jason

 

[BAChristian]

Nope, because I know where I'm going...

 

[boughtwithaprice]

[size=-1]I fear hell and my desire for heaven outweighs it, but it is that fear of hell that keeps me fleeing to the mercy of God. I, like nyj, feel that my confessions are imperfect, so I continue to discipline myself by prayer, private devotion, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, regular sacremental confession and good works. It is not the fear that drives me everyday, but the reality of it drove me to the mercy of God.[/size]

It seems that, during the Council of trent, people were either denying hell or saying that the fear of hell was sinfull or caused sin. Hence Canon VIII:


[size=-1]CANON VIII.-If any one saith, that the fear of hell,-whereby, by grieving for our sins, we flee unto the mercy of God, or refrain from sinning,-is a sin, or makes sinners worse; let him be anathema.[/size]

 

[Photini]

I didn't really know how to answer this one. I know I should fear hell, and I do, for the little moment that I ponder it....But right now, I am in a place where much seems like a story in a book. Sometimes the reality jumps out at me, like when I saw a car wreck recently...but most of the time, it's simply ideals in my head.
I know I should fear it, and I know I should long for heaven. But apparently I do not do either, because of my constant forgetfulness of both. I continue to wallow in my pride and my present life, with very little thought of the real life after this. Any thought of God is fleeting, and so much more fleeting, is any thought of hell, because it is unpleasant to me.
If I had the fear of hell, or the love of heaven anywhere in me, then I would be more careful over myself. But I'm not, so I pray for it. Lord, nail me down with the fear of Thee.

O Christ Jesus, ten thousand times have I, the passionate one, promised Thee repentance, O my Jesus, but wretch that I am, I deceived Thee. Wherefore, I cry to Thee, my Jesus: Enlighten my soul which remaineth unfeeling; O Christ, the God of our fathers, blessed art Thou.

 

[Filia Mariae]

Yes, I fear it big-time. I am always worrying that at some point I made a bad confession and thus every confession since then has been invalid and I am going to be out of luck . I know this is kind of neurotic and I am trying to get over it as I understand that an obsessive fear of not being forgiven in confession was part of what led to Luther's sola fide idea...but yeah, I'm still really scared.

 

[BAChristian]

I guess I've always looked at it as, if you're worried about hell, then something's not right with your life. If you're right with God, then why are you worried about dying?

It's nice to see everyone responding and being honest. It places a different perspective on things, at least for me.

There seems to be something of substance that's common here -- and that's confession.

Do you think that your earthly side of you might not feel forgiven because you've been taught to confess to a man, even though he may be in persona Christi?

I think the human psyche is like this. And I can see a flaw in the confessional practice because of the human psyche, when we don't remember the things that we've been taught.

With that said, I guess it goes back to just remembering what the Church has taught, and what the Bible says about confession.

I can see this being an issue for me in the future. (wondering if I've really been forgiven, that is) As a Protestant, I felt assured of my forgiveness because I knew I could just pray to God to forgive me and that was that...I was asking God to forgive me -- not a mortal.

This post will probably generate a lot of confession/forgiveness chatter now, and I guess that's ok, but I'll apologize in advance to the OP, if it goes OT...

 

[Benedicta00]

A soul who is in a state of grace has nothing at all to fear, nothing to fear in this world or the next.

 

[Benedicta00]

BTW, I didn’t vote because there is not enough choices.

I fear offending God and that can lead me to losing my soul, I fear falling from grace and becoming so blinded my sin that I may never repent, but I do not fear God's justice, I fear myself.

 

[marciadietrich]

I guess I've always looked at it as, if you're worried about hell, then something's not right with your life. If you're right with God, then why are you worried about dying?

I think some people are just more sensitive, more naturally fearful of things, more naturally hard on themselves... harder on themselves thinking of God as judge and not thinking in terms of justice and mercy. My feeling is many of these people are going to get a friendly slap to the back of the head and told they shouldn't wasted so much time obsessing and worrying. The only people with real trouble are those who don't acknowledge that they sin, not those who accidently forget a sin in confession. (1 John 1: 9 If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

It's nice to see everyone responding and being honest. It places a different perspective on things, at least for me.

There seems to be something of substance that's common here -- and that's confession.

Do you think that your earthly side of you might not feel forgiven because you've been taught to confess to a man, even though he may be in persona Christi? ...

I feel more forgiven for the physical-ness of the process. For the interaction, the words of absolution and that sacramental aspect. There are times when Father is telling me my penance that I think, 'doh, I forget to mention _____.' Then I just try to relax and realize that God probably isn't as uptight as I am. I try to say my own act of contrition, and one time threw in something about being sorry for the things I forgot to confess, lol ... My feeling is there is never a perfect confession, and much more grace just for the action and process than getting every little detail and thought confessed and obessessed over.

My first confession (and for me this was after being baptized Catholic at Easter vigil) it was more like a counseling session. I told about sins, sure and some from before being baptized if I felt it effected my life now, but I mainly talked about the things going on in my life and how that was effecting me in regard to particular sin problems. So that Father would have a basis of understanding me and my circumstances.

Marcia