| FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL MODERNISM(PART 88) |
| REALITY OF HELL September 29, 2024 Today’s gospel: Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48 There are many passages, both in the New and Old Testaments, that speak of eternal damnation and fire. Today we have one of those passages, warning that those who persist in sin are liable “to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (v.47b – 48). Now, the reference to the eternal fires of hell is so serious that Jesus kept repeating it (as we see in other Bible translations such as the Douay-Rheims version). Notice that the New American Bible and others omit verses 44 and 46. What do these verses say? They say, “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished,” a repetition of verse 48. In effect, Jesus was saying: if you hand causes you to sin and you do not cut it off (v.43), you go to hell; if your foot causes you to sin and you do not cut it off (v.45), you go to hell; if your eye causes you to sin and you do not pluck it out (v.47), you go to hell. Jesus was saying that it is better to be maimed or crippled or blind with one eye than to go to hell. That is how terrible hell is, where one suffers in eternal fire. Now we have a good option for avoiding hell, aside from mutilating ourselves, and that is repentance for sin. We repent because we love God and desire His righteousness. But though love for God should be enough to keep us from sinning, Jesus knows the tendency of fallen man to sin, and so also warns us about the threat of hell. But what modernists have done is to remove this threat, saying there is no hell or there is no one in it. If there is no hell or no one goes there, then a grievous sinner can just go on with his sin, not fearing eternal judgment. The hierarch or pastor who offers such heretical teaching is in effect condoning sin. Notice by the way that modernists do not talk of sin, but of just being nice to one another. Or put another way, they do talk about sin, but not sins of the flesh but rather so-called sins against social justice (such as restricting immigration) or against nature. By their false teaching, they in effect cause the little ones, the ordinary Christian, to go astray and remain lost in sin. Such a modernist faces severe punishment, as “it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” (v.42). Hell and eternal punishment are real, as Jesus taught. * * * |
