Is it possible for a good God to condemn eternally?
On this other subject, God seems to be cold and insensitive. Why does he send us to hell, if his mercy is infinite? This question isn�t really correctly stated. It seems as if hell is a result of God�s angry and punishes with something that might seem fair or not, but that is at his will and discretion. It�s as if God sends us to hell when, if he wanted, he could send us to heaven. That�s not really the way it is.
God has an extraordinary patience; he is omnipotent and knows how to wait. He can actively await even what is indescribable, but what he cannot do is enter another person and force him to choose something that he refuses to choose. He waits, but doesn�t oblige. He is loyal, but doesn�t force us to be loyal in return.
God creates our free will and the only thing that He who can do anything will not do is change the will of His free creatures, precisely because it is He who has created us that way: with complete freedom.
God cannot force us to love him. But he can�t force us in this life or the next. In this life, each person chooses, with acts, to live with God, trusting in his patient love; or, on the contrary, choosing to live without God, not accepting his forgiveness. When we die, God respects our choice. That�s why God doesn�t send anyone to eternal damnation: despite his immeasurable pain, he respects our choice to live without Him.
To live the next life without God is our own choice. Hell, which is actually a name for the state of existence without God, is a place for those who separate themselves from Him.
Unless we freely choose to love Him, we cannot be united with God. But we cannot love God if we gravely sin against Him, against our neighbor, or ourselves: He who does not love remains in death. All those who hate are murderers in their heart, and no murderer will be granted eternal life. To die in sin, without repenting and or accepting the merciful love of God, means to remain permanently separated from Him for ever by our own will and decision. This state of self-exclusion from God is what is referred to with the word �hell�.
God is merciful and good: He is not a dictator. Neither is he cynical: at times, it hurts Him to respect us. But if he is given at least the slightest, most minimum chance to forgive us and take us with Him, even if it be in the last second of our life, with his loving and active patience, he will make it possible, looking for us and awaiting Him once more, to take us with Him forever.
Is hell necessary?
Sometimes we wonder, �If I�m his son or daughter and I try to live what is good, how can he send me to hell?� It may seem as if hell were a result of God�s choice, one that he could change if he wanted. As if, because we disobeyed him, he got upset and punished me with hell.It�s not like that. As far as God goes, all his decisions are directed towards our salvation. We choose the other half. God has places all the means for our happiness, but Heaven or hell depend on our choice and freedom, and it can be no other way.
If Heaven consists of loving and being loved by God, no one can be obliged to head towards God and therefore, He cannot force anyone to enter Heaven. To reach this happiness, it is necessary that the soul willingly and freely give itself, reject what is selfish, recognize that it is very frail and in need of God, and that it must return humbly to the mercy of God as often times as it may hurt Him.
But it is very possible that a person does not want to give up their egoistic ways, that he closes himself in his selfish being and would not want to accept that submission that is asked of him. Then, the mutual gift that is Heaven would be impossible.
To love, we must be free. No one can obligate me to love and give myself. Precisely because I possess and am owner of my being and my acts, is the reason why I can give them to the person I love. Not even God can force me to love, because it was God himself who made me free.
That�s why the question �if God makes no mistakes, why can we lose eternal life with him?� isn�t an accurate question. The freedom of man is not an error of God. If someone decides to lock themselves in their selfish ways, he has a �right� to remain in that jail. If my liberty is authentic, then I have a real possibility of not giving myself to God, of not going to Heaven. It would be a strange and sad �right�, but if I�m free, I have a right to go to hell. And if I didn�t have it, I would neither have a right to go to Heaven. Heaven isn�t any kind of lottery where nice things are handed out, but the state of the soul that gives itself freely to God and, in return, can experience His wonderful, eternal gift. One only feels the love of another person according to how he feels in return. If I do not open myself to God, I cannot feel His love. This is inevitable; it is the essence of freedom. God will not change this liberty that He himself has made.
Only when we comprehend the greatness of Love and freedom, can we understand that terrible possibility of hell. Our salvation is due to the grace of God, but also is fruit of our own liberty. Only from our free decision, do we reach that state.
In Heaven, there is no risk of sin, but that safety and stability of the soul can only be reached if we want to love. The confirmation of our liberty towards good is due to our freedom. This is the greatness of the freedom that God has given us. We are owners of our destiny and no one will choose for us because no one can.
How is it possible for people to condemn themselves?
It is still possible to ask: if I commit a grave sin and have not asked forgiveness for it but die; if God is our Father wouldn�t he have to forgive us or give us another opportunity to change? We have to take into account that no one goes to hell by casualty. Sometimes it may be heard that if a good person commit one serious crime against God and he die in that moment, that he would go to hell. This is somewhat abstract and incomplete.
Certainly, the graveness of a single sin can be so great and holds such a tremendous confrontation before God that it makes us worthy of the punishment, if we die without repenting. But it is equally true that no one dies by casualty, nor is God hunting around for souls to snipe in a moment of weakness. We must believe that if we were brought to life, it may be so that we can join our creator in Heaven.
The whole truth is that, for a person to die in this serious sin, closed in his selfish ways (whether they are apparent or not) without looking for a way out, he would have already had to resist many, many opportunities that he was given throughout life. In particular, he would have had to resist that last call from God to a final repent. Only a stubborn and continuous personal effort to not repent from our sins, not even in the moment of death, would lead a person to die without any of God�s grace. Only being stubborn to the end can a person resist the infinite mercy that God gives.
