The Ghostbusters!

But after you call them, who are you gonna call? Do you have a God, someone or something that’s bigger than demons, larger than life to give you a hand (metaphorically speaking of course). Is life just one big chance after another? When your child gets sick, can you get help from someone other than a doctors?

If you do believe in a God, how much influence do you have with him or her, or it? Can you call upon this Force (as George Lucas called it in the Star Wars films) with any degree of certainty? Is everything pre-programmed, set in concrete, pre-ordained, or do you play a role in how your life turns out?

Does FREE WILL go beyond choosing the make and color of your next car?

Open Theism says that God is personal and open to influence through your prayers. God is able to anticipate the future, yet remains fluid to respond to mans free will and those acts or decisions contrary or advantageous to God’s plan.

Are we stuck in personal and collective karma fields or can we escape?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the for-sure answers? Or how about just some darn good logical arguments backed up with some personal stories that give evidence to your paradigms? It is one of life’s critical questions. Who are you gonna call- in time of need?

Recently I discovered yet another definition for HELL!

Christopher Bache describes hell as follows. “Hell is not heaven’s opposite but the guardian at the door of that which heals everything“. How’s that for a new thought to stimulate some new thinking? So Hell is God’s closest companion- a transient flash of pain urging one to return to our source.

In essence, I see him saying that it’s akin to what I call “divine judgment“.

There is no punishment, no banishment, none of the church “control images” that bring fear. Yes there is a hell on earth and many frequent such a mental state way too often. But when it comes to the eternal, spiritual life, hell is but heaven’s purifying fire which strips away (from everyone- ALL!) all that which is not in the nature of our Source- God, Creator!

We came from the Source of LOVE and it is to that source (LOVE) we will one day ALL return!

Why would God limit Himself just to one group of people?

What’s fair about that?

Pope Pius IX (1792 – 1878), got the ball rolling saying in effect, “Invincible ignorance among Christians is no sin”. In other words, there may be hope for those outside the Mother church. Maybe there wasn’t an inalienable salvistic right given to Catholicism in the first place: there sure wasn’t one given to the Protestants.

And over the course of the last 200 years particularly, a tide of mercy, tolerance, and realism has slowly hit the beaches of various denominational door steps. Surely God didn’t create a plan wherein only one denomination, one religion was to convert ALL the world to it’s way of thinking. Western Christians think differently than Eastern Christians. Buddhists think differently than Muslims, who have a different approach than Hindus……and on and on.

One of my favorite theologians (Hugh Montefiore), who is no longer with us, summed it up for me with this statement in 1993. “It remains true of course that salvation is found within the church- that is the abiding truth within the doctrine- but it is not true that outside the church there is no salvation. If it were true, we could hardly continue to believe in a God of love.”

But since HIS IS…THERE IS!

God is the Father of all children and all children (people of this earth) have God as their Father. This is one of the greatest revelations that Jesus brought to the world. The concept began in the Old Testament as God, the deliverer and the one who adopted the nation, Israel, and took them out of Egypt. It slowly became more personal towards the end of the Old Testament era.

Then Jesus exploded it in our faces!

God is our Daddy!

Jesus was and is the Son of God, not biologically, not because the Holy Spirit birthed Him through a virgin named Mary, but because God is the Creator of everyone. It’s because of the filial loyalty and piety that Jesus had towards the Father that He could be the “first begotten“, meaning you and I are the “next begotten“. Can you accept that? Can you accept that you are accepted?

Many cannot.

Hugh Montefiore (1920-2005, Bishop of Birmingham) said it this way, “Jesus declared the Fatherhood of God; and by His life and death this Son-Father relationship with God was and is possible for all men.” Only a few perverted and insane earthly dads would burn their children with a cigarette butt (let alone do it eternally). So, how can anyone think that God, Abba Father, who IS LOVE, would or could enjoy sending His kids to such an eternal tormenting hell? Ridiculous!

Do you really KNOW your Daddy?

C. S. Lewis put it this way, “I believe the damned are willingly successful rebels who know that the doors to hell are locked from the inside“. In other words, they could get a pass to get out of jail should they want to, but they don’t. I just can’t believe anyone would ultimately and finally reject the true LOVE of God that can only be seen from the 4th dimension. In this realm? Sure!

But, what do I know?

Such a free choice is not only deeply incoherent, but logically impossible. Listen: God wins! We will eventually win. Even Paul throughout his writings consistently reminded us that (Romans 9:16) our election depends not upon our will, but the MERCY of God! I’ll take that any day!

And did you know that free will and determinism (God’s) are incompatible?

I have found (not a scientific survey) that those who believe in the hell of St. Augustine are generally more judgmental (duh), law-driven, and less happy about life. And on the proverbial “other hand“, I see those who put their emphasis on Jesus and His message of God’s love as more tolerant, open, and happy.

Aren’t generalizations so easy and wrong to accept! But remember also that the creeds begin with, “God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth“.

That confession made, my recommendation is that we spend more time on who Jesus WAS, and who He IS because in so doing we’re more focused on accomplishing His two commandments and the world (ours and theirs) is a better place to live. Live in the NOW of who Christ IS and not so much in the end times (eschatology) that not even Jesus knew anything about (Mark 13:32).

Just a recommendation.

Under what logic do the “unsaved” deserve eternal damnation?

Under some theory of God being JUST? Robin A. Parry asked the question, “Why is it that who is saved and who is damned is determined entirely by God’s supreme will, and we pay the price?”

My question is did He or did He not? Did Jesus pay the price for ALL MANKIND on the Cross? Did He, or did He not, meet the demands of justice on the Cross, for ALL MANKIND? Where does it say that He died on the Cross for “some“?

If the PENALTY for sin has already been paid (by Jesus), then how can justice be an impediment to His love and that event? Retributive punishment just doesn’t make sense to me, but eternal love and forgiveness sure does!

Pope Pius IX, otherwise known as Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, adopted the IN RE (actual church membership) and IN VOTO (in Spirit) theological stance. And then Vatican II(until and unless Pope Benedict XVI changes it again) came forth with these startling statements (and I am herein quoting):

>Jewish people remain most dear to God
>Muslims along with us adore the one and most merciful God
>God is not distant from those who in the shadows and images seek the unknown God
>Those who reject a belief in God divine Providence does not deny the help necessary for salvation.

Those are powerful statements and unfortunately are theological beliefs that much of the Protestant church both deny and hide. Then there is all of what goes on after death to bring us to God- ALL of us, not some. Purgatory is both interesting and partial, but in some ways I think Catholicism had a better view of things than Christians.

Purgatory or “the final purification of the elect”, is the process by which, according to Catholic doctrine, “all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”

Bottom line: You’ll spend eternity with ALL of your loved ones!

Better yet: all those earthly enemies will now be your friends.

Rejoice!

We live in the 21st century, that’s why!

Most people no longer think the earth is flat, though some still do. Most people came to the conclusion that Newton and Copernicus were right centuries ago, in professing the heliocentric principle, over the geocentric one. But, of course it took the Catholic church more than 300 years to confess that those boys were right and to absolve them of their heretical scientific stands. I think it was in 1987 the the official church apology came.

It would have been nice had they done it when they were alive!

Dante’s Inferno and Hollywood’s depiction of hell and the devil are cute comedies and movie fantasy, but most people just can’t quite believe all the hoops that one has to jump through to believe that a loving God would be so cruel and sadistic to knowingly condemn billions of people to such atrocities.

Eternal punishment without correction and restoration is perversion!

If the Pope wants to lead his church back into the 5th century, if he wants to have Mass spoken in Latin again, if he wants to condemn all Protestants and reject Vatican II, that’s his choice for his church. I see those as “church rules” and it’s up to each leader to decide (even though there’s no one who can correct him). But, when he moves into the realm of beliefs in hell that he has, he’s just proven to me that while Papa, he IS FALLIBLE!

And I’m not knocking Catholics!

I’m commenting on the theology of a literal, everlasting hell!

Hans Kung (1928 – is a Catholic priest, an eminent Swiss theologian, and a prolific author and he remains a Catholic priest in good standing, though the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology) asked the question this way, “What would we think of a human being who satisfied his thirst for revenge as the church depicts God does with an eternal hell”?

There’s simply no rational way to answer that!

Explain to me how this shows for the moral goodness of God. Sure we have free will, and who gave us that? And that which God gave us, He’s now going to nail us with an eternal hell, knowing full well, in advance (omniscience) what decisions we’d make? This is in any way rationale? God sees this as love? This is just? Is there any sanity at all to such a doctrine?

God is love, and hell is the price for not knowing that? Me thinks literalists speak with forked-tongue!

PS. And welcome to readers from Stevenage, England; Palmerston North Manawatu-wanganui, New Zealand; Vancouver British Columbia, Canada; Toronto Ontario, Canada, and Brisbane Queensland, Australia.