{"id":30121,"date":"2019-02-27T13:53:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=30121"},"modified":"2019-02-27T13:53:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:53:16","slug":"our-prayers-and-souls-ending-up-in-heaven-or-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/our-prayers-and-souls-ending-up-in-heaven-or-hell.html","title":{"rendered":"Our Prayers and Souls Ending Up in Heaven or Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everyone who goes to hell has had every chance to repent. God gives grace enough to all for them to repent, but some (many, apparently) choose not to. It\u2019s their fault in the end. Prayer and penance and love assuredly help them along the road, but ultimately each individual decides and each stands before God, accountable for their actions and beliefs. God\u2019s grace is sufficient to save them. They<\/em> choose not to avail themselves of it.<\/p>\n

We must simultaneously hold to two truths (as often in Catholicism):<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s always better to be the recipient of more intercessory prayer (and\/or love or penance, etc.) rather than less.<\/p>\n

2. Each individual is ultimately responsible for the fate of his or her own soul.<\/p>\n

Much of Catholic thought, I\u2019ve found, involves this \u201cboth\/and\u201d consideration. Things exist together in complementarity, that are often wrongly thought to be opposed to each other.<\/p>\n

It would be like a scenario in which a husband or wife abandoned their spouse. We could say, \u201cif only the one abandoned had been more loving or did more acts of kindness [or mutual friends had positively intervened more], maybe the other wouldn\u2019t have left.\u201d\u00a0Well, maybe<\/em> (that can always<\/em> be said, can\u2019t it?), yet the person is still responsible for leaving and bears the primary blame.<\/p>\n

The Blessed Virgin Mary wants to communicate to us (without doubt) that it\u2019s always good and crucial that we pray for souls. We have to love them and be compassionate and merciful; to evangelize and share! I\u2019ve devoted my life to sharing and defending the gospel and the message of the fullness of Christianity in the Catholic Church, so obviously I recognize its supreme importance. With more prayer and other spiritual aids, some of them could be turned to repentance and be saved, yes. God wants to include us in the whole process of redemption.<\/p>\n

But<\/em> <\/strong>each (ultimately damned) person already<\/em> has enough grace to be saved from the outset and has chosen<\/em> not to receive<\/em> it. They ultimately have only themselves to blame if they are condemned to [i.e., choose] hell in the end. If they want to point to others and say, \u201cThey<\/em> didn\u2019t do a, b, c, so I could be saved,\u201d that becomes mere blame-shifting on their part. God can always reply with, \u201cBut that\u2019s no excuse for you<\/em>. I sent you x, y, and z, and situations 1, 2, 3 where you had more than ample opportunity to receive My grace and repent, but you steadfastly refused . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus noted in Luke 16 (Lazarus and the rich man) that even if a person is raised from the dead as a witness, some folks won\u2019t believe anyway. Thus, if even the greatest miracles can break through such profound unbelief and rebellion, our prayers won\u2019t be able to, either, in those<\/em> cases. They\u2019ve hardened their hearts.<\/p>\n

The reprobate can always attempt to blame others, and God can always reply as above: that His grace was more than sufficient in each case, but was spurned and rejected. We will all stand accountable for our actions and our lives, regardless of what others did or didn\u2019t do (this is solid biblical and Catholic teaching). We\u2019ve all fallen short and rebelled against God, and all must rely wholly on His free offer of grace, made possible by our Lord and Savior Jesus\u2019 death on the cross, to be saved in the end.<\/p>\n

In any event, we should and must pray<\/em> for folks. I\u2019m not saying not<\/em> to. I emphasized its extreme importance. It\u2019s the distinction between sufficient and efficient grace.\u00a0 Every soul is provided sufficient grace by God. But the reprobate spurn it. Prayer can help make the sufficient grace become efficient, so that they actually repent. But not always; it\u2019s not automatic. Free will dictates that there are souls who will be lost no matter what.<\/p>\n

After all, Satan himself was with God. He had everything any being could conceivably want: except that he wasn\u2019t God, and he couldn\u2019t handle that. He managed to rebel, right from heaven, with God. No being could have any more \u201cspiritual advantage\u201d than that. But it wasn\u2019t efficient, to prevent his fall.<\/p>\n

Free will means that the grace can always be rejected, and also that it comes down to the individual in the end. That\u2019s why Calvinism, in order to bolster its double predestination, had to deny human free will and assert irresistible grace. The Catholic position is the contrary on both counts (though we do believe that God predestines the elect, while not superseding their free will).<\/p>\n

We are not ultimately responsible in some profound way for a soul going to hell because we didn\u2019t pray hard enough for them. We can always do more in any situation. But that can also become \u201coverscrupulous\u201d in a sense and drive us crazy if we ponder it too much.<\/p>\n

No! That will become Satan\u2019s guilt trip and zap our spiritual energy. We have to take a larger view.\u00a0If we<\/em> don\u2019t do our \u201cduty\u201d towards them, God in His mercy will surely send someone else<\/em> or some other situation, to give the person every chance to repent and make it to heaven. So we need not feel guilty<\/em> about them: to the extent that we are in a crisis or suffering greatly: because that affects our spiritual life for ill in the long run.<\/p>\n

But we absolutely should pray and do penance for others and anything that will help them. Catholics assert both things and hold them together; semi-paradoxically, but consistently. Nor does one assertion somehow reduce the other, like a zero-sum game. Both\/and . . . This is biblical and Catholic thinking, again and again: neither one extreme nor the other.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

(originally 3-26-14 on Facebook)<\/p>\n

Photo credit:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0tombud\u00a0<\/a>(6-13-16): \u201cplanet hell mystical fantasy\u201d<\/span> [Pixabay<\/a> \/\u00a0Pixabay License<\/a>]<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone who goes to hell has had every chance to repent. God gives grace enough to all for them to repent, but some (many, apparently) choose not to. It\u2019s their fault in the end. Prayer and penance and love assuredly help them along the road, but ultimately each individual decides and each stands before God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":30127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[583,50],"tags":[1260,1261,955,149,244,229,2358,198,7846,1262,195,1259,2341],"class_list":["post-30121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hell-satan-last-things","category-salvation-justification","tag-differential-grace","tag-differential-merit","tag-elijah","tag-free-will","tag-grace","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-intercession","tag-intercessory-prayer","tag-petitions","tag-prayer","tag-prayer-of-the-righteous","tag-salvation"],"yoast_head":"\nOur Prayers and Souls Ending Up in Heaven or Hell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's always better to be the recipient of more intercessory prayer. 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