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{"id":20000,"date":"2015-09-05T19:26:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T00:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=20000"},"modified":"2015-09-06T06:57:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T11:57:02","slug":"is-hell-eternal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/09\/is-hell-eternal.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Hell Eternal?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Hell\"$ <\/a>Let me say right up front that I hope hell is not eternal.<\/p>\n

I hope God finds a way to offer his forgiveness even to those who are in hell.<\/p>\n

In fact, I\u2019ll jump on the speculative theological bandwagon and propose that God\u2019s mercy\u2013since it is everlasting\u2013will extend even to hell.<\/p>\n

I know I am treading on thin ice theologically, but let us affirm for the sake of argument that God is not willing for any to perish (2 Pt 3:9) and that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that world through him might be saved. (Jn \u00a03:17)<\/p>\n

Let us suppose that this mercy extend even to the depths of hell forever and ever.<\/p>\n

The problem is, I fear that there are some people\u2013perhaps many people\u2013probably many, many people who will not and cannot repent and acknowledge their need for forgiveness and they will do so for the rest of eternity.<\/p>\n

What made me think of this was this\u00a0article <\/a>in the Daily Telegraph, in which the journalist basically says, \u201cPope Francis. Forgiveness for abortion? No thanks. I don\u2019t need it.\u201d Even more disturbing was this column <\/a>by \u201cCatholic\u201d journalist Margery Egan at CRUX in which she basically says the same thing. In her Boston Catholic self righteous way Egan says, \u201cYou know there are some poor women who think they need forgiveness for abortion, and God bless \u2019em, the pope is being nice to them, but there are many others who say to the Pope, \u201cIt\u2019s okay Holy Father, my abortion was okey dokey and I don\u2019t really need forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reading these columns it hit me that there are plenty of people\u2013and not just hardened criminals in jail, but many nice, respectable Margery Egan types who really, honestly don\u2019t think they have anything to repent of. They have condoned the slaughter and shredding of unborn children and perhaps murdered their own children in their own wombs and come away in full fledged denial and defiance saying cheerfully, \u201cForgiveness? What for? I haven\u2019t done anything wrong! It was\u2013after all\u2013legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was reading about Dr Josef Mengele recently and apparently he was just the same. He had no remorse whatsoever and to the end believed that he had nothing to be sorry for.<\/p>\n

These are the souls for whom hell must be eternal.\u00a0Continue Reading<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"