Who Goes to Heaven, and who Goes to Hell?

A rhetorical question that could create volumes of searching God’s intent on creating its existence.  

The very presence of Hell is “reserved for those who at the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted , where both soul and body can be lost.’  CCC 1034.

“God predestines no one to go to hell, for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end.  In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”  CCC 1037.

Watch the news and become devastated when leaders of nations not only clear their country of their own citizens by murder, but as Assad in Syria used sarin gas a nerve agent.  More humane to shoot somebody which is quick.  Nerve gas is not fast and the results are excruciating.  

Could Assad end up in hell?  Is it possible that before he dies he will seek God’s forgiveness?  How about Adolf Hitler?  Six million plus Jews exterminated at Auschwitz and other death camps willfully murdered to cleanse Germany of the Jewish nation.  He died in a bunker with his girl friend.  Did he call out to God to spare his soul?

Recently in Iraq Saddam Hussein, also one who found it easy to cleanse citizens’ existence by murdering them.   As he waited at the gallows with a noose around his neck, I wonder, as many did, was he turning to God?

After the Second World War, many criminals were on trial at Nuremberg, many awaiting a similar execution.  Their part in the murder of slain Jews was never rejected by any of them.  It seems they relished in the fact that human life was expendable.

Ok, we’ve looked at some of the most notorious figures in history and denounce their presence, especially as leaders in their own right.  Will we now step back and think these are candidates for an eternity in hell?  

After a discussion with some friends the question again presented itself as to who’s in hell.  Names of some who were not in the group just mentioned above were spoken.  My response was “I can not give credence to anyone since only God could answer that.”  What about our own sins against neighbor and God?  Is there a lingering sin that some may hold dear without really giving up a punishable attractive sin too personal to let go?

God didn’t need to create an eternal damnation for those who wouldn’t repent and follow Him into His Kingdom.  They made a decision to seek their own kind of freedom that becomes a type of worship that can only satisfy a selfish need without God.  

One might say my sin is not comparable to the selfish leaders’ sins as in terminating their citizens.  However, all those who reject God are guilty of the same theme; “me first and I follow my own discretion as to whom I shall worship.”  

Hell does exist, and the population residing there is filled with many souls who chose their own path without adhering to God’s Goodness.  His mercy was available to each one up to the moment they died.

Ralph B. Hathaway, the existence of Hell; July 2021