I have made many posts here in my blog in which I have spoken of my belief in Universal Salvation (Apokatastasis).  I have gone to great detail in some of them to ask what I hope are probing questions that will make people stop and think of the injustice of an eternal, fiery hell of torment, and how that smears the character of God. There is simply no way to reconcile “God is love” with “hell is forever.”  None.

Recently I got into a discussion with a man who highly disagrees with this idea. While I do disagree with his take on God’s justice, I did agree with him on one thing: men like Bishop Barron and others who publicly promote the idea of Universal Salvation do not spend enough time warning people that according to Jesus, we will each and every one of us receive compensation for our deeds in the next life.

The gentleman I was speaking with was greatly troubled that people would hear Bishop Barron’s words that “we have a reasonable hope that hell is empty” and use that as an excuse to do evil, believing that God is so loving that He sends no one to hell. And I do understand that many people, especially disobedient and sin-practicing Roman Catholics, could hear Bishop Barron’s pronouncements and think that they are in no danger of hell because it doesn’t exist, according to the reasoning they come up with listening to Bishop Barron.

They would be terribly wrong. There is a hell. It just doesn’t last forever.

Those who have done wickedness will experience the fire of God’s scourging, the punishment for their choice of doing evil over doing good. This includes fornicators and all who practice immoral sex outside of marriage, liars, including each and every politician who has lied us into false wars and has stolen from the public treasury. Those who grind the faces of the poor and hoard money to themselves in the billions of dollars while people in their town go hungry. False religions which dishonor Christ and do not worship Him as God and the only Savior.

The list is endless and I could go on and on about the evils that we all participate in. If you do not repent, if you do not receive the Sacrament of Penance and forgiveness of those sins from a priest,

EXPECT THE FIRES OF GOD TO PURGE YOUR SOUL!

This is no joke!  God loves you, but like any good Father, He will give you the spanking of your life (or your eternity as it were) for evil evil deed you have ever done. This spanking is referred to by the Fathers of the Early Church as “hell.” It is not eternal, but if you experience it, it will seem eternal and never-ending as you go through it and you will wish with all your being that you had not ignored the warnings of those who wish for you to escape it. If you experience it because of the evil you have chosen to do in this life, you will beg and cry for mercy, but God will not release you until, as Jesus said, “the last farthing is paid.” Every sin you find so precious and will not release will be burned from you – not because God is mean or He hates you, but because you were made for better things. You were created to be like Christ.

The only hope you have of escaping such a fate is to:

A. Enter into His Church, the family of God. If you are not baptized, be baptized for the remission of your sins and to become a child of God. Confess Jesus the Christ as the only true God, with the Father and the Son, Trinity, one God forever and ever.

B. Turn from doing evil. If you are addicted to some depraved behavior, find a spiritual counselor or someone to help you overcome that evil. Cease from fornication, adultery, stealing from the poor, hoarding your money, lying to start wars to enrich your corporate buddies. Turn from false worship and religions that do not worship Christ as God and were invented 1500 years after Christ walked the earth with His Apostles. Find a church with apostolic succession (if you don’t know what that means, contact me and I will tell you) and join it. There you will get the Sacraments of the Church which will help you live a holy life.

C. Start doing good deeds. Jesus taught that those who do good – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the poor and marginalized, visiting the prisoner, burying the dead, will be given an entrance into His life – the true life of eternity. You will find purpose for life in helping others and doing this will help turn you from evil. You will find joy in this life and peace in the next. And you will avoid hell.

I do not wish to face the Lord and have Him ask me, “Why, if you believe that the wicked will suffer, didn’t you warn them? Where was the love of God in your heart that you kept quiet about this?”

Yes, I believe in Universal Salvation because the Bible says that God is love. But love chastises and corrects. Love never leaves people in a state of evil. There is a day of reckoning coming for each and every one of us. I want you to be prepared for it by turning from your evil and turning to doing the good.

Trust me, you will not want the experience of God’s chastisement!