Either You're Catholic, Or You’re Going To Hell

A bit ago, Tishale asked me to talk (write) about why and how God, being merciful and all, would let those who confess to be catholic go to hell. I have been, for the better part of a month, been trying to come up with a tactful way of explaining that. But as anyone who reads this blog knows, tact is usually something I’m lacking.

One of the things that make this task so difficult is the Tishale’s anti-Roman Catholic biases. Last time we chatted, I said that all catholics (see, lower case “c”) are going to heaven. I explained that catholic is a theological word meaning universal, in other words, all of Christ’s Church. I then went on to say that membership in the visible church Tishale attends, however dynamic and exciting, doesn’t necessarily guarantee every member of said group heaven. Tishale assured me I was incorrect and that every member of the congregation is going to heaven. “You can just tell, they love Jesus, it shows!” Tishale exclaimed.

Taking the bait, I brought up the parable of the tares (weeds) in Matthew 13:24-30 as well as Jesus saying “the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” from Matthew 23:2. I said if Christ says we can’t tell the believers from unbelievers, then, we can’t tell, it’s not possible! The Church catholic is something only known to God. I also zeroed in on Matthew 10:32, 33 where Christ states “Whoever confesses me before men, him I will confess before my Father in heaven.” I said it was not how the people appeared that got them in to heaven, but rather their confession, which can only be made by the undeserved gift of faith given to us by the Holy Spirit!

But this was really getting way off topic… To subscribe to a visible church only leads into the same Roman heresy that the Pope, or whichever elected or appointed church official, guards the gates of heaven based on membership in an earthly established temporal organization. How one can hate our Roman friends but then subscribe to an identical dogmatic position is enough to give me a pretty severe headache on the very best of days.

So how do we get to heaven, or rather keep from going to hell? Well, by a righteousness that comes not from what we do or what group we belong to, but instead, a righteousness that comes from God, through faith in Jesus Christ as laid out in Romans 3:21-26; 4:5

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness

So it’s not a visible church we should look to but instead we look to Christ nailed to the cross doing it all for us. It is Christ’s righteousness that becomes our own by God’s merciful grace.

What I eventually got back to in our conversation was the word catholic. Tishale really had a problem with the word itself. For Tishale, catholic equals Roman Catholic. I explained the word catholic means universal. Tishale responded with “but that word isn’t in the Bible so I don’t believe it even if you say it’s a real word. We only believe in the Bible and I don’t remember reading that word in the Bible.”

This brings me to the purpose of this post. Let’s look at where the word catholic comes from and how do theologians, even amateur ones like me, use it.

The first extant reference to the “Catholic Church” occurs in a letter written by St. Ignatius of Antioch. In his Letter to the Smyrnaeans written in 107 AD we find the following statement: “Wherever the bishop is, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” Clearly, the word catholic predates the formation of the western Romanized church by several hundred years. At the time St. Ignatius wrote his letter, the bishop of Rome was just one of several leaders in the early church. There were bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, along with a bunch of others, all with “equal” authority. (It’s also important to remember Christianity wasn’t really even legitimized by Constantine’s Edict of Toleration until 313 AD.) All the way back to the first Christians, catholic was used to describe Christ’s Church as a singular confession of faith and doctrinal unity.

But if you wish for a more secular reference instead of dead martyrs and saints, even online dictionary’s can be a little help here. Dictionary.com lists the definition as well as the Greek etymology of the word:

Dictionary.com:
Cath·o·lic Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kath-uh-lik, kath-lik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to a Catholic church, esp. the Roman Catholic Church.
2.Theology.
a. (among Roman Catholics) claiming to possess exclusively the notes or characteristics of the one, only, true, and universal church having unity, visibility, indefectibility, apostolic succession, universality, and sanctity: used in this sense, with these qualifications, only by the Church of Rome, as applicable only to itself and its adherents and to their faith and organization; often qualified, especially by those not acknowledging these claims, by prefixing the word Roman.
b. (among Anglo-Catholics) noting or pertaining to the conception of the church as the body representing the ancient undivided Christian witness, comprising all the orthodox churches that have kept the apostolic succession of bishops, and including the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church of Sweden, the Old Catholic Church (in the Netherlands and elsewhere), etc.
3. pertaining to the Western Church.
–noun
4. a member of a Catholic church, esp. of the Roman Catholic Church.

Clearly the use in this country of the word catholic gravitates towards the Roman Catholic Church. But Tishale, the word is real and it does have other uses than to fuel bigoted tendencies. No earthly established church can claim that they are the gate keepers to heaven. This is why right minded Christians look to Scripture and let God’s Word purely preached and His Sacraments rightly administered define where the Church universal, catholic, reside. It is these Marks, these confessions that define for us where Church is.

In conclusion, Tishale, at the end of the day, you can rest easy because God will not let any confessing catholic go to hell. He loves His elect so much that He allowed His son to be nailed to a tree at Golgotha to prevent just that which causes you concern. In fact, it is those who are outside of the Christian faith which you should pray for that they might be brought to faith and join the rest of Christ’s catholic Church.

In other words, if you ain’t catholic, you ain’t… well you’re going to hell. Cool eh?

It's Almost Ready

For those of you who are waiting for you know what, "it’s" almost ready. I don’t type so these longer posts take me a little time. It should be ready tomorrow.

Until then, I’ll address one of Tishale’s comments ; “And touch base about good people going to hell. But then again maybe they don't go because god knows their heart and they do believe in him.” Wow, you wanna know about good people going to hell?

Well, as Professor Farnsworth would say…"Good news everybody!", there are lots of good people in hell! And here’s the bad news, Heaven is filled to the brim with bad, bad people, and truth be told, everyone there knows it. That was simple wasn’t it?

Levels Of Hell

Today I'm going to answer an email question that Tishale had a few weeks back. I was ready to post this last week when I was asked by more than one person to tackle the "lost tomb of Jesus" garbage. Now that that's over...

Tishale, concerning your question “Can we talk about different places or punishment in hell for different levels of sin?” we read in Matthew 11:20-24:

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”


Christ Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 is condemning all the cities where He has preached and been rejected. He says in these very cities where He has performed great miracles, His word has fallen on deaf ears. Just as Pharaoh hardened his heart when Moses spoke on behalf of the great I Am, the people of Korazin, Bethsadia, and Capernaum have hardened to their promised Messiah. What makes this worse for these cities is that they know the scriptures and they still reject Christ. The citizens of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were all wicked cities destroyed by God and will certainly suffer in Hell. Jesus tells the Jews they have no excuse as they have seen the David’s greater, anointed Son before them performing miracles. Whole cities have rejected him, and whole cities will suffer a greater punishment because of it.

Later in Matthew chapter 23 verses 13-15, we read:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."

Here Jesus focuses on the religious leaders, the rabbis, Pharisees and such. By poor and outright false teaching they lead God’s people astray. And by this poor and false teaching, the people become twice the hypocrites as those teaching them and earn twice their reward in Hell.

Finally, we read in Luke 12:47, 48:

"And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."


These verses are directed at the apostles of Christ since these two verses are part of a longer answer to Peter’s question “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” Here just as before, because the apostles are entrusted with the keys of kingdom, Jesus is saying they have a greater responsibility. Should they be poor stewards of the His kingdom, the Church, they will be punished more severely.

I remember a conversation I had with someone a while back on this exact topic who thought I was just making stuff up. Because of the strong themes of different levels of Hell in fictional literature, the person I was talking to thought all ideas of this nature were made up. No, the argument I’m making is right out of Scripture. No “wouldn’t it be cool if” about it. While not everything we would like to know is explained to us this side of eternity, some things are revealed.

So what does this mean for us? Well, according to Jesus, there are different punishments in Hell or as some would say there are different “levels” of Hell. Should we start obsessing about these different levels of Hell? Hell no! As faithful Christians we recognize that God’s judgment is just and to that we say amen.

Does that answer your question?