Is Hell Real, and Does God Send People There?
A Teaching Many Would Rather Forget
Hell is not a popular subject. Many people assume that a loving God could never allow anyone to be lost for ever. Others picture hell as a cartoon of flames and pitchforks, and dismiss the whole idea.
The Catholic Church takes a different view. She teaches that hell is real, that it is eternal, and that it is a real possibility for every human being. But she also teaches that God sends no one there against their will (CCC 1033–1037).
Jesus Spoke About Hell
It is sometimes said that hell is an invention of the Church to frighten people. In fact, no one in the Bible speaks about hell more often or more seriously than Jesus Himself.
He warned of “the fire of Gehenna” (Matthew 5:22) and said it would be better to lose an eye than to be thrown into it (Matthew 5:29). He told His disciples, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, He describes the King saying to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire,” and concludes that “they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:41, 46).
The Church cannot simply set aside what Christ taught so clearly.
What Hell Is
The Catechism gives a careful definition. Hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed (CCC 1033).
Notice the word self-exclusion. Hell is not God locking out people who wanted to come in. It is the final state of those who have freely and finally refused Him.
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone human beings can find the life and happiness for which they were created and for which they long (CCC 1035). Every human heart is made for God. To lose Him for ever is to lose the one thing we were made for. That loss is the essence of hell.
Scripture also speaks of “fire.” The Church has not defined exactly what this fire is, but she teaches that hell involves real suffering, not merely an absence.
Does God Send People to Hell?
The Church is emphatic: God predestines no one to go to hell (CCC 1037). He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Christ died for every human being.
To go to hell, a person must die in a state of mortal sin: a wilful turning away from God in a serious matter, with full knowledge and deliberate consent, and without repenting of it (CCC 1033, 1857).
So hell is not the result of a mistake, a weakness, or a sin someone did not understand. It is the result of a free and persistent rejection of God’s love, chosen to the very end. C. S. Lewis captured this idea when he suggested that the doors of hell are, in a sense, locked from the inside.
Why Must It Be Eternal?
Many people can accept that wrongdoing deserves some punishment, but struggle with the idea that it should last for ever.
The Church’s answer lies in human freedom. God made us free, and He takes our freedom seriously. Love cannot be forced. If we could not finally say no to God, our yes would not mean anything either.
After death, the soul’s time of decision is over. A person who has died rejecting God remains fixed in that choice. Hell lasts for ever not because God refuses to forgive, but because the damned refuse to be forgiven.
Is Anyone Actually in Hell?
The Church declares that certain people are in heaven when she canonises saints. She has never declared that any particular person is in hell, not even Judas. Only God sees the heart, and only He knows what happens in a soul at the moment of death.
At the same time, the Church does not teach that hell is empty. Jesus spoke of hell as a real danger, not an empty threat, and the Church takes His warnings seriously. Many of the great saints and Doctors of the Church believed that most people are in fact lost (see Will Only a Few Be Saved?), while some modern theologians hope that very few or none are (see What Is Hell, and May We Hope That It Is Empty?). The Church has not settled the number. Our business is to make sure we are not among the lost, and to pray for the salvation of others.
Why Teach About Hell at All?
The Church does not teach about hell to frighten people into obedience. She teaches it because it is true, and because it shows how seriously God takes us.
The Catechism describes the Church’s teaching on hell as a call to responsibility and an urgent call to conversion (CCC 1036). Our choices matter. Our lives matter. Heaven and hell are the measure of how much they matter.
Not a Reason for Despair
For a Christian, the reality of hell is not a reason for anxiety, but for trust and seriousness. No one who sincerely wants God will be lost. No sin is too great to be forgiven in Confession. And God is far more eager for our salvation than we are.
That is why, at the end of every decade of the Rosary, many Catholics pray the Fatima prayer: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.”
See also What Are Mortal and Venial Sins — What Is the Difference? and What Happens When You Die? Death and the Particular Judgement