It is common to hear members of sects such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or Seventh-day Adventists deny the existence of hell. For Catholics, however, hell is a dogma of faith.

In this regard, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 Jn 3:15). Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren (cf. Mt 25:31-46). To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell”.

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire” (cf. DS 76; 409; 411; 801; 858; 1002; 1351; 1575; SPF 12). The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

Biblical foundation of hell

As with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, the revelation of the existence of hell to the people of God was progressive.

During the first eight centuries of biblical writing, the Hebrew term sheol designates the abode of those who have died, both the good and the wicked alike; but in the more recent books of Scripture a clear distinction already appears between the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the just, as the book of Daniel indicates in its twelfth chapter.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”[1]

“And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”[2]

“Afterwards they will become dishonored corpses, an object of reproach among the dead for ever; for he will dash them speechless to the ground and shake them from the foundations; they will be left utterly dry and barren, and they will suffer anguish, and the memory of them will perish. They will come with fear when their sins are reckoned up, and their iniquities will confront them as accusers.”[3]

In the New Testament the doctrine of hell is much clearer, especially in the preaching of Jesus, who warns sinners of the punishment of hell using the image of Gehenna.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna.”[4]

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”[5]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves!”[6]

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?”[7]

“And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched; for every one will be salted with fire.”[8]

Expressions such as “unquenchable fire”, “furnace of fire”, “eternal punishment”, “cast into outer darkness”, and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” abound as well, referring to the pains of hell.

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”[9]

“…while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”[10]

“and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth…. and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”[11]

“Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’”[12]

“Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”[13]

“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.”[14]

“For it is indeed just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”[15]

“For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.”[16]

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”[17]

“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”[18]

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man[19] teaches that those who have been condemned will suffer torment in an eternal and irrevocable manner.

The punishments of hell. The pain of loss and the pain of sense

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.” This eternal separation from God, or the suffering of privation, is caused by the voluntary turning away from God that occurs through dying in mortal sin, and is called the “pain of loss.”

It is the principal punishment of hell because it entails the definitive loss of the beatific vision. The damned are irrevocably separated from God, and it is to this separation that texts such as Matthew 25:41 — “Depart from me, you cursed…” — or 2 Thessalonians 1:9 — “These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” — refer.

The pain of sense, by contrast, refers to the torment of the damned caused externally by sensory means. This torment is referred to in biblical texts such as Revelation 20:10 — “they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” — or “there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” The Church teaches that this sensory suffering now torments demons and the souls of the damned, and will also torment the bodies of the damned after the resurrection without consuming them.

Hell in the teaching of the Fathers of the Church

The early Church and the Church Fathers believed not only in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, but also in the eternal condemnation of the damned (with the exception of Origen and some of his followers, who erred in thinking that the punishments of hell were temporary, and of certain Gnostic heretics who claimed that those who were not saved would be annihilated — curiously, the same position held today by Jehovah’s Witnesses and Adventists).

The earliest creeds already affirmed the existence of eternal condemnation, as in the Athanasian Creed, also called the Quicumque, which states: “those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.”[20]

Apocalypse of Peter

An important Greek fragment of the Apocalypse was found at Akhmim in 1886–1887, and its contents describe visions that include the beauty of heaven, the horror of hell, and the punishments to which the damned are subjected: “And there was a great lake full of burning mire, in which were certain men that turned away from righteousness; and angels, tormentors, were placed over them there.”

Ignatius of Antioch (? – 107 A.D.)

Saint Ignatius speaks of how those who die in impurity will go to the unquenchable fire:

“Be not deceived, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh deserve death, how much more shall this be the case with any one who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a one becoming defiled in this way, shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that hearkens unto him. For this reason also the Lord received ointment on His head, that He might breathe incorruption into the Church. Be not ye anointed with the bad odour of the doctrine of the prince of this world; let him not lead you away captive from the life which is set before you. And why are we not all prudent, since we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? Why do we foolishly perish, not recognising the gift which the Lord has truly sent to us?”[21]

Justin Martyr (100 – 165 A.D.)

A martyr of the Christian faith around the year 165 (beheaded), he is considered the greatest apologist of the second century.

“For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold.”[22]

“And let no one object to us what is often urged by those who are called philosophers, that the things we affirm about punishment in eternal fire are nothing but noisy terrors and bugbears.”[23]

Martyrdom of Polycarp (155 A.D.)

This is a letter from the Church of Smyrna to the community of Philomelium narrating the martyrdom of Saint Polycarp, a direct disciple of the Apostle Saint John and bishop of Smyrna.

“And, sustained by the grace of Christ, they despised the earthly torments, purchasing with the suffering of one brief hour the life everlasting. The very fire of their inhuman torturers felt cool to them, for they kept before their eyes the escape from that fire which is eternal and never quenched, and with the eyes of their heart they already beheld the good things reserved for those who endure with steadfastness.”[24]

Epistle to Diognetus

This is a brief apologetic treatise addressed to someone named Diognetus, who apparently had inquired about certain things that caught his attention regarding the beliefs and way of life of Christians. It is of unknown authorship and is estimated to have been composed in the late second century.

“Then, while still on earth, you shall behold God ruling in the heavens; then you shall begin to speak of the mysteries of God; then you shall love and admire those who are tortured because they will not deny God; then you shall condemn the deceit and error of the world, when you know the true life of heaven, when you despise what seems here to be death, when you fear the true death reserved for those condemned to the eternal fire, the final punishment of those who are handed over. Then you shall marvel at and count blessed those who endure earthly fire for the sake of righteousness, when you know that other fire…”[25]

Athenagoras of Athens (Second Century)

“For if we believed that we should live only the present life, then we might be suspected of sinning, being enslaved to flesh and blood, or overmastered by gain and carnal desire; but since we know that God is witness to what we think and what we say both night and day, and that He, being Himself light, beholds all things in our heart, we are persuaded that when we depart the present life we shall live another and better life, heavenly, not earthly (since we shall abide with God, changeless and free from all passion of the soul, not as flesh, even though we shall have flesh, but as heavenly spirit), or, falling with the rest, a worse one and in fire; for God has not made us as sheep or beasts of burden, a by-work, and that we should perish and be annihilated. With this conviction, it is not likely that we should wish to do evil, or deliver ourselves over to the great Judge to be punished.”[26]

Irenaeus of Lyon (130–202 A.D.)

“In the New Testament, the faith of men in God has been increased, receiving in addition the Son of God, that man too might become a partaker of God. Similarly the perfection of human conduct was enhanced, since we are admonished to abstain not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts, and from idle words, and empty talk, and scurrilous language: thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the Word of God, and who despise His advent, and are turned away backwards, is increased; being not merely temporal, but rendered also eternal. For to whomsoever the Lord shall say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire’, these shall be damned for ever; but to whomsoever He shall say, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you’, these do receive the kingdom for ever, and make constant advance in it. For there is one and the same God the Father, and His Word always present with the human race, by means of various dispensations, and performing many works, and saving all from the beginning those who are saved—those, namely, who love God and who follow the Word of God—and condemning those who are condemned, that is, those who forget God, blaspheme, and transgress His Word.”[27]

Tertullian (c. 160–220 A.D.)

When he writes De paenitentia (approximately in the year 203 A.D., while still a Catholic), he speaks here of a second penance which God “has placed in the vestibule to open the door to those who knock, but only once, because this is now the second”; but for those who reject this penance he describes eternal condemnation in hell, the punishment of those who refused to repent and confess their sins.

“If you shrink back from open penance, consider in your heart the gehenna which that penance will extinguish for you. First, picture to yourself the magnitude of the penalty, so as not to hesitate about adopting the remedy. What do we think of that treasury of eternal fire, when through certain of its vent-holes breath comes out with such a blast of fiercely raging flames that the neighboring cities have already been blotted out or are daily expecting the same fate? The highest mountains crack asunder under the force of the fire they contain, and this is for us an evidence of the perpetuity of the fire, because though these eruptions shatter and destroy the mountains, the activity never ceases. Who, when confronted by these convulsions of the mountains, can fail to think of them as tokens of imminent judgment? Who will not reckon that such fiery glows are somehow like projectiles from some immense and indescribable fire?”[28]

Cyprian of Carthage (200–258 A.D.)

“What glory then will be accorded to the faithful, what punishment to the unbelievers, what grief to those who have despised God, that they were unwilling to believe in this world and now are unable to return and believe! Gehenna ever burning with fire and a devouring flame will scorch those who go there, and no respite or end will at any time be found for their torments. Souls are preserved with their bodies to suffer endless tortures. There shall one always look upon him who here looked upon us but for a moment, and the brief pleasure which their cruel eyes took in the persecutions will be counterbalanced by the unending spectacle, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture which says: “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.” Then repentance will be vain, groaning useless, and prayer without effect. Too late do they believe in eternal punishment who were unwilling to believe in eternal life.”[29]

Basil of Caesarea (329–379 A.D.)

“It is clear that our own works are the cause by which we end up condemned to torment, since it is we ourselves who prepare ourselves to be worthy of burning, so that the vices of the soul are like sparks of fire that we produce to kindle the flames of gehenna, as in the case of that rich man who was consumed in the fire of his own pleasures that were burning him.

Indeed, the intensity of the devouring fire will be greater or lesser according to the darts cast upon each one by the evil one.”[30]

“…in hell there is no one to give praise, nor in the grave anyone to remember God, because neither is the aid of the Holy Spirit present there. How then can one suppose that judgment is carried out without the Holy Spirit, seeing that the Word shows that He Himself will also be the reward of the righteous when, instead of the earnest, He is given in full measure, and that He will be the first condemnation of sinners when they are stripped of that very thing which they seemed to have?”[31]

Gregory Nazianzen (329–390 A.D.)

“I know the trembling, the agitation, the anxiety and the breaking of the heart, the wavering of the knees and other similar pains with which the impious are punished. I will say, indeed, that the impious are handed over to the tribunals of the life to come by the sparing justice of this world, so that it is better to be chastised and purified now than to be remitted to the punishments of the beyond, when the time of punishment has come and not of purification.”[32]

Gregory of Nyssa (331–394 A.D.)

Gregory of Nyssa likewise speaks repeatedly of the “unquenchable fire” and of the immortality of the “worm”.

“And the painful life of sinners has no comparison with the sensations of those who suffer here. But even if the name by which some punishment there is known is the same as one known here, the difference is not small.

Indeed, when you hear the word fire, you have learned to think of something different from the fire here, because in it there is a quality not found in this one: that fire, in fact, is not extinguished, whereas this one here can be put out by the many means that experience teaches, and the difference is great between a fire that can be extinguished and one that is inextinguishable.

Therefore, it is another, and not the same as the one here. And also when one hears the word worm, let him not be led by the similarity of the name to think of this little earthly creature, because the addition of the qualifier “eternal” implies that one must think of another nature different from the one we know.”[33]

Jerome (340 – 420 A.D.)

“There are many who say that in the future there will be no torments for sins, nor will punishments coming from outside be applied to them; rather, the penalty will consist in the sin itself and in the awareness of the crime, with the worm not dying in the heart and the fire burning in the soul, in a manner similar to fever, which does not torment the sick person from without, but, seizing hold of bodies, punishes without employing any external instrument of torture. These persuasions are fraudulent snares, empty and worthless words, which delight sinners like flowers, but which instill in them a confidence that leads them to eternal torments.”[34]

John Chrysostom (347 – 407 A.D.)

Saint John Chrysostom gives a detailed explanation of the difference between the pain of loss and the pain of sense, and how the former is the principal punishment of hell by implying the definitive separation from God.

“The twofold punishment of hell: Fire and deprivation of God — Apparently there is here only a single punishment, which is being burned by fire; yet, if we carefully examine it, we shall see that there are two, because the one who is burned is at the same time banished forever from the Kingdom of God. And this punishment is more grievous than the first. I know well that many fear only the fire of hell, but I do not hesitate to affirm that the loss of eternal glory is more bitter than the fire itself. That we cannot express this in words is not at all surprising, for we do not even know the nature of eternal goods so as to be able to grasp fully the misfortune of being deprived of them… Certainly, hell and the punishment suffered there are unbearable. Yet, even if you were to place a thousand hells before me, you would tell me nothing comparable to the loss of that blessed glory, to the misfortune of being abhorred by Christ, of having to hear from His mouth, ‘I know you not,’ of being accused by Him of having seen Him hungry and not giving Him food. Better to be consumed by a thousand thunderbolts than to see that gentle face rejecting us, and those serene eyes unable to bear the sight of us.”[35]

Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 A.D.)

“You have heard, then, in the Gospel that there are two lives: one present, the other future. The present life we possess; in the future life we believe. We are in the present; to the future we have not yet arrived. While we live the present, let us merit the future, for we have not yet died. Is the Gospel read in hell? If that were actually the case, that rich man would hear it in vain, because there could no longer be any fruitful penitence. Here it is read to us and here we hear it, where, while we live, we can be corrected so as not to arrive at those torments.”[36]

“From what happens here, man’s understanding could form an idea of what is in store for us in the life to come. Yet what a great disproportion! He lives, he does not want to die; hence the love of unending life, the desire to live, the unwillingness ever to die. Yet those who are to go to the tormenting pains of hell will want to die and will not be able.”[37]

Gregory I the Great (540 – 604 A.D.)

“If the good fare badly and the wicked fare well, perhaps it is because the good, if they have sinned in anything, receive their punishment here so as to be fully delivered from eternal condemnation, while the wicked find here the reward for the good done in this life, so that in the life to come they may suffer only torments.”[38]

Definitions of the Church’s Magisterium

At the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) the existence of hell and the eternity of its punishments were defined. The same was affirmed at the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439), where it was declared that eternal condemnation begins immediately after death.

In the Bull Benedictus Deus (1336) we read: “We define that, according to the general disposition of God, the souls of those who die in actual mortal sin descend, after their death, into hell, where they are tormented with infernal punishments.”

The recent Magisterium has expressly confirmed the Church’s teaching on hell at the Second Vatican Council in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, exhorting us to be vigilant so as to enter into life and to turn away from eternal punishment: “Since however we know not the day nor the hour, on Our Lord’s advice we must be constantly vigilant so that, having finished the course of our earthly life (cf. Heb 9:27), we may merit to enter into the marriage feast with Him and to be numbered among the blessed (cf. Mt 25:31-46) and that we may not be ordered to go into eternal fire (cf. Mt 25:41) like the wicked and slothful servant (cf. Mt 25:26), into the exterior darkness where ‘there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth’ (Mt 22:13; 25:30).”

Likewise Pope Paul VI: “Those who have refused them (the love and piety of God) to the end go to the fire that is not extinguished.”[39]

Notes

  1. Daniel 12:2-3 ↩
  2. Isaiah 66:24 ↩
  3. Wisdom 4:19-20 ↩
  4. Matthew 5:29 ↩
  5. Matthew 10:28 ↩
  6. Matthew 23:15 ↩
  7. Matthew 23:33 ↩
  8. Mark 9:45-49 ↩
  9. Matthew 3:12 ↩
  10. Matthew 8:12 ↩
  11. Matthew 13:42.50 ↩
  12. Matthew 22:13 ↩
  13. Matthew 25:41 ↩
  14. Mark 9:43 ↩
  15. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 ↩
  16. Hebrews 10:26-27 ↩
  17. Revelation 21:8 ↩
  18. Revelation 20:10 ↩
  19. Luke 16 ↩
  20. Dz 40/76 ↩
  21. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 16–17. ANF, vol. 1, pp. 55–56. ↩
  22. Justin Martyr, First Apology, 28, 1. ANF, vol. 1, p. 172. ↩
  23. Justin Martyr, Second Apology, 9, 1. Daniel Ruiz Bueno, Greek Apologist Fathers, BAC 116, Third Edition (Madrid, 1996), p. 271. ↩
  24. Martyrdom of Polycarp, 2, 3–4. Daniel Ruiz Bueno, Apostolic Fathers, BAC 65, Fifth Edition (Madrid, 1985), pp. 673–674. ↩
  25. Epistle to Diognetus, 10, 7–8. Guillermo Pons, El más allá en los Padres de la Iglesia, Editorial Ciudad Nueva (Madrid, 2001), p. 109. ↩
  26. Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, 31. Daniel Ruiz Bueno, Greek Apologist Fathers, BAC 116, Third Edition (Madrid, 1996), pp. 701–702. ↩
  27. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies IV,28,2 ↩
  28. Tertullian, On Penance, 12. PL 1:1247; Guillermo Pons, El más allá en los Padres de la Iglesia, Editorial Ciudad Nueva (Madrid, 2001), pp. 110–111. ↩
  29. Cyprian, To Demetrianus, 24. ANF, vol. 5, p. 466. ↩
  30. Basil of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah, 1, 64; Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 161 vols., Paris 1875ss, 30:229; Guillermo Pons, El más allá en los Padres de la Iglesia, Editorial Ciudad Nueva (Madrid, 2001), p. 112. ↩
  31. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit, 16,40 G. Azzali-Argimiro Velasco, Basil of Caesarea, El Espíritu Santo, Biblioteca de Patrística 32, Ciudad Nueva, Madrid 1996, p.175-176 ↩
  32. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 16, 7. Patrologia Graeca 35:944. Guillermo Pons, El más allá en los Padres de la Iglesia (Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 2001), pp. 112–113. ↩
  33. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism, 40, 7–8. M. Naldini and Argimiro Velasco, Gregorio de Nisa: La gran catequesis, Biblioteca de Patrística (Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 1993), p. 139. ↩
  34. Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 3, 5, 6. Patrologia Latina 26:522. ↩
  35. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, 23, 8. Daniel Ruiz Bueno, Obras de San Juan Crisóstomo, vol. I, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 141, 2nd ed. (reprint), Madrid 2007, pp. 489–491. ↩
  36. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon, 113-A, 3: Obras Completas de San Agustín, vol. X, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 441, Madrid 1983, p. 829. ↩
  37. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 127, 2: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 443, pp. 106–107. ↩
  38. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, V. J. Rico, Gregorio Magno: Libros Morales/1, Biblioteca de Patrística 42 (Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 1998), p. 300. ↩
  39. Paul VI, Profession of Faith, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 60 (1968) 444. ↩