damnation :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with damnation

Must Hitler burn forever?

June 08th, 201109:43 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

In case you've been thinking about hell a lot lately, or even if you haven't, have I got a rather sobering treat for you. Today I am making available for you free of charge a thirty-three page chapter I wrote on the doctrine of hell for a book manuscript called The Crazy Things We Believe. Thus far I've written three of an anticipated seven chapter...
Is Mother Teresa in hell?

May 18th, 201109:52 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

About a month ago I gave a speech at a public function. At one point in the speech I mentioned the catalogue of saints that have come before us and who even now labor shoulder to shoulder with us. Among those individuals I mentioned people like the Apostle Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Catherine of Siena, and (in our own day) Desmond Tutu. Apparently t...
Burned before you know it

April 01st, 201106:42 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

There is a popular idea among Christians that there is some age of accountability before which point a person who dies without having made a cognitive confession of faith in Christ still gets to go to heaven. But after that point failure to pray the appropriate prayer will result in eternal damnation. Here's an illustration to illumine one problem...
How exclusive should Christianity be?

February 14th, 201108:46 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Many Christians are exclusivists by which I don't mean that they are social snobs or against racial integration. Rather, an "exclusivist" is one who believes that certain things are essential to being saved by Jesus. Catholic Community Exclusivism Historic Catholicism (i.e. prior to Vatican II) tended to be exclusivist about membership in its own...
Does doctrinal disagreement demonstrate God's incompetence?

April 17th, 201010:47 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

We have been discussing the theology of atonement for the last couple weeks. In "Mysteries for Poets and Skeptics" I quoted AnAtheist.net who quipped in one of those threads (with a mischievous chortle, no doubt): "I wonder if He [God] gets a certain amount of pleasure (as much as I do) from watching all of these theologians wrestle and disagree w...
Do people in hell continue to curse God?

February 05th, 201012:04 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

I have been engaging questions over the justice of the doctrine of hell as eternal conscious torment with the main suggestion being that this appears deeply morally problematic. MGT2 demurs. From his perspective, people choose to be in hell as they pile up sins eternally: Why does God allow people to continue to suffer in hell? And why does God pu...