Note: this was originally published on my Equus nom Veritas site. It can be viewed here with original format and links. I can think of no more widely-misinterpreted (and deliberately abused) passage from the Bible than "Judge not, that you may not be judged." This appears in Matthew 7:1 and again in Luke 6:37, complete with enough background to give the statement some semblance of context. This does not, however, prevent people from retreating like cowards behind these verses at the first sign of a warning against the dangers of a sinful lifestyle.
Consider, for example, the incredibly childish antics of those people who scream "hate speech" whenever the word "hell" is mentioned. As one rather inane person has put it, it's "horribly hateful" to say that a person so much as risks sending his soul to hell. Never-mind that saying a person "risks" going to hell is entirely different from condemning the person to go there (see the second part of Luke 6:37): indeed, the first step to avoiding that fate is recognizing that it is a possibility.
It is in fact an act of mercy to instruct the ignorant and to admonish sinners (about this, see Luke 6:36). Indeed, if this is indeed a real possibility--and we as Catholics and Christians believe that it is--then it is an act of cruelty (not to mention a sin of omission) to deliberately not give warning against this fate.
Indeed, most of us would generally consider it an act of decency (to say nothing of actual kindness or mercy) to be warned against walking into an imminent danger. To take an example: no one in their right mind would consider it hateful if I said "Hey, don't keep going this way! According to my map, the trees and overgrowth obscure a sharp drop ahead, and you risk falling over the precipice to your death!" If my map turns out to be wrong, and no such hazard exists, the statement doesn't suddenly become "horribly hateful." Indeed, it's hardly even considered "hateful" even if I had passed that way and found no such cliff. And if my map was right, then by my silence I may have helped condemn the unwary traveler to his death: thus, it is an act of decency as much as of mercy to warn against the danger present.
Why, then, does it become hateful when warning against a far worse peril, whether or not I'm ultimately right about the danger? Because of the way in which I go about it? Perhaps this is a part of it; though I try to be tactful, I sometimes (or often?) fail, and perhaps this is an area which I need to improve. I certainly know that I have more difficulty being kind when my kindness is rebutted, or when the person I'm interacting with is himself being belligerently tactless, but perhaps this is just a personal failing.
Nevertheless, if hell doesn't exist, then I am not acting in a hateful manner by claiming that somebody risks going there, any more than I am acting hateful by warning that Furies may pursue anyone who takes the left fork in the road instead of the right. Indeed, if I am wrong and hell does not exist, then my words can scarcely be more hateful than the ravings of a madman or the silly jokes of a clown; ignore them or laugh at them, for that is the appropriate response.
If, however, I am right, then the only hateful thing I can do is deliberately lead you merrily on the road to perdition by my silence or complicity. I don't prophecy that anyone will go to hell: as Mr Mark Shea has noted, "If anybody made that stupid prophecy, they were way out of line." I don't know who, aside from the demons, is specifically in hell; I don't know who sincerely repents, even in the moment of their death, who receives God's grace at the end of their lives. I know that the danger is real, and believe that some people have gone there, but I do not name names definitively. To do so is ultimately to engage in condemnation and judgment, which I do not do.
Rather, I give the sincere warning, when I am able to, that hell is a real place and that real people can and almost certainly do send themselves there. Some do so by obstinately holding to the premise that they'd rather go to hell than enter a heaven ruled by God; others by despairing of forgiveness, and others by being finally impenitent and resisting the known truth. Still more by presuming that they will go to heaven, however they've lived and whatever they've believed, whether they've made any effort to pursue truth and goodness or pleasure and evil or indifference. These are all forms of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which is the one unforgivable sin.
Tags: Musings Theology Apologetics
