I've defended before the possibility of salvation for those who are invincibly ignorance. Today I'd like to take that in a slightly different direction. The doctrine that those who are ignorant of Christ, His Church, and the offer of His grace for salvation through no fault of their own might yet be saved through God's mercy (aren't we all) does leave one questioned unanswered: would it not be better to be ignorant of the Gospels' message, and thus to not risk rejecting this message?

I answer that this would not be better--that though ignorance may be bliss at times-- in this case it is better to teach all people's of Christ and to let them choose to accept or reject Him. First, there is the fact that Christ explicitly commands His disciples (that is, all of us who are Christians) to spread the Gospel message and baptize all nations (see Matthew 28:16-20). There is therefore the implication that it is better for us to know of Christ than to not know: the risk of rejecting him implicitly is every bit as present to the ignorant as the risk of rejecting Him explicitly is to those who have heard the Gospels' message.

In part, this is because it is better for many to love God and for for some to hate Him than for none to know Him at all. If this were not the case, then we would not be endowed with free will, and would instead be mere automatons--robots. When God gave us the natural power of our will, He knew that we might choose to love Him and obey Him, or to treat Him with indifference, and worse still, that we might hate Him and reject Him. Our first parents chose to disobey Him, if not necessarily to hate Him or treat Him indifferently, then to reject Him (see Genesis chapter 3). Many of their offspring (to say nothing of fallen angels) have taken this a step or two further and held God in outright contempt, hating Him (see James 2:19), or rejecting Him as a myth (see Psalm 41:11 for starters). Yet for the sake of even a few people who would choose to honor Him and love Him--for those few who would choose righteousness (see Genesis 18:23-33)--God granted us this gift of free will.

Similarly, for the sake of those who choose to accept the good news is the gospel to be spread to the ends of the earth. The die is already cast: God did this--even knowing the outcome!--when He granted free will to angels and to men. Moreover, the possibility of the salvation of the ignorant is always assumed slimmer than that of those who have heard the good news. To have a greater piece of truth increasing the possibility for salvation--for truth does not diminish grace. If we know both the bad news (the Fall) and the good (salvation), we have more reason to develop the faith necessary for salvation. Or, to put it differently, we cannot love what we don't know. This means that we can't really love God if we don't know Him, or have never heard of Him. Oh, we can love truth, and thus implicitly love it's Source, but we've developed no relationship with God, and thus have only the barest minimum of faith in Him (indirectly--it's a faith that there is some real truth in the world, and that we should form our consciences and actions according to it as best we can).

All of which brings me to the actual title of this short essay. Is there homogeneity in heaven (or in hell)? By this I am asking, ultimately, whether all those in heaven are equally blissful, equally happy, equally joyful; and whether those in hell are equally miserable, suffering equal torments, and in equal states of horror, agony, and despair. Here is where I must speculate a little: and I believe that the answer is paradoxically both an emphatic "yes" and a certain "no."

First, a bit of background is needed. The idea has been around for quite many years that not all those in heaven (or hell) are in the same level or "circle" or heaven or hell. Dante's Divine Comedy is the most famous illustration of this, in which Dante narrates his passage through nine circles each of hell, purgatory, and heaven. Dante in turn drew his ideas from the Catholic culture around him, which had long since ascribed 9 layers to heaven (based on the moon, the sun, the known planets, and the stars), and correspondingly 9 to purgatory and 9 to hell. Dante was a bit more fanciful in describing who, exactly, could be found in each of these 27 circles, and what their torments*, penances, and rewards were. This, in turn, developed out of the beliefs of earlier Christians concerning the afterlife, some of which are still held today: as, for example, the Orthodox belief that after death, each person sleeps in a general dormition while awaiting the final judgment, but feels pleasure or pain according to his merits.

Indeed, there is even some scriptural evidence that those who enter heaven may not all be rewarded equally. Christ tells us that in His "Father's house there are many mansions" (John 14:2): one possible implication of which (surely a fair interpolation) being that these many "houses" are not all identical, that is, that not all the blessings and joys of heaven are equally distributed. Moreover, in His Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord gave us the beatitudes, in which He suggests separate rewards for each Beatitude (see Matthew 5:1-12); and from this, we might also surmise separate torments for separate sins. This, then, is the negative answer in my paradoxical speculation, that not everybody suffers the same torments or if given the same rewards--or to the same degree--in either heaven or hell. Thus, in this sense neither heaven nor hell is homogeneous.

But what of the affirmative answer--what about heaven or about hell is homogeneous? Well, all those in heave will be in eternal communion with God, always in His presence; they shall all be ever joyful, ever happy, without suffering, pain or fear. They will know absolutely of the truth, and shall no longer desire to deny it--their will shall at last be brought into accord with God's own, and they shall not desire otherwise. And though they may not all be equally happy, equally joyful, or experiencing equal amounts of pleasure, they shall each experience the most joy, happiness, and pleasure possible for them, and none shall envy those others who are more joyful or happier than they are, nor pity those who are less so. As for those in hell, they will not all suffer in equal amounts of torment, agony, or horror; but each shall suffer as much as he is capable, and shall have nothing but envy and hatred for those who suffer less. God shall be ever-absent, and they shall similarly know the truth, but despair of it, never for a moment hoping to repent and return to God, for it will then be impossible; nor would they have it any other way by then.

All of this brings me back to my initial question, why is is best to spread the gospels? To extend my speculation further, those who enter heaven will be happier or less happy to the extent that they believe in, know, trust in, love, and obey God in this life: which is to say that those who have heard the good news and accepted it may have a greater share of joy in the next life. We who have heard the Gospel have a greater opportunity to love and serve God, which He will reward more greatly (see Matthew 25:14-23, 28-29; and also Luke 19:11-19, 24-26). Thus, those who enter heaven as "good and faithful servants" who have been entrusted with the gospel message will surely see a greater reward than those who have entered as virtuous though invincibly ignorant men. On the other hand, those who have heard the message and rejected it shall suffer the torments of hell (Matthew 25:24-28, 30; Matthew 22:11-14; and Luke 19:20-24), unless they repent and so are accepted back into the arms of Our Lord (see Luke 15:22-24).
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*Not too mention that the "neutral" angels and indecisive people who chose neither good nor evil in life were left outside the gates of hell, never to enter heave, always to be pursued and stung by angry swarms of wasps and hornets while continually pursuing a "banner" (their own self-interest). They reside by the shores of Archeron, unfit for either heaven or hell.
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Note: This was originally posted on my Equus Nom Veritas blog, and can be viewed in its original format with complete links there.

Tags: Theology Speculation-and -Interpretation Religious-Refle Ctions Eschatolog

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