What's the level of the teaching that we can't be sure someone is in Hell?
score:3
Answer
This isn't so much about "a level of teaching" than that the knowledge that someone is in hell does not belong to "Sacred deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei) [= Sacred Scripture and [Holy] Tradition]. Cf. CCC 84.
What the Church's competency is and what she teaches is faith & morals contained in "Sacred deposit" of the faith which in every generation she receives from the previous generation all the way to the Apostles. Only truths in sacred deposit or connected to these truths can be Church Doctrine or Dogma. This knowledge is not part of the sacred deposit.
Support for the answer
At the General Audience of Wednesday, 28 July 1999, Pope St. John Paul II [the Great] said:
Damnation remains a real possibility, but it is not granted to us, without special divine revelation, to know which human beings are effectively involved in it.
Please note that from point 4. from which this quotation is taken states that some spiritual beings [angels now turned demons] have already said "no" and this statement is part of the faith. It has not been revealed to the Church which men have said "no".
To me there is a distinction between:
The Church/the faithful are prohibited from proclaiming people to be condemned, and this is a teaching to be held by all the faithful or that this is ancient teaching traceable to the Apostles.
(And the Church cannot do this because according to the saintly Pope, someone can have this knowledge via special divine revelation, though such a revelation will not be binding upon the faithful. Cf. Private Revelation and this answer.)
And
It has not been revealed to the Church who the damned men are.
If the truths in the former were contained in the Sacred deposit, then that teaching is what ends up as Church Doctrine [=Teaching] and some of these doctrines end up as dogma [= truths formally proposed]. Cf. My answer to What is the difference between a dogma, a doctrine, an infallible statement, an ex cathedra statement, etc.?
Cf. This answer to Why can the Catholic Church declare one person a saint but has never declared another damned?
Upvote:3
In Catholicism, we learn the teachings of Christ in the Mass as part of our Liturgy. We pray for all peoples, not just Catholics but all, that they find their way to fullness of the faith. Even at the highest positions of the church, or the lowest depending on your perspective, the authorities, those who watch over our souls (Heb 13:17) have a responsibility not to pronounce judgement, but to guide. There is only one who can pronounce judgement.
Be humbled in the sight of the Lord: and he will exalt you. 11 Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver. 13 But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? (James 4:10–13).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines presumption this way.
PRESUMPTION: An act or attitude opposed to the theological virtue of hope. Presumption can take the form of trust in self without recognizing that salvation comes from God, or of an over-confidence in divine mercy. (CCC Glossary)
Paul also makes his position very clear concerning even his own security.
LET a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by man’s day. But neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything. Yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4
This is a far cry from suggesting that he is justified once by the cross, he continues..
Therefore, judge not before the time: until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall EVERY man have praise from God.
As for dogma:
God, by His eternal resolve of Will, has predetermined certain men to eternal blessedness.
God, by an eternal resolve of His Will, predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection.
From the work of Dr. Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma
Now, it is different to say that if you sin, and continue to sin, you are in danger of being separated from God's love. That is an example of teaching. Stating that a person is in hell or will go to hell, is pronouncing judgement, a thing reserved only to God. A priest can teach you what actions are condemnable and guide you to repentance; he cannot, however, condemn your soul.
More post
- 📝 Should we consider everyone better than ourselves?
- 📝 Is the Feast of First Fruits rather related to the Start or the End of the 50-day-count?
- 📝 Did the midwives in Exodus 1 sin by disobeying and lying to Pharaoh? (Catholic/Protestant overview)
- 📝 Why wasn't Solomon's polygamy sinful?
- 📝 The Tyranny of the Weaker Brother
- 📝 How long can the Catholic Church be without a pope?
- 📝 Where did all the water come from and go during the flood?
- 📝 By what process did the miraculous conception of Jesus occur?
- 📝 Abraham's Temptation: only a matter of Faith, or also of Hope?
- 📝 Can knowledge obtained in a seminarian's confession be used to determine if he should be ordained?
- 📝 When did the Catholic Church decide 'daily bread" is its Eucharist?
- 📝 Lords Prayer. Asking for Forgiveness
- 📝 In which year did Chesterton write the 'I am' (what's wrong with the world) letter?
- 📝 Why did Justin Martyr speak so harshly about Christians who ate meat sacrificed to idols?
- 📝 Are there Christians that believe that God is a substance?
- 📝 Was Jesus two separate individuals in one body?
- 📝 Is the nature of God the father like that of Abraham the father of Isaac?
- 📝 What spiritual principles/laws are at play during a ritual child sacrifice to Molech, Baal or any other pagan deity, as recorded in the Old Testament?
- 📝 Where do the related verse cross references in the CSB Bibles come from?
- 📝 A Question Regarding the Variation of Doctrines within Christendom
- 📝 Did the LDS believe that Christians are doomed to hell?
- 📝 Why do Christians thank God for specific things?
- 📝 What date was the second Easter?
- 📝 Did Martin Luther believe the Church needed to be reformed before the Great Schism of 1054AD, or after?
- 📝 What exactly is "Ordinary Time" in the Catholic Church's liturgical calendar?
- 📝 How could a sinless Mary die?
- 📝 How do those who hold to the causal power of the Eucharist reconcile that view with Jesus' statement at Matthew 15:16?
- 📝 Why are there only male popes?
- 📝 Are we born sinners?
- 📝 Early church writers opposed to the baptism of infants?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What's the level of the teaching that we can't be sure someone is in Hell?
- 📝 How do traditional Christians defend the teaching that Paul is an authentic apostle?
- 📝 What is the basis for the Catholic teaching that artificial birth control is wrong?
- 📝 How does 1 John 2:19 fit with the teaching that Christians can lose their salvation
- 📝 Why does LDS teaching say that the Priesthood returned to earth if John never left?
- 📝 Is there any truth to the story that Martin Luther claimed he "bought" hell from a priest?
- 📝 Do people of different denominations think that the others are going to go to hell for holding false views?
- 📝 When did the teaching that salvation can still be obtained by people after their physical death first appear in Christianity?
- 📝 How is 1 Corinthians 9:27 reconciled with the teaching that losing salvation is impossible?
- 📝 When did the LDS church start teaching that God the Father had a beginning?
- 📝 What is the evidence that someone is filled with the Holy Spirit?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the belief that people do not go to heaven or hell immediately when they die?
- 📝 Did Pope Francis declare that according to the teaching of the Catholic Church capital punishment is intrinsically evil?
- 📝 How can common believers in the Eastern Orthodox Church be sure that the Church's decisions are correct and not erroneous?
- 📝 How do we make sure that we are on the rightful religion/path?
- 📝 Do saints and church fathers generally make the claim that most people go to a hell of everlasting torment?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the Catholic teaching that infant baptism cleanses from original sin?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the idea that the 'quality of life' in hell is not the same for everyone?
- 📝 How can common believers in the Roman Catholic Church be sure that the Church's decisions are correct and not erroneous?
- 📝 What is the scriptural basis, if any, for the Catholic teaching that the h*m*sexual tendency is of itself not a sin?
- 📝 Can someone explain the argument that Jesus believed in Adam and Eve?
- 📝 LDS teaching about man being able to become God, and the snake telling Eve that she can become "like God"
- 📝 What level of assent does the 2018 teaching on capital punishment require of Catholics?
- 📝 Why is the Catholic teaching that Mary's hymen remained intact during childbirth important?
- 📝 Can someone clarify the eastern orthodox teaching "Temps Immobile" of Fr. Alexander Schmemann?
- 📝 How do Catholics and other Christians respond to the US Bishops' teaching that Matthew was not written by it supposed author?
- 📝 What is the basis for the Catholic teaching that abortion is immoral/sinful?
- 📝 Is there Catholic teaching and/or prophecy that a pope may be the false prophet of Revelation and the Church the who*e of Babylon?
- 📝 Can Catholic priests disclose the fact that someone has seen him for confession?
- 📝 What is the basis of the teaching that souls in purgatory can intercede for the living?
