1) Grave matter. No stealing paper clips from work; I mean breaking the 10 commandments.
2) Full knowledge. You have to know it's wrong.
3) Deliberate consent. This is the big one, you have to know how wrong it is, and then do it anyway.
One of the RCIA teachers was saying (more or less) that the 3rd condition is pretty hard to meet. You would almost have to commit a sin out of spite. That anyone who ended up in hell, really and truly chose it. Interestingly enough, this is God's greatest respect for our free will. We can choose hell if we want to. In the past I had considered the 3rd condition rather easy to meet. If you know it's wrong and do it anyway, that's deliberate consent, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. Only God knows your heart. Only God knows your spirit, how you may have been tempted, and if you desire mercy. I have always wondered, what does it look like for some one to "choose hell"? How could someone do that? A couple days ago, I got my answer...
I was watching a debate between Trent Horn and Dan Barker. They titled the debate "God: supreme being or imaginary friend". It was obviously a debate over the existence of God. Dan was a former Protestant Minister (I think Presbyterian, but it doesn't matter) who turned atheist. Actually, in spite of his insistence on calling himself an atheist, his position was more agnostic, but that doesn't matter either. As a former minister, he knew the bible well. During the debate he made a statement that has stuck with me... He was talking about all of the "bad things that God did in the Old Testament" and how "mean" God was. Truthfully, God himself has no moral code, he can dictate history as he sees fit. Then Dan said, and I quote:
"I'd rather be in hell than worship a God like that."I must say, that quote more than anything else in the 2 hour video, affected me. I now know exactly what it looks like for a person to choose hell. I cannot be his judge, that is left to Jesus. I do not know his heart, where he comes from in this statement, or where his resentment for God comes from. But, he said it outright. He would rather be in hell, separated from God...
To say that the God of the Old testament did immoral things is to say that God himself is bound by his law. But, as the creator of the law, He is not bound by it. The problem is that God created us in HIS image and we like to create God in OUR image. We like to put the bounds that are on us back on God. We don't have a single claim to life, not one more second. If God stopped loving us, we would simply cease to exist. God can do whatever he sees fit. He is God, we are not. God is without bound. When he does things that would be immoral if we carried them out by ourselves, we simply trust that God is doing it for our own benefit. After all, as he is our Father, he only permits things to happen that are for our ultimate good. Let us not forget that omnipotence can come in handy when making decisions about the world.
We also know that our faith is not our own. Our faith is merely a response to God's grace. Without Grace, we could not have faith. So, we cannot boast about the faith that we have. Therefore, the lack of faith in a person is not something that is lacking in them, but rather it is born of the hardness of heart that is the rejection of Gods Grace. It is to hear God's call in your heart and to freely say "no".
In conclusion, we pray for all of those whose hearts have become so hard of heart that they freely reject the life of God within them. We pray that they have an increase in humility and a decrease in pride; that they come to understand God's love and his life within themselves. We pray that those who do have faith, never forget what the choice to accept God's Grace feels like; that we remain humble and exercise constant vigilance against the snares of the devil. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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