Why Do Most People Go To Hell?

At 64 years of age and living here in Fatima, I have been thinking a lot about Heaven and Hell, death and salvation. What worries me is that most people, even Catholics go to Hell. The reason for this is that they do not repent of some sins. I have been looking deep into myself lately to see what sins I justify and do not repent of. I have many sins, not only daily but even in every single hour and maybe every single minute. I justify them in one way and to think them to be minor and not mortal, but I should not be the judge of this, because God is the judge of sin, and not me.

Heading towards the end of my life and seeming to do little good anymore than to pray everyday, I am reflecting on death and the moment of death. Be cause of this I am reading a great deal about death. I even read something that I wrote many years ago about the Unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit. In reading this, although plagarized from a papal document, I will have to say this (and not in the spirit of pride), "This is the best thing I have ever done in the 64 years of my life." In fact if I was to remove everything from my web site except one thing, it would be this document.

http://www.unitypublishing.com/Newsletter/jul16_99.html

One man said that he read every single document on my web site and it took him 4 hours a day for three months. I have on this web site my most sold book, the Miracle of Damascus, many books on Fatima, a great defense of Fatima, called "Fatima Reconsidered", a Constitution of a Catholic Nation, which took me over a year to write, many documents that took years to produce and travel to many countries all over the world. Yet, nothing in my opinion would help people, including myself, more that this document.

It explains why I fight against false apparitions, why I have few friends, why even my children are sometimes against me, why I personally have separated myself from some of my family, why I have lost some close friends, why I even went to jail for a year defending the truth over friendship. In short, it sums up all my thinking. If I am wrong, God help my soul. I therefore ask you my devoted readers to give me your input at this the last years or days of my life.

Well Meaning People

It is quite evident that many well meaning people go to Hell, in fact almost all people who go to Hell think that they are doing the right thing. "God would not want me to be unhappy. God would not want me to do something that I do not like. It must be good, because it feels so good. It has to be right because it feels right to me. My conscience is clear. A priest told me that it was not a sin. Priests and bishops do the same thing. Most people are doing it. God is Mercy and wills all to go to Heaven. God is Love, not justice."

As stated in another Newsletter, I asked someone why he attended an apparition (Bayside) which was condemned by the Bishop and the Nuncio to the Vatican. His response was "I would rather believe in God than man." He actually believed that he was doing the right thing and his conscience was clear. But as stated in my document on sins against the Holy Spirit there are some commandments that God makes no acceptations to for circumstances. One of the commandments that Christ listed as having no acceptations for conscience sake is "Honor your Father and Mother". This commandment, according to the Dogma of the Faith, means to obey all things, except sin, to all authority because all authority is put there by God. It is not a sin to tell people not to go to an apparition site, even a true one, because that is the authority of the bishop and not the people. The same is true about honoring your blood father and mother. We can all find reasons for not giving them the respect and honor they were given by God, because no one is perfect and every father and mother have made great mistakes and many sins. St. Paul gives some guidelines as to how those in authority (father and mothers) treat their children but the laws that have to do with "Mortal Sins" do not mention those things except that we must love all the way we want them to love us. Now in thinking again about authority, do we not want everyone to obey us when we are in authority even when we are wrong. That being the case, what gives us the right to disobey those in authority or dishonor them, simply because we do not agree with them. We are to treat them the same way we want to be treated if we were the father, the bishop, the priest, the police man, the mayor, the president, etc.

We must love the way we want people to love us. That however, may be from a corrupted conscience in that we want people to accept us as we are even if we are homosexual or psychopathic. If our conscience was not corrupted we would really want people to correct us before we became homosexual or psychopathic. Satan, himself, wants to be accepted as he is, because he is not even capable of change. Love is not acceptance of how people are, but doing the right thing for people at every chance we get. Sometimes, as in the case of little children who want to put their hands in a fire, doing the right thing is to spank them. We know what will happen if we do not spank them, but they do not. In the same way we reprimand the sinner in order to keep him from the fires of Hell, but he does not see it that way and we loose a friend, but we may have saved a soul. If we do not spank him before he puts his hand to the fire, are we loving him.

Well meaning people say "I accept people the way they are." I love everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe. However, did Christ do this? No! He did not. To those who repented of sin, He welcomed all, but to those who did not think they were sinners, He used the greatest of offensive language of His day.

God Has Led Me to This Document

In the last year, so much has happened to me whereas I have lost almost all my friends, that I have had to look deep inside myself to see if it is I or if it is that I must loose friends in order to have Christ as my friend. As He said, "You are My friends of you keep My commandments." Often times I know that what I did was (in fact) right but what bothers me the most is if I did not do it in a prudent way.

In 1 Peter 3:15 the bible tells us always to defend the faith but to do it with "modesty and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ."

On the other hand Christ also says:

Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.

The line between defending the faith, judging that someone has not got it right and needs my help, and doing it in a prudent way is very difficult. I have over the past few years, resolved to not talk face to face with anyone about God, the Church or even my love, Our Lady, unless asked. The reason for this is that I have been accused of talking about nothing else but God making it very difficult for people to just relax with me. This has been a good thing, because people realize that I am a fun person even though I spend a great deal of time in Church and in writing about religion. This has brought people to the faith by my example. However, there are times when I have offended people to the point of even anger and I am not sure if I was right or wrong in these things. It is these things I am going to ask your advise.

In one case I knew of a priest who many said was very holy and very orthodox here in Fatima and I resolved to meet him. This evolved to the point of every single day and he was not a man of few words. Often I found myself not agreeing with him on important matters, but I could never get a work in or even finish a statement. Since I am one of the only English speaking people in Fatima with a car, people often take advantage of me to go here or there, and this priest did this to the extreme.

After two mouths of this I just told him that I did not agree with him but that he did not let me tell him why because he just never stopped talking and unless he would at least let me finish a statement I would not talk with him anymore. Even this did not work, so I just started avoiding him all together. It became a matter of getting angry or not seeing him at all. He is offended because I will not see him or even help him.

In another case here in Fatima, a man who comes to Fatima about every other mouth told me how good his relation with God was and how comfortable he was with is spirituality. However, I found out that he was living with a girl who he was not married with. Instead of telling him that this was not God's way, I simply said that I had to become celebrate in order to become Catholic. He insisted that no one could be celebrate because it was not natural. I then asked him if he could explain how 2000 years of priest were celebrate and he insisted that he did not believe that any of them were. When I insisted that I had been for many years with no problem, he did not believe me. In time he said that I insulted him because he said he knew himself and was happy with himself and his relationship with God, but I said that I was not happy with myself and was always looking for ways to improve. In truth he had insulted the Catholic Church, the priesthood and me, but I never said that he had, but only that I was able to live in celibacy without a problem. To him, however, I was insulting his false beliefs.

I have lost an entire family of friends simply because I would not tell the truth about their child's addiction to porno. But he made up stories about me and in order to defend myself I would have to tell them about his addiction and I will not.

I had a close friend for almost 5 years who began to do things that I knew to be immoral and illegal and I knew that these things were not only going to put him in Hell, but that if I cooperated with him they would put me in Hell also. I was forced to separate from him at a great cost to me at least in the worldly things.

Even with family members I find that if I tell them the truth about God's commandments, I loose. If, however, I stay quiet about the laws of God in order to maintain a friend or even a relationship with a family member, do not I sin by the sin of neglect or omission or the failure to do good. Even St. Paul said to the Galatians, "Am I then your enemy because I tell you the truth?" Gal. 4:16

t. Thomas More could have been silent about his friend, King Henry the Eighth but he could not and not only lost his friend but his head. St. John, the Baptist, did not have to speak out about Herod's marriage but he did and lost his head also. This leaves me with the sad problem of speaking out and loosing all earthly friendship or staying silent and loosing God's friendship. The fact is that most people go to Hell with no one to speak out and say they are doing the wrong thing. What we do, is try very hard not to offend anyone or we fall for the New Age philosophy of accepting everyone as they are. The question we must ask is “Can we say we love someone, and let them go to Hell?” Does it become our sin, if we directly or indirectly contribute to sin. Paul says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Ephesians 5:11 He is not just says to tell him that he is doing wrong but to give some consequences.

"And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not esteem him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother." 2 Thess. 3:14

What Puts So Many People In Hell?

In one way the answer to this question is very simple because a man asked Christ, "What must I do to get to Heaven?" and Christ answered, "Keep the Commandments." However, later on Christ explains the commandments in a way that no Jew had ever heard before. "If you so much as look at a woman with lust in your eye, you have already committed adultery." St. Paul says that no one who commits "fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, Idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulationns, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like" shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Gal. 5:19-21 Paul tells us to keep the unity of the Church, "one body and one spirit - one faith, one baptism, one Lord, ... one God and Father of us all." Ephesians 4:3 and that because we take the Eucharist we are not just spiritually brothers of Christ but that we are physically "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Ephesians 5:30

Although I am so far quoting from the bible, which is the word of God, yet it is not you or I who should determine what these words mean, but the Church. 1 Tim. 3:15 "Behave yourselves in the Church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth." Peter saying that the New Testament is a more clear prophetic word, goes on to say: "Understand this first, that no prophesy of scripture is made by private interpretation." Peter is not talking here of people who prophesy of the future because the word used is "nabi" which means the authorized spokesmen of God.

In this is exactly what has happened throughout the history of the Church and especially today. Today not only are new churches springing up every single week, but even Catholics are now saying that they are their own teachers of the law, and that as long as they have a relationship with Christ, it does not matter what they do, formalization, adultery, many marriages, etc. Pope John Paul II calls these people "cafeteria Catholics", Catholics who pick and choose what laws they want to follow and what laws they do not want to or do not believe. "Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their one spirit." Ezechiel 13:3 "There is a generation who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness." Proverbs 30:12

This is a major problem, because in order to claim to believe in Christ we must believe in all His Commandments for He said that not one dote of the law will be done away with. To call yourself a Catholic, you must be baptized, believe in all the laws of the Church, and practice them. If you do not, you are not a Catholic. If you are not a Catholic, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven for there is no other way to Heaven except through the gates of the Catholic Church. If you are not with Peter, you cannot call yourself "Catholic".

Ignorance of Christ

God is love. God is mercy. And this is all people want to know about God. But God is justice also. We demand justice against our enemies on earth but do not think God will do the same to us.

What if you do not know the laws of the Church and in fact you do not want to know them? A man told me that he loves Christ and the Mass, and therefore he sees no reason to study the Bible and the teachings of the Church. So I asked him who this Christ was that he loves. He did not understand me, so I just asked him to explain to me what is was that he loved about Christ and about the Mass. The most he knew was that Christ was God and that Christ was there in the Mass. He did not know that Christ was the "word of God", that He was the same as the Father, that the Mass was the Crucifixion of Christ or that the Crucifixion was the fountain of all Sanctification. He did not know that we must obey the Church in all things, and he did not want to know these things. He was comfortable in his ignorance.

I know a man who sleeps with a woman and yet goes to mass everyday. I know another who is perfect in everyway of charity and goodness, but never goes to Mass at all, and still thinks of himself as Catholic. There are two homosexuals who live together in Fatima and both go to Mass everyday. There are priests telling people that these is nothing wrong with masterbation or contraception and others who are having affairs but still say Mass everyday. There are many Catholics who do not believe in the Real and Physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There are priests who say that the presence is only Sacramental and not Physical. There are many who do not worship at all, genuflection, kneeling, reverence, etc. And yet many will say that they did not know that you had to do these thing and that they see no reason for them. The man who never goes to Mass at all, also never read the bible, not one single page and yet he makes his living selling rosaries. There are many millionaires in Fatima who became millionaires because of Our Lady and yet few go to church at all. Their children are into the money but not into God.

NO ONE IS IGNORANT OF THE TRUTH WITHOUT WANTING TO BE IGNORANT OF THE TRUTH.

Lucia in her last book "Calls From The Message of Fatima" explains all the commandments of God and how so many people violate them and there is no reason for me to go through these here. Everyone sins but God will forgive any sin no matter how grave. God died for our sins, and He will forgive us, so why do so many people not avail themselves of God's forgiveness and mercy?

When a man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good, and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin.” (Vatican II) The very clear and free choice to not know the law of God, can in itself be mortal to the soul, since it is a free choice to avoid God. The very clear and free choice to become one’s own Christ, is a very clear sin. To become one’s own Christ is to become one’s own law. “I do what is right. I never hurt anyone. I help people. I see no reason to be in an organized religion. I can pray at home. There is no reason for me to go to a church.” This is a person who has decided to be his own law, his own Christ. This is a fundamental orientation away from Christ and his laws. This is saying, “Not God’s way, my way.”

MORTAL SIN

"Reconciliatio et Paentientia reaffirms the importance and permanent validity of the distinction between mortal and venial sins. Mortal sin is sin whose object (not consequences) is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." Mortal sin exists when a person knowingly and willingly, for whatever reason, chooses something against God's laws, even if he does not know God's laws, for such a choice already includes contempt for the divine law.

No evil done with a good intention can be excused. (Rom 3:8) “There are those who say: And why not do evil that good may come? Their condemnation is just.” Intrinsically evil, intrinsece malum: they are such always and per se, in other words, on account of their very object, and quite apart from the ulterior intentions of the one acting and the circumstances. These are: What is hostile to life itself, - homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, suicide: whatever violated the integrity of the human person - mutilation, physical and mental torture, coercing the spirit. Whatever is offensive to dignity - subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, trafficking in women and children, degrading conditions of work. Contraceptive practices which always pretend to be for a greater good.

Intrinsically evil acts, the Sacred Scriptures list in 1 Cor 6:9-10 “do not be deceived: neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God.” Augustine says: “… theft, fornication, blasphemy, who would dare affirm that, by doing them for good motives (causis bonis), they would no longer be sins, or, what is even more absurd, that they would be sins that are justified?”

For this reason Satan would prefer a saintly Bishop who justified sin, to a prostitute who knows that she is sinning. At the moment of death the prostitute can still make it to Heaven. The Bishop, who is very very holy and everyone knows it, will not make it to Heaven if he has major sin that he has justified. Suppose he allows his priests to violate one or more of the laws of the Vatican regarding the Mass, however, in his heart he firmly believes that this is for the best interest of his people. In other words, he allows sin, that a good can come from it. The prostitute will have a better chance.

St. Francis of Assisi said, "If you excuse yourself, God will accuse you, but if you accuse yourself, God will excuse you." And this is the reason most people go to Hell. God will forgive any sin if we ask forgiveness, but when we justify sin, we do not ask for forgiveness. What sins do we justify?

Bankruptcy, Tax Evasion, not giving a good days work for our pay, not paying a good wage for work, not honoring our father or mother for whatever reason, not having children in the ways of Church laws, killing the reputation of someone either directly or indirectly by passing on gossip by others, disobeying anyone of the Church's laws regarding faith or morals, divorce of a valid Catholic marriage, marriage to someone who cannot marry in the Church by law, failure to teach your children the laws of God and His Church, failure to stay in God's Church, not to mention the things listed in the bible as sinners who cannot get to heaven and listed above!

The road to Hell is wide and many are they who take it. And yet, all it takes to go to heaven is to say, “Lord, I am sorry.” If you sin not, you are not sorry, and this is the greatest of all sins. This is why Satan would rather have someone in his pocket that prays 10 rosaries a day, goes to Mass everyday, and preaches a false Mary. That person will not confess as the prostitute will. It is more dangerous to think you are holy than to think you are a sinner.

Truth must be the first love, because truth is the way to God and to human dignity. Often we would rather compromise the faith of God than to loose a friend, but in doing so we lost God and lost the chance to save a soul. I would rather loose a friend, who someday may remember my reprimand and make it to heaven, than to keep a friend, who by my failure to correct him ends up in hell, and I hope my friends treat me the same.

Rick Salbato