"The love of God is the fire of hell" - St. Isaac the Syrian
"Hell is to be away from God. Hell for a child is to be away from its mother. Most people are so consumed by earthly concerns and possessions that they never get to feel the love of God. God wants us, above all, to be happy and to enjoy inner peace. God is not a tyrant who pesters and intimidates us, but instead he wants us to be free. The devil is very crafty. He is constantly trying to find a weak spot in everybody. Guarding your mind and your thoughts is the most important thing. Satan's handiwork is to constantly put malicious and damaging thoughts in people's minds." – Saint Paisios of Mt. Athos
The divine presence is experienced as heaven by those who love God and as hell by those who reject it.
The same uncreated light and love of God that purifies the righteous acts as a burning torment to the unrepentant, because the human heart's disposition determines the experience of that love.
Dostoyevski says, 'We are all in paradise, but we won’t see it’
Hell is a state of consciousness
Hell is separation from God
Hell is to live as the ego.
Wandering Lost, Homeless, Alone, Fearful…
“Without the world he made [he thinks he is] an outcast; homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed, and homeless, too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he really is [on top of being homeless, he is mentally ill—he has amnesia].... ....He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.”
“Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost.”
“The world you see...has disappointed you since time began. The homes you built have never sheltered you. The roads you made have led you nowhere, and no city that you built has withstood the crumbling assault of time.” - ACIM
Sin, Guilt, Fear,…
“The result of sin was a massive sense of guilt, which we denied and so pushed into the unconscious.” - ACIM
“Guilt gives rise to fear, which really is the expectation of punishment. Fear is the dominant emotion of this world.” - ACIM
“We thought that we had separated ourselves from all that we loved and consequently experienced a state of lack.” - ACIM
Fear
“Fear is nothing more than the illusion you have chosen to value in order to experience what it is like to feel separate from love.”
- Way of Mastery
THERE IS NO HELL
Text, Chapter 15, Section I: "The Purpose of Time" (T-15.I)
The ego's "religion" of hell (T-15.I.3): The ego wants you dead, but not itself. The outcome of its strange religion is the conviction that it can pursue you beyond the grave. Out of its unwillingness for you to find peace even in death, it offers you "immortality in hell." It speaks to you of Heaven, but assures you that Heaven is not for you. "How can the guilty hope for Heaven?"
The belief in hell is inescapable to those identified with the ego (T-15.I.4): Their nightmares and fears are all associated with it. The ego teaches that hell is in the future, for this is what all its teaching is directed to. "Hell is its goal."
The ego teaches Heaven is now because the future is hell (T-15.I.6): Even when it attacks so savagely that it tries to take someone's life, it speaks of hell even to him — "for it tells him hell is here and bids him leap from hell into oblivion."
Guilt leads inevitably to hell (T-15.I.7): "The belief in guilt must lead to the belief in hell, and always does. The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hell to be experienced is to bring hell here, but always as a foretaste of the future. For no one who considers himself as deserving hell can believe that punishment will end in peace."
The Holy Spirit's teaching (T-15.I.8): "The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego drives to hell."
The holy instant (T-15.I.11): "Learn from this instant more than merely that hell does not exist. In this redeeming instant lies Heaven."
Exchanging hell for Heaven (T-15.I.14–15): "As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. Long enough to transcend all of the ego's making and ascend unto your Father."
GUILT IS HELL
Workbook Lesson 39: "My holiness is my salvation": "If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?" The lesson says if you truly believed this, you would see at once how direct and simple the text is. Practice: "My unloving thoughts about ___ are keeping me in hell. My holiness is my salvation."
III. HELL AS THIS WORLD — THE PROJECTED NIGHTMARE
Text, Chapter 13, Introduction: "The Guiltless World" (T-13.in.1–4): "If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment." … "The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt."
“If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. Love does not kill to save. If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego's interpretation, not God's. Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of it."
And the reinterpretation of the Fall: "Adam's 'sin' could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who drove him out of Paradise. For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost."
Then: "This world is a picture of the crucifixion of God's Son. And until you realize that God's Son cannot be crucified, this is the world you will see."
IV. THE "HELLFIRE" CONCEPT — EARLY TEXT CORRECTION
Text, Chapter 1 (CE T-1.24.3–5): "The word 'sin' should really be 'absence of love.' Sin is a man-made word with threat connotations he made up himself. No real threat is involved anywhere. Just because 'nature abhors a vacuum,' which is true enough, it does not follow that a vacuum is filled with hellfire. Nothing is gained by frightening yourself, and it's very destructive."
The annotated edition's footnote makes the teaching explicit: "A vacuum of love should be filled not with hellfire, but with love."
And later (CE T-2.16.6): Those who have not yet "changed their minds" are the ones who have entered the "hellfire" concept into the law. The emptiness engendered by fear should be replaced by love, because love and its absence are in the same dimension.
V. GOD DOES NOT PUNISH — DISMANTLING RETRIBUTIVE THEOLOGY
Text, Chapter 3, Section I: "Atonement without Sacrifice" (CE T-3.1): "The crucifixion did not establish the Atonement. The Resurrection did." The idea that God permitted His Son to suffer because he was good is called a "particularly unfortunate interpretation" that "has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God."
Then: "'Vengeance is Mine sayeth the Lord' is a strictly karmic viewpoint. It is a real misperception of truth, by which man assigns his own 'evil' past to God. God does not believe in karmic retribution. His Divine Mind does not create that way. He does not hold the evil deeds of a man even against himself. Is it likely, then, that He would hold against anyone the evil that another did?"
And: "This kind of error is responsible for a host of related errors, including the belief that God rejected man, and forced him out of the Garden of Eden."
Text, Chapter 5: The Question of Karma (CE T-5.53): The chief value of reincarnation as a concept lies in "counteracting the idea of hell, a belief that is hard for the ego to relinquish. As the symbol of separation, the ego cannot escape guilt feelings, and fear of punishment is inevitable."
VI. THE FEAR OF GOD IS THE FEAR OF LOVE — THE ST. ISAAC CONNECTION
Text, Chapter 13, Section III: "The Fear of Redemption" (T-13.III.1–5): "You are not really afraid of crucifixion. Your real terror is of redemption." Under the ego's dark foundation lies the memory of God. "Your fear of attack is nothing compared to your fear of love."
"You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be helpless in God's Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love because you think it would crush you into nothingness."
"You would rather be a slave of the crucifixion than a Son of God in redemption."
Text, Chapter 13, Section IV (T-13.IV.1–2): "Yet neither oblivion nor hell is as unacceptable to you as Heaven, for your definition of Heaven is hell or oblivion, and the real Heaven is the greatest threat you think you could experience. For hell and oblivion are ideas which you made up, and you are bent on demonstrating their reality to establish yours."
This is the passage that most directly mirrors St. Isaac the Syrian. The ego experiences the love of God as fire — as annihilation — because love would dissolve everything the ego has built.
VII. THEY BELIEVE HEAVEN IS HELL
Text, Chapter 25 (T-25.VIII.5–7): "They do believe that Heaven is hell and are afraid of love. And deep suspicion and the chill of fear come over them when they are told that they have never sinned."
"So do they think the loss of sin a curse, and flee the blessing of the Holy Spirit as if He were a messenger from hell, sent from above in treachery and guile to work God's vengeance on them in the guise of a deliverer and friend. What could He be to them except a devil, dressed to deceive within an angel's cloak? And what escape has He for them, except a door to hell that seems to look like Heaven's gate?"
VIII. THERE IS NO CRUELTY IN GOD
Workbook Lesson 170: "There is no cruelty in God and none in me": "Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear's 'enemy'; its cruelty as now a part of love."
The idol of cruelty: "We note that though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing."
Closing prayer: "Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You."
IX. THE CHOICE OF HELL OR HEAVEN
Workbook Lesson 138: "Heaven is the decision I must make": Time was given a false intent — "that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death." But "the conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light."
Text, Chapter 25.II (T-25.II.8): "Approach it not lightly, for it is the choice of hell or Heaven."
Text, Chapter 21 (T-21.VII.8): "Until you choose Heaven, you are in hell and misery."
X. TEMPTATION IS THE WISH TO STAY IN HELL
Text, Chapter 31, Section VII (T-31.VII.4–5): "What is temptation but the wish to stay in hell and misery? And what could this give rise to but an image of yourself that can be miserable and remain in hell and torment?"
"Yet while you wish to stay in hell, how could you be the savior of the Son of God?"
XI. WOULD GOD CONDEMN HIMSELF?
Text, Chapter 24 (T-24.III.8.2–5): "Would God condemn Himself to hell and to damnation? And do you will that this be done unto your savior? God calls to you from him to join His will to save you both from hell."
XII. DAMNATION LIES IN GUILT; FORGIVENESS IN COMMUNICATION
Text, Chapter 15, Section VII (T-15.VII.13): "Forgiveness lies in communication as surely as damnation lies in guilt. It is the Holy Spirit's teaching function to instruct those who believe communication to be damnation that communication is salvation."
XIII. THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP AS HELL
Text, Chapter 16, Section V (T-16.V.3–10): "It is essential to the preservation of the ego that you believe this specialness is not hell but Heaven. For the ego would never have you see that separation could only be loss."
"The appeal of hell lies only in the terrible attraction of guilt."
"Life arises not from death, nor Heaven from hell."
XIV. RELEASING THE EGO AS "DESCENT INTO HELL"
Workbook Lesson 44: "Properly speaking, this is the release from hell. Perceived through the ego's eyes, it is loss of identity and a descent into hell." — The ego interprets the release from its thought system as annihilation.
XV. THE DESCENT TO HELL — THE LAWS OF CHAOS
Text, Chapter 23, Section II (T-23.II.22–23): "Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. For having taken one, you will not recognize the others for what they are. And they will follow. Attack in any form has placed your foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven."
"How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily: What do you feel? Is peace in your awareness?"
XVI. MARTYRDOM WRITES DAMNATION IN HELL, NOT HEAVEN
Text, Chapter 27 (T-27.I.3): "Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated, or in need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God's Son. You hold a picture of your crucifixion before his eyes, that he may see his sins are writ in Heaven in your blood and death, and go before him closing off the gate and damning him to hell. Yet this is writ in hell and not in Heaven, where you are beyond attack and prove his innocence."
XVII. SIN: THE SOURCE OF THE HELL-IDEA
Workbook Lesson 259: "Let me remember that there is no sin": "Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem unattainable. What else but sin could be the source of guilt, demanding punishment and suffering? And what but sin could be the source of fear, giving love the attributes of fear and of attack?"
XVIII. FIERY DREAMS OF HELL
Text, Chapter 19 (T-19.I.4): Faithlessness produced "sorrow and depression, sickness and pain, darkness and dim imaginings of terror, cold fantasies of fear and fiery dreams of hell. And it was nothing but the intolerable strain of your refusal to give faith to truth."
XIX. FROM THE SUPPLEMENTS
Song of Prayer (S-1.III.2,5,7): "They call for vengeance, not for love. Nor do they come from one who understands that they are calls for death, made out of fear by those who cherish guilt. They call upon a vengeful god, and it is he who seems to answer them. Hell cannot be asked for another, and then escaped by him who asks for it. Only those who are in hell can ask for hell."
Song of Prayer (S-3.IV.5–8): "Now healing is impossible, for He is blamed for your deception and your guilt. He Who is Love becomes the source of fear, for only fear can now be justified. Vengeance is His. His great destroyer, death. And sickness, suffering and grievous loss become the lot of everyone on earth, which He abandoned to the devil's care, swearing He will deliver it no more."
Then the Voice of God answers: "Come unto Me, My children, once again, without such twisted thoughts upon your hearts."
And: "Help Me to wake My children from the dream of retribution and a little life beset with fear, that ends so soon it might as well have never been."
Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice (P-2.IV.3): "The descent into hell follows step by step in an inevitable course, once the decision that guilt is real has been made. Sickness and death and misery now stalk the earth in unrelenting waves."
And: "It is as if God were the devil and must be found in evil. How could love be there? And how could sickness cure?"
The Gifts of God — "The Dream of Fear": "Each [dream] contains the whole of fear, the opposite of love, the hell that hides the memory of God, the crucifixion of His Son."
The Gifts of God — "The Ending of the Dream": "Creator separate from creation was the first illusion, where all gifts of fear were born." And: "Take not its gifts, for they condemn you to a lasting hell which will endure when all the seeming joy the gifts appeared to give have passed away."
The Course's teaching summarized
1. Hell is not a place God sends you. It is the present-tense condition of separation — the ego's experience of guilt, fear, and alienation from Love. "Hell is only what the ego has made of the present."
2. All human ideas of hellfire and damnation are projections. We feel guilty for believing we separated from God. We project our demand for punishment onto Him, then cower before the vengeful deity we ourselves invented. "They call upon a vengeful god, and it is he who seems to answer them."
3. God does not punish, condemn, or create hell. "Love does not kill to save." "God does not believe in karmic retribution." "Would God condemn Himself to hell and to damnation?" "There is no cruelty in God and none in me."
4. The "fire" of hell is the love of God experienced through the distortion of guilt. This is the exact teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian. The Course says we "believe that Heaven is hell and are afraid of love." We flee the Holy Spirit "as if He were a messenger from hell." God's love feels like annihilation to the ego — so the ego teaches us to fear what would save us.
5. The vacancy left by the absence of love should be filled with love, not hellfire. This is stated in the earliest pages of the Course and never abandoned.
6. There is no hell because there is no sin, no real separation, no guilt that is justified. Heaven is not earned — it is remembered. "Learn from this instant more than merely that hell does not exist. In this redeeming instant lies Heaven."