Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 11: REDEMPTION, ANNIHILATION, OR ETERNAL SUFFERING

Out of all the classes he thought Sirius would like, he was surprised to find out that he loved theology. In high school, theology class was basically this: Jesus loves you. No matter what the teachers would say, the answer can be boiled down to Jesus loved us enough to die for our sins. At his university, theology got a little more complex. It sought to show how much Jesus loved us by pointing out evidence of what God had done to showcase his love for humanity.

But theology at SGA was a bit different. It asked different questions and posed many answers. In the end we were ants trying to understand the stars.

For example, Luke always found it difficult to wrap his head around the concept of the trinity. It states that God was three beings simultaneously: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Talk about multiple personas.

But today, the class was led by a priest named Father Quique. He had a slight tan, broad nose, and straight black hair. He spoke with a strong Spanish accent and pronounced his V's as B's and rolled his r's unnecessarily when he said words like "red" or "read."

"Today we're going to discuss eschatology." He wrote the word on the board. "Can anyone tell me what that means?"

Sirius shot his hand into the air. "It's the study of the final destiny of humankind, or basically what happens when everyone dies."

Such a cheery topic.

"Exactly," Fr. Quique spoke. "All three major Abrahamic religions teach of a resurrection of the dead. People who are dead will have their souls reunited with their bodies at some point in the future when the final judgment comes. But although eschatology branches across many different areas, from the apocalypse to the anti-Christ, I want to focus today's discussion on the duration of Hell."

Sirius hooted like Hell was his hometown. Fr. Quique turned to the board and wrote down two names: St. Augustine and Origen. Then he wrote off towards the side three words under the title: punishing the damned: 1) Eternal Hell; 2) Universal Salvation; 3) Annihilation.

Luke was on the edge of his seat. He was starting to see why Sirius was so excited about the topic. Any teacher who uses the word "annihilation" in class is bound to perk up some heads.

"There are three different proposal as to what happens to those who reject God and go to Hell. The traditionalist view basically says when you go to hell, you're staying there and you're going to burn. It's what's taught by many Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church ...yes Sirius."

Sirius was practically waving a flag to get Fr. Quique's attention. "Do you think it's a choice to go to Hell or are people just sent there because they're bad?"

Fr. Quique scratched his stubble beard. "It's a mixture of both, no? You utterly reject God and embrace sin. With each sin one commits, you draw further away from God. Now, eternal hell..."

"But isn't like eternal damnation a bit much?" Sirius interrupted. "Like if God is all loving, why does he need to punish us forever when we only lived a fraction of that time?"

"There's a difference between foolish love and proper love, no? Foolish love can be abused by the person being loved. Proper love sets up boundaries that can't be crossed. Now, as I was saying, there's also annihilationism, which states that those who are evil and go to hell will be wiped out from existence at the end of time."

Oof, Luke thought. Kinda overkill. Imagine just being wiped clean from existence for stealing a BMW from some rich guy. Talk about capital punishment.

"But God wouldn't do that," Sirius said aloud.

"Probably not, but God would want you to raise your hand to speak."

"Sorry Father," Sirius said. Luke noticed Sirius was like Alpha in this class, all giddy and curious. It was as if these questions personally affected him. Maybe he just wants to make sure if his retirement plan is down south that he has a chance to move North for the summer.

Father Quique smiled. "Now the final version of Hell is Universal Salvation. It's a doctrine that stems from the Greek theory of apokatastasis, which states that all rational beings will be restored back to God."

"Including grand—," Sirius coughed as his body did a slight twitch like a computer malfunctioning for a brief second. "Including Lucifer?"

"Especially Lucifer," Father went to the board and drew a line from Universal Salvation over to Origen. "This theory was championed by Origen in contrast to the Eternal Hell theory championed by St. Augustine."

"But Lucifer can't be saved," Henry had joined the discussion. "He created sin when he rebelled against God."

"Yeah," Jordan agreed. "He turned evil when evil didn't even exist."

"And even the Bible talks about the sheep and the goat thing where the goats will go to eternal hell and sheep to eternal life," Kallup pointed out.

"And why would the originator of sin be freed, but everyone else who has fallen into it suffer?" Luke finally joined the discussion.

"Chicos, chicos," Father Quique tried to settle down the class. "Con calma. Let me explain. Origen offered many points to counter St. Augustine. But he primarily saw Hell as a type of prescription that God, the doctor, gives to his patience to cure them of their illness, or sin. And no matter how painful or unpleasant the remedy may be, in this case fire, it is for the good of cleansing our souls."

Many hands shot up across the class, too many for the priest to register, so he ignored them all and continued. "Another point made by contemporaries is that if Lucifer has stolen even one soul from God, then Lucifer has won. To say that Satan's kingdom is eternal as a counterpart to God actually makes God look weak because the all-powerful creator couldn't save all of his children. Thus, it's a form of Satanic blasphemy to think that Hell can be eternal."

More hands shot up in protest. Pretty much everyone in the class argued that this idea was stupid and for wimps who couldn't accept the fact that Hell is a proper punishment for assholes who don't deserve a reward for the crummy lives they've led.

Everyone was against this idea of Hell, except for Sirius.

"I buy it," Sirius said, and the class looked at him as if he had just admitted to making out with his mother. "I mean, it's a much better solution than just tossing your problems into a furnace. A lasting peace is much better than a lasting punishment."

"But come on Sirius," Jordan flipped his hands in the air. "Even Lucifer?"

"Yes, in fact, if God isn't smart enough to save Lucifer, then He's too stupid enough to save anyone else."

The class gasped, as the bell rang.