Do not be afraid of
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
It is objected that the ultimate loss of a
single soul means the defeat of omnipotence. And so it does. In creating beings
with free will, omnipotence from the outset submits to the possibility of such
defeat. What you call defeat, I call miracle: for to make things which are not
Itself, and thus to become, in a sense, capable of being resisted by its own
handiwork, is the most astonishing and unimaginable of all the feats we
attribute to the Deity. I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense,
successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on
the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to
come out of hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man 'wishes' to be
happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that
self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy
forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore
self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become
through all eternity more and more free.
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