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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