05-17-2026, 07:12 AM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
THIRTIETH OBJECTION. GOD IS TOO GOOD TO DAMN ME.
Answer. Accordingly, it is not God who damns you, it is you who damn yourself.
God is no more the cause of hell than of sin, which has given birth to hell.
Why, then, does He permit sin?
Because, having endowed you with the most sublime of all His gifts, that of intelligence, which renders you like to Himself; and prepared eternal happiness for you, it was not fitting that He should treat you like the animal creation, who have not that intelligence, and are only made for this world.
It was not fitting that you should be forced to receive God's gifts; it was needful that you should employ your intelligence to accept freely, and acquire for yourself the treasures of eternal bliss.
This is why God has given to us, together with intelligence, moral liberty, that is to say, the faculty of choosing with our free-will between good and evil, of following or shunning the voice of our merciful Father which calls us to Him.
This liberty is the highest mark of honor and love that we could receive from God.
If we abuse it, the fault is ours, not His.
If I were to give you a weapon to preserve your life if in any danger, would it not be a proof of my affection for you? And if, against my will, and despite all the warnings and instructions I gave you, so that you might make a good use of it, you were to turn this weapon against yourself, should I be the cause of your wound? Would it not be to you alone that the blame should be imputed?
This is what God does for us. He gives us the liberty to do good or evil; but he neglects no means to induce us to choose good. Instructions, warnings, kind and earnest invitations, terrible threats, He spares none. He loads us with His grace, He surrounds us with His assistance; but He does not force us: that would be to destroy His own work, the gift of free will.
He respects in us the gifts which He has bestowed on us.
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose, therefore, life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deut. xxx. 19.)
It is, then, the reprobate who runs to his own perdition; it is not God who damns him, it is he who damns himself. God gives to each one that which he has freely chosen, life or death; Paradise, the fruit of virtue; or hell, the fruit of sin.
Two roads lie open before us in this life, the road of virtue and that of vice. The latter is sometimes smoother and more attractive than the former, particularly for the first part of the way; but it leads to hell, where sweetness is changed into bitterness; while the other leads to Paradise, where our labor is changed into an unspeakable rest.
To reach the gates of Paradise, we must choose the road that leads to Paradise; that is plain enough. The Catholic priest is the charitable guide sent from God, who shows us this road. How many, alas! close their ears to his voice! How many lose their way, and perish, from not following his directions!
THIRTIETH OBJECTION. GOD IS TOO GOOD TO DAMN ME.
Answer. Accordingly, it is not God who damns you, it is you who damn yourself.
God is no more the cause of hell than of sin, which has given birth to hell.
Why, then, does He permit sin?
Because, having endowed you with the most sublime of all His gifts, that of intelligence, which renders you like to Himself; and prepared eternal happiness for you, it was not fitting that He should treat you like the animal creation, who have not that intelligence, and are only made for this world.
It was not fitting that you should be forced to receive God's gifts; it was needful that you should employ your intelligence to accept freely, and acquire for yourself the treasures of eternal bliss.
This is why God has given to us, together with intelligence, moral liberty, that is to say, the faculty of choosing with our free-will between good and evil, of following or shunning the voice of our merciful Father which calls us to Him.
This liberty is the highest mark of honor and love that we could receive from God.
If we abuse it, the fault is ours, not His.
If I were to give you a weapon to preserve your life if in any danger, would it not be a proof of my affection for you? And if, against my will, and despite all the warnings and instructions I gave you, so that you might make a good use of it, you were to turn this weapon against yourself, should I be the cause of your wound? Would it not be to you alone that the blame should be imputed?
This is what God does for us. He gives us the liberty to do good or evil; but he neglects no means to induce us to choose good. Instructions, warnings, kind and earnest invitations, terrible threats, He spares none. He loads us with His grace, He surrounds us with His assistance; but He does not force us: that would be to destroy His own work, the gift of free will.
He respects in us the gifts which He has bestowed on us.
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose, therefore, life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deut. xxx. 19.)
It is, then, the reprobate who runs to his own perdition; it is not God who damns him, it is he who damns himself. God gives to each one that which he has freely chosen, life or death; Paradise, the fruit of virtue; or hell, the fruit of sin.
Two roads lie open before us in this life, the road of virtue and that of vice. The latter is sometimes smoother and more attractive than the former, particularly for the first part of the way; but it leads to hell, where sweetness is changed into bitterness; while the other leads to Paradise, where our labor is changed into an unspeakable rest.
To reach the gates of Paradise, we must choose the road that leads to Paradise; that is plain enough. The Catholic priest is the charitable guide sent from God, who shows us this road. How many, alas! close their ears to his voice! How many lose their way, and perish, from not following his directions!
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre