Jesus said Many Would be Excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven

Msgr. Charles Pope writes, “Of all the theological errors commonly held today, the most popular is surely the denial of the doctrine of hell.”

This is the first line of the preface in Msgr. Pope’s new book “The Hell There Is,” released on March 5, 2025.   And, it’s a book that may be needed now more than ever.

He continues, “Even among the more devout, such as those who go to daily Mass, the teaching that God would send or consign anyone to hell is routinely dismissed. Even if it exists at all, for many, it is largely empty except perhaps for a few serial killers or genocidal maniacs like Hitler.”

He then notes that for the vast majority of people hell is really only a “remote possibility.”  From here he goes on to show, using mostly Scripture, why such thinking is both erroneous and dangerous.

Hell

Catholic dogma on hell is clearly spelled out in the ”Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.” The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

For many, however, this dogma is difficult to accept.  The title of this review, for instance, sobering as the statement is, comes from page 17 of the book.  And it is why Msgr. Pope’s book is needed.

Msgr. Pope explains how the book is structured.

“The approach here is not so much a review of what every council, pope, Church Father, or saint ever said about hell.  Neither does it seek to directly sample and refute, point by point, every argument by those wo say hell is empty.  Rather this book seeks to respond to the questions, misunderstandings, and doubts pastorally and biblically about hell that average people today are raising” (pg. xiii).

At 145 pages (nine chapters, an epilogue, and two appendices), Msgr. Pope’s book is a fairly short and easy read.  But good things come in small packages.  It packs a wallop!

Chapters One through Four

Starting out chapter one, The Most Widespread of Heresies, Msgr. Pope writes,

“Many people believe hell is incompatible with the idea of a loving God.  But Jesus combines them!  Here is an important truth: No one loves you more that Jesus Christ, yet no one spoke of or taught on hell and judgement more than He did.  He gave urgent warning after warning in parable after parable about final judgment and the reality of hell” (pg.1).

Just two of the questions Msgr. Pope addresses in this chapter are:  “Is Hell Irreconcilable with God’s Love and Mercy?” And, “Are Most People “Too Stupid” to Go to Hell.”

In chapter two, Why Hell Has to Be, and chapter three, Jesus’ Consistent Theme, Msgr. Pope sets the stage for the remaining seven chapters.

In chapter two, Msgr. Pope explains why for heaven to exist there must also be a hell.  Then in chapter three, the longest chapter in the book, Msgr. Pope takes a look at and explains 33 different texts from the New Testament that speak to the existence of hell.  Most of the texts are Jesus’s own words.

Chapter four is titled “Why Are Many on the Road to Destruction but Few to Salvation.”  In this chapter Msgr. Pope takes a look at the many ways people veer off the narrow path to salvation and get on the wide road to destruction.  It’s a pretty sobering chapter.

Chapters Five through Seven

Chapter five, explains the paradox of the Wrath of God.   “Simply put,” Msgr. Pope writes, “God’s wrath is our experience of the total incompatibility of our sinful state before the holiness of God” (pg.69).

In other words, the wrath of God is a paradoxical statement.  God is perfect and pure love so there is no wrath in God.  The problem is in us.  If we are in a state of sin, we experience His overwhelming love for us as wrath.  We simply can’t stand to be in the presence of such overwhelming love if we are in a state of sin.  As Msgr. Pope writes (pg. 74), “Wrath is our experience of the incompatibility of sin before God.”

Chapter six is “Why is Hell Eternal?”  In a nutshell, hell is eternal because for many their nature (their character) is “fixed” when they die – they will never change or repent of their sins.  Msgr. Pope uses The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus – Luke 16:19-31 – (starting on pg. 76) to expertly explain how this fixity of character comes about.

In short, “Hell is eternal not because God is unforgiving or vengeful.  Hell is forever because of our “no” to God and His heavenly kingdom.  In brief, we cannot repent after death since our character is now quickened and our choice is forever fixed” (pg. 81,82).

In chapter seven, What is Hell Like?, Msgr. Pope takes a look at what Jesus says about hell, along with what St. Thomas Aquinas, Origen, Sister Lucia, Sister Faustina, At. Augustine, Dante, and even Archbishop Fulton Sheen had to say.   The pictures they paint are not pretty ones.

Wrapping It Up

Universalism (the belief that very few, if any, go to hell) is addressed throughout the book, but more so in chapter eight, Why the Doctrine of Hell Matters.  In short, it matters, writes Msgr. Pope (pg. 109), because “the practical denial of hell, by relegating it to anything but a very remote possibility, has the effect of removing the need for a savior.  At best, Jesus becomes an ethical teacher or wise counsellor.  At worst, He becomes wholly irrelevant.”

A major challenge the Church faces today is addressed in chapter nine, Recovering the Doctrine of Hell.  Msgr. Pope writes that minimizing and downplaying the existence of hell “have caused great harm in the Body of Christ . . . by deflating evangelization and rendering nearly the whole mission and message of the Church incoherent and thus irrelevant” (pg. 122).

As such, he continues, “it remains a challenge for us today to reclaim the proper doctrine of hell in a way that avoids caricatures and responds effectively to the objections of doubters.”

Msgr. Pope concludes this final chapter by taking  a look at ‘the unforgivable sin’ (Mathew 12:31-32, Mark 3:29), explaining the six kinds of sin against the Holy Spirit according to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Following a three page epilogue, are the two appendices.  Appendix one is a summary Dante’s nine concentric circles of hell.  Appendix two takes a look at the “almost playfully bright, while at the same time deeply soulful” manner in which African-American Spirituals have treated the ‘judgement’ theme.

About Msgr. Pope

For anyone unfamiliar with Msgr. Charles Pope, he is the pastor of the Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian parish community in Washington, DC.  He was ordained in 1989 and is a native of Chicago.  He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science along with a  Master of Divinity degree and a Master of Arts degree in Moral Theology, both from Saint Mary’s Seminary.

Articles by Msgr. Pope have appeared regularly in publications such as the National Catholic Register and Catholic Answers magazine.  He has authored two other books, “The Ten Commandments” and “Catholic and Curious.”  He is also the author of the Community in Mission blog of the Archdiocese of Washington.

In the ’90s and 2000s, respectively, Fr. Pope conducted a weekly Bible Study in the U.S. Congress and at the White House. Fr. Pope is the Archdiocesan Coordinator for the Celebration of the Latin Mass and Coordinator of Deliverance Ministry, an Archdiocesan Consultor, and a member of the Priest Council and of the Priest Personnel Board. Msgr. Pope is also the Dean of the Northeast Deanery.