Why the Road to Hell Is Wide and Many Walk on It

In the gospels there is a warning from Jesus that too many people just brush aside:

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few (Matt 6:12-13).

I have commented at some length in the past on the serious problem of universalism (the notion that nearly everyone goes to Heaven). I will not create another post on that topic just now, but you can read one of those older posts here: Hell is for real and not rare.

To summarize, most people today have the teaching backwards. Whereas Jesus said that many are on the road to destruction and only a few travel the narrow road (of the cross) to salvation, most claim that many go to Heaven and only a few (if any) go to Hell. Don’t make that mistake. Jesus is not playing games with us. No one loves us more than Jesus does, and no one warned us more of judgment and Hell than He did. Even though He didn’t provide exact percentages for each category, do not try to make many mean few and few mean many.

An obvious question to ask is why so many walk the wide road to destruction and Hell. Is it because God is stingy or despotic? No. God wants to save us all (Ez 18:23; 1 Tim 2:4). The real answer is that we are hard to save, and we must become more sober about that. We have hard hearts, thick skulls, and innumerable other traits that make us a difficult case.

If a third of the angels fell, that ought to make us very aware of our own similar tendency to do so. This should make us humbler about our own situation. The fallen angels had intellects vastly superior to ours, and their angelic souls were not weighed down with the many bodily passions that beset us—but still, they fell!

Adam and Eve, possessing preternatural gifts and existing before all the weaknesses we inherited from sin, also fell. Are we, in our present unseemly state and vastly less gifted than the angels, really going to claim that we are not in any real danger or that we are easy to save?

We need to sober up and run to God with greater humility, admitting that we are a hard case and in desperate need of the medicines and graces that God offers. He offers us His Word, the sacraments, holy fellowship, and lots of prayer! We need not panic, but we do need to be far more urgent than most people are about themselves and those they love.

Consider some of the following things that make us difficult to save:

We have hard hearts and stubborn wills. While some of what this includes is specified in more detail below, this is a good place to begin. God, speaking to us through Isaiah the Prophet, said, I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is bronze(Is 48:4). He is talking about us!

We are obtuse in our desires. If something is forbidden, we seem to want it all the more. St. Paul laconically observed, When the commandment came, sin sprang to life (Rom 7:9). If something is harmful, we want it in abundance, but if it is helpful, we are often averse to it. We like our sweets and our salty snacks, but vegetables rot in the refrigerator. In the desert the people of Israel longed for melons, leeks, onions, and the fleshpots they enjoyed in Egypt. Never mind that they were slaves. When it came to the Bread from Heaven, the Holy Manna, they said, We are disgusted with this wretched manna (Num 21:5). We are obtuse; that is, we are turned outward toward sin instead of inward toward God in a Holy embrace. Jesus sadly remarked that judgment would go poorly for many because The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed (Jn 3:19).

We don’t like to be told what to do. Even if we know we ought to do something or to stop doing something, the mere fact that someone is telling us often makes us either dig in our heels and refuse, or else comply resentfully rather than wholeheartedly.

We are not docile. When we were very young, we were fascinated with the world around us and kept asking, “Why, Mommy?” or “Why, Daddy?” As we got older, our skull thickened; we stopped asking why. We figured we knew better than anyone around us. The problem just worsens with age, unless grace intervenes. St Paul lamented, For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths (2 Tim 4:3-5).

We love distraction and don’t listen. Even when saving knowledge is offered to us, we are too often tuned out, distracted, and resistant. ADHD is nothing new in the human family. God said through Jeremiah, To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it (Jeremiah 6:10). Jesus invoked Isaiah to explain why He spoke to the crowds only in parables: For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed (Is 6:10).

We are opinionated. We tend to think that something is true or right merely because we think it or agree with it. There is nothing wrong with having opinions, even strong ones, about what is right and true, but if God’s Word or the Church’s formal teaching challenges your opinion, you’d better consider changing it or at least making distinctions. The last time I checked, God is just a little smarter than we are. His official teaching in the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Church is inspired; we are not. Scripture says, All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (Is 55:8). Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? (Is 29:16) Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” (Is 45:9) Despite this, many go on with their own opinions and will not abide even the clear correction of God.

We have darkened intellects due to unruly and dominating passions. Our strong and unruly passions cloud our mind and seek to compel our will. Too easily, without training and practice in virtue, our baser faculties come to dominate our higher faculties, making unreasonable demands for satisfaction. We love to tell ourselves lots of lies. We suppress the truth and our senseless minds become darkened (Romans 1:21). The Catechism says, The human mind … is hampered in the attaining of … truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful (CCC #37). The Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium 16, says, But very often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasoning and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator.

We are lemmings. We are too easily swayed by what is popular. We prefer modern notions to ancient and tested wisdom. Tattoos, tongue bolts, and piercings are in? Quick, run out and get one! Whatever the fad or fashion, no matter how foolish, harmful, or immodest, many clamor for it. Hollywood stars get divorces and soon enough everyone is casting aside biblical teaching against it. The same goes for many other moral issues. What was once thought disgraceful is now paraded on Main Street and celebrated. Like lemmings, we run along with the crowd to celebrate what was once called sin (and is still sinful). Instead of following God, we follow human beings. We follow them and the “culture” they create, often mindlessly.

We live in a fallen world, governed by a fallen angel, and we have fallen natures. Many seem to abide all of this quite well and make a nice little home here in this world.

If all this isn’t enough, consider a “few” others: We are so easily, in a moment, obnoxious, dishonest, egotistical, undisciplined, weak, impure, arrogant, self-centered, pompous, insincere, unchaste, grasping, harsh, impatient, shallow, inconsistent, unfaithful, immoral, ungrateful, disobedient, selfish, lukewarm, slothful, unloving, uncommitted, untrusting, indifferent, hateful, lazy, cowardly, angry, greedy, jealous, vengeful, prideful, envious, contemptuous, stingy, petty, spiteful, indulgent, careless, neglectful, prejudiced, and just plain mean.

So, if the road to destruction is wide (and Jesus says it is), don’t blame God. The road is wide for reasons like these. We are a hard case; we are hard to save. It is not that God lacks power; it is that we refuse to address many of these shortcomings. God, who made us free, will not force us to change.

We ought not to kid ourselves into thinking that we can go on living resistant and opposed to the Kingdom of God and its values, yet magically at death we will suddenly want to enter His Kingdom, which we have resisted our whole life. Jesus said that many prefer the darkness. Is it really likely that their preference will suddenly shift? Will not the glorious light of Heaven seem harsh, blinding, and even repulsive to them? In such a case is not God’s “Depart from me” both a just and merciful response? Why force a person who hates the light to live in it? I suppose it grieves God to have to abide such a departure, but to force a person to endure Him must be even more difficult. I am sure it is with great sadness that God accepts a person’s final no.

Yes, the road is wide that leads to destruction. It is wide because of us. The narrow road is the way of the cross, which is a stumbling block and an absurdity to many (1 Cor 1:23), who simply will not abide its message.

So, we ought to be sober about the Lord’s lament. We ought also to be more urgent in our attempts to secure our own unruly soul and the souls of those we love for the Kingdom. The blasé attitude of most moderns is rooted in the extremely flawed notion that judgment and Hell are not real issues. That is a lie, for it contracts Jesus’ clear word.

Why is the road to destruction wide? Because we are hard cases; we are difficult to save. We ought not to be unduly fearful, but we ought to run to Jesus in humility and beg Him to save us from our worst enemy—our very self. If you don’t think you’re a hard case, read the list above and think again.

Cross-posted at the Catholic Standard: Why the Road to Hell Is Wide and Many Walk on It

12 Replies to “Why the Road to Hell Is Wide and Many Walk on It”

  1. My struggle through my life was between bible alone or catholicism . Especially the verse 1 John 5:13. It said that you may know you have eternal life. Catholicism does not teach this but I may be wrong. Thank you…

    1. Hello Mom of Three, You have some big questions and challenges. I was away from the Catholic Church (as an agnostic) for 30 plus years after a bad experience at a Catholic School. I now see it as the true Church. I have presented my thoughts, about making sense of it all, on a Web site (linked to my name). It may help you understand.

      I would suggest that you pray to find a loving holy priest and then get your adult children confirmed. God will work through them in unexpected ways. God bless!

      http://www.usccb.org/about/divine-worship/policies/guidelines-sacraments-persons-with-disabilities.cfm

  2. All that and more. Most folks don’t know what’s at stake and aren’t being told. Don’t want to upset the faithful and turn them off.

    We know, for example, that viewing pornography is epidemic. The bishops tell us it’s a serious sin. How many Sunday Mass goers watched it in the previous week before receiving the Eucharist sans Confession? I haven’t heard a homily addressing the elephant in the room. The road is narrow for all of us.

    1. We cannot offend anyone……oh, yes, except our Creator, Almighty God. We can offend endlessly.
      We have a choice to make: Either be a fool for this stupid, evil world or be a fool for God. It’s our choice and this choice will determine where we spend eternity.

  3. Also, I have special needs children that are adults and mental problems and I would wonder why if they could not receive the sacraments, for all the extra requirements, and do not fit in with others, maybe, faith is enough…They do not like the open public..Church people are not considerate with special needs, just normal ones. I hope God understands..

    1. I am not sure what you mean by the “Church people are not considerate with special needs, just normal ones”. In our parish, we have plenty of special needs children and adults, and they are treated kindly by our clergy and laity. If your children don’t like being in public, then instruct them at home on the faith. If they understand Church teaching on the Eucharist and are physically capable of receiving the Eucharist, call your parish and get a minister to bring them Holy Communion. You, as their parent, are their primary educator.

  4. A wonderful article indeed. Catholics should read it every a.m. upon waking.
    Every word of it is exactly what is NOT heard in “homilies”, (being we no longer, or seldom hear, sermons any more).
    Most of us, Catholics included and specifically, hate the truth. “I’m basically a good guy, many are “worse” than me. “I’m fine with God. After all, He loves us and would never send anyone to Hell. Only Hitler , Stalin and, oh yes, Charlie Manson are in Hell. ”
    One can hear the evil one’s influence as clear as day in this childish, insipid stupidity that is heard all too often.
    May God have mercy upon us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. Sacred heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.

  5. I have a few questions, Father.

    1. 1 Tim. 2:4 doesn’t say that God “wants” to save all. It speaks of the divine WILL that all be saved. The Greek word “thelo” means to will, not to want or desire. Are you therefore saying that God has a will but He is too impotent to bring it to pass?

    2. If God does will that all be saved, how come He allows Satan free reign to deceive people? The stakes in this game are very high if eternal conscious torment is true. Therefore, if God is merciful and wills that all be saved, He is working contrary to what He wills by allowing deception in the world, isn’t He?

    3. If the Bible teaches the principle of “lex talionis” punishment, i.e., that the punishment exactly fits the crime, then what possible deed done in chronological time and of temporary duration deserves an eternal torment?

    4. Why was Apokatastasis taught for the first five centuries of the Church without any opposition or scandal? Why was there no council to discuss this like there was the Arian Controversy? After all, this is no small doctrine or teaching regarding people’s salvation. Yet — no council. None at all. And it was taught by saints in the Church such as St. Isaac of Nineveh and acknowledged as widespread by Augustine.

    I have more questions I would love to have you take a crack at answering, ESPECIALLY number 10. You may find them here:

    https://http4281.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/10-questions/

    Thank you for your kind consideration.

    1. There is much that can be said about this, but in the end, God is King and we are miserable sinners with extremely clouded understanding (at best).

      God allows there to be mysteries like the interplay between His omnipotence and our free will, and uses our lack of understanding to sanctify us through faith, believing and trusting Him and His Way. If you have questions about such mysteries beyond human comprehension, submit them humbly to the Lord our God, not forgetting the infinite difference between us and Him in majesty, power, love and knowledge.

  6. Dear Edward Hara,

    I don’t see your reasoning in your “Questions”? God allows the devil Satan to go through our world and spread Lies, not only lies about our ‘leaders’, but Lies about you and me. If you are older than 20, I am sure that there have been told by many certain “lies” about you, some may be true, but on the underhand, there are certain ‘workers of the devil’, who go around telling and gossipping certain things about you and me some that may be true, but a lot of them really are NOT. The only ONE that really knows this is God and You. Remember that everyman and woman will have their final Judgement Alone. No one there to take a side. The real question is going to come at the very end. God is the one doing the Weighing of the scales. “Did you LOVE ME?” or “DO you Love me?” Now if the scales come down on the side of Hatred, do you think that God is going to say that just in fact that you hated only one little person, that you can go into the Kingdom of God? Which is why I try to forgive all of those who have been wrong about so many things, because they know not what they have done, and I forgive them knowing that God is just and forgiving of me and the many things that I have done during my past life. Leave it up to God who in His All Knowing and All loving way, can break the tendency of the devil to Win.

  7. You really missed everything about which I posted. Let me try this another way:

    There is a conflict in what the Bible teaches (1 Tim. 2:4 – God wills to save everyone) and the fact that the devil is allowed to deceive people into losing their souls.

    If I will that my son grow up to be morally pure, I don’t allow pornography in my house, nor do I introduce him to the town hooker. Those actions would work against my will for my son.

    It is the will of God that all be saved, yet the actions of allowing the devil to deceive people into eternal conscious torment are contrary to that stated aim.

    Therefore:

    Either the Calvinists are right and only a small group of “elect” are to be saved, with the rest going to hell forever and Satan is allowed to trick them so that at the Judgment it will be seen just how much they loved evil and what their punishment is

    OR

    God does will to save all and the temptations and deceits with which we have to put up with have a greater purpose which does not affect our salvation at all. All are saved, (Romans 5: 18-19) all are justified, but the rewards of the next life are contingent upon how we responded to the tests given here.

    Monsignor Pope’s OP was a disclaimer of sorts regarding Apokatastasis (Patristic Universalism). I am trying to ask a question regarding that denial, for if eternal conscious torment is true and eternal hell is real, then what does it say about God that He allows us to be tempted and for billions to lose their souls forever? I sometimes think that people who are comfortable with ECT don’t really look at the “Big Picture” regarding all that is going on.

    1. To E. Hara, God Wills everyone to Heaven but you’re forgetting that God gave us freewill, we can reject the Will of God (and that is also the Will of God)

      We are responsible for falling for Satan’s deceits. Satan does not work outside of God’s complete sovereignty. You would be wrong if you believe Satan has independent power. You would be wrong to think we will function as independent gods in Heaven. God works through us to express and witness His love and glory. We are being tested to be His body, one Christ loving Himself; not to be independent gods.

      We can perceive our person-hood and awareness (which have great value to God) as proof of our independence and therefore failing to understand that we are totally dependent on God.

      Hell is a distinct possibility given the importance of our roles in God’s Kingdom and the need for our freewill to be fully tested in accepting God’s offer.

      Even if God plans to save everyone from Hell it is simply not for us to know. We are not meant to judge God as Job discovered. It then follows that anyone believing in full salvation may not be rewarded at all for thinking that God is love and would send no one Hell, given that our worship is then dependent on God conforming to our determined standards of acceptability (a false god).

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