Objection: Can God create a stone which He would not be able to lift?

This question pretends to strike at God’s omnipotence, but in reality it is a linguistic trick. It consists of an internally contradictory notion: “a stone which God could not lift”. Such an “object” is not a thing, but a cluster of words.

God’s omnipotence does not mean “the ability to do contradictions”. A contradiction is not a being and cannot be “created”. In the same way, there is no such thing as a “square circle” or “dry water”. Therefore the question does not prove a lack of omnipotence, but only shows an abuse of language: one demands of God that He should “make non-being into being”.

In truth, this is the pride of reason, which, instead of seeking the truth, wishes to sit in judgment upon God. He who asks in this manner does not inquire, but mocks: “create that which cannot exist”.

Objection: Jesus was in hell, because the Creed says: “He descended into hell”.

The profession of faith speaks of the “descent into hell” in the sense of descent into the realm of the dead — into limbo. It does not refer to the place of the damned (gehenna), but to the state of souls who, before the Redemption, did not yet behold God face to face.

Before the Resurrection of Christ, the just of the Old Covenant awaited the Saviour. Christ, truly dead according to His manhood, descended into the realm of the dead as the Victor, to proclaim His victory and to lead the just into glory.

Heaven and hell exist from the beginning as final states, but access to the full glory of heaven was opened through the Passion and Resurrection. Therefore one speaks of the “opening of heaven” after the Redemption. Hell, on the other hand, is the eternal state of those who die turned away from God.

The confusion arises from language: in older translations the word “hell” was sometimes used broadly to signify the “realm of the dead”. Hence the distinction must be made: Christ did not “suffer in hell”, but descended into limbo as Lord and Victor.

Objection: God, if He exists, is evil, because there is so much evil in the world, and besides that He condemns people to hell.

God created angels and men as rational beings so that they might know Him and love Him. This requires freedom: without it there would be no love, only mechanism. Free will, however, is not a justification for rebellion, but the field of trial in which man chooses: God or himself.

Moral evil does not come from God, but from the creature that abuses freedom. Satan and the fallen angels sinned through pride, and man — by suggestion and consent — repeated that rebellion. God permits evil, but does not cause it; He can also bring good out of what is evil, without becoming the author of evil.

Hell is not God’s “caprice” or “cruelty”, but the final state of the soul that dies turned away from God. Love which is rejected cannot be imposed by force. God condemns no one against his will: damnation is the end of the road on which man says “no” to God. Thus in eternity the separation is made: some desire God and His law, others remain in rebellion.

Objection: Jesus Christ Himself was a Jew, so how can Jews not be saved?

Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh was born of the people of Israel. Descent neither saves nor condemns. What saves is faith and grace, the acceptance of revealed truth and obedience to God.

The Old Covenant was a preparation for the Messiah. The just of the Old Testament believed in the promise and awaited Christ. When He came, the first disciples and the first believers came precisely from Israel, and the Church was born upon the foundation of the Apostles.

After the rejection of Christ there remained adherence to a religion which does not accept the fullness of Revelation and rejects the divinity of the Son of God. Judaism in this sense is not the continuation of Abraham’s faith in its fulfilment, but the denial of the fulfilment of the promise in Christ. Therefore there is no salvation outside Christ: every man, regardless of nation, needs faith and baptism, or at least the grace that leads to the acceptance of the Saviour.