A letter from Hell

[LittleMan123]

What do you think of this story? Fake? Genuine?

https://www.catholica.com/letter-from-hell/

[Guest kingdombrat]

I read the entire letter, or basically, the recall from Claire's memory of what she dreamed the letter had stated.   Outside the obvious biasness, and I perceive it's all relative for their [Faith] and lack of/refusal, I did see there could be [truths] to it.   The description of torment, hatred of God, the despise one was feeling being forced to write the letter, to the memories of constantly rejecting God, down to the last moments of physical life, then awakening to be removed from the physical presence of this life, to be in the immediate presence of the God that was rejected, to be judged for the immediate [now], and to be removed against will to find oneself in a constant burning torment being reminded continually why you are there.......

 

.......could be somewhat truthful in how it takes place.

 

 

But do I believe this letter was actually written by a damned [soul] currently suffering in Hell?

 

I don't know.   I mean, God can use so many things and different ways to alarm us about the unknowns.   And basically in this instance, it was a ["dream"].   And dreams often take place that have Spiritual meaning and enlightenment.   But do I think this particular dream happened?   If it did not, the (author) of this story has an amazing and incredible creative mind and this is a best seller of sorts.

Edited December 14, 2020 by kingdombrat

[Starise]

Fake as they come IMO.

As fiction it causes one to think. I don't believe it's anything but fiction.

[GandalfTheWise]

3 hours ago, LittleMan123 said:

What do you think of this story? Fake? Genuine?

A bit of fact checking on sources.  

Various versions of this appear on a number of sites with minor variations.  Most name the nun as Claire, but I found one with Clara.  The woman's name shows up as variations of Ani, Anne, Annetta, etc.   Following a tenuous trail of internet clues, the English versions appear to either come from Portuguese or German translations.  Perhaps from a Portuguese translation of the German since the original author (as named in the text) seems to show up as a nun named Klara in Germany in the 1930s.  

As far as I can tell, there's a single book that seems to be the original English source of most of the posts and blogs that mention this. "The Letter from Beyond" (translated by Marian Therese Horvat) seems to be the only reference I could find with any names or organizations attached to it.  There are mentions that it was translated from an original source in Portuguese.  Here is a quote from their online copy of this.  "What follows is the faithful translation from the Portuguese edition of the work titled Letter from Beyond, published by Artes Gráficas Armando Basílio and distributed by Livraria Clássica Brasileira. On the first page of the original German edition of 1953 are these words of approbation: “Imprimatur of the orginal German: Brief aus dem Jeneseits: Treves, 9/11/1953. N. 4/53. Ecclesiastical approbation of this work: Taubaté – Est. de São Paulo – 2/11/1955."   As near as I understand it, someone in the Catholic church with the authority to do so (in Sao Paulo??) issued an imprimatur for this work which means that it is doctrinally sound by Catholic standards but this does NOT vouch for authenticity.     The title "Brief aus dem Jeneseits" is German for "Letter from the Beyond" (per Google Translate).  I found a site with a copy of a German version of this where the nun's name was Klara.   I was unable to track down the original Portuguese version alluded to.

Dr. Horvat is one of two founders of the TraditionInAction group.   They seem to have some ties to South America.  I'd note that I found some links from Catholic groups rather very critical of this group because it rejects the second Vatican Council.  I had no inclination to investigate further as to what that means.   As far as I can tell, some of her works are collections of various writings of various individuals that reflect various Catholic teachings.   As far as I can tell, she makes no claims of original authorship but that it is translated from some original source.

I don't have the inclination to spend any more time on this.

To be honest, this strikes me much more as a work of vivid imagination or a morality tale rather than an actual revelation.  I would like to see the original source of this tracked back to some book or collections of works to get a better sense of where it originated.  The lack of even an original editor who found the letters or the collection the letters were in gives me a lot of pause.  It's not clear to me if the original source was doing something similar to The Screwtape Letters as a teaching tool (which some later person thought was real and started copying it as such) or if this is claimed as a revelation.   My reaction is that it is simply too long and detailed as a revelation when compared to various visions, dreams, and revelations in scripture.

[RustyAngeL]

This is total nonsense.

[Who me]

Clearly a fake based on what has been written here.

Would a follower of the father of lies tell the truth about his situation and surely someone who knew Jesus, if they wrote this, would stress the ease of gaining salvation and avoiding hell.

 

Heaven and hell are real and going to either is very easy, have faith in Jesus or don't have faith in him.

 

[Billiards Ball]

On 12/13/2020 at 7:10 PM, LittleMan123 said:

What do you think of this story? Fake? Genuine?

https://www.catholica.com/letter-from-hell/

Since it promoted false Roman doctrine, it is a letter written in Hell, but by Satan. JESUS saves, not "understanding the [false] Eucharist", etc.

[Alive]

Not interested.