Christ
revealed to us that He will come at His Second Coming to judge the living and
the dead. There is a well-known passage in Holy Scripture about the future
Judgment, in which He will separate human beings, as a shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats, and after an exchange of words, the righteous will go
"into eternal life" and the sinners "into everlasting
punishment" (St. Matthew 25:46). In the Creed (Symbol of faith) we
confess, "And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the
dead."
Before
the Second Judgment the bodies of human beings will be resurrected. The first
and second resurrections were mentioned earlier. The first resurrection is
experienced through Baptism and Holy Communion, and the second resurrection is
after Christ's Second Coming, so that the whole human being may live 'eternal
well-being' or 'eternal distress.'
The
iconography of the Second Coming of Christ shows what Paradise is and what Hell
is.
"Please
go and find the icon of the Second Coming, and you will see that around Christ
are those who are in Paradise. They are in a golden light; the light
surrounding them is golden. This same golden light, as it gets further away
from Christ, begins to change color, and gradually, the further away it goes,
it turns from gold to red; and in the red light are the damned. The saved see
Christ in a golden color, and the damned also see Christ from a distance, but
they see the Light of Christ as red, because for the former it is the glory of
God and for the latter it is the eternal fire, outer darkness and 'the
consuming fire.'"
From this
point of view, therefore, we Orthodox Christians agree with the most liberal
people in the world. No message can be more liberal than that of the Holy
Fathers of the Church, who not only stress that, 'Son, we'll all go to the same
place', as an old lady told me, but also emphasize that God loves everyone
equally: the damned and the saved, the glorified and the saints, Angels and
devils, good and bad, prostitutes and chaste...God loves all human beings
equally, He loves everyone without distinction. From God's point of view, God
saves everyone. He wants the salvation of all human beings, and he has
preordained salvation for all.
How do we
know this? Because even Hell is salvation (the human being is preserved) and
Hell is a way of making perfect, but it is Hell and not Paradise. Because the
one who is damned is incapable of progress, he is unable to accept progress
towards perfection. Why? Because his conscience has been hardened, his heart has
grown hard. He remains so egoistic and self-centered that his personality
cannot develop from selfishness to unselfishness. Since he cannot develop
anymore, he is perfected in his selfishness. Even Hell is evil for him.
Although it is not punishment from God's point of view, it is punishment from
the human point of view.
In other
words, the man has remained uncured. Why? Because his heart needed to be cured,
his heart or his nous (soul) was sick, and they did not receive treatment. But
where does this treatment begin, how does it take place and how a human being
secure it? In the Orthodox Christian experience, treatment begins here in this
world."
In the
Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) tradition about Paradise and Hell, we
see view that differ from the Orthodox Christian teaching.
"Augustine's
teachings about absolute predestination Hell and Paradise were based on those
perceptions that he had, his legalistic views about the Fall of man and sin,
combined with his neoplatonic perception of Paradise. He introduced into
Christianity the idea that Hell is the subterranean regions underneath the
earth, where people go to be punished. Paradise is outer space.
In those
days they believed that things that were immutable were beyond the heavenly
bodies, where there is no movement and no development, and that here on earth
is the place of testing. So if we are good boys and girls we shall go to
Paradise above the stars and the sky; and if we are bad we shall go under the
earth to be punished in the subterranean regions."
Paradise
in the Western (Latin or Roman Catholic) tradition was connected with the
soul's happiness and the satisfaction of its desires.
"In
the Orthodox Christian Tradition there is nothing like this. Why? Because man's
destiny is not happiness; it is not satisfaction of his desires. The Holy
Fathers do not teach that God will become man's possession or that man can use
God--let alone his fellow human being--for his own happiness.
The
capitalistic foundations that exist within the philosophy of medieval feudalism
originate from Augustine, but mainly from the ancient Greeks. The teaching
about the pursuit of happiness (eudemonism) started from the ancient Greeks,
from Plato and Aristotle, with some opposition from the Stoics and the Epicureans.
In the Christian tradition of the West, however, Aristotle and Plato prevailed.
These elements do not exist in patristic theology."
In our
own Holy Tradition, the human being is eternally advancing to higher stages of
perfection. For us history never stops
There is the history of the saints and there is also the eternal history
of man. The fact that Christ was Resurrected with His Body and that Christ is
fully human until now and for ever and ever means that Christ, His Body and His
human nature, is part of history. Has His Body not acted continually until this
day? There has been a succession of actions; the energies of the Body of Christ
have not ceased. So the Body of Christ is an inseparable part of history, which
is a guarantee that history is eternal. History will not come to a halt;
although a number of theologians who believe in Plato say nowadays that history
will cease. No, history will not come to a halt. Why will history not cease?
Because the Body with which Christ was resurrected will exist for ever, and we
shall be resurrected with bodies. We shall not be merely souls in paradise. We
shall be complete human beings.
Then
Westerners speak about Paradise and Hell from the standpoint of justice. This
is sociological interpretation of eternal life...
"...Holy
Scripture uses the words 'light' and 'dark cloud' to describe the state of the
just, and the words 'fire' and 'darkness' to describe the state of sinners. We
know, however, that the light is different from the dark cloud that covers the
light. And fire is the opposite of darkness, because fire chases away darkness
and illuminates the surroundings.
This
shows that there are not created words to express uncreated reality absolutely.
The Eternal Divine Light and the Eternal Life are uncreated. They are the
energy of God that is experienced by human beings as illuminating or burning
energy, depending on their spiritual state.
"All
human beings will see the glory of God, and from this point of view they have
the same end. Everyone will certainly see the glory of God, the difference
being that, whereas the saved will see the glory of God as sweetest light
without evening, the damned will see the same glory of God as consuming fire,
as fire that will burn them. It is a true and predictable fact that we shall
all see the glory of God. Seeing God, that is to say, His glory and His Light,
is something that will happen whether we want it or not. The experience of this
Light, however, will be different for the two categories.
The work
of the Church and the priests is not to help us to see this glory, because that
will happen in any case. The work of the Church centers on how each one will
see God. Not on whether he will see God. In other words, the task of the Church
is to preach to people that the true God exists, that God is revealed either as
light or as consuming fire, and that at the Second Coming of Christ all of us
will see God. And it must prepare its members so that they see God not as fire
but as light."
The
Church does not send anyone to Paradise or to Hell, but it prepares the
faithful for the vision of Christ in glory, which everyone will have. God loves
the damned as much as the Saints. He wants all to be cured, but not all accept
the cure that He offers.
Paradise
and Hell do not exist from the point of view of God, but from the point of view
of human beings. God will love everyone equally. He will send His grace to all,
in the same way as He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He
"makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the
just and on the unjust" (Saint Matthew 5:45). But everyone will not accept
God's grace in the same way. Some will see God as Light and other as fire. The
same will happen as with Holy Communion. For those who prepare themselves
appropriately, Holy Communion is "for eternal life", but for those
who have "not been purified, Holy Communion is for judgment and
condemnation…"
"...When
someone reaches the point of seeing the glory of God after having gone through
purification of the heart and reaching illumination, this illuminated human
being sees the glory of God as light. But when someone who has not reached this
Light, he sees it as consuming fire. Instead of seeing God as Light, he sees
God as consuming fire."
"We
know that if an Orthodox Christian who does not prepare himself correctly and
reaches the point that his heart is hardened, he will see God as a consuming
fire."
"Contrary
to Augustine's ideas about Paradise and Hell, according to the other Fathers of
the Church in both East and West, Hell and Paradise are the same thing. There
is no difference at all. When someone sees God's glory with unselfish love, he
sees God as paradise, and this is paradise…"
"The
uncreated glory, which Christ has by nature from the Father, is paradise for
those who self-centered and selfish love has been cured and transformed into
unselfish love. However, the same glory is uncreated eternal fire and hell for
those who have chosen to remain uncured in their selfishness."
By Father John Romanides
Source: http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/4/17/paradise-and-hell-according-to-the-orthodox-church
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