Thoughts about death for ordinary person unacceptable. The unknown, horror of physical pain, fear pushes painful thoughts to the margins of consciousness. And there is no time to think about the last hour in the bustle of everyday life.
It is much more difficult for an Orthodox person. He knows that the Last Judgment awaits him ahead, at which he will answer for all the misdeeds committed in life. What frightens us is not only the fear of punishment, but also the feeling of guilt before the One who is love.
How does God's judgment work after death?
When we lose loved ones, we think about our own demise. No one will be able to escape it - not the rich, not the famous, not the righteous. What awaits there, beyond the line? What does Orthodoxy say about God's judgment? It is said that for the first three days the soul of the deceased is near the body, on earth.
The soul remembers all its earthly path. According to the testimony of Vasily the New, if a person died without repentance, his soul goes through twenty tests called ordeals. All ordeals are given names according to: lies, laziness, anger and others.
The soul spends the next six days in paradise, where all earthly sorrows are forgotten. Then they show her hell with sinful people, their torment. On the third or ninth day after death, she appears before the Lord. Forty days after death, God's judgment is carried out, determining the position of the soul.
During this period, loved ones can help the deceased by reading akathists and ordering a memorial service. After this, the soul spends time awaiting its fate at the final judgment.
Events leading up to the Last Judgment
The fact that after the death of every person the Last Judgment awaits is mentioned in Old Testament. The Gospel says that it is not God the Father who will judge people, but Jesus Christ, since He is the Son of Man.
Orthodoxy teaches that on the Day of Judgment the second coming of Jesus Christ is expected, during which he will separate the righteous (sheep) from the sinners (goats).
The Revelations of John Chrysostom sets out the sequence of events of the Apocalypse. Its date is not known to anyone, so that people are in a conscious state and hourly make a choice between good and evil. According to revelations, the end of the world will not come suddenly; it will be preceded by special events.
At the Second Coming, the Savior will hold a book with seven seals and a lamp with seven torches. The opening of each seal leads to the fact that troubles are sent to humanity: diseases, earthquakes, hunger, thirst, death, falling comets.
Advice. Go to confession! Repent, all your sins will be forgiven, do not wait for your death, it is already impossible to repent there.
Seven angels will come and give a signal for the end of the world: a third of the trees and grass will burn, a third of the sea will turn bloody and ships will perish. Then the water will become bitter and the people who drink it will die.
At the sound of the trumpet of the fourth angel there will be eclipses, the fifth opens the way for locusts in iron armor, like scorpions. The locusts will sting people for five months. The last two tests will be that humanity will be overtaken by diseases and armored riders on horses emitting smoke and brimstone.
The appearance of the seventh angel will announce that the Kingdom of Christ has arrived. Many theologians interpret John’s vision of the “woman clothed with the sun” as the appearance of a church that will help to be saved. The battle of Archangel Michael with the serpent and his triumph over it symbolizes the victory over the devil.
How will the Last Judgment take place?
The Orthodox Church teaches that on Judgment Day all the dead will rise and come to the throne of God. The Lord will gather everyone and ask about all the deeds committed during life.
If a person's heart is filled with love, he will remain right hand from Jesus Christ, and will abide with him in His Kingdom. Unrepentant sinners are doomed to torment. Revelation says that 144 thousand people will not suffer the torment of the Apocalypse. After the Scary God's judgment there will be no sin or sorrow.
How can a person be saved before the Last Judgment?
Christianity says that there is hope for salvation. Moreover, Orthodoxy awaits the Last Judgment with joy, since it is a sign of the dawn - the Kingdom of God on earth. A true believer hopes for a speedy meeting with Christ.
The main measure that the Supreme Judge will use is mercy. If you go to church, fast, pray, confess and receive communion often, you can safely hope for the best at the Last Judgment. God made man free, he has the right to choose a sinful state, but it deprives him of hope for salvation. Sincere repentance, confession and communion, good deeds bring a person closer to God, cleanses and heals him.
Distinguishes Orthodox man constant internal self-monitoring of one’s state of mind. The Scripture says that before the Last Judgment the Antichrist and false prophets will come into the world. And the devil will come to earth and will rampage in anticipation of the second coming of Christ.
Therefore, the temptation of every person passes every minute. In response to every urge to sin, it is worth thinking about whose will to fulfill—divine or demonic. As they say in Orthodoxy, the demonic tribe is driven out by prayer and fasting.
There is no punishment in a person’s life - there are only lessons. If a person experiences negative feelings, it means that he has blocked the access of Divine love to his heart. Every day God comes to us in the form of other people.
Last Judgment- the last, universal Judgment of God over the world, which will take place during the second (with all dead people will be resurrected, and those living will change (), and everyone will have an eternal destiny determined according to his deeds (,), words () and thoughts.
The Holy Fathers said that there is a certain “memory of the heart” that imprints everything, our entire life - both internal and external. And at the Last Judgment, this book, written in the depths of our soul, will be revealed, as it were, and only then will we see who we really are, and not how our inflamed self painted us. Then we will see how many times God called us to salvation, punished us, had mercy on us, and how stubbornly we resisted grace and strived only for and. We will see even our good deeds eaten away like worms by hypocrisy, pride and secret calculations.
At the same time, judgment is not only what happens after death. Judgment is carried out by us every second of our earthly life. The Last Judgment is not trial, but only a final statement of fact. Each of us throughout life is spiritually determined in relation to God.
Why is the Last Judgment called the Last Judgment?
Announcing the Second Coming of the Messiah and the subsequent general Judgment, the prophets and apostles called this “Day” the Day of the Lord, great and terrible ().
This Day is also called the Day of God's Wrath (). Therefore, the name “Terrible” was assigned to the future Judgment not because the Lord would appear before eyewitnesses in some deliberately menacing form. He will appear before the eyes of those gathered in the splendor of His glory and greatness, as a Mighty and Just Judge. This, of course, will cause fear among those around him, for some - reverent, and for others - extreme shock: “it’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God!” ().
Horror and restless trepidation will accompany sinners from the knowledge that at this Judgment all their sins will be revealed, made public, weighed (and not only committed actions, but also those remaining unrealized: secret sinful desires, thoughts and thoughts), and for each you will have to answer before an incorruptible and impartial Judge.
In addition, the Last Judgment will take place publicly, in front of the whole world: in front of a host of angelic armies, in front of billions of people, including those closest and dearest. At this last Judgment, the sinner will no longer be able to deceive either his personal conscience, or those around him, or, of course, the All-Seeing Judge with convenient reservations and excuses. Every unrepentant lawless person will be illuminated by the Light of Divine Truth, every crime, action or inaction will be illuminated.
A ship with slaves came to a certain city, and in that city there lived a holy virgin who was very attentive to herself. When she heard that this ship had arrived, she was very happy, because she wanted to buy herself a little girl, and thought: I will take her and raise her as I want, so that she does not know the vices of this world at all. She sent for the owner of the ship and, calling him to her, found out that he had two little girls, exactly the kind she wanted, and she immediately joyfully paid the price for one of them and took her to her. When the owner of the ship left the place where the saint was staying, and had barely gone a little further, he was met by a completely depraved harlot, and, seeing another girl with him, she wanted to take her; Having agreed with him, she gave the price, took the girl and left with her. Do you see the mystery of God?
Do you see God's judgment? Who can explain this? So, the holy virgin took that little girl, raised her in the fear of God, instructing her in every good deed, teaching her monastic life and, in short, in every fragrance of God’s holy commandments. The harlot, having taken that unfortunate woman, made her an instrument of the devil. For what could this infection teach her if not the destruction of her soul? So, what can we say about this terrible fate? Both were small, both were sold without knowing where they were going, and one ended up in the hands of God, and the other fell into the hands of the devil. Is it possible to say that God will equally punish both one and the other? How is this possible! If both fall into fornication or another sin, can it be said that both of them will undergo the same judgment, although they both fell into the same sin? Is this possible? One knew about judgment, about the kingdom of God, day and night she studied in the words of God; the other, unfortunate, has never seen or heard anything good, but always, on the contrary, everything bad, everything devilish: how is it possible for both to be judged by the same court?
So, no person can know the destinies of God, but He alone knows everything and can judge the sin of everyone, as only He knows.
St.
THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF GOD.
One day the day will come, the last day for this human race (John 6:39); as there is the last day for each person separately, the day of the end of the age and the world (Matthew 13: 39), as there is the day of death of a person, the day established by God will come, “on which he will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17: 31) , i.e., universal and decisive judgment. This is why this day is called the day of judgment in Scripture (Matthew 11: 22 and 24); the day of judgment (2 Peter 3:7); the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous judgment (Rom. 2:5); the day of the Son of Man (Luke 17:22); the Lord's day (2 Pet. 3:10); the day of Christ (2 Thess. 2:2); the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:14) because the Lord Jesus Christ will appear on earth in His glory to judge the living and the dead; a great day (Acts 2:21; Jude 6), according to the great events that will then take place.
The second coming to earth of the Lord Jesus Christ is a dogma of Orthodoxy and is contained in the seventh member of the Creed. This same clause also sets forth the dogma of the future Last Judgment of God upon humanity for its earthly life and for its deeds.
It is clear that the opening of the court is preceded by the coming of the judge and then the appearance of the judged: people and demons. Consequently, all the evidence of Holy Scripture about the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, about the resurrection of the dead, remains evidence of the reality of the universal judgment. Here is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself about the final judgment, the testimony of St. apostles, St. fathers and teachers of the Church.
Jesus Christ teaches: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son... given Him authority to execute judgment” (John 5:22 and 27); and in another place he says: “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then he will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Matthew 16:27). And the apostles preached about judgment: “For He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed, having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31); “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His holy angels to execute judgment on all and to convict all the wicked among them in all their deeds” (Jude 14:15); the Apostle Paul repeatedly testifies to the general, final judgment, and, finally, John the Theologian writes about the same thing (Rev. 20: 11-15)
The Holy Church has always professed this dogma of universal judgment. In the Athanasian symbol we read: “(Christ) will come to judge the living and the dead, by His coming all people will be resurrected with their bodies, and will give an account of their deeds.” This dogma is testified by all the holy fathers and teachers of the Church in their writings.
This is the soul-shaking picture of the final judgment of mankind, the picture that the word of God presents to us (Matthew 25: 31-46) and which is confirmed by a sound mind. The parts of this picture are: 1) The judge is God, 2) the accomplices in the court are Angels and Apostles, 3) the defendants, 4) the subject of the judgment, 5) the separation of the righteous from the sinners and 6) the final verdict on both.
In the first place of the picture of the Last Judgment, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God will appear as God the King and Judge, sitting on the Throne of His glory, surrounded by all the saints. Angels and St. apostles. Sitting on the Throne is a figurative expression taken from ordinary kings! They sit on the throne in particularly important circumstances.
Next, the executors of God's will are introduced, or, as it were, accomplices in judgment - the Angels and the Apostles: “And He will send His Angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of heaven to the end thereof” (Matthew 24:31), and They will gather away from His kingdom all temptations and the workers of iniquity, and will separate the wicked from among the righteous.” This is the participation, the activity of Angels at the Last Judgment. The Jews usually called into assemblies by means of trumpets, which served Jesus Christ as a symbol for the figurative speech of the assembly of all mankind for judgment by means of Angels with a loud trumpet voice. This is figurative speech, and you should not think that Angels will be sent with trumpets. No, one last trumpet will sound (1 Cor. 15:52), the trumpet of God (1 Thess. 4:16), at the sound of which the Son of God will be sent to St. Angels; at the same time, according to the voice of the same trumpet, the resurrection of the dead. [however, the doctrine of many trumpets (seven in Revelation) was probably widespread in Judea, because in the 3rd book of Ezra, which describes events clearly related to recent years it is said about some - “at the third trumpet” it happened (3 Ezra 5:4) - ed. golden-ship] The countries of the world (east, west, north and south) were usually called winds by the Jews. The sent Angels will gather all people from all countries of the world for judgment, they will gather both the righteous and the evil, and they will separate the first from the last.
Then the participation that will be taken at the trial of St. apostles, this is what the Lord said: “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the future, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Here the apostolic thrones do not mean their thrones, but first of all the glory and honor with which they will be honored above all when they begin to reign with the Lord and participate in glory. The Messiah will judge everyone, to whom alone God gave all judgment (John 5:22); but the Lord says that the apostles will also judge - in the sense in which all believers, participants in the glory and dominion of the Messiah, will also be partners in the judgment of the world, about which the Apostle Paul later wrote: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? (1 Cor. 6:2)
And here the apostolic court, represented by the Lord, had in its image, symbol, the court of advisers, courtiers surrounding earthly kings and helping them in the matter of judgment. The twelve tribes of Israel are the name of the people of God, the people once chosen and beloved by God; in the present saying of the Lord, “twelve tribes” takes on the meaning of all the people beloved by the Lord and redeemed by Him, namely, all Christians who are subject to judgment. So the Apostle James calls all Christians twelve tribes.
Paradise will present its celestials - righteous souls - to the place of judgment, and hell will present its dead - the souls of sinners, and the union of souls with their bodies will follow. Then the fatal verdict will be pronounced on the righteous and sinners, and everyone will receive their full reward for the deeds of earthly life.
Unbelievers, as those who have not accepted redemption, at the Last General Judgment of Christ will be condemned to deprivation of eternal blissful life in Christ; and with them those of the believers and baptized who spent their earthly lives contrary to the law of Christ. By the time of the Last Judgment, everyone without exception who has ever lived will be resurrected and will undergo the final judgment, as evidenced by the words: “They will look at Him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10). All those who have risen will behold (plural), including those who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. This means the non-believers, in short – all of humanity. Not only people will appear for judgment, but also fallen spirits, whom, according to the testimony of the apostle, “God did not spare, but bound him with the chains of hellish darkness, he handed over to the court for punishment” (1 Pet. 2:4). And the Apostle Jude also writes: “And the angels who did not retain their dignity, but left their habitation, he keeps in eternal chains, under darkness, for the judgment of the great day.”
If a person consists of spirit, soul and body, then the visible, external life and activity of a person is nothing more than an expression, a manifestation of the life and activity of the soul. Thoughts, desires, feelings are objects of the insubstantial world. They constitute the invisible activity of the invisible soul, and, when expressed in words and deeds, they constitute the visible activity of the body, as an organ of the soul, i.e. human activity. So, at the court both the internal (spiritual) and external (physical) activities of a person will be judged. According to the dual nature of man and his dual activities, which will be condemned at the universal judgment, both reward and punishment will follow in two ways: spiritual, internal (for the soul) and external, feelings corresponding to the new human body.
Each person at the final judgment will give a strict and complete account of all thoughts, desires, feelings, words and deeds for his entire earthly life. Of course, sinful thoughts, desires, feelings, words and deeds will not be remembered at the trial if they are washed away in a timely manner on earth by true repentance.
The activity of the soul is manifested in the visible activity of a person, in his words and deeds, so that words and deeds always correctly characterize the moral state of the soul, good or evil. Everything that is meant by the word “idle” used by the Savior - unusual, inappropriate, indecent for Christian activity - will be condemned in court; “I tell you that for every idle word that people speak, they will give an account on the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).
Words are the essence of the expression of a person’s thoughts and feelings and, in general, his internal, moral state; a person is known by them, just as a tree is known by its fruits. If a person’s words are truthful, honest, pious, edifying, then they show a good person, and such a person will be justified in court; if the words are false, wicked, then they point to evil heart a person, and he cannot be justified, but will be condemned. Justification and condemnation at trial depend on faith and deeds, but words mean only the internal, moral state of the soul. An idle word is one that contains lies, slander, and arouses indecent laughter, i.e. the word is shameful, shameless, empty, having nothing to do with the matter.
The Apostle Paul writes about judgment over the invisible, secret activities of the soul: “Therefore do not judge in any way before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart, and then everyone will receive a call from God” (1 Cor. 4:5 ). So, at the trial, each person will give a strict and complete account for all his activities, both for internal, spiritual (Matthew 12:36), and for visible, external, i.e. The Lord will reward everyone for all words and deeds (Rom. 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:10).
At the final judgment, before the eyes of the moral and spiritual kingdom of spirits and souls, the whole life, the earthly activity of each soul, both good and evil activity, will be visible. Not a single innermost thought, not a single sigh, not a look, not the slightest bodily action will be hidden. Everything right and wrong, unless it is cleansed in advance by proper repentance, everything will be visible to everyone: Angels, saints, and people. “It is not without a reason,” says John Chrysostom, “that there has been no judgment for so long, it is not without a purpose that the general, final judgment of humanity has been postponed for such a long time; time has been given to intercede before God for one another.” With the advent of the decisive hour of the fate of mankind, this petition collapses; then neither prayers, nor petitions, nor friendship, nor kinship, nor tears, nor good intentions and desires, nor virtues will help us. At that fateful hour, neither the prayer of sinners to the saints, nor the prayers of the saints to God for mercy on sinners will become ineffective. The prayers of the saints will not help the condemned, neither the intercession of the father will ease the fate of the condemned son, nor the tears of the children will free their unfortunate parents from eternal torment; neither a husband will help his frivolous wife, nor a wife - her husband. And love for the truth itself will no longer allow intercession for those who have completely rejected it; it would be unnatural to ask for the Kingdom of Heaven for someone who absolutely did not want it, and therefore is not fit for life, full of peace and love, is not suitable for the life of saints. Then love, kinship, friendship, acquaintance will lose their beneficial meaning, and any relationship between souls who love righteousness and truth and those who are at enmity with them will completely disappear and the memory of sinners will cease to disturb the souls of saints who have pleased their Lord.
At the Last Judgment, when everything secret is revealed, the righteous and sinners will see and recognize each other. Sinners in hell, having seen the saints in heaven until this time, but not seeing each other, will now see and recognize, as Athanasius the Great writes in the “Tale of the Dead.” But their date will not be joyful! Why? Because the cause of eternal condemnation was ourselves and our loved ones on earth, with whom we will now have to meet. Will we really hear gratitude from our loved ones when we, remaining on earth after them, spent our lives like the brothers of the unfortunate rich man in the Gospel?
St. John of Damascus, warning us against such a terrible meeting with our loved ones on the day of judgment, writes: “We will try with all our might so that on that terrible and terrible day our relatives do not reproach us for neglecting them; especially those of us to whom they entrusted the care of their property and left it. For let no one think that at that terrible event we will not recognize each other.” The fundamental eye of the soul is the organ of vision and knowledge, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself testifies in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
True, the rich man, while on earth, knew and, perhaps, saw Lazarus more than once, and therefore it is not surprising that he recognized him; But how did he recognize, according to the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, Abraham, whom he did not know before and had never seen anywhere? This means that we conclude and testify as truth that at the trial everyone will recognize each other, both acquaintances and strangers. St. John Chrysostom writes about this truth as follows: “We will recognize not only those who were familiar to us here, but we will also see those whom we have never seen.”
St. Ephraim the Syrian writes: “Then the children will denounce their parents for not doing good deeds; on that day many of their acquaintances will see unhappy, and some of them, noticing that they have been placed at their right hand, will go away from them, bidding them farewell with tears.”
“Then,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, i.e. on the day of general judgment, “I will see you, my beloved brother Caesarea, bright, glorious, cheerful, just as you often appeared to me in a dream.”
St. Demetrius of Rostov, addressing a weeping parent, says as if in consolation about the death of his son: “You will see him (that is, the deceased son) in the grace of God among the righteous, in a bright and cool place.”
This is what all the pastors and teachers of the Church teach, that we will all see each other in due time. Consequently, all humanity will appear for judgment, from the first to the last man: “All nations will be gathered before Him” (Matthew 25:32); “Who will judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim. 4:1), since “He is the judge appointed by God of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42).
What could be more terrible and stinking than that state of souls when all our secret and open deeds, words, thoughts and desires are revealed before everyone’s eyes, when everyone clearly sees all the activities of the other? Then our love and hypocrisy, truth and untruth, will obviously be revealed to everyone. John of Damascus says: “It will be a great heavenly shame when everyone recognizes another and is himself recognized.” And then the Lord “will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left” (Matthew 25:33), i.e. The Lord will separate the righteous from the sinners; then unbelief will separate the father from the son, the daughter from the mother, and the spouses will have to separate forever. Faith will save some, and unbelief will destroy others.
“And he will separate them (the judged) from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left.” Since there will be Christians and non-Christians at the trial, one part of the trial is the trial of Christians, which is from the questions of Jesus Christ and the answer of those judged, which relate directly to Christians. This is also confirmed by the chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, the teacher of languages, saying: It is fitting for all of us (i.e. Christians, both righteous and sinners) to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each of us will receive for our internal and external activities on earth (i.e. . for your thoughts, desires, feelings, words and deeds) full reward: either reward or punishment (2 Cor. 5: 10).
The other part of the judgment (over non-Christians) is briefly depicted in the words of Holy Scripture. The judgment of Christians will be carried out by Jesus Christ Himself; Believers will be judged according to their deeds, and therefore our deeds will condemn or justify us. The works of love and mercy offered by the Lord at the trial to Christians, as those who know His all-holy will, alone will deliver the Kingdom of Heaven, already prepared for them from eternity; and others standing on the left side, as also knowing the will, the commandments of God, but neglecting them, will be punished; they will go into eternal torment.
All Christian activity, all our mutual relations with each other must be based on eternal divine love. According to the degree of love of Christians, some will be placed on the right side, and others on the left. The right side is generally more honorable than the left; it is usually intended for high-ranking persons, kings and elders in general, for loved ones, for relatives, and friends. The right side, according to the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a place for the blessed, a place for the children of God, heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the left is a place for the damned, the rejected, because they themselves voluntarily rejected the good things prepared for man in his afterlife.
Therefore, Jesus Christ will turn to those standing on the right side and pronounce the sentence of eternal fate, explaining the reasons for it: Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for your good deeds on earth. They (deeds) directly relate to Me because you did them to My smaller brothers. You fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, welcomed the strange, gave clothing to those in need, visited the sick and forgot about those in prison. The omniscient God from eternity foresaw the actions of people, and therefore, according to their actions, from eternity he determined rewards and punishments. For good deeds - life, the Kingdom of Heaven. And for the wicked - death, eternal torment.
Jesus Christ calls true Christians, His followers, His brothers, as those close to Him in spirit, in disposition and in suffering: “Whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:50) About this recognition by Jesus Christ of His faithful slaves The Apostle Paul also testifies with his brothers: “For both he who sanctifies and those who are illuminated are all from One; therefore He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: I will proclaim Your name my brethren" (Heb. 2:11, 12). The unity of the Lord with his true followers is the closest unity: the unity of faith, love, spirit and actions. Therefore, everything we do for our neighbors, the Lord takes to Himself and rewards as if for what was done to Himself: “Do it for Me,” or: “He who receives you, receives Me”...
Therefore, he will turn to Christian sinners standing on the left side and say: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) - because you did not have living faith and active love. The Savior, in his speech addressed to the righteous and the condemned, no longer says anything about faith, because faith here is shown by deeds. Consequently, works of faith justify some and condemn others. Deeds of love and mercy justify those standing on the right side of the court, and the absence of these deeds condemns those standing on the left side to eternal fire.
Another part of the final judgment is the judgment of non-Christians, of those who do not believe in Christ. The Savior leaves this judgment to the apostles to carry out: “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the coming of life, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28) . How to understand the significance of this judgment? The apostles, being with you, with all the other Jews, of the same kind, having received the same education as you, being brought up in the same laws and according to the same customs, leading the same way of life as you, believed in Me, and you - No. What prevented you from believing Me? Therefore, they will be your judges! The twelve tribes of Israel are the name of the people of God, the people once chosen and beloved by God. This saying is taken in the sense of all humanity, which God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would be saved. If Israel is beloved, so is the whole world: humanity, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. But since only those who believed took advantage of the atonement, those of the twelve tribes who did not believe correspond to the entire mass of the people who do not know their Redeemer.
The saved believers will be a clear reproof for unbelievers, they will be evidence, judgment and condemnation for their unbelief. “They (i.e., the disciples of Christ) will be your (unbelieving Jews) judges.” “In re-existence” - this expression means the future transformation of the world, the restoration of the original perfection of the world that existed before the fall of Adam; restoration, transformation that will follow at the end of the world. Disciples of the Lord St. the apostles in the new afterlife will reign with Him and share in the glory, and will judge - in the sense in which all believers, participants in the glory and dominion of the Messiah, will also become partners in the judgment of the world. This is a figurative expression taken from the king-judge, surrounded by advisers and jurors who help him in the matter of court. Chrysostom understands the court of the apostles in the same sense in which Jesus Christ spoke about the court of the queen of the south, about the court of the Ninevites.
About that judgment of the saints not only over the infidels, but even over evil spirits The Apostle Paul teaches this: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you really unworthy to judge unimportant matters?” (1 Cor. 6:3) All the holy fathers and teachers of the Church recognized this image of the general judgment as undoubtedly true.
(from the book of monk Mitrofan (Alekseeva V.N.)
“How our dead live and how we will live
and we after death." St. Petersburg, 1897)
END OF THE CENTURY - THE WORLD
After the general, solemn, open, strict, terrible, decisive and final judgment of spiritual and moral beings, immediately on the same day and moment will follow the end of the world, the end on earth of the grace-filled kingdom of Christ and the beginning of the kingdom of glory, the beginning of a new, blessed life of the righteous and eternal life - the suffering of sinners.
After the judgment will follow the end of the world, the end of the century.
Jesus Christ Himself testified to this truth in His parable about the seed: “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Therefore, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so it will be at the end of this age” (Mark 13: 39-40). This word should not be understood as the end - the destruction of the world; the existence of the world will not end, the world will not be destroyed, but will only change - just as a person will not be destroyed, changing and turning from a corruptible to an incorruptible state, from a mortal to an immortal.
With the change in man will follow a new dispensation of the world, in accordance with the coming new order in the kingdom of Christ. The change of the world will be brought about by fire, according to the testimony of the word of God. Thus, the Apostle Peter says: “The present heavens and earth, which are contained by the same Word, are reserved by fire for the day of judgment and destruction of wicked men... But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a noise, and the elements, having flared up, will collapse. the earth and all the works in it will melt away” (2 Pet. 3: 7, 10, 12). That sooner or later the end of the century, the end of the world, will indeed follow, Divine Revelation and science assure us of this. Revelation attributes the change of the world to fire, and science, in addition to fire, admits other methods as a means of changing this, which can put an end to the present state of the earth, and, consequently, to humanity living on it.
Here is the evidence of God's word regarding the reality of the end of the world. In the Old Testament, the prophet and king David wrote about the end of the world: “In the beginning, O Lord, You founded the earth and the heavens - the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You will remain; and they will all wear out like a robe, and You will change them like a garment” (Ps. 101: 26-27). Just as nature favorably corresponded to the state of the souls of the first people before their fall, so it began to unfavorably correspond to man after the fall “the creation was subjected to futility, not voluntarily, but by the will of him who subjected it... For we know that every creation groans and suffers together until now” (Rom. 8: 20, 22). Those. As a result of the fall of man, all creation involuntarily submitted to the work of decay, is torn and sympathizes with us, which was not the case with nature before the fall of the ancestors. Then, i.e. Before the fall of the first parents, according to the words of the Apostle Paul and the book of Genesis, it is clear that the creation was “very good” (very good), that peace reigned in all the spiritual and sensory creation, i.e. agreement, union, harmony, joy, bliss. Consequently, everything created by God was in unity, union, mutual relationship and communication with its Creator God and with each other. Everything was in peace and harmony until man himself, the king of nature, violated them. With the fall of man the union of all creation was broken. From the peaceful accord came a hostile rebellion, sown in God's creation by the enemy of peace and love. So exactly must nature correspond to the new spiritual person. The entire visible material world, lying in evil, must be cleansed from the disastrous consequences of human sin and renewed in order to come into conformity with the renewed man: “and the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
The renewal of the world will take place on the last day through fire, so that in the new heaven and on the new earth nothing sinful will remain, but only righteousness will live. The change in man will immediately be followed by a change in nature, and then there will be a new earth and a new heaven, according to the testimony of the Creator of heaven and earth Himself, who created them and is able to change them according to their purpose: “heaven and earth will pass away,” and in another place: “until the world stands,” or “the sooner heaven and earth pass away, the sooner the world will come to an end” (Matthew 5:18); “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And all the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself show that the present heaven and earth will only pass away, but will not be destroyed, but according to David, like old clothing, they will change into new (Ps. 101: 26,27), which is confirmed by the Apostle Peter, saying : “We await, according to the promise of the Lord, a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness alone will reign” (2 Pet. 3:13). And John the Theologian really saw in Revelation a new heaven and a new earth; “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1).
All the teachers of the Church taught about the end of the world in exactly the same way. St. Irenaeus: “It is not the essence or substance of creation that is abolished (for He who created it is true and powerful), but the image of this world passes over, i.e. that in which the disorder occurred... When this image passes and man is renewed and rises to incorruption, then a new heaven and a new earth will appear.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “Our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven, He will come with glory at the end of this world on the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be renewed. Since debauchery, theft, and adultery have become extremely widespread, and bloodshed follows bloodshed (Hos. 4:2), so that this wonderful abode of all living things does not remain forever filled with lawlessness, this world will fall in order to again appear better... The Lord will remove the heavens not for in order to destroy them, but to reveal them again in at its best. Listen to the words of the Prophet David: in the beginning, O Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain... But will anyone say why he says clearly: they will perish? This can be seen from what follows: both how the clothes will wear out, and how the clothes will be changed. After all, it is said about man that he perishes, although we understand that if he is righteous, then a resurrection awaits him: just as we expect a resurrection similar to heaven.”
St. Basil the Great: “A foreshadowing of the dogmas about the end and change of the world is what is now briefly conveyed to us in the very beginnings of the inspired teaching: “in the beginning God created”... What began with time, by all necessity, will end in time. If the beginning is temporary, then do not doubt about the end... but they (the learned pagans) did not find one of all the ways to understand God, the Creator of the universe and the righteous Judge, who rewards everyone worthily according to their deeds, and how to comprehend in their minds the consequences arising from the concept of judgment, the thought of death, because the world needs to change if the state of souls passes into another kind of life. For just as present life has qualities akin to this world, so the future existence of our souls will receive a lot characteristic of its state.”
Bl. Jerome: “It is clearly shown (Ps. 102:27) that the death and destruction of the world does not mean its turning into nothingness, but a change into the better. Likewise, what is written elsewhere: “the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun” (Is. 30:26) does not mean the destruction of the former, but a change for the better. Let us think about what has been said: it is the image that passes away, not the being. St. expresses the same thing. Peter - “he did not say: we will see other heavens and another earth, but former and ancient ones, changed and better.”
They also taught: Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Minucius Felix, Hippolytus, Methodius and others. Fifth Ecumenical Council, refuting various errors of the Origenists, he solemnly condemned their false teaching that the material world “will not only be transformed, but will be completely destroyed.”
The history of the world represents three great periods. From the hands of the Creator - the source of love - everything came, according to His own testimony, “good things”, i.e. completely and beautifully as much as it was needed for the first time. If everything created were not perfect and not beautiful, then what would be the disorder of the world after the fall of the first parents? In God's creation we see the wondrous order of all things and the harmonious structure of each thing. Every thing is assigned to a higher or lower service in the kingdom of nature. In the kingdom of nature, just like in the house of a wise and prudent ruler, everything is arranged well and in order, i.e. the lower directly serves the higher, as subordinate to it. Inorganic beings primarily serve organic beings, and these serve as sentient beings, and sentient beings serve as rational beings; these latter are appointed for the solemn, direct and visible service of God, Whom everything serves directly or indirectly. Life is given to the whole world by the Holy Spirit, without Whom everything is dead. Therefore, the main thing in God's creation component creation is a spiritual and moral world, on the state of which the state of the physical world depends. So it was at the beginning, immediately after creation. Unity and harmony in the whole creation - everything was very good. Everything was subordinated to man, a spiritual and moral being; everything worked for him, and physical nature was consistent with spiritual and moral nature. Then the earth and sky, i.e. the atmosphere and all its phenomena were in favorable relations with man.
Damage occurred in the spiritual and moral nature and the consequences of this resonated immediately throughout creation, throughout all visible physical nature. Unanimity collapsed, harmony disintegrated, everything came to a state alien to love, everything rebelled primarily against the culprit of the misfortune - a person from whom, so to speak, poison spread throughout the whole world, changing his blissful state to a state under the wrath of God. Now the whole world lies in evil (1 John 5:19), as the word of God testifies to what happened after the fall of the first parents; therefore, before falling into moral world the world did not lie in evil, but truth lived in it.
The Word of God reveals to us three periods of the world's existence: 1) before the fall, 2) after the fall, and 3) after the restoration. The first state of the world, or the first period of its existence, is of the nature expressed by God Himself, that everything is very good. In the fulfillment of the law, as the natural purpose of every creature, lay its bliss. Violation of the law put the creature in a state that was not natural to it, therefore, the opposite of bliss. According to the will of the Creator God, everything served each other, everything depended on each other, and in the mutual relationship there was bliss of both the whole and the parts. There was nothing except love and execution of laws. Everything strived to fulfill its purpose, and in this striving lay life and bliss. There could be no disagreement, because it contradicts the words of God that “every good thing is evil.”
God the Creator among his creation. The spiritual, moral and physical world must fulfill their purpose, mutually acting on each other, as components of one complex whole. The law of action is defined - fulfilling the will of the Creator, achieving the goal of one’s purpose, striving for perfection.
Representatives of the affairs of God or His entire creation, spiritual and moral beings - spirits and souls, Angels and people, the family of one Father, the kingdom of one King - were created and live for one purpose, having the same law and one nature. Unity of thought united the Angels and ancestors, and should have united all of humanity if the fall had not followed. Man, mysteriously united from soul and body, was decisively one whole; both soul and body mutually acted on each other in a joyful direction. This truth is revealed in itself from the present state of man, in which the spirit rises against the body and the body against the spirit, according to the word of Jesus Christ: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 24:41). This is natural to the current state of the world and man; therefore, this was not natural to the first state of the world and man, when everything was good. If even now the union, harmony, or, as it were, sympathy between the visible and invisible, moral and physical natures, the mutual relationship and mutual influence of one nature on another is strikingly noticeable, how can we prevent the joyful mutual action of these natures among themselves before appearing on earth? evil?
Even if now, when everyone is sighing and sick, we see the favorable effect of bright sunny weather on the spiritual state of a person, and at the same time on his visible nature - the body. In sunny weather, they say, the soul is somehow more cheerful, more joyful, and at the same time, with liveliness of spirit, the body comes into a special active state; something joyful is reflected in both the soul and the body. And vice versa: cloudy, foggy, rainy weather produces something sad, dreary, and dispositions the body to inaction. In short, good weather has a favorable, joyful effect on the entire human body, while bad weather produces the opposite effect in the human body: sadness in the soul and exhaustion in the body. Both sick and healthy, against their will and desire, feel the state of the weather and atmosphere. A satiated body hinders the activity of the spirit, and a cheerful disposition of spirit produces in the body a desire and zeal for work, so that even external activity is filled with some kind of inexplicable joy. Thus, from the present state of the world and man, we unmistakably conclude, also relying on the testimony of God’s Revelation, that in the first period of the world’s existence, “all good is green”; We conclude about the marvelous harmony of the parts of God’s entire creation, in which only bliss was possible.
So, the purpose of everything created by God, which has man as its crown, is bliss, the desire for perfection, eternal life. In the kingdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, life in all His creation, life in the primeval earthly paradise, where everything breathes harmony, bliss, where everything serves each other with love and joy, where heaven and earth are in union and harmony with the spiritual and moral the world (with the ancestors), or physical nature in union with spiritual nature, just as in man there is body and soul. This is the first period of the existence of the world in its innocent, sinless, blissful state, with its character and distinctive property attested by the Lord Himself: “all good is green.” In the concept of “good” there is no concept of “evil”. But how long did the first period of the world’s existence last, i.e. his blissful state, and what was the measure and degree of bliss? The Word of God did not reveal this. For violating the law of God, the moral law, there followed not the destruction of the guilty and the world, but the most righteous punishment. Punishment followed, not destruction of what should exist forever. Punishment is not destruction, the cessation of existence.
From the character of the second period, all that is revealed is that the bliss of the first period is lost, and evil, which was completely absent in the first period, now dominates the world in such a way that good itself does not remain without an admixture of evil: “the whole world lies in evil!” » This is the character or distinctive property of the second period of the world’s existence. With the fall of the ancestors, all visible nature immediately changed in properties: 1) the body rebelled against the spirit, 2) the earth changed its fertility, and by changing the properties of the earth, which fell under unblessing and curse, the atmosphere also changed, the sky and earth changed, the animals took up arms against the former their king, etc. The second state of the world, or the second period of its existence, has its own distinctive character, opposite to the first and also expressed in Holy Scripture: “the whole world lies in evil.” One day given to the world life is not taken away, but a life with bliss or a blissful life has changed into a life of crying and sorrow. What constituted bliss was taken away for breaking the law. Just as often we, willfully destroying our health, fall into illness. The spiritual, moral and physical nature of man is closely united with one another, forming spiritualized flesh or incarnate spirit. Nowadays it is not the same as before; Now, according to the Apostle Paul, parts of man have rebelled against each other: the spirit fights against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and man often does not what he wants, but what he hates, fulfilling the will of the body and enslaving the spirit to it.
When two natures in a person mutually act on each other, then the physical world is in union, harmony and in mutual relationship with the spiritual and moral world, i.e. his beings, as being quickened by the same Holy Spirit, who gives life to the whole world. Changes in the moral world did not remain without relation to the invisible world - the physical. During the suffering of the God-man, the earth shook, the church curtain was torn in two, the stones disintegrated, the sun darkened, and many dead were resurrected.
The disorder of the moral world reached its limit and was reflected in visible physical nature, in the global flood, according to the testimony of the word of God. The fall of the ancestors began the second period of the world's existence, a disorder in the moral world (disobedience to God the Creator). And then changes began to follow more and more in physical nature, which finally culminated in a worldwide event - the flood, which finally changed both the earth and the sky, i.e. atmosphere. After the flood, the former heaven and earth were no more; water changed the earth, and the earth is always in relation to the atmosphere; Consequently, a change in the sky - the atmosphere - followed. And then, according to the word of the apostle, “the present heavens and earth” appeared - the state of a world lying in evil, alien to truth, about which it can no longer be said that the present heaven and earth are “good,” for the earth is deprived of blessing, cursed, and with the earth and all the air elements are at war. Significantly – and very significantly! – human life has decreased compared to the first period, and the very conditions of life have worsened. This is the second period of the world’s existence, in which the changed heaven (atmosphere) and earth are called present by the Apostle Paul. This name already confirms that the heavens and earth of the present time are not the same as they were before the flood. The word “present” corresponds to the present tense, therefore, for the future tense or to express the transformed world that is about to come, we find the word “new”: both heaven and earth, according to the testimony of the apostles John and Peter.
And, finally, the third state of the world will come, or the third period of its existence, where everything is new: man, heaven, and earth, and where only truth lives, according to the testimony of the Apostle Peter. So, in the third period of the world’s existence there will again be a new heaven and a new earth, different from the present ones. The present heaven and earth will not be destroyed, but will be changed into new ones through fire, just as the first period of the existence of the world and man gave way to the second through water. Water and fire have an important, mysterious meaning in religion in general. Just as gold is purified from foreign impurities by fire, so the world (heaven and earth, i.e., the earth with its atmosphere) must be purified from evil by fire, according to the apostolic witness. Then again for the new restored man there will be a new heaven and a new earth, in which only truth lives, and the word “good is good” can again be applied to the restored world and man. It cannot be otherwise.
To reconcile faith with science - this seems to be the direct purpose of modern knowledge. If every science is a systematic presentation of truths relating to any subject, then it goes without saying that these truths obtained by science must be in agreement with revealed truths, as about this God Himself testified: “I am the Truth and without Me you cannot do anything.”
Only now have revealed truths begun to be confirmed modern knowledge and come into agreement with science. The Apostles Peter and John the Theologian testify to us about the third period of the world’s existence, about the changed new earth and heaven. And the scientific study of the structure of the universe allows that dead worlds (and therefore our planet - Earth) can begin to live again, and therefore become the habitat of creatures. The Word of God does not speak about death, the destruction of the earth, but only testifies to its change, which will happen to the people living on it at the moment of the end of the world, i.e. everyone will die and will immediately be resurrected in a new and better form along with everyone who died before. At the same time, there will be a change in the earth. Science sees a reason that can again bring dead world bodies back to life.
All beliefs and common sense testify to a person about the beginning and end of the world, and this thought belongs to a person at all stages of his development. So, for example, the Chinese belief about the end of the world is as follows: a certain Feso, who originally discovered salt in China, was eventually recognized by them as a god. Feso will come again to earth only to announce the end of the world. In ancient times Greek mythology, in one of the myths, there is a prophecy, or, as it were, an indication of the dogma about the end of Mary and its transformation through fire: “With the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, the end of this world will follow, and for the future life this world will be transformed into a better one through fire , i.e. old world will burn." That sooner or later the end of the world must come (not in the sense of cessation, destruction, but only transformation into better world and precisely through fire) was taught 500 years before the birth of Christ by Heraclitus. He directly said that the world, making eternal and endless circulations, will finally converge with the beginning, which according to his teaching is the primeval fire, and will burn. But it will not be destroyed, but will change, for from the ashes a new world will emerge. Democritus, the creator of the first mechanistic worldview, taught: “if worlds can arise, they can also disappear.” But to disappear does not mean to cease being, as Democritus himself taught that “nothing that exists is indestructible,” which means that only the image, appearance, and existence of the old changes to the new.
Science says that our planet Earth has many ways of destruction and recognizes the fire that fills the inside as the surest of all. globe. The teaching that the world will be destroyed by fire came to us from the ancient Jews and is now a teaching Christian Church and all her teachers and writers. Science recognizes the possibility of the end of the world through fire as a situation worthy of probability.
Indeed, we can almost certainly assume that the surface of the ball on which we build our cities and dwellings has a small thickness, and that behind this thin layer all minerals are in a molten state. On the other hand, it has been proven that this thin surface of the globe is constantly fluctuating, and that thirty hours cannot pass without something more or less happening somewhere. strong earthquake. We, therefore, live on a thin raft, which can sink to the bottom any minute, i.e. into the abyss of fire!..
(from the book of monk Mitrofan (Alekseeva V.N.) “How our dead live and how we will live after death” St. Petersburg. 1897)
REVELATIONS FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS
The saints of God loved to think about the bliss of the righteous, and some of them were awarded special revelations about heavenly life.
Related information.
