Christian doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The teaching of the Old Testament religion about the afterlife
After the Feast of the Renewal of the Temple, the Lord leaves Judea and goes beyond the Jordan. Here, in the Transjordan region, He will spend three months before Passover, then to return to Jerusalem for the last time. The Evangelist Luke describes in detail, in six chapters (from the 13th to the 18th), the sojourn of Jesus Christ in Transjordan. This final period of the life of the Savior is especially significant. The Lord tirelessly preaches, revealing the meaning of His teaching, and in multitudes accomplishes great and glorious deeds. One of the parables occupies a special place in the gospel narrative. This is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus:
“A certain man was rich, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. There was also a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who was lying at his gate in scabs, and wished to feed on the crumbs falling from the rich man's table, and the dogs, coming, licked his scabs. The beggar died and was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died, and they buried him. And in hell, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, and crying out, said: Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said: child! remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus - evil; now he is comforted here, while you suffer; and besides all this, a great chasm has been established between us and you, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us. Then he said: So I ask you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen. He said: No, Father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead comes to them, they will repent. Then Abraham said to him: if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe (Luke 16:19-31).
The language of the Bible is particularly figurative. Within the framework of our earthly concepts, it is impossible to reflect the realities of the other world. And therefore, metaphor, allegory and parable, often used in the Holy Scriptures, are the most appropriate form of narration about spiritual realities that are beyond the limits of human sensory experience. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is of a very special nature, for it reveals the secret of the afterlife and expounds religious truths that are extremely important for our salvation.
The first of them is that with the cessation of the physical existence of a person, with his death, the life of his self-conscious and unique personality does not stop, his individual spiritual nature does not go into non-existence. For there is a kind of supersensible reality, mysterious and incomprehensible to the mind, which accepts a person into its bosom after his death.
Another truth is that this otherworldly reality is differentiated, heterogeneous. It consists, as it were, of two worlds: from the world of good, called paradise, and from the world of evil, known to us under the name of hell. After physical death, the human personality inherits either one or the other world, in strict accordance with the state of the soul of each of us. There can be no injustice, hypocrisy or deceit in our gaining a posthumous fate: “You are weighed in the balance,” according to the prophet (Dan. 5:27), and a good soul is rewarded with a transition to the world of grace and light co-natural to it, and an evil soul finds a posthumous retribution in joining the pernicious world of evil.
From the parable, we also learn that these worlds are not completely isolated from each other, they are, as it were, visible to one another, but mutually impenetrable. It is impossible to pass from one world to another, although it is possible to contemplate it. Some semblance of this can be seen in our earthly life: a prisoner is in a world of unfreedom, which he is not able to leave of his own free will, but from his dungeon the prisoner can contemplate the world of free people, inaccessible to him.
Staying in the world of evil is associated with great suffering. In order to convey a sense of their torment, the Savior resorts to a very bright and strong image of fire. The rich man from the parable, consumed by the fiery heat, is tormented by thirst. He asks Lazarus to ease his ordeal and, dipping his fingers in water, bring him some moisture and coolness. This, of course, is an image, a symbol, a metaphor that helps to reveal a very important spiritual truth: beyond the boundaries of the earthly physical world, in the eternity of otherness, a sinful person will be in suffering, the image of which is the fire of hell. In our everyday life, to express a high degree of certain experiences, we often resort to metaphors containing the image of fire: “burn with shame”, “burn with impatience”, “flame of passion”, “fire of desire”. It is amazing that the fire from the parable of the Lord about the afterlife and the fire of the “passions and lusts” of this world reveal an undeniable relationship.
It often happens that the needs and desires of a person cannot be realized in his life, and then there is an internal conflict, discord, a contradiction with oneself, which psychologists call frustration. As a result, the negative tension of the inner life of a person increases, which, in turn, can lead to a clash between the personality and the world, which objectively impedes its self-realization. The greatest drama of posthumous retribution lies in the fact that, unlike earthly life, in the afterlife such tension can never be resolved by anything, constituting the essence of the inescapable torment of a sinful soul.
One or another of the two other worlds, namely the world of good or the world of evil, as already mentioned, is inherited by a person according to his spiritual state. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus expresses the agonizing state of the soul, contemplating the beautiful world of good, but dooming itself to a painful vegetative existence in the gloomy world of evil even during its lifetime.
In the perspective of eternal life, there is no place for injustice and unrighteousness that darkened the earthly path of man. It was here, in our temporary life, that one could deceive, mislead, present deeds and events one way or another. It is not uncommon for a person, being inherently sinful, evil and dishonest, to take advantage of gullible and kind people, hypocritically presenting himself as something other than what he really was. And sometimes it takes years for the deception to finally dissipate and become obvious. The other world, which awaits us all, does not know this: an unkind and sinful person inherits in eternity that which corresponds to the true state of his soul. He departs to the abode of evil with their fire, consuming and inescapable painful suffering, and a kind-hearted and gentle person inherits heavenly abode, transferring the grace of his soul to eternity and becoming an accomplice of immortal life in the bosom of Abraham.
Not accidental in the parable of the Lord is the personification of two types of personality, two varieties of life path and two variants of afterlife retribution in the images of a rich man and a beggar. Why exactly? After all, wealth in itself is not a sin, and the Lord does not condemn the rich man for being rich, for the presence or absence of money in a person is morally neutral. But in the Gospel narrative one can clearly trace the assertion of some kind of internal connection between the presence of wealth and the possibility of the death of the soul. Let us remember: “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Luke 18:24-25).
Why are earthly riches an obstacle to the inheritance of heavenly treasures? Yes, because wealth is associated with an abundance of temptations. In fact, a wealthy person can afford, if not all, then certainly a lot of what he wants. But a person's desires are often dictated not only by his needs for what is necessary and sufficient, but also by his instincts and passions, which are extremely difficult to restrain and control. And if a rich person succumbs to the power of instincts and passions, then there are no external restraining factors in his life. You need to be a very strong and strong-willed person, a spiritually hardened person, in order, being rich, to avoid the temptations of wealth. On the contrary, a poor person is objectively placed in conditions under which he often simply does not have the opportunity to indulge his passions and temptations. This restraint by external circumstances to a certain extent protects a person from sin, although, of course, it cannot be a guarantor of his salvation.
“I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house,” says the unfortunate rich man about the happy beggar, turning to Abraham, “for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment. And Abraham answers him: if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone were raised from the dead, they would not believe (Luke 16:27-28, 31).
What great truth lies in these simple words! Indeed, people who are mad from the imaginary omnipotence of wealth, having the main goal of life to acquire earthly treasures, all conceivable and inconceivable material goods in the name of satisfying their passions, these people will not only hear the word of Abraham and Moses, but will not believe the resurrected dead, if he will come to enlighten them.
Therefore, the word of God, brought to us through the centuries by the holy Gospel, is so essential for our salvation, from the pages of which the truth of earthly existence is revealed in the perspective of eternal life.
Retribution in the underworld
94. a) Retribution after death. We have already pointed out that even in the most ancient books of the Old Testament, there are sometimes hints of retribution beyond the grave, which promises a different fate for the righteous and the sinners. This speaks, as we have seen, of the existence, along with popular belief, of a more enlightened line of thought, at least among a limited circle of people.
In addition to the above psalms, it is necessary to pay attention to some, undoubtedly very important places in other books:
“Let not your heart envy sinners; but let it remain all the days in the fear of the Lord; because there is a future, and your hope is not lost.”
(Proverbs 23:17-18).
O. Vakkari notes in his commentary on the word "future": "the corresponding Hebrew word often alludes to the future after death."
In the same Book of Proverbs 18, 19, 30; 15, 24; 19:23 speaks of "life" promised to the righteous with such insistence and breadth that we can hardly limit these promises to the earthly horizon. And in other books there are expressions: "to die in the world" (Gen 15 15; 2 Kings 22, 20; Is 57, 2), "to die the death of the righteous" (Numbers 23, 10), which, apparently, suggest that The consequences of death for the righteous and for the sinner are not the same.
More numerous and clear are the statements about punishment in the afterlife. Isaiah 14:3-21 describes the fate that awaits the king of Babylon; he will be in Sheol among rot and worms and will not sit on the throne like other monarchs. The Book of Ezekiel 32:17-32 speaks of the shame that awaits beyond the tomb of the pharaoh, and of the contempt for him of the conquerors who will not share his shameful fate.
But mainly the eternal death prepared for the wicked is associated with the coming terrible judgment:
“And they will go out (the righteous), and they will see the corpses of people who have stepped from Me; For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abomination to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24).
“Woe to the peoples who rise up against my people! The Lord Almighty will take revenge on them on the Day of Judgment, send fire and worms on their bodies, and they will feel pain and cry forever” (If 16, 17).
But only in the 2nd century did the doctrine of the afterlife become common property and acquire its final form. The evidence of it is the belief in the resurrection of the dead, recorded in 2 Mack 7, 9, 11, 14; 12:44, and this doctrine is detailed in the book of Wisdom (1st century BC).
The state of the righteous in the world of the dead differs sharply from the state of sinners:
“The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and torment will not touch them ... although they are punished in the eyes of people, their hope is full of immortality” (3, 1–4).
“(The wicked) ... will be a dishonorable corpse and a disgrace among the dead forever; for he will cast them on their faces dumb and move them from their foundations; and they will be completely deserted and will be in sorrow, and the memory of them will disappear” (4, 19).
The author of the book of Wisdom does not speak clearly about the resurrection, therefore Gitton in the cited essay (p. 170 ff.) claims that we are dealing here only with the idea of the immortality of the soul, which for the first time is considered as a kind of entity capable of not only existing independently, but and really enjoy and suffer. Thanks to this anthropological theory, which arose under the influence of Greek philosophy (Platonism), the concept of retribution beyond the grave became possible.
So, two directions of thought develop independently of each other: one, true to the Jewish mentality, which did not fit the idea of the activity of the soul separated from the body, comes to the idea of resurrection. The justice of God remains inviolable, since in due time the human being will be renewed and then everyone will receive according to his deeds. Others, those who managed to imagine the soul separated from the body, already without any effort made it the subject of retribution immediately after death. Such was the case with the author of the book of Wisdom.
All this is theoretically acceptable: God could use the reasoning of these Jewish thinkers to ensure that both truths were recorded in the sacred books. But Geinisch with great reason (op. cit. p. 324 following) believes that the author of the book of Wisdom distinguishes two stages in the implementation of retribution to the righteous. At the first stage, the soul feels peace, being in the hands of God. In the second stage, there is a more complete retribution, and the author uses the future tense.
“At the time of their retribution, they will shine like sparks running along the stem. They will judge the tribes and rule over the peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever ... The wicked, as they thought, they will be punished ... ”(3, 7-10).
“In the consciousness of their sins, they will appear with fear, and their iniquities will be condemned in their face. Then the righteous will stand with great boldness before those who offended him and despised his deeds…” etc.
Such is the picture of the Last Judgment: the righteous are here to accuse the wicked, and the latter to give the final account. This would not have been possible if the resurrection had not taken place.
Perhaps the author of the book of Wisdom wrote in a Greek environment and deliberately implied the resurrection for apologetic reasons. But it would be absolutely incredible if he did not know this teaching, in its time already known to the people, as can be seen from the book of Maccabees (cf. par. 95). Be that as it may, the afterlife reward provides the author of the book of Wisdom with almost all the ingredients necessary to solve the problem of evil:
“God tested them and found them worthy of Him” (3:5).
“And the righteous, even if he dies early, will be at peace ... (He was) caught up so that anger does not change his mind” (4, 7-11).
The happiness of the wicked is only a terrible self-deception” (5:6-14).
95. b) Resurrection - The first allusion to the resurrection is found in Isaiah 26:19.-21:
“Your dead will live, dead bodies will rise! Arise and triumph, cast down in the dust: for Thy dew is the dew of lights, and the earth will vomit the dead.”
This passage obviously speaks only of a partial resurrection, limited to the chosen people or a part of them, and perhaps for centuries it did not find a response in the religious consciousness of Israel. The classic text about the resurrection is found in Daniel (12:2-3):
“And many of those sleeping in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to eternal life, others to eternal reproach and shame. And the wise will shine like the luminaries in the firmament and those who turn many to the truth - like stars, forever, forever.
With the concept of resurrection, the idea of retribution acquires a collective, social character. The judgment that inevitably follows the resurrection is a development of the old idea of the Israelite prophets who predicted judgment as a punishment for a corrupt society or hostile nations. Some of these judgments have already been realized in the history of these peoples (the fall of Samaria, Nineveh, Jerusalem, Babylon, etc.), but the meaning of the words used by the prophets sometimes expanded to the last, decisive judgment, although it did not yet express the concept of resurrection.
There is evidence that in the era of the Maccabees, about the middle of the second century BC, the belief in the resurrection was shared by the people and the soldiers of Israel. In the episode about the seven martyrs called Maccabees, the following meaningful words are put into their mouths:
"You, tormentor, deprive us of this life, but the King of the world will resurrect us, who died for His laws, for eternal life."
“It is lustful for him who is dying from people to put his hope in God, that He will revive him again; for you there will be no resurrection into life” (2 Mac 7:9-14).
And Judas Maccabee, remembering the expiatory sacrifices "for sins" (Lev 4, 2-5, 25), orders to bring, perhaps for the first time in the history of the Jewish religion, a sacrifice of atonement for the fallen in the war, "meaning the resurrection" (2 Mac 12 , 44).
Thus, we have come to the threshold of the New Testament, where the problem of retribution and, in connection with it, the problem of suffering, acquire new and decisive components of the solution: “Blessed are those who mourn”, “He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt 5 , 5; 10, 38).
But what a long preparation during the long history of the Jews was necessary in order that the radiance of the words of Christ should not be unbearably bright for the weak eyes of His contemporaries! And if the preaching of Christ did not sound in the wilderness of absolute incomprehension, then this happened thanks to the gradual, unhurried initiation of this people under the guidance of divine Revelation. It would therefore be completely anti-historical and anti-psychological to seek at the very beginning of this long study the same fullness and clarity of concepts that we find only at the end.
From the book Illness and Death author Theophan the RecluseAbout the afterlife foreshadowing of death, you received a warning from your mother that you would die. What? The common path!.. Thank the Lord that such a reminder has been given and get ready. Although it may not be very soon, but still it will be. To ready death never
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From the book Hasidic Traditions author Buber MartinREPENTANCE Once on the eve of the Sabbath, before the holy hours, the Rabbi of Lublin retired to his room and locked the door. But soon the door suddenly opened, and the rabbi went out. The house was full of great disciples of the Rabbi of Lublin, dressed in white satin clothes,
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What is the afterlife, or what is life after death like? Wishing to proceed to the feasible solution of this mysterious question, I remember Your words, Christ our God, that without You we can do nothing good, but “ask and it will be given to you”; and therefore I pray to Thee with a humble and contrite heart; come to my aid, enlightening me, like every person in the world who comes to you. Bless yourself and point out, with the assistance of Your All-Holy Spirit, where we should look for the solution of our question about the afterlife, a question so necessary for the present time. We need such permission both in and of itself, as well as to put to shame the two false directions of the human spirit, materialism and spiritualism, which are now striving for dominance, expressing a painful state of the soul, an epidemic state, contrary to Christian doctrine..
Part 1
WILL LIVE!
Man's afterlife consists of two periods; 1) the afterlife until the resurrection of the dead and the universal judgment - the life of the soul, and 2) the afterlife after this judgment - the eternal life of man. In the second period of the afterlife, everyone has the same age, according to the teachings of the word of God.
The Savior directly said that souls live beyond the grave like angels; therefore, the afterlife state of the soul is conscious, and if souls live like angels, then their state is active, as our Orthodox Church teaches, and not unconscious and sleepy, as some people think.
The false doctrine of a sleepy, unconscious, and therefore inactive state of the soul in the first period of its afterlife does not agree with either the Revelation of the Old and New Testaments, or with common sense. It appeared in the III century in the Christian society due to a misunderstanding of some expressions of the word of God. In the Middle Ages, this false doctrine made itself felt, and even Luther sometimes attributed an unconscious sleepy state to the souls after the grave. During the Reformation, the main representatives of this doctrine were the Anabaptists - the Baptists. This doctrine was further developed by the Socinian heretics, who rejected the Holy Trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ. False teaching does not cease to develop even in our time.
The revelation of both the Old and the New Testament offers us the dogma of the afterlife of the soul, and at the same time lets us know that the state of the soul after the grave is personal, independent, conscious and effective. If it were not so, then the word of God would not represent to us the sleeping ones acting consciously.
After separation from the body on earth, the soul in the afterlife continues its existence on its own during the entire first period. The spirit and soul continue their existence beyond the grave, enter into a state of either blissful or painful, from which they can be delivered through the prayers of St. Churches.
Thus, the first period of the afterlife also includes the possibility for some souls of deliverance from hellish torment before the final judgment. The second period of the afterlife of souls represents only a blissful or only painful state.
The body on earth serves as an obstacle to the soul in its activity, in the same place, beyond the grave, in the first period - these obstacles will be eliminated by the absence of the body, and the soul will be able to act solely according to its own mood, assimilated by it on earth; either good or evil. And in the second period of its afterlife, the soul will act, although under the influence of the body, with which it will again unite, but the body will already change, and its influence will even favor the activity of the soul, freeing itself from gross carnal needs and gaining new spiritual properties.
In this form, the Lord Jesus Christ depicted the afterlife and the activity of souls in the first period of the afterlife in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where the souls of the righteous and the sinner are presented as alive and consciously acting internally and externally. Their souls think, desire and feel. True, on earth the soul can change its good activity to evil and, conversely, evil to good, but with which it passed beyond the grave, that activity will already develop for the whole eternity.
It was not the body that animated the soul, but the soul - the body; consequently, even without a body, without all its external organs, it will retain all its powers and abilities. And its action continues beyond the grave, with the only difference being that it will be incomparably more perfect than earthly. As proof, let us recall the parable of Jesus Christ: despite the immeasurable abyss separating paradise from hell, the dead rich man, who is in hell, saw and recognized both Abraham and Lazarus, who are in paradise; moreover, a conversation with Abraham.
Thus, the activity of the soul and all its forces in the afterlife will be much more perfect. Here, on earth, we see objects at a great distance with the help of telescopes, and yet the action of vision cannot be perfect, it has a limit beyond which vision, even armed with lenses, does not extend. Beyond the grave, even the abyss does not prevent the righteous from seeing sinners, and the condemned from seeing the saved. The soul, being in the body, saw a person and other objects - it was the soul that saw, and not the eye; the soul heard, not the ear; smell, taste, touch were felt by the soul, and not by the members of the body; therefore, these powers and abilities will be with her beyond the grave; she is either rewarded or punished because she feels rewarded or punished.
If it is natural for the soul to live in the company of creatures like it, if the feelings of the soul are united on earth by God Himself in the union of undying love, then, according to the power of undying love, souls are not separated by a grave, but, as St. Church, live in the society of other spirits and souls.
The internal, self-personal activity of the soul consists of: self-consciousness, thinking, cognition, feeling and desire. External activity, however, consists of various influences on all beings and inanimate objects around us.
DIE BUT DID NOT STOP LOVING
The Word of God revealed to us that the angels of God do not live alone, but are in fellowship with each other. The same word of God, namely the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, says that beyond the grave, righteous souls in His kingdom will live as angels; consequently, the souls will also be in spiritual communion with each other.
Sociability is a natural, natural property of the soul, without which the existence of the soul does not reach its goal - bliss; only through communication, interaction can the soul get out of that unnatural state for it, about which its Creator Himself said: "it's not good to be alone"(Gen. 2, 18). These words refer to the time when man was in paradise, where there is nothing but heavenly bliss. For perfect bliss, it means that only one thing was lacking - he was a homogeneous being, with whom he would be together, in cohabitation and in communion. From this it is clear that bliss requires precisely interaction, communion.
If communion is a natural need of the soul, without which, consequently, the very bliss of the soul is impossible, then this need will be most perfectly satisfied after the grave in the company of God's chosen saints.
The souls of both states of the afterlife, saved and unresolved, if they were still connected on earth (and especially for some reason close to each other’s heart, sealed by a close union of kinship, friendship, acquaintance), and beyond the grave continue to sincerely, sincerely love: even more than loved during earthly life. If they love, it means that they remember those who are still on earth. Knowing the life of the living, the inhabitants of the afterlife take part in it, grieving and rejoicing with the living. Having a common one God, those who have passed into the afterlife hope for the prayers and intercession of the living and wish salvation both for themselves and those still living on earth, expecting them hourly to rest in the afterlife fatherland.
So, love, together with the soul, passes beyond the grave into the realm of love, where no one can exist without love. Love planted in the heart, sanctified and strengthened by faith, burns beyond the grave to the source of love - God - and to the neighbors left on earth.
Not only those who are in God are perfect, but also not yet completely removed from God, imperfect, retain love for those who remain on earth.
Only the lost souls, as completely alien to love, to whom love was still painful on earth, whose hearts were constantly full of malice, hatred - and beyond the grave they are alien to love for their neighbors. Whatever the soul learns on earth, love or hatred, passes into eternity. The fact that the dead, if they had only true love on earth, and after the transition to the afterlife, love us, the living, is testified by the gospel rich man and Lazarus. The Lord clearly expresses: the rich man, being in hell, with all his sorrows, still remembers his brothers who remained on earth, cares about their afterlife. Therefore, he loves them. If a sinner loves so much, then with what tender parental love do the resettled parents love their orphans left on earth! With what ardent love do the spouses who have passed into the other world love their widows who have remained on earth! With what angelic love do the children who have moved beyond the grave love their parents who have remained on earth! With what sincere love do brothers, sisters, friends, acquaintances and all true Christians who have departed from this life love their brothers, sisters, friends, acquaintances who have remained on earth, and all with whom the Christian faith united them! So those who are in hell love us and take care of us, and those who are in paradise pray for us. He who does not allow the love of the dead to the living discovers in such reasoning his own cold heart, alien to the divine fire of love, alien to spiritual life, far from the Lord Jesus Christ, who united all the members of His Church, wherever they were, on earth or beyond. coffin, undying love.
The activities of a good or evil soul relative to loved ones continue beyond the grave. A kind soul, thinks how to save loved ones and everyone in general. And the second - evil - how to destroy.
The gospel rich man could know about the state of life of the brothers on earth from his own afterlife state - not seeing any afterlife joy, as the Gospel tells, he made a conclusion about their carefree life. If they had led a more or less pious life, they would not have forgotten their dead brother either, and would have helped him in some way; then he could say that he was receiving some comfort from their prayers. Here is the first and main reason why the dead know our earthly life, good and evil: because of its influence on their own afterlife.
So, there are three reasons why the imperfect dead know the life of the living: 1) their own afterlife, 2) the perfection of feelings beyond the grave, and 3) sympathy for the living.
Death at first produces grief - because of the visible separation from the beloved person. It is said that a grieving soul is much relieved after shedding tears. Sorrow without crying greatly oppresses the soul. And by faith only temperate, moderate weeping is prescribed. He who is leaving somewhere far away and for a long time asks the one with whom he is separated not to cry, but to pray to God. The deceased in this case is completely similar to the one who left; with the only difference being that separation from the first, i.e. with the dead, perhaps the shortest, and each next hour can again become an hour of joyful rendezvous - according to the commandment given by God, be ready for relocation to the afterlife at any hour. Therefore, immoderate crying is useless and harmful to those separated; he interferes with prayer, through which everything is possible for the believer.
Prayer and lamentation for sins are beneficial to both who have been separated. Souls are cleansed from sins through prayer. Since love for those who have departed cannot be extinguished, therefore it is commanded to show sympathy for them - to bear each other's burdens, to intercede for the sins of the dead, as if for their own. And from here comes weeping for the sins of the deceased, through which God advances in mercy to the deceased. At the same time, the Savior brings blessedness to the intercessor for the dead.
Unrestrained weeping for the dead is harmful to both the living and the dead. We need to cry not about the fact that our loved ones moved to another world (after all, that world is better than ours), but about sins. Such weeping is pleasing to God, and benefits the dead, and prepares the weeping faithful reward beyond the grave. But how will God have mercy on the dead, if the living one does not pray for him, does not sympathize, but indulges in immoderate weeping, despondency, and perhaps grumbling?
The deceased have learned by experience about the eternal life of man, and we, who are still here, can only strive to improve their condition, as God commanded us: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"(Matthew 6:33) and "carry one another's burdens"(Gal. 6:2). Our life will greatly help the state of the dead if we take part in them.
Jesus Christ commanded to be ready for death at any hour. It is impossible to fulfill this commandment if you do not imagine the inhabitants of the afterlife. It is impossible to imagine judgment, heaven and hell without people, among whom are our relatives, acquaintances and all dear to our hearts. And what is this heart that would not be touched by the state of sinners in the afterlife? Seeing a drowning man, you involuntarily rush to give a helping hand to save him. Vividly imagining the afterlife of sinners, you will involuntarily begin to look for means to save them.
Weeping is forbidden, but complacency is commanded. Jesus Christ himself explained why crying is useless, telling Martha, Lazarus' sister, that her brother would rise again, and Jairus that his daughter was not dead, but asleep; and in another place he taught that he is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living; therefore, those who have passed into the afterlife are all alive. Why cry for the living, to whom we will come in due time? Chrysostom teaches that it is not sobs and cliques that do honor to the dead, but songs and psalmody and a fair amount of life. Crying inconsolable, hopeless, not imbued with faith in the afterlife, the Lord forbade. But weeping, expressing grief at the separation of cohabitation on earth, the weeping that Jesus Christ Himself manifested at the grave of Lazarus, such weeping is not forbidden.
The soul has an inherent hope in God and in itself similar beings, with which it is in various proportions. Having parted from the body and entered the afterlife, the soul retains everything that belongs to it, including hope in God and in the people close and dear to it who have remained on earth. Blessed Augustine writes: “The deceased hope to receive help through us; for the time of work has flown away for them.” The same truth is confirmed by St. Ephraim Sirin: “If on earth, moving from one country to another, we have a need for guides, how will this become necessary when we pass into eternal life.”
Approaching death, ap. Paul asked the believers to pray for him. If even the chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, who was in paradise, desired prayer for himself, then what can be said about the imperfect departed? Of course, they also want us not to forget them, to intercede for them before God and help them in any way we can. They want our prayers just as much as we, still alive, want the Saints to pray for us, and the Saints want salvation for us, the living, as well as the imperfectly deceased.
The departing one, wishing to continue the fulfillment of his deeds on earth even after death, instructs the other, who remains, to realize his will. The fruits of activity belong to its inspirer, wherever he may be; to him belongs glory, thanksgiving, and recompense. Failure to fulfill such a will deprives the testator of peace, since it turns out that he is no longer doing anything for the common good. The one who did not fulfill the testament is subject to God's judgment as a murderer, as having taken away the means that could save the testator from hell, save him from eternal death. He stole the life of the deceased, he did not distribute his name to the poor! And the word of God states that almsgiving delivers from death, therefore, the one who remains on earth is the cause of death of the one who lives behind the grave, that is, the murderer. He is guilty as a murderer. But here, however, a case is possible when the sacrifice of the deceased is not accepted. Probably not without reason, everything is the will of God.
The last wish, of course, if it is not illegal, the last will of the dying person is fulfilled sacredly - in the name of the peace of the departed and the executor of the will's own conscience. Through the fulfillment of the Christian testament, God moves to have mercy on the deceased. He will hear the one who asks in faith, and at the same time will bring blessing and intercession for the deceased.
In general, all our negligence regarding the dead does not remain without sad consequences. There is a popular proverb: “A dead man is not standing at the gate, but he will take his own!” This proverb must not be neglected, for it contains a considerable part of the truth.
Until the final decision of God's judgment, even the righteous in paradise are not alien to the sorrow that comes from their love for sinners who are on earth and for sinners who are in hell. And the mournful state of sinners in hell, whose fate is not finally decided, is increased by our sinful life. If the dead are deprived of grace through our negligence or malicious intent, then they can cry out to God for revenge, and the true avenger will not be late. The punishment of God will soon befall such unjust people. The stolen estate of the one who has been killed will not go for the future. For the iniquitous honor, property and rights of the deceased, many suffer to this day. Torments are infinitely varied. People suffer and do not understand the reason, or, to put it better, do not want to confess their guilt.
All babies who died after St. baptism will surely receive salvation, according to the power of the death of Jesus Christ. For if they are pure from common sin, because they are cleansed by Divine baptism, and from their own (since children do not yet have their own will and therefore do not sin), then, without any doubt, they are saved. Consequently, parents at the birth of children are obliged to take care: enter through St. the baptism of the new members of Christ's Church into the Orthodox faith, thereby making them heirs of eternal life in Christ. It is clear that the afterlife of unbaptized babies is unenviable.
The words of the Golden Mouth, spoken by him on behalf of the children, testify to the afterlife of babies: “Do not cry, our outcome and the passage of air ordeals, accompanied by angels, were painless. The devils found nothing in us And By the grace of our Lord, God, we are where the angels and all the Saints are, and we pray to God for you. So, if children pray, it means that they are aware of the existence of their parents, remember and love them. The degree of blessedness of infants, according to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, is more beautiful than even virgins and saints. The afterlife voice of babies calls to their parents through the mouth of the Church: “I died early, but I didn’t have time to blacken myself with sins, like you, and escaped the danger of sinning; therefore, it is better to cry about yourselves, who sin, always ”(“ The Order of the Burial of Babies ”). Love for dead children should be expressed in prayer for them. A Christian mother sees in her dead child her closest prayer book before the Throne of the Lord, and in reverent tenderness blesses the Lord both for him and for herself.
AND THE SOUL SPEAKS TO THE SOUL ...
If the interaction of souls still in the body on earth with those already in the afterlife without bodies is possible, then how can one deny this after the grave, when everyone will be either without gross bodies - in the first period of the afterlife, or in new, spiritual bodies - in second period?
Now let's proceed to the description of the afterlife, its two states: heavenly life and hellish life, based on the teachings of St. of the Orthodox Church about the twofold afterlife state of souls. The Word of God also testifies to the possibility of delivering some souls from hell through the prayers of St. Churches. Where are these souls before their deliverance, since there is no middle ground between heaven and hell?
They cannot be in heaven. Therefore, their life is in hell. Hell contains two states: unresolved and lost. Why are some souls not finally decided at a private judgment? Because they did not perish for the kingdom of God, it means that they have hope for eternal life, life with the Lord.
According to the testimony of the word of God, the fate of not only mankind, but also the most evil spirits has not yet been finally decided, as can be seen from the words spoken by demons to the Lord Jesus Christ: "who came to torment us before the time"(Matt. 8.29) and petitions: "so that he does not command them to go into the abyss"(Luke 8.31). The Church teaches that in the first period of the afterlife, some souls inherit heaven, while others inherit hell, there is no middle ground.
Where are those souls behind the grave whose fate has not been finally decided in a private court? To comprehend this question, let's look at what the unresolved state and hell mean in general. And for a visual presentation of this issue, let's take something similar on earth: a dungeon and a hospital. The first is for the criminals of the law, and the second for the sick. Some of the criminals, depending on the nature of the crime and the degree of guilt, are determined for temporary imprisonment in prison, while others for eternal imprisonment. The same is true in a hospital where patients are admitted who are not capable of a healthy life and activity: for some, the disease is curable, while for others it is fatal. The sinner is morally ill, a criminal of the law; his soul after the transition to the afterlife, as morally ill, bearing in itself the stains of sin, is itself incapable of paradise, in which there can be no impurity. And that is why she enters hell, as into a spiritual prison and, as it were, into a hospital for moral ailments. Therefore, in hell, some souls, depending on the type and degree of their sinfulness, linger longer, others less. Who is less?.. Souls who have not lost the desire for salvation, but who have not had time to bear the fruits of true repentance on earth. They are subject to temporary punishments in hell, from which they are freed only by the prayers of the Church, and not through the patience of punishment, as the Catholic Church teaches.
Destined for salvation, but temporarily residing in hell, along with the inhabitants of paradise, they bow their knees in the name of Jesus. This is the third, unresolved, state of souls in the afterlife of the first period, i.e. a state that must later become a state of bliss, and therefore not entirely alien to angelic life. What is sung, for example, in one of the Easter songs: “Now everything is filled with light: heaven, and earth, and the underworld ...”, and is also confirmed by the words of St. Paul: "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld..."(Phil. 2, 10). Here, under the word "hell" it is necessary to understand the transitional state of souls, which, along with the inhabitants of heaven and earth, kneel before the name of Jesus Christ; they bow, because they are not deprived of the grace-filled light of Christ. Of course, the inhabitants of Gehenna do not bow their knees, completely alien to the light of grace. The demons and their accomplices do not kneel, because they have completely perished for eternal life.
There are similarities and differences between the dogma of the Catholic Church about purgation and the Orthodox dogma about the unresolved state. The similarity of the teaching lies in the assessment of which souls belong to this afterlife. The dissimilarity lies in the method, the means of purification. Among Catholics, purification requires punishment for the soul after the grave, if it did not have it on earth. In Orthodoxy, however, Christ is a cleansing for those who believe in Him, for He took upon Himself both sins, and the consequence of sin is punishment. Souls of an unresolved state that are not completely cleansed on earth are healed and replenished with grace, at the intercession of the Church triumphant and militant for the imperfect dead, who are in hell. The Spirit of God Himself intercedes for His temples (people) with inexpressible sighs. He worries about the salvation of His fallen creature, but not denying its God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The dead in St. Easter, on one of its days, they receive special mercy from God; if they repent of their sins, then their sins are forgiven, even if they did not bear the fruits of repentance.
LIFE PARADISE
A person, having a moral aspiration, while still on earth, can change his character, his state of mind: good for evil, or vice versa, evil for good. It is impossible to do this behind the grave; good remains good, and evil remains evil. And the soul beyond the grave is no longer an autocratic being, for it is no longer able to change its development, even if it wishes, as evidenced by the words of Jesus Christ: "Bind his hands and feet, take him and cast him into outer darkness..."(Matthew 22:13) .
The soul cannot acquire a new way of thinking and feeling, and in general cannot change itself, but in the soul it can only further unfold what has been begun here on earth. What is sown is what is reaped. Such is the meaning of earthly life, as the basis of the beginning regarding life after death - happy or unhappy.
Good will develop more and more in eternity. Bliss is explained by this development. Those who subdue the flesh to the spirit, laboring in the name of God with fear, rejoice with unearthly joy, because the object of their life is the Lord Jesus Christ. Their mind and heart are in God and in heavenly life; for them everything earthly is nothing. Nothing can disturb their unearthly joy; here is the beginning, the anticipation of a blissful afterlife! The soul that finds its joy in God, having passed into eternity, has face to face an object that delights the senses.
So, on earth, he who abides in love with his neighbors (of course, in Christian love - pure, spiritual, heavenly) already abides in God and God abides in him. Stay and communion with God on earth is the beginning of that stay and communion with God, which will follow in paradise. Destined to be heirs of the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ Himself said that while they were still on earth, the kingdom of God was already within them. Those. their bodies are still on earth, but their minds and hearts have already acquired the spiritual, impassive state of truth, peace and joy that is characteristic of the kingdom of God.
Isn't this what the whole world expects in the end: eternity will swallow up time itself, destroy death, and reveal itself to humanity in all its fullness and infinity!
The place where the righteous go after a private judgment, or in general their condition, in the Holy Scriptures has different names; the most common and most common name is paradise. The word "paradise" means a garden proper, and in particular a fertile garden full of shady and beautiful trees and flowers.
Sometimes the Lord called the place of residence of the righteous in heaven the kingdom of God, for example, in a speech addressed to the condemned: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God; and themselves driven out. And they shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south, and shall lie down in the kingdom of God.”(Luke 13:28).
For those who seek the kingdom of God, little is needed on the earth of the sensible; they are satisfied with little, and visible poverty (according to the concept of the secular world) constitutes perfect contentment for them. In another place, the Lord Jesus Christ calls the dwelling place of the righteous the house of the Heavenly Father with many mansions.
The words of St. app. Paul; he, ascended to the third heaven, heard voices there that it is impossible for a person to speak. This is the first period of the afterlife of heavenly life, a blissful life, but not yet perfect. And then the apostle continues that God has prepared for the righteous beyond the grave such perfect bliss, which nowhere on earth has the eye of man seen, nor the ear heard, and cannot imagine, imagine anything similar to man on earth. This is the second period of the afterlife paradise life of perfect bliss. So, according to the apostle, the second period of the heavenly afterlife is no longer the third heaven, but another perfect state or place - the kingdom of heaven, the house of the Heavenly Father.
issued by the Sretensky Monastery in 2006.The Old Testament doctrine of the afterlife was not sufficiently developed and could not fully console, encourage and reassure a person. However, the idea of immortality was undoubtedly in him, although this is disputed by some rationalist researchers. The error of the latter is explained by the fact that attention was paid only to the letter, and not to the spirit of the Old Testament religion. The biblical view of man as the image and likeness of God already undoubtedly included the idea of immortality, for God Himself was understood primarily as an immortal Being. “God created man for incorruption and made him the image of his eternal existence” (Wisdom 2:23).
The very view of the Old Testament religion on the origin of death, so different from naturalistic views, suggests that death is not a necessary phenomenon, but only an accidental phenomenon, as a punishment for sin. At the same time, the influence of death extends only to the bodily composition of a person, created from the dust of the earth (“dust you and to dust you will return” - Gen. 3, 19), but does not touch the spiritual side of human nature. “The dust will return to the earth as it was; but the spirit returned to God who gave him” (Eccl. 12:7).
Just as undoubted in the Old Testament religion is the belief in bribes beyond the grave. Although in order to encourage the Jewish people to a good moral life (morally insufficiently developed and unprepared for the perception of higher ideas about eternal life), the Old Testament religion mainly pointed to the well-being of the earthly life of the righteous, however, one can also find an indication of the possibility of retribution only after death. “I envied the foolish, seeing the prosperity of the wicked, for they have no suffering until their death, and their strength is strong” (Ps. 72, 3-4).
The doctrine of the afterlife in the Old Testament religion is imbued with a sad spirit, which, however, is softened by the hope of future redemption and improvement of the future fate of the dead. The dwelling place of the dead was called "sheol", which meant hell, or the underworld. This underworld was most often presented under the guise of "the land of darkness and the shadow of death" and was opposed to the sky. All the dead went to the underworld, even the righteous. There is very little information in the Old Testament about the state of those who have gone to another world. However, there is no doubt that the righteous even in the underworld had the consolation of hope for a future deliverance. “God will deliver my soul from the power of hell” (Ps. 48:16).
This hope was most vividly expressed in the prophecies of Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah: “Death will be swallowed up forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8).
“Thy dead shall live, dead bodies shall arise… and the earth shall vomit up the dead” (Isaiah 26:19). But the hope for a future resurrection in the Old Testament religion did not yet have complete certainty, which appeared and triumphed only after the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, even such a spiritual height of the Old Testament righteous as the prophet Ezekiel, to a direct question of God to him: “Will these bones come to life?” - could only answer: “Oh my God! You know this” (Ezekiel 37:3).
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the most characteristic idea of \u200b\u200bthe Egyptian funeral cult was formed - the idea of \u200b\u200bjudging the souls of the dead. This idea is not yet in the Pyramid Texts, but it is already in the monuments of the Middle Kingdom. Osiris himself was considered the judge of souls, and his assistants were the gods of 42 nomes, as well as the gods Anubis, Thoth and the infernal monster devouring condemned souls. At this terrible judgment, the heart of the deceased is weighed and, depending on the good and bad deeds committed by him during his lifetime, the fate of his soul is determined. Here we have a belief in the afterlife retribution, which contradicts the earlier idea of the afterlife as a simple continuation of the earthly life.
The ideas of the Egyptians about the posthumous misadventures of the soul, about its judgment, about the dangers that threaten it, and about the means to get rid of them, are set out in detail in the so-called Book of the Dead. This is an extensive (more than 180 chapters) collection of magical mortuary formulas. The oldest of these formulas date back to the Pyramid Texts (5th and 6th dynasties), they were then written on the walls of the tombs of the pharaohs: in transitional times, these texts were written on the sarcophagi of nobles, and later these increasingly growing funerary texts began to be written on papyri and put them on the chest of the mummy of the deceased. And so this famous Book of the Dead was compiled with a very contradictory content. Some chapters contain appeals on behalf of the deceased to various deities with a request for protection from various dangers; sometimes the deceased directly calls himself the names of these deities. Particularly interesting in this regard is the 17th chapter, where the deceased says about himself: “I am Atum, being one. I am Ra at his first rising I am the great one who created himself...” etc. In other chapters, on the contrary, the idea of afterlife retribution for earthly deeds, an idea associated with the notion of moral responsibility, is clearly presented. Such is the especially famous chapter 125, in which the deceased, as if already before the judgment of Osiris, is justified, denying various sins and bad deeds.
I didn't hurt people.
I have not harmed the livestock.
I have committed no sin in the place of Truth...
I didn't do anything wrong...
I didn't blaspheme...
I didn't raise my hand to the weak.
I didn't do anything nasty before the gods...
I was not the cause of the disease.
I didn't cause tears.
I didn't kill.
I didn't order the kill.
I didn't hurt anyone.
I didn't run out of supplies at the temples.
I did not spoil the bread of the gods.
I did not appropriate the bread of the dead.
I didn't swear...
I did not take milk from the mouths of children...
I did not bring the bird of the gods into the seed.
I did not fish in their ponds.
I did not stop the water at its time.
I didn't block the running water.
I did not extinguish the sacrificial fire at its hour...
I did not obstruct the god in his exit.
I am clean, I am clean. I am clean!
Subsequently, it was the Egyptian religious doctrine of the terrible afterlife judgment that influenced the development of the same doctrine in Christianity. However, this idea of posthumous retribution for good and evil deeds was far from dominant in Egyptian beliefs. Still, the idea that it was possible to ensure the well-being of the soul in the next world by purely magical means prevailed. One such means was the use of the text of the Book of the Dead itself, including the same chapter 125, a text to which magical significance was attributed in itself. In addition, along with the Book of the Dead, other magical items (the so-called ushabti) were placed on the mummy's chest and around, which were supposed to insure the soul of the deceased from all dangers. Some formulas of the Book of the Dead were intended to give the soul of the deceased the ability to turn into different animals; others are ward spells. Magical ideas in the cycle of funeral beliefs of the Egyptians still prevailed over religious and moral ideas.