The lightest punishment in hell. Torment of sinners in hell
“Abandon hope, all who enter here,” we read on the gates leading to where, probably, each of us is destined for a place. The image of hell in culture is one of the fundamental and most widespread from ancient times to the present day. Fear of him is the basis of religious morality. But everyone has their own hell, in some ways similar to others, in some ways radically different. “Dialogue” figured out what awaits sinners after death, according to different religions and cultures.
Eternal torment
The image of Christian hell is found in the Bible and the Apocrypha. Information about the underworld is scattered throughout the contents of all the books, and from all the fragments a familiar panorama emerges: torment, fire and darkness. However, we will not find the cauldrons and frying pans familiar to us and familiar from illustrations and films in the Bible. What do we know from it?
“And these [sinners] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). It follows from this that we will be tormented forever. We know something about hell from the Revelation of John the Theologian. “And whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). The Last Judgment will sum up the results, and ultimately the fate of every human soul will be decided: the righteous will go to heaven, the sinners will remain in hell forever without the right to forgiveness. After the Apocalypse, “the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8).
We see that the description of physical torment from fire and heat is the main allegory relating to mental torment. The Apocalypse itself is a rather complex process, occurring in stages: this includes the opening of the Seven Seals by angels, and the Coming of the Four Horsemen, and the invasion of locusts, and the fall of cities. For centuries, people have tried to calculate the date of its occurrence, but every time they were wrong. However, today some are trying to prepare for it in advance and save themselves.
We can learn more about torture in hell from the apocryphal “Walk of the Virgin Mary through Torment.” In it, the descriptions of torment are detailed and scrupulous: in addition to the already familiar darkness and fiery pools, there, for example, one can find hanging upside down and being eaten by worms for usury, hanging by the teeth of gossips, and reclining on hot benches for being late. But here hell is not eternal - the Mother of God asks God to grant sinners rest from Maundy Thursday to Trinity.
There is also a non-canonical theory of apokatastasis (universal salvation), dating back to the writings of Clement of Alexandria. It lies in the fact that the torments of hell will be final, and sinners will sooner or later be forgiven, and even the Devil will repent.
Fragment of a fresco from the Florence Cathedral. Photo: Ilya Snopchenko / Dialog news agency In general, the Abrahamic religions, since they are continuations of each other, describe hell quite similarly. In Islam there is a similar concept - Jahannama. Here it is approximately the same as for Christians: torment from fire, brimstone and scorched wastelands, as well as an extensive bestiary - genies and shaitans. The Qur'an warns us of the "water of putrefaction" that the sinner swallows, and "death comes to him from all places, but he is not dead, and behind him is a severe punishment" (14:19-20). The structure of hell is the gates to the underworld and circle levels going deep into the earth (39:71-73).
You can learn about Jewish hell from rabbinic literature, that is, from commentaries on the Talmud. For a long time, it was believed that sinners were punished in hell only for 12 months. After this, they are destroyed and put out of suffering. And only a small number - those who renounced their people and religion - will suffer forever. The Jewish philosopher Rabbi Akiva believed that sinners, after atonement for their sins, would join the righteous in paradise (Ed. 10). The Talmud also says that sinners have the opportunity to join the righteous if they repent and recognize the justice of the punishment (Er. 19a). Some sources say that the righteousness of a son can ease the posthumous fate of his parents. The teachers of the law from Eretz Israel denied the existence of hell and believed that after the Last Judgment, sinners would be incinerated by the heat emanating from their own bodies (Gen. R. 6:6; 26:6).
Fickle Hells
In Buddhism, hell is called Naraka and is one of the six worlds that souls cycle through. It is not eternal for anyone. Souls that have redeemed their karma over time go to the higher worlds. And again the circles - from the most harmless to the most terrible, they go like a funnel into the center of the earth. Eight hot ones are in the center, eight cold ones are at the edges, and many side ones between them.
The torment of hell. Antique Chinese book illustration. Image from ru.wikipedia.org In Chinese beliefs, hell is called Diyu. And in it, too, the souls of sinners do not linger forever. It has the shape of a complex, multi-level labyrinth. Chinese hell has its capital - the underground city of Yudu. It looks like an ordinary earthly metropolis, only it is inhabited by demons and souls. In addition, there are theories about the Ten Judgments and eighteen levels of hell. Chinese ideas are very heterogeneous, and vary depending on the region where believers live.
The Japanese in Shinto have an idea of hell - Jigoku or Yomi - close to ancient Greek myths: there is a river separating the kingdom of the dead from the world of the living, and the supreme ruler Emma is similar to Hades. Hinduism does not place hell separately. Here sinners experience torment in earthly life for sins in previous reincarnations and await a way out of the constant cycle of souls.
Literary view
The textbook, most famous depiction of hell in literature is the underworld from the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. He, combining Catholic mythology and Aristotle's classification of sins, develops a detailed concept of a nine-level hell. The most harmless upper Limbo is reserved for virtuous non-Christians, unbaptized infants, and Old Testament righteous people. Their fate is eternal sorrow. At the very bottom of hell, the ninth circle, Lucifer, in the company of Brutus and Judas, suffer, bound in ice. And their vice is betrayal.
William Adolphe Bouguereau, Virgil and Dante in Hell. Image from ru.wikipedia.org Jean-Paul Sartre painted a rather minimalist picture of hell. “Hell is other people,” he claims, and in the play “Behind Closed Doors” he shows us just a small dark room and a company of three people. As it turns out, the main torment is the eternal presence of a stranger, his complaints, memories, obsession. The Japanese classic Ryunosuke Akutagawa rejects all complex schemes and proclaims loneliness and the lack of change, everyday life, as hell. His hell is here and now, and life is an attempt to avoid it.
I can’t believe that the Lord will allow people to suffer eternally in hell. He is the ideal of love and mercy, how can he allow the eternal (!) hellish (!!) torment of people? You can’t gain so much in your entire life and then be subjected to torture forever.
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
Dear Oleg! Since the afterlife is divided into heaven and hell, your letter inevitably implies a statement that you do not directly make: after the end of history, all people should be in heaven. In response to your letter, the question inevitably arises: where should Divine Justice place the people guilty of the brutal extermination of tens of millions of people (the leaders of the most odious totalitarian regimes of the 20th century). Where will Justice place the people who, with sophisticated and vile cruelty, killed schoolchildren, pregnant women, and helpless disabled people? How do you imagine the life in paradise of those who left this world with unhealed ulcers of their criminal conscience, in malicious enmity with God? Life in paradise will be built on the principles of perfect love. How is the harmony of a blissful life in the Kingdom of Heaven possible with the participation of those whose souls are ossified in a state of satanic malice?
When talking about heaven and hell, it is unacceptable to be guided by a simplified legal view that has nothing to do with the laws of spiritual life and a correct understanding of the nature of good and evil. Heaven and hell begin in the human soul. The saints, having purified themselves and sanctified themselves by deeds and deeds of love, were so united with God while still on earth that they experienced heavenly bliss within. The Kingdom of Heaven for them is the absolute fullness of joy, which began here. For others, sin and crime have become the meaning of life. They rejected Divine love, trampled His commandments and deliberately chose darkness rather than light. Hell for them is only the logical conclusion of what they had during their lives. If they, having free will, chose darkness, then how can they be forcibly sent to heaven?
Two exclamation points after the word “hell” show that you are fundamentally opposed to hell. But then the entire structure of spiritual and moral life is destroyed to the ground. If a person, risking his life, saved others, and a criminal, who made cruelty and killing people his profession, receive the same reward (paradise), then good and evil are equalized. The fundamental difference between them disappears.
In the letter there is one exclamation point after the word “eternal”. Confusion about the eternity of hell again reveals a narrow legal understanding of the issue. Hell is eternal not because Divine Justice wishes it so, but because a soul fused with sin remains that way forever. And if she remains like this forever, then the gates of heaven are forever closed to her. If on earth, despite Divine calls to repentance and despite the edifying examples of the saints, sinners with unshakable persistence choose darkness, then how will they be transformed and corrected in hell, being deprived of God’s guiding grace. If hell re-educated sinners, they would be saved without Jesus Christ, who is the only way to salvation.
Denial of hell testifies to the corruption of human nature. Here a hidden or obvious reconciliation with sin and the incompleteness of our faith are revealed. The Son of God, having diminished Himself, united with our limited human flesh, took upon Himself all the sins of perishing humanity. In order to save us from eternal death, He drank the full cup of bitter suffering, sorrow, humiliation and went to the most painful death. Why are we not horrified by the cynicism with which humanity, like the prodigal son, insults the greatness and holiness of its Heavenly Parent? The Holy Fathers, fully aware of the vile essence of sin, were amazed at Divine forbearance. May we never imagine such lawlessness as to call God unmerciful! Oh, how wonderful is the mercy of God! Oh, how amazing is the grace of God and our Creator! What a force that dominates everything! What immeasurable goodness, why<Он>Our nature in us, sinners, again leads to re-creation! Who has the strength to glorify Him? He raises up those who have transgressed His commandment and those who have blasphemed Him, and renews the foolish dust(St. Isaac the Syrian. Words of asceticism. Homily 90).
The Savior of the world, by His death on the Cross, deprived the devil of power over the human race and destroyed the power of death. I will redeem them from the power of hell, I will deliver them from death. Death! where is your sting? hell! where is your victory?(Hos. 13:14). After the Resurrection of the Savior, people themselves drive themselves into hell, choosing darkness rather than Light.
There are more or less serious sins. Are the punishments for them in hell also different? Of course, the punishments are different. But know that the weakest torment in hell is equal in strength to the strongest torment on earth. The weakest joy in heaven is similar to the strongest earthly joy. Depending on how a person spends his life, he sinks to the bottom of hell according to the strength of the sins he has committed. Take, for example, Khrushchev, the “miracle worker.” He closed about 10,000 churches, many monasteries; What do you think - he doesn’t suffer there? He will face eternal terrible torment there - if he does not repent before death.
How many other such rulers were there? They raised their hands against God, against the House of God, against the monasteries. How many people were tortured on their orders! People did not suffer in vain, they are martyrs before God, but these rulers will receive a good punishment. Take Nero: he set fire to a Christian city in the 1st century, there was a huge fire, and he stood on the balcony and enjoyed it. He opened the most severe persecution against all Christians. Diocletian, Julian, Nero - there were many of them; Of course, they all got a place in hell because of their deeds. It was not God who punished them, they punished themselves.
The man was baptized as an adult. Continuing his sinful life, he became an apostate from Christ. What awaits the soul of such a person? Wouldn't it have been better for him not to be baptized at all than not to justify the mercy of God?
The Monk Macarius the Great was walking through the desert one day and came across a human skull. He was a special person before God, had the grace of the Holy Spirit, and much was revealed to him from God. He, being in special grace, hit the skull with his staff and asked:
Tell me, who are you and where are you?
“I am an idol priest,” he answered. - I'm in hell.
“Do you find any joy,” asked the Reverend.
There is joy when Christians in the Orthodox Church commemorate their dead on Saturdays and Sundays. There is light then in the upper layers of hell, and part of it penetrates to us. Then we see each other. This brings us great joy.
The monk also asked:
And below you - the idol priests - is there anyone?
Orthodox Christians who were baptized, but did not go to Church, did not wear crosses, did not repent of their sins, did not confess, lived unmarried, did not receive communion and died without repentance. They are even lower than those pagans who did not know the True God.
What awaits those people who blaspheme God, who once destroyed churches, removed crosses and bells from churches, burned icons and holy books?
There were times when all this was done en masse. Some feared God, but there were “brave” ones who did it all. But often they fell from a temple or from a bell tower and were killed. In fact, such people often do not live to see their death. There was such a case in the Caucasus Mountains. One monk from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - Hierodeacon Isaac - suffered 92 years from bandits. Monks lived in the mountains and there was a church. He himself was blind. The brothers went to Sukhumi for worship on a big holiday. He was left alone. Three Muslim Abkhazians came and said:
Give me everything valuable you have. “They started asking him for gold and money.
He says:
I am a hermit. I don't have any of this. Seek what you find - yours.
We will kill you. Killing a monk is like killing a fly!
They took a towel, tied it around his neck, took him to a cliff and threw him into the abyss. He fell to his death.
Now one old archimandrite lives in the Pochaev Lavra. His cell was then built just below Fr. Isaacia. He heard everything they said and saw everything that the robbers did, but he could not help - the mountains got in the way. Then he went down into the abyss - Isaac was already dead.
So the fate of these killers is interesting. They all died within a year: one was driving a car and crashed - he fell into an abyss, another was crushed by a tractor, the third was killed.
If the Lord does not punish in this life those people who go against Him, against the servants of God, then they will face severe punishment on the day of the Last Judgment. Everyone should know that they will get what they deserve. The Lord loves everyone. The Lord is waiting for everyone. He is waiting for a person to repent. But when there is no longer a feeling of repentance in a person, when the one who is strangling has completely become coarse, then there is a sudden death. Demons take this soul and drag it straight to hell. Sometimes such people commit suicide.
What do those who have been to the next world say about hell? What is he like?
Television rarely shows anything soulful or edifying. But then somehow an interesting program was broadcast on the Moskovia channel. One woman, Valentina Romanova, told how she was in the afterlife. She was an unbeliever, was in a car accident, died and saw her soul separated from her body. In the program, she described in detail what happened to her after her death.
At first she did not realize that she had died. She saw everything, heard everything, understood everything and even wanted to tell the doctors that she was alive. She screamed: “I’m alive!” But no one heard her voice. She grabbed the doctors by the hands, but nothing worked for her. I saw a piece of paper and a pen on the table and decided to write a note, but I couldn’t pick up the pen.
And at that time she was pulled into a tunnel, a funnel. She came out of the tunnel and saw a dark man next to her. At first she was very glad that she was not alone, turned to him and said: “Man, tell me, where am I?”
He was tall and stood on her left side. When he turned, she looked into his eyes and realized that no good could be expected from this man. She was overcome with fear and ran. When she met a luminous young man who protected her from a terrible man, she calmed down.
And then the places that we call hellish were revealed to her. The cliff is a terrible height, very deep, and below there are many people - both men and women. They were of different nationalities, different skin colors. An unbearable stench emanated from this pit. And there was a voice to her that said that here were those who during their lifetime committed the terrible sins of Sodom, unnatural, prodigal.
Elsewhere she saw a lot of women and thought:
These are child killers, those who had abortions and did not repent.
Then Valentina realized that she would have to answer for what she had done in her life. Here she first heard the word "vices". I didn’t know what this word was before. Only gradually did I understand why hellish torment is terrible, what sin is, what vice is.
Then I saw a volcanic eruption. A huge fiery river flowed, and human heads floated in it. They plunged into the lava and then emerged. And the same voice explained that in this fiery lava there are the souls of psychics, those who practiced fortune telling, witchcraft, and love spells. Valentina got scared and thought: “What if they leave me here too?” She had no such sin, but she understood that she could have stayed in any of these places forever, since she was an unrepentant sinner.
And then I saw a staircase that led to heaven. A lot of people were climbing up these stairs. She also began to rise. A woman walked ahead of her. She was exhausted and began to feel exhausted. And Valentina realized that if she didn’t help her, she would fall down. Apparently, she is a merciful person and began to help this woman. So they found themselves in a bright space. She couldn't describe him. She spoke only about the amazing fragrance and joy. When Valentina experienced spiritual joy, she returned to her body. She found herself in a hospital bed, standing in front of her was the man who knocked her down. His last name is Ivanov. He told her:
Don't die anymore! I will compensate for all losses on your car (she was very worried because the car was broken), just don’t die!
She was in the other world for three and a half hours. Medicine calls this clinical death, but allows a person to be in this state for no more than six minutes. After this period, irreversible changes in the brain and tissues begin. And even if a person is later revived, he turns out to be mentally disabled. The Lord once again showed the miracle of resurrecting the dead. He brought a person back to life and gave him new knowledge about the spiritual world.
I also knew such a case - with Claudia Ustyuzhanina. This was in the sixties. When I was returning from the army, I stopped by Barnaul. One woman came up to me in the temple. She saw that I was praying and said:
There is a miracle in our city. The woman lay in the morgue for several days and came back to life. Would you like to see her?
And so I went. I saw a huge house, a high fence there. Everyone had such fences. The shutters in the house are closed. We knocked and a woman came out. They said we came from church, and she accepted. There was another boy at home, about six years old, Andrei, now he is a priest. I don't know if he remembers me, but I remember him well.
I spent the night with them. Claudia showed certificates of her death. She even showed the scars on her body. It is known that She had stage 4 cancer and died during surgery. She told a lot of interesting things.
And then I entered the seminary. I knew that Claudia was being persecuted; the newspapers would not leave her alone. Her house was constantly under control: nearby, two or three houses away, there was a two-story police building. I spoke with some fathers at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and they called her. She sold her house in Barnaul and bought a house in Strunino. The son has grown up and now serves in the city of Alexandrov.
When I was in the Pochaev Lavra, I heard that she had passed into the other world.
Where is hell?
There are two opinions. Saints Basil the Great and Athanasius the Great imagine that hell is inside the earth, because in the Holy Scriptures the Lord, through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, says: “I will bring you down /.../ and place you in the depths of the earth” (Ezek. 26:20). The same opinion is confirmed by the canon of Matins on Great Saturday: “Thou hast descended into the lower earth,” “thou hast descended into the nether regions of the earth.”
But other teachers of the Church, for example, St. John Chrysostom, believe that hell is outside the world: “Just as royal dungeons and mines are far away, so Gehenna will be somewhere outside this universe. But why are you asking where and in what place it will be? she? What do you care about that? You need to know that she exists, and not where and in what place she is hiding." And our Christian task is to avoid hell: loving God and neighbors, humbling and repenting, and pass on to that world.
There are many mysterious things on earth. When Archdeacon Stephen was stoned, a temple was built for him in this place, at the gate to Jerusalem. In our time, archaeologists came there from Belarus and Ukraine, opened the entrance under the temple that leads under the city, brought in equipment and suddenly saw black birds in huge underground caves, with a wingspan of more than two meters. The birds rushed at the archaeologists and drove them
such fear that they left the equipment, drove an excavator and blocked the entrance with stones and sand, refusing further research...
How many people go to the Kingdom of God, and how many go to hell?
One priest was asked this question. He smiled:
You know, dear! When I climb up to ring the bell tower before the Divine Liturgy, I see: people from nearby villages are walking along the paths to the church. A grandmother with a stick, a grandfather mincing with his granddaughter, young people walking... By the end of the service, the entire temple is filled. This is how people go to the abodes of Paradise - one at a time. And to hell... The service is over. I go back to the bell tower and see: people are all coming out of the church gates together. They can’t get through right away, but they’re still hurrying them from behind: “Why are you standing there! Get out quickly!”
The Holy Scripture says: “Enter at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it” (Matthew 7:13). It is very difficult for a sinful person to renounce his vices and passions, but nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God. Only souls purified in repentance enter there.
The Lord gave all the days of our life to prepare for eternity - we will all have to go there someday. Those who have the opportunity should constantly go to church - both in the morning and in the evening. Death will come, and we will not be ashamed to appear before the inhabitants of heaven, before God. The good deeds of an Orthodox Christian will intercede for him.
About faith and salvation. Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov)
When I asked the angel: “Where are our evangelical Christians, our Pentecostals? I want to go to them.” I saw a lot of familiar faces. But I was wondering how they were, where. "Where? - I say. And he says: “Who?” I say: “Like who? Well, my brothers and sisters in faith. Well, okay, where are the Orthodox then?” The angel replied: “And here there are neither one nor the other. Here are the children of God.” Do you understand, friends? There is no division in heaven. There are God's children there, and it doesn't matter what denomination they were. Important. What was in their hearts and who they served. All who served the Lord Christ are in heaven. And those who served themselves, in each denomination, in hell they are divided, the torment in hell is terrible for them. They each have their own cauldron of resin. It's horrible. It's horrible. But these people - they knew the truth, but did not believe it. Friends, if you know the truth, do not brush it aside. Believe that everything that is said in this Book, here in this Book, is all true. This is all true to the last point.
We descended further. We went down to the very bottom. In one of the circles I saw my grandmother. Yes, dad's mom. My kind, affectionate, wonderful grandmother. The demon pulled out her tongue with tongs. The tongs are hot. From these tongs, the whole tongue, the whole body catches fire, it all becomes charred. And so, when the ashes were supposed to dissipate and the torment should stop, it happened again - he unclenched the pincers, his tongue fell out, and in this place the ashes came together and everything became the same again, and the torment continued. She screamed, but she couldn't say anything. She looked at me with bulging eyes and stretched out her hands. I couldn't stand it because I couldn't help her. I couldn’t reach out to her and cool her tongue. It turns out she was slandering. She slandered. I understood why the neighbors were not friends with her. This is scary to say. It hurts to say. Her son, my dad, was in heaven. And his mother stayed there forever. I couldn’t move from my place, and if it weren’t for the angel, I probably would have stood there and stood there, crying and screaming. I screamed for her.
I don’t know how we ended up even lower, but I saw a door. A room, and the door from it is black, smeared as if with sewage. People came through this door, as it seemed to me - because some of them were beautifully dressed; even the suits seem to be from Versace, or, conversely, Montana sports jeans; or beggars in rags; or girls in fishnet stockings. But they all had ugly faces. Just muzzles, friends, not faces. They came. These are demons who walk the earth, who seduce people. They came to report to their master. He was sitting behind a closed door. When the door opened slightly, I also saw the foot of the throne. He disguises himself as the Lord. He doesn't want anyone to see his face either. But the throne was ugly. It was disgusting and disgusting to look at. I closed my eyes, but I managed to hear them report, and how one demon in an expensive suit with a laptop took something out of his pocket. This was something I couldn't see. This something was a soul. I understood this when he replied: “Here, master, another soul. Tie her up.” And the door slammed. I couldn't move. I asked the angel: “How can this be? Another person died and they were captured?” He says: “No. Otherwise, that soul would have been in one of the circles. And this one is still alive. He made a covenant. He made a covenant. Sold my soul. Now the devil will tie her up, take her to a place, put her in chains, and place a demon there. This person will get up, walk around, do his business. But it won't be him anymore. His bound soul will sit in the depths. And the demon to whom he gave his flesh will walk the Earth in his place.” I remembered how they say about evil people: “a soulless person.” Soulless, because there is already a captive soul there. Captive soul. The enemy will release it only when hell gives up its souls and the sea gives up its dead. This is what the Lord said. So He wrote it down. When you meet such people with empty, cruel eyes, you understand that it is about them that the Word of God says: “Do not pray for such people, for they are not for salvation.” Until that moment I didn’t understand. Lord, how can this be? There's something I don't understand. Well, why not for salvation? Why not for salvation? Yes, because they voluntarily gave themselves. And they gave it up so voluntarily that they were tied up, tied up by the enemy. And a demon already inhabited his body. The family still thinks this is their wonderful dad and wonder how he has changed overnight. Colleagues think that their colleague is wonderful, that what happened to him, that he has changed like this, that he seems to be the wrong person. They are surprised. Well, they are surprised, then they get used to the fact that this is walking evil. And this walking evil seduces others like themselves. I didn't want to see anything anymore. I was so scared and creepy that I was only afraid of one thing - to be thrown into the lake of fire that we passed through. Or into that lake of sewage, in which souls floundered, trying to get out, who cried out to the heavens that they could see. The celestials don't see this. It is closed to them. They see the Earth and their loved ones for whom they pray. They come to the foot of the throne of God and pray to the Lord. And the Lord sends angels to stop the sinner, if possible. And those souls in hell - they do not even have the opportunity to warn their loved ones where they are. And how terrible it is for them when their loved ones, remembering them on the anniversary of their death, say good words: “how holy he lived, how he loved people.” If this is not true, the demons are bullied. They intensify the torture, and for every kind word about the deceased they feel even worse. From there he shouts: “Be silent.” But people don't hear. They are lying. After all, most people know what the deceased was like during life, and they are disingenuous. If you know that he was not like that during his lifetime, remain silent. Keep quiet. Don't add to his torment. Or tell the truth about him: “Yes. He wasn't a saint. He was a sinner." Tell the truth. His torture there will not increase from this. They will not weaken, but they will not strengthen either. They will remain like this until the coming of Christ, until the judgment. I remembered how I was when I was at the funeral of a obviously unpleasant person. But popular wisdom says: “It’s either good or nothing about the dead.” And, as a rule, we begin to praise, not realizing that our lies make them even worse...
I didn’t notice how we began to rise higher and higher. We found ourselves again near this curtain. We crossed the threshold of the veil, and I inhaled this incense deeply. He revived me. And the angel turned me to face the veil, gently pushed me with his shoulder and said: “It’s time for you.”
My friends, I left easily and freely, but when I rolled down, it was such pain. I flew into my body with pain. With pain and screaming. But I was ashamed - compared to the torments of hell, it was not painful. It was bearable. I fell silent. But I heard someone else screaming. I opened my eyes. I thought: “Who can scream like that?” And I saw: a room, tiled walls. A woman in a white robe is sitting on the floor, her robe is wet. Nearby lies a spilled bucket upside down and a mop. And she sits and points with her hand: “Uh, uh.” She doesn't just scream, she also moans.
I sat down. I couldn't see clearly. I realized: they didn’t sew up my head. I say: “What are you shouting?” Oh, I wish I hadn't asked that. The poor woman became white as a sheet. I tell her: “Don’t be afraid. Do not scream". But she got down on all fours and quickly, quickly - and into the door. She crawled out.
I felt cold. I began to look around and saw that I was covered with only one sheet. On my leg there is a medical history number written in green paint. On the other is the first and last name, and the date of death. I knew how the dead were registered. I am a doctor. I spent more than one day in the morgue while taking exams in anatomy and surgery. But why am I here? - I thought, “I was just in heaven.” Oh yes, the Lord said, “You will return.” What to do next? Lord, you won’t allow me to be cut alive, will you? They’re going to open me up now, I thought. My stomach hurt terribly. Looking down, I saw a cut. Yeah, I've already been tried. I caught it with my hand, but there was no blood. Strange, I thought.
** This site offers testimonies of people who saw torment in hell and what awaits sinners. They talk in detail about how they ended up in the underworld and what happened next after that. The human soul in hell is a reality, there is no mystification in this. But unfortunately today we are too busy with our own affairs and problems. And if you think about what is happening in our lives, you can see how the mass of different information does not allow us to hear the main thing. And the main thing is that Jesus Christ rose again and gave us the opportunity, through his victory over death, to have an eternal inheritance. And we must be sure that heaven will help us and that everything has already happened. All that remains now is for each of us to accomplish our salvation and become doers of God’s will. In scripture, Jesus Christ said that we should seek His kingdom first (Matthew 6:33-34) and not be concerned about others. But we are all caught up in living for our own pleasure and not hearing the call of heaven for us.
** Editor's Note
Without attaching importance to the exact teaching of the first view of hellish torment, leaving it in a series of private opinions, the church all the more cannot accept the latter as translating into a future renewed life the crude concepts of present life, hiding from our eyes the lofty image of the loving Christian God. Rough concepts of hellish torment may be appropriate for religions that constitute the work of the human mind, and for people who think in the spirit of the doctrine of hell, which, according to the Koran, is as follows: “What a terrible dwelling (gehenna)! When sinners are thrown (there), they will hear her roaring, and the fire will burn with power. Hell will almost burst with rage.” “The skin of those who are tormented will be destroyed by fire, but we will clothe them with another to make them experience punishment.” “We will make him (the sinner) roast in the fire of sakar (hell fire). It burns the human body. He leaves nothing without destroying it, does not leave anything intact, does not allow anything to hide.” - “The one condemned to dwelling in fire, having his body covered on top with layers of fire, will be given boiling resin to drink, which will tear his insides; it will be covered with stinking water.” “The wicked will yet be fed by the tree of Tzakkum. This tree grows from the depths of hell; its tops look like demon heads. The outcasts will feed on it and fill their stomachs.” “Moreover, we will see them burdened hand and foot with chains. Their tunics will be made of pitch, fire will cover their faces, because it distributes each soul according to its deeds." These literal passages from the Koran leave no doubt that Mohammedanism understands hellish torment in a crude sense.
If neither of the two given views on hellish torment can be accepted as the exact teaching of the Orthodox faith, and the church considered it best to leave the question of hellish fire without a definite answer, which, in the words of Blessed Augustine, is known only to the Spirit of God and the one to whom deigns to reveal this Spirit, then should we not, in view of the silence of the church and the remarks of its blessed teacher, refuse to clarify a rather difficult to understand subject? It would be necessary if the Spirit of God himself did not lift the veil that covers the future from our eyes. Let us look behind this veil, to what extent it is lifted by the Spirit of God for those who believe in Christ and who reverently approach his Divine word, the teachings of the church and the book of nature. What do we read in these organs of broadcasting of the Spirit of God?
The Word of God, speaking about the fire of Gehenna, assimilates strange properties to it, apparently. First of all, it calls him "unquenchable fire"(; ); secondly - by fire, scorching its unfortunate victims and never burning them (.); thirdly, by fire, in which there will not be a ray of light, which will be impenetrable darkness (etc.). Many fathers and teachers of the church, for example: Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Augustine, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Lactantius, Basil the Great and others, dwelled on these wonderful properties of hellish fire, as properties that deserve special attention, reflecting on it. says: “The fire there will be a dim fire, which in the darkness contains scorching power, but is devoid of luminosity,” in which, according to Ephraim the Syrian, “there is not a ray of light,” which is not at all similar to the real one: “this one, which will capture, will burn and will change to something else, and the one whom he once embraces will always burn and will never stop, which is why he is called unquenchable,” says Saint Chrysostom. Lactantius writes: “This (hellish) fire will be very different from the fire we use. Our fire goes out as soon as there is not enough fuel to support it; but the fire that God will kindle for the execution of the wicked will be a fire that does not need any fuel; it will be without smoke, it will be clean and liquid like water, it will not rise upward like our fire, which earthen parts and coarse vapors force to rise to the sky in uneven and discordant waves. This fire will have power both to burn the wicked and to preserve them; for, serving as food for himself, he will be like the fabulous kite that gnaws at Tityus without killing him, as the poets say. He will burn and torture bodies without destroying them. - Those whose virtue is perfect will not be touched at all by this fire, because they will have within themselves the power that will remove them from it. God gives this fire the power to torment the criminals, but spare the blameless.” And a thinking soul cannot help but pay attention to the properties of hellfire! In nature, known to us, we know fire that goes out, fire that destroys things exposed to its action, fire that is usually accompanied by flame. The difference is obviously huge. How can we understand the wonderful properties of hellfire, and what concept can we form about it?
We think we can see the key to resolving this issue in the words of Jesus Christ himself, borrowed from his parable “About the Rich Man and Lazarus.” This parable, known to every Christian who is attentive to the word of God, says that the rich man, being in hell, in torment, saw Abraham far from him and Lazarus in his bosom, crying out and saying: “... 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 received your evil; now he is consoled here, and you suffer..."(). From these words of the parable, first of all, it is clear that the torment of the rich man in the fire of Gehenna consists of the closest internal connection with his earthly life: “Remember that you received goodness in your belly”, - Abraham tells him; in return for what - "now you are suffering". - What kind of good is this that the rich man received in his belly? During his earthly life, as stated at the beginning of the parable, the rich man feasted brilliantly every day: “every day he feasted brilliantly”(). After this kind of earthly life, what kind of torment befell the rich man? His larynx is scorched with an unbearably burning fire; For her, the unfortunate sufferer asks Abraham for cooling. Whatever he sinned during his earthly life is scorched by hellish fire; the sufferer was a sensualist, and his organ of voluptuousness, his tongue, suffers; the sufferer loved on earth an artificial, refined way to satisfy his taste - in hell he sees the only means of cooling this sense organ in the most natural object of quenching thirst, in water; He says: “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.”. For the fire of Gehenna to burn the entire body of the sufferer, this is not evident from the parable.
What concept of hellish fire, which has the power to scorch unrepentant sinners, follows from the parable of Christ the Savior? The tributary sufferer burns in the fire of his earthly passion; fire receives its food in the artificiality, refinement, and abnormality of the use of the sinful organ; the source of cooling for him is seen in the simplest, natural object, intended to satisfy the scorched part of the body; in a word - "they are the sufferer sin, and thereby suffer.”(). From here it so naturally follows that every unrepentant sinner will be scorched in Gehenna by the fire of his passion, scorched to the extent that the organs of passion have deviated from their natural use to the unnatural, from the simple to the artificial, from the normal to the abnormal, from the legal to the illegal; this abnormality, this illegality will be the source of hellish fire, which could be extinguished only by what constituted a simple, unartificial, normal, legal way of satisfying sinful organs, but it was too late. Each of those who go to hell will cry out like the sufferer of the tributaries: “I suffer in this flame”, in the flame of my earthly passionate inclination. This source will also contain the variety of hellish fire for different kinds of sinners, about which St. Ephraim the Syrian says: “Otherwise an adulterer suffers, otherwise a murderer, otherwise a thief and a drunkard, etc. .
So that the conclusion we draw from the Savior’s parable receives strength, and the concept of hellish fire receives greater certainty and clarity, let us turn for an explanation of the subject that interests us to the book of nature and read from it what is necessary for us with the help of science. This necessity will relate to a thorough consideration of the structure of our body, as far as it matters in our moral life. What do we draw from this source?
a) “Throughout our entire body, wherever there are signs of sensation and movement, a network of nerves extends, originating in the centers of the nervous system - the brain and spinal cord, located in the bone storages.”
b) “Nerve threads themselves do not have the power to be excited and act, nor the ability to feel, think and want, but through them and in no other way the soul controls all vital activities, they are nothing more than unconscious conductors of excitation that are produced by the soul, or are received by it from the outside world. When an impulse of some passion excites a person’s soul, then its excited state is communicated by the nervous system, as if by telegraph wires, to all members of the human body.”
c) “A nerve excited by the soul to a certain activity, from the frequent repetition of the same actions, not only more easily performs these actions, but can and often receives a physical inclination towards them, makes this inclination felt by the soul, which senses the nervous organism with its characteristics and those physical inclinations that were established in him from the frequent repetition of one or another activity. Thus, first we need to use a significant effort of consciousness and will in order to give one direction or another to this or that activity of our nerves, and then we are forced to use the same effort of consciousness and will in order to counteract the inclination of the nerves that we ourselves have in them rooted: first we lead our nerves where we want, and then they lead us where, perhaps, we don’t want to go at all.” “True, consciousness and will always remain with us and, no matter how strong the attraction of the nervous organism in any direction, we can always counteract it, but the fact is that, while our consciousness and will act almost instantly, in fits and starts , the nervous organism, with its inclinations and habits, influences us constantly. As soon as our will weakens for a moment, or our consciousness becomes occupied with another subject, our nerves begin to push us into the mode of action to which they are accustomed, and “we,” as Reed puts it, “are carried away by habit, like a stream when we swim, not resisting the flow." Only intense attention to oneself and time can change the mood of the nervous organism.
d) “Experiments show that the same nerve can generate only one kind of sensation, although to varying degrees. We, for example, noticeably get tired of vividly imagining, that is, expressing in nervous movements, any one picture, so that this picture, despite all the efforts of our will, begins to fade more and more, while at the same time time we can vividly imagine a different picture. But some time will pass, and we can imagine the former with the same vividness.”
e) From this explanation about the ability of a certain kind of nerves to perform only a certain amount of work, a new position is explained: “the nerves get tired from activity, but, having rested, they continue their work again.” About this property of the nerves, let us note the following: “the correct change from fatigue to rest constitutes the normal activity of the nerves and makes the whole human being feel good. But when the nerves are withdrawn from their normal activity, they seem to stop getting tired, continue to work with extraordinary energy and often torment us with their uninvited activity. Abnormal activity of irritated nerves, repeated frequently and lasting for a long time, depletes the strength of the body - this is a well-known fact.”
f) If the abnormal activity of the nervous system always has a painful effect, then we cannot help but see from experience that such painfulness manifests itself with greater force in the abnormal irritation of the nerves by illegal, immoral actions of people. Let’s take debauchery as an example: what does it bring to those who indulge in it? With the continued satisfaction of passion, that is, with the extinguishing of a fire with oil, the victims of debauchery do not always notice the danger of their situation. However, even in this case it sometimes comes to such an unnatural mood of the nervous organism, in which the victims of passion are furies that go beyond the boundaries of all decency. Who has not heard of the dissipations of Messalina, Poppaea, Lucretia Borgio and many others? What if they decided to abstain from their passionate exploits? Oh, then they would have experienced what Mary of Egypt experienced, who with all conscientiousness confessed the sinful acts of her life, shortly before her death. She says: “I spent 17 years in this desert, as if fighting with fierce beasts with my thoughts... When I began to eat food, the thought of meat and fish immediately came to me, to which I was accustomed in Egypt. I also wanted wine, because I drank a lot of it when I was out in the world. Here, often without simple water and food, I suffered fiercely from thirst and hunger. I also suffered more severe disasters: I was overcome by the desire for fornicating songs, as if I heard them, confusing my heart and ears.” At the same time, “A passionate fire flared up inside my heart and scorched me all over, arousing lust.” So he died seventy years ago, having suffered countless misfortunes. From these words of the Venerable Mary, what is important for us is her recognition that she was unbearably scorched by the fire of habitual passions, with the cessation of satisfying them. These words of recognition give us the opportunity to understand that all furies of voluptuousness are furies because they burn in the fire of their passion, kindled by themselves and supported by the incessant satisfaction of passionate demands. Yes, almost anyone who has ever been under the influence of a strongly excited carnal passion has experienced inner burning. Let us also listen to the statement of bitter drunkards when they are denied a glass of vodka for a hangover. By their own admission, these unfortunates are burning internally with a fire scorching them. This is the confession of the drunkards of St. Basil the Great expresses it this way: “In the bellies of those who immeasurably drink wine, a flame burns, which they are unable to extinguish. “For such people the prophet Isaiah sheds tears, saying: “Woe to those who from early morning look for strong drink and until late in the evening heat themselves up with wine.” ()" .
What is said about some passions, the same happens with all with the onset of the impossibility of satisfying them; that the highest degree of abnormal irritation of the nerves affects so clearly, the same happens at lower degrees, only to a lesser extent. St. Basil the Great says: “Those who live passionately have their own fire of passions, just as the rich man had within himself a reason that burned him with thirst.” Or: “We prepare ourselves to become fit for burning, and like fiery sparks, we kindle within ourselves the passions of our souls for the ignition of the Gehenna flame, just like the rich man who is scorched by thirst in the flame.” Or again: “What is sweet for you in the present will have a bitter end; This tickling, now happening from pleasure in our body, will give birth to a poisonous worm that will endlessly torment us in Gehenna, and this irritation of the flesh will be the mother of eternal fire.”
g) What can we say about this fire that burns people, bringing their nervous organism into abnormal, passionate irritation: is this fire a metaphorical expression of the painful, painful state of the body under the influence of passion, or is it a real fire? We have to put aside any thought about metaphor and say: yes, this is real fire, and not fire understood in a figurative sense. Let's explain. We said that tired nerves, after rest, are again capable of activity. What happens to them during rest? What is the essence of rest? During it, new materials from the nutritional process enter the nerves, instead of those consumed, materials that replenish the loss and, as a result, renew the strength and strength of the tired organism.
What kind of consumable material is this, replenished from the nutritional process? This is electricity, the presence of currents in the nerves was positively proven by Dubois-Raymond and accepted by science as a fact that is no longer subject to doubt. During normal activity of the nerves, during rest, they receive as much new material as is needed to continue such activity. But if a certain section of the nerves is abnormally irritated, if, therefore, the amount of electricity flowing from the nutritional process cannot correspond to the strength and tension of the excited nerves, then this deficiency is made up for from the available resources of the body in this way: science, on the basis of experience, accepts solidarity between all physical forces by which one of them can transform into another: movement into heat, heat into movement, both into electricity, electricity into magnetism, etc. From here it becomes clear that excessively, abnormally irritated nerves can transform into what is necessary for In them, electricity is another force required for other functions of the body, as a result of which, as stated above, exhaustion of the body occurs during the normal activity of the nerves of one or another department.
Having considered everything that has been said about the nervous organism and knowing that people will be resurrected in the same body in which they now live on earth, in the same body, although it will appear after the resurrection in a renewed form, with the same normality or abnormality of functions that was developed in him the soul on earth and which, therefore, will turn out to be akin to it after the resurrection - having realized all this, we believe that the future hellish fire will not be metaphorically understood, but real, material fire, only the fire does not scorch the sinner from the outside, but burns him from within, the same one that forms the basis of the vital activity of the nervous organism, electric fire. With excessive abnormally irritated activity of the nerves that served one or another sinful inclination, the amount of this fire will appear in them incomparably more than what should be for the normal state of the body, will appear on the basis of the transition of forces from one to another, due to their solidarity. An increase in the amount of fire in sinfully inclined nerves will cause a person to burn precisely in the fire of his passion, to burn the more intensely, the more significant the abnormal irritation of the nerves, the more abundant, therefore there will be a transition of the forces of the suffering organism, due to their solidarity, into the electricity of abnormally irritated nerves . This fire will burn a person - a sinner, but will not burn, because it (fire) is the very basis of the vital activity of the nervous organism, it will burn and will never go out, it will burn, but not shine, then it will rather fog a person’s consciousness, due to its inexpressibly painful burning sensation . In order for a person to burn in this fire, there is no need for flaming fires, or servants who light the fires and maintain the strength of the flame by adding new combustible material instead of the used one, or boiling cauldrons with tar, or any other instruments for executing sinners. With this fire, wherever an unrepentant sinner is placed to live, he will suffer everywhere, even if he is placed in heaven, according to the wonderful expression of the late Most Reverend Innocent.
At the present time, the excessive amount of fire in abnormally excited nerves is reduced through various kinds of organic secretions, the result of which is fatigue of the nerves, and not a burning sensation by the fire attracted in excess - although even now, as stated above, as if in indication of future fire, there are cases burning in the fire of passion. The current secretions of abnormally excited fire, bearing the stamp of moral damage, form a morally corrupt atmosphere, corrupting the world and preparing material for the fire that has the power to transform and renew the universe. But when the world is transformed and renewed, when, according to scripture, nothing bad and unclean can no longer enter its boundaries (), it cannot, otherwise the harmony of nature would again be disrupted and would not appear to correspond to the blissful state of the righteous, then the discharge is abnormally excited and excessively there will be no accumulated internal fire of sinners, therefore, there will be no fatigue of the nerves, then the internal fire will remain hopelessly in its internal hearth and will constitute undiminished, incessant, eternal torment for those who have gathered it, always equal to itself.
This fire, as the fruit of an imbalance of forces attracted in excess to abnormally tuned nerves, to the detriment of others, will naturally and necessarily produce physical disgrace in the body, which will increase further as a result of the painful shocks of the internally burning sufferer. We can give an explanation from the phenomena of present life, from the words of St. Basil the Great. This holy father, depicting the state of an angry person at the highest level of irritation, says: “For those who desire revenge, the blood boils in their hearts, as if from fire, agitated and noisy; having come out, he shows in a different image of one who is angry: the eyes of those who are angry, characteristic and ordinary, are not known; the gaze is fierce and fiery; they will sharpen their teeth like pigs in a rage; the face is blue and bloody, the voice is cruel and tense beyond measure, the words are unclear, reckless, not detailed, pronounced less than decently and well. When a person is kindled incurably, like a flame from too much heat, then one must see an even greater disgrace, which cannot be explained in words or shown in deeds.” If a person is so severely disfigured by the internally active fire of passion now that the balance of forces can be restored again, then what will happen to the cessation of this possibility? It is natural to conclude that the degree of ugliness will then be revealed to an incomparably greater extent.
An explanation of the fact that hellish fire will remain hopelessly inside the sufferer, and due to its hopelessness - without the possibility of cooling the hellish burning, can be found in the following church narrative. From this narrative we see that the ulcers that torment the sinner in hell are hidden from everything around them - which is expressed by the clothing covering them - and if they become noticeable to those who have received the revelation of the secrets about the afterlife, then only by a special dispensation of God, for the admonition of those who are careless about your salvation. This story is conveyed as follows: “Two friends entered the temple of God, and just fell upon the touching word of the preacher, strong in truth and sweetness of speech, who proved the saving power of self-sacrifice and the whole danger of worldly vanity. One of them was so touched by the power of this word that his heart could not bear the reproaches of his shocked conscience and the warmth of his tender feelings: he wept bitterly about his situation and, in these burning tears of his repentant soul, made a promise to the Lord - to stop loving everything and become a monk; on the contrary, the other was in a completely different arrangement. Instead of being convinced of the justice of God's word and, with the sincerity of repentance, deciding to correct his corrupt heart, he became hardened and cruelly mocked the truths of the Gospel. These friends in the church still parted with each other in spirit, and after leaving it, in body: one, indeed, gave away all his property to the poor brethren and became a monk, and the other lived luxuriously and in strict fulfillment of the whims of his heart, like an evangelical rich man, and “ every day he feasted brilliantly.”
It happened that the monk outlived the layman, and when the latter died, his friend wanted to know the state of his afterlife, and in this desire he sincerely and with faith prayed to the Lord God, leaving his holy will to fulfill his childhood prayer. He heard him, and a few days later his dead friend appeared to him in a dream. “What, brother, how do you feel – is it good?” – asked the monk, delighted by the vision. - “Do you want to know this? – the dead man answered with a groan. - Woe to me, poor thing! A never-ending worm gnaws at me and doesn’t give me peace for an eternity.” “What kind of torment is this?” – the monk continued to ask. “This torment is unbearable, but there is nothing to do: there is no way to avoid the wrath of God. I have now been given freedom for the sake of your prayers and, if you want, I will show you my torment, but do you want to see and feel it completely, or partially? You cannot fully endure my torment, so try and see some of it...” At these words, he lifted the hem of his dress to the knee, and horror and the unbearable stench so struck all the senses of the sleeper that he woke up at the same instant... The whole leg which his friend revealed to him was covered with a terrible worm, and such a fetid stench emanated from his wounds that there is no word or pen to express it... And this hellish stench so engulfed the cell and the monk that he could hardly jump out of it without even managing to slam the door behind him, causing the stench to continue to spread throughout the entire monastery; all the cells were filled with it, and the alarmed monks did not understand what it meant... For a long time this hellish air did not disappear, and the brethren involuntarily had to leave the monastery and look for shelter elsewhere, and the friend of the deceased could not do anything or in any way to get rid of Once the stench is inhaled, it can neither be washed nor drowned out with the aromatic essences of this smell.
The Holy Scripture also speaks about the isolation within the sufferer of hellish fire and the impossibility of weakening the burning sensation of hell in the parable of Christ the Savior cited by us “About the Rich Man and Lazarus.” The unfortunate sufferer is scorched by the fire of his passion acting within him, and finds no relief for his torment in anything. This impossibility lies in the eternal separation of hell from heaven, or, in the Gospel expression, a great abyss that no one can cross ().
A faint resemblance to the state of those suffering in hellfire can be seen on earth in people suffering from fever. We all know from experience that the correct distribution of heat in the body, combined with the correct and timely release of everything unnecessary, produces a pleasant sensation and brings pleasure to the body. But as soon as deviations arise in the body, as soon as its pores, due to some reason, close to evaporation, what then happens in a person? The inner fire that beneficially warmed him begins to burn painfully; the burning sensation of this fire is also noticeable to those around the patient. With this combustion, however, there is no flame; The darkness of the fire is increased by the darkness of the mind, in which the sufferer rushes in all directions, would be ready to throw himself into both fire and water if they were not restrained, not further noticing the danger to themselves.
This comparison is used by St. John Chrysostom, when discussing hellish fire, which he understood, it seems, is the same as us. He says: “Having heard about the eternal fire, do not think that the fire there is similar to the one here: this one, which will capture, burn and change to something else, and the one whom it once embraces will always burn and will never stop, which is why it is called unquenchable... If you are ever in a strong fever, then transfer your mind to that (Gehenna) flame. For if fever torments and worries us, then what will we feel when we fall into the fiery river that will flow before the terrible judgment seat!
4. The undying worm.
What kind of worm is this? And to this question, as to the question about the fire of Gehenna, we do not find a direct answer either in Scripture or in the teachings of the church. Setting aside the idea of an exclusively spiritual understanding of this kind of hellish torment, which, according to some theologians, has a symbolic meaning and denotes torment of conscience when remembering vile deeds committed in this life, the godly fathers and teachers of the church recognize the literal meaning of the doctrine of the undying worm, although They don't explain what kind of worm it is. So, for example, St. Basil the Great in the word “about the future judgment” says: “Imagine a kind of worms, a kind of poisonous and flesh-eating worm, which always eats and can never be satisfied, causing intolerable diseases with its remorse.”
Having behind us the authority of the fathers and teachers of the church, we also recognize the Gospel teaching about the undying worm not as a symbolic expression of remorse, but as a teaching literally understood. Wanting to give our conviction the possible thoroughness, let us turn again to the data obtained by science and providing material for understanding the Gospel teaching, proposed in the form of positive truth. What does science give us to explain the subject under consideration?
In Quatrefage, for example, we read: “A large number of bladder worms live in the intestinal canal; Tremaloths are found in almost all viscera, bladder worms seem to prefer the tissue itself, which is why they are found in the muscles, the center of the brain,” etc.
“We see that all these and similar animals feed and then breathe at the expense of the animal in which they live. Every animal that has its own nutrition, its own temperature, its own fluids, represents at the same time a set of different conditions, and therefore a special world for helminths. Therefore, these alien creatures must be distributed according to their nature and cannot live without distinction in all animals. The observation confirms these theoretical considerations. Every kind of animal feeds only its own helminth. To count all alien eaters without exception, it would be necessary to consider all creations and enumerate all animals.”
“These strange animals sometimes fill the viscera and tissues in myriads, penetrating into the very part of the skull and into the cavity of the eyeball.”
In the book “God in Nature, According to Camille Flammarion” we read: life is diffused throughout nature, the continent is too small for it; it rushes in all directions, it inhabits the waters and the inorganic kingdom... Thus, this complex, incomprehensible, varied life inhabits every kind of animal and every kind of substance... Do we know how many different genera of animals and plants are in our body?
What is said in these extracts is not the private opinion of the named authors, but the results of experiments in science, which never ceases to comprehend more and more the secrets of nature created by God.
What conclusion can we draw from the data acquired by science presented to our readers?
If the human body, in its large and small parts, in tissues and muscles, in bones and fluids, is the totality of the innumerable world of living beings, then it lives the total life of all these living beings. But just as living, microscopically small creatures inhabit every living organism of a higher living being, but microscopic creatures of some genera and species live in some higher organisms, others - in others, then the human body is a collection of only known genera and species of the microscopic world of creatures. These living beings inhabit the human body because their nature is in complete agreement with the conditions presented by the human body. But a person, governed by free will, can change the correct, normal conditions of his organic life, distort and become stagnant in the changed conditions of life, ultimately becoming a slave to his unhappy habit. For example, a correctly developing nature calls a person to chastity, abstinence, honesty, respect for the Rights of other people, a person can distort himself, becoming an uncontrollable libertine, an everlasting sensualist and reveler, a desperate rogue and scoundrel, despising all human rights and dignity. If a person, controlled by free will, can radically change the conditions of normal human life, ultimately becoming a slave to new, albeit abnormal conditions, then one should conclude that the world of microscopic creatures inhabiting his body adapts to the changed conditions of life and, having adapted , becomes so accustomed to them that the cessation of these conditions should produce a painful irritation in them, accompanied by a painful state of the whole organism. Only the repetition of abnormalities that have become a habit drowns out the silent but uncontrollable cry of the microscopic inhabitants of an organism that has deviated from the correct living conditions - drowns it out so that this cry subsequently intensifies even more. Do I need to look for examples to explain this? Anyone who wants to have such, let him look around him. Further, perhaps, it will be enough to pay attention to oneself, to the phenomena of one’s own life: every petty habit, if its requirements are not met, responds with more or less significant languor in the body.
Let us now imagine the position of a person who has accustomed the world of microscopic creatures of his body to altered, abnormal living conditions - the position in the future afterlife. The world of microscopic creatures will remain in him the same as it was on earth, because there is the basis of the organism, but accustomed to changed, abnormal living conditions, which will not exist in the renewed world, he will powerfully conspire against his master. It will be impossible to drown out this cry of the internal inhabitants of the body the way we drown it out here by repeating abnormalities, because the renewed world will not provide material for the repetition of abnormalities, otherwise a disorder in the world would again occur, the same as what exists now, the same misfortunes and disasters, which are oppressing humanity now, otherwise the whole work of our salvation would turn into nothing. It remains to suffer from a freely developed abnormality, to suffer without the hope of ever seeing an end to suffering, because its end would be tantamount to the cessation of being, to suffer the more intensely, the more the normal conditions of organic life were distorted here on earth - to suffer, having the necessary companion suffering of this kind is gnashing of teeth. That the grinding of teeth will necessarily be accompanied by the cry of the microscopic inner world can be understood from the example of those now suffering from worms, in whom the grinding of teeth is closely connected with the disease.
On this topic, the late Most Reverend Innocent offers the following considerations: “Another type of torment,” he says, “is the torment of never-ending worms: everyone regards this as a metaphor; but, looking closely at nature, one should almost assert that these worms will really be there. Physiologists have noticed that the base, or the first elements of all bodies, consists of worms (ciliates); since these are the constituent parts of all bodies, they will never be destroyed. Now they are in our body in normal combination with it and with each other, and therefore do not torment us; among the wicked, who have been subjected to eternal torment, they will form disharmonious groups and will torment them. This is very natural, and the scripture, speaking about this, seems to have used not a likeness, but the thing itself; otherwise it would have been expressed better, it would have found a more noble expression.”
Oh man! Bring your mind and heart to the thought of your mysterious posthumous fate, to the thought of the indicated hellish torments, which, of course, confuses your spirit when you remember that terrible time in the existence of unrepentant sinners. And having leaned in, you, of course, will throw away the unfounded fear of hell - you will throw it away, knowing that hell is not something external for the wicked, but his internal, acquired property, constituting one whole with his very organism, and therefore cannot leave him anywhere , not for one minute, whether he reaches heaven, or the underworld, or somewhere else. A person’s deeds, according to scripture, follow him (.). Instead of a vain fear of hell, you should try with all your might to arouse in yourself fear and hatred of sin and all the deeds imprinted with its seal. It must, we say, because, after what we have said, you should thoroughly understand the meaning of the moral requirements of the word of God like these: “Or you do not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor harlots, nor sodomites, nor the covetous, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor predators will inherit the kingdom of God.”(). Or: “The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, discord, temptations, heresies, hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”(). Now you understand, O man, that these divine instructions are not the demands of a willful master, but the urgent need of your nature; it contains an irresistible incentive for you to turn away from evil deeds and cleave to the Lord. The opposite course of action will ignite an unquenchable hellish fire in you, awaken and educate the never-ending worm. You will sin with them in this life, given to you to prepare for the future life, and you will suffer with them () (see “Orlovsk. Eparch. Ved.,” for 1878, No. 10, etc.).
Application
A. Evidence of eternity of torment
Even in the books of the Old Testament, eternal torment is often mentioned. The evil one will not be without torment, as it is said in the parables of Solomon. According to the prophet Isaiah, the fire of sinners will not go out, that is, it will burn forever. The Prophet Daniel speaks of eternal shame for some people and considers eternal life to be the opposite state for others: he foreshadows both after the resurrection of the dead.
In the New Testament, the Forerunner of Christ preached for the first time about eternal torment. This time he puts before us such a picture. When the grain harvest is over, the wheat will be put into the granary and the threshing floor will be cleansed: then the matter will be dealt with with the tares or chaff. The chaff is collected in a heap and, like useless material, is burned with fire. Chaff is the unrepentant sinners whom the Judge will burn with unquenchable fire (). The most merciful shepherd Christ himself repeatedly spoke about “hell” (), about "fire hell"(), about the fiery furnace and about pitch darkness. According to his teaching, the future execution of sinners has absolutely no limit. So, when he inspires us to anticipate and overcome dangerous temptations, then in this one speech he repeats the words many times “where is the worm of their sinners?” does not die and the fire does not go out"(.). Isn't this the special insistence of his preaching? Most clearly, he preached about eternal torment a few days before his suffering, when he prophetically described the latest events of the world. Depicting the Last Judgment, he first called eternal hellfire “Curse Me into everlasting fire”(). And then he recognized the burning in this fire as eternal: these go into eternal torment. Going, without a doubt, means an action that seems to be already taking place. But even though the terrible steps towards Gehenna of sinners are still far from us, perhaps they will follow another thousand years after this, yet before Jesus Christ a thousand years are like yesterday. As a God-man, he clearly saw the time when sinners would move from the place of judgment to hell. Thus, his speech in the present case is especially positive: there is no condition here. And therefore, no matter how anyone interprets his sayings about eternal fire and eternal torment, the truth remains undoubted that not only evil spirits will burn in that fire, but also some of the people, this is absolutely true. But it must certainly be for some, because God’s decision about it has already taken place and will not change, although not one of those to whom this decision applies will suffer in any way by accident, by misfortune, by inevitable fate, but he himself will be alone the cause of his death. What kind of unfortunate people these are, now we cannot indicate except for a few, for example, the future Antichrist, Nero, the persecutor of Christians, and others.
The apostles of Christ also preached about eternal torment. The strict Peter, the most patient Paul, and John the Theologian, full of love for his neighbor, predict eternal destruction for sinners. From their writings, let us cite at least the words of the last one in the Apocalypse: the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. This is what the apostle-theologian says about sinners, and specifically from among the people. It would seem that it was enough to terrify the soul with this one word: forever. But he adds; centuries. What can be said against this accuracy? It is impossible to understand: forever and ever, not in the sense of eternal and endless time, but in the sense of only several centuries, as now the word “age” means a hundred years, because in the same inspired book the Apostle also uses the same words. But everywhere he expresses with them the undoubted infinity of time, for example, that it exists forever, that the kingdom of Christ will continue forever.
The holy interpreters of Scripture, the fathers and teachers of the church, all accepted the teaching of the word of God about the fate of unrepentant sinners in the next world in no other way than in the sense of their endless torment. One of the ancient church writers, very famous for his learning and works for the benefit of the church, a certain Origen, admitted the idea that after some time the torment of sinners would end. But the holy church recognized his teaching as false and condemned him at the whole ecumenical council (fifth). Ephraim the Syrian, especially, thought and talked a lot about the eternal damnation of sinners.
Then the holy martyrs spoke about eternal torment at the places of their execution. This means that they expressed their conviction in her at such hours when it would be scary to tell a lie, not only to them, but also to anyone else, and when, moreover, the special grace of God was with them, which strengthened their spirit and body in torment as much as and enlightened their minds with the truth. Thus, the holy martyr Polycarp responded to his tormentor’s threat to burn him at the stake with a sermon about eternal fire, in which villains like the tormentor would burn.
Even after these proofs, let others still reject eternal torment. Let both, smart and foolish, make objections to the present dogma of faith. Let them say with mockery: “Has anyone ever returned from the other world?” Let them joke about hell and hellish fire, calling it all the belief of the common people and boasting of some kind of fearlessness. But the truth, which has been preached so many times and in such clear words in the word of God and explained by St. fathers, will remain an immutable truth: it will not lose anything from incorrect interpretations, various softenings, from witticisms and jokes. For this very reason, that is, that some do not believe it and, thus, live their lives here without any fear of God, and eternal fire will befall those who do not believe. Others deliberately distance themselves from the thought of hell so as not to bother themselves at all. But this means repeating the murmurs of unclean spirits who spoke to Jesus Christ while possessed “You came here ahead of time to torment us”(). This means the sooner to reach eternal restlessness, because he only sins less every day who assumes about each of his days that this may be the last day of his life, that then judgment and eternity will come for him. Still others, although they do not shy away from thinking about the future fate of the sinner, harbor in their souls regret that they are too just. So Lot’s wife, although she was afraid of the Sodom fire, had not yet rejected Sodom with all her heart, her heart still strove for Sodom, and for this she turned into a pillar of salt. No, dear reader, we must here turn our regret only to the fact that by our unrepentance we bring upon ourselves the eternal wrath of God.
B. Image of hell and the future torment of the sinner in it
Imagine the widest, precipitous abyss, imagine it with such a deep bottom that nothing can be deeper, that it is impossible to get out of it. Or imagine a whole lake, only filled not with water, but with fire: from this fiery lake, flames shoot up into the air with a terrible roar. This is what hell will be like! This will be the room for sinners after the current chambers or poor huts, but those where almost every day they had noisy fun and spent their lives in debauchery. God was not feared and man was not put to shame.
With his sense of smell, the sinner will feel the stench of the components of hellfire, for example, a bogeyman, or flammable sulfur.
By touch he will feel only the burning power of fire. His body will be enveloped on all sides and, so to speak, doused with fire: as I suffer in this flame, it is said about the rich man. And what else? The fire will penetrate to his very entrails. Just as a person drowned in a river is surrounded and pressed from everywhere by water: the water presses him from the outside, while the water fills his insides, so in hell the sinner will be completely penetrated by the opposite element, fire. The only difference here will be that a person drowned in water does not feel the pressure of the water on him, but a sinner will fully feel the fire scorching him. From the force of the fire, all his limbs will seem to crack, his veins will be tightened. A worm that never sleeps will be painful to the touch of a sinner. This again will not only be a remorse of conscience, but an actual worm that will constantly prick the sinner. Among the fiery flames, the worm will blacken over a vast space, it will agitate like water during a storm: its external appearance will also be disgusting: “the area of the spectacle is purulent... the heat is unbearable... the worm is stinking and fetid,” I will say again in the words of Cyril of Alexandria.
Finally, the sinner’s sense of taste will not be left without excruciating pain. With his taste he will experience the disgusting bitterness of hellish fire, and at the same time an unbearable thirst, since the fire that scorches him from the outside will also be like food for his insides: send Lazarus, “Let him wet the tip of his finger and cool my tongue”(.), the rich man tearfully asked Abraham from the underworld. The sinner will taste with his taste and "the poison of asps under the lips" his own () perhaps because he unworthily partook of the body and blood of Christ.
That the sinner will preserve the feelings of the soul is clear from the words of the Savior “Fear more the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna”(). If not only the body, but also the soul is destroyed in Gehenna, it means that the soul there will remain alive and conscious; This means he will remember, think and feel. Yes, in one and the same eternal time the sinner’s real life will be united with the past, present and future time. To roughly imagine what he will feel there with his mental abilities, let us assume his conversation in hell with himself, or suppose his future memories, as if spoken out loud.
Let us first pay attention to its past tense. So, for example, an atheist, remembering his life, will say to himself: “I also deliberately suppressed religious beliefs in myself.” The truths of faith spoke to my soul about themselves, but I was looking for books and people who would convince me otherwise, that is, that there is no God and no future life. Now I see that there is a God. I didn’t want to know him voluntarily: now I know him involuntarily. Now, in fact, I am convinced of the insanity of my previous reasoning, for example, that “the soul means nothing, that man is only matter, or the composition of flesh and blood, which are forever destroyed with him.” Also: “how many I have infected with my freethinking and unbelief! How fearlessly he entered the church, which meanwhile others entered with reverence! How he despised priests, laughed at every sacred thing, and thus insanely deprived himself of saving grace!” – A stubborn schismatic will remember: “How many admonitions have I neglected! I didn’t want to believe even the most obvious evidence of Orthodox truth! Even before his death, St. rejected confession. communion, which my loved ones invited me to accept, but which my “mentors” in the schism rejected me from. I was called to the church, as to Noah’s ark: but instead of the legitimate priests, I wanted to listen better to the same ignoramuses, or at least worldly people, like myself. And now I find myself behind the saving ark, drowning in a fiery flood!”
The idolater will remember the soulless idols that he worshiped instead of God... The lover of money will also remember his money and property, which he now also puts in place of God, which is why he is called an idolater. The sensualist, who in this life has fun all the days brightly (), looks at this life as only a period in order to enjoy in every possible way, there he will actually feel the power of the sacred text: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He will ask himself: “Where are these feasts with music? Where are the everyday evenings for unnecessary relaxation, playing cards, running away from your family? Where are those who visited me in such great contentment that they drenched themselves in wine? Where is feminine beauty? The stubborn proud man will remember how much from his pride, which he now manifests in various ways - love of power, inaccessibility, irritability, ambition, and contemptuous treatment of others - will remember how much others have suffered from his satanic pride. Nowadays, he doesn’t even want to listen for a minute when someone thinks of awakening his conscience, begins to tell him the truth directly or only in modest terms: he runs away from truthful speech and closes the door behind himself, so that there is no possibility of ever conveying it to him. the truth, to lead him out of error. But there he will be tied hand and foot, so he will inevitably listen to all the accusations from his conscience.
The blasphemer will remember how he carelessly and impudently used the name of God in conversations, writing and vain deification; how he further cursed the name of God, remaining, through the long-suffering of God, not struck at that very moment; as he called his “angel” a woman’s face, for whom he had unclean love and with whom he then lived depravedly. The oathbreaker will remember his many oaths, which he took without any fear and consciously violated, his vows before God and the assurances of others, in the name of God, which he did not even think of fulfilling. The one who blasphemes will remember all the cases when he turned church services, holy icons and clergy into jokes and laughter.
Those who do not honor Sundays and holidays will remember how at a time when good Christians hurried to church, they, on the contrary, went to field work or - even worse - gathered in houses of feasting and debauchery, as if on holidays, as if on purpose, they organized singing and ceremonies, or else they all gathered in one house (club) for fun; Like all the holidays, we spent only in revelry. These same people will remember how, apart from two or three days of fasting, which they performed only according to custom, they never went to church during the whole year, how, when they got up in the morning and went to bed in the evening, each time they did not even think of praying to the Lord God. Those who break the fast will remember the meat and wine with which they satiated their bellies, while others (even those weaker in strength) remained on dry eating or did not think about food at all (for example, on Great Friday). The blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, who expressed their blasphemy, for example, by not recognizing the holy relics and miracles that may have been performed before their eyes, will be convinced that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be tolerated in the next century.
Disobedient children will remember how, with their rude words, their resistance and depraved lives, they forced their parents to grieve and cry for them. But it will be difficult for the parents themselves to remember how they clearly seduced their children into a lawless life, how they did not try to raise their children in the fear of God, and thus brought them along with them to this place of torment. In the next world the priest will remember his grace and say: “How many times have I forgiven the sins of others, but have not earned forgiveness for myself! The higher bliss I should have received in paradise, the lower my fall into the depths of hell.” The memories will be difficult for the leaders who did not observe justice in anything, acting, apparently, on a legal basis, but in fact they did not set up any laws for themselves, except for their own opinion and arbitrariness; demanding from others only unquestioning obedience and giving nothing to the freedom and rights of their neighbors, they themselves did not in the least submit to either the gospel or the rules of St. churches. It will be bitter for them to remember how they envied worthy people who were under their power and influence and, out of envy, did not allow them to breathe freely, while rewarding and exalting the unworthy and flatterers. Since they were strong, they would be tortured even more for their abuses.
How terrible will be the memories of suicides who were free to destroy their souls, easily and autocratically disposed of their lives, but will not be able to stop their torment in hell with a new suicide! With what horror will other murderers remember the failures of crime, especially those who raised their murderous hands on the parents themselves, or shed the blood of a priest, or tortured their own wives and children, as once persecutors for Christ did, or even took the lives of pregnant women and babies! Terrible will be the memories of haters, molesters, cruel rich people, seducers, in general, all those who killed their neighbor slowly, physically or mentally and morally! The consciousness of these people will bring to light all the tears that the innocent shed as a result of their cruelties. And they will cry the more intensely, the more tears others have shed from them in this life.
Fornicators and adulterers will remember in the next world how they laughed at the chastity of others, how from an early age they desecrated themselves with fornication, and how they also seduced many innocents; how they dissolved legitimate marriages with their criminal connections, how they seduced widows; how they had concubines or concubines until old age and, then dying, did not want to end the shameful relationship; how they reached such sins of carnal passion that it is shameful to say, they will remember that they did not restrain themselves from their passion further on the great bright holidays, on the strictest fasts and fasting days. At the same time, they will be reminded of bad words and their equally bad songs, music and theatrical performances, from which their souls were pampered and their imaginations were inflamed. These people will feel the stench of hellfire all the more.
The robber and thief will remember their robberies and thefts, as well as the very things that they acquired and used unjustly. It will be terrible for the arsonists to remember their arson, because these villains left both rich and poor, elderly and infants homeless; Because of their malice, good Christians lost the temples of God, and perhaps some perished in the fire! The fire of hell will burn them in a terrible way. The lazy will remember their talents that they buried in the ground; a fiery flame, like some kind of scourge, will bite them for laziness.
The slanderer will be reminded of his vain suspicions of others, his gossip, his evil tongue, from which many died, his false denunciations and testimonies, his very evasiveness from the defense of a right and innocent person, in general, his constant favor only towards untruth and lies.
The envious person will remember how he gloated over the failures of his neighbor, how many times, out of envy, he stopped the good undertakings of others, while he himself did nothing useful; how one would like to possess everything; how he burst into flames with his heart () when he saw the intelligence, merits and successes of another, and how after that he took revenge on this person, without knowing why; how much with his intrigues and envious persecution he took away from others good nights, health and years of life. For this very reason, in the next world he will be greatly consumed by his conscience and howl, as it were, like a stupefied dog howls.
Here are examples of how sinners in the future life will remember their past!
“But is it really possible, you say, that even one person will be subjected to eternal torment? For example, will the troublemakers be tormented forever?”
The trouble is that one passion in a person (when it reaches the highest degree of development) rarely exists without other passions and sins. Let's say, for example, about the same annoying people. By their name we mean people who are slanderous and scolders, and should also be understood as those who hinder others in some way and generally disturb the good tranquility of their neighbor. They have an evil heart: they sometimes do not spare their neighbor even in his illness. They have no fear of God, because they often do not respect the sacred place where they annoy others. That’s how many other vices these people combine with their main vice!
I will also note about the future memories of the sinner. Bringing to mind the wicked life here, he will see that sinful pleasures were not always easy for him, but were often combined with vanity, illness, difficulties and further suffering of his own kind.
What will be the consequence of all these memories? What will be left of them for sinners? Repentance is the most painful. Sinners recognize their guilt and will not blame anyone else for their destruction: they will see that the keys to the kingdom of heaven were in their own hands. It will be especially bitter for them to realize that they had long, long ago heard about hell and eternal torment, but did not believe anything or remained careless. However, there will be no deep and humble repentance in them. Their repentance will be similar to the repentance of a stubborn murderer who is caught in the crime itself or has committed a crime in front of others: this criminal, let’s say, does not lock himself in his crime, but does not soften in the least in his heart and does not ask for forgiveness. The repentance of sinners in the next world will be similar to the repentance of the desperate Judas the traitor.
Recalling their past time in general, sinners will also pay attention to those years that they have already spent in hell since the Last Judgment. But it’s nice to remember the difficult time, when this time has passed and calm days have come. And for sinners in the next world, even after a thousand bitter days, not a single joyful day will come. For them, the beginning of hellish torment will mean nothing in comparison with its continuation, on the one hand, because the subsequent days of their life in hell will be similar to the first, and on the other hand, hell will be so painful that it will be impossible to get used to it. .
So, the past tense will be terrible, terribly terrible in all respects for those who will suffer eternal torment! Poor soul of a sinner! How much she will suffer along with her body! This, my brothers, is what it means to destroy your soul in that life! (See the book by Archpriest Popov: “Eternal torment of the sinner.”)
B. About the subsequent time in the life of sinners in the next world
If we take current life as an example, then sometimes even the most unfortunate people find some joy in their future.
Let, for example, someone else on earth be assigned to spend a thousand days in hard labor. If he spends only the first day, then he probably knows that he has not a thousand days left to live in hard labor, but 999, and he says to himself that he has “taken a step forward.” Another was sentenced to 10–15 years of hard labor. His years pass slowly and sadly. But over time, he strengthens his spirit and gives himself up to waiting, beginning to count down the remaining years of his term one month at a time. Let anyone be sent to work for the rest of his life. And such a person (besides the fact that someday he will be relieved of his difficult condition) often also feeds himself with the hope of being freed. There are permanent exiles and just dreamers. They don't need their dreams to be impossible. But they knew in the fate of their comrades cases of unexpected release from work, and so they dream of their own freedom, and they delight themselves with the dream.
But for the eternally condemned sinner there will be no hope left. There will be no way out of hell for anyone: it will be like a sea without a pier. “The wilderness is impassable and the abyss immeasurable...; there will be no way out for the prisoner, the prison wall is impassable...; the shackles cannot be removed.” Let someone say to the atheist burning in the fire: “You will suffer for another thousand years,” or let it be announced to the arsonist: “You still have to suffer for another five thousand years.” They would begin to wait for the end of these periods. But, unfortunately, no one else will promise them anything; they themselves cannot indulge in any gratifying dream or unconscious expectation of a better time. On the contrary, one painful eternity will clearly appear to their consciousness. They will wish to die a hundred times, but will not wait to die. In today’s life they sometimes talk about a person for whom his long-term illness or other long-term suffering has ceased: “My life has suffered; The unfortunate one will no longer suffer!” But in the future light the sinner's eyes, full of tears, will never close; his groans will never subside there, and the grave no longer awaits him. In this respect, he will be like a person who has suffered from insomnia, who, no matter how hard he tries to fall asleep, is far from sleep and is therefore completely upset. Finally, the state of the sinner will not be life, but also not death, understood in the sense of the separation of the soul from the body. This will be eternal dying, or, as they say in the apocalypse, the second death.
So, in the past tense, rejected sinners will find one painful regret, in the present - one painful suffering, and in imagining the future time - only horrors. That is why they will curse their birthday and themselves. Despair, a terrible disease of the soul in this life, will be their endless disease. Some will grind their teeth in despair, while others will cry continuously. There will be no compassion for them from anywhere. Other evil spirits, whose will they carried out here and with whom others, such as wizards, were in the closest communication, will not help them either. The evil spirits themselves will be tightly bound, they themselves will be in much greater despondency and destruction in their souls. Evil joy is partly a delightful feeling, just as every sin in this life gives the sinner sweetness, albeit temporary, at least sometimes for one minute. But in the future life the sinner will drink not a sweet cup, but only the sorrow of his sins.
D. About the degrees of torment
Christ the Savior threatened some Jewish cities and villages with a terrible fate in the next century. These were those cities and villages that, although they heard his preaching and saw his extraordinary miracles, did not believe anything and were not moved by anything. He compared these cities with other stubborn sinners who lived before, or if simultaneously with them, then outside Palestine. And so, in comparison with the latter, he clearly expressed the highest degree of punishment for them: “It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that city.” (.). “It will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon than for you.”(). And he pointed precisely to the execution after the trial of the latter (on the day of judgment!...). At other times, he spoke directly about his second coming, after which there would be rewards for some and executions for others. And what did he preach? “The servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him will be required more.”(). Although ignorance of the will of God as set out in revelation is not excusable for anyone, anyone who has full knowledge of this will and yet does not apply his knowledge to the matter will deserve a great execution.
The Holy Fathers discuss the difference in torment for sinners: “there are different kinds of torment... And what is said in parables: in the day of hell makes it clear that some, although in hell, but not in the bottom of hell, suffer the lightest punishment; otherwise the adulterer suffers, otherwise the fornicator, otherwise the murderer, otherwise the thief and drunkard; There should be no doubt that the very punishments to which sinners will be subjected will differ according to the differences in their crimes.”
In the word of God (except for the teaching about the servant who knew and the one who did not), as well as in St. fathers, we still find indications of who will suffer more and who will suffer less in the next world. The Apostle Paul, offering the doctrine of rewarding people daily "revelation of God's righteous judgment"(hence in the next century), says: “tribulation and distress upon every soul of every man who does evil, both Jew and Greek first”(). The Jew was given a complete understanding of God and the commandments of God, but the pagan was deprived of this understanding. So, he will be punished more severely compared to the latter. Only in relation to both, the name “doing evil”, translated from Greek, means “unrepentant villain.” St. Chrysostom teaches: “Whoever has received more instruction must endure a greater penalty for the crime; The more knowledgeable we are... the more severely we will be punished.” Therefore, it was said to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, who rested on the law, and yet did not want to move a finger to fulfill it: you will receive unnecessary condemnation. Those who have the greater power to oppose evil in themselves and in others will also be subjected to greater torment (sometimes one word of theirs or one letter of theirs could support the truth, inspire innocence, give rise to good enterprises), but who, meanwhile, have always only patronized vice and they themselves oppressed the truth: it was given to him... much, much will be required of him.
“How will the torment itself differ?” We can deduce their difference (in the sense of greater or lesser cruelty) from some Gospel sayings. Yes, St. Chrysostom, from the torment of the rich man who asked to send Lazarus to him, turns to each such sinner: “But with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you; You didn’t give a grain, you won’t get even a drop.” St. Ephraim the Syrian applies torment to the quality of those sins and passions that someone has sinned here: “Whoever harbors wickedness in his heart and envy in his mind, he will be hidden by a terrible depth.” According to the teachings of the same father, “There is total darkness in a special country...; gnashing of teeth special place; Tartar is also a special place.” And the holy martyr Patrick says: “Tartarus is deeper than all the other abysses under the earth.” St. prayed against the same Tartarus. Cyril of Alexandria: “I am terrified of Tartarus, where there is not even a little warmth.” St. Joseph of Persia said to his judge-torturer: “The persecutors of Christians will be condemned to eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Souls who believe and revere the terrible justice of God! It is true that to be subjected to even the lightest torment in the next world will be a great misfortune. In today's prisons, others take advantage of better accommodations and more lenient treatment from the prison guards against their fellow prisoners: but isn't the mere deprivation of freedom painful for them? So, let us avoid not only excessive crimes that directly bring us closer to hell, but also such sins that we consider to be everyday, but with which, however, our soul and body are desecrated, and for which, finally, (such as swearing in anger towards one's neighbor) the gospel also threatens Gehenna.
Greek philosophers often regarded sodomy as higher than sexual relations between a man and a woman. Thus, in the work “Symposium,” Plato glorifies the malaki as follows: “These are the best of boys and young men, for they are by nature the most courageous. Some, however, call them shameless, but this is a misconception: they behave this way not because of their shamelessness, but because of their courage, masculinity and bravery, out of passion for their own likeness.”
Dahl's Dictionary TAT m. (to hide), thief, predator, kidnapper, who stole something, who steals custom, prone to this, little used. stealer In the old days, thief meant a swindler, to steal, to cheat, to deceive; and thief, the direct name of a secret kidnapper. Theft, theft, kidnapping; theft by deception, theft; theft by violence, robbery, robbery; theft is simple, the secret removal of things. Nowadays the law distinguishes between theft-theft, theft, and theft-fraud, theft. Serves the thief right with flour (whip). Tatya is being tortured, her ribs are being broken! Tatem passed, sneaked. A thief, not a thief, but to become the same, a supporter, a handyman. Night (death) will cover (or ruin) like a thief. The thief stole the thief's baton. Incense on the devils, prison on the thieves. Tate's ducklings were stolen (shortcut). Church congregation Tatba. Tatbina Church a stolen thing, the most lost thing. Tatsky, Tatya is old. related to the tat, thief. Bring robbery, murder, Taty's cases to provincial elders in the cities. Laid down. Tatebny, tatstvenny, related to theft, theft, theft. Tatebnoye, everything is stolen.
N.A. Berdyaev “Truth and Revelation Prolegomena to the Criticism of Revelation. “Chapter VIII THE PARADOX OF EVIL. ETHICS OF HELL AND ANTI-HELL. TRANSFORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION
It is a great honor to Fr. S. Bulgakov is that in the third volume of his system of dogmatic theology he resolutely rebelled against the idea of eternal hell. In this he expresses the tradition of Russian religious and philosophical thought, the Russian idea. Eternal hell for him means the failure of God, the defeat of God by dark forces. I have long expressed the idea that the “eternity” of torment does not mean an infinite duration in time, but only the intensity of the painful experience of a certain moment in time. For Fr. According to S. Bulgakov, evil has no depth and, as it were, exhausts itself and destroys itself. And for him the idea of the eternity of hell is unacceptable to his conscience. And also “Orthodox teaching on salvation” Sergius (Stragorodsky), Patr.
As you can see, readers, we have given these memories in order of all ten commandments of God. Now these memories can constitute a “confession” for the sinner before God, which will not be rejected, which God grant to all of us!
