Who will go to hell. Why did a loving God create Hell? How to throw away the key to hell's door
Hell is an artificially created world, a place of punishment in which sinful people fall after death. Hell is needed for educational purposes, so that civilization lives in love and kindness, since the fear of the torments of Hell is stronger than pride, thirst for revenge, greed and any other vice.
Hell is below ground level, in the semi-material world. This world is of a different density than ours, so they can exist simultaneously in one place and not influence each other in any way. Hell is located within the planet, underground, because it is not as big as Paradise, which is located in the outer space of our solar system, and besides, in Hell, the role of demons is played by another highly developed civilization that lives in underground cities and is hostile to people.
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The tall white aliens did not want to mutilate their souls by becoming tormentors in hell, they made it possible for the underground civilization to vent their anger in this way, for which it is like entertainment. They hate people because they are created "in the image and likeness" of their creators, because of which they are forced to live underground and hide their existence.
Avoiding Hell is impossible if you deserve it. Some will think “I didn’t know about this, I didn’t sign up for this”, but it will be too late. It is possible to be saved from Hell only during earthly life. Asking for forgiveness or returning what was stolen is much easier than paying for it in Hell. All people are sinners, some to a small extent, and some to a greater extent.
HOW TO AVOID HELL?
To start from scratch, you need to ask the Creators for forgiveness for all the bad deeds from childhood to the present, you need to remember and sincerely regret it. Forgive those who are offended, since carrying evil in the heart is also a sin.
Of course, you won’t be able to remember everything, and perhaps not everyone will be able to sincerely repent. Therefore, if there is such an opportunity, it is better to ask for forgiveness from the one to whom he personally harmed or correct the consequences of his bad deeds. If there is no such possibility, and a person hardly remembers his sins, then during earthly life you can always compensate for this with good deeds. For example: raise your children well, help those in need, give good advice, come up with something useful. Any of your actions that have benefited other people goes to the piggy bank. If a person boasts about his good deeds, then the “good deed” is not counted.
A "good deed" should be a human initiative, not a job and not taken for granted.
And of course, after repenting for your sins, you should live right, control your actions, words, thoughts, get rid of bad habits. Of course, many questions arise: “What is considered a sin and what is not?” . Here you can think for yourself what is good and what is bad, or read the Teachings of Jesus, the Bible, the Holy Testament.
Believing fanatics will not escape Hell if they do bad deeds. Faith, prayers, going to church, observance of church holidays do not give them privileges over unbelievers. You can repent anywhere, not defiantly, for this it is not necessary to go to church. Praying is also useless. You can’t fix anything with prayer and you won’t help yourself, but the Angel is already watching you and hearing all your thoughts. The main thing is to just be a good person!
DESCRIPTION OF HELL
“... The body looked like my real ones, only a little different. The demons were tearing at my flesh, but when they did, no blood came out of my body, there was no liquid, but I felt pain. I remember that they picked me up and threw me against the wall, and after that, all my bones kind of broke. And when I was going through this, I thought that I should die now, I should die after all these injuries and from this heat. I wondered how it was that I was still alive.
There was also the smell of sulfur and burning flesh. At that time, I had not yet seen anyone who would burn in my presence, but I knew this smell, it was the familiar smell of burning flesh and sulfur.
The demons that I saw there and that tormented me, they were about 12-13 feet tall, about four meters, and in their appearance they looked like reptile reptiles. Their strength was about a thousand times greater than the strength of an ordinary person, so the person who was there could not fight them and resist them ... "
“... An angel came up and took my arm. Then we began to fall down at a very high speed. As we fell, it got hotter and hotter. When we stopped, I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing on a high road. I began to look around and saw people tormented by demons. There was a girl there, she suffered a lot, the demon mocked her. This demon cut off her head and stabbed her everywhere with his spear. It didn't matter to him where, in the eyes, in the body, in the legs, in the hands. Then he put the head back on the body and continued to prick it. She sobbed with cries of agony. Her body was dying and regenerating again, endless agony of death. Then I saw another demon, this demon was tormenting a young man of 21-23 years old. This man had a chain around his neck. He was standing near the fire pit. The demon stabbed him with his long spear. Then he grabbed him by the hair and with the help of a chain threw the guy into a pit with fire. After that, the demon pulled him out of the fire and continued to stab him with a spear. It went on and on and on…”
Hell. lake of fire
“... I saw a lake of fire. The fiery sulfur lake stretched before me as far as the eye could see. Large fiery waves, were like sea waves during a strong storm. People were lifted high on the crests of the waves and then promptly thrown down into the depths of the terrible fiery inferno. Once on the crest of the fiery waves for a moment, they let out heart-rending cries. This vast underworld resounded again and again with the lamentations of abandoned souls…”
There are more or less serious sins. Are the punishments for them in hell also different?
Of course, the penalties are different. But know that the weakest torment in hell is equal in strength to the strongest torment on earth. The weakest joy in paradise is like the strongest earthly joy. Depending on how a person spends his life, according to the strength of the sins he has committed, he sinks to the bottom of hell. Take, for example, Khrushchev, the "miracle worker". He closed about 10,000 churches, many monasteries; What do you think - he's not suffering there? He will face eternal terrible torment there - if he did not repent before his death.
And 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 according to 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 strong fire, and he stood on the balcony and enjoyed. He opened the most severe persecution of all Christians. Diocletian, Julian, Nero - there were many of them; of course, they all got a place in hell, according to their deeds. God did not punish them, they punished themselves.
The man was baptized at a mature age. Continuing a sinful life, he became an apostate from Christ. What awaits the soul of such a person? Would it not be better for him not to be baptized at all than not to justify the mercy of God?
Saint Macarius the Great was once walking through the desert and met 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, struck the skull with his staff and asked:
Tell me who are you and where are you?
I am an idol priest, he replied. - I'm in hell.
Do you ever find consolation, the Reverend asked.
There is joy when in the Orthodox Church Christians commemorate their dead on Saturdays and Sundays. In the upper layers of hell then there is light, it partially penetrates to us. Then we see each other. It brings us great joy.
The Reverend also asked:
And below you - idol priests - is there anyone?
Orthodox Christians who were baptized, but did not go to Church, did not wear crosses, did not repent of 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 broke churches, removed crosses, bells from churches, burned icons, holy books?
There were times when all this was done en masse. Some were afraid of God, but there were "braves" - they did all this. But often they fell from the temple or from the bell tower and were smashed to death. Such people generally do not often live to see their death. There was such a case in the Caucasus Mountains. One monk from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - Hierodeacon Isaac - 92 years old suffered from bandits. Monks lived in the mountains, there was a church. He himself was blind. The brothers went to the city of Sukhumi for worship on a big holiday. He was left alone. Three Muslim Abkhazians came and said:
Give me everything of value you have. - They began to ask him for gold, money.
He says:
I am a wilderness. I don't have any of that. Look for what you find - yours.
We will kill you. We kill a monk - what a fly!
They took a towel, tied it around his neck, led him to a cliff and threw him into the abyss. He crashed to death.
Now an old archimandrite lives in the Pochaev Lavra. His cell was then built just below Fr. Isaac. He heard everything they said and saw everything that the robbers did, but he could not help - the mountains interfered. 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 - fell into an abyss, another was crushed by a tractor, a 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 be severely punished on the Day of the Last Judgment. Everyone should know that he will get what he deserves. The Lord loves everyone. The Lord is waiting for everyone. He waits for the person to repent. But when there is no longer a feeling of repentance in a person, when the person who is choking has completely hardened, then there is a sudden death. Demons take this soul and drag it straight to hell. Sometimes these people commit suicide.
What do those who have been in the other world say about hell? What is he?
Television rarely shows something soulful, instructive. But then somehow an interesting program was going on on the Muscovy channel. One woman, Valentina Romanova, told how she was in the afterlife. She was an unbeliever, got into a car accident, died and saw how her soul was separated from her body. In the program, she told 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. Screaming: "I'm alive!" But no one heard her voice. She grabbed the doctors by the hands, but she did not succeed. I saw a piece of paper and a pen on the table, I decided to write a note, but I could not take this pen in my hands.
And at that time she was drawn 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 I am?
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. Fear gripped her and she 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 opened up to her. A cliff of 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 there are those who committed terrible Sodomic sins during their lifetime, unnatural, fornication.
In another place, 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 the word was before. Only gradually she understood how terrible the hellish torments are, what sin is, what vice is.
Then I saw a volcanic eruption. A huge fiery river flowed, and human heads floated in it. They then plunged into the lava, then emerged. And the same voice explained that in this fiery lava there are souls of psychics, those who were engaged in divination, witchcraft, love spells. Valentina was frightened and thought: "What if they leave me here too?" She did not have such a sin, but she understood that in any of these places she could stay forever, since she was an unrepentant sinner.
And then I saw a staircase that led to heaven. There were a lot of people going up this staircase. She also began to rise. A woman walked ahead of her. She was exhausted, became exhausted. And Valentina realized that if she did not help her, she would fall down. It can be seen that she is a merciful person, she began to help this woman. So they got into the light 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 ended up in a hospital bed with the man who hit her standing in front of her. His last name is Ivanov. He told her:
Die no more! I will pay for all damages on your car (she was very worried because the car was broken), but don't die!
She was in the next world for three and a half hours. Medicine calls it 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 then revived, he turns out to be mentally handicapped. The Lord once again showed the miracle of the resurrection of 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. It was in the sixties. When I was returning from the army, I stopped by Barnaul. A woman approached me in the temple. She saw that I was praying and said:
We have a miracle in the city. The woman lay in the morgue for several days and came to life. Would you like to see her?
And I went. I saw a huge house, a high fence, there. Everyone had these fences. The shutters in the house are closed. We knocked and a woman came out. They said that we came from the church, and she accepted. At home there was still a boy of about six, 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 scars on her body. It is known that She had cancer of the fourth degree and she died during the operation. She told a lot of interesting things.
And then I entered the seminary. He knew that Claudia was in persecution, the newspapers did 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 in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and she was called. She sold her house in Barnaul and bought a house in Strunino. The son grew up, now he serves in the city of Alexandrov.
When I was in the Pochaev Lavra, I heard that she had gone to 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 underworld of the earth" (Ezek. 26, 20). The same opinion is confirmed by the canon of Matins of Great Saturday: "Thou hast descended into the lower earth," "Thou hast descended into the underworld 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 ore mines are far away, so hell will be somewhere outside this universe. But what are you asking, where and in what place will is she? What does it matter to you? You need to know what she is, and not where and in what place she hides. And our Christian task is to avoid hell: loving God, neighbors, humble ourselves and repent, go to that world.
There are many mysteries on earth. When Archdeacon Stephen was stoned to death, a temple was erected for him at this place, at the gates to Jerusalem. In our time, archaeologists from Belarus and Ukraine came there, opened the entrance under the temple, which leads under the city, brought equipment there and suddenly saw black birds with wingspan of more than two meters in huge underground caves. The birds rushed at the archaeologists, caught up with them
such fear that they left the equipment, drove an excavator and blocked the entrance with stones and sand, refusing to 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 coming from the nearby villages along the paths to the church. Grandmother with a wand, grandfather mince with her granddaughter, young people go ... By the end of the service, the whole temple is filled. So people go to the abodes of Paradise - one at a time. And to hell... Now the service is over. I - again to the bell tower, I see: people all come out of the church gates together. They can’t get through right away, but they still hurry from behind: “Why are you standing there! Get out faster!”
Holy Scripture says: "Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go through it" (Matthew 7:13). It is very difficult for a sinful person to give up 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 - all of us will have to go there someday. Those who have the opportunity should constantly go to church - both in the morning and in the evening. The end will come, and we will not be ashamed to appear before the heavenly inhabitants, before God. The good deeds of an Orthodox Christian will intercede for him.
Questions and answers on the reality of hell
Everyone must choose during his lifetime where he will go after death - to hell or heaven? When people die, pastors come and ask people to repent. Sometimes a family member is on his deathbed and doesn't know Jesus yet. Sometimes a person is on artificial life support, and relatives ask: is it possible to turn off the device, will the person not go to hell? This is very responsible if the question concerns death.
Many say that we will all be saved. Many say that we are reborn into another life, many argue that there is no hell, and no one will go there. Many people say that after death people will cease to exist, but this is not true.
Jesus, the most loving and most humble, walked this earth. So what does the Bible say about the place of eternal torment? Jesus spoke more than anyone else about hell, about judgment and punishment, He taught about hell more than once.
The doctrine of hell tells us how sinful we are and...
She was a hundred years old. And he is one hundred and three years old.
Their meetings happened in any weather.
And most often for some reason on Wednesdays.
He just called, said: “Will I come?”
Here somehow on Wednesdays always came.
And even when she suddenly caught a cold,
They met despite the cold,
Because she promised:
"I won't breathe on you!"
But, even though it's terrible, she breathed.
Couldn't breathe at all.
And even - they kissed each other ...
A boy in a cafe came out to them with the words:
“Sit down, your table is free today!”
And it happened in all kinds of weather
And everything receded - business and illness ...
After all, each meeting could be the last:
A hundred years and three years is no joke, of course.
They didn't want to waste a minute.
Hugs are much warmer than blankets.
They were happy every Wednesday.
At a hundred years, it is somehow stupid to fall in love, get married.
But the years fled from them in a string.
Hugs are much warmer than...
View Full Version : How sinful do you have to be to go to hell?
Do you believe that after death each of us is destined to go to one of these sacred places ..? If so, how sinful must a person be to go to hell?
Nastuxa, I do not believe in any of these places, because I have a different theory: we all end up in the same place, or rather, even this is not a place ... And given that after death we cease to be ourselves, but become “like everyone else”, i.e. our personality as such disappears - we become a grain of sand in the desert of the universe, and indistinguishable from others. We are like a mirror - each mirror is the same, but if one is covered with dust and the other is covered with grease, the reflection will be different - this “dust” is our “I” - our consciousness, personality ... After LIFE, because there is no such thing as “after death”, all the “dust” is washed off this “mirror” and we become the same ...
You don't need a lot ... little things are enough. But remember that Hell is not the only place. Is there some more…
If you died, having lived an unrighteous life, then you will not go to hell, but will be on Earth in the worst period of mankind. If your life was impeccable, then in this case you will find yourself on Earth, but in a century where there is no place for violence and cruelty.
So says the French psychotherapist Michel Lerier, author of the book "Eternity in a Past Life".
He was convinced of this by numerous interviews and hypnotic sessions with people who survived the state of clinical death. The researcher concludes that the dead go mainly to the past centuries.
“During the hypnosis sessions, all of my 208 objects of observation (with the exception of three), describing the departure from this life, pointed to past periods in history.
They recalled how they walked along a long tunnel to where there is light and peace.
They were greeted by familiar people, and then they again found themselves on Earth, though in the previous centuries.
At first, Lerier assumed that he was receiving information about the previous incarnation (the next birth ...
Jia Daozhang is a monk who lives in a cave. He is 80 years old, but he is in amazing shape. At what both morally-spiritual, and physical. At an age when most old people begin to grumble and mischief, he is smiling and easy to communicate with.
If you ask a monk how old he is, then Jia will grin and say in all seriousness - "I'm still just a child." For thirty years now, the monk has been living in his cave high in the mountains. His day passes as usual in reading mantras, prayers, studying ancient manuscripts and communicating with students. At first glance, it seems that his life is simple and unpretentious, but the monk thinks differently: every day, Jia enters into a battle between hell and heaven, which, according to him, are not in the afterlife, but “here and now” in reality during life.
“We create both hell and heaven ourselves,” Jia Daozhang believes. - It is believed that torture awaits you in hell, but I will ask you: lie down under a scalpel - this is not torture? Is sickness not torture? Disease is a punishment for our...
Thank you, TVM, for such words. I want to apologize if I created the impression that I do not want to understand anyone. In fact, my heart hurts a lot for those who respond to this article. I quite adequately understand people's beliefs and I will even say more: everyone has the right to make their own choice, to have their own convictions, to defend their position, and any sane person should be listened to completely, to the end, fairly and in detail. I am the same person as everyone here. I also have two eyes, two arms, two legs... I speak the same language and think the same as millions of my compatriots. However, a certain part of the population of the Earth has certain views regarding God. I don't say "different" views. I'm not talking about the diversity of religions and teachings. I'm only talking about "certain". This is Christianity. To understand Christianity from the inside, you need to understand the main difference between this creed and the rest. All religions talk about God and His holiness. It…
Instruction
You must be baptized. Wear a pectoral cross without taking it off.
Be sure to visit God's Temple. Go there not occasionally, but constantly.
Constantly undergo the rite of communion and confession.
Donate to the needs of the Temple of the Lord.
Donate to the poor, orphans and the poor.
Don't swear.
Always keep the 10 commandments of God.
Be pure in deeds and thoughts.
Do good on earth.
By the age of 60, you need to make peace with everyone, understand and forgive everyone.
Never give in to discouragement.
When you get married, you must go through the wedding ceremony.
Do not have bad habits.
Baptize all your children and grandchildren in the Temple of the Lord.
Live for the benefit of others. To do only good on sinful earth.
You have to be prepared to die. Think only of light. A dark soul cannot be in heaven.
Necessarily…
Can "good people" go to hell?
Perhaps you think that you are a good person, and therefore you can expect to go to Heaven. Maybe you think you don't deserve to be sent to hell because people like Hitler, Stalin, murderers, rapists and so on go there. People who kill small children. These are truly bad people.
Such reasoning seems to be quite common sense to most people. But by what standard do we determine that some people are good enough to go to Heaven and others are bad enough to go to Hell? What criteria determine the eternal destiny of man? Are they built to higher standards? The answers to these questions must be accurate. And what authority can give us accurate answers?
The Bible has much to say on this subject. However, there are many misconceptions about hell. Maybe you have your own opinion about the realities of hell. But are you willing to risk your fate in eternity to...
Firstly, hell is different according to the conditions of life. Let's call the worst astral space the Black Hell.
1. Getting into the Black Hell guarantees suicide.
2. Getting into the Black Hell guarantees a double murder without jail time.
3. Getting into the Black Hell guarantees the purchase of an apartment in Moscow or a country house, an expensive foreign car, high incomes (more than $ 2000 per month) with the obligatory condition of spending them on yourself and a lot of tourist trips around the world.
4. Getting into the Black Hell guarantees excessive pride with the humiliation of other people all your life, for example, like Alla Pugacheva. Moreover, Pugacheva gained so much monetary and psychological karma that even 1/8 of this karma would be enough to get into black Hell.
Bill Gates accumulated so much money karma that even 1/50 of this karma would be enough to get into the black Hell.
Boris Yeltsin is going to Hell, and not for his policy, but for the murder of a man that happened to him not so long ago ....
One who is mired in immorality and rejects the true scriptures, self-satisfied and does not recognize authorities, poisoned by pride, deprived of the divine qualities of virtue, entangled in the nets of illusion, reveling in his life only in sensual pleasures fall into the hellish worlds.
Killers of priests, drunkards, drug addicts, killers of cows, baby killers, killers of women, killers of children in the womb will certainly fall into the hellish worlds, they also fall there.
Those who steal the teacher's wealth, the property of the temple, or the twice-born.
The one who encroaches on the property of women and who steals the property of children.
One who does not pay taxes and who appropriates the contributions of others.
Those who betray by swearing an oath and who kill with poisoned food.
The one who takes advantage of the mistakes and belittles the merits of another.
One who envies worthy people and associates with evil-minded people.
One who despises places of pilgrimage, kind people, virtuous deeds, teachers and shining deities, who scornfully...
Avoiding punishment in hell is easier than it might seem. Some people believe that they must keep the Ten Commandments throughout their lives in order not to go to hell. Others believe that they are required to follow certain rites and rituals. Still others are convinced that there is no way we can know for sure whether we will go to hell or not. None of these opinions are correct. The Bible makes it extremely clear how a person can escape hell after death.
The Bible describes Hell as a terrible and terrible place. Hell is described as "eternal fire" (Matthew 25:41), an unquenchable fire (3:12), "disgrace and eternal shame" (Daniel 12:2), a place where "the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44-49 ) and “eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The book of Revelation describes hell as a "lake of burning brimstone" where wicked people "will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (20:10). Obviously, hell is a place we should avoid.
Why does hell exist and why does God send some...
Does the soul immediately go to Hell or Heaven after the death of the body?
An interesting question is asked by a woman to Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov. She asks him to answer the question about the fate of the soul that leaves the dead body - what awaits her there? Will the soul immediately go to Heaven or Hell. Will all souls wait for the second coming? What procedures are waiting for us before they are sent to places not so remote, or, on the contrary, they give us, souls, favorable conditions for existence, called paradise?
As everyone knows, until the third day the soul is next to the body. This already suggests that they do not immediately begin to judge the soul. Give her some time to recover from the shock. That's all, I'm silent - I'm silent, otherwise I myself will inadvertently tell everything, and this will be my story, and not the archpriest. We look and listen, what will Dimitri Smirnov tell us about this?
Now I will try to briefly express my own views, or rather a timid assumption about what awaits us after death. Firstly, no one knows for sure the mechanism ...
Archpriest Alexander Borisov
The week “On the Last Judgment” began in the Church, in churches on Sunday, the Gospel of Matthew (25: 31-46) was read about goats and sheep - sinners and the righteous. The former were sent to “eternal torment” for their deeds, the latter to “eternal life.”
On whether the Last Judgment is connected with hell - Rector of the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Shubin, publicist, public figure, archpriest Alexander Borisov:
Again about sins
In Russia, after all, people often perceive God in a very earthly way - as a judge, seeing everything, remembering everything, where each bast is in a line. I did not have time to go to the temple - immediately you - repent. Go to confession - look for your sins, read a hundred pages of prayers of repentance, only then to Communion. And it turns out that the main thing in faith is sins, and ahead is the Last Judgment and we must have time not to go to hell, but to rejoice - if we are saved - we will later, in Heaven.
It seems to me that the central theme here is still not the theme of sin - when you stole, deceived, killed, cheated on your wife - but the theme of meeting with God, whom we know from the Gospel. And this topic involves thinking about myself, about which way I go, live? what do I live for? what do I expect from life?
These questions are usually asked by young people at the age of 18-20, which is quite understandable, but it would be good to ask such questions always.
And in Christianity, it is not the theme of our guilt that dominates, but the theme of our imperfection, the feeling of inferiority without God, without an important and essential goal.
It is this certain feeling that always, even the good that I do, some imperfection of mine is mixed in, forces us to ask for forgiveness.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand - rejoice!
When a person comes to confession, he, in essence, speaks not only about his sins, he speaks about his problems. For example, that it is difficult for him to get rid of condemnation, it is difficult to forgive someone, it is impossible to overcome irritation. And all this a person understands as a kind of imperfection.
But if a priest accepts such an imperfect, weak person with love and attention, then this is also joy, don't you agree?
When you come to a confessor and see that he loves you, does not condemn you, but sympathizes, that he accepts your problems and again reminds you of Christ, who loves, forgives, despite your tricks and remains faithful to you - isn’t that joy?
You see, we have a God who, no matter what a person comes to Him with, always forgives us. There is no sin unforgiven, except sin unrepentant.
He forgives us, comforts us, gives us new strength - isn't that joy?
And this joy of forgiveness, the joy of peace with God, is the most important thing in repentance.
It seems to me that we often talk a lot about external church things. And you need to start with the Gospel. Try to understand with your heart - why is this good news? It is important to feel the spirit of the gospel. When we learn to feel it, a completely different Christianity arises.
And then we will get rid of the imitation of the grandmother in the church, who said that “if you walk like this, you will burn in hell”, we will stop even completely capturing strange, often painful things that have nothing to do with Christianity, which Christ called “straining mosquito" and hypocrisy.
Pill "from hell and for health"
We participate in repentance, but not because we don't want to, we are afraid to go to hell. In this formulation, some selfish consideration dominates.
We repent in order to become better, and by repenting, renouncing sin, we really become better!
We repent in order to appreciate the height to which the Lord calls us, to feel the love with which He leads us to Himself with the awareness of ourselves and our unworthiness.
Christ said that "He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance." There is also irony in these words in relation to those people who consider themselves righteous: they often fast, pray, and are not like other sinners. After all, they will exclaim at the Last Judgment: Lord, when did we see You hungry and did not feed, in prison and did not visit? After all, they tried very carefully to fulfill the “laws” of God.
They could even do good to their neighbors “according to the law,” as the Pharisee gave tithes. But for some reason the Lord did not accept such a tithe at the Last Judgment.
Because God does not want sacrifice, but mercy, not contempt for sinners on the part of the "righteous", but sympathy, the desire for their salvation. And understanding - that you yourself are a sinner, since you cannot sympathize, but you are arrogant.
If a righteous person does not have compassion for a sinner in himself, he is not a righteous person at all.
And therefore, the main thing for repentance is a contrite heart, and not at all the feeling that I will take communion today - as if I were taking a pill from hell and for health. You don't have to think about it.
The gospel tells us how to live here. How to love your neighbors, and that there is a certain tuning fork of this love - that is precisely a contrite heart and faith in God's mercy. As a rule, if there is sincere contrition, there is also hope.
Don't look for quick answers, learn to live with questions
This is exactly what Silouan the Athonite said: "Keep your mind in hell and do not despair." And he added: not everyone can do it. Some think about hell and therefore they are afraid, despondent. Others, in order not to despair, try not to think about such topics at all. Can these two poles be connected?
You see, the sayings of the saints are numerous. They suit someone - “oh, this is what I need”, but not for someone. Because the spiritual structure of people is diverse. We must not necessarily accept the sayings of this or that saint as an axiom, which, if we do not understand and do not accept, then something is wrong with us.
The words of Silouan the Athos essentially mean what? That in his life, deeds, mentality, thoughts, each of us is worthy of punishment, worthy of being separated from God. After all, hell is a separation from God, from meaning, from joy, from Life. And because of our sins, we deserve it.
But God is able to deliver us from hell by His love. And if we ourselves want this love, we do not despair.
One of the central icons, which is often placed on the high place of the altar, is the descent into hell of Christ, who leads Adam and Eve out by the hands. This is where our joy lies! That we are freed from the sense of separation from God. We are separated from God not because He punishes us: “Oh, you are so-and-so, get out of here.” We separate ourselves from God with our thoughts and actions, we sin, and sin leads us out of the actions of His grace.
It happens that you say something unworthy about a loved one, and even if he does not know about it and will never know, you still feel guilty before him, the loss of peace, unity with him, you understand that you showed dislike. It upsets, you start to think how to make amends. We feel the same way about God. Committing some kind of sin, we understand that we have turned in the wrong direction.
Any statement of a saint always refers to a certain situation. And only the gospel word is universal. And there are a lot of things we don't understand. Vladyka Anthony of Surozh said that one should get used to those questions that have not yet been answered.
Some question, some place in the Gospel is incomprehensible to you, for example: how is it to forgive enemies or turn the cheek? Well, nothing, it means that you have not yet reached the heart. Wait. The theoretical answer, the most intelligent and spiritual, will not bring understanding here. We can even understand him right now, and then forget him, because he has not yet been born in our hearts.
But some time will pass, something will happen in life, and you will realize everything. This is fine.
A person must get used to living with his own questions: about heaven, about hell, about forgiveness, about mercy, and seek, grow in them, because faith is a path, a process.
This is not a static state in which we make spiritual discoveries, but this is an ascent.
The week of the Last Judgment is not about hell
- If you are worried about the question: how not to go to hell, what can I say?
It happens that the priests themselves tell the parishioners more about hell than about the Resurrection and victory over death. But look, the Sunday troparion of the second voice: “When you descended to death, Life Immortal, then hell killed you with the radiance of the Divine,” and on Easter, in the catechumen of John Chrysostom, we generally exclaim: “Where is your sting, death? Where is your, hell, victory? Christ is risen, and thou hast fallen down... and not one in hell."
You see, we should not delve into thoughts - what is there, but the question: “how not to get into hell” should be translated into our today's life, learning to live here on earth.
Exactly as in the prayer of the Optina Elders: "Lord, give me the strength to endure the fatigue of the coming day ... teach me to pray, believe, hope, endure, forgive and love." This is where our attention should be directed.
And even a week about the Last Judgment, which we now remember before the start of Great Lent, is not about hell. This is a reminder of our responsibility.
The Gospel story about the Last Judgment - about what you did Here and now the smallest of the brothers.
It is given for reflection on how to properly spend the time of Lent, what to repent of, but to a greater extent it is a reminder to us - how much we were able to show love around us. Here is a disturbing question.
And note that in this parable it is not asked either about a person’s religion, or about dogmas, they don’t even ask - do you believe in God at all? It is only about whether you managed to live by doing good around you, thereby participating in the work of God.
About Shammai, Hillel and comments
Photo from cultobzor.ru
A. Ivanov, "Two heads of old men (one - in the turn of the head of a Pharisee in a turban, the other - in profile)", 1830-40.
There is a famous story about Shammai and Hillel, teachers of the Torah, older contemporaries of Jesus. A man comes to Shammai and asks to explain to him the essence of faith while he stands on one leg. Shammai was indignant at such a request and drove the man away with a stick. With the same question, a man came to Hillel, and he answered: “Yes, everything is very simple. Do not do to others what you do not want to yourself, and the rest is comments. Go and study."
Why the Gospel does not say anything about the details of hell. It tells us about life here, about the wisdom and love of God. So this should be enough for us.
Do I need to forgive Hitler
Adolf Hitler comes out of the Catholic Church. Photo courtesy of skepticism.org
The Lord says, "If you forgive your brother's sins, I will forgive you." But how do I know if I've forgiven or not? For example, if something terrible happened: the betrayal of a spouse, the cruel death of a child close at the hands of a villain, and if they were raped ... Maybe you want to forgive, and even reconciled with the offender, but how to understand whether you actually forgave or in your soul is there anything left? How not to deceive yourself? I don’t want at the Last Judgment that your “forgiveness” does not count, because it was not possible to forgive the offender.
When people talk about forgiveness, many remember Hitler, Stalin, they say, how to forgive them.
It seems to me that it is not our problem to forgive the villains, we would have to forgive a neighbor, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister. At this level, learn to forgive.
Forgiveness is a process, resentment is a wound. It doesn't heal instantly. And if it heals, scars remain. But the closer we are to Christ, the more we will have the strength and ability to forgive. This is a very complex process. And he is a task for everyone who has experienced a wound. This needs to be learned.
I do not think that we need to be afraid that something will not be credited to us at the Last Judgment, if we ourselves tried very hard and, as it seems to us, we did not succeed.
Until we get to the Last Judgment, we will have many opportunities to learn to forgive a lot of things. Remember how the Lord said about the sinner who was brought to Him: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And from the oldest to the youngest, all the accusers began to disperse, because everyone realized that he, too, was not without sin, he also showed weakness, weakness, voluptuousness in some way. No one took the liberty of condemning the woman. And the Lord told her: “and I don’t condemn you (note, He didn’t say that it’s okay, everything is in order), go and do not sin in the future.” This was His decision.
Thus, he shows us generosity, love, condescension, understanding of human weaknesses and infirmities. Therefore, in the prayer of the Optina elders we find: teach pray, love and forgive us." We are learning this because we are not quite good at it yet.
Do you think the questions “how not to go to hell?” are related? with the fact that in life we always want certainty, confidence, clarity, even guarantees of some kind? This also applies to guarantees of forgiveness for sins.
I can honestly say that no one has ever asked me such questions. Basically, I see that people are concerned about how to do the right thing here and now, how to forgive, how to learn not to be angry, not to get annoyed.
Christianity is not about guarantees. It speaks of our daily bread. And we are talking not only about bread, but in general about everything that is essential.
And the future is in the hands of God.
It is no coincidence that the Lord says that when they lead you to answer for Me before the kings, do not think in advance what to say.
When we build a plan for ourselves, it may not coincide with the reality in which we find ourselves. Therefore, you do not need to think in advance, but "The Holy Spirit will give you the words how to speak." This is what we need to hope for.
Which of the vices and sins can lead the human soul to the dungeons of hellish spheres?
Hell - the lower astral - is the natural habitat of a special kind of dark spirits that never incarnate on the earthly plane, as well as the disembodied souls of black magicians and sorcerers of all stripes and types. such that the astral shell of the sorcerer is “pumped up” with unnaturally pumped energy, to such an extent that it cannot be thrown off sometimes for whole millennia. for a significant period of time they may lose the ability to reincarnate in the physical world and exist only in the lower layers of the astral plane.
Even there they do not stop doing their favorite thing, luring inexperienced inhabitants of the Earth into the nets of black magic, who do not know about the insidiousness of darkness and turn to another world in an effort to master the techniques of black magic. Admirers and contacts with "extraterrestrial civilizations", but in fact - with the lower layers of the earth's astral plane, often become victims of their activities. And woe to him who actually begins to hear calling voices after such attempts! These voices are basically like mythical sirens, luring unwary travelers to their doom.
Magic, instead of naturally attracting natural energies, pumps them up in an artificial, violent way. Trying to make certain subtle energies and forces serve their selfish, harmful designs, black magic upsets the natural balance. It goes without saying that the energies they attract from space also turn out to be of lower quality. As a result, magic multiplies space, and sorcerers are enemies of the entire creative and bright natural environment of the Cosmos.
"Don't kill!"
In addition to magicians and sorcerers, a huge part of the captives are the rulers of countries who are guilty of unleashing wars and armed clashes, murderers, and everyone who, during their life on Earth, was guilty of the death of people. Killers after death again and again will experience the nightmare of their crimes. At the same time, in the posthumous state of consciousness, they can find themselves in the position of not only killers, but also victims: in the subjective sensations that arise in their minds like painful hallucinations, they themselves become killed or tortured, thereby experiencing all the suffering of their victims.
As a follower of E.P. Blavatsky A. Besant in the book “Ancient Wisdom”, in these layers one can sometimes meet the soul of a person “relentlessly pursued by his victim, unable to get rid of it, despite all efforts to escape from the terrible persecution, with stubborn perseverance everywhere reaching him. Moreover, the consciousness of the murdered, unless he belonged to people of the lowest level of development, is in a state of unconsciousness, and it is this unconsciousness that gives special horror to his purely mechanical following of the murderer.
As for the so-called "serial" murderers-maniacs, killers or executioners-sadists, the horror of their position defies any description. But even the most severe posthumous suffering will not atone for their terrible karma to the end: having incarnated on the earthly plane, such people will someday take the place of their former victims, being killed by other villains like themselves.
Karmic punishments in the other world also await those who violated the ethical laws of the Cosmos in relation not to people, but to our smaller brothers - animals. A person who during his life killed and tortured animals - whatever the reasons for this - will take unenviable karma with him into the afterlife.
On this account, A. Besant wrote in her book “Ancient Wisdom”: “... cruelty attracts the coarsest materials and the most evil compositions of astral matter into the astral body of a person. Therefore, such a person lives among the images of his many victims crowding around him, groaning, trembling, howling in pain ... They are animated, but not by the animal soul, but by those vibrations of passions, which, the stronger they were, the longer they continue to live after physical death in the astral animal body; these vibrations, pulsing with hatred for their tormentor, repeat with automatic correctness his most painful experiences, powerfully impelling him to self-torture thanks to the strength of the last experiences that ended the earthly life of a tortured being.
In hell there is no arbitrary punishment imposed from outside, but only the inevitable realization of the causes created by man during his earthly life. If a person succumbed to evil impulses, then he inevitably created a prison for his soul, and this prison must be destroyed so that his soul can be freed. What goes around comes around. This is the law in all worlds, and it cannot be avoided.
The astral body of a person in the Subtle World is no worse than the body that was during life. It should be remembered that suffering is all temporary and is a lesson necessary for the soul. If a person violates the laws of nature, then he inevitably experiences those disasters that will teach him to know these laws. The lesson that he did not want to learn during his earthly life is given after death, and will be given in subsequent lives until the evil is uprooted and the person rises for a better life. The lessons of nature are strict, but, in the end, they are also merciful, because they lead to the evolution of the soul and direct it to the achievement of immortality.
The ethical law of the Cosmos, which is expressed in the formula: "Thou shalt not kill!" - comes into play not only when the life is taken from an innocent person, but also when the person himself takes his own life. A person has no right to deprive himself of what is given to him by his own karma - life.
Some of the patients who passed, describing their feelings in a different "dimension", said that on the way to bright spheres with unearthly colors and sounds, they "flyed" some dark, twilight layers of another world, in which they could see dejected, desperate people looking for something and not being able to find it, as if lost in another reality. Moreover, the resuscitated vaguely flashed the idea that in front of them - those who themselves deprived themselves of life on Earth -. When a person voluntarily passes away from life, and not due to karmic circumstances, the energies given to him in earthly life remain unexpired, unused. They, like a magnet, chain a person to the Earth, preventing him from ascending to higher, luminous spheres. A person becomes a prisoner of the circumstances that he created for himself. Therefore, in Agni Yoga it is said that no matter how bad it is for a person on Earth, it will be even worse for him if he takes his own life.
Of course, if in earthly life the suicide was a good person and broke down under the weight of unbearable circumstances, the Light Forces actively try to help him in his posthumous state. But it is not given to anyone to bypass the energy action, it is only possible to alleviate it in one way or another. The heavy karma of suicide is transferred to the subsequent incarnation of a person. In his next life on the earthly plane, the suicide will have to die no longer of his own free will. And at the same time, life will be taken away from him in the happiest period of his existence, when he least wants to die. Will he have a chance to avoid the consequences of the heavy karma of a crime against his higher self? There is only one way to extinguish the karma of the past: to overtake it with accelerated spiritual self-improvement...
"Hungry Ghost World"
Not only those who have committed terrible crimes against other people and commit suicide are in hell. Strange as it may sound, but with their immoderate "carnal" attachments and passions. Any kind of excesses and moral licentiousness will cost dearly to their bearers after death. Immoderate physical extremes such as gluttony, addiction to alcohol, etc. are characteristic not so much even for the physical body as for the astral principle - the bearer of the emotional-sensory principle of a person. People who are able to control their passions and needs do not experience particular difficulties in the posthumous state, quickly getting used to the new conditions of incorporeal existence. But those who throughout their lives followed the lead of their astral, after death they find themselves in painful circumstances for them: after all, their astral body remains the same, with the same habits and addictions.
As a result, after death, the feelings, needs and desires of a person remain the same as before, but they no longer have a physical body - an instrument for satisfying such desires. People who are immoderate in their physical needs, accustomed to gluttony, sexual excesses, drunkenness, etc., suffer greatly due to the fact that they cannot experience the pleasant sensations that food or a portion of alcohol gave them. In the Facets of Agni Yoga, it is said about the preservation of astral feelings and desires after the transition to another world: “Gluttony, lust, drunkenness, smoking and other purely bodily negative qualities of the spirit and lust associated with them cannot be satisfied after liberation from the body, but they can be taken with them to the Subtle World, if they are not outlived on the earthly plane. If on Earth desires burn a person, where they can be temporarily satisfied, then what can be said about the Supermundane, where their burning cannot be quenched even for a moment? Hatred, anger, greed, envy, and other feelings that are no longer bodily, but astral feelings in the astral world are especially acute, because the body does not prevent them from vibrating completely, and the environment does not distract.
“If only they understood how urgently purification is necessary! Ulcers of the spirit are hooks for darkness to grasp with claws, to drag the spirit into darkness. Imagine a situation when a person, striving upward, but not freed from the ulcers of the spirit on Earth, is surrounded by dark ones, who, clinging to these ulcers, through them irresistibly drag him down into their spheres of the lower layers. Ulcers of the spirit, that is, lusts, irresistibly draw the spirit into the spheres of intensity of revealing these lusts in them, where it can satisfy in an apparent way, no matter how monstrous they may be, in order to immediately feel a new hunger, a new thirst, since the apparent satisfaction of hunger does not satisfy but only increases the insatiability of every dark desire. Verily, the torments of Tantalus. (…)”.
There is a special place in the structure of the infernal layers, which is called in the Tibetan religious sources “the world of hungry ghosts”. What drives people's souls into these layers? One and only circumstance: the impossibility of satisfying the former sensual needs in the posthumous state. Constantly feeling the need for primitive, animal pleasures, the disembodied slaves of their desires eventually “get stuck” in the lower astral spheres close to the physical world, as this gives them the opportunity to “pick up” energy bursts of emotions experienced by the inhabitants of the Earth, whose level of development and , respectively, needs similar to the souls of these people. Moreover, the souls of drunkards, lechers, and gluttons hover around the places of entertainment frequented by embodied drinkers and other such pleasures. Emotions and feelings of vicious people living on the earthly plane attract disembodied prisoners of their own passions, and they literally “stick” to their “friends in misfortune”, trying to merge with their consciousness and astral body in order to again experience their favorite rough, animal sensations, inaccessible to them now due to the absence of a physical body.
Often, spiritually undeveloped people who have committed suicide also embark on the path of vampirism in the lower astral. Unrealized karmic energy involuntarily attracts them to the lower layers of the astral plane, and they cannot resist the temptation and succumb to the coarse animal passions reigning in these layers.
The desire to satisfy the lower needs in the Subtle World can cause further degradation of the personality. In search of any path to the former pleasures, the soul can descend into the lower layers of the astral plane, which are in the full sense of the word. The inability to fight one's animal inclinations, the unwillingness to embark on the path of spiritual and moral purification dooms the souls of vicious people to further involution, the consequences of which undoubtedly have an impact on subsequent incarnations. Slaves of their passions are even physically capable of losing their human appearance, approaching the animal state. Agni Yoga says: “Even among modern forms one can find bestial people. Such horrors are usually attributed to the fright or shock of the mother. But among the many reasons, the main one is often overlooked. One can imagine that in the Subtle World some individuals are subject to fits of lust…”.
The bestial faces of some people are the result of close contact of their astral shells with those lower layers of the Subtle World where animal elementals, that is, animal spirits, live. Attracted by its inexhaustible passions to the world of animal forms consonant with them in terms of energy, the astral body of a person receives, as it were, the energy brand of the animal form, which is reflected in its structure and visible appearance. With a new incarnation, this form of the astral body is transferred to the etheric body, and through it to the physical body, and thus, the latter, while still in the womb, receives the corresponding bestial form.
