28.

 Give your understanding of the following (bearing in mind that the discussion of the subject in the textbook is very brief): a) the nature of hell, b) the nature of the fire of hell, and c) the nature of the Parousia.

            A. Some Gospel readings at the Liturgies of the three Sundays shortly preceding Great Lent demonstrate the Orthodox attitude towards the Last Judgment and hell. The first Sunday's Gospel is the parable of the publican and Pharisee, and the second Sunday's is that of the prodigal son. Both show God's immense forgiveness and mercy to all sinners who repent. The third Sunday's Gospel reading is the parable of the sheep and the goats. This parable reminds Christians of another possibility: that one can reject God and turn from Him and choose hell. “Then shall He say to those on the left hand, the curse of God is upon you, go from My sight into everlasting fire” (Mt 25:41).

            Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky states that in these words of Christ and elsewhere, the Word of God speaks with positiveness and certainty concerning the eternal torments of evil men. This condition of torment is depicted as a place of torment, and it is called gehenna. Christ stated: “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:43-44, also 45-48). “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” Christ stated many times concerning hell (Mt 8:12 and other places). St. John the Theologian calls this place or condition “a lake of fire” (Rev 19:20). Likewise the Apostle Paul writes that” “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes 1:8).

            The torments of hell, as Holy Scripture has handed down, are the wailing and gnashing of teeth from despair, being consumed by the worm that never dies, the agony from unquenchable fire, and being cast into outer darkness. The “torments” and “darkness” are the estrangement from God, and the wasting away of the souls of the damned, tormented by an evil conscience.

            Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky states that the Church, basing itself on the Word of God, acknowledges the torments of gehenna to be eternal and unending. The Church therefore condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council the false teaching of the Origenists that the demons and impious people would suffer in hell only for a certain definite time, and then would be restored to their original condition of innocence (apokatastasis in Greek). The condemnation at the Universal Judgment is called in the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian the “second death” (Apoc 20:14).

            One sometimes hears that the existence of hell is inconsistent with the belief in a loving God. The same Fr. Michael addresses this assertion. He writes that an attempt to understand the torments of gehenna in a relative sense, to understand eternity as some kind of age or period — perhaps a long one, but one still having an end — was made in antiquity, just as it is made today. In this attempt, Fr. Michael notes, are brought forward conceptions of a logical kind: the disharmony between such torments and the goodness of God is pointed out, as is the seeming disproportion between crimes that are temporal and the eternity of the punishments for sin, as well as the disharmony between these eternal punishments and the final aim of the creation of man, which is blessedness in God.

            Fr. Michael writes that it is not for us to define the boundaries between the unutterable mercy of God and His justice or righteousness. We know that the Lord “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). However, man is capable, through his own evil will, of rejecting the mercy of God and the means of salvation. As Mark the Monk, a hermit of the fifth century, wrote: “No one is so good and full of pity as God, but even He does not forgive those who do not repent.”

            Fr. Michael quotes St. John Chrysostom, who, in interpreting the depiction of the Last Judgment, remarks:

When [the Lord] spoke about the Kingdom, after saying, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom,” He added, which is “prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34), but when speaking about the fire, He did not speak thus, but He added: which is “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). For I have prepared for you a Kingdom, but the fire I have prepared not for you but for the devil and his angels. But since you have cast your own selves into the fire, therefore accuse yourself for this [Ibid., pp. 349-50].

Fr. Michael states that we have no right to understand the words of Christ only conditionally, as a threat or as a certain pedagogical means applied by the Savior. If one understands it in this way, one errs, for Christ does not instill in us any such understanding. Fr. Michael also notes that such a mistaken notion subjects one to God's wrath according to the words of the Psalmist: “Why hath the ungodly one provoked God? For he hath said in his heart: He will not make enquiry” (Ps 9:34).  Fr. Michael goes on to note that the very concept of anger in relation to God is conditional and anthropomorphic, and he quotes St. Anthony the Great, who states:

God is good, dispassionate and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, while turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure.... He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him; but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness, we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us, and expose us to the demons who punish us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him change, but that through our actions and our turning to God we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God's goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind [Ibid., pp. 350-51].

Fr. Michael also adds that worthy of attention are the words of St. Theophan the Recluse:

The righteous will go into eternal life, but the satanized sinners into eternal torment, into communion with the demons. Will these torments end? If satanism and becoming like Satan should end, then the torments also can end. But is there an end to satanism and becoming like Satan? We will behold and see this then. But until then we shall believe that just as eternal life will have no end, so also the eternal torment that threatens sinners will have no end. No conjectures can show the possibility of the end of satanism. What did Satan not see after his fall! How much of the powers of God was revealed! How he himself was struck by the power of the Lord's Cross! How up to now all his cunningness and malice are defeated by this power! But still he is incorrigible, he constantly opposes; and the farther he goes, the more stubborn he becomes. No, there is no hope at all for him to be corrected! And if there is no hope for him, then there is no hope either for men who become satanized by his influence. This means that there must be hell with eternal torments [Ibid., p. 351].

Fr. Michael concludes that:

The writings of the holy Christian ascetics indicate that the higher one's moral awareness is raised, the more acute become the feeling of moral responsibility, the fear of offending God, and the awareness of the unavoidability of punishment for deviating from the commandment of God. But to just the same degree does hope in God's mercy grow. To hope in it and ask for it from the Lord is for each of us a duty and a consolation [Ibid].

B. The Church does not teach that God tortures evildoers with material fire and physical agony. Rather, God will reveal Himself in such a resplendent, radiant glory in His Son Jesus that no man will fail to perceive His exceeding greatness. The saints taught that the “fire” of hell that will consume those who have rejected God is the fire of God's love. “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12: 29), One Who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:16). Those who have denied God are not deprived of God's love in hell, but for them the coming of His love and light will be a sore affliction. For them, God's consuming fire will be a cause of suffering, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. St. John of Damascus teaches that “sinners will be given over to everlasting fire, which will not be a material fire such as we are accustomed to, but a fire such as God might know” [Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, p. 406]. Vladimir Lossky adds that “the love of God will be an intolerable torment for those who have not acquired it within themselves.”

            This fire is also the same fire that will brilliantly shine in the redeemed. While the wicked experience God's love as suffering, the saints will experience His love as joy. St. Isaac the Syrian states that:

Those who find themselves in hell will be chastised by the scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those who understand that they have sinned against love undergo no greater suffering than those produced by the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold of the heart which has sinned against love is more piercing than any other pain. It is not right to say that sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God.... But love acts in two ways, as suffering of the reproved, and as joy in the blessed! [Mystic Treatises].

C. Parousia is the Greek word for the Second Coming. Since the time of Christ's Ascension from earth to Heaven, the spiritual gaze of Christians has been directed to the greatest future event of world history: Christ's Second Coming to earth. Testimony concerning it is given many times by Christ Himself, by the angels at the Ascension, and also by the Apostles.

            At the beginning of the Second Coming, there “shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn” (Mt 24:30). According to the universal interpretation of the Holy Fathers, this sign will be the life-giving Cross of the Lord.

            Christ states that the Second Coming will be sudden and obvious to everyone: “For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt 24:27). Again, it will appear “as a thief in the night” (1 Thes 5:21); “Therefore you must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mt 24:44).

            At that future time, Christ will come in all His glory, surrounded by innumerable choirs of angels: “And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt 24:30), “with holy angels” (Mk 8:38). “He shall sit on the throne of His glory” (Mt 25:31). Thus, Christ's Second Coming will be different from the first when He “humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil 2:8).

            Also, the purpose of Christ's Second Coming into the world is distinguished from the purpose of His first coming, when He came “not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved” (Jn 3:17), and when He came “to give His life [as] a ransom for many” (Mt 20: 28). In His Second Coming, Christ will come to “judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31) and to “reward every man according to his works” (Mt 16:27).

            Early Christians, as well as the Holy Fathers throughout the ages, have felt that the end of things was at hand, that Christ's Second Coming was imminent. Two millennia have since passed, however, and it has not yet occurred. Were the early Christians and Fathers mistaken in thinking the end was about to come? Not at all. Hieromonk Seraphim Rose explains that: “First of all, Christ comes to each person; each person must live in this world once and die. Therefore, for each one of us, the coming of Christ is very soon. This is very true.”

            Secondly, anyone who lives by faith and looks at things mystically — that is, tries to look behind the eternal events of history — sees that indeed those things are already happening which are to come to pass. In fact, St. John himself says in one of his epistles, “You have heard that the antichrist is to come; even now there are many antichrists.” Even in his days, the end of the first century, already many antichrists had come; that is, many people who were in the spirit of the antichrist had come, and there would be many more. The antichrist is both outside and inside the Church. Certainly the Communists are a kind of antichrist; and people who try to corrupt the Church from within also perform the role of the antichrist. We can look throughout history and see many who were very much in the spirit of the antichrist, but they were not yet the antichrist who is to come at the very end. That spirit of antichrist was present at the very beginning of the history of the Church, because the devil instantly began his warfare against it.

            Therefore, since the Book of the Apocalypse is about the whole warfare of the Church of Christ against the devil, all these things which are going to happen at the end, begin to happen right at the beginning of the history of the Church.

            In conclusion, we must view “shortly” as referring first of all to our own death, because eschatology — the study of the last things — refers to not only the end of the world, but also to the end of our life, for when each one of us dies, he goes into that other world and there awaits the end of this world. And secondly, it refers to the fact that it indeed is a short time as history is measured, and in the sight of God. We can go back five, six, seven thousand years in history. Two thousand years is a small part of that.

            The textbook sums up its explanation of the Second Coming by noting that it is not only a future event, but is something that is already breaking into the present age in the life of the Church. As Christians, we enjoy the first fruits of God's Kingdom while the Age to Come is presently being inaugurated. The New Testament ends with the words, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus has come already — in the Holy Liturgy and in the Church's worship.