All living people will be resurrected at the Last Judgment, from Adam to the very end of the world. This is what the Holy Scriptures say: all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God(John 5.28); then he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all nations will be gathered before him(Matthew 25. 31-32).

If all the dead are resurrected, then how should the words of the psalmist be understood: Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment(in Slavic translation: For this reason they will not be resurrected ...)(Ps. 1-5)? Will you perform a miracle on the dead? Will the dead rise and praise You?(Psalm 87.11). By these words, the psalmist David obviously meant a two-fold resurrection: one into life, and the other into eternal death. Hence, he wanted to say that the wicked will not be resurrected for judgment by resurrection into life, but into death. This is confirmed by the prophet David himself, as he adds: Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, and the sinners in the assembly of the righteous.(Psalm 1.5). The Lord Jesus Christ says about this: the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God ... and come forth those who have done good into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation(John 5.25, 29).

Should everyone die before the Last Judgment?

Saints John Chrysostom, Theodorite and Theophylact teach that not all will die, but the Last Judgment will find some alive.

In the first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul says: (IKop. 15.51). Saint John Chrysostom interprets these words as follows: So, we will not all die, we will nevertheless change. The dead will also change, for they are also mortal.

From the words of Holy Scripture, we can conclude that a body that has suffered or enjoyed in earthly life will participate in both eternal glory and endless torment.

It also befits those bodies that do not die to change and become incorruptible.

That before the Last Judgment there will also be alive, these are: a) Confirms the Symbol of Faith, the seventh term of which reads like this: And the packs of the future with glory, judge the living and the dead ... 6) The apostle Paul testifies with the words: the dead in Christ will rise first; then we, the survivors, will be adored with them in the clouds to meet the Lord(1 Thess. 4. 16-17).

Why does the apostle say: As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will come to life? (IKop. 15.22). All who survived until the day of the coming of the Lord, will die and come to life, having changed, but not falling and rising: we will not all die, but we will all change(IKop. 15.51). (IKop. 15.53). Saint John Chrysostom, interpreting these words, says: a perishable body is also a perishable. But death and corruption perish when incorruption and immortality find on them.

Some church teachers argued that everyone should die before the Last Judgment. Since the entire human race sinned in the person of Adam, therefore, all people are condemned to death. Finally, the resurrection cannot take place unless it is preceded by death. Of these two opinions, we believe the one that was preached by the Lamp of the Eastern Church - St. John Chrysostom.

Will the resurrected have the former bodies, or will they be different?

The answer to this question can be found: a) from the psalmist David: He keeps all his [righteous] bones; none of them will be crushed(Psalm 33.21): 6) at the apostle NS avla: (2 Cor. 5.10); this perishable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality(IKop. 15.53).

From these words of Holy Scripture, we can conclude that a body that has suffered or enjoyed in earthly life will participate in both eternal glory and endless torment.

As the seed germinates, it changes, so won't those who have been resurrected acquire new flesh? And isn't this what the apostle is talking about: when you sow, you do not sow the future body, but the bare grain, which will happen, wheat or some other; but God gives him the body he wants, and each seed his own body(IKop. 15.36-38).

The apostle speaks of appearance grain, and not about its essence, because the essence of a hard grain and a germinated grain remains unchanged: if we sow a grain of wheat, it will sprout into an ear of wheat, not barley. Likewise, human bodies during the resurrection will not lose their special properties and will only change externally: is sown into corruption, it will rise up in incorruption. A direct confirmation of this is the resurrected body of Christ the Savior, Who will transform our humbled body so that it will conform to His glorious body(Phil. 3:21).

There are innumerable cases when the ashes of a human body were completely destroyed and scattered by the wind, scattered during excavations, burned by fire and turned into smoke; also people are devoured by animals, birds and fish. How will the bodies of such people be restored and return to their original form?

As before, let's say that this is a matter of faith, not curiosity, it is impossible for humans, but for God everything is possible(Matthew 19.26). I meditate on all Thy works, I meditate on the works of Thy hands(Psalm 142: 5), - said the psalmist David about himself. Reflecting on the omnipotence of God, he unshakably believed that the sky, air, sea and everything in them were created out of nothing with one verb "let it be": for He said, and it was done; He commanded - and it appeared(Psalm 32.9). If God raised the whole world out of nothingness and created man from the dust of the earth, then, of course, He can renew the human body, even if it was scattered throughout the heavens. Saint John of Damascus was extremely surprised at those who asked: how will the dead rise? Madman! He exclaimed. - If blindness does not allow you to believe the words of God, then believe the works!

Male and female sex in the resurrected

God created male and female sex, and after the resurrection men will remain by men, women by women... The Lord mentions both sexes when he says that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but abide like the Angels of God in heaven(Matthew 22.30). We will not all resurrect in male bodies, but we will come perfect in husband, that is, let us perceive masculine strength and firmness, so that, as the Apostle says, we were no longer babies swaying and carried away by every wind of doctrine(Ephesians 4:14); let us be like the angels, not by the annihilation of sex, but by the absence of marriage and carnal lust.

Will the bodies of the resurrected not require food and drink?

Resurrected bodies will not need the physical food and drink needed to maintain a weakening, corruptible body. Why then did the Lord Jesus Christ eat after His Resurrection? (Luke 24.43). He ate and drank so that the disciples, who at first took Him for a spirit, would believe in His Resurrection, and also for testifying about the changed body.

What properties will the bodies of resurrected saints have?

The bodies of the resurrected saints will be:

A) impassive, incorruptible and immortal: sown in corruption, rises in incorruption(IKop. 15.42); those who were vouchsafed to reach that age and the resurrection from the dead ... can no longer die(Luke 20. 35, 36);

B) spiritual. They will become like disembodied spirits in strength, speed, incorruption and subtlety: they will appear thin and light, like the resurrected body of Christ, which knew no limits and barriers: the spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised(IKop. 15.44).

B) bright, as the Savior said: then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father(Matthew 13.43). According to the testimony of the Apostle, the Lord our humiliated body will transform so that it will be in accordance with His glorious body(Phil. 3:21); sown in humiliation, rises in glory(IKop. 15.43).

What properties will the bodies of condemned sinners have?

1) The bodies of condemned sinners will also be incorruptible and immortal. The Lord Jesus Christ testifies to this, saying: And these will go to eternal torment(Matthew 25.46). In those days, says the Seer, people will seek death, but will not find it; will wish to die, but death will flee from them(Rev. 9. b). For this perishable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.(IKop. 15.53) - explains the apostle Paul.

2) The bodies will suffer, experiencing terrible torment in a flame that will endure forever.

Chapter 14. The Last Judgment

Let's say the following about the Last Judgment:

1. At the Judgment, the sign of the Son of Man - the Holy One Life-giving Cross Lord. He will appear both for the comfort of those who worship the Crucified Lord and crucified with Him, and for the shame of the wicked who crucified the Lord on the Cross.

2. The deeds and innermost thoughts of everyone will be revealed. Saint Andrew says: the books of all deeds and conscience are opened and will come into manifestation to all.

3. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself will be the sovereign Judge, for the Father does not judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son(John 5.22). Although all three Persons of the Divine and Inseparable Trinity will be at the Judgment, only the Son will judge, since He endured free suffering for us. Judged unrighteously, he will judge everyone with impartial judgment.

Scripture says that besides the Lord Jesus Christ there will be other judges: when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you will also sit on twelve thrones- says the Lord to his disciples, - judge the twelve tribes of Israel(Matthew 19:28). Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? .. Don't you know that we will judge angels? ..(IKop. B. 2, 3; cf. Matthew 12.4, 42). The apostles and some saints will judge by a judgment not autocratic and independent, but communicative and contemplative. Having praised the righteous judgment of Christ, the righteous will judge not only people, but also demons.

The judgment of Christ will differ from the human judgment, since in it not everything will be convicted by words, but much by thought.

4. The judgment of Christ will differ from the human judgment, since in it not everything will be convicted by words, but much by thought. Publicly the Judge will say to those who are on His right side: come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ... Then he will say also to those who, according to left side: Depart from Me, cursed ones, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ... And these will go into eternal torment, and the righteous into eternal life(Matthew 25.34, 41, 46).

This is the teaching of Holy Scripture about the Last Judgment, and we must comprehend it by faith, and not by super-wise research. For where is faith - says St. John Chrysostom, - there is no place for testing; where there is nothing to experience, there is no more research. The human word must be checked, but the word of God must be heard and believed; if we don’t believe the words, then we don’t believe what God is. The first foundation of faith in God is trust in His teachings.

Conclusion

We want to end the discussion about the Antichrist and the end of the world with the words of the supreme apostle Peter: we announced to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, not following cunning fables, but being eyewitnesses of His greatness ... we have the most faithful prophetic word; and you do well that you turn to him as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing first of all that no prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by yourself.(2 Peter 1:16, 19–20). Having rejected all false teachings, we tried to tell about the signs of the coming of the Antichrist, relying on the messages of the apostles and prophets, on the opinion of the fathers and teachers of the Church.

Someone might ask if they indicate that recent times has already come and the days of the existence of the world are numbered, general human disasters? Is this not what the apostle said in the following words: Children! recent times(1 John 2.18): when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son (Only Begotten)(Gal. 4.4); All this ... is described as an instruction to us who have reached the last centuries.(IKop. 10.11). We will answer this question as follows: 1) At present, the world is suffering many disasters: devastating wars and catastrophes interrupt thousands of human lives, fires, earthquakes and floods are destroying cities and villages. But looking at these sorrow, remember how much innocent blood was shed by Nero, Maximian, Diocletian and other torturers and persecutors of Christians, what oppression and persecution she experienced Orthodox Church during the time of the iconoclastic heresy and in subsequent centuries. If those events did not serve as a sign of the end of the world, then all the more, the calamities of the present time are not a sign of the imminent appearance of the Antichrist: the world upheavals inherent in all periods of human history cannot indicate what belongs to one specific time. Also hear about wars and rumors of war, - says the Savior. - See, do not be terrified, for all this must be, but this is not the end(Matthew 24. b).

2) If we take literally the apostolic words quoted above, then the end of the world should have come immediately after the appearance of the Savior, when God sent His Son (Only Begotten), Who was born of a wife(Gal. 4.4). Back in those great times, the Apostle John wrote: Children! recent times(1 John 2.18). The last named and the apostolic times in the words: And will be in the last days, says God, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh(Acts 2:17). This is where the end times begin. Therefore, having met such a testimony in Holy Scripture, we should not think that we are given a certain time of the end of the world. Such words and sayings speak of a time whose end is hidden. Everyone, for example, knows that an elderly person does not have long to live, but exactly how many days or years no one can determine, even approximately. The same should be understood here as well. The last year has come since the Nativity of Christ, about the end no one knows, not the angels of heaven, but only the Father(Matthew 24.36). The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians awaiting the end of the world: We pray you, brethren, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to Him, not to rush to hesitate in mind and to be embarrassed neither by the spirit, nor by the word, nor by the message, as if sent by us, as if the day of Christ is already coming. May no one deceive you in any way(2 Thess. 2. 1-3). The whole world, from Adam to the present time, is like human life; as a person - the small world - has three main age period, so the great world has three periods or three laws. The first - from Adam to Moses - the youth of the world, from Moses to Christ - the second period - maturity; finally, the third - the Gospel, or grace-filled, period - this is old age and the last year, about which the Apostle John speaks: Children! recent times.

It can also be said that human life has seven degrees: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adolescence, maturity, old age and old age. They correspond to different periods of the world's existence: a) from the creation of the world to the Flood - infancy: 6) from the flood to the Babylonian pandemonium - childhood; v) from the separation of tongues and the birth of Abraham to the birth of the prophet Moses - adolescence; G) all the time of Judges from the prophet Moses to kings - youth; e) the reign of the kings of Israel and Judah before the Babylonian captivity - maturity; e) the period of princes and priests of Judah before Christ - old age; and g) the time from Christ to the Last Judgment - old age or the last time, which is spoken of in the Holy Scriptures.

If we take literal apostolic words, then the end of the world should have come immediately after the appearance of the savior, when the God sent his Son (the only begotten), who was born of a wife.

Who can know the limit of the infinite? Who did it open to a secret hidden from the age?

Nobody knows about that day and hour,- says the Lord, - nor the angels of heaven, but only my Father; but, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the coming of the Son of Man: for, as in the days before the flood, they ate, drank, married and got in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not think until the flood came and he did not destroy them all - so will the coming of the Son of Man be ... So, watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. But you know this, that if the owner of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have been awake and would not have allowed his house to be broken up. Therefore, you also be ready, for at an hour you don’t think, the Son of Man is coming.(Matt. 24. 36-39, 42-44).

So, the Lord Jesus Christ, commanding us to be ready for the day of His coming, forbids us to reveal the secret kept from everyone. Of those who boldly try to penetrate into the secret, the Apostle Paul says: they have vanished in their speculations, and their meaningless hearts were darkened; calling themselves wise, maddened(Rom. 1.22).

Saint John Chrysostom compares reason to a galloping horse: just as a stubborn hot horse does not obey the rider and crushes passers-by if it is not bridled, so reason, rejecting the dogmas of the Church and the teachings of the holy fathers, gives rise to numerous heresies and schisms.

Immortal Souls

I tea the resurrection of the dead and the life of the century to come

(Symbol of faith)

Whatever you say to the heart, but it tends to grieve over the loss of people close to us. No matter how you hold back your tears, they involuntarily flow over the grave, in which lies our kindred, precious dust. True, tears cannot return the one who was taken by the grave, but that is why tears flow like a stream.

A person doesn’t resort to anything to ease the sorrow of the heart! But alas! All in vain! Only in tears does he find some consolation for himself, and only they somewhat ease the heaviness of his heart, because with them, drop by drop, flows out all the burning of mental sorrow, all the poison of heart disease.

He hears from everywhere: "Don't cry, don't be faint-hearted!" But who can say that Abraham was cowardly, but he also wept for his wife, Sarah, who lived 127 years. Was Joseph faint-hearted? But he also wept for his father Jacob: Joseph fell on his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed him(Gen. 50, 1). Who can say that King David was faint-hearted? And listen, how bitterly he weeps at the news of the death of his son: my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! oh, who would let me die in your place, Absalom, my son, my son!(2 Samuel 18:33).

Every grave of a worthy person is watered with bitter tears of loss. And what can we say about people, when the Savior Himself, who had endured unbearable suffering on the Cross to the end, over the ashes of His friend Lazarus rebelled in spirit and shed tears: Jesus ... Himself grieved in spirit and rebelled(John 11:33). He wept, the Lord of life and death, wept at the time when he came to the tomb of Lazarus, His friend, with the aim of raising him from the dead! And how can we, weak people, hold back tears when we are separated from those who are dear to our hearts, how can we stop sighing in our breasts compressed from sorrow? No, this is impossible, it is contrary to our nature ... One must have a heart of stone so as not to grieve over the bereavement.

Only in tears does a person find some consolation for himself, and only they somewhat lighten the heaviness of his heart, because with them, drop by drop, flows out all the burning of mental sorrow, all the poison of heart disease.

This is all true. And I cannot, I dare not condemn your tears, I am even ready to mix my tears with yours, because I understand well that where your treasure is, there your heart will also be(Matthew b, 21). I know from my own experience how inexpressibly difficult it is to raise a hand in order to throw a handful of earth goodbye into the grave of a loved one. I weep and sob when I think about death and see him lying in a coffin, created in the image of God, and now inglorious, disfigured by death. But although it is natural for us to cry for the dead who are close to us, this grief of ours must have its own measure. The pagans are a different matter: they cry, and are often inconsolable, because they have no hope. But a Christian is not a pagan, he is ashamed and sinful to cry for the dead without any consolation or consolation.

I do not want to leave you, brothers, in ignorance of the dead, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope(1 Thess. 4:13), - says the apostle to all Christians. What, then, can alleviate this grief for a Christian? Where is this source of joy and consolation for him? Consider the reasons that make us shed tears over the ashes of loved ones, and God will help us find this source for ourselves. So, what do we cry about when we are separated from those close and dear to our hearts? Most of all, that they stopped living with us in this world. Yes, they are no longer with us on earth. But look impartially at our earthly life and judge what it is ...

Long ago the wise one said: vanity of vanities ... everything is vanity! What is the benefit of a man from all his labors, which he toils under the sun?(Eccl. 1, 2, 3). Who is it that spoke so dissonant about our life? Is it not a prisoner who, sitting in a stuffy dungeon, sees almost nothing but the heavy chains that bound his body? Is it not he who announces the vaults of the dungeon with such a bleak cry: "Vanity is vanity, all is vanity is vanity!" No, not him. So, maybe this is a rich man who, due to unforeseen circumstances, fell into poverty, or a poor man who, with all his labor and efforts, perhaps, is dying of cold and hunger? No, and not that kind of person. Or maybe this is a deceived ambitious person who has devoted his whole life to rising in society several steps higher? Oh no, and this is not that kind of person. Who is this unfortunate man with such a gloomy outlook on life? This is King Solomon, and what a king! What he lacked for happy life? Wisdom? But who was wiser than that Who knew the composition of the earth, and the actions of the elements, and the passage of time, and the location of the stars, and the properties of animals? I have cognized everything, both the innermost and the obvious, for the Wisdom taught me, the artist of everything(Wis. 7, 21). Maybe he lacked wealth? But who could be richer than the one to whom the whole world brought all the best treasures, who had both gold and silver, and the property of kings and countries? And I became great and richer than all those who were before me in Jerusalem.(Eccl. 2, 9). Or maybe he lacked fame or greatness? But what name was louder than the name of the king of Israel, who possessed millions of subjects? Then, perhaps, he lacked the enjoyment of the benefits of life? But here's what he says about himself: Whatever my eyes desired, I did not refuse them, I did not forbid my heart any joy, because my heart rejoiced in all my labors.(Eccl. 2:10). Who would seem to be tired of such a happy, free life, but nevertheless a person who possessed all the blessings of the earth, experienced various earthly pleasures, finally made the following conclusion about life: "All is vanity!"

Let's remember another king - the prophet David. His throne shone with gold, and in the midst of this splendor and splendor he cried out: my heart is smitten and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread … I eat ashes like bread, and I dissolve my drink with tears(Psalm 101: 5, 10). His royal robe shone precious stones and from his bosom, covered with a blaze of glory and majesty, a cry came out: I have spilled like water; all my bones are scattered; my heart became like wax, melted in the midst of my insides(Psalm 22: 15). His beautiful palace was made of cedar and cypress, but for sadness the doors were opened there too. Sighs are heard from the depths of the rich palaces: every night I wash my bed with my tears(Ps. B, 7).

So the happiest of people sighed about the severity of life, what to say about those who had to bear the heavy cross of trials? The prophet Jeremiah was patient in the midst of the persecutions and insults that he experienced for exposing lies and wickedness, but there were moments when this patient sufferer cried out: Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me as a man who argues and quarrels with the whole earth! I did not give growth to anyone, and no one gave me growth, and everyone curses me(Jer. 15, 10). And the long-suffering Job, this wondrous example of firmness and magnanimity in the most terrible trials! You are involuntarily amazed when you hear how he blesses the Lord on the very day when he loses all his wealth, loses his children. What misfortune and what generosity! But for Job, as if this was not enough, he fell ill with leprosy, from head to toe his body was covered with wounds. At this moment, his wife, a friend of life, comes to him and teaches him despair, then his friends appear, as if only to annoy him even more ... My God, my God, how many arrows are in one target, how many troubles per person ! And Job still continues to bless the Lord! What extraordinary fortitude, what amazing patience! But a man is not a stone; there were moments when Job, covered with sores, bitterly cried out: perish the day on which I was born, and the night on which it is said: a man was conceived … Why did I not die when I came out of the womb, and died when I came out of the womb?(Job 3, 3, 11). Here we are, if we look impartially at our days, won't we sometimes say with the same Job: "Isn't it a temptation for man's life on earth?" When a person is born, he immediately begins to cry, as if he is prophesying about his future sufferings on earth, now he is approaching death, and what again? With a heavy groan of exhaustion, he says goodbye to the land, as if reproaching it for past disasters ... Who lived and did not grieve, who lived and did not shed tears?

One loses those close to his heart, the second has many enemies and envious people, the third groans from illness, the other sighs from the frustration of domestic circumstances, this one mourns his poverty ... Go around the whole earth, but where will you find a person who would be completely happy in all respects ?! If there was such a person, he would still doubt that his life would not change for the worse over time, and these thoughts poison his joyful, carefree life. And the fear of death, which sooner or later, but will certainly stop his earthly happiness? And what about conscience, and an internal struggle with passions?

Here is our life on earth! There is no joy without sorrow, there is no happiness without troubles. And this is because the earth is not hell, where only cries of despair are heard, but also not heaven, where only the joy and bliss of the righteous reign. What is our life on earth? This is now a place of exile where with us all creature collectively groans and bugs to this day(Rom. 8:22). Tell your soul: "Eat, drink, be merry!" - but the time will come, and the words of God will be fulfilled in deed: cursed is the earth for you; with sorrow you will eat from her all the days of your life(Genesis 3:17). Now you are sowing roses of happiness around you, and the time will come when thorny thorns will appear near you. Are you enjoying the freshness of your strength, admiring blooming health and dreaming that you will live a long, calm life? But the hour will strike, and you, deceived by sweet dreams, with sorrow will hear a voice: this night they will take your soul from you ... return to the land from which you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you will return(Luke 12:20; Genesis 3:19).

What is our life on earth?

Here is our life on earth! There is no joy without sorrow, there is no happiness without troubles. And this is because the earth is not hell, where only cries of despair are heard, but also not heaven, where only the joy and bliss of the righteous reign.

This is the school where we are brought up for Heaven. Sometimes it’s fun to remember school life after leaving school, but was it always fun when we were brought up there? Concerns, labors, grief - who does not remember you? And who, living in the school, did not think and dreamed: "Oh, how soon my studies will end, how soon will I be released?"

What is our life on earth? This is a field for incessant war with enemies, and with what enemies! One is fiercer and more cunning than the other! Either the world pursues us with the cunning of a cunning friend or the malice of a fierce enemy, then the flesh rises against the spirit, for the flesh desires the opposite of the spirit, and the spirit desires the opposite of the flesh(Gal. 5, 17), then the devil walks like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour(1 Peter 5, 8). And while the war is going on, then there can be no peace. What is life on earth? This is the way to our Motherland, and what a way! There are both broad and smooth paths, but God forbid to enter and follow these paths! They are dangerous, they lead to destruction. No, such a path is not paved for a Christian from earth to Heaven, this is a narrow, thorny path, for narrow is the gate and narrow is the path leading to life(PMt. 7, 14). Here more than once a good traveler will sigh from his heart, more than once he will pour out with sweat and tears ... What is our life on earth? This is the sea, and what a sea! Not quiet and light, which is so pleasant to look at and admire, no, this sea is formidable and noisy. This is the sea on which the little boat - our soul - is constantly threatened by danger, now from the whirlwinds of passions, now from the rapid waves of slander and attacks. And what would have happened to her if she had not had the rudder of faith and the anchor of hope with her ?!

This is what our life on earth means! Consider now impartially why we cry so inconsolably when we are separated from a person close to our hearts? About the fact that he stopped living in this world ... And this means that a person has moved away from the earthly vanity, left all the troubles and griefs that still remain for us. This wanderer has already passed the earthly field, this pupil has already completed his years of study, this traveler has already reached the shore, he has already swam the stormy sea and entered a quiet pier ... He rested from vanity, toil, and grief. This is the thought that many pagans dwelt on when they were separated from loved ones - people who had no hope, people who believed and believe that by chance we were born and afterwards we will be like those who have never been: the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and the word is a spark in the movement of our heart. When it fades away, the body will turn to dust, and the spirit will scatter like liquid air.(Prem. 2, 2, 3). This is how the pagans believe and, according to their faith, they cheerfully celebrate on the mounds of relatives and friends. Thanks be to the Lord, we are not pagans, and therefore, looking at death as the end of all the calamities and sorrows of life, with reverence and joy we can repeat what the Apostle John said: henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; to her, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, and their deeds follow them(Rev. 14:13). But death is not only the end of our vain life, it is also the beginning of a new one, incomparably better life... Death is the beginning of immortality, and this is a new source of consolation for us in separation from loved ones and relatives, a source from which the Savior Himself drew consolation for Martha, who mourned the death of her brother, Lazarus, when he said: your brother will rise(John 11:23). We will not prove here in detail the truth of the immortality of our soul and the resurrection of the body, because every Christian professes a sacred dogma: the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead! For a person who has lost someone close to his heart, it can be a great joy to be convinced that the person whom he is mourning has not died, but is alive with his soul, that there will be a time when he will be resurrected not only with his soul, but also with his body. And everyone can easily see this so gratifying truth both in visible nature, and in his own soul, and in the Word of God, and in history.

Look at the sun: in the morning, like a baby, it appears in the sky, at noon it shines with full force, and in the evening, like a dying old man, it sets over the horizon. But does it grow dim at a time when our earth, having said goodbye to it, is covered with darkness at night? No, of course, it still shines, only on the other side of the earth. Isn't this a clear image of the fact that our soul (the lamp of our body) does not go out when the body, separated from it, hides in the darkness of the grave, but burns, as before, only on the other side - in the sky?

So the earth preaches the same gratifying truth. In the spring it appears in all its beauty, in the summer it bears fruit, in the fall it loses its strength, and in the winter, like a shroud of the deceased, it is covered with snow. But is the inner life of the earth destroyed when its surface is dead from the cold? No, of course, spring will come again for her, and then she will again appear in all her beauty, with new fresh strength. This is an image of the fact that the soul, this vital force of a person, does not perish when its mortal shell dies, which will come for the deceased beautiful spring resurrection, when he not only with a soul, but also with a body rises for a new life.

The soul, this vital force of a person, does not perish when its mortal shell dies, and for the deceased there will come a wonderful spring of resurrection, when he not only with a soul, but also with a body will rise up for a new life.

But what can we say about the sun, the earth, when even the most beautiful flowers, carelessly trampled by us, only lose their existence for a while, in order to then again appear in such beauty that King Solomon himself did not dress like each of them? In a word, everything in nature dies, but nothing dies. Is it possible that only one human soul, for which everything earthly was created, with the death of the body forever ceased its existence ?! Of course not!

The merciful God solely out of His goodness created man, adorning him in His own image and likeness, crowned him with glory and honor(Psalm 8, b). But in what way would His goodness be reflected if a person lived on earth for fifty, one hundred years, often in the struggle with hardships, sorrows, trials, and then with death he would lose his being forever ?! Is it only because He adorned us with godlike perfections and from His divine power has been given to us everything we need for life and piety(2 Peter 1, 3) so that this beautiful creature, after several decades, would suddenly be destroyed ?! God is just, but what is happening on His earth? How often the path of the wicked is successful, and virtue groans with grief, and vice rejoices with joy. But the time will surely come for righteous judgment and retribution, when all of us must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he did while living in the body, good or bad(2 Cor. 5:10).

God lives, my soul lives! This gratifying truth is fully revealed by the Word of God and confirmed by history. Prophet Daniel says: many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to eternal life, others to eternal reproach and shame(Dan. 12, 2). Isaiah calls out: Your dead will revive, your dead bodies will rise!(Isa. 26, 19). And Job reflects: when a person dies, will he live again? All the days of my appointed time, I would wait for my change to come(Job 14:14) And here is the wondrous testimony of the prophet Ezekiel, who was destined to even see the image of this resurrection. He saw a field strewn with dry human bones. Suddenly, according to the Word of God, these bones began to move and began to approach one another, each to its own composition, then veins appeared on them and flesh grew, they were covered with skin, then the spirit of life entered them, and they came to life. Listen also to the words of the gallant mother of the Maccabees, who was exhausted because of the terrible sufferings of her sons-martyrs, to the words she said to her last, youngest son: “I beg you, my child, be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that mercy of God, I have gained you with your brothers again! " This wonderful mother, after martyrdom her seven sons, who herself suffered the same death, only consoled herself that after her death she would again be inseparable with her sons-martyrs. This comforting truth, so clearly revealed in the Old Testament, already in full light appears in the New Testament. For what could be clearer than the words of the apostle: as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will come to life, each in his own order: Christ the firstborn, then Christ's, at His coming(1 Cor. 15, 22, 23). Or what could be clearer than the words of the Savior: the time is coming, and it has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, having heard, will come to life(John 5:25). There are so many similar passages in the Holy Scriptures and they are all so clear that we will not list them here. And who says this? This is the Son of God, whose words and promises are so true that until heaven and earth pass away, not one ... devil passes from the law, until all is fulfilled(Matthew 5:18). This is the Almighty Lord, Who during His earthly life not only healed the sick, tamed storms and winds, cast out demons, but also raised the dead. it greatest prophet Who predicted whatever, everything came true in due time with all accuracy and completeness!

What is the Last Judgment? God's judgment is not a meeting with God? Or are the gloomy pictures of the torment of Bosch's sinners true? Are we waiting for the resurrection of the dead or existence in eternal torment? Will we stand before the throne of the Righteous Lord, or will we be punished forever? Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev will share his opinion in the book “If God is Love”.

What is the Last Judgment?

Sunday the week before Lent is called Meat Week (on this day you can eat meat for the last time before Easter), or the Last Judgment week. What is the Last Judgment?

Hearing about the "Last Judgment", one should feel fear and awe. “The Last Judgment” is the last thing that lies ahead for people. When the last second of the existence of the Universe expires, people will be recreated, their bodies will again unite with souls - so that everyone can appear for accountability before the Creator ...

However, I was already mistaken. I was wrong when I said that people will be resurrected in order to be brought to the Last Judgment. If we accept this logic, then we will have to say an unpleasant thing about Christian theology: it turns out that it presents its God in a rather unattractive way. After all, “we and just a sinful person would never have been praised for such a deed if he had taken out the corpse of his enemy from the grave in order to repay him in all justice what he deserved and did not receive during his earthly life.” Sinners will not be resurrected in order to receive the reward for a sinful life, but on the contrary - because they will receive the reward, because they will certainly rise from the dead.

Unfortunately, we are immortal. Unfortunately - because sometimes I would really like to just fall asleep - so that no one else reminds me of my nasty things ... But Christ has risen. And since Christ embraces the whole of humanity with Himself, it means that we cannot fit into the grave, stay in it. Christ carried in Himself all the fullness of human nature: the change that He made in the very essence of man will one day take place within each of us, since we, too, are humans. This means that we are all now carriers of such a substance that is destined for resurrection.

That is why it is erroneous to believe that the reason for the resurrection is judgment (“Resurrection will not be for the sake of judgment,” said Athenagoras, a second-century Christian writer (On the Resurrection of the Dead, 14)). Judgment is not a cause, but a consequence of the renewal of our life. After all, our life will resume not on earth, not in the world we are accustomed to, shielding God from us. We will be resurrected in a world in which “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

The Last Judgment: if there is a resurrection, then there will be a meeting with God

And that means that if there is a resurrection, then there will be a meeting with God. But a meeting with God is a meeting with the Light. The Light that illuminates everything and makes everything clear and obvious, even that which we sometimes wanted to hide even from ourselves ... And if that shameful thing still remains in us, still continues to be ours, has not yet been thrown away from us by our repentance - that meeting with the Light causes a torment of shame. She becomes a judgment. “The judgment is that the light came into the world” (John 3:19)

But still - is it only shame, will there be only judgment at that Meeting? In the 12th century, the Armenian poet (among the Armenians he is also considered a saint) Gregor Narekatsi wrote in his “Book of Sorrowful Chants”:

I know that the day of judgment is near,
And at the trial we will be caught in many ways ...
But is God's judgment not a meeting with God?
Where will the judgment be? - I'll hurry there!
I will bow before You, oh Lord,
And, renouncing fleeting life,
I will not partake of Your Eternity,
Though this Eternity will be eternal torment?

Indeed, the time of the Judgment is the time of the Meeting. But what more captivates my consciousness when I think about her? Is it right if the consciousness of my sins obscures the joy of meeting God in my mind? What is my gaze riveted to - to my sins or to Christ's love? What prevails in the palette of my feelings - the awareness of Christ's love or my own horror at my unworthiness?

It was precisely the early Christian feeling of death as an Encounter that once escaped from the Moscow elder, Fr. Alexia Mecheva. Admonishing his newly deceased parishioner, he said: “The day of your separation from us is your birthday into a new, endless life. Therefore, with tears in our eyes, we greet you with the entry to the place where there are not only our sorrows, but also our vain joys. You are now no longer in exile, but in your fatherland: you see what we must believe in; surrounded by what we should expect ”.

Who is this long-awaited meeting with? With the Judge who was waiting for our delivery at his disposal? With the Judge, who did not leave his sterile-correct chambers and now carefully watches so that the newcomers do not tarnish the world of ideal laws and truths with their not at all ideal deeds?

Again, in antiquity, St. Isaac Sirin said that God should not be called “just”, because He judges us not according to the laws of justice, but according to the laws of mercy, and already in our time the English writer K.S. Lewis, in his philosophical tale “Until We Found Faces,” says: “Hope for mercy - and hope not. Whatever the verdict, you will not call it fair. - Aren't the gods just? - Of course not, daughter! What would become of us if they were always just? "

Of course, there is justice in That Court. But this justice is somehow strange. Imagine that I am a personal friend of President B.N. We carried out "reforms" together, together - as long as his health allowed - played tennis and went to the bathhouse ... But then the journalists dug up "compromising evidence" on me, found out that I accepted "gifts" especially large sizes... BN He summons me to him and says: “You see, I respect you, but now the elections are underway, and I cannot risk it. Therefore, you and I, let's make such a reshuffle ... I'll retire you for a while ... ”. And now I am sitting in retirement, I regularly talk with the investigator, I am waiting for the trial ... But here B.N. calls me and says: “Listen, here Europe demands that we adopt a new Criminal Code more humane, more democratic. You still have nothing to do, so maybe you can write at your leisure? ”. And so I, being under investigation, begin to write the Criminal Code. What do you think I will write when I get to “my” article? ..

Is the Last Judgment a verdict?

I don't know how realistic this turn of events is in our mysterious politics. But in our religion of Revelation, this is exactly the case. We are the defendants. But the defendants are strange - each of us has been given the right to compile a list of those laws by which we will be judged. For - "with what judgment you judge, with the same you will be judged." If, at the sight of someone's sin, I say: “This is it in vain ... But he is a man too ...” - then the sentence that I once hear over my head may not be destructive.

After all, if I condemned someone for his act that seemed unworthy to me, then I knew that it was a sin. “Look,” my Judge will tell me, “since you condemned, it means that you were aware that you cannot do this. Moreover, you were not only aware of this, but you sincerely accepted this commandment as a criterion for evaluating human actions. But why did you yourself then so carelessly trample on this commandment?

As you can see, the Orthodox understanding of the commandment “do not judge” is close to the Kantian “categorical imperative”: before doing something or deciding, imagine that the motive of your act will suddenly become a universal law for the entire universe, and everyone will always be guided by it. Including in relations with you ...

Do not condemn others - you will not be condemned yourself. It depends on me how God will react to my sins. Do I have sins? - Yes. But there is also hope. For what? That God can take my sins away from me, throw them into the trash, but open a different way for me myself than for my sinful deeds. I hope that God can separate me and my actions. Before God I will say: “Yes, Lord, I had sins, but my sins are not all of me!”; “Sins are sins, but I did not live by them and not for them, but I had an idea of ​​life - serving the Faith and the Lord!”

But if I want God to do this to me, then I must do the same with others. The Christian call to non-condemnation is, after all, a way of self-preservation, caring for one's own survival and justification. After all, what is non-condemnation - “To condemn means to say about such and such: such and such a lie ... And to condemn means to say such and such a liar ... For this is condemnation of the very disposition of his soul, the pronouncement of a sentence about his whole life. And the sin of condemnation is so much heavier than any other sin that Christ himself likened the sin of his neighbor to a bitch, and condemnation to a log. ” This is how at the trial we want from God the same subtlety in distinctions: “Yes, I lied - but I am not a liar; yes, I have gone astray, but I am not a fornicator; yes, I was cunning, but I am Your son, Lord, Your creation, Your image ... Remove the soot from this image, but do not burn it all! ”

And God is ready to do it. He is ready to transcend the demands of "justice" and not look at our sins. The devil demands justice: they say, since this person sinned and served me, then you must leave him to me forever. But the God of the gospel is above justice. And therefore, according to the word of St. Maximus the Confessor, “The death of Christ - judgment over judgment” (Maximus Isp. Question answer to Falassius, 43).

In one of the words of St. Amphilochius of Iconium is a story about how the devil marvels at the mercy of God: why do you accept the repentance of a man who has already repented of his sin many times and then returned to him anyway? And the Lord answers: but after all, you take this person to your service every time after each of his new sins. So why can't I consider him My slave after his next repentance?

So, at the Judgment, we will appear before the One whose name is Love. Judgment is a meeting with Christ.

Actually, the Terrible, universal, last, final Judgment is less terrible than the one that happens to everyone immediately after his death ... Can a person, acquitted at a private trial, be convicted on the Terrible? - No. But can a person convicted in a private court be acquitted at Terrible? - Yes, because on this hope they are based church prayers for the departed sinners. But this means that the Last Judgment is a kind of “appellate” instance. We have a chance to be saved where we cannot be justified. For at a private court we act as individuals, and at a universal court as particles the universal Church, particles of the Body of Christ. The body of Christ will appear before His Head. Therefore, we dare to pray for the departed, for in our prayers we put the following thought and hope: “Lord, maybe now this person is not worthy to enter Your Kingdom, but he, Lord, is not only the author of his vile deeds; he is also a part of Your Body, he is a part of your creation! Therefore, Lord, do not destroy the creation of Thy hands. With your purity, with your fullness, with the holiness of your Christ, fill up what a man lacked in this life of his! ”.

We dare to pray in this way because we are convinced that Christ does not want to cut off His own particles from Himself. God wants everyone to be saved ... And when we pray for the salvation of others, we are convinced that His desire coincides with ours ... But is there such a coincidence in other aspects of our life? Do we seriously want to be saved ourselves? ..

Who is judging us?

For the theme of the Judgment, it is important to remember: we are judged by those who seek out in us not sins, but the possibility of reconciliation, combination with Himself ...

When we have realized this, the difference between Christian repentance and secular “restructuring” will become clearer to us. Christian repentance is not self-flagellation. Christian repentance is not a meditation on the theme: "I am a bastard, I am a terrible bastard, well, what a bastard I am!" Repentance without God can kill a person. It becomes sulfuric acid, drop by drop falling on the conscience and gradually corroding the soul. This is a case of murderous repentance that destroys a person, repentance that brings not life, but death. People can learn about themselves the truth that can finish them off (remember Ryazanov's film "Garage").

Recently I made an amazing discovery for me (recently, because of my, alas, ignorance): I found a book that I should have read back in school, but I just read it now. This book amazed me because before it seemed to me that nothing deeper, more psychological, nothing more Christian and Orthodox than Dostoevsky's novels could be in literature. But this book turned out to be deeper than Dostoevsky's books. This is Saltykov-Shchedrin's Golovlevs, a book that is read at the beginning and that is not read to the end, because Soviet school curricula have turned the history of Russian literature into the history of an anti-Russian feuilleton. Therefore, the Christian meaning, the spiritual content of the works of our greatest Russian writers have been forgotten. And in “Gentlemen Golovlevs” the first chapters are studied at school, the chapters are terrible, hopeless. But don't read the end. And at the end of the darkness there is even more. And this darkness is all the more terrible because it is associated with ... repentance.

For Dostoevsky, repentance is always beneficial, it is always for good and healing. Saltykov-Shchedrin describes repentance, which finishes off ... Sister Porfiry Golovleva participated in many of his abominations. And suddenly she regains her sight and realizes that it is she (together with her brother) who is to blame for the death of all the people who met him on life path... It would seem that it was so natural to suggest here the line of, say, "Crimes and Punishments": repentance - renewal - resurrection. But no. Saltykov-Shchedrin shows a terrible repentance - repentance without Christ, repentance performed in front of a mirror, and not in front of the face of the Savior. In Christian repentance, a person repents before Christ. He says: “Lord, here it was in me, take it away from me. Lord, do not remember me as I was at that moment. Make me different. Make me different. " And if Christ is not there, then a person, as in a mirror, having looked into the depths of his deeds, turns to stone with horror, like a person who has seen enough in the eyes of Medusa-Gorgon. And in the same way, sister Porfiry Golovleva, realizing the depth of her lawlessness, is deprived of her last hope. She did everything for herself, and having cognized herself, she sees the nonsense of her deeds ... And commits suicide. The unrighteousness of her repentance is evident from the second repentance, described in the “Lords Golovlevs”. On Passion Week v Maundy Thursday, after a priest reads the service of the “Twelve Gospels” in Golovlev’s house, “Judas” walks around the house all night, he cannot sleep: he heard about the sufferings of Christ, that Christ forgives people, and he begins to stir hope - can he really forgive me, can it be that the possibility of Salvation is open to me too? And the next day in the morning he runs to the cemetery and dies there on his mother's grave, asking her forgiveness ...

Only God can make the former non-existent. And therefore, only through an appeal to the One who is above time, it is possible to get rid of the nightmares creeping in from the world that has already happened. But in order for Eternity to take me into itself without accepting my evil deeds, I myself must separate the eternal from the transitory, that is, the image of God, my personality, given to me from Eternity, separate from what I myself have done in time ... If I cannot accomplish this separation at that time, while there is still time (Eph. 5:16), then my past will pull me down like a weight, for it will not allow me to unite with God.

It is for the sake of not being a hostage to time, to his sins committed in time, a person is called to repentance.

In repentance, a person tears away from himself his bad past. If he succeeded, it means that his future will grow not from a moment of sin, but from a moment of repentant renewal. Tearing off a piece of yourself is painful. Sometimes this is mortally unwilling. But here one of two things: either my past will devour me, dissolve in itself both me and my future, and my eternity, or I will be able to go through the pain of repentance. "Die before death, then it will be too late" - says one of the characters of Lewis.

Do you want the Meeting not to become a Judgment? Well, combine the two realities in your conscientious look. First: a repentant vision and denial of one's sins; second: Christ, before whose face and for whose sake the words of repentance must be uttered. In a single perception, both the love of Christ and my own horror at my unworthiness must be given. But still, Christ's love is more ... After all, Love is God's, and sins are only human ... If we do not prevent Him from saving and having mercy on us, to deal with us not in justice, but in condescension, He will do it. But won't we consider ourselves too proud to be indulgent? Do we consider ourselves too self-sufficient to accept undeserved gifts?

It's just right to open gospel commandments bliss and reread them carefully. This is a list of those categories of citizens who enter the Kingdom of Heaven, bypassing the Last Judgment. What do everyone on this list have in common? That they did not consider themselves rich and deserved. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they do not come to the Judgment, but pass into Eternal Life.

Attendance at the Last Judgment is optional. There is a way to avoid it (see John 5:29).

Notes (edit)
137. Works of ancient Christian apologists. - SPb., 1895, pp. 108-109.
138. This is a literary and very free translation (Grigor Narekatsi. The Book of Mournful Chants. Translation by N. Grebnev. Yerevan, 1998, p.26). The literal one sounds different - more restrained and “more Orthodox”: “but if the day of the Lord's judgment is near, then the kingdom of God incarnate has approached me, Who will find me more guilty than the Edomites and Philistines” (Grigor Narekatsi. Book of Sorrowful Chants. Translation from the ancient Armenian M O. Darbiryan-Melikyan and L.A. Khanlaryan. M., 1988, p. 30).
139. “When one of our colleagues, exhausted by weakness and embarrassed by the nearness of death, prayed, almost dying, for the continuation of life, a young man, glorious and majestic, appeared before him; with a certain indignation and reproach he said to the dying man: “And you are afraid to suffer, and you don’t want to die. What should I do with you? ”… Yes, and how many times it was revealed to me, it was commanded to continually instill that we should not mourn our brothers, at the call of the Lord, who turn away from the present century… We should strive after them with love, but not in any way complain about them : they should not wear mourning clothes when they have already put on white robes ”(St. Cyprian of Carthage. A book about mortality // Creations of the Holy Martyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. M., 1999, p. 302).
140. Prot. Alexy Mechev. Funeral speech in memory of the servant of God Innokenty // Father Alexy Mechev. Memories. Sermons. Letters. Paris. 1989, p. 348.
141. St. Theophan the Recluse. Creations. Collection of letters. Issue 3-4. Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, 1994, pp. 31-32 and 38.
142. “You see, Alyoshechka,” Grushenka suddenly laughed nervously, turning to him, “this is only a fable, but she’s a good fable, I was her, still a child, from my Matryona, who now serves as cooks for me, I heard. You see how it is: “Once upon a time there was one feisty, contemptuous woman and died. And not a single virtue remained after her. The devils grabbed her and threw her into the lake of fire. And her guardian angel stands and thinks: what kind of virtue I would recall her in order to tell God. He remembered and said to God: she, she says, plucked an onion in the garden and gave it to the beggar. And God answers him: take this very onion, he says, stretch it into the lake, let it grab and stretch, and if you pull it out of the lake, then let it go to heaven, and the onion breaks off, then the woman will stay there, where now. The angel ran to the woman, handed her the onion: on, she says, the woman, grab and reach. And he began to gently pull her, and he was about to pull it all out, but the other sinners in the lake, when they saw that they were pulling her out, they all began to grab onto her so that they could be pulled out with her. But the woman was angry, disdainful, and she felt like kicking them with her feet: "They are pulling me, not you, my onion, not yours." As soon as she said it, the onion was torn. And the woman fell into the lake and is burning to this day. And the angel wept and walked away ”(Dostoevsky F.M. The Brothers Karamazov. Part 3.3 // Complete Works in 30 volumes. Vol. 14, Ld., 1976, pp. 318-319).
143. Lewis KS Until we found faces // Works, v.2. Minsk-Moscow, 1998, p. 231.
144. “Abba Isaac of Thebes came to Cynobia, saw his brother falling into sin, and condemned him. When he returned to the wilderness, the Angel of the Lord came, stood before his door and said: God sent me to you, saying: ask him where he tells me to throw my fallen brother? - Abba Isaac immediately threw himself to the ground, saying: I have sinned against You - forgive me! - The angel said to him: Get up, God has forgiven you; but henceforth beware of condemning someone, before God condemns him ”(Ancient Patericon. M., 1899, p. 144).
145. St. Nicholas of Japan. Diary entry 1.1.1872 // Righteous Life and Apostolic Works of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Japan according to his own handwritten notes. Part 1. SPb., 1996, p. 11.
146. “Christ of the Gospel. In Christ we find a synthesis of ethical collipsism, the infinite severity of a person towards himself, that is, an impeccably pure attitude to himself, with ethical-aesthetic kindness to another, unique in its depth: here for the first time an infinitely deepened self-for-myself appeared, but not a cold one. , but immeasurably kind to the other, rewarding the whole truth to the other as such, revealing and affirming the entire completeness of the other’s value originality. All People disintegrate for Him into the only one and all other people, Him who has mercy and others who are merciful, Him who is the savior and all others who are being saved, Him who takes on the burden of sin and atonement and all others who are freed from this burden and redeemed. ... Hence, in all the norms of Christ, I and the other are opposed: an absolute sacrifice for oneself and mercy for another. But I-for-myself is different for God. God is no longer defined essentially as the voice of my conscience, as the purity of the attitude towards myself, the purity of the repentant self-denial of everything given in me, the One into whose hands it is terrible to fall and to see which means to die (immanent self-condemnation), but the Heavenly Father who is above me and can justify and pardon me where, from within myself, I cannot pardon myself and justify in principle, remaining pure with myself. What I ought to be for another, so is God for me ... The idea of ​​grace as the descent from outside of merciful justification and acceptance of the given, fundamentally sinful and insurmountable from within itself. The idea of ​​confession (repentance to the end) and forgiveness is also adjacent to this. From within my repentance, the denial of all myself, from the outside (God is different) - restoration and mercy. A person himself can only repent - only the other can let go ... Only the consciousness that in the most essential I am not yet is the organizing beginning of my life from myself. I do not accept my cash, I madly and unspeakably believe in my discrepancy with this inner cash. I cannot count myself everything, saying: here is all I am, and there is no more me anywhere and in nothing, I am already in full. I live in the depths of myself with eternal faith and hope for the constant possibility of an inner miracle of a new birth. I cannot value my whole life in time and in it justify and complete it in full. A temporarily completed life is hopeless from the point of view of its driving meaning. From within herself, she is hopeless, only from the outside can a merciful justification come down to her apart from the unattained meaning. Until life is cut short in time, it lives from within itself with hope and faith in its own discrepancy with itself, in its semantic standing for itself, and in this life is insane from the point of view of its existence, for this faith and hope are of a prayer nature (from within life itself only prayer and pleading and repentant tones) ”(M. M. Aesthetics verbal creativity... M., 1979, pp. 51-52 and 112).
147. Abba Dorotheos. Psychic teachings and messages. Trinity-Sergius Lavra. 1900, p. 80.
148. See, for example, Ancient Patericon. M., 1899, p. 366.
149. Lewis C.S. Until we found faces // Works, vol. 2. Minsk-Moscow, 1998, p. 219.

_________________________

From the book “If God is Love”.

Thoughts of death for an ordinary person unacceptable. Uncertainty, horror of physical pain, fear drives out painful thoughts to the outskirts of consciousness. And there is no time to think about the last hour in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

It is much more difficult for an Orthodox person. He knows that the Last Judgment awaits him, at which he will answer for all the misdeeds committed in life. Not only fear of punishment is frightening, but also the feeling of guilt before the One who is love.

How is God's judgment after death?

Losing loved ones, we think about our own demise. No one will be able to escape it - neither the rich, nor the famous, not the righteous. What's in store beyond the line? What does Orthodoxy say about God's judgment? It is said that for the first three days the soul of the deceased is near the body, on the ground.

The soul recalls its entire earthly journey. According to the testimony of Basil the New, if a person dies without repentance, his soul goes through twenty tests, called ordeals. All ordeals are named according to: lies, laziness, anger and others.

The soul spends the next six days in paradise, where all earthly sorrows are forgotten. Then she is shown hell with sinful people, their torment. On the third, ninth day after death, she appears before the Lord. Forty days after death, God's judgment is performed, determining the position of the soul.

During this period, relatives can help the deceased by reading akathists and ordering a memorial service. After that, the soul spends time awaiting its fate at the final judgment.

Events leading up to the Last Judgment

The fact that after the death of each person the Last Judgment awaits is mentioned in the Old Testament. The Gospel says that God the Father will not judge people, but Jesus Christ, since He is the son of man.

Orthodoxy teaches that on the Day of Judgment the second coming of Jesus Christ is expected, during which he will separate the righteous (sheep) from sinners (goats).

The Revelations of John Chrysostom set forth the sequence of events of the Apocalypse. Its date is not known to anyone, so that people were in a conscious state and hourly made a choice between good and evil. According to revelations, the end of the world will not come suddenly, it is preceded by special events.

In the second coming, the Savior will hold a book with seven seals and a lamp with seven torches. The opening of each seal leads to the fact that troubles are sent to humanity: diseases, earthquakes, hunger, thirst, death, falling comets.

Advice. Go to confession! Repent, all your sins will be forgiven, do not wait for your death, it is no longer possible to repent there.

Seven angels will come and give a signal to the end of the world: a third of the trees and grass will burn, a third of the sea will become bloody, and ships will perish. Then the water will become bitter and people who drink it will die.

At the sound of the fourth angel's trumpet, there will be eclipses, the fifth opens the way for locusts in iron armor, like scorpions. Locusts will sting people for five months. The last two tests will be that humanity will be overtaken by disease and riders in armor on horses, exuding smoke and sulfur.

The appearance of the seventh angel will herald that the Kingdom of Christ has come. John's vision of a “woman clothed in the sun” is interpreted by many theologians as the emergence of a church that will help to be saved. The battle of the Archangel Michael with the serpent and his triumph over him symbolizes the victory over the devil.

How will the Last Judgment go?

The Orthodox Church teaches that on the day of judgment all the dead will rise and come to the throne of God. The Lord will gather everyone and will ask about all the deeds performed during his lifetime.

If a person's heart is filled with love, he will remain right hand from Jesus Christ, and will be with him in His Kingdom. Unrepentant sinners are doomed to torment. The Revelation says that 144 thousand people will not comprehend the torment of the Apocalypse. After the Terrible judgment of God there will be neither sin nor sorrow.

How can a person be saved before the Last Judgment?

Christianity says that there is hope for salvation. Moreover, Orthodoxy awaits the terrible judgment with joy, since it is the sign of the dawn - the Kingdom of God on earth. A true believer hopes to see Christ soon.

The main measure that the Supreme Judge will measure is mercy. If you go to church, fast, pray, often confess and receive communion, you can safely hope for the best at the Last Judgment. God made man free, he has the right to choose a sinful state, but it deprives him of the hope of salvation. Sincere repentance, confession and communion, good deeds bring a person closer to God, purifies and heals him.

An Orthodox person is distinguished by constant internal self-control of his state of mind... The Scripture says that before the Last Judgment, the Antichrist and false prophets will come into the world. And the devil will come to earth and will rage in anticipation of the second coming of Christ.

Therefore, the temptation of each person passes every minute. It is worth thinking in response to every urge to sin, whose will to fulfill - divine, or demonic. As they say in Orthodoxy, the demonic tribe is driven out by prayer and fasting.

There is no punishment in a person's life - there are only lessons. If a person experiences negative feelings, it means that he has blocked the access of Divine love to his heart. Every day God comes to us in the form of other people.

Dear Olga!

Christ is Risen!

We offer you an exposition of the Orthodox teaching on the resurrection and life of the next century according to the Orthodox catechism of St. Philaret (Drozdov). But first, one should recall the words of the Savior about the resurrection of the dead in the Gospel of Matthew: "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but abide like the Angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22, 29 -thirty).

"375. Question: What is the life of the century to come?
Answer: This is the life that will be after the resurrection of the dead and the universal Judgment of Christ.

376. Q. What will this life be like?
A. This life will be so blessed for believers who love God and do good, that now we cannot even imagine this blessedness. “If we do not appear (it has not yet been revealed) what we will be” (1 John 3, 2). “We (know) a person about Christ,” says the Apostle Paul, who was caught up to paradise, and hearing unspeakable verbs, they also do not fly for a person to speak verbs (which a person cannot retell ”(2 Cor. 12,2,4).

377. Q. Where will such bliss come from?
A. Such bliss will follow from the contemplation of God in light and glory and from union with Him. “Now we see it as a mirror in fortune-telling (as if through a dim glass, fortuitously), then face to face: now I understand from a part, then I know, as if I were known” (1 Cor. 13.12). “Then the righteous women will be enlightened, like the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). "God will be all things in all (all in all)" (1 Cor. 15:28).

378. Q. Will the body also participate in the bliss of the soul?
A. The body will be glorified by the light of God, like the body of Jesus Christ during His Transfiguration on Tabor. “It is not sown in honor, it is raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15.43). “As if we put on the image of the earthy one (and as we wear the image of the earthly) (ie, Adam), let us also clothe ourselves in the image of Heaven alone (ie, our Lord Jesus Christ)” (1 Cor. 15.49).

379. Q. Will everyone be equally blessed?
Oh no. There will be different degrees of bliss, depending on how someone fought in faith, love and good works. “Ina glory to the sun, and ina glory to the moon, and ina glory to the stars: a star from a star differs in glory. So is the resurrection of the dead ”(1 Cor. 15.41-42).

380. Q. And what will happen to the unbelievers and the wicked?
A. The unbelievers and the wicked will be put to eternal death, or, in other words, to eternal fire, eternal torment along with the devil. “Those who are not found in the bottom of animals (in the book of life) are written, they will be thrown into the lake of fire” (Apoc. 20:15). “And this (this) is the second death” (Apoc. 20:14). "Depart from Me the curse into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel" (Matthew 25: 41). “And these go into everlasting torment, but the righteous women into everlasting belly” (Matthew 25: 46). "Goodness is with one eye to instill (it is better for you to enter with one eye) into the Kingdom of God, I have at least two (rather than with two eyes) I have been thrown into a fiery hell, where their worm does not die and the fire does not go out" (Mk. 9.47-48).

381. Q. Why is this harsh treatment of sinners?
A. They will not do this because God would like them to perish, but they themselves perish, "because (because) love does not accept the truth, in a hedgehog they will be saved (for their own salvation)" (2 Thess. 2.10) ...

382. Q. What benefit can meditation on death, on the Resurrection, on the last Judgment, on eternal bliss and eternal torment be?
A. These reflections help us to abstain from sins and free ourselves from attachments to earthly things; comfort when deprived of earthly goods; encourage to keep the soul and body clean, to live for God and for eternity and thus achieve eternal salvation ”(Extensive Orthodox Catechism. Moscow 1998).

Peace be upon you and God's blessing.

How the Last Judgment will take place - will the Lord really act like a judge: listen to witnesses, pass judgment? believes that things will be a little different.

Interestingly, on the eve of Great Lent, the Church reminds us that there will still be a judgment, that a person, having received life from God as an invaluable gift, will then have to answer God for how he lived this life.

And this one thought about the Judgment, about the responsibility for all his actions and for his whole life, makes a person in the spiritual and moral sense more fit. If a person knows that God sees his deeds, his thoughts and will ask for this, he will be kept from many sins by this fact alone, by this thought alone.

In the beginning, I would like to say a few words about the very word "judgment". In greek court – a crisis... And what is in our concept? For example, there is a crisis in medicine, when a person is sick, in a fever, and the doctor says: "The patient has a crisis of the disease." And after this crisis, there are two options for the development of events: either the patient will recover tomorrow, the temperature will drop, or he will die. That is, a crisis is a kind of high point of the disease, after which it will be either good or bad.

There is a political, economic, financial crisis. Why are these crises coming? Irregularities, contradictions accumulate, and then, already in some highest point boil, a crisis occurs. Or a crisis interpersonal relationships... There is also a set of contradictions, misunderstandings, omissions, which ultimately leads to a crisis, after which people either learn to talk to each other or disperse.

That is, a kind of judgment is taking place. When a person must, in the end, answer for some of his actions at a time of crisis.

Everyone knows that Christians constantly frighten people with the Last Judgment. How easy and calm it would be to live knowing that there will be no Court. And here the priests are constantly repeating that there will be a Judgment. In what form this Judgment will take place, the holy fathers answer in different ways.

It is believed that God will weigh the good and evil deeds of people on the scales, and if the evil deeds outweigh the person, then a person will go to hell, if the good, then he is saved. Thus, God is identified with the goddess of justice Themis, who is blindfolded, she impartially weighs human affairs.

But it seems to me that at the Judgment Day Christ will stretch out His hands, pierced with nails, to him and say: “Behold, My child, what I have done for you. This is how My Love for you was manifested. And I proved this Love to you by My death, My sufferings and all My Blood shed for you on the cross. Now tell Me, what have you done for Me? "

And the person will begin to remember what kind of deeds he did for the sake of the Lord God. Perhaps even many good deeds will come to his mind, but it turns out that he did them out of decency, in order to seem a good, well-mannered person in front of other people. He did good deeds for the sake of his loved ones. Not close ones, but close ones, that is, relatives: parents, children. And it turns out that he did most of the good deeds not for the sake of God, but for the sake of people or for the sake of his vanity.

And then, lowering his head, a person will understand that he has nothing to answer to this all-inclusive Love to the last drop of Blood, which God has shown to us. Even with some small manifestation of love and gratitude to God, he will not be able to answer.

And in this, perhaps, there will be the Last Judgment - a person will condemn himself. No one will drive him anywhere, he will drive himself away and will not be able to enter the Kingdom of this Divine Love.

In today's Gospel, Christ says that when He comes to earth a second time, His coming will be different from the first coming. The first time He came as a preacher of the Kingdom of God, a beggar who had neither power nor political external authority. But there was only the power and truth of the word, as well as the power of divine miracles, with which the Lord confirmed the truth of his words.

And when Christ comes a second time, He will come already as King and Judge. And that is why it is said in the Gospel: in His glory, all the holy Angels are with Him. Christ will come as King, will divide all nations, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep on his right side, and the goats on his left.

I often wondered how sheep are different from goats. By Old Testament both sheep and goats were considered clean animals, they could be eaten and sacrificed to God. The difference in the behavior of these animals.

When I served in Volgograd, in a church located in the private sector, one of my parishioners kept goats. And I often watched through the altar window as Aunt Nadia grazed her goats. When the sheep are herded, either the shepherd or the most important ram walks in front, and all the other sheep obediently follow him. And when a shepherd grazes goats, it is not clear who grazes whom. The shepherd is constantly catching up with his goats, which rush completely into different sides: they run across the road, climb trees, and climb over the fence into neighboring yards. They are not disobedient to their shepherd, they constantly show their insane will, and it is very difficult to graze them.

And now the King will say to those on the right side of Him: "Come, blessed ones, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the folding of the world." And to those on the left: "Go into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

And people will answer with bewilderment: "Lord, when did we not serve you?" And Christ will say: "What you did not do to one of your neighbors, you did not do to Me." Do you understand what a simple criterion is?

It turns out that a person who does something good to his neighbor does the same to God. If we could see the image of God in any of our neighbors without obstacles and distortions, how easily all good deeds would be given to us! But it often happens that people who are not attractive to us ask for our help, people in whom the image of God is darkened and distorted by vices and sins.

And if we do good deeds only for the sake of people, we will never learn to do good deeds to our enemies, our offenders, people unsympathetic to us. And if we remember more often that we are doing this good deed not only for this person, but for God who calls us to this, then all good deeds will be much easier to do. And then we can serve God and justify ourselves at the Judgment.

What will not help at the Last Judgment?

Vladimir Berkhin

I don’t know about you, but I am very much afraid of the Last Judgment. I'm afraid of the usual, and even more terrible.

We don't know much about how it will go. There is a parable about the Last Judgment in the Gospel of Matthew, there are several more indications in Scripture that “the believer does not come to the Judgment, but the unbeliever is already condemned”, there are several chapters in the book of the prophet Daniel and in Revelation, striking in the scale of events, but not revealing details legal proceedings. This is clearly done intentionally - so that people do not produce casuistry, do not try, as in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead”, to come up with cunning answers and ambiguous excuses so that the relationship with God does not fall into either magic or jurisprudence.

And that scares me. Because all the ways I know to defend myself against accusations will not work there. Judging by what we know, at the Last Judgment they will not help:

- attempts to shift the blame on circumstances for which the person is not responsible, but the One Who Judges. Such a precedent has already been described in Scripture. This is exactly what Adam did after the Fall - he began to tell God that it was not he, it was all the wife that God gave, which means that God Himself is to blame for the sad result. How it ended is known. Probably the rest will not work either.

- an attempt to “get lost in the crowd”, that is, to refer to the worldwide or all-Union practice. They say everyone does it. Sometimes it seems to me that one of the three righteous people who have experience of life in a totally hostile environment - Noah, Lot and the prophet Elijah - will be invited to discuss such excuses. These three tough husbands know very well what it means to “do not like everyone else”. And they will be able to explain.

- references to a special historical moment, which for some reason made the fulfillment of the commandment unimportant. But if you hated your neighbor, then you hated your neighbor. Even if he, such a brute, dared to be on the other side of the barricade from you, when the fate of the Motherland was being decided. The Sanhedrin was precisely the good of the Fatherland that justified the need for the execution of the Savior.

- links to historical precedents. Say, the fathers sinned and we were allowed. But the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who were punished for their sin, although they were neither the biggest, nor, even more so, the last who tried to put their hand into the church treasury, quite convincingly shows that sin remains a sin, even if the Lord for the time being has mercy.

- excuses that someone else is simply to blame. In addition to the fact that Adam was already doing this, it is also a violation of the commandment of non-condemnation. It has been said that with what kind of court you are judged, that is how you will be condemned. Hanging your sins on others is good, you will also be responsible for others.

- references to high results that have been achieved in other areas. As one journalist once wrote, corrupt officials built power lines of the first reliability category, but their opponents did not do this either, and therefore theft is quite forgivable. But the Scripture also speaks about this more than definitely - “what is high with people, an abomination before God” and “what is the use of a man if he gains the whole world, and hurts his soul”. Will not help .

- references to the fact that you acted within the framework of the current legislation, and all the correct papers were signed by authorized persons in the right places. Judas did not violate any laws, Nero and Diocletian acted within their powers, and even the executions of the new martyrs were in line with the instructions of the OGPU. Civil laws are needed, they provide order and at least a semblance of justice. But they are not the ones who lead to the Kingdom of Heaven.

- references to the confusion and inconsistency of the principles of the court, their ambiguity and ambiguity. He wanted, they say, the best, but he was not smart enough. It won't work either. Because the Lord said that He is with us all the days until the end of the age. This means that any attempt to say “I didn’t know what to do” will be followed by a reasonable answer “I was there, why didn’t you ask?”. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve already learned from myself that “I don’t know how to act” in practice almost always means “I don’t want to act according to the commandment”.

- some variants of justification by the fact that he belonged to the right group of people who knew the right words, no matter how it was called - Church, people, nation, tradition or party. After all, it is said about this too - that on the day of Judgment, some will begin to remember that in the name of His demons they cast out and prophesied, but they will face a harsh rebuke and eternal hell. Or it was said completely on the forehead that God could make Abraham new children out of the cobblestones if the existing ones turn out to be unworthy.

And there are many more considerations of this kind that will not help at the Last Judgment. That is why he is Scary.

But this Judgment is also the Merciful. Most gracious. Actually, there will be nothing but Grace.

The most difficult thing will be to receive the Grace at the Judgment. Mercy cannot be earned by good behavior. It does not depend on the pardoned one, but on the Merciful. You just need to stop proving, in words and in deed, that you "have the right." To be justified, you must stop looking for excuses for yourself. We must not justify ourselves, but repent.

Because all these words and reasons are simply attempts to fight off, so that they do not humiliate with mercy, so that they do not have mercy. After all, you can only pardon the one who is guilty. And if you plan to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as one who has the right, there will be no Mercy, because you simply do not want it. You do not need Grace - there will be no Grace.

Free, go into the outer darkness.

Relax, finally, man, stop inventing, why don't you sin a little. This is already the Dread and Merciful Judgment. Remember the clergy, and repeat - “Father, I have sinned against you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son, but accept me. I have sinned and I have no excuses, and there is no hope but Thy Love. "

Last judgment or the best day in our life?

Priest Konstantin Kamyshanov

Why did Christians become afraid of the Last Judgment - after all, it was not always so? Archpriest Konstantin Kamyshanov regrets that we are talking more and more about the Judgment and less and less about what should come after it.

The day when the Last Judgment takes place will be the first day of the triumph of Paradise. A new day will be added to the days of the creation of the world. During it, our sinful world will be completely transformed. And something strange will happen: the angels will roll up the sky like parchment, and the sun will darken, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

And the Morning of the world will come.

It will begin when the number of the inhabitants of Paradise reaches a certain necessary and sufficient value.

For them - the righteous - the Last Judgment will not be a Last Judgment, but will become the best day of their lives, because the first joy is the strongest. The souls of the elect will see the One whom they loved, whom they dreamed of, whom they always wanted to see - Christ.

And Christ will be glad to see His friends. He will introduce them to new world golden gates.

For God, this day of judgment will not be terrible either. This nightmare, which is called "our world", will finally end. According to the prophet, the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side, evil will be abolished and the eternal kingdom of good will come. The beginning of the Judgment will mark the end of this terrible day of the Fall, which lasted for an eternity, with its wars, murders, deceit and anger.

For sinners, the Last Judgment will bring some fear, but in the future the Lord will give them after their heart to be forever with the same as they are.

It's like being in a prison. There gather, albeit against their will, some gentlemen who have the same outlook on life, who are united by a certain semblance of brotherhood and concepts. They do not need to work, and their day is spent in philosophical conversations about the meaning of life. There is no need to strain about food, the ruble and how to feed relatives or loved ones. Everything has been paid for. They are sober there and their life passes according to a reasonable regime that excludes abuse and sin.

Of course, this similarity is conditional and requires clarification.

First, Christ said that the talents that he was too lazy to multiply would be taken away from the wicked servant. That is, a person will be simplified in his organization by an order of magnitude, and, like demons, will accept more simple organization an animal-like personality.

This does not mean that God will avenge their sin. The holy fathers are unanimous in the opinion that the Lord is absolutely good. On the contrary, such a simplification to the state Polish cattle, will reduce the degree of suffering of a person who is incapable of subtle experiences. As a result of degradation, the inhabitant of hell will not be able to sin in full, as he could, remaining in full mind and all the strength of the soul.

Secondly, almost all the holy fathers are convinced that sending a sinner to hell is a blessing for him not only because he himself chose the place to which he was striving. He will be more comfortable in hell than in Paradise. For a person, will is the most important thing. It contains his freedom and individuality. By breaking the will of the sinner, God will break the whole person. But the Lord does not need a broken, disfigured and resisting person in Paradise. God gives her will according to her heart - and this is good.

So in an unusual way The Lord will try not only to increase the measure of the grace of Paradise, but also to reduce the level of suffering in hell.

As a result, the level of evil will decrease in the whole Universe.

So the Last Judgment, paradoxically, will bring more light into the world and reduce the level of evil, compared to the current state of affairs. The Last Judgment will make the world less scary.

And if so, then why prepare for disaster? And who should prepare for a catastrophe, and how should one prepare for this Last Judgment?

Obviously, the Last Judgment will be terrible for the citizens of hell. It will be such not only because they are threatened with existence in evil, but also because they must go through the process of personality degradation. And this is really scary.

Interpreters, inviting the church to remember the first day of the renewed world as the Last Judgment, a priori assume that there are no righteous among us, there are no those who love God, but only potential victims of hell. For some reason, in the comments to this event, it is not the joy of the long-awaited meeting with Christ that is preached, but, on the contrary, the fear of divine revenge is being whipped up.

How to meet this day correctly?

Professor Aleksey Ilyich Osipov noted that in order for the liberation to begin, the awareness of one's slavery must first come. This means that we must perceive the psychology and the way of thinking of the slave.

Saint Silouan the Athonite gave the following formula for preparing for the Last Judgment: "Keep your mind in hell and do not despair." This means that we must try to live in hell.

But how can the common man keep his mind in hell and not be intimidated and desperate?

How can you learn to be a citizen of Heavenly Jerusalem if you constantly exercise your mind in the reality of Chertograd?

For example, I wanted to become an architect. And for this he decided to become one through the denial of other professions: not to be a doctor, not to be a locksmith, not to be a diver. And, one might think, through this negative theology I am the architect of the country? No.

Through such a denial, it is impossible to create and form a positive and essential image. Denial cannot be the basis of existence.

The Easter words of the angels “Look for Zhivago with the dead” acquire a new depth. In Hell, it is impossible to prepare yourself for Paradise. In Paradise, you need the skill not of despair and fear acquired in the new Sodom, but the skill of love for God, people and the Earth.

How can one learn all this while sitting in hell while living? How can light be found in mud? How can you pick pearls in the garbage?

Let us recall the sensational correspondence dispute between our famous theologian - professor and saint, recently glorified in the Greek Church. We are talking about Porfiry Kavsokalivite.

A Moscow professor, on the eve of the very glorification of this saint, announced that Porfiry was in delusion. The reason for this was the words of the saint that one should not fight demons, since they are eternal, indestructible, indefatigable, and we are temporary. It will not be possible to destroy them, and the fight against them is meaningless in the projection of Eternity.

Instead of becoming experts in the fight against devils, the saint suggested becoming experts on the life in God. He noticed that it is better to dive into God than hell. And then grace itself will heal and make up for weaknesses and protect from demons in the most reliable way.

In fact, there is no contradiction here. The saint, as befits a saint, looks further and higher. Porfiry Kavsokalivit talks about strategy, and the professor talks about tactics.

The saint says that the meaning of life consists in drawing closer to Christ and acquiring likeness with Him. The goal of life can in no way be wrestling skill on the hellish stadiums. In Paradise, this is a useless skill.

What are you looking for Zhivago with the dead?

But in order to achieve this similarity, tactically, it is necessary to overcome the resistance of the spirits of malice, which do not intend to miss the prey.

Perplexity, as usual, came from a different look from a different observation point in time and space.

What do we care about these theological subtleties?

The fact is that they contain a direct indication of the strategy of our life in the perspective of Eternity. In particular, this theology contains the correct approach to the exercise of granting residency in Paradise - fasting.

If you do not have strategy in mind, but only tactics, then fasting is a struggle. A person who does not see Paradise ahead goes to the post both for trouble and for war. And he celebrates the end of fasting as the end of trouble and throws a victorious feast. He "rests" from fasting, from fatigue to be light and kind. A sign of such fasting is painful hunger, chronic fatigue and fatigue of the soul.

But thin people approach Easter feasts in a different way. The Easter feasts of spiritual people, on the other hand, are quiet. The joy of the news of the Resurrection of Christ is legitimate and just, but the end of the fast often brings sadness. It stems from the fact that the fasting time thin man considers it as the time of its approach to God, and its finale - as the end of this perigee and an involuntary distance from the Luminary of God. And often words of regret are burst out: "I did not fast" or "I just started fasting and only learned the joy of fasting." The mark of such a fast is joy.

These posts of fatigue and joy cannot be confused.

A person who sees God above the maneuvers of fasting meets fasting not as a national misfortune, but as an approaching joy, with the words:

- With fasting, brothers and sisters! We fast by a pleasant fast.

Before the week of the Last Judgment, the week of the Prodigal Son passed. They are connected in a single logical chain. In the week of the Prodigal Son, a man was looking for his real home- Paradise, this week the church puts him on the very threshold of Paradise:

- Look!

Hello hell? No. Hello morning world!

In the old days, people understood the essence of the memory of this day better. Old icons of the Russian North are proof of this. Bright major spots of red are revealed against white, ringing backgrounds. Hell in these icons is hidden in such a way that you cannot immediately find it.

Over time, another interpretation of the Last Judgment came to us from the West - a real Hollywood trailer for a horror movie.

While in the Sistine Chapel, you can marvel at the incredible artistic genius of Michelangelo, and at the same time, with no less power, you can be surprised at his spiritual color blindness.

Instead of the Morning of Peace on the famous fresco, we see not the meeting of the world and Christ, but teaching aids for drawing in the halls of the meat-packing plant. How so? Indeed, thousands of theologians, the apostles and Christ Himself said that we will not die, but everything will change. We will return to subtle bodies once again, leaving temporary “leather vestments” in the earth forever. How has it been overlooked by such talented person, is completely incomprehensible.

Okay, this chapel. This meat feast there balances the ethereal Botticelli. But in our country, these thrillers of Zverograd have become the norm on the western walls of temples. Fashion came from the West, and it triumphed on the western wall. On these frescoes, it is not the righteous who triumph, but the Alien.

Unfortunately, over time, not only the frescoes on the western wall transformed, but also the church consciousness, traumatized by the spirit of the bursa. The time of apostasy left its mark on the whole perception of the world by man. Instead of getting ready to meet with Heavenly Father, the sons of God began to prepare for the meeting of the Antichrist.

Alas. Efforts must be made today to divert our bewitched gaze from the gaze of the antichrist and to transfer it to the face of our merciful Lord and our Savior God Jesus Christ.

Hello hell! - this is not for us. Not for those whom the Lord has called to life. Not for those who love Him. Not for those who, despite the falls, fell headlong towards Paradise.

A soldier who does not dream of becoming a general is bad. A bad Christian is who does not strive for Paradise, but sits in hell with his soul and cannot take a hypnotic gaze from Satan, like a rabbit from the gaze of a boa constrictor. A bad Christian is who has forgotten about the greatness that God has given him and about the place that he has prepared for him in heaven.

The bad news is that instead of striving with the help of the Lord to his home, to Paradise, an already weak person becomes even more weak, sitting on the rivers of Babylon, fumbles with his eyes in hell and analyzes its meanings.

Our - Christ is Risen! « Heaven may be worthy, let the earth rejoice, may the world celebrate, the whole visible and invisible: Christ is more east ... O Great and most sacred Easter: Today all creation rejoices and rejoices, as if Christ is risen and hell be captivated.

Ours - “Now all filled with light, heaven and earth, and hell, may all creation celebrate the rise of Christ, and in him it is affirmed. Yesterday I was buried in You, Christ, I am conscientious today ... "